Salads for sharing with friends

I rarely read fiction novels at bed time, unless I'm madly trying to catch up on uni readings so my usual bed time reading is a cookbook. 30-Minute Meals has been a favourite bed time read of late, but I haven't made anything out of it yet (all in good time my friends!). Amongst my group of friends, some of us have a bit of an obsession with this cook book, but again I don't think any of us had made anything out of it yet. Until now.

My good friend Rack of Lamb (yes, that is her nick name), actually took the leap and recently made some of Jamie's salads for a gathering of friends she hosted. It was a laid back affair, drinks on the deck, shared finger food, some Singstar and just generally a few laughs.

We had some sourdough and dips, mini-pies and a few other nibblies to kick off the afternoon on Rack of Lamb and Mr Rack of Lamb's deck.

Our lovely host then dropped some 30-Minute Meal goodies on us. First up was smoked salmon with creamed horseradish and cress (p160 of the book). The combination of the smokey fish with the tangy horseradish was perfect. We all tucked in using our fingers to roll up some salmon and swipe it through the sauce. 

Next up was a prosciutto and melon salad (p26 of the book). This had a lemon and balsamic vinegar dressing along with some torn basil. Again we were able to use our fingers to roll a strip of salty prosciutto around the sweet and tangy dressed melon mixture.

The third salad Rack made was not one I would have immediately picked out of any book, but I will now certainly be making myself. This Sweet and Sour Cucumber actually comes from Nigella Lawson's book Nigella Express (p122). It actually went well with the smoked salmon having a strong dill flavour paired with the sweet and sour pickling juice. We used fingers, but you could certainly have made a little meal on a plate with the cucumber, salmon and some of the sourdough bread.

The shared salad feast prepared by Rack of Lamb (well done Rack - it was a beautiful spread!):

Lastly, I couldn't share Rack of Lamb's feast without also sharing these little sweeties. These guys are Rack's 'babies' - Mischa and Lola. Brother and sister Burmese cats. Mostly they slept while we feasted, but when they were awake they hung out with us like little people. You can tell I was very rude and interrupted their sleep from these photos (sorry guys!).

Enjoy!

B xx