Food

50 ideas for a bling picnic

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A good picnic takes serious commitment but it's worth it for the smug factor. Instead of hastily throwing Tortilla chips and a cheap bottle of white into a plastic carrier bag, you get to be that person with the top-of-the-range olives, the artisan bread and the chic matching cutlery. The kind of picnic-goer you loathe on sight but also want to be.

Banish picnic envy forever with our 50 ways to bling up an outdoor gathering, from Swedish ceramics to gourmet popcorn and award-winning lemonade - plus five delicious recipes. That beautifully choreographed vision of picnic perfection is yours in a click; just in time for National Picnic Week (17-23 June).

Photo: Rex Features and brands' own

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  • Recipe: Salmon with dill and strawberries

    Recipe from TotallySwedish, table cloth and napkins from Swedish textile designer Anna Nyblom Kollén at TotallySwedish

    Serves 4

    Ingredients

    • 4 salmon fillets
    • 1/4 cup melted butter
    • 5 table spoons lemon juice
    • 1 cup coarsly chopped fresh dill
    • sea salt and pepper to taste
    • 2 cups of fresh strawberries
    • 1 bag fresh watercress salad

    Method

    1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a medium baking dish.

    2. Place salmon in the baking dish. Mix the butter and lemon juice in a small bowl, and drizzle over the salmon. Season with 1/3 of the dill, sea salt, and pepper.

    3. Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until salmon is easily flaked with a fork.

    4. Top the salmon pieces with the rest of the dill, top with cleaned and halved strawberries.

    5. Serve with olives and freshly baked baguettes.

  • Recipe: Fish and Chips Tostados

    Recipe from Codorníu. Codorníu Cava Match: Codorníu Brut NV

    Makes approx 16

    Ingredients

    For the fish:

    • 3 x 100g cod fillet skinned
    • 50g plain flour
    • 1 litre olive oil to deep fry

    For the chips:

    • 200g maris piper potatoes
    • 500ml extra virgin olive oil

    For the peas:

    • 200g jamon diced
    • 2 shallots finely diced
    • 300g fresh peas
    • 150ml fresh chicken stocks
    • 3 tbsp fresh mint
    • 16 slices thin baguette toasted in oven

    Method

    For the fish:

    1. Heat the olive oil in a large deep pan to 180°C (use a cooking thermometer).

    2. Dust the cod fillets in the flour, Dip the floured fish into the hot oil. Fry for 5 minutes until golden and crisp. Drain on kitchen paper, and flake.

    For the chips:

    1. Pour the oil into a deep frying pan and heat to 180°C (use a cooking thermometer).

    2. Cut the potatoes lengthways into 3mm slices, then cut the slices into thin matchsticks. Add the chips, stir well and leave them to fry for 3 minutes until they are crisp and golden. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon, drain on kitchen paper, season with sea salt and cracked black pepper.

    For the peas:

    1. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a sauté pan, add the diced jamon, cook until crisp.

    2. Remove from the pan then add the shallots, fry until golden. Add the peas, followed by the stock and cook for a further 10 minutes until the stock has reduced, crush the peas slightly, stir in the chopped mint.

    3. Spoon a little of the peas onto the baguette slices, top with a large flake of the fish and finish with a few of the thin chips.

  • Recipe: Apple, Pear and Fig Quiche

    Recipe from The English Provender Co.

    Serves 4-6

    Ingredients

    • 1 x packet short crust pastry
    • 3 free-range eggs
    • 150ml double cream
    • 220g packet prepared butternut squash, finely chopped, covered with water and cooked for 6 minutes in the microwave then drained (or roasted in the oven for 30 minutes)
    • 100g stilton, crumbled
    • 6 tbsp English Provender Co. Apple, Pear and Fig chutney
    • Salad, to serve

    Method

    1. Preheat the oven to 220C. Place the pasty in a tart tin, pushing the pastry well into the corners. Place a piece of baking paper on top then cover with baking beans or rice, pushing them into the corners. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the pastry is pale golden and sandy to the touch.

    2. Mix the eggs and cream together and pour into the pastry shell. Sprinkle over the butternut squash and stilton and dollop with the chutney.

    3. Bake for 25 minutes, or until set. Leave to rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

  • Recipe: sherry trifle

    Recipe from Crafthouse restaurant in Leeds

    Ingredients

    • 7 finger sponges
    • 50ml sherry
    • 2 punnets blackberries
    • 50ml sherry
    • 100ml water
    • 25g sugar
    • ½ lemon juiced
    • 2 leaves gelatine ( pre-soaked in ice water)
    • 3 egg yolks
    • 25g sugar
    • 125ml cream
    • 125ml whole milk
    • ½ vanilla pod
    • 200ml whipping cream
    • 20g sugar
    • 25ml sherry

    Method

    1. Start by making the jelly. Place the blackberries in a pan with the water, lemon juice, sugar and bring to the boil. Cook out for slowly for 20 minutes.

    2. Add the sherry and cook out for another 2 minutes then add the gelatine and remove from the heat and allow to cool.

    3. Next break up the sponge fingers and place in the bottom of the glasses. Warm through the sherry and place over the sponge allowing it to soak in.

    4. For the custard bring the cream and sugar to the boil with the vanilla. Whisk the eggs and sugar together (in a separate bowl) and pour a little of the hot liquid over and stir together then pour in the remainder.

    5. Stir gently back over the heat for around 10 minutes but do not allow to boil. Add the gelatine then remove from heat and allow to cool.

    6. Whip the cream sherry and sugar together until stiff.

    7. Now that you have all components you can assemble the glasses. Sponge, jelly, custard, cream.

  • Recipe: Cherry & Lemon Curd Cheesecakes

    Recipe from The English Provender Co.

    Makes about 14-16 cupcakes

    Ingredients

    • 200g ginger biscuits
    • 60g melted butter
    • 500g cream cheese
    • 250g mascarpone
    • 100g caster sugar
    • 1 jar English Provender Lemon curd
    • 2 eggs
    • 20 cherries, pitted and simmered in a pan for 10 minutes with a splash of water

    Method

    1. Preheat the oven to 180c. Crush the biscuits in a food processor and pour the melted butter over. Mix well and spoon into the bottom of 14-16 cupcake cases set in a cupcake tin.

    2. Using an electric mixer beat the cream cheese, mascarpone, lemon curd and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time. Beat until smooth and then pour over the biscuit base.

    3. Bake for 5 minutes and then lower temperature to 150c and bake for another 15-20 minutes. Turn off the oven but let them sit in the oven to cool for a bit. It will still be slightly wobbly but it will firm up in the fridge. When cool, place the tin in the refrigerator.

    4. When ready to serve peel off the cupcake wrappers and dollop each cheesecake with some cherries.

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