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A summer stew of sweet peppers and other lovely stuff

The vegetarian/dairy intolerant/meat lovers challenge raised its head again recently – with Angus and Clive plus Jenny and Mr R coming over for dinner. This time I took up the offer of contributions from my guests and we had an awesome array of meat-based starters.  There were cured meats, several patés and some olives and crisps thrown in to keep Clive happy.

I turned once again to Dennis Cotter for the main course – a “summer stew of sweet peppers, new potatoes and sugar snaps with basil, garlic and olives, and goats’ cheese ciabatta”. Dennis is not one for the snappy title… The stew also had red onions, a red chilli and tomatoes. I had forgotten that Mr R is not only an avid lover of meat, but also a bit ambivalent about vegetables, so I was very pleased that not only did he eat all of dinner, he confessed to Jenny that he loved it! I had to adapt the recipe – the picture in Paradiso Seasons showed a definite soupiness, but the recipe, if followed to the letter had very little juice. So I chucked in a large glass of white wine and a small amount of vegetable stock – it tasted great and looked right too. Although whoever got the portion pictured, didn’t get much of the juice, apparently. I loved the green olive tapenade nestled under the goats’ cheese on the croutons. This is Dennis’ recipe, although I didn’t follow the measurements particularly and the olives I had were already stuffed with garlic so I didn’t add any extra:

300g green olives
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch basil
2 tbsp capers
3 tbsp olive oil

Remove the stones or stuffing from the olives, if necessary. Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blend to a smooth thick pureé.

I made these cute little lime curd meringues for dessert – sorry Angus, I have decided that a little butter from time to time won’t do you any harm. But you know that is my strategy and I think you have forgiven me. I loved the lime curd – a bit more delicate than lemon in my opinion.