On the Table: Dine alfresco with Cambridge Cookery’s Tine Roche

“Everything tastes better when enjoyed outside!” Celebrate summer by dining alfresco, writes Cambridge Cookery’s Tine Roche

Slow to get going, summer is finally here and with it so many of the big celebrations in life. But it doesn’t take an occasion to call for food to be brought outdoors.

I retain a childlike fondness for bringing food outside, perhaps because I grew up in a cold climate. In Scandinavia the dark months are replaced with summers where the sun shines for 20 hours a day and where spending time on city balconies, in gardens, by the thousands of lakes or on the water is simply what summer is all about.

Everything tastes better when enjoyed outside! I assume there must be a scientific reason, linked to an evolutionary connection to being relaxed and happy in nature and maybe our olfactory faculties are slightly heightened in fresh air.

Bringing food outdoors also makes for more relaxed meals. I am a folded napkin with every meal or snack person, and no cartons on the table, thank you very much. Formal? I don’t think so, more the aesthete in me protesting against anything that looks a little sloppy.

However, for summer eating, the same dishes work equally well when served for more formal celebrations, a weekend picnic or punt, or supper for one in a sunny spot on the back doorstep.

All of the things I love eating during the summer months are, needless to say, seasonal and local. As a Scandinavian I love salted, cured and pickled things, and never more so than in warm weather. If you like Korean food, summer is the perfect time to look up recipes for pickled vegetables!

I also love griddled/sooty/salty fish and shellfish and my usual disinterest in desserts is replaced with a lust for berry-based sweet things, ideally matched with almond and lemon, and also rose or lavender.

If the celebration is a very special one, some of the simplest and most refined dishes create a real sense of special occasion. Halibut is for me one of the most exquisite of all fish and when the occasion calls for something special it has to be the fillet, rather than the steak.

Halibut is a superfood full of Omega 3, essential trace elements and a great antioxidant. Like all fish, not least white fish, the key is not to over cook it. A prime piece of skin-on fillet is perfect to pan-fry over a high heat until the surfaces are nut-brown, bordering on burnt, but the inner flesh is just set, and allows itself to be flaked when gently pressed. Any firmer than that and this prime protein starts to lose its appeal.

My go-to accompaniment for much of my summer animal protein, be it fish or chicken, is a side dish of lemon and olive oil-baked new potatoes and slivers of fennel. For the halibut, add a sprinkling of capers and a good dollop of 50/50 mayonnaise and full fat crème fraiche flavoured with lemon or saffron. Salt is also required on the fish, just before it goes into the pan and on the roasted vegetables. I never use anything other than Maldon sea salt. It is local and simply the best - sweet and creamy, as well as deliciously sea-salty.

Making pesto is an essential summer pursuit. The classic Ligurian pine nut and basil version is undeniably the best, but try dill/walnuts/lemon with fish or mint/pecorino/almonds with lamb from the barbecue. Any pesto also works well as a topping on crostini or as a dip for breadsticks - elegantly stepping up to shoulder the role of canapé for a celebratory party.

Berry-based desserts and cakes are obvious choices for any summer celebration. If making dessert for a large party, it has to be individual portions and few things are simpler or quicker to prepare than panna cotta. Panna means cream and cotta means cooked in Italian, and that is essentially what this little set dessert is. Once made, these little wobbly milk/cream puddings sit happily in the fridge for a couple of days before the event - the only limit on quantity is usually fridge space. Served with summer berries, marinated in a drop of rose water, it looks and tastes divine.

My favourite combo of almond/berries/lemon could mean a good quality shop-bought shortcrust base filled with a soft, buttery frangipane made from equal parts ground almond, butter and caster sugar and your choice of soft fruits or berries.

Literally calling out to be taken outdoors, ideally on a picnic, are little friands - soft almond and berry-filled delights made from whisked egg white, ground almond, a little plain flour, icing sugar and lemon zest and dolloped into a nonstick muffin tin, and topped either with slivers of nectarine, a few raspberries or cherries - perhaps a mix of four of each, to fill a 12-hole muffin tin. Dust with icing sugar just before serving.

And that is my advice for all sweet things from my kitchen just as “sprinkle over some fresh soft thyme” is my motto for almost everything savoury. Each covers a multitude of sins, when things don’t look quite as pristine or perfect as you had hoped and looks very much intended to your guests!

Vist cambridgecookery.com for more.