More Amazing Salads

I have always been looking for a good salad recipe to use up left over chicken. This Thai Chicken, Coconut and Coriander Salad with Crispy Shallots is the best one I have found yet. If you don’t have any left over chicken, poach the chicken in the dressing as in the recipe., Coconut and Coriander Salad with Crispy Shallots

Thai Chicken, Coconut and Coriander Salad
1 x 400ml can coconut milk
Fresh or frozen lime leaves
2 Thai birds eye chillis, lightly bashed
Small bunch coriander
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon palm sugar, or brown sugar
2 chicken breasts, trimmed
40g toasted coconut chips (try Ocado)
½ a cucumber
3 carrots, peeled
1 red pepper, cut into very thin rings
1 lime
3 shallots, peeled
Sunflower oil
Sea salt

Place the coconut milk, fish sauce, the stalks of the coriander (saving the leaves for the salad), the chillis, the sugar, a teaspoon of salt and the lime leaves in a saucepan. Add the chicken breast and bring to the boil. Gently simmer to poach the chicken for 12–15 minutes or until cooked through. Remove chicken from the pan and rest. Turn up the heat on coconut milk and reduce until a few tablespoons remain. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Strain and add the juice of the lime. Taste and adjust seasoning. It should be fragrant, spicy, sour and sweet.

Meanwhile, shave the cucumber and carrots, leaving just the cores, with a peeler. Put in a large bowl with the coconut chips, the red pepper and coriander leaves. When cool enough to handle, shred the chicken.

Slice the shallots as thinly as possible. You can use a mandolin or food processor. Place in a small saucepan and just cover with oil. Over a high heat, stir the shallots frequently until they are golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain well on kitchen paper. Spread out thinly and allow to cook. Lightly season with salt and fluff up so that the shallots go crispy.

Celery Salad with Dates, Almonds, and Parmesan

When you get to my age and you have been cooking as long as I have, it is really hard to find recipes that are fresh, exciting or different but this simple celery salad is really exciting. I’m not even that keen on fruit or nuts in savoury dishes but the celery, lemon and the chilli really balance out the sweetness. It made a very tasty lunch!

Celery Salad with Dates, Almonds, and Parmesan
Serves 2
½ cup/large handful raw almonds with skins8 celery stalks, thinly sliced on a diagonal, use leaves too
6 dates, pitted, coarsely chopped
Zest of one lemon plus 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Chunk of Parmesan, shaved
4 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
Very small pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

Toss almonds, celery, celery leaves, lemon zest and dates in a medium bowl; season with salt and pepper. Mix the lemon juice and olive oil together well. Add a small pinch of chilli flakes and mix through the salad. Serve with shavings of parmesan.Add the chicken to the bowl with the vegetables and then dress with the dressing (you may not need all of it.) Pile onto plates and top with the crispy shallots.

Warm Salad of Avocado, Baby Spinach and Bacon, Poached Egg

Salad Tiede was all the rage about 10 years ago. Literally translated as “warm salad” it is one of those culinary terms which just sound so much more exciting in French than it does in English. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have to taste exciting. Super quick and simple it relies on really great ingredients to transform it into something really special, so use the best bacon, avocados and eggs that you can find.

Warm Salad of Avocado, Baby Spinach and Bacon, Poached Egg
Serves 2
8 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, cut into lardons
2 organic, free-range eggs
Large handful or two of baby spinach leaves
2 ripe avocadoes, cut into large chunks
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Splash white wine vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

Put a small pan of water onto boil. Fry the bacon in a little olive oil until really golden and crispy in a heavy bottomed frying pan. Remove the pan from the heat from the heat. Put the spinach leaves into a large bowl with the avocado chunks. Add the red wine vinegar to the pan with the bacon and allow to bubble away. Add a dash of white wine vinegar to the pan of boiling water, turn down the heat and carefully crack in the eggs. Poach until the whites have totally cooked but the yolks are still runny. Remove with a slotted spoon onto some kitchen paper to drain. Stir the mustard into the pan with the bacon. I should have cooled a bit by now. You want the mustard to amalgamate with the bacon fat and the vinegar, not cook. Season and pour the bacon and dressing over the spinach and avocado. Toss well and tip into bowls. Top with the eggs and a good grind of black pepper. Serve straight away.

Nutty Super-food Salad

It is so much easier to eat healthily in the Summer I find. I actually crave salad, whereas in the Winter I crave stodge. Occasionally I pick up lunch on my way home from work, before I pick up the kids. Unfortunately, in my line of work, your job is to cook other people lunch, not cook or eat your own! Marks and Spencer is probably best for ready-made salads. Although I know that Waitrose also do quite and extensive range. Most of the ones I have tried, may sound nice, but are usually disgusting. They always seem to try just a bit too hard, chucking in any combination of trendy ingredients – black quinoa seeds, Camargue red rice, cranberries, amaranth leaf, black barley -  and the dressings are always really nasty – too much Japanese rice vinegar and Yuzu!. 

The other day I bought a selection of two different salads, both which unannounced contained seaweed!  Surely if you are going to add seaweed to your salad, you would mention it in the name, not just hidden in a long list of ingredients which are far too small to read with human eyes. Well my eyes anyway. I couldn’t work out what this slimy, sort "off-fishy" taste was in my salad. Narrowed it down to the Wakame which was eventually mentioned in the list of 30 ingredients, now that I had been forced to put my reading glasses on. I even like seaweed, on say nori rolls, where it is meant to be, but this was disgusting and both pots of salad ended up in the bin. 

However, I am pleased to say, after much trial and error, I finally found a ready-made salad that I really liked. Marks and Spencer Nutty Superfood Salad. Featuring green beans, peas, broccoli, carrots, black-eyed beans and quinoa plus peanuts, almonds and pistachios, it is absolutely packed with delicious ingredients. It comes two ways, either on its own or served alongside a dollop of cannellini bean hummus and with a soy and ginger dressing. 

It may seem like a lot of ingredients, but it is super easy. Make up a large batch and dress it as required. What is so fab about making it yourself, is you don’t have to skimp on your favourite expensive ingredients, which inevitably the supermarkets always do!

Nutty Super-food Salad

To serve 4

2 Broccoli florets, shredded

1 Handful of peas

100g French beans, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 large carrot, finely chopped

100g spelt (wheatberries, barley or farro) you can buy ready cooked

100g soya beans

200g cooked black eye beans (or another type of bean – haricot, cannallini)

50g quinoa (You can buy ready cooked)

1 tsp. poppy seeds

1 handful pumpkin seeds

1 handful peanuts

1 handful pistachios

1 handful almonds

A little freshly chopped coriander

For the dressing, mix together:

2 tbsp. soy

1 tsp grated ginger

1 tsp sesame

1 tsp honey

Juice ½ lime

½ tsp. chilli paste

Put three pans of water on to boil. In the first add the quinoa. Cook 12-15 minutes until all the quinoa has gone squiggly. Drain well. In the second add the farro, cook for 20-30 minutes until tender. Drain well. In the third pan, add a pinch of salt and then the green beans. When cooked, add the shredded broccoli, bring back to the boil and add the peas and soya beans. Bring back to the boil and drain. Drain well.

Combine the salad ingredients.

Mix the dressing ingredients together and drizzle over each portion or alternatively, toss through the entire lot in a large bowl.

Elderflower & Gooseberries

Nothing says summer to me like Elderflowers and Gooseberries and it has been a bumper year for both. Elderflower Cordial was one of the first posts I ever wrote over 4 years ago now. Now my cordial is bottled and the plumpest of the Gooseberries are harvested and  I was thinking up ways of combining the two.

To me gooseberries need cream. I remembered one of my favourite recipes from The River Cafe for a Panna Cotta with Grappa which was so delicious and the texture so amazing, that I will never forget it. Just the smell when I was making it of the cream infusing with the lemon and the vanilla, instantly transported me back 20 years. Unfortunately it is so Grappa rich that I didn't think it would be suitable for the kids so I decided to replace the Grappa with my homemade Elderflower Cordial and serve it with some stewed Gooseberries on the side. If you have no kids add some Grappa!

 

Elderflower Panna Cotta with Stewed Gooseberries
Serves 6
1.2 litres/2 pints double cream
2 vanilla pods
thinly pared rind of 2 lemons
4 small gelatine leaves
150ml/5fl oz cold milk
150g/5oz icing sugar
120ml/4fl oz elderflower cordial
3 cups gooseberries, topped and tailed
3 tbsp. sugar
 
Pour 900ml (11/2 pints) of the cream into a pan, add the vanilla pods and lemon rind, bring to the boil, then simmer until reduced by one-third. Remove the cooked lemon rind and keep to one side. Remove the vanilla pods and scrape the softened insides into the cream.
Soak the gelatine in the milk for about 15 minutes or until soft. Remove the gelatine, heat the milk until boiling, then return the gelatine to the milk and stir until dissolved. Pour the milk and gelatine mixture into the hot cream through a sieve, stir, then leave to cool.
Lightly whip the remaining cream with the icing sugar, fold into the cooled cooked cream, then add the grappa. Place a piece of cooked lemon rind in each of six small 200ml (7fl oz) moulds or bowls, pour in the cream mixture and allow to set in the fridge for at least two hours. 

Meanwhile put the gooseberries in a heavy based saucepan with the sugar and 3 tablespoons of water and cook gently until the gooseberries collapse. taste and add more sugar to taste. Allow to cool. Turn the Panna Cottas out onto dessert plates and serve with the stewed gooseberry.

Making Time!

Sorry I have been away a while from my blog. Sometimes life just gets in the way!  And once you get out of the habit of making time for something, you very quickly fill it with something else.

Everyone said that if I took on an allotment, that everything else would suffer, but after 5 years of waiting on the councils waiting list I could hardly turn it down. I was convinced that my growing vegetables would purely enhance my cooking and blogging, and my life would become one unified harmony of sewing seeds, reaping and harvesting; at one with nature and the seasons, creating new recipes with wonderful fresh vegetables, cultivated entirely by my me. 

In reality it had been an all consuming, totally absorbing, battle against nature. Too much rain and the lack of sun, then too much sun and not enough rain along with the catastrophic damage caused by slugs and pigeons and finally the ever ongoing, ever growing trauma of weeds, weeds and more weeds. 

But I am proud to say, considering what I inherited three months ago, which was nothing much more that a patch of land, covered in grass and waste high in weeds.....

..... with a little help from my family, but it has to be said - not a lot (but thank you Hughie for putting up my shed) ...

 ... I finally managed to plant something and ....

.... would you believe it, I have actually managed to grow something ....

...in fact a few things ..... masses of courgettes.

So here are some courgette recipes - the first is for the tiny baby courgettes - deep-fried whole in a light, crispy batter and delicious with a Anchovy and Rosemary Sauce. The second recipe is for when the courgettes are just a little bigger but still have the flowers attached (although it is perfectly delicious just with the courgettes). I have to admit that in the past I have always found courgette risotto a little bland but with the addition of a little tarragon and some lemon zest this version really comes alive and is transformed into something really tasty. Finally, something for when the courgettes grow slightly larger- a Tagine, which I came up with for my last cookery lesson, which had a Middle Eastern theme. Once again I was faced with the challenge of trying to make a rather bland vegetable sing and I think that this Tagine really does work.

So there you go - three "Recipes from the Allotment" to make up for my leave of absence and I promise to follow with many more, as I anticipate my next glut - will it be tomatoes, chard, cucumbers, potatoes or spinach? Depends on the weather... and the slugs and the pigeons..only time will tell!

Risotto with Zucchini and Zucchini Flowers
adapted from The River Cafe cook book
(Serves 4)
8 small young zucchini with flowers
2L chicken stock or 4 Kello stock cubes dissolved in 2 liters of hot water
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
100g butter at room temperature
1 medium onion, peeled and very finely chopped
200g risotto rice
200ml extra dry white vermouth or white wine
100g parmesan freshly grated
Fresh Tarragon

Zest of one Lemon

Prepare the flowers by removing the stamens and sepals. Tear each flower vertically into 4 strands. Brush to get rid of any dust or insects but do not wash. Slice the zucchini into fine discs. Heat the chicken stock and check for seasoning.  Melt half of the butter in a large heavy bottom pan and gently fry the onion until soft about 10 minutes. Add the rice and stir until the rice becomes totally coated. Cook for a minute or two before adding the wine. Stirring all the time, wait first for the wine to be absorbed before adding 2 or so ladlesful of hot stock or just enough to cover the rice and simmer, stirring until the rice has absorbed nearly all the liquid. Continue to add more stock as the previous addition is absorbed, stirring all the time. After about 15 minutes add the zucchini slices along with the last two or three ladlefuls of stock.
The zucchini should have a little bite and the rice should be chewy but not floury.  Remove from the heat. Finally add the flowers, the tarragon, the lemon zest, the rest of the butter and the Parmesan   Cover and leave for a few minutes. Finally give the whole risotto one last stir and serve.

Deep Fried Zucchini Flowers

adapted from The River Café “Classic Italian” Cook Book

Makes 12

12 baby zucchini with flowers attatched
½ cup Tipo 00 flour – or plain flour will do
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Warm water
1 egg white
½ teaspoon sea salt

3 cups sunflower oil for frying

Mix flour and salt in a medium sized bowl. Add oil and enough water to make a thick paste.
Loosen paste with warm water until the mixture has the consistency of very thick cream. Let batter sit for 30 minutes. Beat egg white until it holds stiff peaks. Gently fold into flour batter.

Heat sunflower oil in a large deep frying pan. Use a cooking thermometer to heat oil to 180C
Brush any insects from the flowers and remove the stamen and sepal from inside the flower. Cut the courgettes through lengthways until near the flower but not too close so that the courgette remains in tact. Dip the courgette and its flour into the batter. Drop them into the hot fat and fry until golden. Approximately 2 minutes per side. Turn over and repeat. Don’t crowd the flowers – fry in batches of 4. Remove from oil with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towel.
Serve immediately.

Courgette, Chickpea and Preserved Lemon Tagine

Olive oil (or Argan oil if you have it)

3 Courgettes (cut into 1cms half moons)

Two onions, finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 teaspoons of Ras-el-Hanout or more to taste

2 heaped teaspoon of cumin

2 heaped teaspoon of Harissa

Tin of good quality Plum Tomatoes, chopped

Large pinch of saffron

1 can of chickpeas, drained

Two preserved lemons, seeds removed and chopped

One small bunch coriander, finely chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a tagine. Fry the the onions.  Cook for about 10 minutes until soft and just about to brown. Add the garlic and the Ras-el-Hanout, the cumin, the harissa and a generous amount of salt and pepper.  Fry for a few minutes to release the spices. Next add the courgettes and fry for a few minutes more. Next add the tin of tomatoes, the saffron and the chickpeas and bring briefly to boil. Reduce heat. Cover, but leave a crack for steam to escape. Simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes or so until the courgettes are tender. Add the preserved lemons and the Coriander.  Adjust seasoning adding more salt or pepper if necessary. Serve with Cous Cous.

Fabulous Fennel

I love Fennel.  I know it is meant to be a bit of a "love it, or hate it" vegetable, but I just think it is an acquired taste. But I don't think I really understood fennel until a late age. Now I think is so super versatile and clean and fresh, I just can't wait for it to appear in early summer.  I love it raw, sliced as thinly as possible and dressed with lemon juice, peppery extra virgin olive oil and a little salt. I love it baked until melting tender with loads of Parmesan cheese.  I love it roasted or barbecued until caramelised and golden. I love it's seeds in curries, fish stews, sausages and marinades.  I love its fronds, stuffed into the cavity of a fish before roasting.  And of all the herb teas, fennel is my favourite. Strangely enough though, I hate alcohol with a fennel or Anise flavour. Pernod, Raki, Ouzo, Pastis - Yuk!  And it is not like me to turn down a drink.

What I particularly love about fennel is it's ability to cut the richness of fatty fish, pork or sausages.  Hugh, the other half, is hugely fond of Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escapes, a book which he permanently has by his bedside and It was he who first requested this sausage dish with braised fennel, waxy potatoes and lemon.  It is a spring like dish, hearty enough to stand up to chilly evening, yet refreshing, zesty and clean. Just what you need to wake you up after a winter of heavy stews and casseroles.  The perfect transition from Winter to Spring. The Luganega sausages are hard to come by and very expensive if you ever should, but I discovered some fantastic Italian sausages at our local butchers Robert Edwards which work very well.  They are quite spicy, which is really nice but not very fennely, so I add fresh fennel and fennel seeds to my recipe. Waxy potatoes are not as popular in England as in the continent.  We seem to prefer our potatoes more floury.  Look out for Charlotte, Anya, Ratte or Pink Fir Apple Potatoes. The other thing I like about this recipe it is a one pot meal which means less washing up.  

The second recipe is from Simon Hopkinson's recent, brilliant T.V.show and book "The Good Cook". Here the fennel is slow-roasted and the juices are whizzed up with the Parmesan at the end. The first time I made this recipe I was convinced it wouldn't work. I had never used Parmesan in this way, but it amalgamates with the fennel juices and results in a lovely creamy sauce, perfect with the braised fennel.

Two of my favourite fantastic fennel recipes - so even if you think you hate it, why not give it another go.

Fennel Sausages Braised with Lemony Potatoes and Bay Leaves

Adapted from Rick Stein.  The original recipe is more just like roast vegetables but I have added twice as much water to create more of a stew. You can finish this off in the slow-cooker if you like.  It makes a fabulous meal to great you after a hard days work.

450g/1lb luganega sausages (available from specialist Italian or
Continental grocers), or other nice meaty pork sausages.
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 heads of fennel, trimmed and cut into 4/6 wedges, depending on size, lengthways (save the fronds)
750g/1½lb small waxy potatoes, peeled and each cut into quarters
2 lemons, pared zest and juice
4 fresh bay leaves
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
salt and freshly ground black pepper
240ml/8fl oz water

If necessary, twist the sausages into 7.5cm/3in lengths and separate them and then cut into individual sausages. Heat one tablespoon of the oil in a 26cm/10in flame-proof casserole dish. Add the sausages and fry until nicely browned all over. Lift them onto a plate and set aside. Add some more oil and the fennel and fry until golden. Next add the garlic and the fennel seeds. Fry for a few minutes more. Stir in the potatoes, browned sausages, lemon zest and juice, bay leaves, ½ teaspoon salt and ten turns of the black pepper mill. Pour over the rest of the oil along with the water, cover tightly with the lid and bake for 30-40 minutes until the potatoes are tender. Or cook for 4 hours on slow in the slow-cooker. Remove the lemon zest and Bay leaves. Sprinkle with chopped fennel fronds.

Braised Fennel with Butter and Parmesan

Adapted from Simon Hopkinson. As I said, I am not a fan of Pastis so I miss that out and use extra Vermouth instead, but if you do not have any, white wine will work well instead. Delicious served on it's own or along side some roast lamb.   

750g/1½lb fennel bulbs, trimmed, halved, trimmings reserved
50g/1¾oz butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp dry vermouth or white wine
Splash Pastis (optional, alternatively add more dry vermouth)
60g/2oz Parmesan (or similar vegetarian hard cheese), grated, plus extra for serving
Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3.

Melt the butter in a casserole dish over a low heat. Place the fennel into the butter cut-side down, and scatter around the trimmings. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and increase the heat. Add the vermouth, Pastis or white wine. Cover with a sheet of foil loosely pressed down on the vegetables, and put the lid on top. Place into the oven to cook for 30 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven and turn over the fennel. Return to the oven and cook for a further 30 minutes, or until very tender when poked with a small, sharp knife. Preheat the grill to high. Remove the fennel from the dish. Place in a warmed shallow oven-proof dish cut-side up, cover with foil and place in the oven while you make the sauce. Pour the trimmings and cooking juices through a fine sieve suspended over a small pan. Warm through and add 45g/1½oz of the Parmesan. Blend with a hand blender until smooth and creamy (about the consistency of pouring cream). Pour the mixture over the fennel and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Place under the grill and cook until the surface is pale golden-brown and slightly bubbling around the edges.

Its a Wrap

Right.  This is going to be the last "wrap" post for sometime.  There are only so many wraps one can make and it is is time to move on, but before I do, I have to share with you the ultimate kebab - the Chicken Shawarma. 

Now, I know that a Shawarma should really be cooked by alternately stacking strips of fat and pieces of seasoned meat (beef, lamb or marinated chicken) on a stick and roasting it slowly on all sides in front of a flame for several hours.  And I know that that is not entirely practical for the average kitchen but what I am really trying to recreate here is the wrap, stuffed full of aromatically spiced roast meat, lashings of Tahini or Hummus, a juicy tomato, onion and cucumber salad, shredded lettuce and heaps of chilli sauce.  Rightly or wrongly, that's what I want, when I think - Shawarma.  

The first thing you must do is track down some really good Arabic flat bread which is called Khobez.  Do not settle for pitta. I know you can make your own but what I love about knocking up a kebab for dinner is that it is so damn quick and easy.  If you add, making flat bread to the equation, suddenly its not so damn quick and easy, plus a good pitta is easy to make but a really good flatbread is something else.
 

Anyway, find your nearest Arabic shop, be it Lebanese or Turkish, or maybe you have a good Greek or Cypriot shop near by. (Check out my directory). They are all sure to sell good flatbreads or wraps for Kebabs.  Once you have found them, stock up, because they freeze really well and whilst you are there, pick up some Hummus, unless you want to make your own, and some long green pickled chillis, unless you pickle your own, and if you are really lucky or lazy, depending on how you look at it, some Shawarma Total Seasoning, or you can make your own.  There are a billion different recipes for the spice mix but it usually contains a selection of Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Paprika, Sumac, Cardamom, Clove, Cumin and Cayenne Pepper.  It is this unusual, perfumed blend of spices that makes this dish so delicious. Marinate your chicken, leave it overnight and the next day, you can assemble a fantastic meal in a matter of minutes.  A kebab is even great for entertaining.  Everyone just helps themselves. Because everyone likes their kebabs to be just the way they like them. 


I have entered this recipe for Sweet Heat # 5 over at Vanilla Clouds and Lemon Drops because it is such an effortless recipe to rustle up for friends and goes down great with a couple of beers.



Cheats Chicken Shawarma
The spice mix is not exact.  Experiment and find what you like best. You could use a Baharat blend.

Serves 4
4 Chicken breasts (free-range or organic)
1 tsp. Nutmeg
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp.  Paprika
1 tsp. Sumac
1 tsp. Cardamom
1 tsp. Clove
2 tsp. Cumin
1 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
2 tsp. salt
Olive oil

Trim the chicken breasts and cut in half lenghtways. Coat each piece in spices.  Leave overnight, marinating in the fridge.  Next day, drizzle lightly with olive oil and either barbecue or grill over a high heat.  You can also try roasting the chicken in a very hot oven.  It should only take ten minutes or so to cook as the pieces are quite thin.  Remove from the heat and allow to rest for a few minutes.  Cut into strips on a wooden chopping board.  Serve with plenty of chilli sauce, shredded lettuce, hummus and salad.