My sister lives in Australia and just came back after a long hiatus. My mother decided that we should have an enormous garden party and consequently I have spent the half of the week that I haven't spent hoisting bunting, erecting tents and up-cycling glass jars to make tree lanterns in the kitchen.
The menu: smoked salmon pate and caprese skewers followed by coronation chicken, salad and Eton mess.
I am amazed by how long garden party prep takes. Between sourcing chairs and tidying the garden, counting cutlery and washing glasses, hours have been spent.
I have previously shared my mother's excellent coronation chicken recipe. This time I had to make an alternative version for guests unable to eat garlic, onions and spicy food. There is a brilliant recipe that I will share for chicken and butternut squash salad that is much of a muchness with coronation chicken, but too much effort for so few people (and contains onions). So, I tried simple alternatives. Fresh basil and mayo- I was surprised by how subdued the basil became- almost unnoticeable. Perhaps with pesto it would work better, but I am not sure. What did work well was the orange and Mexican tarragon.
Makes one portion: take enough roast chicken for one person, chop into bite sized pieces. Zest a quarter of an orange into a bowl. Add a level tablespoon finely chopped fresh tarragon. Grind in LOTS of black pepper. Add in a couple of dollops of good mayonnaise and stir. Add in the chicken and coat. Try for balance- you may want to add more orange or pepper, or mayonnaise depending upon how much chicken you are using. Even better if you leave overnight so the flavours can intensify :)
The salmon pate is the simplest thing. Just take 200g of smoked salmon and finely chop. Take three tubs of cream cheese and a handful of chives. With scissors snip the chives into small pieces. Zest a lemon. Mix these ingredients together and add LOTS of freshly ground black pepper. This makes about a pint- that will top a lot of crackers!!!
