“The earth had donned her mantle of brightest green; and shed her richest perfumes abroad. It was the prime and vigour of the year; all things were glad and flourishing.”

Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

Saucy Dressings aims to complete this post – four weeks’ menus and recipes, plus a few spare by the end of 2021. Every year an additional week’s menu, with the links to the individual recipes, is added.

For food in season in June, follow this link.

For music to listen to while cooking in June, follow this link.

In June we have midsummer night’s eve; and midsummer’s day – the summer solstice.

We have the Trooping of the Colour and World Ocean Day.

We have Royal Ascot and the Henley Regatta.

We have the summer open air opera season in full swing – Glyndebourne, Garsington, Grange Park… the lot.

June is also the month for picnics, so try some Petite Pies for Picnics.

You might also be interested in these posts:

• how to make elderflower cordial
• a cracking elderflower martini
• fabulous, fanatical, frenetic, frizzy, frisée
• spice islands ham and melon
• baby turnips, a historical fact, a random thought, and three ideas

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Week’s menu for June: Number 1

“It was the beginning of June; summer was arising out of spring, like an aloe from a field of grass.”

Gabriele D’Annunzio, The Book of the Virgins

Saturday lunch:

• courgette and thyme tart with
• snappy-earthy salad

OR

• have it all crab, avocado and asparagus salad, which could be dressed with mistakenly-frozen cucumber dressing

OR

• pretty prismatic salad – combining the last of the asparagus and the first blueberries

AND FOLLOWED BY

• buttermilk cookies from Tennessee

OR

• luscious lemon cake from Amalfi

Sunday evening pasta:

• Mrs Daniel’s chicken lasagne with a
• peppery-pea salad

Monday evening meat:

• minty shepherds’ pie

OR

• lamb fillets with a watercress, cucumber and caper salad
• with zhoggiu sauce
• and smoky Eastern European potatoes

Tuesday evening:

• night out or leftovers!

Wednesday evening poultry:

• Indian guinea fowl with
• garlicky tomatoes

AND

• gentleman’s celery salad

Thursday dinner party:

• with drinks: a brimming basin of crème fraîche with vivid herb oil and God’s own sourdough
• starter: scallops with a pernod sauce

OR

• starter: chilled mistakenly-frozen cucumber soup
• main: lamb with baby turnips

OR

• main: sumptuous salmon and asparagus en croûte, with a green salad
• pud:  pop art period cheesecake

OR

• pud: ricotta with honeycomb – fabulous and instant

Thank God It’s Friday drink:

• elderflower cocktail

WITH

• ricotta with olives and thyme

Friday evening fish:

• salmon with Victorian mandram

OR

• orzo pasta with smoked fish, asparagus and pickled radish

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Week’s menu for June: Number 2

“Thursday, November 21, 1799: A great Revolution once more in France, that rascal Beunoparte [sic] is returned from Egypt having stolen away from the Army and left ’em to Old Nick”

Paupers and Pig Killers: The Diary of William Holland

This June contains two historical anniversaries – Magna Carta and Waterloo. So with regard to that first event, we’ll have a commemorative cake with intriguing orange and run butter icing to celebrate the birth of our democracy.

After Waterloo the British soldiers plundered the French champagne cellars and there were fears that the businesses were ruined. But it so transpired that, in the course of the drinking frenzy, the British had acquired a taste for the fizz and the champagne houses avoided bankruptcy thanks to large and plentiful orders from London clubs. Now Britons drink on average more champagne than the French.

So we’ll be looking at cocktails which use champagne.

And last month I was lucky enough to be taken for tea to the Intercontinental where they had a menu composed of food from the countries where Wellington fought Napoleon – excellent idea. So there’ll be recipes from Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Egypt.

Saturday lunch:

• gladiator salad

OR

• A Comely Courgette, Mint and Pecorino Open Sandwich

OR

• orange and red ancient grain salad with prosciutto

AND

• raspberry massive magnificent mountainous meringues

OR

• Squishy, squashy, chewy pistachio cookies

Sunday supper:

• Maria Proietta’s meatballs with stuffed mushrooms

OR

• quick and simple stir fry

Monday evening meat:

• Nick, Bob and Mark’s completely different pork and apple pie
• fabulous frivolous frisée salad

Tuesday evening:

night out or leftovers!

Wednesday evening poultry:

• chicken Marengo

Thursday evening dinner party:

• starter: Ivrea pea tart
• main course:   Mahmudiyye – an old Ottoman recipe dating from 1539 – chicken with dried fruits; serve with a fresh Egyptian cabbage and spring onion salad

OR

• main course: Marcella’s melt-in-the-mouth lamb with juniper; with tomato salsa, and roasted aubergine and cauliflower
• pudding: Intercontinental blueberry cheesecake

Thank God it’s Friday drink:

• English sparkling wine throws down the gauntlet – and if you want something appropriate and impressive to nibble with your cocktail – try the beet and goat cheese napoleons on the Saveur site.
• alternatively, make some crostini, and top with a zhoggiu sauce.

Friday evening fish:

• Boca di Sant’ Antonio prawn and lobster risotto, lemon salad

OR

• hot-smoked salmon in parchment with a creamy goats’ cheese sauce, and crushed lemony potatoes

…. and a very appropriate cheese:

• Waterloo – of course

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Week’s menu for June: Number 3

“The sixth month is also moving, with white evening-glory blooming over the walls of poor dwellings, and the smoke from smouldering smudge fires.”

Kenkō, A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees (written circa 1330)

Saturday lunch:

• sublime sweetbreads
• soft and crunchy tatsoi salad

OR

• courgette crostata with ham

OR

• A warm salad of butter beans with sorrel with ham

OR

• Happy Surprise wholemeal flatbreads with avocado, egg, and roasted tomatoes

OR

• Wonderful walnut, endive, and strawberry salad

FOLLOWED BY

• mixed berries, rose water, and pistachio

Sunday supper:

• Ognisko chicken livers with sour cherries and fried bread

Monday evening meat:

• popeye’s lamb with lentils
• fresh green beans

Tuesday evening:

night out or leftovers!

Wednesday evening poultry:

• comfortable chicken with apple and cider
• Eve’s chickedee carrots and nasturtiums

OR

• fennel with saffron, Pernod, and a nutty crumble

Thursday evening dinner party:

• with drinks: Sardinian bread with ricotta and pesto
• starter: strawberry risotto
• main course: teppanyaki – chicken and prawn
• pudding: raspberry bombe

Thank God It’s Friday drink:

• Gimlet

….. and to eat with it:

• tuna and mascarpone dip

OR

• Za’atared halloumi chips

Friday evening fish:

• white fish fillets with sauce vierge

OR

• with lemony courgette carpaccio

AND

• poetic fried potatoes

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Week’s menu for June: Number 4

“Picnic? Literary and musical assembly? Rural pleasure trip? May and June bring fine days at the beginning of the summer….The porters have already put the carpets, mattresses and cushions in gay masses of colour on the ground….The violinist and the mandolin player bring their instruments… stretched out and relaxed in complete and happy abandon in front of the samovar, this party will exchange ideas all day; the poet will read his verses.” 

Madame Guinaudeau, Traditional Moroccan Cooking

Saturday lunch:

• international Swiss cheese tart

OR

• warm salad of smoked trout, asparagus and beluga lentils

OR

• big beefy pesto cheese tomatoes

OR

• Chief Taster’s tacos filled with mangos, prawns and other goodies

OR

• Spice islands ham and melon with Mediterranean soda bread

AND

• condensed milk cookies

Sunday lunch:

• Roast lamb with plastered peas

Sunday supper:

• cheat’s moussaka

Monday evening meat:

• bankers’ kidneys and griddled spring onions

Tuesday evening:

night out, or leftovers!

Wednesday evening poultry:

• chicken tikka masala with
• jeera rice

Thursday evening dinner party:

• with drinks: green mayonnaise with…. crudites… or battered cauliflower
• starter: stuffed courgettes
• main course: rich chorizo and fruit cobbler
• pudding:   17 June, Trooping of the Colour – guards’ pudding

Thank God It’s Friday drink:

• smokey maple leopard cocktail

….. and to eat with it:

• hummus with toasted cumin seeds and walnut oil

Friday evening fish:

• bedded black lacquered and beechwood-smoked haddock

AND

• terrific tabbouleh