The remains of a lunch party: cheese roast potatoes and Eton Mess ice-cream

M had a lunch party today.  As I had turned up on holiday unexpectedly, I was banished to town for the afternoon to photograph the shop fronts and buy random bits and pieces.

Vive La France.  Wine and smoked garlic

When I returned the kitchen was full of the glorious, still-warm remains: new potatoes, half finished bottles of wine, plates of cheese and the scent of a house that had only recently been full of people.

After a walk to the village pub, we had left overs for supper: cheese and butter roasted new potatoes, served with the left over salad.

Butter roasted new potatoes and Stilton

Take two handfuls of cooked new potatoes and slice into 1cm pieces.  Heat 30g of butter in a frying pan on a good heat and fry the potatoes until golden brown on both sides (less than 10 mins).  Remove from heat and crumble on 25-50g of stilton, and season with black pepper.

Roasting the boiled potatoes in butter (and a little cheese)

Even better than chips and cheese

As well as the potatoes, also among the remains was as beautiful plate half filled with meringue, fresh rasberries and whipped cream wilting very slightly at the end of the afternoon.  It was one of those beautiful, fragile dishes that wouldn't last the night, so we decided to experiment and make ice cream with the left overs.  It worked really well, and we ate the (semi-fredo) quenelles after the fried potatoes.

Eton Mess ice-cream


I wish I had taken a photograph of the beautiful finished display, before it was turned into ice-cream, you'll just have to imagine its beautiful Will Cotton landscapes.

This is very much a left over recipe, so used whatever you have and mix to taste.

whipped cream
single cream
meringue
raspberries
caster sugar


Fold the ingredients together.

Beat the mixture lightly until the raspberries begin to give out their juices and turn the mixture pink, but not so long as it forms a homogeneous mush.  Add sugar and/ or single cream as required.

Meringue, raspberries and cream

Freeze (and break up regularly, if not using an ice-cream maker).  Makes a very nice semi-fredo ice-cream, and I think would also be good with fresh summer fruits.  We'll see.

The ice-cream mixture, ready to freeze. 

The finished ice cream with left over apple and blackberry crumble