Carrot and Cashew Salad
Serves about 1 if that 1 person is me. It’s supposed to serve 4.
Ingredients
200g carrots
salt, to taste
some fresh coconut—the amount is very flexible and the coconut can be omitted altogether. Try a quarter of a whole coconut, or about half of one of those little pots of pre-chopped coconut you can get in the supermarket.
2 tablespoons vegetable or coconut oil
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1 inch of fresh ginger (optional), peeled and grated
10 curry leaves
1 big handful of cashew nuts, roughly chopped
1 big handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
juice of half a lemon
Preparation
Peel the carrots and shred them coarsely. Put them in a nice bowl and toss them with some salt. Try about a quarter teaspoon to begin with.
If you are using the coconut, you need to prepare it. Extract the coconut from the shell, if necessary, or open the small plastic packet you bought in the shop. Peel off the dark brown inner husk, and either grate the coconut into your bowl on the same coarse grater you used for the carrots, or peel it into thin strips using a vegetable peeler, or just chop it into little chunks. In any case, mix it in with the carrots.
Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. When it is hot add the mustard seeds. They will start to pop, and shoot out all over the top of your cooker. At that point add the grated ginger (if you’re using it) and stir for a minute. Then add the curry leaves, stir for a few seconds until the curry leaves frizzle up a little. Turn off the heat, but leave the pan on the burner. Add the cashews and stir them a little, so that the cashews start to colour a little in the still-warm pan. Pour the whole thing over the carrots and toss vigorously.
Mix in the chopped coriander. Squeeze the lemon juice over the salad, and toss it all together. See if you need more salt, or more lemon juice. This makes a very agreeable lunch.
(Recipe adapted from Anna Jones.)
This rich and buttery sauce is loosely based on a classic recipe from Marcella Hazen. The carrot adds a touch of sweetness. This is easy and flavoursome.
Buttery Tomato Sauce
Enough for 4 servings of pasta
Ingredients
1 medium onion
1 large carrot
2 400g tins of tomatoes
5 tablespoons butter
Salt to taste
Preparation
Peel the onion and cut it into 8 pieces. Peel the carrot and cut it into 1-inch lengths.
Melt the butter in a saucepan and then add all the other ingredients, including the liquid from the tomato tins. Add a pinch or two of salt.
Bring to a simmer and adjust heat so that the sauce is simmering very gently. Cook, uncovered, for about 45 minutes. Stir it occasionally to make sure it isn’t sticking at the bottom. The tomatoes should have dissolved into a smooth, thick sauce; you can mash them with the back of a spoon to encourage them. The onion and carrot should be soft and infused with a rich, tomato flavour. Taste it to see if you’d like more salt. Some recipes advise removing the onion and carrot, but I think they’re very tasty and make a nice addition to the meal. Of course, if you’d like a smooth sauce feel free to remove them.
To serve, cook as much pasta as you’d like, and drain it. Then add the pasta to the pan with the sauce and toss them together to blend. Let it cook over low heat for a minute or two to allow the flavours to meld, and then serve.
Layers of sliced potatoes, onion, and salmon baked with egg, cream and fresh dill make a memorable meal. Serve with a green salad.
This is a classic Swedish recipe, invented to use up leftover salmon. I don’t think we suffer from this problem, but in fact you can use any sort of salmon you like—uncooked fresh salmon, leftover cooked salmon, smoked salmon, probably even tinned salmon—or a mixture. You can think of this as a Swedish lasagne, with potatoes instead of pasta.
Laxpudding (Salmon and Potato Pudding)
Serves 4-6.
Ingredients
For the Pudding
1kg potatoes
2 onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon butter
450g salmon, cut into bite-sized pieces (you can use a mixture of different types of salmon).
50g fresh dill, finely chopped
3 eggs
300ml milk
120ml double or whipping cream
½ tsp salt
freshly ground pepper, to taste (if you have white pepper here is a good opportunity to use it).
Decorations for the Top
100g butter (optional)
additional sprigs of fresh dill
thin slices of lemon
Preparation
Put the potatoes in cold water and bring slowly to the boil. Simmer gently until they are just tender. Drain. When they are cool enough to handle peel them (unless you like the peel), and slice them thin. Set aside while you prepare the other ingredients.
Heat the oven to 200C and butter an ovenproof dish. Something on the order of 25cm x 35cm is about right but there’s no need to be precise.
Sauté the onion in the butter until it softens, without browning. Set aside.
Mix the salmon with the dill and set aside as well.
Whisk the eggs, milk, cream, salt and pepper together.
Now assemble the pudding: put a third of the potatoes at the bottom of the pan. Spread half the onions over the potatoes, and top these with half the salmon and dill. Make another potato layer. Top this with the remaining onions, and then the remaining salmon and dill. Finish with a final layer of potatoes.
Pour the eggy mixture over the salmon pudding.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until the pudding feels firm and the crust is nicely browned.
To serve, first decide if you wish to use the additional butter drizzle. If you do—and it’s traditional—melt the butter in a small pan until it starts to turn a hazelnut brown colour and smells nutty and tempting. Pour this over the baked pudding. Garnish artfully with sprigs of dill and slices of lemon. Serve cut into squares.
(Recipe courtesy of Ulrika Andersson, Swedish Collegium of Advanced Studies, Uppsala.)
Did you make any of the roasted curry powder from the recipe on 28 July? Here’s another opportunity to use it. Shreds of spiced beetroot mix with the flavours of curry leaf and coconut. Serve with rice and a peppery little relish for an uplifting dinner. If you have some of the curry powder to hand the whole thing comes together in well under half an hour. Making the curry powder will add about 15 minutes.
In case you didn’t make any roasted curry powder I’ve repeated the recipe.
You can get curry leaves from the Oriental Store on the High Street, or at Sandhu’s on Russell Terrace—just ask them and they’ll fetch some from the back of the shop. They keep for a long time in the freezer.
Beetroot Curry with Roasted Curry Powder
Serves 2
Ingredients
For the Roasted Curry Powder
1 tablespoon basmati rice (brown or white)
3 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons cumin seeds
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon fenugreek seeds
1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
For the Beetroot
400g beetroot, peeled and cut into thick matchsticks
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon chile powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons oil
a spring of curry leaves
1 red onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 fresh green chilli
2 teaspoons roasted curry powder
1 tomato, sliced
150-200ml coconut milk
Preparation
For the Roasted Curry Powder: Heat a dry frying pan over medium heat. Add the rice and toast it for several minutes, until it starts to turn brown (or browner, if it’s already brown). Add the other spices and toast for 3 to 5 minutes, until they start to darken but are not getting burnt. Turn the heat down if necessary and stir regularly.
Remove from the heat and let it cool. Once it’s cool you need to grind the mix. You can either use a spice grinder, if you possess such a thing, or ask someone else to grind it for you in a mortar and pestle. The latter is hard work, which is why I’d recommend asking someone else to do it.
Put the ground spice mixture in a jar and label it so you don’t forget what it is.
For the Beetroot: Put the beetroot in a bowl and toss them with the fenugreek, turmeric, chilli powder and salt. Set them aside.
Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. When it’s hot add the curry leaves and stir until they start to sizzle. Then add the onion, garlic and fresh chilli and fry for 5 minutes, until the onion is starting to brown.
Add the curry powder, stir, and cook for a few minutes, to allow the flavours to emerge with the heat.
Add the beetroot and fry for another 2-3 minutes. Mix in the tomato, and fry for another minute or so. Then add 150ml of coconut milk.
Turn the heat down a bit, and cook for about 10 minutes, until the beetroot is tender. If it looks a bit dry, you can add some more coconut milk. Check to see if it needs more salt, and serve, with rice and THIS refreshing relish:
Green Relish
Ingredients
1 cucumber, shredded on the coarse side of a grater
2 big handfuls of lettuce, OR fresh coriander, OR spinach OR anything else along these lines, shredded
3 spring onions OR half a red onion, thinly sliced
juice of 1 lime
salt, to taste
chilli flakes, to taste
Preparation
Put the shredded cucumber in a colander and set it to one side until you’re ready to eat so that some of the cucumber’s vast amount of moisture can drain away.
Mix the other ingredients in a bowl. When you’re ready to eat mix the cucumber into the bowl, check for seasoning, and serve.
(Recipe adapted from Rosie Birkett, Guardian 22 July 2017.)
Colombian ajiaco is a miracle of soups. It’s luxurious, convivial and fresh. The basic idea is this: a bowl of rich chicken broth with lots of potatoes and chunks of sweetcorn, personalised with sliced avocado, capers, a tomato-coriander salsa and cream, followed by another bowl, or two. Do try it.
A Sort of Ajiaco
Proper aijaco requires some ingredients we lack, so this is a Leamington approximation. I think it’s delicious but apologies to all Colombians.
Ingredients
the stock
1 whole chicken, or chicken pieces, of about 1.6 kilos in weight, but you needn’t be precise.
1 large onion, chopped fine
4 litres of water
1 tablespoon salt
6 whole peppercorns
the additional soup ingredients
4 potatoes, cut into chunks — the Canalside potatoes we’re currently getting are ideal as they are the mealy variety that disintigrate when you boil them. That’s what you want here.
3 potatoes, cut into thinnish slices—ideally, use waxy potatoes of the sort that will not disintegrate when you boil them. Real ajiaco uses different varieties of potato but even if you use only one the result will be delicious.
200g runner beans, sliced in to 1-inch chunks
2-3 ears sweetcorn, shucked (i.e. husk and silk removed) and cut into 3 chunks
the delightful extras
2 avocados, cut into slices
1/4 cup capers
1/2 cup double cream (I suppose you could use single cream)
tomato-coriander salsa
4 tomatoes, chopped into small cubes
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1/2 cup fresh coriander, chopped fine
1 green or red chilli
salt to taste
Preparation
Put the soup ingredients into a large pot for which you have a lid. Cover and bring to the boil. Once it begins boiling turn the heat down so that it simmers gently. Cook for 75 minutes.Meanwhile prepare the other components. Put the avocadoes and capers in two attractive little dishes and place the cream in a jug. Then prepare the salsa: put the tomato, onion and coriander into a little serving bowl and mix. Cut off the end of the chilli and the slice it in half. If you don’t want the salsa to be too hot remove the seeds, and then mince the chilli into tiny bits. Mix it into the salsa and add salt to taste. Let it mellow while you finish the soup.
After the soup has been cooking for about an hour and a quarter the chicken should be tender and the broth rich and flavourful. If for any reason the chicken still seems a bit rubbery or under-cooked, let the soup simmer for another 15 minutes or so. Fish out the chicken and let it cool a little. Once you’re able to handle it, remove the meat from the bones, and, if you like, shred it a bit into bite-sized pieces. Return the meat to the pot and bring the soup back to the boil.
Add the chunks of potato and cook for 20 minutes. The potato should disintegrate. If chunks still remain give the whole thing a little mash with a potato masher to encourage them to break apart.
Add the sliced potatoes and runner beans nd cook for another 10-15 minutes, until they are tender.
Add the chunks of corn and cook for 5 final minutes. Check to see if it needs more salt or pepper.
To serve: bring the soup to the table and give each diner a bowl brimming with chicken, sliced potatoes and runner beans, topped by a piece of corn on the cob. Pass around the little bowls of avocado, capers, and the salsa, and the jug of cream. Each diner can adorn their bowl with whatever they fancy.
This is superb! Potatoes in a silky sauce of onions and green peppers—the slow cooking works a kind of alchemy, transforming the simple ingredients into something really wonderful. Serve this as part of an array of tapas-style dishes, or on its own with some steamed green beans dressed with olive oil and basil, or perhaps quartered hard-cooked eggs arrayed atop a platter of sliced tomatoes, and drizzled with olive oil and shredded basil.
Patatas a lo Pobre [Poor Man’s Potatoes]
Serves 4
Ingredients
15 tablespoons olive oil (you might not need it all)
3 large onions, sliced fine
5 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
2 green peppers, cut in half, de-seeded, and roughly chopped
4 bay leaves
1kg potatoes
salt and pepper
Preparation
Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Once it’s hot add the onions, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and reduce the heat to low. Cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring regularly so that the onions don’t burn, until the onions have collapsed into a golden, sweet-smelling, tangled mass. Add the garlic, peppers and bay leaves, and continue to cook over low heat for another 15-20 minutes. Add a bit more oil if at any point the mixture starts to stick.
Meanwhile, prepare the potatoes: cut them into thick chip shapes. Put them in a sieve and sprinkle them with a little salt. Leave them aside until the onion mixture is ready.
Now add another 4 tablespoons of oil to the onions and turn up the heat a little bit to warm the oil. Once the onions are bubbling happily add the potatoes, stir, and again reduce the heat to low. Simmer until the potatoes are soft, between 20 and 35 minutes. Season with pepper and serve. It’s also delicious cold, with a hard-cooked egg, for lunch the next day.
(Recipe adapted from Sam and Sam Clarke, Moro: The Cookbook (2003).)
This, like all the Thomasina Miers recipes I’ve tried, is easy and, as she’d say, utterly yum. I’ve never used the prawns but since the original recipe calls for them I thought I’d include them. You choose. You can get black rice noodles at Gaia. This makes a fresh, quick, mid-week dinner.
Black Noodles with (or without) Prawns
Serves four
Ingredients
2 ears of corn
1-2 dried chillies
200g French beans, topped, tailed and cut in half
250g black rice noodles
3 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 large red onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
3 fat cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1 handful peanuts (if you’re not using the prawns increase this to a very big handful)
450g prawns (optional)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
Juice of 1 lime
1 handful mint leaves, roughly chopped
salt and pepper
Preparation
‘Shuck’ the corn: peel off the leaves and remove the corn silk—the delicate threads that surround the cob. By the way, it’s best not to shuck corn until you’re ready to use it. The kernels dry out quickly. Cut the kernels off each cob. Do this by standing the cob upright, on its end, on a board or in a wide bowl and slicing down along the length of the cob.
Chop the chillies. Remove the seeds unless you’d like the dish to be very hot.
Steam the beans for four minutes, until tender but still with a little crunch. Lift them out, set them aside, and then use the steaming water, topped up if needed, to cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packet. Drain them, rinse in cold water, toss with 1 teaspoon of oil so they don’t stick to themselves, and set aside.
Heat the remaining oil in a wide pan over high heat, and stir-fry the onions, kernels of corn and chilli for a few minutes. Season generously with salt and pepper, add the garlic and peanuts, and stir-fry until the garlic starts to go translucent. Add the prawns (if using) and stir-fry for a few more minutes, until they turn pink and look a little caramelised around the edges. The corn should by now have also taken on some colour. Taste, add more chilli if you want more spice, and then add the fish sauce, lime juice, beans and noodles, and toss to heat through. Add more lime or fish sauce to taste, scatter over the mint and serve in deep, warmed bowls.
(Recipe adapted from Thomasina Miers, The Weekend Cook.)
This makes a great lunch. It’s quick, crunchy and surprising. Cooking a cucumber intensifies the flavour and gives it a crisp edge. The richness of the haloumi contrasts with the sweet bite of the tomatoes and the sharp, herby dressing pulls it all together. Eat with some crusty bread.
When I made this I used some of the wild marjoram that grows all over Dorset, but I think it would work well with other herbs, or a mixture of whatever you have to hand.
Griddled Cucumber with Haloumi
Serves 2
Ingredients
2 cucumbers
8-10 cherry tomatoes
half a packet of haloumi, sliced into tranches
for the dressing
handful of fresh marjoram, or oregano, or coriander, or parsley or a mixture of different herbs
100ml olive oil
juice of one lemon
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin—for optimal flavour, toast some whole cumin seeds in a dry pan, let them cool, and then grind them with a mortar and pestle.
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika (hot or sweet, as you prefer)—or less, to taste
pinch of cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste
Preparation
Slice the cucumbers lengthwise into 1cm thick planks.
Heat a frying pan. A grill pan with ridges will leave attractive grill-lines on the cucumbers, if you have such a thing. Brush it lightly with oil and place some of the cucumbers in the pan. Cook for about 5 minutes, by which time the undersides should be attractively seared and the flesh should look a bit yellower. Turn them over and cook for another 3-5 minutes, until both sides are charred (but not burnt). Place them on an attractive serving platter. Griddle the remaining cucumbers in the same way.
Prepare the dressing while the cucumbers are cooking: whizz the fresh herbs together with the olive oil, lemon juice and seasonings to make a very thick dressing. Taste it to see if it needs more lemon juice. If it’s extremely thick you can thin it out with a bit more oil.
Slice the cherry tomatoes in half. Once the cucumbers are grilled, scatter the tomatoes over them.
When the cucumbers are done use the grill pan to griddle the haloumi. It should take about 3 minutes per side to develop a nice golden crust. Tuck the slices of haloumi amidst the cucumbers and tomatoes. Dot the dressing over the top and serve with crusty bread.
This is a two-hander. First you make some customised curry powder. Then you make a very quick courgette dish using the special spice blend. The coconut milk, and the technique of adding spices in two stages, gives a layered depth: no single flavour predominates. It’s very good with rice.
You can get curry leaves from the Oriental Store on the High Street, or at Sandhu’s on Russell Terrace—just ask them and they’ll fetch some from the back of the shop. They keep for a long time in the freezer.
The recipe for the roasted curry powder makes a lot. Keep it for use in future courgette curries, or in other recipes that might appear later this year. It’s really easy and worth the small effort.
Courgette Curry with Roasted Curry Powder
Serves 2
Ingredients
For the Roasted Curry Powder
1 tablespoon basmati rice (brown or white)
3 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons cumin seeds
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon fenugreek seeds
1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
For the Courgettes
2 medium courgettes, chopped into big chunks
1 teaspoon chilli powder
salt
3 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon fennel seed
a sprig of curry leaves
1 white onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 teaspoons roasted curry powder
300ml tinned tomato (or you can use fresh tomatoes)
150ml coconut milk
Preparation
For the Roasted Curry Powder:
Heat a dry frying pan over medium heat. Add the rice and toast it for several minutes, until it starts to turn brown (or browner, if it’s already brown). Add the other spices and toast for 3 to 5 minutes, until they start to darken but are not getting burnt. Turn the heat down if necessary and stir regularly.
Remove from the heat and let it cool. Once it’s cool you need to grind the mix. You can either use a spice grinder, if you possess such a thing, or ask someone else to grind it for you in a mortar and pestle. The latter is hard work, which is why I’d recommend asking someone else to do it.
Put the ground spice mixture in a jar and label it so you don’t forget what it is.
For the Courgettes:
Put the courgettes in a bowl and toss them with the chile powder and a pinch of salt. Set them aside.
Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. When it’s hot add the mustard and fennel seeds. As soon as the mustard seeds start to pop and fly all over the cooker add the curry leaves and stir. Then add the onion and garlic and fry for 5 minutes, until the onion is starting to brown.
Add the curry powder, stir, and cook for a few minutes, to allow the flavours to emerge with the heat. Add the tomatoes and stir some more. Cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Add the courgettes, stir again, and cook for about 5 minutes, or longer, until the courgettes are tender.
Pour in the coconut milk, stir, cover and let cook gently for another 5 minutes or so. Now it’s ready. Eat with rice, perhaps.
(Recipe adapted from Rosie Birkett, Guardian 22 July 2017.)