At the kitchen counter, chopping. The herbs’ fragrance comes in waves. Verdant, fresh, invigorating. First there’s parsley – mild, somehow the cool wake-up-call of mint. Now, dill, grass-green and watery.
All the herbs are in fat bunches, so my rice salad will be more herb than grain, in the ratio of a classic tabbouleh. I am tossing the rice with broad beans, too, while the fresh ones are still around, and tiny green peas.
Add this to the pan of warm and buttery rice, sending up occasional puffs of steam, like smoke from a tipi, rattling its lid with clouds of cardamom, clove, cinnamon and black pepper. There will be pistachios, too, rough, like gravel and perhaps a scattering of dried rose petals for no other reason than to bring yet another fragrant note.
The rice is to be served warm, together with a plate of aubergines, which have been sliced lengthwise, seasoned with dried thyme and smoked garlic and grilled, or lamb cutlets, a decision for later. There will be dessert of shimmering sundaes, made at the table with apricot-coloured melon, cherries and vanilla ice-cream.
There is a sweet ruby-coloured sauce already chilling in a bowl of ice: a tart purée of redcurrants and raspberries that is the very essence of summer. And yes, I made too much, purely so we can have some for breakfast.
Summer vegetable and herb rice
This is at its best when the rice is still warm and the herbs freshly chopped. Use edamame instead of the broad beans if the fancy takes you. Serves 4
For the rice:
butter 25g
basmati rice 150g
salt ½ tsp
cloves 4
black peppercorns 6
cinnamon stick ½
green cardamom pods 8
For the herbs and greens:
broad beans or edamame 400g, shelled weight
peas 300g, podded weight
spring onions 4
courgettes 2, medium
garlic 2 cloves
olive oil 2 tbsp
parsley leaves 20g
mint sprigs 15g
coriander leaves and stems 10g
dill 15g
pistachios 50g, shelled
dried rose petals a few pinches (optional)
Put the rice in a deep bowl, cover with warm water and swish the rice around with your fingers until the water is milky. Empty it off, then repeat with more water, once, maybe twice more, until it is almost clear.
Melt the butter in a medium-sized, deep pan over a moderate heat. Add the salt, cloves, peppercorns and cinnamon stick. Crack open the cardamom pods, but leave the seeds intact, then add to the pan. When the spices are warm and fragrant, drain the rice and stir into the spices until the rice is glossy with the melted butter. Cover with water to come a couple of centimetres above the rice, then bring to the boil. Cover tightly with a lid, lower the heat, and simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, but don’t remove the lid.
Put a pan of water on to boil, salt lightly, then, when it comes to the boil, add the broad beans or edamame and the peas. Cook for 3 or 4 minutes until tender, drain and set aside. Meanwhile, finely chop the spring onions and roughly dice the courgettes. Peel and chop the garlic.
When the peas and beans are drained, dry the pan, return it to the heat and pour in the olive oil. Add the spring onions, courgette and garlic and cook for 5 or 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the cut sides are gold, then remove from the heat. While the courgettes cook, roughly chop the pistachios.
Finely chop the parsley, mint leaves and coriander. Mix the herbs, pistachios, spring onion and courgettes, beans and peas together. In a serving bowl, combine the cooked rice with the herbs and beans and mix thoroughly. If you wish, scatter in a few dried rose petals, too.
Peach, raspberry and redcurrant sundae
The raspberry and redcurrant sauce is thickened with blackcurrant jam, but you could use apricot jam or redcurrant jelly. The sauce thickens slightly on cooling. Sweeten it once cooled with a little icing sugar if you wish. Serves 4
For the sauce:
redcurrants 125g
raspberries 125g
blackcurrant jam 2 tbsp
water 4 tbsp
caster sugar 2 tbsp
The fruit:
ripe cantaloupe melon 750g, with skin on
vanilla ice-cream 4 scoops
cherries 12
raspberries 16
peaches 2
To finish:
redcurrants a few sprigs
Make the sauce: remove the redcurrants from their stalks and put the fruit in a small pan. Add the raspberries, jam, water and sugar and bring almost to the boil. As soon as the sugar has dissolved, transfer to a blender and process to a purée.
Chill the sauce in the fridge for an hour, or by transferring it to a bowl over ice.
Remove the seeds from the melon, then scoop the flesh into balls with an ice-cream scoop or a spoon. Divide between 4 sundae glasses. Add a scoop of ice-cream to each glass. Stone the cherries, then add them, with the raspberries to the sauce. Halve the peaches, discard the stones, slice each half into 4 and add to the sauce.
Spoon the sauce and fruit over the ice-cream and melon. Add sprigs of redcurrants if you wish. Eat immediately.
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