Cold supper at the end of a lovely warm May day

Potato salad on a bed of lettuce from my garden, chopped chicken from a couple of nights ago on top of the potato. The potatoes are cooked whole in their skins, cooled quickly in cold water then peeled and cut in pieces. It's best to use a salad potato because the flesh stays firm. However, I've used other types and just undercooked them slightly.

Potato salad

Potatoes

Mayonnaise (preferably home made with lots of garlic)

Tomato chutney (see labels)

Greek yoghourt

Mix mayonnaise, chutney and yoghourt. Fold in potatoes gently. I use yoghourt because slightly less mayonnaise is then needed.

To follow, strawberries, again from the garden, sprinkled with sugar and a little balsamic vinegar.

Potato bake

Cut unpeeled potatoes into roughly 1-1.5cm wide slices or chunks. Slice peeled onions. Put onions and potatoes into pottery baking dish so the layer of vegetables is about 5-7 cms thick. We like more potato than onions, but we do this by eye. Season with salt and pepper, then lubricate well with olive oil and mix all together. Cover, and put in microwave on high for 20-25 minutes. With this we had grilled pork sausages, lightly cooked cabbage, drained and seasoned with soy sauce, butter and balsamic vinegar. And,to set it off, tomato chutney.

Tomato chutney

5lb tomatoes

1lb onions

3 cloves garlic

2tsp salt

2tsp paprika

2tsp cayenne pepper

2tsp crushed mustard seed

8oz sugar

3/4 pint wine vinegar

Peel tomatoes. chop into rough pieces and put into preserving pan with the chopped onions, garlic and a little vinegar. cook slowly until the tomatoes have turned to pulp and the onions are soft, but still retain some texture.

Then add all the other ingredients and continue to cook until the chutney is thick and well blended. This chutney benefits from a long slow cooking.

Pot into sterilised heated bottles. Can eat straight away, but keeps for months.

Recipe modified from: Jams, Pickles & Chutneys. David and Rose Mabey 1975. I bought this book very cheaply in a local library sale. It's the only recipe I've (or to be more exact, my husband) has made from the book. I often find with cookery books that I only do a few recipes. Often nowadays I do an internet search for a recipe.