Last Chance To Try These Summer Dishes!

How on earth is it almost September?! When did that happen?! It only seems like five minutes ago that the kids were breaking up from school and there were six weeks of sunshine dreams ahead of us. Yet, now, it’s almost autumn?!

And there were so many things we planned to do with the summer! We were going to win the World Cup; we were going to go to at least one barbecue per week; we were going to clear out the garage and paint the fence and re-turf the lawn. And what have we done instead? Watch football, sit around, and lament the fact that Love Island is over. Oops.

via GIPHY

But do you know what there is still just enough time to do? Taste the summer, that’s what. Some summer ingredients might be nearing the end of their season, but there’s still a chance to use them in recipes for the time being.

From fresh summer strawberries and fiery samphire, and those all-important end-of-the-summer barbecue dishes, here’s a few ideas to help you see out the summer in style:

How many barbecues did you end up having this summer? Whatever the answer, it can never be enough, so try to squeeze in at least one more before autumn arrives, and make sure you serve up this barbecue steak and onion skewers from Proper Foodie, which we’re pretty sure are the ultimate barbecue skewer.

With thick, juicy chunks of chargrilled meat and generous slices of red onion to sink your teeth into, barbecue food really doesn’t get much better than this. Fact.

Samphire has a rather salty taste, and a crisp texture when cooked – not cheese and onion Seabrook crisp-like, but more fresh asparagus crisp-like. Its natural saltiness means that it goes perfectly with fish, and serving it alongside a beautiful piece of Dover sole would be a wonderful way to celebrate the end of summer produce.

Chica Andaluza has a gorgeous recipe for Dover sole served with scallops and prawns (because you can never have too much seafood) and fresh samphire, which makes for a truly stunning meal. This would be the perfect dish to serve for a special birthday dinner or on a romantic night-in, as you woo them with samphire. Just don’t cause any confusion between samphire and sapphire on date night – it’s important to manage expectations.

Fennel is another beautifully fresh summer ingredient, and it makes for a lovely, light accompaniment to a meat or fish dish, particularly in this fennel gratin from End of the Fork.

The addition of fresh fennel balances out the slightly heavier rich double cream and parmesan that combine to make this a brilliantly cheesy, creamy side dish that’s perfect for this time of year when we’re steadily transitioning from summer to autumn.

A strawberry cake is quite possibly the most summery type of dessert we can think of, and this amazing strawberry mousse cake from The Caked Crusader makes for an excellent quintessential British summertime cake.

It features a vanilla sponge cake base topped with a homemade strawberry mousse made from fresh strawbs, which you could blitz up in your Tefal Blender, and finished off with a wibbly-wobbly strawberry jelly topping. It’s basically like the grown-up version of jelly and ice cream, and what could be more exciting than that?

Blueberries are another beautiful summertime fruit, and they’re the absolute business teamed with lemon in a sweet treat.

We love this sticky blueberry lemon cake from Scrummy Lane, which includes whole fresh blueberries and actual lemon curd in the cake batter, which bake together to create a sensationally gooey fruity summer bake – why does the season have to end?

We couldn’t let British strawberry season pass without another strawberry-themed bake, and we feel that these strawberry and white chocolate blondies by The Desserted Girl are an excellent choice. Side note: how many times is too many times to say ‘strawberry’ in a single sentence?

Now we’re also wondering whether blondies are for summer and brownies are for winter, but surely brownies are for life, so we’re confused. What do you reckon?