SUMMER VEGETABLE PLATTER

By akselden

Ingredients

• Choose a selection of the following:
• asparagus, French beans, samphire, French breakfast radishes, young broad beans, cauliflower, Jersey Royal potatoes, small-to-medium globe artichokes, quails' or hens' eggs
• For the anchovy-and caper mayonnaise
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon white-wine vinegar
• 150 ml each mild extra-virgin olive oil
• and sunflower oil, mixed
• 1 tablespoon capers, rinsed of salt
• or brine
• 2 tablespoons chopped,fresh parsley
• 30 g tinned anchovies, drained and chopped
• Salt and white pepper
• lemon juice
• For the black-olive vinaigrette
• 50 g black olives. stoned
• 1 tablespoon white-wine vinegar
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped, flat-leaf parsley

Preparation

Step 1

1 To make the mayonnaise, mix the egg yolks with the mustard and half of the vinegar in a bowl. Beating all the time with a wooden spoon or whisk start adding the oil very slowly, drop by drop. Wait until each drop of oil is well amalgamated and the mixture has thickened before adding more.
2 When you have a thick cream, add the rest of the vinegar, plus the capers, parsley and anchovies. Mix this all together; add salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste.
3 If you plan to keep the mayonnaise until the next day, add a tablespoon of warm water at the end. Cover and refrigerate.
5 Trim the artichokes and boil in acidulated, lightly salted water for about 45 minutes. (To test when they are tender, pull off an artichoke leaf ~ it should come away easily.) Drain upside down. When the artichokes are cool enough to handle, open them gently at the top and pull out the central cluster of leaves. Scrape out and discard the fibrous choke.
6 Pod the beans, cook them in slightly salted, boiling water. Once cool, slip the skin off each bean, season and add a squeeze of Lemon and a drizzle of olive oil.
7 If using radishes, wash them and serve with their leaves still attached (provided the green is .nice and fresh). Samphire can also be eaten raw simply wash it, drain and pick it over, removing any slimy threads. Dry well on absorbent paper.
8 I prefer the rest of the vegetables served slightly warm, but you can prepare them ahead if you want to. Cook the potatoes in their skins, trim and cook the asparagus until al dente, top the French beans and boil them, but make sure they remain crisp.4 To make the black-olive vinaigrette, chop the olives and mix with all the other ingredients. I prefer not to use raw cauliflower, but it should still have plenty of bite - break the head into florets and cook them in boiling, salted water until just softening.
9 If possible, cook the eggs at the last minute - warm eggs are delicious with vinaigrette or mayonnaise. Quails' eggs take 4 minutes to hard-boil; large hens eggs take 10 minutes - they should be just set (if overcooked, a nasty Grey line appears round the yolk). If you use quails' eggs, it's nice to peel some and leave others in their shells. Hens' eggs look attractive halved.
10 Brush everything on the platter - except the eggs - with a little olive oil to give it a sheen.