Newsletter: 😎🍔Eating al fresco, Let’s get down to The Parlour Café + save 50% on Scoolinary 👨‍🍳👩‍🍳

Our favorite cucumber recipes

It’s time to eat al fresco

The holidays are round the corner, the sun shines and the outdoor grill has been dusted off. It’s time to get outdoors, for a barbecue or a picnic. For some great ideas for summer cooking look no further.

Picnic Salads for Summer is a collection of the kind of dishes you want to eat now. Light but with no compromise on flavor.

Try Chickpeas with Feta and Preserved Lemons for something zingy and highly nutritious.

The Italian combination of tomato, mozzarella and basil is enduringly popular for a reason, as in this La Caprese salad.

For something more than a salad, but that won’t keep you long at the stove, we have a collection of Quick & Effortless Summer Treats. Try Fried Eggplant with Cold Udon Noodles, or fire up the grill for some Grilled Chicken with Quick Barbecue Sauce.

With your thoughts turned now to outdoor cooking, take a look at the books on our Grilling Bookshelf, for recipes, techniques and more.

And if you are putting on a spread you will want some Effortless Summer Appetizers. Bake the surprisingly easy Yellow Squash Galette, or serve a Smoked Mackerel, Fennel & Chickpea Salad with Horseradish & Yoghurt Dressing.

In perfect time to answer all your drinks needs for the holiday, newly added to ckbk, we have Southern Cocktails: Dixie Drinks, Party Potions, and Classic Libations by Denise Gee.

Stir up a Classic Mint Julep, or jug of Planter’s Punch for the table. Cheers!

Find all 57 recipes from Southern Cocktails

Pictured above: Mustard-Dill Turkey Burgers with Mustard-Dill Slaw from Weeknight Gluten Free by Kristine Kidd

Behind a cult classic at The Parlour Café

The Parlour Café Cookbook, published in 2011, was the brainchild and collaboration of chef-author Gillian Veal and Emily Dewhurst of Kitchen Press – it was in fact Kitchen Press’s inaugural book. In celebration of the book’s new and updated edition we spoke to Gillian and Emily , and bring you Café Cooking: From The Parlour to Cambo Gardens on publication day, today!

The Parlour Café opened in 2005, and became a mainstay of Scottish café culture. A place for Gillian to create the kind of food and atmosphere that reflected what she wanted, to cook and feed others as she would her friends. When Emily, inspired by the chef’s attitude and her own love of the place, suggested a book, a great collaboration was born. This set the seal on the Kitchen Press modus operandi, of working with chefs and translating their vision into book form.

Our Behind the Cookbook conversation with the two details the birth of this collaboration. And why the pair decided to update the much-loved book.

The new book is packed with recipes you will want to eat. Those from The Parlour Café in Gillian’s hometown of Dundee, and those from Cambo House in St. Andrews, which she opened in 2019.

With produce from the Cambo estate to work with, find plenty of fresh and seasonal treats.

Try Perfect Breakfast Tomatoes on Toast, a Parlour Picnic Loaf, Puy Lentil and Goat’s Cheese Salad, or one of many tempting cakes – try this Satsuma Cake with Rosemary Honey Syrup.

Our cookbook of the month for July is ... Salt & Shore by Sammy Monsour

‘Salt & Shore is an absolute gem! This cookbook is a beautiful journey through the rich and diverse flavors of coastal cuisine.’ Amazon review

In honour of the Michelin-award winning chef’s new book, and our July #ckbkclub, online culinary academy Scoolinary are offering a 50% discount on subscriptions. Find out more about this great offer here.

So save money while cooking from this book’s fresh and delicious recipes. And don’t forget to take pictures and post about it in our #ckbkclub on Facebook.

Ingredient focus: cucumber

Though now widely cultivated around the world, cucumbers are native to South Asia. The many different varieties suit different purposes, with those grown for pickling more robust, to stay crisp after immersion. Technically a fruit, and a member of the same plant family as many squash, they can be eaten raw or cooked.

The phrase ‘cool as a cucumber’ references their fresh, cool quality, and mild refreshing taste. They are most known therefore as a crisp addition to salads, or finely sliced into summer sandwiches – try classic Cucumber Sandwiches or a Greek Salad. They are also surprisingly good cooked, braised down with butter, salt and pepper, or even as part of a curry – try this Sri Lankan Cucumber Curry.

For many more tempting cucumber recipes explore our 12 Ways with Cucumber collection.

6 of the best chocolate recipes

July 7 is National Chocolate Day. We might go so far as to say that every day is chocolate day. Nevertheless, it is always good to try new chocolate recipes. Here are six we love.