Rebecca’s recipes of the week: potato & olive salad and orange, olive & onion salad | Canalside Community Food

Hurrah for La Jimena!

This week’s recipes celebrate the arrival of the delivery of citrus fruits, olives, olive oil and almonds from La Jimena farm in Spain! The recipes combine some of the Canalside winter staples (potatoes and onions) with lemons, oranges and olives, to bring a bit of Spanish sunshine to the Midlands. If you’ve received a box from La Jimena, this is a nice way to use some of its contents. If not, the shops are full of excellent citrus fruits, which are currently at their peak.

These recipes are adapted from Claudia Roden’s wonderful 2009 Arabeque: A Tate of Morocco, Turkey, & Lebanon.

You’ll notice that the dressings for these two salads are virtually identical, yet the results are strikingly different.

Potato and Olive Salad
serves 3-4

500g of Canalside white potatoes
5 tablespoons olive oil
juice of one lemon
1/2 teaspoon paprika or to taste
1 teaspoon ground cumin*
salt to taste
1 small red or white onion, finely chopped
12 olives
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Cover the potatoes with cold water and bring them to a gentle boil. (Claudia Roden suggests peeling them first so that they absorb more of the dressing.)

While the potatoes are cooking mix the olive oil, lemon juice, paprika, cumin and salt in a serving bowl. Add the onions and olives and set aside until the potatoes are cooked.

When the potatoes are tender drain them and cut into chunks as soon as they are cool enough to handle.

Mix the still-warm potatoes with the ingredients in the bowl. Leave them to absorb the flavours of the dressing if you have time—but it will be tasty to eat right away.

When you’re ready to eat it mix in the parsley.

Orange, Olive and Onion Salad
serves 6

4 oranges
1 large red onion, finely chopped
16 olives
1 lemon
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin*
1/2 teaspoon paprika or to taste
salt to taste
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Peel the oranges and cut off as much of the white pith as possible. Cut them into thick slices, and then cut the slices into quarters.

Toss them with the onion and olives and arrange the mixture on a serving plate.

Prepare the lemon in the same fashion as the oranges, but cut it into tiny pieces (i.e. peel it, cut off the white pith, slice it into thin slices, and then chop the slices into small pieces).

Mix the lemon and any juice with the olive oil, cumin, paprika, salt and parsley. Toss this dressing on the salad and serve.

* For the best flavour toast about 2 teaspoons of whole cumin seeds in a dry frying pan (don’t add any oil) until they smell fragrant. Leave them to cool and then grind them in a mortar and pestle.