Piperade…or what to cook when the shops are shut

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Louise

I know it might seem frivolous to write about food when London’s burning but, well, since I am scared out of my life by the proximity and madness of current events, I am focusing on what I can do to try and block out what I can’t. And it is already affecting food shopping and normal behaviour. It’s eerie to take your route home and see that all the shops and bars are shut. Only one was open last night, the Turkish greengrocer, and there was a massive queue in it as locals stocked up. It suddenly struck me how dependent on all-hours shopping I am; I have practically nothing left in my fridge after ten days of clearing out but, until tonight, I felt no sense of panic because I live around the corner from 24-hour shops. However, this evening even Tesco’s didn’t dare open. The shutters were down, the cashpoint closed. Continue reading →

Posted in Egg recipes, Fast food fixes, Ideas for leftovers, One pot, Wheat-free | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Salbitxada…or tomato and almond pesto by another name

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Louise

Is this easy? Yes. Delicious? Absolutely. Unpronounceable. Without a doubt. But I would just concern myself with the first two; you need to know what it tastes like not what it sounds like. Salbitxada comes from the Valls area of Catalunya and it is traditionally served as part of something called the calçotada, a feast of grilled spring onions (known as calçots) eaten whole and served with this sauce. I discovered it in Culinaria Espana, which was the first cookery book I ever worked on, a great lump of a coffee table book full of wonderful recipes like this and snippets of information such as that on the last Sunday in January, the high point of the calçotada, residents and tourists manage to stuff about 3 kilos of these green onions into their mouths in, erm, 45 minutes.

I think this is one of those recipes that is going to change my life, at least my cooking life. It is a pesto that is much more accessible year-round than the classic alla genovese, mainly because it is very store-cupboard-friendly, since it doesn’t require half a ton of some relatively delicate leaf and it seems so versatile. Continue reading →

Posted in Culinaria Espana, Fast food fixes, Gluten-free, Ideas for leftovers, One pot, Pasta and gnocchi recipes, Salsa and sauce recipes, The Cook Shelf, Wheat-free | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Friday tapas: homegrown courgette gratin, tortilla and salbitxada

Posted on August 5, 2011 by Louise

In the Evening Standard last night there was one of those empty-headed ‘filler’ pieces that said that Rafael Nadal is one of the reasons why we’re buying more Spanish wine in the UK. There was no hard evidence that the tennis star was behind Rioja sales, just lots of shoving together of pundits’ opinions (some wine experts I grant you) and a few events. Perhaps, though, it’s more to do with the ability of the British to detect quality at a good price at last; I’ve been annoying my friends for years with the opinion that if you buy wine in a supermarket, and hover around the £5-£6 mark, you will be more likely to find something immediately drinkable from Spain, Latin America or Portugal than anywhere else. I have an aversion to cheap Antipodean wine (the good stuff is out of my price range) and, despite being a Francophile, I have rarely found a supermarket wine from France that is affordable and drinkable whereas, since sticking to my Iberian/Latin American theory, I have rarely found a wine that isn’t.

So today, to go with the £4.75 Rioja from Waitrose (down from £7.15) I bought the other day, and to toast my friend’s beautiful homegrown courgette that she gave me, I have been making tapas. A tortilla (to use up the rest of the eggs), courgette, feta and basil mini-gratins (to use up cream, feta and the perfect round courgette you see above) and calçots with salbitxada. But you’ll have to wait until next week for an explanation of those strange Catalan words; I have a Rioja to drink… Continue reading →

Posted in Cheese recipes, Fast food fixes, Green veg recipes, Ideas for leftovers, Spring vegetable recipes, Summer recipes, Vegetarian recipes, Wheat-free | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Lamb burgers with lime leaves

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Louise

The burger can be much-maligned but, what with Obama being a bit of fan, especially after the week he’s just had, and the advent of such delights as Young and Foodish’s BurgerMonday (and Tuesday), it seems to me that its joys are being wrested away from chains and restored to chefs. And I am in good company. I decided to write about Mr Gordon’s Thai-inspired lamb burgers today, and over at the Guardian Ms Angela Hartnett has been making something very similar. Lovely on a summer evening, whether cooked outside on the barbecue (yesterday) or indoors in a frying pan (today).

The recipe below is the one I made, adapted from Peter Gordon’s in here, but, if I was you, I’d tweak it. My burgers completely collapsed which is very odd since they contain two binding agents. And I don’t think you need them: Ms Hartnett’s don’t have any and nor did the ones I made back in June. That’s what I’m trying next time because, even in bits, these are really delicious. Apologies for the odd amounts in the ingredients; the original recipe makes ten so I had to remember my fractions…

For two you will need:
Cupboard (or things you may already have)
olive oil, a dash for frying (not necessary if you are cooking them on the barby)
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
garlic, 1 clove
1 egg, (you will need about half of one, but see my proviso above)

Shopping list
cornflour, 20g (but again see my proviso above)
red onion, ¼
minced lamb, 300g
lime leaves, 3
small red chilli, either fresh or dried
Thai fish sauce, 1 teaspoon
a little Greek yogurt, pitta breads and fresh coriander (to serve)

How to
1. Beat the egg and then put half of it with the lime leaves and fish sauce into a blender. Blend until the leaves have broken down then sieve to remove any stringy bits (the centre of the leaf is pretty indigestible).
2. Peel and finely chop the onion quarter and the garlic, chop the red chilli and mix with the meat, the egg and lime leaf mixture, the cornflour and a little salt and pepper.
3. Shape the meat mixture into burgers then chill until required (I think the longer the better).
4. When you want to cook them, heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and fry over a medium heat until done.
5. Serve with some Greek yogurt, pitta breads and some fresh coriander.

Posted in Chefs, Cook at home with Peter Gordon, Cookery writers, Fast food fixes, Ideas for leftovers, Lamb recipes, One pot, Peter Gordon, Peter Gordon, Summer recipes, The Cook Shelf | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cauliflower (or broccoli) with bagna cauda and chilli

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Louise

Yes, yes I know, two posts about cauliflower in a week is too much for anyone. But it’s staring at me from the fridge, it needs eating and, having thrown a rather ridiculously large piece of watermelon away I’m loath to chuck anything else. And what’s more I’m learning to love this usually uninspiring brassica. If you treat it like broccoli, which lends itself to all sorts of flavours such as chilli, garlic and anchovy, rather than as just a backdrop for melted cheese then it is radically transformed. Broccoli is gorgeous served with the Italian sauce bagna cauda so why not try its white sibling with the same thing? Reader, it worked; in fact I think it was just as good as the broccoli version. Pale but interesting… Continue reading →

Posted in Fast food fixes, Green veg recipes, Ideas for leftovers, Pasta and gnocchi recipes, Salsa and sauce recipes | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Plum tomato, mint and caper salad

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Louise

I started my leftover-defrost-declutter process at the weekend not with a recipe but with a rather wasteful trashing of the large, by-now-unhappy-looking, piece of watermelon. So that salad idea was out. Then I made Bill Granger’s honey and garlic chicken again (lovely, but I think set honey works better than runny; the runny stuff seems to burn) and, finally it was onto the veg.

Now plum tomatoes aren’t necessarily something that need much dressing up; I always think of them as perfect additions to a meal or a sandwich rather than an ingredient with which to cook. But, being so full of flavour and juice already they do make incredible, and quick, salads too. And, on a day like today, when London is melting, the speed of this one inspired by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is very welcome. If you wanted more than just salad and bread, you could bulk this up with some feta or black olives but then you might as well make a Greek salad and have done with it.

For two you will need:
Cupboard (or things you may already have)
olive oil, 1-2 tablespoons
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
granulated sugar, a small pinch

Shopping list
plum tomatoes, 250g
small red onion, ¼-½
fresh mint leaves, a handful
½ lemon
capers in brine, 1 tablespoon
some good bread or pitta breads, to serve

How to
1. Zest the lemon (save the zest to use in something else or mix it in with the dressing) then halve and juice one half.
2. Mix the lemon juice with the oil, a little sugar and some salt and pepper.
3. Peel and finely chop the ¼-½ red onion, rinse the mint and the capers and put them all in a bowl.
4. Halve the plum tomatoes and add to the bowl with the mint, capers and onion. Stir to mix together, tip over the dressing, season and serve with some bread.

Posted in Cookery writers, Fast food fixes, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Random bits that don't belong in a category..., RIver Cottage Everyday, Salad recipes, Summer recipes, The Cook Shelf, Vegetarian recipes, Wheat-free | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Gazpacho days

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Louise

Sod the leftovers and the defrosting. Today is going to be one of the hottest days of the year and it is therefore one of the very few worthy of gazpacho. I love this stuff, and not because I’m a Hispanophile; I first ate it on a West Walian beach after an ill-advised dip in the Irish sea and it has been my favourite soup ever since. It was one of the first things I ate that really woke me up to how good food could be simple and cheap as well as faffy and expensive. You don’t need to be on a beach to enjoy this, though it helps, but you definitely need to be in the sunshine. Cold days and cold soup are not good companions. Continue reading →

Posted in Fast food fixes, One pot, Spring vegetable recipes, Summer recipes, Vegetarian recipes | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Three-month fridge defrost and a Riverford broad bean, feta and mint salad

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Louise

I have banned myself from food shopping this weekend since I still have a ton of ingredients to use up from last week’s ill-advised farmers’ market run. And, as I can no longer see into the ice-box of my fridge, I think I need to defrost that too. Which means I need to cook the following:  some fresh broad beans and peas, two sweet potatoes, new potatoes, half an enormous cauliflower, a punnet of plum tomatoes, a small aubergine and the remnants of a rather sad-looking spring cabbage. In the freezer I think I have some chicken legs, lamb shoulder, lime leaves and red Thai chillis though I can’t know that until I defrost it. There’s also lemons, some Parmesan, some gnocchi, a Tupperware box of homemade breadcrumbs, a couple of pitta breads, farmers’ market streaky bacon and a round courgette from a friend’s garden. Oh and another friend brought round an enormous piece of watermelon the other day. Continue reading →

Posted in Everyday and Sunday, Fast food fixes, Green veg recipes, Salad recipes, Spring vegetable recipes, Summer recipes, The Cook Shelf, Vegetarian recipes, Wheat-free | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Method-smuggling and Moro saffron cauliflower

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Louise

What are your pet hates in recipes? Mine include too many ingredients, too many bits of kitchen equipment used unnecessarily and method-smuggling. And no, that’s nothing to do with buying lots of very attractively packaged cleaning products and taking them through customs; I mean that practice of hiding some of the actual process of making the recipe in the list of ingredients so that it messes with your timing. To me the list of ingredients is my shopping list, not part of the ‘how to’ and I resent getting halfway through the method to discover that I should have toasted or soaked something a few hours or even minutes earlier. Which is what happened tonight when I decided to do something with the rather monstrously large cauliflower I bought at the farmers’ market. Continue reading →

Posted in Moro, One pot, Spring vegetable recipes, Summer recipes, The Cook Shelf, Vegetarian recipes, Wheat-free | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Peter Gordon’s broad bean, bacon, chilli and tahini salad/sandwich

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Louise

Sound odd? Yes, I thought so at first but, well, broad beans and bacon are natural frying-pan fellows, chillis are always good with green veg and tahini is one of those things that I always mean to break out of its hummus rut. And this is a Peter Gordon recipe and, as the book I have just bought tells me, he is not a man scared to put flavours together. I was inspired to make this because I rather overbought vegetables at the farmers’ market at the weekend. Obviously feeling in need of a vitamin boost after my bout of sickness and exhaustion, I threw my usual 2-shelf-fridge-only-buy-a-couple-of-veg-at-a-time-or-it-will-rot caution to the wind and ended up with, erm, broad beans and peas, cauliflower, radishes, new potatoes, plum tomatoes and sweet potatoes. I already had some aubergine and half a spring cabbage lurking at home. So for the rest of this week, instead of defrosting the icebox full of bits of chicken and lamb, I am going all vegetarian on you, in an attempt to use some of it up. Well, almost vegetarian. Bacon doesn’t count does it? Continue reading →

Posted in Cook at home with Peter Gordon, Green veg recipes, One pot, Peter Gordon, Salad recipes, Spring vegetable recipes, Summer recipes | Tagged , , | Leave a comment