An Endless Summer
Who says summer has to end? Make the most of the last couple of weeks of daylight saving with our best-ever barbecue recipes, top tips for cooking with fire, and some captivating reads.
One of the best ways to make summer feel endless is to keep cooking summery meals (and read good books). With daylight saving coming to an end in a couple of weeks time why not make the most of it with these delicious recipes that savour the flush of late season harvests. Best accompanied by a barbecue and good company! If the weather outside is inclement, you can always use a grill pan on your kitchen stove — just keeping the informal vibe is part of what helps to make the relaxing feeling of summer linger on.
Summer at Home has lots of fab recipes for cooking with fire (we dedicated an entire chapter to it). Some of our favourites are — this Bhutta Masala (Indian Spiced Corn) which immediately transports us to the beaches of Goa, where you find vendors grilling corn over coals and dousing them in lime and aromatic spices.
A grilled chicken was a regular feature in our family meals growing up. And Ted’s Barbecue Chicken remains a firm favourite — it has that wonderful charred barbecue flavour, plus brining the bird beforehand keeps it juicy, tender, and so delicious.
If you’re yet to make it, our Grilled Squid & Fennel Salad has lovely Sicilian flavours of chilli, lemon, and buttery green Castelvetrano olives. Be sure to watch this video if you’re feeling nervous about breaking down a whole squid. It’s actually more simple than you might imagine and so much nicer than frozen squid rings. (This salad is also excellent tossed through pasta as a late summer supper.)
We suggest serving any or all of the above alongside these Mediterranean Home Cut Chips (the addition of feta truly takes things up a notch) and a fresh salad like this Pear & Radicchio Salad or this simple Two Minute Green Salad and perhaps some grilled sausages or chops if you’re feeding a crowd of kids. Of course, a late summer meal isn’t complete without Annabel’s famous Corn & Avocado Salad too.
For starters, these Zucchini & Feta Crostini are divine and the topping can be prepared ahead of time — just assemble before serving. This useful zucchini topping is also great tossed through pasta, and while zucchinis are still cheap and in season makes for a simple economical meal.
Finally, for dessert, thanks to late season berries still being available you could go all-out with this Layered Meringue Torte with Praline & Berries that we developed with Kenwood NZ. If you’re feeling like something a little less fancy, our Best-Ever Banana Cake is a winner, as is this Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing. A special dessert is a lovely way to elevate any occasion.
Cooking with Fire
Cooking over the coals of a fire delivers the most wonderful flavour to your food. It's the way humans have been cooking for thousands of years, and still offers an almost primal sense of satisfaction. You can read our go-to guide for Cooking with Fire from Summer at Home here. We love to use this technique when grilling vegetables, meat, and seafood.
If you're yet to grab a copy, you can buy Summer at Home via our online store here.
Reading Recommendations
It’s been a while since we shared our book recommendations, and we have lots of good ones for you! Perfect for relaxing weekends, rain or shine.
Rose recently read and loved Horse by Geraldine Brooks — an incredibly considered and insightful novel about horse racing, human resilience, and racism in the US.
In a different tone, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is a fantastic book about gaming (even if you are not a gamer), creativity, friendship, and romance that is deeply charming and engaging.
Rose also highly recommends The Years by Annie Earnaux, an autobiography spanning Earnaux’s lifetime — beginning in post-war France. It is a deeply perceptive meditation on the female experience and the French zeitgeist from the 1940s to early 2000s. Earnaux carries you along at a wonderful and captivating pace.
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara is an epic novel (read: 700 pages) to sink your teeth into that spans across continents, centuries, and families. Yanagihara elegantly weaves it all together in this thought-provoking and poignant read about humanity, love, and the idea of utopia.
That’s all from us this week! As always, thanks for reading, supporting, and following along. We love getting your comments and feedback — is there anything you would like to see more of? Less of? Please let us know by commenting below, or you can find us at hello@langbein.com
See you soon for a delicious Easter menu.
With love, Annabel & Rose xx
So sorry we don't get your TV show any more. We really enjoyed it.
Love the newsletters--it's a way of connecting with you. Love the book recommendations.
Enjoying the newsletters and great to get recommendations for new reading material. Thanks!
Christine 😊