Recipes

Asparagus Mimosa

Asparagus Mimosa

‘Mimosa’ is the term applied to dishes garnished with hard-boiled egg pushed through a sieve. This version is a bit more rustic. You can treat leeks in the same way (steam them until they are completely tender; how long that takes depends on the thickness of the leeks).
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Ingredients

SERVES 6

Instructions

  • Make the dressing by mixing the lemon juice, mustard and salt and pepper in a cup and whisking in the extra virgin oil.
  • Stir in the parsley and capers and taste.
  • You may want more lemon or oil.
  • Put the eggs into boiling water and cook for seven minutes, then briefly run cold water over them.
  • Trim the base off each asparagus stalk and finely peel off any the skin that looks tough.
  • Boil or steam the asparagus until just tender (four to six minutes).
  • When the eggs are cool enough to handle but still warm, quickly remove the shells and chop the yolks and whites together.
  • As soon as the asparagus is cooked, drain it and divide between six plates.
  • Season with salt and pepper and spoon the dressing on top, then put the chopped egg across the middle of the asparagus.
  • Drizzle with some more extra virgin oil and serve.
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Course; Side Dish / Vegetables

Asparagus, Veneto Style

Asparagus, Veneto Style

This sounds very ordinary, but it ain’t. A DIY dish, it’s a real pleasure to do some mixing at the table. You can smell the olive oil as soon as it hits the warm egg and asparagus. Go easy on the vinegar, and season carefully.
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Ingredients

Instructions

  • Break or cut any woody ends off the asparagus and put the eggs on to boil.
  • When the eggs have cooked for seven minutes, drain and plunge them into cold water.
  • Leave to cool a little, but only until they are cool enough to handle.
  • Put them into a wire basket or a bowl lined with a tea towel, pulling the tea towel round the eggs to keep them warm.
  • Meanwhile, cook the asparagus either in an asparagus pan, or in a regular pan (covered) with the base of the stems in about 5cm (2in) of boiling water and the rest of the stalks and the tips propped up against the side.
  • It should take four to six minutes and the spears should be just tender when pierced with the point of a knife.
  • Lift the asparagus out of the water, briefly pat dry with a tea towel, put on a platter and drizzle with extra virgin oil and season with salt and pepper.
  • Take the bottle of oil to the table with the red wine vinegar and seasoning.
  • Each person should peel and mash their egg, adding vinegar and extra virgin oil (about 1 tsp vinegar and 2 tbsp oil per person is about right).
  • more spears…
  • asparagus with prawns and dill Prepare and cook 1.
  • 5kg (3lb 5oz) asparagus as for Asparagus, veneto style.
  • While it’s cooking, melt 75g (2¾oz) butter in a frying pan and gently warm 200g (7oz) cooked, shelled and deveined prawns (ideally organic) with the chopped fronds from 6 sprigs of dill.
  • Divide the asparagus between plates (or serve on a large platter).
  • Spoon some prawns and dill butter over each serving and season.
  • Serves 8.
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Course; Side Dish / Vegetables

Greek Yogurt And Apricot Ice Cream

Greek Yogurt And Apricot Ice Cream

It’s really important to sieve the apricot purée, otherwise you end up with an ice cream that has little bits in it. (Though don’t use a sieve with too fine a mesh, or you won’t be able to push it through.) You can also use regular plain yogurt rather than Greek stuff, it’s just slightly tarter. Don’t use low-fat yogurt, though, it sets very hard. Even with this full-fat version you need to bring it out of the freezer and let it defrost a little before serving.
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Ingredients

Instructions

  • Put the apricots into a saucepan with the apple juice and sugar and pour in 100ml (3½fl oz) of water.
  • Set over a medium heat and bring to just under the boil.
  • Take the pan off the heat and leave to plump up overnight (turn the fruit over every so often to make sure all sides are getting soaked).
  • Put the apricots and their liquid in a food processor and whizz to a purée.
  • You need to get it as fine as you can, so keep puréeing.
  • Push this through a sieve (with not too fine a mesh), pressing hard to get as much of the mixture through as possible.
  • You shouldn’t end up with that much left in the sieve.
  • Stir the apricot purée into the yogurt, completely incorporating it, then mix in the crème fraîche.
  • Taste for sweetness.
  • Pour into an ice-cream machine and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
  • While it’s churning, add the honey.
  • If you don’t have an ice-cream machine, pour the mixture into a broad, shallow freezer-proof container and put into the freezer.
  • You need to break the mixture up – the easiest way is to whizz it in a food processor – three or four times during the freezing process so the ice crystals are broken down for a smooth ice cream.
  • Add the honey during the last time you beat the mixture.
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Course; Dessert / Ice cream

Persian Saffron And Mint Chicken With Spring Couscous

Persian Saffron And Mint Chicken With Spring Couscous

A really pretty dish. Change the couscous according to what you have (even using fresh cherries when they’re in season instead of dried ones). It just has to be fresh and green, so keep plenty of herbs in it. You can also use the marinade for whole chickens or poussins instead of thighs.
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Ingredients

FOR THE CHICKEN

FOR THE COUSCOUS

  • 20 g ¾oz dried sour cherries
  • 200 g 7oz wholemeal couscous
  • 200 ml 7fl oz boiling chicken stock or water
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 garlic clove crushed
  • juice of ½ lemon and finely grated zest of 1
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 tbsp each chopped flat-leaf parsley and mint leaves
  • 2 spring onions trimmed and finely chopped
  • 25 g 1oz pistachios, chopped
  • handful of pea shoots or other small salad leaves

FOR THE YOGURT SAUCE

Instructions

  • For the chicken, put the saffron and lemon juice in a small pan, heat gently and stir to help the saffron stamens dissolve.
  • Remove from the heat and mix with the zest, garlic, chillies and olive oil.
  • Tear the mint leaves into the pan.
  • Put the chicken thighs into a broad, shallow non-reactive dish and pour the marinade over.
  • Turn them over to make sure they get completely coated, then cover with cling film and put in the fridge to marinate.
  • Leave for about 30 minutes.
  • At the same time, pour boiling water over the cherries for the couscous and leave them to plump up for 30 minutes.
  • Sprinkle the couscous into a bowl, pour over the stock or water and the olive oil.
  • Leave for 15 minutes.
  • Fork it through to separate the grains, then add the garlic, lemon juice and zest, extra virgin oil, salt and pepper.
  • Stir in the herbs, spring onions, pistachios, pea shoots and drained cherries.
  • To make the yogurt sauce, mix the yogurt with the extra virgin oil and garlic and place in a serving dish.
  • Sprinkle the microleaves or radish matchsticks on top.
  • Heat a griddle pan until it is really hot.
  • Lift the chicken out of the marinade and griddle it (you will have to do it in two batches if your pan is small), turning frequently.
  • You want to get a good dark golden colour on each side.
  • Make sure the chicken is cooked (cut into the underside to check: the juices should run clear with no trace of pink).
  • Serve it with the couscous and yogurt sauce.
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Course; Chicken
Cuisine; Iran / Persië

Feta And Orange Salad With Honeyed Almonds

Feta And Orange Salad With Honeyed Almonds

Fresh. Just what you want come April, though this is good in the winter as well, especially when blood oranges are around.
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Ingredients

FOR THE DRESSING

FOR THE ALMONDS

FOR THE SALAD

  • 3 oranges
  • 1 small or ½ large fennel bulb
  • 60 g 2oz watercress
  • 100 g 3½oz feta (preferably barrel-aged), broken into chunks
  • 10 g ¼oz mint leaves, torn

Instructions

  • Make the dressing by whisking all the ingredients together.
  • Taste to check the seasoning, then pour into a broad shallow bowl.
  • To make the almonds, heat the olive oil in a small frying pan and add the almonds.
  • Fry them over a medium heat until they are toasted – keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t burn – then add the honey and spices and cook until the honey is bubbling and almost caramelized.
  • Spoon the hot honeyed almonds on to a non-stick baking sheet or some baking parchment.
  • Leave to cool a little.
  • You can chop these very roughly or leave them whole.
  • Cut a slice off the bottom and top of each orange so they have a flat base on which to sit.
  • Using a very sharp knife, cut the peel and pith off each orange, working around the fruit and cutting the peel away in broad strips from top to bottom.
  • Slice the oranges into rounds and flick out any seeds you see.
  • Set aside.
  • Trim the fennel, reserving any feathery bits, and remove the tough outer leaves.
  • Quarter the bulb lengthways (or cut the half bulb in half) and cut out the core.
  • Slice very finely (a mandoline is best) and throw into the dressing.
  • Finely chop any feathery bits you pulled off and add them, too.
  • Discard any coarse watercress stalks.
  • Put the oranges, watercress, feta and mint into the bowl as well and toss gently.
  • Add the almonds and serve immediately.
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Course; Salad

Goat’s curd, blueberries and watercress

Goat’s curd, blueberries and watercress

Goat’s curd – which tastes like light, creamy, almost ‘unformed’ goat’s cheese – is quite hard to find unless you live near a top-notch cheesemonger. But it’s a cinch to make. It doesn’t have to be made into a ‘proper’ dish, either. Spread it on bread then drizzle with olive oil, or a little flower honey. This salad is lovely with added spelt (see crazy grains for how to cook it, you’ll need just 50g/1¾oz raw weight). Toss it in some of the dressing and scatter in the bowl or on the plates before you add everything else. Y1ou’ll need to increase the quantity of dressing a little, too. The vinegar I use for this, made by A l’Olivier, contains raspberry pulp and is stocked at Waitrose. The recipe for the goat’s curd is from my good friend, the food writer Xanthe Clay. It makes about 175g (6oz) of goat’s curd.
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Ingredients

FOR THE GOAT’S CURD

  • 1 litre 1¾ pints whole goat’s milk (pasteurized is fine)
  • 1 tbsp rennet
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • salt

FOR THE DRESSING

FOR THE SALAD

  • 100 g 3½oz watercress, coarse stalks removed
  • 100 g 3½oz blueberries
  • 150 g 5½oz goat’s curd
  • 20 g ¾oz pistachios, or toasted hazelnuts or almonds, coarsely chopped
  • 15 g ½oz microleaves (red amaranth is especially lovely), if you can get them

Instructions

  • To make the goat’s curd, heat the milk to 25°C (77°F).
  • Stir in the rennet and lemon juice, cover and leave for an hour.
  • Line a colander with muslin and place it over a bowl.
  • Strain the mixture through the muslin.
  • Gather the corners to make a kind of bag and hang this to drip for a couple of hours (use the tap over the sink, or a door handle where it can drip into a bowl).
  • It should be thick, but if you’d like it thicker, just leave to drip for longer.
  • Tip the cheese out of the muslin and into a bowl.
  • Season with salt and gently mix this in.
  • Cover and keep in the fridge.
  • Whisk all the dressing ingredients together with a fork, adding salt to taste.
  • Toss the watercress and berries with this, then put into a broad shallow bowl (or arrange on plates) and dot with the goat’s curd.
  • Sprinkle with the nuts and microleaves (if using), then serve.
  • another idea… Slice 350g (12oz) sweet tomatoes (mixed colours if possible) and put in a bowl with the torn leaves from a bunch of basil.
  • Drizzle with extra virgin oil and lemon juice, season and dot nuggets of 175g (6oz) goat’s curd on top.
  • This also works with cooked farro dressed with oil and lemon (see crazy grains, you’ll need 50g/1¾oz raw weight).

Notes & Wine Advice

The curd is delicious with fruit as well. Use it instead of ricotta for the recipe Ricotta with summer berries and honey.
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Course; Dessert

Ricotta With Summer Berries And Honey

Ricotta With Summer Berries And Honey

No cooking required. Just good, pure ingredients. Go to a deli and buy fresh ricotta rather than the UHT stuff you find in tubs in supermarkets. There’s a world of difference.
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Ingredients

  • 300 g 10½oz fresh ricotta
  • a little icing sugar optional
  • 400 g 14oz raspberries, loganberries, redcurrants or blackberries
  • lovely scented runny honey orange blossom or thyme are good here

Instructions

  • Line a sieve with muslin or a brand new J-cloth.
  • Set this over a bowl and tip the ricotta into it.
  • Pull the cloth round it and set a plate on top.
  • Put into the fridge and leave for a couple of hours.
  • Pull the cloth off and taste the ricotta.
  • If you feel it needs to be sweeter, mash a little icing sugar into it.
  • Divide the ricotta between serving plates, or put it on to one large plate.
  • Scatter some berries alongside each serving and drizzle with honey.
  • other fruity ways with ricotta… You can serve ricotta like this with other fruits.
  • Good ripe figs are delicious (in which case use a good lavender honey, it’s perfect with figs) and whitecurrants look wonderful (their almost pearlized skin is gorgeous against the creamy ricotta).
  • Poached peaches or apricots are lovely, too (but add less sugar to their poaching liquor as you will be drizzling them with honey).
  • If you’re using golden stone fruits, scatter them with pistachios before serving.
  • Another idea is to slightly sweeten the ricotta with icing sugar and serve it in a mound with fresh cherries scattered all round it.
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Course; Cheese / Fruit

Persian salad

Persian salad

We don’t think about putting herbs into salads, except as an afterthought. But, in the Middle East, they can be the salad. And this one is beautiful, though it depends on top quality leaves and flowers as well as herbs. I like the flowers to be all blue and white, that way it has the same colour palette, but see what you can get. Obviously, the flowers need to be unsprayed. Even some supermarkets seem to be doing various colours of radish – purple and mauve as well as pink – but, again, see what you can find; just use pink and it will still look gorgeous, as long as everything is absolutely perky and fresh.
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Ingredients

For The Salad

  • 12 radishes different colours if you can get them
  • ½ ridge cucumber use ½ regular cucumber if you can’t find that
  • 75 g 2¾oz salad leaves (baby spinach, watercress, lamb’s lettuce and any red-veined leaves you can find)
  • 20 g ¾oz dill fronds
  • 25 g 1oz mint leaves
  • 15 g ½oz basil leaves
  • 15 g ½oz flat-leaf parsley leaves
  • edible flowers and petals

For The Dressing

Instructions

  • If the radishes have really fresh leaves, remove them, wash and pat dry.
  • They can go into the salad, too.
  • Either quarter or shave the radishes, whichever you think will look best.
  • Peel the cucumber, remove the seeds and cut the flesh into chunks.
  • Mix all the dressing ingredients together and season well.
  • Toss all the elements together and serve.
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Course; Salad
Cuisine; Iran / Persië

Plum Tomato and Olive Filets

Plum Tomato and Olive Filets

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Ingredients

Instructions

  • Set your oven to 425 degrees before doing anything else.
  • Get a large pot of water boiling.
  • Once the water is boiling add in your tomatoes and let the tomatoes sit in the water for10 secs then remove them to a bowl of water and ice.
  • Once the tomatoes have cooled remove the skins and dice them.
  • Now begin to stir fry your onions in olive oil for 7 mins then add in the Italian seasoning, tomatoes, and garlic.
  • Let the mix cook for 9 mins then combine in: 1/2 of the basil, olives, lemon juice, broth, and capers.
  • Set the heat to low then mix in the parmesan.
  • Let the contents cook for 17 mins with a low heat.
  • Now place your fish in a casserole dish, pour in the sauce, add the rest of the basil, and put everything in the oven for 14 mins.

Nutrition values

Calories: 282 kcal
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Course; Fish / Main Course

Pasta Rustica

Pasta Rustica

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Ingredients

Instructions

  • Boil your pasta for 10 mins in water and salt.
  • Remove excess liquid and set aside.
  • Fry your salt, pepper, garlic, paprika, zucchini, oregano, mushrooms, onion, and tomato, for 17 mins in olive oil.
  • Mix the veggies and pasta.

Nutrition values

Calories: 717 kcal
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Course; Pasta