DOMINI KEMPand JOHN WILSONhave got together to plan the perfect summer party, so you can follow the recipes, buy the recommended wine pairings, and host a stylish get-together

HERE ARE SOME great new dishes, for carnivores, veggies or those who like to eat sustainably from our seas. Now that Irish strawberries are in full swing, it would be a shame not to make this tart. Don’t worry if your pastry skills are not that fantastic. You can use a readymade pastry case or even some individual ones and just fill it up with crème pâtissière and lots of berries. The more, the merrier.

Grilled mackerel

Serves 4-6

If you’re only feeding mackerel to your guests, allow one fish per person, or two fillets. If you only want to serve one small fillet per person, as part of a summer feast, then with two fish you’d easily feed four, hence the vagueness of quantities of mackerel below.

100ml cider or white wine vinegar

100ml water

2 tbsp caster sugar

Small bunch coriander

1 red onion, finely sliced

Squeeze lemon juice

2-4 mackerel, filleted and pin boned

Drizzle olive oil

Salt and pepper

Heat the vinegar, water and sugar until the sugar has dissolved and then set it aside to cool. Chop the stems from the coriander and add them to the vinegar and water mixture. Keep the coriander leaves to add to the cucumber salad, later (see recipe below). Add the red onion and lemon juice. Mix well and then pour this marinade into a shallow dish and marinate the mackerel, flesh side down, for about 20 minutes.

Pre-heat a grill to its highest setting, or you could also do this in one of those fish-grilling contraptions for the barbecue. Score the skin of the mackerel, then pat it dry and place it on a wire rack, skin side up, and rub it with a little olive oil and plenty of salt. Grill until the skin goes lovely and crispy. You won’t need to grill on both sides, as the mackerel cooks very quickly. Serve with the cucumber salad.

Cucumber, chilli and ginger salad

Serves six to eight as a side dish

If you can’t get pickled ginger, just grate a small knob of fresh ginger into the pickling liquid.

50g caster sugar

50ml rice wine vinegar

200ml water

Salt

1 tbsp finely sliced pickled ginger

1 deseeded, finely sliced chilli

2 cucumbers

1 big bunch spring onions, finely sliced

Small bunch coriander (leftover from recipe above)

Heat the sugar, rice vinegar, water and a good pinch of salt in a small saucepan until it is boiling, then remove from the heat and allow it to cool. Chop the ginger and add it to the vinegar mixture along with the chilli. Skin the cucumbers and very finely slice them. Pour the pickling liquid over the cucumber and spring onions. Mix well, taste and season, then just before serving, add some chopped coriander.

Wine recommendation

Wagner Stempel Rosé Trocken 2010, Rheinessen, 11.5%, €16.95The clean, fresh cucumber combined with oily mackerel sounds great. The Wagner Stempel rosé has plenty of crisp, strawberry fruit, a hint of sweetness to complement the salad, but backed up by plenty of acidity. A very good summer rosé, perfect for posh summer evenings. Stockists: Wicklow Wine Co; The Corkscrew, Chatham Street; 64 Wine, Glasthule.

Carrot and sesame burgers

Makes approximately six burgers

750g carrots

1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained

2 tbsp tahini

1 tsp ground cumin

1 red onion, peeled and very finely chopped

1 egg

3 tbsp olive oil

3 cloves garlic, crushed

100g breadcrumbs

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

3 tbsp sesame seeds

sunflower oil for frying

Peel and grate the carrots. Take one-third of the grated carrot and mix in the food processor with the chickpeas, tahini, cumin, red onion, egg, one tablespoon of olive oil and the garlic. Whizz this into a thick paste.

Fry the remaining two-thirds of the grated carrot with two tablespoons of olive oil and season well. Fry until soft and then allow to cool down. Mix the cooked carrots with the thick paste from the food processor and the breadcrumbs. Add the lemon juice, zest and sesame seeds and mix with a wooden spoon until everything is well combined.

Wet your hands and shape the mixture into six patties. Chill the patties until you’re ready to fry them. Pre-heat an oven to 190 degrees/gas mark five. Heat up some olive oil in a large, non-stick frying pan and fry the burgers on both sides until they are golden brown. Transfer them to a baking tray and bake for another 15-20 minutes or so to cook them through. They are lovely with some goats’ cheese grilled on top.

Wine recommendation

Nessa Albariño 2009, Galicia, 12.5%, €10.99(until June 12th) A richer style of Albariño, with plenty of ripe apple and pear fruits, and nice balancing acidity to cut through the sweetness of the carrot burgers. Stockist: O'Brien's

Coleslaw with apple and tarragon

Serves six to eight

This recipe calls for you to “cold-cook” the coleslaw with sugar and salt, which really helps to extract lots of liquid from the cabbage. I didn’t add any mayo to this, but my sister insists that coleslaw ain’t coleslaw without mayo. It really is up to you. This could easily handle a big dollop of mayo or Greek yoghurt to help bind it.

1 cabbage, very finely sliced

4 tbsp caster sugar

2 tbsp sea salt

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

50ml cider or tarragon vinegar

4 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp celery salt

2 carrots, peeled and sliced

4 Granny Smith apples

Bunch of fresh tarragon or parsley

Put the finely sliced cabbage in a big bowl. Sprinkle the sugar and salt over it and give it a good mix with your hands. Leave it to sit for about an hour. In this time, 200ml of water was extracted from mine, washing away most of the excess salt and sugar. When it has wilted down, it should fit in a colander or salad spinner. Give it a final drain or spin to remove the last of the liquid.

Mix together the mustard, vinegar, olive oil and celery salt to make a dressing. Add the carrots to the cabbage. Peel and grate the apples and add them to the cabbage at the last minute. Pour the dressing over the top, and mix well with the herbs. Check the seasoning and add a big spoonful of mayo or Greek yoghurt if you want a creamier finish.

Chicken and bacon kebabs

The child and I could not stop eating these. Pure evil. Even though there’s enough for about six people with these quantities, they are hard to stop eating. These came out really well cooked in the oven first and then blasted under the grill or BBQ to get them crisp and caramelised. Ask your butcher to skin and bone chicken thighs for this, and to chop them up into bite-sized pieces. Thigh meat works best, although breast would also be nice. It just tends to dry out a bit.

BBQ sauce

200g ketchup

1 tbsp molasses

1 white onion, peeled and grated

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tbsp light brown sugar

3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

Heat everything together in a non-stick saucepan and simmer for about 10 minutes until reduced down and thick. If you don’t have a non-stick saucepan, watch it doesn’t burn. Cool down and set aside one-third of the sauce for dipping the cooked chicken into. Keep two-thirds in a separate bowl for basting the chicken as it’s cooking.

Kebabs

1.2kg boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into bite-sized chunks

Few pinches salt and pepper

2 tbsp smoked sweet paprika

1 tbsp soft brown sugar

4 smoked streaky rashers, roughly chopped

4 tbsp olive oil

Mix the chicken with the salt and pepper and chill for an hour. In a food processor, blend the paprika, sugar, bacon and olive oil to make a thick paste. Add the bacon paste to the chicken and mix really well so it gets well coated. Then skewer the meat (remember to pre-soak the skewers if they are wooden). Leave the skewers to rest for about 30 minutes or so.

Pre-heat an oven to 180 degrees/gas mark four. Bake the chicken for about 10 minutes, then brush with a good bit of the basting sauce and bake for a bit longer until the chicken is just cooked. You can either allow it to cool down at this stage and then take it out of the fridge just before serving, brush with the rest of the sauce and grill or barbecue until it is caramelised and crispy, or else go straight to the final cooking stage once they’ve been cooked through in the oven.

Wine recommendation

Heritage Vineyards Viognier 2010, Laurent Miquel, 13.5% A wine currently selling at half price: usually €15.99 but discounted to €7.99 for the months of May and June. At the latter price, this is a real bargain, full of luscious peach fruits that would certainly stand up well to the smoky barbecued chicken flavours. It is light and fresh enough to drink solo, too. A good all-rounder to buy in for the summer months. Stockist: Tesco

Curried couscous salad

This couldn’t be easier and was very low-fat and light.

Serves four to six

2 tsp mild curry powder

300ml boiling water

200g couscous

Salt and pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

Juice of one orange

50g raisins

1 red onion, peeled and very finely sliced

1 red pepper, finely diced

1 bunch coriander, roughly chopped

1 bunch spring onions, finely sliced

2 tomatoes, finely diced

Mix the curry powder with the boiling water and add the couscous. Give it a bit of a stir and then leave to stand for 10 minutes. Fluff it up with a fork and season with salt and pepper. Add the orange juice and olive oil. Mix, and when it has cooled to room temperature add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well again.

Wine recommendation

Torres Viña Esmeralda 2010, Catalunya, 11.5%, €10.99An old favourite of mine from the ever-reliable house of Torres. This is made from a blend of Moscatel and Gewürztraminer, both aromatic varieties that give it a lovely floral bouquet. On the palate it is light and full of spicy fruit, with an off-dry finish that would make it a perfect partner for the mix of curry and dried fruits. As with the other wines, it will provide great all-round summer drinking too. Stockists: Superquinn; Dunnes Stores; SuperValu; Centra; Next Door Off-licences; O'Brien's; Cheers Take Home; Molloy's Taverns; Big Wine Warehouse; The Corkscrew, Chatham Street; Redmond's, Ranelagh

Strawberry tart

Pastry

250g plain flour

125g butter

30g caster sugar

2 egg yolks

zest of 1 lemon

1 tsp vanilla extract

Pulse the flour, butter and sugar in a food processor until it forms breadcrumbs. Then add the egg yolks, lemon zest and vanilla. Process until it forms a ball of dough. If you have to add a splash of water to get this to happen, go ahead.

Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill it for 30 minutes (or overnight if you fancy).

Roll out the pastry between two big sheets of cling film. Line a 25-centimetre tart tin with pastry, prick the base with a fork and chill for another 20 minutes.

Line the tin with scrunched up baking parchment and fill with dried beans or rice and blind bake at 180 degrees/gas mark four for 20 minutes.

Remove the tart from the oven, carefully remove the beans and paper and then put it back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes or until it is nice and golden brown and dry.

Allow the pastry to cool in the tin and set it aside until you are ready to fill it.

I find it’s easier to fill and decorate the tart when it’s still in the tin (providing it’s one of those tart tins with a removable base). It just keeps everything more stable. You can remove it from the tin and plonk it on a plate or cake stand when you want to serve it.

Crème pâtissière

5 egg yolks

1 vanilla pod

120g caster sugar

50g plain flour

425ml milk

30g butter

250ml crème fraiche

50g icing sugar

To decorate

500g strawberries, hulled

2 tbsp redcurrant jelly

Whisk the egg yolks and the seeds from the vanilla pod along with the sugar until the mixture is pale and thick. Whisk in the flour.

Meanwhile, boil the milk and then slowly pour it onto the egg mixture, whisking all the time. When all the milk has been incorporated, transfer to a non-stick saucepan and keep stirring or whisking and slowly bring to the boil. Simmer gently, while stirring, for a couple of minutes, then remove it from the heat and put into a bowl to cool.

Wipe or rub the surface of the crème pâtissière with the butter so that a film coats the surface, which will help prevent a skin from forming. When it is at room temperature, fold in the crème fraiche, and icing sugar to taste. Fill the tart shell with the crème pâtissière and decorate with strawberries.

For the final touch, warm up some redcurrant jelly with a tablespoon of boiling water and when it is loose enough to coat a pastry brush, carefully glaze the berries. Serve in big wedges.

Wine recommendation

d'Arenberg The Stump Jump Sticky Chardonnay 2008, McLaren Vale/Adelaide Hills, 10.5%, €10.95per half bottle Made from botrytis-affected Chardonnay grapes, this is light and fresh, with tangy, honeyed orange and peach fruits. A gorgeous glass of wine, and a great way to finish off a meal. Stockists: O'Brien's; Superquinn

Prefer cider?

Aspall Crisp Draught Suffolk Cyder, 5.5%, €4.99 for a 500ml bottle. A very tasty light cider with crisp apple fruits and a lip-smacking finish. Great summer drinking with or without food. Stockists: Widely available from specialist off-licences