The Vicar’s Wife’s Cook Book

1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed

1 teaspoon French mustard

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3 tablespoons basil oil

2 tablespoons flatleaf parsley, chopped

2 tablespoons basil leaves, roughly torn

salt and pepper

Throw the beans in a pan of boiling, salted water and cook for about 5 minutes. After 1 minute, add the asparagus. (If you are using the thicker baby asparagus, you may need to put them in at the same time as the beans.) Throw in the sugar snaps 3 minutes before the end of the cooking time.

Meanwhile, whisk together the garlic, mustard, lemon juice and basil oil for the dressing. Stir in the parsley and basil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Drain the vegetables well, chuck them into a warmed serving dish and pour over the green herby dressing. Now get everything and everyone to the table and enjoy all those sunny, fragrant flavours.

Lemon and Raspberry Tart (#ulink_04fc494f-0151-5ca0-a278-7d75d5aa7ac1)

Do feel free to make the pastry for this tart yourself, but if you really can’t be bothered with it, do what I did and buy some ready-made fresh pastry. Lazy, I know, but I have a friend at Leith’s Cookery School and she confessed to me that pastry was her weak point; and if she is prepared to admit that, then so can you.

250g chilled ready-made sweet pastry

plain flour, for dusting

227g curd or cream cheese

4 tablespoons homemade lemon curd, or a good-quality bought one

finely grated zest of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons pudding wine, such as Muscat de Beaumes de Venise

a big tub of fresh raspberries (about 250g)

icing sugar, to sprinkle

When you have made the pastry, or taken it out of its shop-bought packaging, roll it out thinly on a lightly floured surface and use to line a lightly greased 20cm loose-bottomed flan tin (I used half a packet, so divide in half first). Chill for 20 minutes, then bake it blind – by which I mean you cover it with a sheet of greaseproof paper showered with baking beans.

Bake for 15–20 minutes in an oven preheated to 200°C/Gas Mark 6 until biscuit-coloured, then remove the paper and beans and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes. Once out of the oven, let it cool.

For the filling, combine all the remaining ingredients, bar the raspberries and the icing sugar, until smooth and pour the mixture carefully into the cooled pastry case. Arrange the raspberries on top and then chill for at least 1 hour. Just before serving, put about 1 tablespoon of icing sugar in a big sieve and sprinkle it over the tart. This little touch makes the tart look pretty, and you, professional. (You are welcome to arrange these adjectives the other way around if that makes you feel even better about yourself!)

A very late lunch with the out-laws

Eurovision Song Contest last night. I fell asleep on the sofa, but not before the Vicar had pronounced the show ‘a veritable cultural smorgasbord’. Maybe it was that very comment that triggered his suggestion for the next day: as we were on holiday we could do what some crazy non-churchgoers do on a Sunday and go to Ikea. (Not that I’m saying that people who don’t go to church are crazy, per se; it’s just that Ikea, or anywhere like that, on a Sunday isn’t my idea of weekend relaxation.) Anyway, I had idly mentioned I needed a couple of extra things for lunch and he somehow saw it as a chance to go Swedish.

On the way back home I ran into a crowded supermarket to get my stuff and we only got home at around 1pm, the out-laws hot on our heels. They arrived in the rain just as the meat went in; after that, shopping was put away, gin was drunk, jobs were shared out and, very hungrily, we finally ate two hours later.

The meal was perfect for a rainy spring day – the weather was damp enough for us to crave comfort in the form of crackling and mashed potato, but it was too depressing to give up all hope that warmer days were on their way: hence the summery pudding.

As I proved on that late-lunch day, this lot can be cooked in 2 hours flat. Below are the necessaries. I sorted the pork first, then prepared the carrots for the oven, made the mash, got the pudding together and left it on the side, did the pears and then the cabbagey/leeky/fennel stuff and last, but not least, made the gravy/sauce.

ROAST PORK WITH CRACKLING AND GINGERED PEARS (#ulink_d19ae4bc-ceef-5cde-97a8-3299803edeb1)

MUSTARD MASH (#ulink_77f9cb7b-5fd1-532b-bcff-796d5c1a3d79)

ROASTED CARROTS WITH THYME (#ulink_13cf491d-b387-5425-8d13-d9b5592e5b0a)

WHITE CABBAGE, LEEK AND FENNEL COOKED IN GARLICKY WHITE WINE (#ulink_affa5bef-9843-5f51-9cde-5fca277ce864)

SUMMER FRUIT CHARLOTTE AND CLOTTED CREAM (#ulink_752d6044-3b56-5850-abb9-166f6b302a6f)

Roast Pork with Crackling and Gingered Pears (#ulink_2ed3983a-5173-52f7-b67b-c138fd949299)

1.3kg pork loin, boned and rolled (please don’t buy this in a supermarket, go to your most trusted butcher for a piece of organic, happily-reared, properly-scored pig)

salt and pepper, to taste

2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

3 teaspoons fennel seeds

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 pears

1 teaspoon ginger (fresh or from a jar), grated

250ml white wine

2 teaspoons ready-made apple sauce

Bring the pork back to room temperature before you cook it. Preheat the oven to 220°C/Gas Mark 7. Dry the pork off with some kitchen towel and, if the fat hasn’t already been scored by your butcher, take a Stanley knife and cut slits diagonally down the skin at intervals of 2cm or so. Anoint the skin liberally with salt (it should look like a carpet) and rub it in with the garlic and the fennel seeds. Put a roasting tin on the hob with the oil and brown the meaty sides of the joint. (As well as sealing in the juices, this should help the fat to crisp up.) Turn the pork skin-side up and slide the tin into the oven, turning the heat down to 200°C/Gas Mark 6 after 15–20 minutes. The pork will take 25 minutes per 500g and needs to rest for 10–15 minutes before carving.

While the pork is cooking, make the gingered pears. Take the pears, peel, quarter and core them and pop them in a pan with the grated fresh ginger (or the ‘Lazy Ginger’ that comes in a jar, made by the same people who make ‘Lazy Chilli’. I know using this kind of stuff is lazy, but I am all for avoiding loathsome jobs. Every time I have tried to grate fresh ginger I end up grating my fingers as well). Add half of the white wine and let it all bubble away until the pears are soft and the juices are syrupy – for about 5–10 minutes depending on how ripe your pears are. If you prefer, the pears can be prepared in advance and reheated until warm just before you are ready to serve the meat.

When the pork is cooked, remove it from the oven and put it on a plate. I didn’t have time to do this as things were late enough as it was, but if your crackling needs a little perfecting, follow Nigella’s advice: Remove the crackling from the joint and cut it into a few pieces – those that are crispy and those that are not. Any crackling that is smugly perfect can sit with the pork in a warm place, covered in foil, while it rests. (I usually put mine in the grill section of the oven, which is over my main oven. The grill’s off, of course.) The soggier bits can go back into the oven on a baking tray, skin-side up, with the oven turned up again to 220°C/Gas Mark 7. Meanwhile, pour away any excess fat from the porky juices left in the roasting tin, add the rest of the wine and the apple sauce and simmer to allow the sauce to reduce. Test for seasoning, carve the pork, serve with the gingered pears, and ‘pig’ out.

Mustard Mash (#ulink_fb5a7c0f-2daa-5968-aaa5-e928582c107a)

1 kg floury maincrop potatoes, such as King Edwards or Maris Piper

2 tablespoons crème fraîche

4 tablespoons full-fat milk

about 50g butter