Summer Wedding Food.

Glorious summer food, fresh & bursting with flavour. Its food that goes with “let's have a glass of chilled white wine on the lawn...”.

What follows are Karen's ideas for perfect summer food: "I’ll cook you any dish you like, but in my opinion, these are some of the best things to eat when the British sun finally appears."

Starters for a Summer Wedding:

Crayfish tail, rocket & avocado cocktail made with homemade Marie Rose sauce (ours is made with a touch of English mustard & tiny bit of horseradish to give it a bit of ‘oomph’).

Homemade chicken liver & pear brandy pate with gooseberry chutney & toasted brioche.

Chilled Ajo Blanco soup with extra virgin olive oil and toasted almonds.

Smoked trout, watercress and Jersey Royal salad with horseradish dressing.

Mediterranean vegetable gallettes with fresh pesto, on dressed leaves.

Poached salmon and asparagus terrine with watercress sauce.

Main courses for a Summer Wedding:

Flattened chicken. Our local butcher takes out all the bones, we stuff herbs and garlic under the skin and served on rustic wooden boards in slices - - or your guests may carve it themselves, we supply the knives, you supply a pinny and a hat - all very sociable.

Chicken, leek & tarragon stroganoff (new season, tender leeks) creamy and really light.

Homemade salmon & dill fishcakes with sorrell sauce.

Cod wrapped in pancetta with rosemary. I whizz up a ‘salsa verde’ for this: parsley, capers, garlic (lots of) olive oil. Yum! 

Cold poached salmon with my own hollandaise. A classic for a reason; it's unbeatable if done well. Served of course with new season's tiny Jersey Royals and lots of butter!

Porchetta - a slow roasted (fall apart tender) shoulder of pork with softened onion, fennel seeds and rosemary with a blob of wobbly aioli. Served whole on rustic boards, or in slices. Pork was never like this!

English garden salad with poached chicken & home-made "salad cream" – like no salad cream you've ever tasted. Mine makes the pale stuff in bottles taste like sump oil.

Then think of adding all those lovely summer vegetables, like garden peas, French beans, young runner beans, broad beans, new potatoes - an orgy of flavours and textures! 

Summer Wedding Desserts:

Eton mess was made in heaven; it's a timeless summer dessert. "Posh" jelly and ice cream is a also popular summer wedding choice, along with the eternal lure of all things chocolatey... summer berries with my home-made panacotta is another perfect match at a balmy summer wedding breakfast.

We adore our food, but to read what other wedding couples think - click here