Eating in:In summer it's hard to resist the more strident flavours, writes Hugo Arnold
One of the joys of modern cooking is ducking and diving. Last night it was Italian, this evening it looks like being French and come tomorrow the intention is to eat Mexican, the flight west dictated by large numbers and a few friends who just cannot get enough of chillies.
With warmer weather it is hard to resist strident flavours, much of it informed by South America - chillies, avocados, every kind of tomato, lots of coriander and the tangy flavour of lime.
Strangely, given our own fondness for the world's most popular tuber, I find the potato sits oddly with all this lively food. I'm so much more inclined towards rice. And yet the potato came to us from Peru and has been widely used in South American cooking for such a long time. If you need persuading, there is a recipe for sea bream with garlic mash which is inspired by something a Mexican friend cooked for me recently.
All these ingredients - which would have seemed strange as little as 10 years ago, particularly outside the likes of Dublin and Cork - are so easily sourced where once it would have been a nightmare. Maybe going global is not such a bad thing after all.
All recipes serve 4
GRILLED FILLET OF BLACK BREAM WITH GAZPACHO SALSA
8 fillets of black bream (four fish)
4 tbsp gazpacho salsa
1 lemon, quartered
Preheat a ridged griddle pan or conventional grill. Rub the fish with a little oil, season with salt both inside and out, and cook on the griddle pan for five minutes. Turn and repeat on the other side, or until cooked.
Serve the fish on the roast garlic mash with the salsa on top. Garnish with a lemon quarter and chopped parsley.
GAZPACHO SALSA
half a cucumber, diced
half a red pepper, deseeded and diced
half a yellow pepper
1 small red onion, finely chopped
2 spring onions, finely sliced
1 red chilli finely chopped
2 beef tomatoes roughly chopped
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp tomato ketchup
1 lime
1 tsp Worcester sauce
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
pinch fresh thyme
Combine all the ingredients and season with salt and pepper.
ROAST GARLIC PUREE AND MASH
Wrap a whole garlic bulb in foil and roast in a slow oven for 90 minutes. Once it is cool, squeeze out the centre. Fold the soft puree of roasted garlic into mashed potato.
CHARGRILLED CHICKEN AND PRAWNS WITH MANGO SALAD
4 chicken breasts
24 tiger prawns
1 tbsp sweet chilli dipping sauce
1 little gem lettuce, leaves torn in half
1 tbsp pecans, toasted
4 handfuls rocket
Lime, Jalepeno and tequilla dressing
1 mango, diced
Half a cucumber, diced
Chargrill the chicken breasts, allow them to rest for five minutes under tin foil and then cut into strips. Saute the prawns. Add the cooked prawns, together with a little of the sweet chilli dipping sauce. In a separate bowl, toss the lettuce and rocket and pecans in the lime, chilli and tequila dressing. Fold in the cooked chicken, prawns, mango and cucumber. Toss gently, check seasoning and serve.
LIME, CHILLI AND TEQUILLA DRESSING
1 tbsp mayonnaise
zest and juice of one lime
half tsp caster sugar
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 dessertspoon tequilla
1 tbsp roughly chopped coriander
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
Zest and juice the lime and combine everything in a bowl.