A SLICE OF SUMMER

GIN-CURED SALMON WITH RYE SODA BREAD

This recipe involves almost no work, but the curing process takes 24–36 hours, so do plan ahead. It’ll be worth it.

SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS 500g piece of skin-on, salmon fillet (choose a piece of salmon cut from the centre of the fillet if possible, you want a piece that is roughly rectangular) 150g caster sugar 150g coarse sea salt 50ml gin 40g dill GIN-CURED SALMON Put the salmon, skin side down, in a baking dish big enough so it can lie flat. Mix the sugar, salt and gin together in a bowl. Chop up the dill, including the stalks, and add it to the gin curing mixture. Stir it in, then spread the cure over the salmon, making sure all the flesh – including the sides – is covered in the lovely, green-flecked, salty, sugary, gin-soaked mixture. Cover the salmon in a few layers of clingfilm, pressed down against the flesh, then put a board or a plate on top of it and weigh it down with a kitchen weight or a couple of cans or jars. Put it in the fridge to ‘cook’. And it really does effectively cook. If you like a light cure, leave it for 24 hours. If you prefer it a bit more cured, leave it for 36 hours.

When it’s had its time, take it out of the fridge and scrape off as much of the cure as you can. Don’t worry about the dill, which will cling, it’s the salt and sugar you need to remove. Give it a quick rinse under the cold tap and pat it dry with kitchen paper.

It is now ready to eat. I like it sliced as you would a loaf, each slice around 5mm thick, or a bit less. The skin will just gently peel off. It is, I promise, soft and meltingly delicious.

GIN-CURED SALMON WITH RYE SODA BREAD continued

Rye bread is a quintessential part of Scandinavian meals but making it from scratch is a time-consuming affair, and if you are an inexperienced bread maker like me, it feels like too many things could go wrong. However, our failsafe friend soda bread can be made with rye flour and, honestly, I think it is just as good.

MAKES 1 LOAF

INGREDIENTS 25g oats 25ml boiling water 400ml natural yogurt 1 tablespoon brown sugar 400g wholemeal rye flour 1 teaspoon fine sea salt 1 ½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda RYE SODA BREAD Preheat your oven to 180°C/gas 4. Put the oats into a bowl with the boiling water and leave to soak for 10–15 minutes. Once they are nicely mushy, stir in the yogurt and sugar. Then mix in the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda until everything is combined and you have a sticky dough. Scoop out onto a floured work surface and shape into a long baton. Put on a greased baking tray and cook for 45–55 minutes. Give its bottom a tap and if it sounds hollow, it’s done. Cool on a wire rack.

CONTRARY CHEESECAKE

This recipe is a mash-up of a cheesecake my mum makes and one that my friend Penny makes. It requires a little beating and a bit of bashing and it is very amenable to any adaptations you might want to make.

SERVES 4–6

FOR THE CREAMY BIT 250g mascarpone 150g cream cheese (I use a light one because I prefer the texture, but full-fat is fine too) 25g caster sugar zest and juice of 1 unwaxed lemon 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 100ml double cream FOR THE CRUNCHY BIT 100g ginger nut biscuits (about 10) 30g butter TO SERVE 350g mixed summer berries zest of 1 unwaxed lime, plus a squeeze of juice mint leaves (I like to chop them into ribbons) icing sugar

Recipes taken from Home Cooked: Recipes from the Farm by Kate Humble, published by Gaia (£25). Photography by Andrew Montgomery. FOR THE CREAMY BIT With an electric hand whisk, beat together the mascarpone, cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest and juice, vanilla extract and cream until smooth and well combined. Chill in the fridge. You can chop and change your citrus flavours at will – use an orange, a lime or two, or a clementine – and play around with the biscuit base accordingly.

FOR THE CRUNCHY BIT Put the biscuits in a bowl, break them up a bit with your hands and then bash them a bit with a rolling pin until you have a nicely uneven crumb. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the biscuit crumbs and stir so they are well coated.

Pour the mixture into a nonstick tin (you are going to break this base up, remember, so it can be any size tin), pat the crumb down with a wooden spoon then put the tin in the fridge. You can add 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder (or more) to the mix to make a chocolate ginger crumb. Or use digestive biscuits instead. I’ve added a handful of chopped hazelnuts on occasion too. Add a teaspoon of spice – cinnamon or mixed spice for a wintery version. TO SERVE How you present this pud is really up to you. In glasses, a bowl or a plate. Biscuit crunch beneath the cream and the fruit, or on top. Anything goes. I like the berries mixed gently with the lime juice and zest, some of the mint leaves and just a sprinkling of icing sugar. I’d serve them alongside a generous blob of the lemony topping, scatter the ginger crunch with abandon and decorate with a couple more mint leaves.

When berries aren’t in season, a rhubarb compote will go well (perhaps with orange rather than lemon in the creamy bit). Or frozen fruit, like cherries or blackcurrants, gently thawed and served warm alongside it – in which case I might go against type and serve it in a glass to make the most of the juice.