red and green salad

 

this salad was very simple to pull together and makes wonderful use of our seasonal vegetables. make some slow-roasted tomatoes (or you could use sun-blush or sun-dried tomatoes). green beans and asparagus were then blanched in boiling water until just cooked (i do the asparagus first, remove them with a slotted spoon and then cook the beans as i always seem to get a layer of scum when i boil beans). dress the warm beans with olive oil and lemon juice and arrange on a plate with the tomatoes. sprinkle with toasted pine nuts (you can roast these for 5-10 minutes while you are cooking the tomatoes but keep an eye on them so they don’t burn).

orrechiette with asparagus, feta and chorizo

 

chorizo makes frequent appearances in my cooking but, unless there is a pizza involved, it rarely appears in its pre-sliced form. however, a pack of mildly-flavoured chorizo slices which i was sent by abel & cole got me thinking.

i spoke to various friends who had lots of great ideas for using chorizo (or salami for that matter) slices but the idea that caught my fancy simply involved dry-frying it so that the edges crisp up, much as it would on a pizza. i added the juice of a lemon to the pan when it was done, to make a dressing from the oil which the meat released, and then used this to garnish a fresh summery pasta dish of broad beans, asparagus and feta cheese.

this was a really good use of the chorizo (which i’d otherwise have nibbled on with a glass of red wine) and is a nice way to lift a gentle and mildly flavoured dish. i particularly liked the way the chorizo took on a slight lemony tang which made it particularly mouth-watering.

Click to read more ...

asparagus, green bean and raw mushroom salad

 

slowly but surely i’m getting back into cooking lighter, more summery food. it’s not been as quick and easy as usual this year – i’m not sure if this is due to the weather being so changeable and winter not being willing to step aside for spring, or if it’s down to having a two week break from my kitchen just as the seasons shifted and spring fruit and vegetables started to arrive.

whatever the reason, i think i’m back on track. as ever, asparagus is a good friend when it comes to lightening things up and this salad was brilliant. it’s also absolute simplicity itself which is great when the sun is shining and all you want to do is sit outside with a plate of yummy food.

Click to read more ...

roasted asparagus with smoked salt

 

english asparagus is back in season and, as ever, i am loving it! there are a number of different ways to cook asparagus although the classic is to steam it. last year i tried char-grilling it on my griddle for the very delicious ottolenghi recipe for char-grilled asparagus, courgettes and manouri salad.

the char-grilling was supposed to produce a smokey flavour but the end result just tasted overly oily to me. roasting was next on my list which i tried last night (with only my second bunch of english asparagus this year!) and it had that smokey flavour. this was probably helped along the way by my use of smoked salt which i added both before and after cooking.

Click to read more ...

discovering manouri

 

 manouri is a greek semi-soft fresh cheese produced from the drained whey that is left over after making feta. i have been trying to track it down since i made the ottolenghi chargrilled asparagus, courgette and manouri salad but had to use halloumi in its place.

as ever, i was rescued by the wonderful green valley on upper berkeley street, w1h 5qe. manouri is very different from halloumi – it doesn’t have same rubbery, squeaky characteristics, being softer and reminding me more of paneer in terms of (lack of) taste and texture. like halloumi it fries and grills very well and is very long-lasting. it was a nice change to halloumi and i will definitely use it again and next time will try marinating or coating it with spices before frying

Click to read more ...