Let’s cook a May inspired menu

This week has flown by – creating a Signature Menu for our upcoming early May bank holiday weekend. What I love about these mini-breaks is the opportunity to push out the boat for friends and family.

Since we would still be in lockdown, I had this mad idea about throwing a virtual lunch. Then I had an even madder idea about sharing more widely, and the next thing I knew, I shared the idea on Instagram and committed to sharing a May-inspired menu ahead of the weekend!

At which point, I realised this was going to be very challenging. In normal times, you would check out which foods your guests like/dislike as a starter for ten, but how do you do that across a virtual group? Other worries included:

• How to come up with a menu that tempts everyone’s taste buds?

• How to choose dishes that the least experienced cook can make?

• How to ensure the shopping basket is within everyone’s budget?

• What happens if the key ingredients aren’t available?

• What if one of those key ingredients is a real showstopper for someone?

• Let alone, incorporate all my YMK principles for flavour, texture and colour?

I have always thought things come to you in the same way you go to them. Like buying a blue car, and suddenly seeing hundreds of blue cars that you had never noticed before. The universe did not send me more menus on this occasion, but I did find some inspiration in a comment that Ed Sheeran made some time ago: “I can’t tell you the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone.” Thank you, Ed.

So, let’s cook!

By now you know the basics of YourMagicalKitchen – foods, tastes, flavours, scents, condiments, splashes, colours and divas – all of which combine to create lip-smacking, nose-whiffing and eye-popping seasonal meals.

The dishes in order are:

Appetiser – Smoked salmon blini canapés

Entrée – Roasted purple sprouting broccoli with feta & preserved lemon

Main – Lamb, with golden couscous & yoghurt with cucumber and mint

Dessert – Lemon Syllabub with shortbread biscuits & flaked almonds

Why does this work?

Classic courses that flow naturally typically include a light, cool to warm entrée, a heavier hot, savoury main, followed by a delicate cold to warm, sweet dessert.

Each of the dishes include seasonal foods (granted lemons are imported!), but I think that still deserves a tick.

There is enough flavour ‘bouncing’ in each dish to tempt your taste buds – broccoli goes with feta, feta goes with lemon, lemon goes with broccoli. You get the picture.

Contrasting textures add yet another dimension to the overall eating experience. Here we start with a creamy appetiser, a crunchy entrée, a chewy main, and a creamy-crunchy dessert.

Colourful foods create a bit of drama amid the beige, but you do not want too many colour car crashes. Salmon pinks, Bright greens, Rose reds, and Pastel yellows make for a balancing act between the courses.

Divas create those ‘finishing touches’ – dill for the appetiser, chillies for the entrée, jewel-coloured fruits for the main and a sprig of mint for the dessert.

All the Recipes you need – and a YouTube video for making the Main are here:

I hope you like this menu, which I will be cooking this Sunday. It is there to inspire rather than copy slavishly. Don’t like Broccoli? Use Green Beans instead. Not a meat eater, swap in umami Aubergine for salty Lamb. Last, if you can cook a Lemon syllabub, you can cook a Raspberry fool.

Happy bank holiday weekend everyone. Let me know how you get on!