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.

Smoked salmon and new potato salad

Heaven, Courtney, Kate, Danielle, Yuki, Andrea, Gina, Joyce

The problem with writing up Salad Club recipes is that quantities are rarely specified. This means they can be little vague, although generally the quantities seem to work out fine.

This week, however, we had a large turnout, and thought a few extra potatoes were needed. We 'steamed' these in the microwave by cutting them in half, placing in a large tupperware container, covering with boiling water and cooking on a high setting for 10 minutes. I have to say they worked well. Thanks to Kate for the instructions on microwaving potatoes. . 

Smoked salmon and potato salad with horseradish ingredients

Enough for 12

• 3 packs smoked salmon
• New potatoes, boiled
• 1 cucumber, cut into matchsticks
• String beans (aka green beans or French beans)
• 2 avocados, roughly chopped
• 1 red onion, finely sliced
• 3 bags watercress*

Creme fraiche and horseradish dressing ingredients

• About 500ml half fat creme fraiche
• 1/2 large bunch dill
• Small amount chopped fresh parsley
• 1 bunch chopped chives
• Rind of 1 unwaxed lemon
• Juice of half a lemon
• 2 tablespoon hot horseradish sauce
• Salt and pepper

How to make fraiche and horseradish dressing

1. Chop the herbs finely and mix together with all the other ingredients.
2. Season to taste, adding more lemon and horseradish till the dressing has the right balance.

A word on watercress

*I watched some rubbish programme last week where James Martin annoyed me about how watercress was underused. Rubbish! Watercress is ubiquitous!

Watercress is a great salad ingredient but doesn't hang around in a good condition for very long. If you get it mixed with other leaves in packets from the supermarket its always the first one to go soggy. You end up either throwing out the whole lot or picking out the rotten watercress to salvage the rocket and spinach. Packs of just watercress from the greengrocer need using up within a day or two before they turn slimy and unusable.

Of course, watercress doesn't just belong in salads. Its peppery taste and vivid green colour can be turned into a cracking sauce to go with fish, or, my favourite, fishcakes.
 

 

 

Salad Club IV: salad nicoise

Kate, Erik,  Peggy

I'm convinced that the reason so many people are missing from this week's salad club is that its a shit salad: tuna nicoise. Although I like every ingredient individually, there is just something about combining them all on one plate that makes me depressed and think of Torquay. Perhaps it once featured in an episode of Fawlty Towers?

Due to drop-outs (going to Amsterdam on business, on holiday in the Caymen Islands, kidney infection, yada yada), myself and Kate (Director of Salad Communications) are stepping up to cover the shortfall.

Salad nicoise ingredients 

• 750g baby new potatoes - cooked, then dressed when hot with a good lug of olive oil and some grated lemon rind
• A lot of green beans (Kate to supply details of exact amount)
• A large tub black olives - we used Kalamata olives which were a little on the salty side but good nonetheless 
• 2 packs cherry tomatoes
• Some salad leaves
• Anchovies - as many as you want, or don't want as the case may be (I hate anchovies)
• 1 boiled egg per person. The eggs were done to perfection by Kate. She boiled them for 2 minutes then took them off the heat and left them in the water, I think.
• 3 tins tuna steak in brine 
• I portion lemon dressing

Lemon dressing for salad nicoise ingredients

• About 10 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• About 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• Juice 1/2 lemon
• 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
• Salt, 2 large pinches
• A good grinding of black pepper
• 2 small garlic cloves, crushed, but unpeeled

Oh, and by the way, I am a convert: this salad was delicious.

Roast lamb for a Stutterfest at Easter

Roast lamb for Easter 2012

No lunch for free in this post, just a really good Easter feast. 

A Stutterfest is a gathering of my partner’s family. This Easter we hosted a Stutterfest in our flat. There were 10 of us in total – three vegetarians and seven meat-eaters.

This year’s Easter meal was as much butterfest as it was Stutterfest. Everyone said the food was delicious but I think it could have been better. Here is the menu and my suggested improvements. 

Menu

• Cheddar biscuits 
• Savoury feta cheesecake
• Chilli jam
• Roast lamb stuffed with with olives and sundried tomatoes 
• Potatoes in butter
• Kale with lemon and garlic
• Confit garlic 
• Chocolate truffle cake 

To start: cheddar biscuits

The recipe I used for these savoury biscuits is based on the one in the Great British Book of Baking, from the popular TV series of the same name.

These are the quantities used in the book.

Cheese and chilli biscuits

Cheddar biscuit ingredients

• 200g plain flour
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• ½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes, though I used more like 1 teaspoon
• 150g extra mature Cheddar
• 150g cold unsalted butter, diced into small pieces
• 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk

The extra egg yolk is unnecessary in my opinion, and you will end up with 1 unused egg white. While you can freeze this lone egg white for use another time, chances are you will forget about it then throw it away in a few months. So just add a splash of cold milk if you think your dough needs more liquid.

  How to make cheddar biscuits

1. Put the flour, salt, chilli flakes and cheese into a processor and pulse to combine.
   
2. Add the butter and process till fine.
   
3. Keep the processor going while you add the egg till you have a stiff dough.


4. Turn out onto a flowered surface and work into a cylinder.


5. Cut into 3 to make it easier to work with, then roll each cylinder till it is about 15–20cm long.


6. Wrap each in greaseproof paper and put in the fridge for about 30 minutes.


7. The dough can be stored uncooked for 3 days in the fridge or for 1 month in the freezer.


8. Heat the oven to 200⁰C and lightly grease a couple of baking trays. You will probably end up with about 6 trays’ worth of biscuits, but unless you live in a Greggs you probably won’t have the capacity to cook these all at the same time. In my oven (my enemy) I can fit 2 trays at once.


9. Cut the dough into 1ch thick slices and lay them out on the trays, slightly apart.


10. Bake for 10–12 minutes till golden.
    
11. Leave to cool on the tray for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

After 10 minutes the biscuits looked pale and undercooked. A nibble revealed they lacked salt and cheese. I added a sprinkling of salt and Parmesan before sticking them back in for another 10 minutes.

This recipe is a doddle to make and I like the fact that it can be stored in the fridge or freezer till needed. The cooked version, however, went soggy when I stored them overnight in a tupperware container, in a tin and in a kilner jar. However, another quick blast in the oven does revive them to crispness. (Thank you Kerry Gibson for that tip)

I don’t think the Great British Baking Book is that great. I’ve tried a few recipes from it that have disappointed – the Cornish saffron buns I made for my Not The Royal Wedding Party tasted of mould, and the shortbread biscuits were so inedible I threw them out before serving them. 

Unfortunately in my opinion this recipe notches up another black mark against the book – one more dud recipe and it will be consigned to the Oxfam shop. Dan Lepard does a cheese biscuit that uses equal quantities of flour, cheese and butter. He also includes additional flavouring with garlic and paprika, and added texture with almonds. I’ll give his version a go next time. 

Savoury feta cheesecake

This is a recipe I’ve been meaning to make for ages. Why I didn’t realise that this would mean serving a cold main course to my vegetarian guests I don’t know. 

This recipe is by Delia, and can be found online at:

www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/party-food/cheesecake/savoury-feta-cheesecake.html

To my mind this recipe looks long and complicated but maybe that’s just because it involves gelatine. I’ve therefore edited the instructions to make it seem more straightforward, which it is, and have slightly altered the quantities for the sake of convenience. I hope she doesn’t mind.

Savoury feta cheesecake ingredients

For the base

• 75g white breadcrumbs (I used some leftover homemade bread)
• 40g Parmesan or Pecorino Romano. finely grated
• 25g melted butter

  

For the filling

• 200g pack of feta (recipe states 225g)
• 200g pot curd cheese (recipe states 225g)
• 200g pot fromage frais (recipe states 175g)
• 4 heaped tablespoons chives
• 3 spring onions, finely sliced
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons vegetarian gelatine powder
• 2 egg whites*

*Ah, could have added that egg yolk to the biscuits after all.

Now I have 2 spare egg yolks.

Method for savoury feta cheesecake

1. Preheat the oven to 200⁰C.
   
2. Mix the base ingredients in a bowl and season with pepper. As the cheese is salty you don’t need to add salt.
   
3. Lightly oil a deep 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin then press the breadcrumb mixture down tightly onto the base of the tin.


4. Bake for 15 minutes till golden.


5. Break up the feta into a food processor and blend with the curd cheese and fromage frais till completely smooth.


6. Transfer to a bowl then add the chives and spring onions.


7. Put the lemon juice in a small saucepan with 55ml water.


8. Sprinkle in the gelatine and stir to dissolve.


9. In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites to the softy peak stage.


10. Bring the gelatine mixture to the boil then tip into the cheese mixture and combine quickly.


11. Fold in the egg whites a tablespoon at a time.
    
12. Pour the mixture over the base and chill in the fridge, preferably overnight.

Chilli jam

I thought chilli jam would make a good accompaniment to the savoury feta cheesecake, and as I forgot to order some from Ocado I made my own. The deep red colour was a pretty contrast to the white cheesecake, when I eventually remembered to serve it. 

Chilli jam ingredients

• 8 red peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 10 red chillies, roughly chopped
• Finger-sized (Jamie’s) piece root ginger, roughly chopped
• 8 peeled garlic cloves
• 400g cherry tomatoes
• 750g caster sugar
• 250ml red wine vinegar 

How to make chilli jam

1. Whizz the peppers, garlic, ginger and chillies in a food processor.
2. Add to a heavy-based saucepan with the rest of the ingredients and bring to the boil.
3. Skim off any scum and simmer for about 50 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Once sticky, cook for another 10–15 minutes, stirring frequently.
5. Cool slightly then pot into sterilized jars.

Refrigerate once opened. Can be stored for up to 3 months.

I used half the quantity above which made 3 small jars. I gave 2 away as gifts and kept one for myself. It goes lovely with the cheddar biscuits too. (Thanks again, Kerry Gibson. Actually, do you fancy being guest blog editor?)

Roast lamb with sundried tomato and olive stuffing

I bought jamie magazine about a month ago. I like the size, the matt pages and the typeface. So far, though, this is the only recipe I’ve tried. In the magazine, floury potatoes covered with lemon juice are cooked in the roasting tin along with the lamb, but I make a separate potato dish cater for both meat-eaters and vegetarians.

Lamb before it went in the oven

Roast lamb ingredients

• 2kg butterflied leg of lamb
• 150g drained sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped (280g jar)
• 150g pitted black olives, roughly chopped
• 100g drained capers
• 1 tbps finely chopped rosemary, plus 3 or 4 large sprigs
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp dried oregano

Confit garlic ingredients

• 6 garlic cloves
• 3 sprigs thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• Olive oil

  

How to make confit garlic

1. Put the garlic in a small saucepan with the thyme and bay leaves, and pour over enough oil to cover.
2. Cook over a low heat for about 20 minutes, till the garlic is tender, then remove the garlic with a slotted spoon.
3. The oil can be reserved for use another time.

You need to be very careful not to burn the garlic, even on the lowest heat, which is what happened at my first attempt. I ended up warming the oil for a few minutes then turning off the heat and letting it cool for a few minutes before repeating. It probably took about 30 minutes of careful heating and cooling.

How to make stuffed lamb

1. Preheat the oven to 250⁰C.
2. In a food processor, blend the sundried tomatoes, olives, capers, rosemary, confit garlic and red wine vinegar.


3. I made the stuffing the day before I was cooking the lamb.


4. Bring the lamb out of the fridge at least an hour before you want to cook it to allow it to come up to room temperature.


5. Lay the lamb out flat, season well then spread the stuffing over it.


6. Roll it up tightly and secure with cooking string. You will need someone to help you with this unless you have 4 hands. Some of the stuffing was squeezed out of the sides of the roll so I smeared this over the top of the lamb.


7. Put the rosemary sprigs into the roasting tin and place the lamb on top. Sprinkle the dried oregano over the top of the lamb.


8. Roast for 30 minutes, then reduce the temperature of the oven to 180⁰C and cook for another 1–1 ½ hours.
9. Rest the lamb on a warm plate, loosely covered in foil, for at least ‘15 minutes before serving.

The lamb was delicious, if a little well done. The stuffing brought a deep savory flavour to the dish, but the quantity given in the recipe wasn’t necessary – I reckon about half the amount would have been ample.

Potatoes in butter

This is my name for what Nigel Slater calls ‘A thin cake of potatoes and Parmesan’. I love Nigel Slater, and Nigel Slater loves butter. For this reason he’s known as Tubby Slater in my house, although he is nothing of the sort.

Potatoes in butter ingredients

This is double the recipe found in his book Tender Volume 1

 

• 2kg waxy potatoes
• 250g butter
• 4 garlic cloves (this still seemed a lot, I used 3 small cloves)
• 60g Parmesan, finely grated 

 

How to make potatoes in butter

1. Heat the oven to 220⁰C
2. Peel then slice the potatoes so thin that you can see through them.


3. I bought a mandolin especially for this job, or rather, this gave me an excuse to buy a mandolin. I haven’t figured out why I need all of the attachments yet, as most of the functions seem to be pretty much covered by my cheese grater which, now I think of it, has a slicing function too.


4. Melt the butter in a small pan


5. Crush or finely slice the garlic.


6. I crushed, so as to distribute the garlic as evenly as possible over the potatoes. I actually used my garlic crush today – normally I don’t as I hate washing it up.


7. Brush a little butter on the base of a baking dish then start layering your ingredients: potatoes, butter, garlic, salt, pepper, Parmesan.


8. I started off by using a pastry brush to brush the butter over the potatoes but in the end found it easier just to drizzle it over with a teaspoon.
9. Bake for about 45—50 minutes till the edges are golden. Remove from the oven and let the dish stand for a few minutes before serving.

This dish was delicious, but very, very buttery, and I found the taste of garlic quite strong. As part of an Easter feast though it was spot on.

Kale with lemon and garlic

Another delicious recipe from Nigel Slater’s Tender Volume 1. I’ve meddled with the quantities slightly which seemed to work well.

Kale with lemon and garlic ingredients

• I large bag curly kale (probably about 250–300g)
• A knob of butter (probably about 15g, rather than the 30g Tubby suggests for 2 people)
• A splash olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Juice of half a lemon

How to make kale with lemon and garlic

1. Wash the kale then cook in boiling water for 1–2 minutes. You’ll probably need to do this in batches.


2. Drain the kale and put in a large serving bowl.


3. Warm the butter and the oil in a pan and add the crushed garlic and lemon zest.


4. Once the butter starts to foam, add the lemon juice.
   
5. Tip the butter mixture over the kale, season and toss everything together.

Steamed purple sprouting broccoli was my final savory dish.

I normally misjudge the amount of vegetables people will eat and end up with tons left over. At the end of this meal, however, I was left with just 1 stem of purple sprouting broccoli – success!

Something sweet for after

I am not one of life’s chocolate lovers. I wouldn’t really be upset if I never ate chocolate again. But O asked that I make a chocolate dessert to round off the meal and this time I obliged. Dan Lepard’s layeredchocolate truffle cake is a stunning-looking, sickly-tasting mass of chocolatey goo containing over a kilo of chocolate. My teeth hurt just making it.

This recipe requires 3 separate layers to be chilled before the next can be made, so start making it well in advance of when you want to serve it.

This is my own cake, I promise

As directed I used a 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin but found that I ended up with far too much of each of the chocolate layers – enough to fill 4 ramekins. A 23-inch tin would probably have worked better.

Removing the cake from the tin didn’t work quite as successfully as I had hoped (see photo) but it still looked impressive. I didn’t notice this at the time but when I came to clearing up found that the brownie base was pretty much still intact on the base of the tin, so I’d served the cake without the base. There were no complaints.

I managed to eat about one third of my slice.

Fish pie with a lie

I wouldn’t suggest you make this for lunch and heat it up in the office microwave, as somebody is bound to complain about the smell. But this dish does freeze well, uncooked – just cook it straight from frozen for about 50 minutes or until piping hot.

It’s the week before the clocks go forward and I want the comfort of mashed potatoes so its fish pie for dinner tonight. Since this recipe is an amalgamation of several fish pie recipes I think I can safely say it’s my own.

I normally use half fat crème fraiche but today I have some left over cream to use up. As I don’t have quite enough I will it mix some Philly and a little milk to thin the sauce. You can also make a béchamel sauce from melted butter, flour and milk but quite frankly I think this is too much of a faff for fish pie and reserve making a good béchamel sauce for a lasagne. But up to you. 

Fish for fish pie

A mixture of white fish and salmon gives a good balance and fishmongers often sell chunks of this as ready made fish pie mixes. You can use any firm white fish such as the much under-rated coley. Undyed smoked haddock gives a lovely depth of flavour. Today I am using hake which I have never cooked before but ate recently on a holiday to Spain and found delicious.

• I large salmon fillet
• I piece boned hake
• Optional: raw prawns, a handful, fresh or frozen*

*omit the prawns for a real pie with a lie but include for a more truthful pie.

• I medium onion, finely chopped
• I medium carrot, finely chopped or grated**
• I bag spinach
• A couple of medium-to-large floury potatoes (eg Desiree, Whites, King Edwards)
• I 200ml tub half fat crème fraiche
• Juice of 1 lemon

**grated carrot reduces the need for lying but you will probably need to lie if the carrots are chopped.

Optional fish pie ingredients

• A handful of grated mature cheddar
• 1 teaspoon English mustard
• About a dessertspoon of capers, chopped
• A few chopped gerkins/cornichon
• Mace – a pinch
• Nutmeg – about 20 gratings from a whole one
• A handful of chopped parsley

Some people put a hard boiled egg or two into their fish pie but this gives me the same queasy feeling I get the first time I wear flip flops each summer. But by all means add eggs if you want – you can boil them along with the potatoes to save on washing up.

How to make fish pie

1. Peel the potatoes and cut into even sized pieces. Put them in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Add a little salt and bring them to the boil. 
   If you put floury potatoes straight into boiling water they will become soggy and disintegrate, so always use cold water. New potatoes, which are waxy, can be plunged straight into boiling water.
2. Reduce the heat and simmer the potatoes until cooked – about 15–20 minutes depending on the size of your potato pieces. Test with a skewer to see if done – when they are ready there will be no resistance when you push a skewer through.
3. Once cooked, drain in a colander. Meanwhile, put the empty pan back on the hob and allow any residual water to evaporate. Once the pan is dry, add the drained potatoes to the pan and let the water evaporate from these for a minute. Remove from the heat and mash with salt, pepper and butter. This needs to be done while the potatoes are still hot or they will become too gloopy. Add milk if needed to thin out the potatoes.
4. Make the sauce by gently frying the onion and carrot in olive oil over a low heat till soft ie about 6 or 7 minutes. I use a large Le Creuset sauté pan for this but a regular frying or sauté pan works fine.
5. Skin the fish. This is really easy, honest. All you need is a sharp knife and a bit of confidence. Have a look at this video to see how it’s done
6. Cut the skinned fish into large pieces and put in an appropriate sized dish. Some fish pies instruct you to poach the fish in milk prior to combining with the sauce and baking. This is not necessary since the fish will be baked in a sauce for 25–30 minutes. The only advantage to poaching your fish in milk is if you are making a béchamel sauce as the strained milk will give your sauce lots of flavour.
7. Add the prawns to the fish – they can be fresh or frozen but should be uncooked.
8. Add the crème fraiche or cream to the fried vegetables and stir through to coat the vegetables in a sauce.
9. If you want a cheesy sauce, add the grated cheese and stir into the sauce till it melts. Don’t be tempted to add too much cheese though or it will overpower the taste of the fish rather than compliment it.
10. Once the sauce has bubbled and thickened, remove from the heat, add the lemon juice and any of the other optional ingredients you want to use. You can include all of them if you wish – I often do, except for the egg. The addition of mustard enhances the flavour of the cheese which means you can use less cheese – it is added to cheese scones for this reason.
11. Rinse the spinach in water and add to a large hot pan. Keep stirring till the water evaporates and the spinach is reduced. Squeeze the spinach to remove excess water.
12. Assemble the pie by pouring the sauce over the fish and prawns.
13. Dot the spinach over the fish. Actually, I am not sure if this step is necessary – you can probably just layer the uncooked spinach directly into the pie. I will test this and update accordingly.
14. Spread the mashed potato over the fish sauce mix.
15. I often add another cheeky cheesy layer of grated cheese on top of the mash.
16. Bake at 220⁰C for 25–30 minutes. The top should be a lovely golden colour when done and the smell will be fantastic.

This dish already contains a good deal of vegetables but I like to serve it with some simple boiled frozen peas.

Pie with a lie

Oh, and the lie bit? My fiancé hates cooked carrots. When me and my friend Kerry cooked this fish pie for him once he asked what the orange bits were and I replied ‘prawns’. There were no prawns in that day’s pie.