Getting my 5 a day

Recently I've been feeling like eating super-healthily: Lots of vegetables, salads, vegetarian dishes. This week's new recipes were excellent examples of the kind of food I've been craving.

A Vietnamese Crab and Asparagus soup made a delicious lunch (even though it doesn't look that great!)


It was quite unusual in that it had a beaten egg stirred through to form thin eggy strands. That really enriched the soup and made it taste quite indulgent. The recipe was extremely easy to make. I battled with my 'food miles' conscience since asparagus isn't in season in the UK anymore, but in the end greed won out! Here's the recipe:

Vietnamese Crab and Asparagus soup for 2

1 tin crab (or 120g cooked fresh crab meat)
200g asparagus spears
500g chicken stock
3 shallots (finely sliced)
1 1/2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon cornflour
1 egg
salt and pepper
chives

Warm the stock in a saucepan, add the shallots and simmer for a few minutes to soften.
Meanwhile chop the asparagus spears into bite sized pieces and cook in simmering water for 4-5 minutes until tender.
Add the asparagus, crab, fish sauce and seasoning to the stock mixture. Mix the cornflour to a paste with a little water, add it to the soup mixture and stir until the soup thickens a little. Beat the egg lightly, add to the soup and stir briskly to form strands of egg. Sprinkle with some snipped chives and serve.

For dinner the same day I threw together an Ottolenghi salad recipe of broad beans and radishes, which was excellent served with a piece of haddock and pitta breads, with a tahini sauce for dipping.


See: It looks like the book's picture!

I never used to like radishes, but thought it was high time I revisited them to see if I like them now. This combination of salad ingredients was lovely and the radishes gave a great textural contrast with their crunchiness, as well as being a wonderful colour against the grean of the beans. I actually used half and half broad beans and peas as I didn't have enough broad beans for the recipe. That seemed to work just fine.

One revelation is that I don't know why I never thought to pop broadbeans out of their skins before. I have always hated those tough outer skins that they have, but they're very easily peeled off!

Fresh and healthy summery dishes feel exactly right just now.

Summer eating

Our freezer is full of lamb. I mean, literally FULL. We were (extremely generously) given a whole lamb by Dan's parents a week or so ago. However, roast lamb isn't exactly what I fancy during a period of scorchingly hot weather! With the freezer groaning under the strain I had to find a way to have roast lamb on the hottest day of the year without feeling a bit sick and heavy.

I was actually very proud of my solution - spiced roast leg of lamb, with a fennel, pomegranate and feta salad, new potatoes, and a yoghurty minty dip.

I slathered the leg of lamb with a mixture of Ras-el-hanout spice, olive oil, a good squeeze of lemon and some salt and pepper then left it to marinate in the fridge overnight. I then slow cooked it so that I ended up with wonderfully tender lamb, almost falling off the bone.

The real star of the dinner was the salad;

An Ottolenghi masterpiece of fennel, tarragon, parsley, sumac, feta and pomegranate seeds. With this and a spoon of yoghurt (with chopped tomato and mint leaves mixed in), the lamb made a lovely summer meal. Not stodgy at all.

Speaking of Ottolenghi, I'm working my way through the salads in the Ottolenghi cookbook. I've recently made the French bean, orange and hazlenut salad



Which I had with new potatoes and grilled halloumi



and the Peach and Speck salad (I used parma ham instead of speck)



My lunches have been more interesting than usual this week!

Ottolenghi is my favourite person. Really. He makes my lunches and dinners so much more interesting. I hope I get to see him at
Alex James's Harvest festival. If he's there the same day as us Dan plans to tell him that its OK if he fancies coming round to cook for us sometime (and that he's willing to overlook the vegetarian cookbook).

UPDATE: Richard Corrigan, Monty Don and Yottam Ottolenghi will all be at the festival on the day we're going. The music line up sounds fun too. Marvellous!

Three ways with Potato Salad - Daring Cooks

The June Daring Cooks Challenge was to make a delicious, healthy potato salad.

This is a challenge which really suits me as I like to make myself varied lunches to take to the office rather than always having a soggy sandwich. Potato salad falls into this system rather well, and expanding my lunchtime menu is always a good thing.

I decided to take this challenge seriously and do some decent experimentation rather than just making one version of the dish.

First up; Lemony potato salad with asparagus

A lunchtime outing took me to a farm which was selling fresh asparagus. It seemed a crime to walk away without some while its in-season and fresh from the field. This was the starting point for my potato salad. What goes with asparagus and potatoes? Lemon seemed like a good, tangy choice.

Also in the fridge that morning; spring onions, half a red chilli, some yellow pepper, parsley, and a packet of ham, so I chopped them all up and added them to my tupperware tub. Some mint from the garden too.


The dressing was a dessertspoon of olive oil, a couple of dessertspoons of lemon juice, a squeeze of lime and 1/2 teaspoon of sumac whisked together.



The resulting salad was colourful, flavourful and tangy. I suppose it might be pushing it to describe it as potato salad since it had lots of other things in it too!

At the weekend I was back home for my sister's wedding. I needed a decent lunch on saturday before the ceremony - filling but not bloating. Potatoes were perfect for this.
On this occasion I decided to go with a more Oriental flavour combination, so I ended up with:
Potato, plum sauce and sesame seed Salad
This is how I made it:
Steam the potatoes, add a sprinkle of sesame seeds and a splash of light soy sauce. Make a dressing from a dash of plum sauce, about a dessertspoon of rice wine vinegar, a squeeze of lime, some chopped coriander leaves and a sprinkle of chilli flakes.
I served the potato salad with a sliced smoked chicken breast, some lettuce leaves, and a handful of fresh mint leaves. The weather was appropriately warm and sunny to eat in the garden, close the eyes, and pretend I was really in Asia.

And finally....a bit of a wild card. I came across a recipe on the BBC website which intrigued me, Potato, green bean and rhubarb salad with almond pesto. Find the recipe here.

Raw rhubarb? I'd never thought to have rhubarb any way but stewed. I like it when my preconceptions are challenged so I resolved to make this one. I kept it for a day at home though, just in case it was nasty and I had to make a different lunch!
I should have had more faith. The salad was beautiful. Colourful and a fantastic balance of flavours. The raw rhubarb was tart and crunchy but not sour, the warmth from the chilli flakes enlivened the potatoes, and the almond and parsley pesto tied the whole dish together. I highly recommend this!



I amended the BBC dish slightly, so here's my final version:

Potato, Rhubarb and Green Bean Salad with Almond and Parsley Pesto (for 1 person)
150g new potatoes (I used Cornish Royals as they're in season here and delicious)
pinch of chilli flakes
salt and pepper
50g green beans (trimmed)
2 spring onions - white part only, sliced
1/2 stick of rhubarb (approx 35-40g) finely sliced
Squeeze lemon juice

For the pesto
20g blanched almonds
1 clove fresh garlic
1 teaspoon olive oil
Handful of fresh parsley

Scrub the potatoes, sprinkle with a small amount of salt, then steam them over simmering water for 20 minutes, or until cooked.
Add the green beans for the last 5 minutes in the steamer so that they are lightly cooked but retain a slight crunch.
Meanwhile make the pesto by blending all the ingredients together. Add more olive oil if you aren't eating the salad that day.

Remove the potatoes and beans from the heat, sprinkle with a pinch of chilli flakes and some freshly ground black pepper. Put aside to cool.
Chop the spring onions and rhubarb and arrange potatoes, beans, rhubarb and spring onion on a plate. Dab the pesto round the plate and squeeze a little lemon juice over the top.
Serve and enjoy.

Thank you to the Daring Cooks for helping me to expand my lunchtime salad options!


Jami Sorrento was our June Daring Cooks hostess and she chose to challenge us to celebrate the humble spud by making a delicious and healthy potato salad. The Daring Cooks Potato Salad Challenge was sponsored by the nice people at the United States Potato Board, who awarded prizes to the top 3 most creative and healthy potato salads. A medium-size (5.3 ounce) potato has 110 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium and includes nearly half your daily value of vitamin C and has more potassium than a banana!

Fishy Otti

By chance rather than by design I ended up cooking a lot of fishy meals this week. The star meal of the week was definitely Tuna with a Pistachio Crust and papaya salsa, taken from the Ottolenghi cookbook. I used tuna chunks instead of a loin piece simply because it was cheaper! Instead of coating the piece of tuna with a crust of pistachio and mustard I scattered the crust over the top of the chunks. It seemed to work just fine that way.

The salsa was really very pretty, and tasted just as lovely as it looked.



I served this dish on steamed new potatoes with peashoots. It was a good dinner, but the salsa does take quite a while to prepare because of all the peeling, chopping and mixing. On the otherhand, you could make it a day or two ahead. Next time I may swap the mustard in the crust for wasabi which I have a hunch may work a little better with the salsa.

A close runner up in the week's favourites was fillets of fish served with green tahini sauce and pomegranate seeds. I dished this one up with roasted aubergines and couscous. Another Ottolenghi special. It seems I'm cooking my way through the book! Again I used a cheaper piece of fish than was recommended; haddock worked perfectly OK so who need sea bream?!



Papaya Salsa
1/3 Papaya, diced
1/3 Mango, diced
1/3 cucumber, peeled, deseeded and diced
1/2 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
3g fresh ginger, grated
1/3 red onion, finely chopped
grated zest and juice of 1/2 lime
2 tspn thai fish sauce
2 tspn olive oil
1 tspn caster sugar

Mix everything together, season with salt and pepper, then chill for at least an hour before serving.

Super quick post this week. My sister's getting married on saturday and we're catering it ourselves so there's not a whole lot of time to spare for blogging!

Daring Cooks Challenge No.1!

Ok, so I was rather excited to have a try at my first Daring Cooks challenge.
It was a great one to start on too - we both found it delicious and it was definitely something I wouldn't have thought of doing without it being suggested by someone else.

So, I am proud to present.......Asian Noodle Salad with Cashew Dressing



It was easy to do. I made the cashew butter and the sauce a couple of days ahead and it kept in the fridge perfectly well. The dinner was then the matter of about 15 minutes preparation - some light chopping and mixing and soaking of noodles. All quick and easy.

And here's the recipe if you fancy having a go yourself - I highly recommend it.

Yield: 4 servings

notes: You could add or substitute your favorite vegetables. Shredded cabbage, bean sprouts, and slivered carrots would make nice additions. The dressing is equally as good with peanut butter rather than cashew butter.

Ingredients:

Cashew Butter:
240 ml cashews

Cashew Dressing:
1 cm slice of fresh ginger, chopped
8 cloves garlic, more or less to taste, chopped
120 ml cashew butter
60 ml soy sauce
3 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons vinegar - I used rice vinegar
3 Tablespoons toasted sesame oil
75 ml water
Hot sauce to taste (optional) - I added a pinch of chilli flakes

Noodle Salad:
225g thin rice noodles
1 tablespoon olive oil
225g small or medium shrimp, peeled and deveined (I used large prawns as that was what they had in the village shop, so I actually used slighty more in weight)
1 large red bell pepper, cored and seeded, cut into thin strips
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, sliced
60 ml sliced spring onions
60 ml chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon chopped cashews (optional garnish) - I omitted these
Lime wedges (optional)

Directions:

1.Make cashew butter: Grind cashews in food processor for about 2 minutes until smooth.
2.Prepare cashew dressing: Combine ginger, garlic, cashew butter, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, and water in food processor or blender. Process/blend until smooth. Be sure to process long enough to puree the ginger and garlic. The dressing should be pourable, about the same thickness as cream. Adjust consistency – thinner or thicker -- to your liking by adding more water or cashew butter. Taste and add your favorite hot sauce if desired. (If the cashew butter was unsalted, you may want to add salt to taste.) Makes about 360 ml dressing. Store any leftover dressing in the refrigerator.
3.Prepare noodles according to package instructions in salted water. Rinse and drain noodles. Set aside.
4.Heat oil in large non-stick pan over medium heat. Add shrimp to the pan and sauté for about 3 to 4 minutes or until opaque throughout. Alternately, cook shrimp in boiling water for about 2 to 3 minutes or until done.
5.Slice basil into thin ribbons. Combine noodles, bell pepper, cucumber, onions, and basil in a large bowl. Add about 120 ml cashew dressing; toss gently to coat. Add more cashew dressing as desired, using as much or as little as you’d like. Scatter shrimp on top. Squeeze fresh lime juice over salad or serve with lime wedges. Sprinkle with chopped cashews if desired.

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

Fruity Salads

Hot weather seems to call for citrus flavours and salad dinners, so I have mostly been eating fish and salad of late. I love the fruity-nutty flavours of thai salads, but decided to experiment with flavour combinations from Europe and the Caribbean this week.

Figs and Parma ham and mint

Trout with tomato and cucumber salsa

Grilled tuna with fennel, grapefruit and red onion salad



I know its a classic Italian dish, but I'd never tried the combination of figs and parma ham before, but I spotted some very ripe loooking figs in the shop and thought they'd make a nice lunch. And indeed they did. Jamie O's Italian recipe book suggested mint, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar as accompaniments, and it made a tasty meal. The mint was a nice touch - I would have expected basil to be best but preferred the mint.

Nothing fancy about the trout and salsa really, just a chopped tomato and cucumber salad in lemon juice, and mint again. Lots of mint you notice - its my new favourite herb because I actually managed to keep some alive in the garden!

The tuna salad was the most interesting. The idea came from my Cuban recipe book. I chopped 1/2 red onion finely and divided 1/2 ruby grapefruit into segments. These were mixed with the juice of a lime, salt and pepper, and a good handful of coriander. Then I shaved some fennel finely and mixed that in along with a drizzle of olive oil. I just grilled the tuna. Easy. The recipe called for swordfish but I couldn't get any, I would recommend you at least look for some if you want to recreate this as I think it might be a better combo than the tuna.

Jamie O's Duck salad

I wasn't going to blog about this, but it was SO pretty with all the different colours on the plate that I just had to mention it.

This was it before I added the duck:



Even with the meat (which I don't think ever looks very pretty!) it was still a very attractive looking dish.



There's something very pleasing about having a dinner which looks lovely! I get the same satisfaction from mixed multi-coloured roast autumn vegetables. Such a colourful combination. Am I wierd or is this normal? Who knows?! Still, I suppose its nice that I'm easily pleased!

Here's the link to the recipe, which I got from the Jamie Oliver website. I recommend it. Very tasty.

In (late) celebration of Chinese New Year

It was Chinese New Year last weekend (14th February), but I had a busy weekend and got back late on sunday from playing the cello at a wedding, so my intended Chinese-style meal had to be postponed for a week. This turned out to be a good thing in the end, as leafing through this saturday's Guardian newspaper I came across a delicious sounding Thai/Chinese style salad which I decided to make for the main course.

I tried out Salt and Szechuan Pepper Prawns (I have made these before, so they can't count towards a Recipe of the Week!), which are always yummy. I love the flavour of szechuan pepper.

Also, steamed vegetable stuffed spring rolls. I used rice noodle wrappers for these, which were a disaster! Rubbish to work with; either too sticky or too easy to crack. The filling was delicious but the wrappers were completely inedible. Never again. I'll use wonton wrappers next time.

Then the piece-de-resistance, Pork and Mango Salad. I tweaked the recipe from the newspaper in the following ways:

I used Pork instead of Beef.
I didn't have any avocado so I left it out, but added a few cherry tomatos and a few slices of spring onion.
I had watercress in the fridge but no rocket, so it was a watercress salad for us.
Dan had the salad with oodles of noodles, I had it as it came. Both were good.

Delicious - thank you Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.



Find the salad recipe here

I also made crumpets this weekend; nice to have on a snowy day after a run across the hills.





They were quite time-consuming to cook though, and not so much better than shop-bought ones, so I think laziness will prevail in future and I'll buy them ready-made!