Our four-course dinners include aperitif, wine and coffee.
We love vegetables. The lettuces were green and bursting with health in February, and very soon now in the warmth of Spring there will be an irrepressible urge (despite the mutterings about frosts in May) to get those tomato and basil seedlings out!
Salads to die for ... luscious tomatoes so ripe that the juices drip down your chin, a slice or two of that creamy goats' cheese from the farm up the lane, some sliced baby cornichons and sharp Dijon mustard dressing. Food photos were taken by us from food we freshly made.
Or we might add a freshly-laid egg with its deep ochre yolk topped with a generous helping of our garlicky lemony mayonnaise - maybe a luscious artichoke heart or a cold chunk of golden roasted fennel.
Hopefully you will have the chance to eat your way through all the combinations, sipping wine and gazing up into the cobalt blue sky, contemplating the promise of seemingly endless hot sunny days ahead!
Starters
Meltingly-soft, crumbly tart brushed with Dijon mustard and baked - then layered with tomatoes from the garden and topped with gruyere cheese ... cheese and spinach or feta cheese souffles with black olive toasts ... griddled courgette slices with lemon and yoghurt ... or slices of smoked aubergine with warmed flatbread and yoghurt ....
Happy Days
During those sublime hot days of summer we often turn to chilled soups, which may be spiced with chickpeas and red pepper in a tomato sauce flavoured with cumin, garlic and chilli, and topped with a handful of mint leaves and chopped cucumber .... A chilled broccoli soup OR fresh tomatoes from our vines, simmered, pureed and sieved and then flavoured with basil .... A velvety chilled carrot soup .... Sweet red pepper soup with a creamy slice of goats' cheese swimming on top.
Your Main Dish
Could it be tomato, potato and mushroom frittata with fresh salad ... tarte a la tomate, aubergine and courgette ... or baked tomato, eggplant and zuchinni casserole? Seared green beans with slow-roasted tomatoes, potatoes and six-minute eggs .... Pappardelle with porcini and brandy .... FETTUCINE smothered with a roasted, tomato-based sauce served with garlic baguette and parmesan ....
Alternatively
Dolcellate gnocchi with broccoli ... a wonderfully sweet, white onion tart with parmesan .... MUSHROOM and tarragon tart with brandy and cream .... ON slightly chillier days (the ones we don't like to think about!), an Algerian couscous with chickpeas in tomato and cumin, or a fragrant fennel OR carrot and thyme risotto go down well.
Cheese
Choose from goats' to blue cheese, brie, Camembert, St Agur, Edam, Fontenille ... perhaps with a tablet of home-made quince jelly or green and purple figs in season.
Your Dessert
Enjoy a SEASONAL CRUMBLE, apple, peach or apricot. PEARS poached with cinnamon, cassis, honey and red wine, SUMMER BERRIES with cognac cream ... CHOCOLATE MOUSSE ... maybe creme brulee with a hint of apple, all TOPPED with thick creme fraiche or cream where appropriate.
Next !
Move out to the garden if you can manage it - that's supposing you aren't already there of course, and uncork another bottle of wine or order coffee. Decisions, decisions ....
