Queens B'day Lunch: Chorizo and Butter Bean Salad

Before I get started you should know I have a new kitten. There will probably be an increase in typos (she likes walking all over the keyboard) and I will probably change this from a food blog to a kitten blog. Just a heads up.

Anyway, over the long weekend the girls and I decided to have a lunch in honour of the Queen; really just an excuse for us to stuff our faces and drink Pimm's. We do this a bit and it's lots of fun to get together, have a few drinks, eat yummy food and act like fools (as per usual). Last time it was American themed and we were all left in food comas after coca-cola ribs, pumpkin pie and cornbread.

This time Sarah was the only one who stayed on theme with her jam and cream scones, whereas I went to Spain and cooked a chorizo and butter bean salad and Allie went to France with her scalloped potato gratin. Ah well.

Making the salad is easy, I literally went to the supermarket on the way to Alice's and made it when I got there in about 10 minutes. 

• 3 cans Butter Beans, drained
• 2 punnets of cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 bunch flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Toss all ingredients together on a platter (easy so far huh?)

Now for the dressing:

• 1 garlic clove 
• 1 Tbsp sherry or red wine vinegar
• juice of half a lemon
• 4 Tbsp olive oil
• sea salt and black pepper

Grind the garlic, salt and pepper in a mortar and pestle, add in the remaining ingredients and whisk with a fork. Pour over the salad and give it a good mix.

Next slice up 400 grams of chorizo (use the good quality soft stuff that needs to be cooked) and fry it quickly in a hot pan until its crispy. Throw the chorizo on top of the salad and it's done! 

Alice doesn't share the same passion for cooking so she is in charge of 'joy'- if anyone has seen the Friends episode where Phoebe is in charge of cups and ice you'll get my drift. At Christmas it was Santa hats and Justin Bieber's Christmas album, for the American theme it was red cups and cowboy hats and Queen's Birthday entailed crowns, gloves and paper doilies. 

I realise we look like idiots.

Gloves, crowns and the fact that we have all completely now lost our dignity aside, Sarah's scones and brownies were to die for and far more appropriate than our other dishes. 

We finished off with some blooming tea from Pratty's (and a few more glasses of Pimm's).

After putting all of these photos up I think that maybe starting a kitten blog isn't such a bad idea.