Potatoes and Buttercups an Oxfordshire Adventure….

Well it’s Sunday, I’m sitting here listening to Cricket on the radio, watching the Monaco F1 Grand Prix on the TV reflecting on a very nice Saturday, with some great food and a brilliant adventure around Oxforshire.

I spent the day with my sister, my uncle and my granny down at my uncle’s house down in Nuneham Park on the grounds of Nuneham House, he has access to the gardens so we had a great walk after lunch around the gardens. Now onto the lunch. Another brilliant sunny day which meant lunch outside. Al-fresco dining at it’s best! Now, my uncle and sister are vegetarians so we had a lunch of a nice mixed lettuce and avocado salad with tomato mozzarella and basil, with that we had some amazing Jersey Royal new potatoes. If you live in Europe anywhere then try to get some of these. They are so good at the moment. We had them with lots of butter, a bit of salt and pepper and some fresh mint stirred through at the end. Chuck a sprig of mint in the water as you cook them as well. With this we had some mushrooms with goats cheese and asparagus. Really great.

For this you need
large field mushrooms (1 per person) or some Portobello mushrooms
asparagus 3 per person
goats cheese
salt and pepper
butter

1. Remove the stalks from the mushrooms and season with a bit of salt and pepper and put in the oven for about 15 mins.

2. While this is happening in a frying pan (with a lid) put the asparagus in there with a bit of water, salt, pepper and butter and put on the heat, lid on and bring to the boil, cook for about 5 mins.

3. Remove the asparagus from the pan and the mushrooms from the oven lay a slice of goats cheese on the mushroom then 3 bits of asparagus. Repeat for all the mushrooms and put in the oven and whack on the grill.

4. Give this about 5 mins so the cheese melts a bit and remove from the oven.

Drizzle the liquid you get left in the pan over the asparagus. Goes great with a squeeze of lemon too!

Serve all on the plate with some crusty bread.

We had this with some great bread from a brilliant bakery in Corsham near Bath called Myloaf an artisan bakery http://myloaf.co.uk it was a lovely crispy edged wholemeal French Sourdough. Freshly baked that morning and still warm when it was picked up! This place is really great so if you’re ever near bath go check it out! We dressed the salad in a very simple balsamic and olive oil dressing. Don’t worry about pre mixing it, just dash each of them over the salad and sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper. Chuck a few lemon wedges around the salad for squeezing over the asparagus. Such a great light lunch.

Now for the pudding….my uncle in his infinite wisdom thought buying a catering grade ice cream maker was a good idea…I have to agree. I must have one, only a grand….hmmm maybe i’ll figure out a better way that doesn’t cost a grand….watch this space! Anyway, we had some maple and walnut ice cream and some vanilla and chocolate chip ice cream, both made about 20 mins before we ate! Perfect. There we go, a really great simple lunch, perfect for a hot spring day in the sunshine!

After this we went for a walk around the garden then off for an adventure in the car. We went down to the Thames and found an amazing buttercup meadow and went for a walk with the cows! To cap it all off we found a great tea room in a small village church. A piece of cake and 4 teas for £3.50! Yes!