Bean salad

Our younger son James celebrated his 21st birthday at the weekend. We discussed the various options with him before the big event - what sort of a party did he want, what venue, what gifts?

He seemed more interested in receiving gifts of lasting appeal that having a grand function. He opted for an afternoon barbecue at home with his local friends - mainly his cricket team as he spends most of the year at university in another city.

When you've got around 20 growing lads arriving for a meal, a barbecue is a pretty good option and is easy on the chef.

It took us all of five minutes to choose the menu and draw up the shopping list.

No poncey zucchini kebabs or miniature sausages. Real meat for real men - steaks and sausages and meat patties. That was pretty easy. Bean salad, potato salad and, just to make sure there was something healthy on offer, a tossed green salad. And those other essentials - buttered white bread and tomato sauce. And no dessert - not with beer.

The local butcher's shop was positively jumping when I arrived. The warm weather had brought everyone out for barbecue fare and the lads behind the counter had a grand display of the right stuff. Steak and onion patties, Moroccan lamb patties, steak in a barbecue marinade, venison steak in red wine marinade, ordinary sausages, venison sausages.

The butcher correctly guessed an I was expecting an invasion of young men. He also gallantly offered to carry my purchases to the car. I gratefully accepted, too.

James was put in charge of the drinks department and how pleased I was we'd just bought a huge new refrigerator and consigned the other one to the garage. He soon had it full of beer, juice, Coke and other soft drinks. The most labour intensive part of the whole party was peeling the potatoes and making the salads.

While you can buy bean salad, it is very easy to make your own. I get bulk dried beans from the supermarket. They're cheap and they double in bulk so you get a lot of salad for a small outlay.

Bean Salad

3 cups dried beans
water
salt
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons wholegrain mustard
1 cup finely chopped parsley
2 handfuls of fresh purple or green basil
2 medium red onions

Place the beans in a large container, fill to the top with water and leave the beans to soak overnight.

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