Poole Park Walk - sample recipe from Richard Markham.

A Lazy Summer Day in the Park...
Some Ideas for your picnic

A fresh crusty baguette opened with your fingers, then thinly spread with butter, layered with brie, a smidgen of Dijon mustard, chunks of real ham, and cranberry spread. Then lightly sprinkled with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Salsa Verdi! Handful of fresh basil leaves, likewise for the mint and flat leaf parsley, 3 or 4 small anchovy fillets, a few washed capers, tablespoon of white wine vinegar, teaspoon of Dijon mustard, a garlic clove finely chopped and a couple of glugs of extra virgin olive oil. Just wiz it all up in a food blender to a rough paste, it goes amazingly well with the following.

Cold meats, cold new potatoes, crispy bacon, poppadoms, Digestive biscuits, bread sticks, not all mixed together by the way, mixed salad leaves, boiled eggs, tomatoes and many other savoury favourites.

A pot of houmous along with crisp bakes and rice cakes for dipping in!

Lemonade, spring water, beer and maybe a nice bottle of white wine

I was going to mention cakes and all the prodigious sweet things, but I just feel that after all of the above all you are going to want to do is either sleep or buy yourself a wonderful ice cream from the parlour have a great day!

Poole Quay Walk - sample recipe from Richard Markham.

Gina (my wife), myself and the kids strolled along this busy quay one late Saturday morning in the spring. The air was crisp as it would be at the time of year, and ever present was the occasional and expected whiff of the sea, which predominately got me in the mood for.. yes you've guessed it ... Cockles and mussels. I tried, I really did, to conjure such possibilities as simply grilled sea bass with pancetta and lemon, or monkfish spidini with fresh rosemary, but I think a slight contradiction would prevail considering I was tucking into a tub of mussels, drenched in vinegar at the time (Such a British clichê I know!). Now if you are a mussel fan, they are only at their best when alive and still in their shells, extremely fresh and from your local fishmonger. So that was that then: my mind was made up, Mussels were what felt right that day, so mussels it was going to be. I hope you enjoy this very simple and enjoyable idea very much inspired by our little walk along Poole quay.

Tasty ten-minute mussels for two:

700g cleaned fresh mussels - If some refuse to close when tapped lightly, just bin them.
1. small red onion roughly chopped
2. cloves of garlic roughly chopped
A handful of fresh tarragon leaves
A good knob of butter
A couple of small glasses of white wine-about 150mls
Lemon zest from 1 small lemon (optional)
First remove any stringy type beards from the mussels along with any sand or grit by washing carefully under a slow running cold tap.

Place your pan over a medium heat and add half the butter along with the onion and stir for a couple of minutes until the onion is a little soft. Add most of the tarragon, then the garlic, the wine and then the mussels. Bring to a low simmer, give the pan a little shake, then cover and leave until all the mussels have opened (throw away any that do not open).

With a slotted spoon remove the mussels from the pan and place into a warm bowl. Pour the cooking liquid through a fine sieve over another bowl, then give the pan a quick rinse and return the cooking liquid to this pan.

Add the rest of the leaves, and the butter, then the mussels and the lemon zest.

Leave to bubble away for a minute or so, give the pan another little shake and serve straight away with a crusty baguette to mop up the juices!