Pic-nic Challenge - Its British Pic-nic Week 17th - 23rd June 2013

In honour of British Pic-nic Week (17th-23rd June 2013) Unilever Kitchen have issued a challenge to come up with a fantastic pic-nic item using one or all of the products they sent to us. The products came wrapped in the most fantastic pic-nic basket with all the plates, cutlery etc needed to go for an amazing meal al fresco.

We were asked to make a fantastic pic-nic food using one or more of the products enclosed.  I decided to make a couple of things and dips to match for a real backyard pic-nic with the grandsons when they visited over the weekend.

For the oven baked crispy chicken goujons I crumbled a Knorr chicken stock cube up and mixed it with a little olive oil to make a paste.  I smeared the chicken goujons with the stock cube paste then I dipped the chicken goujons into flour then beaten egg and then seasoned breadcrumbs. Baked in the oven on a piece of stoneware they cooked evenly in about 12-15 minutes at 190oF.

 

 

For the dip I mixed Maille au Miel (Dijon mustard with honey) with an equal amount of Greek yoghurt.  This makes a lovely creamy dip with a honey tang and goes really well with the chicken goujons.

I also made a satay style dip as an alternative my mixing peanut butter with Hellman's Mayonnaise and Colman's Sweet Chilli and Mango Sauce.

I decided to make a boiled egg sandwich with a difference! First of all the bread for the sandwich.  I made a 1lb loaf of wholegrain Beer Bread from My Secret Kitchen.  Although it is called Beer Bread you don't need to use beer, any fizzy drink will do and I used lemonade in mine. When the bread was cool I cut off the top horizontally and take out some of the insides (save these to make crutons for a salad).  I lined the bread with lettuce and spread some Flora Buttery on the top piece.

I was given some goose eggs recently which I hardboiled (along with 6 hens eggs) to use in my egg sandwich. 

I peeled the cooked egg, sliced them in half and took out the yolks.  To the yolks I added some Colman's English Mustard and Hellman's Mayo, some paprika and salt and pepper.  I refilled the hollow in the boiled eggs and placed the two halves together again.

Carefully place the egg into the lettuce lined bread, top with sliced tomatoes or cucumber - optional, and put the lid back on. This is then an easy to wrap sandwich which can be cut up or sliced when you get to your dining destination.

The hens eggs I hard boiled also had the yolks taken out, mixed with mayo and mustard and seasonings and served them in their halves (we always called the deviled eggs when I was growing up). (Note the radishes from the allotment!)

No pic-nic would be complete without quiche and armed with some ready to roll shortcrust pastry I made a couple of small quiches.  The quiches contained onions, celery, bacon, eggs, mayonnaise with dijon mustard and some milk.

To finish up our feast we had a lemon drizzle cake which used Flora Buttery instead of butter.

So to sum up my pic-nic take one pic-nic basket, one red blanket and one backyard.  Add two grandsons, some sunshine, a little white dog who wouldn't sit still for a photo, a Unilever challenge and some sumptious food and ENJOY!!

The dog eventually had a photo taken but note there is no Unilever Kitchen products in his dinner!!

Thanks Unilever Kitchen for your #PicnicChallenge!!