Chere's Verandah Cafe Lunch

From left: Christine, Colleen Frances, Kim, Chere


Lunch on the Verandah at Chere's

Even two days before, it was obviously going to be a hot day. So I wanted the food to be light, light, light and delicious and appealing.

This is the menu I chose.

MENUChampagne Mocktails

Appetisers of
Smoked salmon with crème fraiche and caviar

Local flathead marinated in coriander, lime and ginger with avocado sauce

Watermelon with black pepper
MainLocal prawns, scallops and feta with strawberries, edamame beans, local baby beets, mixed salad leaves & mint and pistachios with a honey and mustard dressing

DessertPetite chocolate cake
Peach ice cream with blueberry sauce
Lime coconut and macadamia ice cream

To drink – Mountain Ridge verdelho & light macadamia dessert liqueur

You'll see that I intended to use our lightly enclosed verandah to eat. It turned out that we ate our appetisers in the cool of the house, our main course on the verandah – then we escaped into the cool again for dessert. What else can you expect in the middle of summer?
You'll see from the menu that you can make much of this food without recipes. I've just included the ones you may not know or can't find anywhere else.
Actually the Champagne Mocktails were really just fresh apple juice, (grape would have been nice too), mixed with sparkling mineral water, a touch of lime and mint and lots of ice. For those who wanted it, I added a slurp of the light macadamia dessert liqueur we had on the day, which made a nice difference!
I'd recently bought some lovely spoons from Vinnies (I'm a great Vinnies fan and manage to find many wonderful table accessories there). So I wanted to use them for my appetisers.

The marinated fish I used was fresh local fillets or flathead which I'd marinated overnight in freshly squeezed lime, lemon and grated ginger. Just before the others arrived I chopped the fish into bite sized pieces and topped them with an avocado mashed with a little light whipped cream and sprinkled on some chopped chives from the garden.
The smoked salmon with creme fraiche and caviar speaks for itself.

If you don't have the recipe for crème fraiche, it's easy! Just mix a generous tablespoon of buttermilk with a cup of low or full fat cream (both work). Stir lightly, cover with a cloth and leave in a warm place until the mixture thickens. You'll see when it's ready – around 24 hours.

(I drizzled a little good olive oil over both the appetisers just before serving).

The watermelon was local, but was a bit disappointing as there was not much taste! So I sprinkled a good teaspoon of castor sugar over it the night before to bring out the flavour and added freshly ground black pepper to the chilled squares.

The main course was basically an interesting salad of prawns, scallops, local feta, fresh steamed baby beetroot (from my garden) strawberries, edamame beans (steamed and chilled) pistachios, mixed salad leaves and good bunch of individual mint leaves from the garden, with a honey and mustard dressing.
I mixed the salad in a large pot and then dished it onto individual plates, mixing through 2/3 or my dressing, then adding the beetroot last.

I then cooked the green prawns in hot olive oil and a little butter for a couple of minutes and set them aside on a hot plate. I cooked the scallops in the same pan (hot again) for a minute on each side. I added the prawns again and poured in a little lime juice and grated garlic and almost immediately removed the pan from the heat. They were then add to the salad with their sauce and I drizzled the remaining honey mustard dressing over the whole salad.

Honey mustard dressing2 tbsp rice wine vinegar, 1 tsp castor sugar, 1 tbsp dijon mustard, pinch of salt, ½ cup good olive oil (you can vary these quantities according to your taste).

Dessert

Peach ice cream with blueberry sauce
To make the ice cream:

Have your ice-cream making bowl in the freezer overnight.
626 g fresh ripe peaches and nectarine, peeled and stoned. Keep the skins and stones.
(You can just use peaches, but it turned out that only 3 of my peaches were really ripe, but I had some lovely ripe nectarines, so I mixed the two to make up the amount).

¼ cup lemon juice
1 ½ cups thickened cream*
1 ½ cups milk*
¾ cups sugar (I used raw because I like the taste).
3 large room temperature egg yolks.

* I use low fat
Puree the peach and nectarine flesh with the lemon juice. Cover and refrigerate.

Put the skins and stones into a large saucepan with the cream and milk. Simmer over a low heat for 20 minutes, making sure the mixture doesn't boil. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved (the skin and stones are still there). Remove from the heat.

Beat the egg yolks and whisk in about ½ cup of the creamy mixture. Return the pan to the heat and stir in the egg mixture. Continue to cook until the custard coats the back of the spoon, this should take about 8 – 10 minutes. Once again, don't let the mixture boil. Remove from the heat, press some plastic wrap over the custard so that it doesn't form a skin and let it cool.

When the custard is cool, strain it, discarding all the stones and skins, and then combine the custard with the peach & nectarine puree (or just peach). Mix well and chill. Get out your ice-cream maker and make the ice cream according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Transfer to a container to freeze.

Serve with blueberry sauce.
Blueberry sauce:
Puree 1 cup blueberries, sugar to taste and a squeeze of lemon juice. Pass through a strainer.

Lime, Coconut and Macadamia ice cream
2 cups reduced cream
2 cups light coconut milk or cream
¾ cup raw sugar
1 tablespoon of your favourite liqueur (mine was coffee based)
pinch salt
finely grated rind of a lime and a tablespoon of lime juice.
½ cup crushed macadamia nuts roasted with honey

Mix cream and milk, lime juice, sugar, liqueur and salt.

Mix well and chill. Make the ice cream according to the ice cream maker/s instructions.

When it is ready, stir in the macadamias and lime rind and put in a container to freeze.
Petite chocolate cakes
I made up a rich dense chocolate cake and chilled it. I cut mini rounds of the dense cake, spread whipped light cream on the first round, topped with another and then added a very large dollop of the cream on top and sprinkled it with organic ground chocolate.

The frosting on the grapes I'd made to top the lime, coconut and macadamia ice cream melted in the heat!

It was a hot day, but we had a good time!

Chere