Gingered rump steak salad

A variation on chilli beef salad. In this version I marinaded the steaks for about half an hour then served them whole with the salad on the side. 

 

The salad bit

  Asian marinade/dressing ingredients

• 1/2 JOT* grated ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon sambal oelek or 1 red chilli
• Sambal oelek is a hot Malaysian/Thai chilli sauce - I used a small amount of this as I didn't have a fresh red chilli. If you're using fresh chilli, chop it finely and remove the seeds.
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• pinch sugar

*Jamie Oliver's Thumb: the official measurement used for root ginger.

 

Salad ingredients

• 5cm piece carrot
• 5cm piece courgette
• 5cm piece cucumber
• 1/2 red pepper
• 2 spring onions 
• 1 small little gem lettuce
• Small handful mint leaves
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted 

 

How to make marinaded rump steak salad

1. Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a shallow dish.
2. Add the steaks to the dish and turn to coat both sides.
3. Cover with cling film and set aside for at least 30 minutes - don't, however, chill in the fridge as you want the steaks to be at room temperature when you cook them. 
4. While the steaks are marinading, cut the vegetables into julienne (ie thin strips).
5. Toast the sesame seeds for a minute or two until slightly coloured and there is a noticeable aroma coming from the.
6. When you are ready to cook the steaks, heat a griddle pan till it is very hot.
7. Remove the steaks from the marinade and place on the hot griddle.
8. Leave to cook for about 3 minutes, then turn over and cook the other side for the same time - this will give you medium-rare steaks. 
9. Remove the steaks from the pan and leave to rest for at least 5 minutes.
10. Let the remaining marinade bubble for a few minutes till it becomes syrupy. 
11. Tear the mint leaves and add to the vegetables.
12. Pour the thickened marinade over the salad and toss together.
13. Sprinkle the sesame seeds over the salad then sever with the steak.

 

The steak bit

A word on toasted seeds

Toasted seeds add taste and crunch to a salad, but sometimes seem like a bit of an unnecessary hassle to bother with. I normally toast a couple of tablespoons each of:

• linseeds
• sunflower seeds
• poppy seeds
• pumpkin seeds

then keep these in a small jar for sprinkling on salads. I also keep a jar in my drawer at work, but normally forget to add them to my lunch salads. 

Henry salad

Warning: This salad is not for vegetarians. 

This is Henry.

Henry (right)

 
Henry had a very happy and, for pigs destined to end up on our plate, long life (3). 

Apparently he was especially partial to custard creams. I'd like to say the sausages made from him tasted of custard creams, but they didn't. They tasted of Happy Pig. OK, they didn't, they tasted of sausages. But very, very good sausages.

Last week was the first Salad Club of the New Year. Our lovely freelancer Janey Stapes offered me some sausages made from her parent's pig, Henry. Since I've been trying to convince Salad Club of the merits of sausage and pumpkin salad for some time, this seemed like the ideal opportunity to try it out on them. 


In the end, though, we made much simpler salad, with the sausages being the only ingredient that needed cooking.  

Henry (after)

Henry Salad ingredients

Serves 12-14

• 24 Henry sausages*
• 1 jar marinated grilled mixed peppers
• 1 large punnet cherry tomatoes
• 2 cans chickpeas
• 1 bunch basil
• 2 packs feta cheese
• 1 bag baby spinach
• 1 bag rocket
• Chilli flakes, to taste
• Toasted sesame and pumpkin seeds, a sprinkle each

 *If you can't get hold of Henry sausages, use top quality butcher's sausages. That is, buy them from an actual butcher's, not a supermarket. Or even better, from someone who makes sausages. 

Cooking with Henry

Gabi adds the finishing touches

It was thought that Henry, being an old (and happy) pig, may have turned a bit sinewy, and so rather than making him into chops and joints, he was made ENTIRELY INTO SAUSAGES! If I were a pig, that's the way I'd want to go.

This meant that Henry sausages had a very high meat content. It also meant he had a higher fat content than you'd find in most sausages.To remove some of the fat, I roasted the sausages on a grill pan at about 200⁰C in the oven . After 15 minutes I pricked the sausages to let more fat drain out, then continued roasting for another 20 or so minutes. There was a lot of fat. But we all know that fat means flavour. 

If your sausages aren't of such a high meat and fat content (ie normal sausages), you probably don't need to prick them, just roast for 30-40 minutes, turning once during cooking, till most of the sausage is browned.

How to make Henry sausage salad

I normally twist my sausages into half or 3rds before baking them for salads. That way you get lots of little individual sausages, each with its own skin, to bite into. Henry was having none of that, spilling from his casing when I tried to twist the links. Instead I cooked the links whoe then cut each sausage into 2, 3 or 4 pieces, just to give some variety.


All you need to do to make this salad cut the tomatoes in half, rip the basil into small pieces, and mix everything together with the oil from the marinated peppers.

Put more dried chilli flakes out for people to help themselves, along with the toasted sesame and pumpkin seeds.

Andrea, Sausage nosed Jane, Robbie

Roasted vegetable salad

Roasted vegaletable salad with balsamic dressing and yoghurt on the side

A couple of weeks ago salad club was roasted vegetables. This was the list of ingredients:

• Roasted aubergines
• Roasted mixed peppers and onions
• Roasted squash or pumpkin
• Roasted sweet potato
• Roasted potato
• Sundried tomatoes
• Feta cheese
• Pineuts
• Balsamic dressing
• Yoghurt 

For some reason, the person who was allocated squash/pumkin was unable to find any so brought aubergine instead. (Really? Two weeks before Hallowe'en?? Where was he looking? An aubergine shop?) This means we had 2 lots of aubergine, but no squash.

I invited everyone to tell me how they prepared their vegetables but only received four replies. I love the different styles so have copied them verbatim below.

For the sweet potato (as described by Yuki)

Peeled and chopped sweet potato into bite size chunks.
Place in baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle cinnamon on top.
Put in oven at 180C and roast for 25mins. 

Paula's comment:  as expected from Yuki, practical, no nonesense, easy to follow instructions. 

For the potatoes (as described by Kate)

1lb of new potatoes
handful of chopped fresh dill
enough olive oil to cover the potatoes
Salt for taste

Paula's comment: I think these were then roasted in the oven, though at what temperature and for how long I don't know. I would also suggest that you simply drizzle olive oil over the potatoes, then toss to coat, rather than submerging them in oil.  

For (one of thee ) aubergines (as described by Amber)

we washed the aubergine, then chopped into cubes, put it in a colander and salted them for 30minutes, then rinsed, then tossed with olive oil, salt, chilli flakes, pepper and  italian mixed herbs. we baked it spread flat on a baking tray and placed in the oven at 180 for around 1 hr, checking and turning occasionally. 

Paula's comment: aw, how cute - love how Amber always says 'we' . Rehan (the other half of the 'we') is welcome at Salad Club any time.

For the balsamic salad dressing (as described by Gina)

Leave a couple minutes earlier so you have time to stop at Tesco
Check email to remember what ingredient assignment is
Locate salad dressing isle at Tesco
Spend a few minutes browsing for the best looking bottle of balsamic
Select and remove from shelf
Continue to check out and pay for your item
Store in fridge until salad club begins
Shake well and serve. 


Paula's comment: Top marks Gina, especially given that you subsequently had to miss Salad Club. Again. 

For the yoghurt side dish

This was my ingredient - it's something my Polish sister-in-law often serves with roast vegetables. 

• About half a large tub (200-250ml) natural or Greek yoghurt
• 2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed in their skins
• A handful chopped parsley
• A handful chopped dill
• A small lug of olive oil
• Salt and black pepper

1. Mix all the ingredients together at least an hour before you want to serve to let the yoghurt take up the flavours.
2. Remove the pieces of garlic before serving.

This was a tasty and filling salad, despite the lack of squash and only half the amount of feta since the other half was mouldy. Cheap too.

Thai chili beef salad

Danielle and Courtney with Thai beef salad

This salad was amazing - I urge you to try it. 

It's very simple to make, only requiring a bit of chopping and steak frying. Even the dressing is effortless. 
 

Thai chilli beef salad ingredients for 12

• Fried steak, cut into thin strips.  
• 3 packs rice noodles
• I cucumber, cut into fine strips
• I yellow or red pepper, cut into thin strips
• I bunch spring onions, finely sliced
• 1 bag cashew nuts, chopped
• I bag ready washed spinach
• Mint and coriander, finely chopped
• Green and red chillies, finely chopped 
• Dressing: 3 parts sweet chilli sauce, 3 parts lime juice to two parts fish sauce

For lunch you only need a little bit of steak, otherwise you'd be stuck in your swivel chair for the rest of the afternoon, unable even to swivel. We used 3 steaks for 12 people. Last night, I used 1 rump steak for 2 of us.

Salad Club: Tastes of Morocco

From left: Kate, Peggy, Yuki, Danielle

I've been on holiday for a week and in my absence it seems that Salad Club was also on a break.
On my return, we have a Moroccan themed Salad Club.

I am responsible for the hummus and roasted red peppers. I do my usual hummus recipe.

For the roasted red peppers, I do some online research, and find that controversy rages as to the best way of doing this. Some roast the peppers over a naked gas flame. This seems like a tedious and slightly dangerous method to me. So then. Oven? Grill? Whole? Quartered? Who cares? Does it really make that much difference? The answer is probably yes. Having cut and deseeded the peppers and roasted them in a hot oven for about an hour, I took them out and put them straight into a tupperware box with a clip lid, thinking this would make the skins easy to peel off when cool. Wrong. After about half an hour I ended up with an incompletely peeled pathetic little heap of pepper pieces.  I swear, next time I buy them in a jar.

Sorry for cutting your head off Danielle

The rest of the Salad Clubbers brought in the following:

• Cooked chickpeas
• Steak
• Tomato salad
• Artichokes
• Lemon couscous
• Halloumi
• Cucumber, cut into chunks
• Salad leaves
• Steak 
• Chopped dill
• Chopped parsley

For the couscous (Yuki)

Add the rind of half a lemon, some thyme and Moroccan spice mix to the couscous then cover with boiling water and leave to soak for about 10 minutes.

For the tomatoes (Kate)

• Dice tomatoes and add the following:
• Garlic
• Parsely
• Dill
• Spring onion
• Lemon peel
• Cumin
• Ras el hanout
• Curry powder
• Nutmeg
• Red wine vinegar
• Salt and pepper

 
As for the quantities, you're on your own here - this is Kate's secret recipe and She. Will. Take. It. To. The. Grave. 

For the steak (Peggy)

• 1 kg steak
• 2 cloves of garlic, pressed or very finely chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, or more to taste
• 1/8 teaspoon chili pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cliantro (coriander)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil  

How to make the steak (as dictated by Peggy)

1. Stab the steak all over repeatedly with a knife. Pretend its that inconsiderate person that was taking up too much space on the tube this morning*
2. Dunk the steak in the 'marinade'. Apparently you are supposed to actually marinade the steak, though I have to say it worked perfectly well without marinading.
3. Make sure you poke some of the pieces of garlic into the holes made by stabbing the steak.
4. Fry the steak in the marinade for a while, then turn it over and fry the other side. My guess is as good as yours as to how long 'a while' is. The marinade will evaporate, leaving a paste.
5. Leave the steak to cool in the paste, then cut up into slices. 

*author's own addition.

All the homemade ingredients this week were exceptional, but the star Tosser had to be Peggy for the steak.

With thanks to article contributors Yuki, Kate and Peggy.  
Additional thanks to Yuki for HTML formatting help.

Salad Club III: Who is him? Greek salad

Today's salad is in honour of our former Greek colleague. We miss you, Nikki Papadaki.

Authentic Greek salad does not contain lettuce or chicken. For some reason, our version included cooked chicken, but I did draw the line at lettuce.

Greek salad ingredients

• 2 packs feta cheese (400g in total)
• 1 large cucumber, cut into cubes
• black olives, a large tub
• 1  red and 1 yellow pepper, cut into cubes
• 2 punnets cherry tomatoes
• 1 small red onion, very finely sliced
• 1bunch mint
• 1 bunch basil
• Cooked chicken

 
 
 
 

Greek salad dressing ingredients

• Olive oil
• Lemon juice
• Thyme
• Salt & pepper

 

Greek salad accompaniments to serve

Hummus, tzatziki, pitta bread. 


This week's salad club got a little out of hand. There were too many members (9) and too many slackers. We almost ran out of food and I had to send out rules. 

This week's star Tosser was Amber, who brought in home made tzatziki. Kate also deserves a special commendation for the salad dressing.




 

Prawns, sardines and chicken on the barbeque

Halfway through September, and summer finally arrived. I  wished I hadn't left the barbeque exposed to the elements for a year, it would have saved my nails from splitting cleaning it with wire wool.

To start, large shell on prawns, marinaded in crushed garlic and lemon juice. Delish.

Next, sardine fillets that the fishmonger somehow convinced me to buy. These were marinaded in olive oil, dill and lemon juice.These only took a few minutes each side  to cook on the barbie.

To go with this, a potato salad, based on several of Nigel Slater's recipes.  

Potato salad ingredients

• 1/3 cucumber
• 6 cornichon
• baby new potatoes - about 300g
• 1/2 bunch dill
• 1/2 bunch chives
• 2 tablespoons half fat creme fraiche
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard  
• I tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• I teaspoon cider vinegar 

How to make potato salad

You need to prepare the cucumber by halving then quartering it and then cutting out the slimy jelly seedy bit in the middle or else it will make your potato salad go soggy. Its not really the best bit of the cucumber in any case. 

Mix together all the ingredients apart from the potatoes in a large shallow dish.

Then you just need to cook the new potatoes by putting them in a pan, pouring over some boiling water and adding a good pinch of salt. Turn down to a simmer then cook till tender - probably about 20 mins depending on the size and variety of the potatoes.

Once the potatoes are tender when tested with a skewer, drain and then toss in the dressing straight away while still hot. This allows the flavours to be absorbed and prevents your potatoes from drying out.

By the way, don't ever add boiling water to floury potatoes (they type you would use for mash or roasties) as they will fall apart in the water.

As you can see, we also had a cheeky little corn on the cob with our sardines and potato salad.

Finally, chicken kebabs. 

Chicken breasts were cut into largeish pieces and marinaded in olive oil, thyme leaves, lemon juice and garlic for a couple of hours. 

I then threaded them onto wooden skewers, soaked for a few minutes in boiling water so the chicken doesn't stick to them, interspersed with pieces of red onion, yellow peppers and cherry tomatoes.

This threading of different vegetables and the meat turned out to be a mistake: the tomatoes were cooked within minutes and started to drip off the skewers. After a little reassembly job the chicken and peppers cooked at the same time, with the onions taking a little longer. This didn't matter, as it gave the chicken a few minutes to rest while the onions finished cooking.
. 

Pasta, prawns, peppers

Pasta is boring. It's what you eat at home when there's nobody else around. Its not something you serve to guests (unless you actually made the pasta yourself) and its not something you choose when eating out. It is lazy cooking. But it can be damn tasty.

If pasta recipes are as easy to write as they are to cook I may be about to enter an extremely prolific blogging phase.

Pasta with prawns and peppers (OK, plus a few more ingredients) 

• 2 small portions fusili pasta (wholewheat or tricolore)
• I bag raw king prawns
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1/2 yellow pepper
• 1/2 punnet cherry tomatoes
• 4 sundried tomatoes
• 1 bag rocket
• Chilli oil
• Unwaxed lemon, rind only

How to make pasta with prawns and a few other ingredients

 

1. Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan.
2. Cut the peppers into very thin strips and fry gently in the oil until they start to blacken a little at the edges -- about 5 minutes.
3. Add the pasta to a pan of boiling, salted water and set the timer for 3  minutes shorter than the cooking time given on the packet.
4. Chop the sundried tomatoes into very small pieces.
5. Cut the cherry tomatoes into a mixture of halves and quarters.
6. Add the prawns to the pan with the peppers and stir fry till pink and cooked through (about 4 minutes).
7. Drain the pasta and blanch with boiling water, reserving a tiny amount of the cooking water in a cup.
8. Put the pasta back in the saucepan, mix together with the peppers, prawns and tomatoes; season.
9. Add a little chilli oil, a little reserved cooking liquid and the rocket.
10. Toss until the rocket has wilted.
11. Serve with a little lemon rind grated over.

More pasta recipes:

Spag bol

Macaroni cheese

Salmon noodle salad

We've moved offices to the middle of the A4 and there's nowhere to go for lunch except the on-site cafe and the World's Biggest Tescos. Now lunch for free at work is not just a philosophy but a necessity. 

I've become Salad Director for our newly formed Salad Club. Even though I hate the use of capital letters in job titles I take this role very seriously.

Salad club: Kate, Peggy, Courtney, Yuki, Danielle, me. Not in the photo: Leanne (taking the photo), Erik

 

Its amazing how many contraindications there are with just eight people: onions, Kosher, coriander (afflicts a surprisingly high proportion of Salad Club members), salad-intolerence...

We settled on salmon noodle salad with coriander as an optional garnish. 

Salmon noodle salad ingredients

Serves 8

• Salmon fillets, x6, marinaded and cooked (see below)
• 1 cucumber thinly sliced
• Grated carrots
• Red and orange peppers, thinly sliced
• Cashew nuts
• Beansprouts
• Spinach, 1 bag
• Vermicelli rice noodles 
• Salad dressing (see below)

Salmon marinade ingredients 

Marinade the salmon in the following for 20-30 mins

• 1.5 JOT* (ginger, peeled and grated)
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce (I used dark, as this was all I had, though light would be better)
• 2 tablespoons tamarind paste
• Juice 2 limes

*Jamie Oliver's thum, the IM unit for ginger. 

How to cook the salmon 

1. Heat the oven to the Magic Number (190C fan assisted). Bake the salmon for 10-12 minutes.
2. I'm a bit fussy about slimy fish. After 10 minutes I thought the salmon was a little too opaque so gave it a couple more minutes.
   Bear in mind though that it will cook a little more once out of the oven, and also in the lime dressing. 
3. Once cool enough to handle, gently break the salmon up and flake into pieces.
4. Store in a tupperware container overnight.

Salad dressing ingredients

Add the following to a screw-cap jar and shake well. You will need to give it another vigorous shake before serving.

• Juice 2 limes
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon chilli jam or sweet chilli sauce
• Dash fish sauce*

*only needed if it tastes a bit too sweet 

How to make salmon noodle salad

1. Tell everyone to assemble at the allocated time with their ingredients already prepared. 
2. Help yourself to everything, add a little dressing, and eat at a communal table. 

NOTES:

• It is every member of Salad Club's responsibility to bring and prepare their own ingredient. 
• The Director and Deputy Director of Salad Club are happy to give prep advice if needed up to 5 minutes before the arranged salad club time. 

Stuffed peppers

It’s blazing hot weather, the Olympics start tomorrow, and I want an accompaniment for hot smoked trout and salad.

The idea of stuffed peppers probably draws a sigh from most vegetarians, but as a non-vegetarian I actually quite like this dish once in a while.

 

The recipe below assumes the dish is part of selection of salads.

Stuffed peppers ingredients

• 1 yellow or orange pepper. Go on then, use red if you insist.
• A handful of cooked Puy lentils
• Slightly larger quantity of cooked giant couscous
• An even larger quantity of cooked bulgur wheat
• 2 spring onions
• 1 small garlic clove, crushed
• A few chopped nuts – I used cashews today but pine nuts or mixed nuts would also work
• About 3 sundried tomatoes (optional), chopped into really very small pieces
• A few chopped herbs – I used a few thyme leaves tonight but oregano or Greek basil would also be good

How to make stuffed peppers

1. Finely shop the spring onions and lightly fry for a few minutes in a little olive oil till soft.
2. Add the crushed garlic clove and fry for another minute or so.
3. Mix together with all the other ingredients
4. Slice the peppers in half and remove the stalk and seeds
5. Fill the pepper halves with the stuffing
6. Bake for about half an hour to 40 minutes at the Magic Cooking Number (fan 190)

My version of bread salad (panzanella)

A couple of weeks ago we had the most glorious, searingly hot Sunday. With nothing in particular to do, I spent the day pottering between the garden and the kitchen, making salads and reading recipe books.

This salad is based on the classic panzanella (bread salad) combination. It is perfect for a hot summer’s day, especially with a chilled glass of rosé. 

Bread salad ingredients

• 2 large, ripe tomatoes
• Half a yellow or orange pepper
• Half a cucumber
• About 8 pitted black olives
• Small bunch fresh mint
• 50g feta, ie 2 slices from a 200g pack (Waitrose feta is delicious)
• ¼ to ½ small red onion
• Small ciabatta loaf

Bread salad dressing ingredients

• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Small clove garlic, crushed

Optional

• A few sprigs basil
• A few sprigs parsley

How to make bread salad

1. Heat the grill to a medium setting
2. Cut the ciabatta in half lengthways and rub with some olive oil
3. Grill for a few minutes till lightly toasted
4. Chop the tomatoes, pepper and cucumber into bite-sized chunks
5. Half the olives
6. Chop then onion very finely
7. Chop the mint and parsley, tear the basil (chopping will bruise it)
8. Add everything to a large bowl
9. Chop half the feta into small cubes and add to the bowl
10. Crumble the remaining feta and add that to the salad too

How to make the dressing

11. Put the dressing ingredients in a screw-top jar and shake to combine.
12. Pour over the salad and mix everything thoroughly.

Finally...

13. Break the toasted ciabatta into largeish chunks and add to the salad just before serving.

The dressing will make the bread go soggy so this salad needs to be eaten straight away.

Bread salad for lunch

If you’re making this salad for lunch, you will need to keep the toasted bread in a separate bag and add to the rest of the salad just before eating.

The bread can make this salad quite heavy so leave it out if you prefer.

If you still want your salad to be substantial, add a handful of cooked chickpea instead of the bread.