Broad beans with chard

This is one of my favourite dishes, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t already shared it. It is very simple to make, and delicious. Clair, this is for you.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 300g broad beans, podded (you can use frozen beans)
  • 300g chard, rinsed and sliced
  • 100g butter
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 8 tbsp chopped dill leaves
  • 1/2 tsp salt

METHOD:

  • Separate and wash the chard leaves and stems, and slice them crosswise at 2cm intervals. 
  • Heat the butter in a large pan, medium heat, and melt the butter. As it begins to froth, add the onion, sauté for a minute and then add the beans. After another minute, add the chard and dill. Stir and cook for another couple of minutes. 
  • Add the salt and around 50ml water, bring to a simmer, and then cover and cook over a low heat for around 15 minutes. 

 

Chicken curry baked in foil

This is a recipe from Madhur Jaffrey that works well with a busy schedule. The meal can be prepared ahead of time, and just popped into the oven to cook it. It goes well with plain basmati rice and a salad. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 tsp paprika (Hungarian, sweet)
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1 1/4 tsp grated ginger root
  •  3 tbsp full fat plain yoghurt
  • 2 tsp lemon juice
  • 1 level tsp salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • approx 650g skinned chicken pieces. Ensure that there are some deep incisions in the flesh

METHOD:

  • Mix all of the ingredients except the chicken in a bowl. 
  • Rub the marinade into the chicken, including into the incisions. 
  • Put the chicken pieces in a single layer on a bit of tin foil, and then fold the sides, top and bottom of the foil over the chicken to make a sealed packet. Leave in the fridge for at least 4 hours. 
  • Preheat the oven to 200C. 
  • Put the whole packet in the oven, and bake for 45 minutes. You can try opening the packet to turn the chicken half way through, but I find it makes little difference. 

Hot Lightning with rabbit (Hete Bliksem)

This is a recipe introduced to me by one of my daughters, thanks to one of her boyfriends. I believe it is Dutch in origin.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 3 local wild rabbits, skinned and gutted, soaked in salty water, then jointed
  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 60g butter
  • 60ml water
  • salt and pepper
  • 4 apples (Braeburn or similar)
  • 8 floury potatoes (general cooking variety)
  • more butter and/or cream
  • 1 egg
  • nutmeg

METHOD:

  • Set the oven to 160C
  • Cook the onion and garlic in 60g butter over a medium heat, when they are transparent, add the jointed rabbit, salt and pepper, and brown the rabbit. Add a little water and bring to a simmer
  • Put the pan in the oven for an hour and a half, covered with tin foil. The rabbit should be tender. For the last ten minutes, remove the foil. 
  • Take the rabbit out of the oven, and when it is cool enough, strip off the meat and put it into an oven-safe dish
  • Meanwhile, peel and chop the potatoes and apples. Put the potatoes in a saucepan and just cover with water, and season with salt. Cover with a layer of apples, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. 
  • Strain off the water, put the cooked apple over the rabbit in the dish with a grating of nutmeg. Roughly mash the potatoes with salt, pepper, you can add butter or cream or egg for a softer mash. 
  • Put the mashed potatoes over the rabbit meat, and cook in a hot oven (180C) for around 20 minutes before serving.

I think adding bacon is allowed. Serve with a good green vegetable.

Seeded rye bread

I was buying rye bread in a local shop, delicious for light summer lunches with cheese and salad. Now it isn’t available, and I was looking to make my own. This may need a tweak here and there to suit, but it works very well. 

INGREDIENTS: 

  • 500g rye flour
  • 2 tsp of dried yeast
  • 1 tbsp treacle or brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 3 tbsp ‘8 seed mix‘ or ‘5 seed mix‘ from Seasoned Pioneers (or a mix of poppy seed, linseed, sunflower seeds, caraway, as you prefer)
  • 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
  • 430ml water

METHOD:

  • In a large mixing bowl, mix the seeds, flour and salt. 
  • In a measuring jug, measure out the water, sugar and oil, and add the dried yeast. 
  • Once the yeast has mixed into the water, add it to the flour mixture a bit at a time, mixing together to a dough, ensuring that all the flour is incorporated. You don’t want the mixture to be sloppy. 
  • Top tip at this point – if you have some left-over white bread dough, you can kneed a bit of this in as well. 
  • Coat a work surface with a bit more sunflower oil and kneed for ten minutes or so. The dough won’t be as stretchy as a gluten-based loaf, but it will get smoother. 
  • Form the dough into a loaf shape. I use a loaf tin, but you could make a cob loaf as well. Put the formed loaf into a tin or a baking sheet, cover with a teatowel and leave to rise for up to eight hours. I don’t usually wait as long, I like a dense and heavy rye bread. 
  • Heat the oven to 220C, and bake the loaf for 30 minutes, until it sounds hollow when tapped. 

This works on the rye setting on my bread machine as well. 

Elizabeth David: French Provincial Cooking

This is not a modern recipe book. There are no pictures. A lot of the quantities are sketchy, and some of the writing is about the history of dishes, references to other cultures. But this is a classic. I was so pleased it was reprinted and is still available. It conjures the resonance of meals past, it brings to mind flavours and atmospheres, it tells you how to prepare ingredients just so. The adverbs are well chosen, and it encourages experimentation. 

It was first published in 1960, her fifth book. She lived in France with a French family whilst studying at the Sorbonne, and when she returned to the UK, she set herself to learn how to cook. 

The first paragraph tells you about her love of food and of discovering how to cook. ‘Staying in Toulouse a few years ago, I bought a little cookery book on a stall in the Marche aux puces held every Sunday morning in the Cathedral Square. It was a tattered little volume, and its cover attracted me.’

It is still available widely, describing how to cook simple French food well, and how to attempt the more complex dishes with a bit of knowledge. 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/137599.French_Provincial_Cooking 

Spiced Apple Cake

I made this a while back and forgot to post it here – I used apples from Dr Johnson’s garden. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 130g butter, cubed
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 3 eggs. lightly beaten
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 300g self-raising flour
  • a good pinch of salt
  • 200g sour cream
  • 2 large cooking apples (Bramley) peeled cored and cut into wedges
  • 1 crisp eating apple (Granny Smith) peeled cored and cut into wedges
  • 130g demerara sugar
  • 1 tbsp mixed spice

METHOD:

  • Preheat the oven to 160C, and grease and line a 23cm round tin
  • Beat the butter into the caster sugar until light and fluffy
  • Slowly add the eggs and vanilla, beating in as you go
  • Add the flour and salt in batches, alternating with the soured cream. Beat just enough to mix all the ingredients, and then spoon the batter into the cake tin. 
  • Put all of the apple slices into a bowl and coat with demerara sugar and mixed spice. Spoon them onto the top of the cake mixture. 
  • Bake for 60 to 65 minutes until the cake mixture is cooked through. 
  • Cool in the tin for around 30 minutes before removing it. This cake is best served still warm, or at room temperature. It is not that easy to cut, so use a serrated knife. 

Asparagus and pecorino

This is a fantastic quick side dish. The asparagus in the shops just now is great quality, thick and tasty British spears. 

INGREDIENTS

  • Asparagus
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper
  • Pecorino cheese
  • Lemon rind

METHOD:

  • Trim the asparagus
  • Heat the olive oil in a pan, and fry the asparagus over a medium to high heat. Season with salt, pepper and a little grated lemon rind. 
  • When the asparagus looks cooked, transfer to plates and grate pecorino over the top. 

 

Salmon in a tomato cream curry sauce

I’ve been reading ‘Curry Easy’ again. I had some salmon fillet from the reduced section in the co-op and Madhur Jaffrey’s recipe book had several very good ideas. I picked this one, but now I want to go and buy more salmon so I can try the other recipes too. I did tweak it a bit so I didn’t have to go to the shops again. 

This is very easy to prepare the sauce and fish in the morning, ready to cook when you get in after work. I served this with rice, and stir-fried chard.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 600 to 700g salmon fillet
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • black pepper
  • 1/8 tsp turmeric
  • 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 can of chopped tomatoes
  • 250ml single cream (approx.)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1tsp caster sugar
  • 1 tsp garam masala
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 2 tbsp coriander leaves
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil 
  • 1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds

METHOD:

  • Start by dividing the salmon into 8 pieces. Season with a little salt and black pepper, turmeric and cayenne, and leave to marinade in the fridge. I used a plastic container with a lid, but a plastic bag would do. 
  • Combine the tomatoes, cream salt sugar, garam masala, ground cumin, cayenne pepper and coriander leaves. Use a soup wand to make the sauce smooth. Just before using, stir in the lemon juice. 
  • To cook the fish, heat some oil in a pan, and when it is hot, add the cumin seeds, and cook for 10 seconds. 
  • Pour in the sauce and bring to a simmer before adding the salmon pieces. Spoon the sauce over the top of the fish, and continue this way for another 4 minutes, until the fish is cooked through. 

 

Beetroot, caraway and goat’s cheese soda-bread

This is a delicious Ottolenghi recipe from SIMPLE. It is so rich and full of flavour, you don’t need to add anything much. It is great sliced and spread with butter, or with a thin slice of smoked salmon. I made it as part of a mega cooking session so that I had lots of food that was good with salad, as this certainly is. I had to adapt a bit to fit with locally available ingredients. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 50g rolled oats
  • 2 tsp dried thyme leaves
  • 50g pumpkin seeds
  • 2 tsp caraway seeds
  • 2 tsp nigella seeds
  • 100g plain flour
  • 100g wholemeal flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 200g grated raw beetroot
  • 2 large eggs
  • 80ml sunflower oil
  • 80g soured cream
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 20g grated parmesan
  • 120g goat’s cheese
  • Salt

METHOD:

  • Preheat the oven to 180C fan. Grease and line a loaf tin. 
  • Mix the oats, thyme, pumpkin, caraway, and nigella seeds in a small bowl. 
  • In a medium bowl, mix the flours and the baking powder and baking soda, along with 1/2 tsp salt. Whisk together to aerate, then add the grated beetroot and all but one tbsp of the oat mixture
  • In another bowl, lightly whisk the eggs together and beat in the oil, soured cream, honey and parmesan. 
  • Mix the egg mixture into the dry ingredients, and fold in the crumbled goat’s cheese. 
  • Pour the mixture into the tin, and add the remaining oat mixture to the top. 
  • Bake for 40 minutes, then cover with foil and bake for another 40 minutes. 
  • Remove from the oven, and set to cool for around 5 minutes before removing from the tin and cooling on a rack. It needs to be cooled for at least 20 minutes before slicing. 

 

 

Bulgar wheat with mushrooms and feta cheese.

From SIMPLE. The book says it serves 2, but it fed two of us for two nights. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 150g bulgar wheat
  • 250ml boiling water or light stock
  • olive oil
  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 2 punnets of mushrooms, preferably mixed, around 500g – sliced to about 5mm thick. 
  • 2 tsp dried thyme, or 2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
  • 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tsp dill seeds
  • around 100g feta (half a block)
  • 1 tsp mild chilli flakes 
  • salt and pepper

METHOD:

  • Rinse the bulgar wheat, add a pinch of salt and a good grind of black pepper, and add the boiling water or stock. Cover the bowl and set aside while everything else is sorted out. 
  • Put 2 tbsp oil in a large frying or saute pan, heat to medium, and add the onion. Cook for 7 minutes, until the onion is soft and beginning to brown. Add 1/2 tsp cumin seeds and 1/2 tsp dill seeds, and continue to fry for another couple of minutes. Keep stirring to ensure that nothing sticks or burns. Remove the onions from the pan and set aside. 
  • Add another 2 tbsp of oil to the pan. raise the heat, and then add the mushrooms, 1/2 tsp salt, and fry for 7 minutes, stirring until the mushrooms are browned and soft.
  • Add the rest of the cumin seeds, and the thyme and continue to cook for another minute
  • Add the balsamic vinegar, and cook until the liquid has almost disappeared. 
  • Mix in the bulgar wheat, onions, feta cheese and chilli flakes and heat through. 

Serve garnished with fresh herbs and a drizzle of olive oil.