Now that the summer months are upon us it’s time to get cracking on what the British do best – the impromptu picnic party. The most frustrating thing about planning for a picnic is to spend hours preparing your favourite snacks only to see your quiche go soggy and your sandwiches squashed.

To add a touch of gourmet to your hamper, TV chef Simon Rimmer is in our studio courtesy of Mateus Rosé to share his favourite picnic recipes, the dos and don’ts of alfresco dining and most importantly, which summer wines will tickle your guests’ fancy.

As it’s a live webchat, submit your questions before the chat, settle down on your tartan rug and have your plastic cutlery at the ready…

Simon is the resident chef on Something for the Weekend and author of The Accidental Vegetarian, The Rebel Cook and most recently Lazy Brunch.

www.colourofsummer.com. (Live Monday 7th July)

H: Host, Murray Norton
S: Simon Rimmer, TV chef

H: Hello and welcome to the Food and Drink show, I’m Murray Norton. Now with the summer months rolling upon us it’s time to get cracking on what us Brits do best – yes it’s the impromptu picnic party. Now the most frustrating thing about planning for a picnic – not only the weather – but spending your hours preparing your favourite snacks only to see your quiche go soggy and your sandwiches get squashed.  To help advise us on this and add a touch of gourmet to your hamper, I’m delighted to say that we’re joined by top chef Simon Rimmer.  Simon, good to have you with us

S: Thank you very much

H: Now look at this, this is quite sparkling isn’t it?

S: This is great, well the thing is, I must admit I am the worlds worst at being organised for a picnic. I think that’s half of it really.  You think, when you go for dinner, then we organise things, even sort of subconsciously we organise it – who we’re going to go with, what kind of food do you want to eat and where are you going to go really.  Now with picnics you tend to go, shall we go out for the day?  Let’s just get some food from the garage and we go.  And I think – I mean look at this – hamper’s great, all looks good, beautiful wine, what more could you want?

H: A little bit of kit is all you need really, and you don’t need much more than that, but then it’s just a few picky things really.  The ideas of the old – I mean I remember going to the beach with mum and dad and it was sort of ham and tomato sarnies that were in a bit of polythene, gone a bit warm by the time you got there.  You really don’t need that any more do you?

S: No you don’t.  I think you know there are so many kinds of cool boxes that are dead cheap on the market, cooler bags, so there’s no reason to have warm food any more when you want it to be cooled, but equally if you want warm food you can actually cook the food and keep it warm in containers as well.  What’s that?

H: This is one of these cooler packs

S: Cool isn’t it?

H: And we put this in the fridge, freeze it up, make it nice and cold and you can wrap this up either round the bottles or you can wrap this round the food, keep this on top, keeps everything cold.  The cooler bags themselves are pretty perfect as well

S: Yes

H: It’s good isn’t it?

S: It’s good for your hamper that isn’t it, because then you get this traditional old school jobbie going on and you can keep everything cool inside

H: Yes. I love the idea of it.  Well we’ve just had a question in actually from John, question in from John that says “I love eating outside but I’m on a low carb plan.  Can I picnic without sandwiches and without sausage rolls?”  I suppose the same is true about gluten free as well?

S: Yes I mean I think it’s really easy to do, I think salads in general are always a good thing to have, I think one of the problems with salads if you’re eating outside, particularly if you’re going to travel somewhere for a picnic is they go soggy.  One of the things I quite like to do is do things like sort of crunchy salads.  Now we’ve got some crudités down there.  If you imagine turning that into a coleslaw, so celery, carrots, bit of red onion, spicy dressing – use some wasabi, white wine vinegar, olive oil, some chargrilled chicken – beautiful.  No carbs in it at all.  Also pretty low fat, because that’s the other kind of – sometimes you can eat very easily low carbs, you can go and eat things like sausages, and you can go and eat very high fat things.  I think combining those two things is what’s nice in the summer time

H: Yes.  Well you don’t want anything too heavy do you, that’s the last thing you want when you’re throwing the tartan rug down

S: No

H: You need picnicky things

S: Yes you do although there’s nothing nicer than like a nice bit of quality bread I think with a picnic as well

H: Yes.  Well I see we’ve got the baguette here as well – just break it up and dunk it in and -

S: Do you know a nice thing to do with a baguette if you’re fed up with all the soggy sandwich thing is if you slice it down the middle but don’t actually cut if fully in half, so you hinge it, scoop out the middle, put your filling in that way

H: Yes

S: Seal it back up, wrap it in cling film, into a fridge, chill it, then the next day if you slice it across you end up with a beautiful kind of sandwich, beautiful bit of bread which his great

H: Oh I like the idea of that, that’s a great – what a great tip, love that one.  Nice one.  We’ve also got, I mean the traditional things are here, the pork pies, the sausages and the dips as well.  But making dips yourself, is that easy?

S: Really easy.  Dead, dead simple.  Say for example hummus, hummus is one of the most simple things you can do.  Chick peas out of the tin, give them a good old wash.  Tahini paste is the only other thing you need to buy which is a sesame paste. You can leave it out if you want, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, blitz it all up, dead, dead simple

H: And you can change the texture yourself by depending on whether you want it really sticky and stodgy or pour onable or -

S: Yes and by adding other flavours to it.  I mean that one, I would hazard a guess, knowing where that’s from, that’s probably lemon and coriander, whatever you fancy in hummus is great.  Red peppers are nice in there, a bit of chilli’s good in there – whatever works

H: And you can make that up the day before it’s ready to go, and if you don’t go out with it, it’s in the fridge anyway isn’t it?

S: Yes

H: So that’s good.  Ok more questions here – we’ve had John’s question, Lucinda – “I’m never very adventurous with meats on my picnics because I fear meat will go off.  What should I do?”

S: Yes a lot of people say that and we’ve talked already about having a cooler box which will obviously keep the meat good and cool which is fine, one of the safest things to do, I think, I mean I am a massive fan of smoked meats – smoked duck, and then also go the other way with smoked fish, smoked salmon which will be absolutely fine, it will come to no harm at all because they’ve been cured and dried so therefore they will be fine.  I’d go for something like that, you know your pastramis, your salamis, chorizo, all those kind of dried, smoky meats are fantastic

H: And they’re so – the usability of them, either in the sandwich, pick them up themselves on their own

S: Yes

H: Chorizo, I mean -

S: One of the best things.  But I mean I think one of the important things as well when you do picnics is not to have too many flavours

H: Yes

S: I mean we’ve got like not a bad selection here but we haven’t got too many distinct flavours, and I think the danger is you have about 25 different flavours it’s like doing that salad buffet thing you know when you go along and you eat so many different things you’ve no idea what you’ve eaten any more, it’s just a generic taste of nothing

H: And it’s going to come back and repeat you for the rest of the afternoon

S: Yes

H: Barry says “I’m hoping to snare a summer girlfriend” – Barry please!  “What can I include in my picnic to ensure that I get a result?”

S:  I think Barry if you sort of work from desert backwards.  Something chocolatey, and I think like a chocolate brownie is a great thing to do.  Now there’s a real trend in the States at the moment what they call kind of power deserts, and what they do is rather than kind of going for low fat deserts which are always a bit tasteless, they tend to go for is the full carb thing, so you have a chocolate brownie, but you have little squares, so you’re getting – what they try and work on is basically the 100 calorie hit – sugary, chocolatey good quality ingredients, a real treat, so not only if you’re going to try and snare your girlfriend, you’ve got something that is going to be really taste but also isn’t going to kind of pile the pounds on.  So I’d go that way.  Fresh fruit, something like strawberries, always a beautiful thing to do.  That’s a cracking way to do it, and then if you’re working backwards I think chicken and seafood I think are always nice, light things to have so it’s not too overpowering so you’re not going to fill them up really

H: And every girl loves you know a nicely prepared picnic don’t they? I mean if the guy’s taken some care and put some nice ingredients in there – I mean how much more romantic can you get?

S: It’s all in the preparation isn’t it?  I mean if you put a bit of time into doing this, you get all of this kit, nice bit of simple food, good quality food, then – well it’s a good start

H: It’s a good start

S: You’re going to look like Mr Smoothie aren’t you Barry?

H: Yes

S: Good luck with that, I hope it goes well.  Actually Josie was saying, she’s a big desert fan  - what are good puddings for a picnic?  And you’ve already alluded to there the chocolate brownie’s a good one

H: Chocolate brownie’s a cracking one and I think also things like muffins and fairy cakes, I mean you know if you’re a fan of Sex in the City you must have seen all the kind of cupcakes that they do – they’re a great thing to do, very simple, just a simple sponge mix, decorate them with different coloured icings, all the kind of fancy little hundreds and thousands and silver balls on top, they’re dead easy, they transport really well and they look fantastic.  You know a plateful of those with all those different colours on looks amazing

H: There’s something very retro about that, what you were saying about the cupcakes, and I mean the same is true of picnics isn’t it really?  I mean it’s a traditional thing

S: It is and I actually think that if you use retro in a positive way then that’s quite a nice thing to do, you know what did we like as kids, you know we talked at the top about this, you know things that you like as kids, and I think that’s always a really important thing

H: This is why we still prefer the picnic more than anything else

S: Coronation chicken, Scotch eggs, pork pie.  Three great retro things that you – absolutely adorable, you know you can never get enough of them

H: Now what do we wash it all down with? Because we’ve got a fantastic selection in front here – some recognisable shapes of bottles as well

S:  We’ve got the full range of all the Mateus Rose wines here, the traditional one we’ve got also the Shiraz which is slightly drier, slightly more kind of – maybe a more kind of modern flavour really

H: Right

S: The Tempranillo here which is lighter and slightly sweeter, almost like an Infidel flavour, and this which is a new one which is a sparkling one, which I love, which is cracking.  Now I think the nice thing about using a rose for a picnic, if you think you’re not going to take loads of booze, because most people are driving when they go on a picnic, they just want the odd glass

H: Sure

S: Then I think that rose sits in between the two things, if you’ve got heavy, smoked meats or you’ve got heavy, meaty flavours, it works with those, if you’ve got other lighter flavours like your seafood and like your vegetarian dishes then it works with that as well.  And of course it is an ideal summer time drink, you know it’s a cracking drink, nice and fresh, nice and light and works with pretty much every food

H: Yes it covers all – ticks all the boxes and again if you chill a wrap around it as well, you need it chilled don’t you

S: Yes and we keep mentioning the word preparation in everything that you do and I think that’s it, you need to prepare your food in advance, get this in the fridge good and early – let’s face it you can never have your wine too cold on a picnic, by the time you’ve got there it’s going to warm up a little, even with your cool bags and stuff, so making sure it’s nice and cold. There’s nothing worse than a warm glass of white or rose, is there?

H: You mentioned the sparkling there, I mean the sparkling and the strawberries, that’s a combination made in heaven isn’t it?

S: It is

H: It just works

S: It is and because this is also kind of a lovely kind of light, fruity flavour then – in fact I can’t think of anything we’ve got here that actually doesn’t work with it to be honest

H: Yes, yes well they’re all great and we’ll come back and talk some more about those in just a moment.  No doubt there’s some questions that you may have about the wine so we’ll take those, but in the meantime Clare thank you for your question.  Clare says “curled sandwiches” – here we go – “sweaty pork pie, not very inspiring.  What’s the best picnic food to take on a journey that won’t spoil before you get it out?”

S: Ok, I think if you’re going to go on  simple things then I think chargrilled chicken is a really good thing to do. We’ve already mentioned things like cold cuts and smoked meats which are great, and then things like sushi are a really good thing to do.  Sushi is dead simple to make

H: That scares people though doesn’t it, sushi?

S: It does but people always are saying that sushi is raw fish and sushi actually means vinegared rice, so you could do a vegetarian sushi or sushi with smoked salmon in which of course is going to have no raw fish at all, is a great thing to do, and sushi is dead easy.  You buy the nori sheets which all the supermarkets sell now which is roasted seaweed.  The rice itself you cook the rice in the normal way, make sure it’s sushi rice, you add vinegar and sugar to that, you lay that onto the top of your nori sheets, put your smoked salmon or your veggies down the middle, roll it up and then basically just wrap it up and leave it.  And you can always carve it on the day so it transports really well, keep it cool, and it’s a cracking thing to have on your picnic

H: And looks very designer doesn’t it?

S: It does, well the thing is it is all about presentation and we’ve gone to a big effort with this here today, you go out on your picnic, and just that little bit of time, so you’ve got you know like a decent rug to do, you’ve got nice bit of crockery, even if it’s kind of you buy fantastic plastic stuff these days, all of it looks good, it makes a massive difference

H: Location is the other thing, you were saying right at the beginning you’re going to go for a picnic, oh let’s just go out somewhere – and people, there was a survey that the most extraordinary places that people go on picnic.  Car parks -

S: A B road!

H: A B road is very nice isn’t it?

S: Yes, yes.  It is weird, I mean I remember being in the Lake District and seeing a couple sitting at the side of the road facing that way, and if they’d literally turned 180 degrees, Lake Windermere’s there, but they kind of, but they’re watching the four fifths and the juggernauts going past, and it is kind of quite bizarre what people will do.  But I think the thing is I think that we’re always a little bit scared that if we go somewhere on a picnic, and the weather turns bad you think what am I going to do in the middle of nowhere?  But we’re British for goodness sake, you know we know how to deal with bad weather

H: Yes

S: And I think if you go up to any part of our beautiful British countryside or coastline, then even if you only manage an hour and the weather turns bad, if you’ve got nice food, nice wine and you sit in your car but you’ve got a spectacular view, then does it really matter whether it’s raining or not?

H: There’s no surprise some – we were talking beforehand because the survey also says that some people actually prefer curry on a picnic, which I’ve done

S: Have you?

H: I’ve actually done that

S: Have you – tell me – I’m intrigued, you’re the first person that’s ever said they have

H: This is not being prepared at all, this is – I’ve got no food, the shop’s shut and the curry house is open. Take away curry.  Put all the lids in, everything’s – in the take away bag, inside the hamper thing – da dad a – got it all out and there’s people going ah that smells great

S: That’s quite cool.  Because I always imagined, because I was quite scared when I read that on the survey that it meant that people were actually buying ready meals, microwaving them and putting them in a flask

H: No, terrible, couldn’t deal with that.  Curry flask -

S: But there are so many weird things in there, the disappointing thing really on the survey was that most of the things in the top ten were all bought in, like bhajis, and crap, there was nothing prepared and I think it’s really nice if you can make your own food on a picnic it does make such a difference and it doesn’t take a load of time.  I mean the things we’ve mentioned already, all of them are very, very simple and all of them just get you in the kitchen using fresh food, using local food ideally

H: Yes

S: And it just makes the whole occasion better, and I think this survey’s all about kind of reenergising the whole picnic thing, that instead of it being just eat in a different location, the whole event becomes important, the preparation, the wine that you’re going to take, the place that you’re going to go, the people that you’re going to go with – it makes it so much more exciting

H: Now here’s the thing, looking down here at the pitta bread, and we’ve got these bits of celery and carrots and olives down there, look fantastic – and I look at that and I don’t think British picnic when I think of that, I think of Mediterranean food, which is where we’ve gone, we’ve gone into Mediterranean food haven’t we really?

S: Yes I think one of the great things about Britain is that we embrace multi-culturism more so than anywhere else, you know we say yes you know what, we’ll have a bit of that, we’ll have a bit of Thai influence, we’ll have a bit of Mediterranean influence, and we take it all on board and we love it all, and of course travel enables us to do that as well, you know you come back from Greece, you think you know what, we had fantastic pitta bread and we had hummus there and we go to Thailand and we had like spicy curries – wherever you go we tend to bring things back and use it in Britain, whereas lots of other cultures in the rest of Europe particularly will say no, we only eat our cuisine, that’s what we have, and I think you know we love experimenting with things.  Having said that, I’m glancing down at those pork pies thinking nothing better than a good pork pie is there?

H: We’re going to be having one of those in just a second, I know we are.  Barry – I think Barry’s back again – I think sparkling rose is the new champagne, it’s not pretentious and it tastes great.”

S: I think he’s absolutely right, champagne’s expensive, the cost of champagne goes higher and higher and higher and there are some magnificent sparkling wines on the market.  Pink champagne is one of the fastest growing champagnes, all rose wines, it’s the fastest growing sect of the wine trade, and then the sparkling stuff is really kind of getting up there, you know we’re buying more and more of it, it’s good and fruity, it’s light – I think it’s not a serious wine, in a very nice way if you know what I mean, it isn’t pretentious at all, like Barry says, it’s just fun and it goes with so many things

H: I love the whole colour of all of this.  I’m just looking at all of this in front of us and oranges and greens, people say we should eat different colours anyway from a health perspective, but just from a colour perspective, I mean you eat with your eyes first of all, you want to get tucked into this don’t you because it looks colourful

S: Yes this is so much nicer than seeing a white and yellow egg and cress sandwich or a meat paste sandwich like we had when we were kids.  This is all about colour and I think that again it all comes back to what we were saying before when we were talking about preparation, put time into getting fresh fruit.  I mean look at these colours  - the strawberries look magnificent, the tangerines look magnificent, all of these colours just add to that, that whole essence of it being exciting

H: Well there’s plenty of colour here including some great roses as well. Where can people get the recipes, you were talking about bits and pieces there that people can do – have you got some ideas that people can go for?

S: Yes I’ve got loads and loads of recipes, the website is colourofsummer.co.uk or .com, loads of recipes on there, loads of ideas, information about the wines as well and there’s great stuff on there

H: Alright, well if people want more information on all of this that’s where they’ve got to go to.  I’ll remind you again it’s colourofsummer.com, just go onto that and you’ll find all the information on there with some of Simon’s top tips for your colourful summer, and of course and if you’re feeling extraordinarily romantic, Barry you could always take one of these four as well, but -

S: It aint going to work that is it?

H: It’s not going to work, you’re going to need more than that, you’re going to need some good, home-cooked food.  Simon thank you very much indeed for joining us

S: Thank you

H: We’re going to get stuck in to a couple of strawberries or so and we’ll see you next time.  Bye bye

Still got a question or comment?

Name

Your question Question