The Vicar’s Wife’s Cook Book

150g caster sugar

finely grated zest of 1 lemon or orange

4 generous tablespoons good-quality apricot jam

4 large eggs

You can make this in an oval pie dish or a big shallow ovenproof bowl. It should be around 1.2–1.5 litres in capacity.

Bring the milk to the boil in a pan. Once it’s boiling, take it off the heat and stir in the butter, breadcrumbs, the ground almonds, 25g of the sugar and the zest of whichever fruit you have opted for. Leave on the side for ½ hour to allow the bread to swell and the flavours to combine.

After that time, melt the jam and pour half of it over the base of the dish and preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4. Separate the eggs: put the egg whites into a large, clean mixing bowl and the yolks into a cup. Beat the yolks briefly with a fork and add them to the breadcrumb mixture. Pour this over the jam and bake in the oven for around 25–30 minutes until softly set.

Meanwhile, whisk together the egg whites until they form soft peaks and then gradually whisk in the remaining 125g of sugar until stiff. When the pudding comes out of the oven, pour over the remaining warm jam, spreading it to cover all the breadcrumb mixture. Pile over the meringue and swirl it out with the back of a spoon to make a seal with the edge of the dish. Put the dish back in the oven for around 10 minutes or until the meringue is golden.

A whole salmon, preferably eaten in the sun

My baby cousin and her husband are staying. Blonde and tiny, I can’t believe she’s now a grown-up, married woman. Yesterday they took us out for a lovely lunch. Today, it’s my turn to cook and I want to give them a treat. The air is soft and muggy, so I have plumped for lunch in the garden and a whole salmon. I’d bought some oysters to kick things off and my cousin and I enjoyed the performance as the men vied with each other in a manly display of oyster-opening prowess. You don’t have to have oysters if you don’t want them (especially if you are of the opinion that they taste of salty snot!) but for me they were just what we needed before the delicate creaminess of what was to come.

Salmon is quite a rich fish, so an invigorating slap in the face beforehand, in the form of oysters, set me up to appreciate its flavour. As for the pudding; it’s just as rich, but somehow it doesn’t seem so. Heady with oranges, it retains its lightness and the only thing in it that’s likely to make you want to nod off is the generous quantity of Cointreau.

SALMON STUFFED WITH HERBS AND GARLIC (#ulink_a1b3d983-fcdc-5382-a011-6c2f79f8edeb)

ROASTED BABY POTATOES (#ulink_bbc70f37-f8ef-5c0a-ace4-c6c05592031a)

GREEN SALAD WITH BROAD BEANS AND GOAT’S CHEESE (#ulink_c0333b98-f5bc-5b44-a76c-06555a092825)

PANETTONE TRIFLE (#ulink_2a9e4237-e02b-5054-b626-1401964cbaae)

Salmon Stuffed with Herbs and Garlic (#ulink_9dec8da9-eb1c-5192-947f-3efce7300b69)

4 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

25g, flatleaf parsley, chopped

1½ tablespoons tarragon, chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

salt and pepper

1 whole salmon (about 2kg)

big handful of dill, chopped

200ml soured cream

1 large bunch of asparagus, trimmed

knob of butter (optional)

3 lemons

Preheat the oven to 160°C/Gas Mark 3. Combine the spring onions, garlic, parsley, tarragon and oil in a bowl and season well. Place the fish on a large piece of foil that has been lightly brushed with oil and stuff the cavity with the spring onion and herb mixture. Wrap the fish up in the foil and pleat the edges together to make a good seal. Place the fish parcel on a large baking tray so that the foil pleat is at the top when it goes in the oven. Put it in the oven: if the salmon is over 2.5kg, cook for 10 minutes per 450g and add 10 minutes to the cooking time; if it weighs less than that, cook for 15 minutes per 450g, then add 15 minutes. In my oven it took 1 hour and 10 minutes to reach lightly cooked perfection.

If I were you, I’d open the top of the foil and start sticking a knife in the middle as the cooking time reaches its final stages. The flesh should be opaque but still moist, and the fish should come away from the bones easily. It’d be a shame to have spent good money on a beautiful fresh salmon for it to end up overcooked and only fit to feed people at wedding receptions. (Some wedding caterers seem to be able to squeeze moistness out of a salmon with the skill that house-proud types wring out their dishcloths.)

Next, mix the dill with the soured cream and add lots of salt and pepper. This potion is to be smeared on the salmon and potatoes alike whilst you are eating.

Shortly before the salmon is ready, cook the asparagus. You can either boil it in salted water or steam it, but either way it should take about 3–5 minutes. Drain and toss with some salt and pepper and maybe a small knob of butter.

Once the salmon is ready, remove it from the foil parcel and put it on a big serving plate. If you have fiddled a lot with it to test if it’s ready whilst it was in the oven, remove the skin and make sure the other side is facing upwards, otherwise people will think a cat’s been at it. Remove the rest of the skin and the head, if seeing them would put your guests off their food. Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon over the fish and cut the other 2 into quarters. Arrange the asparagus around and over the fish, along with the lemon quarters. Serve the salmon with the salad, roasted baby potatoes and creamy dill sauce. The eating of it reduced four people with chatty Welsh blood in their veins to silence. Well, almost.

Roasted Baby Potatoes (#ulink_5541be85-f816-53c7-afcf-1c3be0fc1d03)

500g baby new potatoes

3 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper

Whilst the salmon is cooking, wash the potatoes, or scrape them, if you prefer. I am lucky in that I have two ovens, so I cooked them in a small roasting tin, bathed in olive oil, at 200°C/Gas Mark 6 for 1 hour. If you haven’t got two ovens, then just serve boiled potatoes, cooked for 20–25 minutes or until just tender. When they are ready, they need an abundance of salt and pepper.

Green Salad with Broad Beans and Goat’s Cheese (#ulink_6c36363c-6738-5ae7-98a7-44c4b42c5640)

The Vicar would never choose to eat broad beans, so I sneak them into his summer meals as subtly as I can. For me, they ooze nostalgia, conjuring up happily shared conspiracies with my long-gone father. He would pick them from the garden, my mother would cook them, and then he and I would eat a big plate full of them, all by themselves, secretly slathering them in butter when my mother wasn’t looking.

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

a pinch of mustard powder

salt and pepper

2 handfuls of broad beans

600g green leaves (I used baby spinach, rocket and watercress)

50g Chèvre cheese, crumbled into small chunks

First, combine the oil, vinegar, mustard powder and seasoning together in a small bowl. Next, cook the beans in boiling salted water for 1–2 minutes or until tender, then drain them, tip them into a serving bowl and add the dressing while they are still hot. Leave them like this until you are ready to serve. Add the salad leaves and Chèvre and toss together well.

Panettone Trifle (#ulink_1baf1b16-1027-5eb1-ae2e-9f971511fa6b)

This is a make-ahead dessert. If you are planning on eating it for lunch you could still prepare it in the morning, but it would make your day more relaxed if you don’t. I made mine the afternoon before, when I had a rare moment of kitchen quiet.