Ham salad

Cara, Angel, Joyce, Kate, Grace, Danielle, Courtney, Gabi

This reminds me of salad we used to have for our 'tea' in the summer when I lived with my grandparents in Tynemouth, near Newcastle.

All the salad ingredients were grown by my granda in his garden or allotment.

We would have:

• cucumber, from a frame in the garden
• round lettuce, from a frame in the garden
• tomatoes, from the greenhouse
• cress, from the windowsill
• radishes, I'm not sure where they grew
• eggs, sliced with an egg cutter (you never see egg cutters anymore)
• ham, from the butcher
• boiled new potatoes, tossed in mint (from the garden)

All with a dollop of salad cream, since salad dressing hadn't been invented in the 70s.

Gina, Peggy and Andrea

Ham salad ingredients

For Salad Club we used the following ingredients:

• Ham, from the deli counter in Tesco
• Hard boiled eggs, cut in half with a knife
• Salad leaves, from a packet
• Coleslaw (was going to be homemade but in the end was from Tesco)
• Cherry tomatoes, from Tesco
• Cucumber, from Tesco
• Mashed potato salad, made by Joyce*
• Salad dressing, made with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, grain mustard and a pinch of sugar)
• Paula's plum chutney 

* Mashed potato salad

I have to admit to having reservations about mashed potato salad, but this old Higgins family recipe is absolutely delicious.

1. Make mashed potatoes as you normally would, by adding butter, milk, salt and pepper to hot cooked potatoes, then mashing till smooth. 
2. When the potatoes are cool, add finely chopped white or red onion, salt, pepper and malt vinegar to taste. In our case, you add a lot of malt vinegar. I know it sounds weird but think about it - you add malt vinegar to chips.  
3. Serve cold.  

 

Ham salad

The photo of the ingredients looks quite sad, so I made it small.

A vegetarian feast

No photos and no recipes this time, just a list of dishes all based on those found in the River Cottage veg book. If you don't have River Cottage Veg Everyday yet, you should seriously consider buying it. I made slight tweaks to most of the original recipes, some intentional and some because I forgot to add a last minute ingredient. The result was a fabulous vegetarian feast - even the confirmed carnivore Ollie said that this meal was delicious. 

 

To start

Pistachio dukkah

Dukkah is an Egyptian spice mix made with toasted cumin, coriander and sesame seeds with dried chilli flakes and some shopped nuts. The version I made used pistachio nuts, and also a little chopped mint. 

The idea is to dip your bread first in some oil and then into the dukkah. It's pretty good and keeps for ages in a jar. It can also be used sprinkled over salads, roasted veg, grilled meats, anything, really.  

Cannelini bean hummus

This is made the same way as normal hummus but since the beans are very creamy when processed they don't need nearly as much oil. Not sure if I used rapeseed or olive oil in this recipe but both work equally well. 

Flatbreads 

I meant to combine the Jamie Oliver Moroccan chickpea flatbreads (add cumin and coriander seeds and chickpeas) with the HFW half plain half bread flour recipe. But since I didn’t read the recipe through before I started, I left the bread to prove without adding the chickpeas and spices. So I ended up with the River Cottage version with a bit more yeast, salt and sugar added.

I cooked these flatbreads in a hot oven (220 degrees C) rather than in a pan. This was probably a mistake. I took them out after almost 10 minutes by which time they were fairly crisp though had not puffed up as I expected. They tasted OK with the butter bean hummus and dukka though.

To follow

 

Roasted squash and shallots with merguez chickpeas

The trick to tasty chickpeas is to dress them while they are still hot. The ones in this recipe are delicious, and I would definitely make them without the roast veg as part of a tapas selection or to accompany to lamb chops. You can make the chickpeas a few days in advance as they will keep well in the fridge.

I didn't make the couscous or spiced yoghurt that you'll find if you follow the link above. Instead I made a few salads.

Date and orange salad with red cabbage and raw parsnip

Parsnips, it turns out, are an excellent raw ingredient in salads. Who knew?
I couldn't find Medjool dates for this salad so I just used regular ones. 

Sweet potato, puy lentil and watercress salad

The actual recipe for this dish uses roasted parsnips, but since I was using raw grated parsnip in the date and orange salad, I used sweet potato instead. This made the dish quite substantial but it still all got eaten, despite the fact that I forgot to add thin slices of the hard goat's cheese I'd bought to especially for the dish.
 

Tahini-dressed green bean salad and oven-roasted tomato salad

Tahini salad dressing is so moreish, especially if it includes a little honey as this one does. Since I don't like cooked courgettes I omitted them, and didn't replace them with anything. I oven-roasted the tomatoes for a little too long but once combined with the rest of the salad ingredients this didn't really matter. I think I forgot to add the mint at the end. 

Roasted aubergines with feta and pomegranate

To be honest, the dish I made was vaguely inspired by this recipe, but I could hardly say I followed it. I happened to have a handful of new potatoes so added these to some aubergines and roasted with some crushed whole garlic cloves. I added pomegranate seeds and crumbled feta to the dish before serving, but forgot to add the grated lemon zest and herbs. 

To end

Poached pears with chocolate sauce (not from River Cottage book, details to follow. Really.)

Homemade coleslaw that comes with a warning

Homemade coleslaw is a doddle, the only effort required is chopping and grating. You can use whatever raw root vegetables you fancy  - swede and celeriac work well - so long as you include some form of cabbage and a little onion. The pear goes well with blue cheese, but grated apple is also good.

Coleslaw ingredients

• 1/8 red or white cabbage
• 1 very small red onion or 1/2  tennis ball sized red onion
• 1/2 raw grated parsnip
• 1/2 raw grated courgette
• 1/2 raw grated carrot
• 1 tablespoon mayo
• 1 tablespoon yoghurt
• 1/2 very ripe pear, grated
• about 1 tablespoon blue cheese, crumbled
• 1 teaspoon English mustard
• About a dessertspoon poppy seeds 

How to make coleslaw

1. Lightly toast the poppy seeds in a small frying pan then leave to cool.
2. Mix together the yoghurt, mayonaise and mustard in a large bowl.
3. Discard the outer leaves of the cabbage.
4. Cut down either side of the tough stem and discard this too.
5. Shred the remaining cabbage leaves finely. 
6. Finely chop the onion
7. Add to the dressing along with the other raw vegetables and the pear.
8. Gently mix together so that everything is coated with the dressing.
9. Scatter over the poppy seeds and crumbled cheese and fold gently to combine.

Homemade coleslaw: a warning

Do not make too much! You will not eat it. Then you will feel guilty about throwing it away.

Rhubarb and tomato chutney

Last week I had intended to make two varieties of chutney and chilli jam, but having weighed out my fruit I don't have nearly enough tomatoes to make all three. I refuse to buy overpriced fruit and veg from the supermarket for chutney, and since it was Good Friday neither the market nor the greengrocer's were open. I decided to make an experimental rhubarb and tomato chutney instead.

For the chilli jam I need 10 red chillies. I bought £1 worth from the market, giving me about four times the amount I need. I'm going to add more than usual to the chilli jam to give it more of a kick, but also add some to the chutney. 

First, though, I needed to sterilize my jars. This is the boring bit of chutney making, especially when you don't have a dishwasher. I left them in very hot soapy water for about 20 minutes then rinsed them in very hot water. After that, they go into the oven, which has been heated to 150 degrees C. As I was going out in the afternoon, I switched the oven off and left them to dry for a couple of hours. 

Rhubarb and tomato chutney ingredients

• 700g rhubarb
• 2 very large onions (about 950g-1kg)
• 1335g very ripe tomatoes
• 500g sultanas
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed 
• 5 red chillies, finely chopped and seeds removed.
• 300ml malt vinegar
• 300g soft brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons curry powder*
• 1/2 tablespoon mustard powder

  How to make rhubarb and tomato chutney

1. First skin the tomatoes. To do this, place 3 or 4 in a large Pyrex bowl. 

• Pour over boiling water from the kettle to cover. 
• Leave to stand for about 5 minutes.
• Remove 1 tomato with a slotted spoon and peel - the skin should come off easily if the tomatoes are ripe. Don't try and crowd too many tomatoes into the bowl at once or the skins won't slip off easily.

2. Chop the onions roughly.3. Heat a little rapeseed oil in a large preserving pan and add the onions.
4. Fry for a few minutes, then add the crushed garlic cloves and curry powder.
5. Roughly chop the tomatoes and add to the pan.
6. Add the remaining ingredients.
7. Stir, without boiling, till the sugar dissolves.
8. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally until the chutney thickens - about 1.5-2 hours - a wooden spoon scraped across the bottom on the pan should part the chutney.
9. Leave to cool slightly then pot into warm jars. 
10. Leave to mature for at least 2 months before eating.  

*For the curry powder, I used a Madhur Jaffrey recipe, which I found here: 
http://www.loulies.com/curry_powder/

Accidentally amazing soup

I didn't think this soup would taste so good! I originally intended to add miso paste, but having warmed and tasted the stock I decided not to. I then thought about adding some nam pla, but after adding the lemongrass and allowing it to infuse, the sweet, almost sickly taste of the stock was transformed into a lighter, fragrant broth. The chopped mint scattered on top just accentuated the fresh taste. 

Of course, there's no guarantee your soup will turn out this good every time. The key is in the stock. In this instance, I had an aniseedy stock made from the bones and cooking liquor from a duck dish I made for friends a few weeks ago. If I'd used chicken stock, I probably would have added that nam pla, and maybe a bit of soy sauce. A vegetable stock version would most definitely have needed that miso paste.

Chicken noodle soup ingredients

• Duck stock
• 4 chicken thighs
• 3 lemongrass stalks
• 1 red chilli
• 2 large handfuls spinach
• 2 portions sugarsnap peas
• 2 servings soba noodles
• 1 sprig mint

2 warmed bowls

How to make chicken noodle soup 

1. Add some rapeseed oil to a frying pan and heat till hot.
2. Add the chicken thighs to the pan, turn down the heat, and brown. Turn and brown the other side.
3. WARNING: THERE WILL BE SMOKE AND SPLUTTERING HOT FAT.
4. Meanwhile, put the stock in a solid-based, high sided pan, and warm.
5. Add the browned chicken thighs to the warm stock and bring to a lively simmer.
6. Finely chop the chilli and add to the stock.
7. Bash the lemongrass with a pestle and snap into pieces so that you can fit it in the pan. 
8. Cook for about 20 minutes.
9. After about 15 minutes, boil a kettle of water, tip into a separate pan and cook the noodles for about 5 minutes.
10. Add the spinach and sugarsnap peas to the stick mixture and cook fora further 3 minutes. 
11. Drain the noodles and add to the warmed bowls.
12. Ladle over the broth with the vegetables and chicken thighs. 
13. Scatter over the chopped mint and eat straight away.

Pasta Nigellissima

70s style dining experience

Unlike Nigella I do not have packets of pasta that I just look at because they are pretty.  I don't have space in my kitchen or my life for this kind of frivolity. I don't really think I have space in my life for Nigella, but she is a little bit lovely.

This is nothing like Nigella's pasta recipe - the only ingredients I think it has in common are smoked mackerel, capers and pasta. 

However, when I saw her make her version it did make me think about making a pasta and mackerel dish. Although I intended to make something using orzo, I didn't have enough for 2 people and so made a slightly different dish using fusili and whatever was in my fridge that I thought would go.

Pasta Nigellissima ingredients

• As much pasta as you want for 2 people
• 2 small smoked mackerel fillets (100-150g), flaked
• 2 spring onions, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon capers, finely chopped
• 2 handfuls rocket
• A handful cherry tomatoes, halved
•  1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped
•  3 tablespoons breadcrumbs

How to make pasta with smoked mackerel

1. Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until al dente.
2. Meanwhile, heat about a dessert spoon olive oil in a large frying pan, and when hot, fry the breadcrumbs until lightly browned.  
3. Turn the oven onto a low heat and warm two pasta bowls.
4. Just before the the pasta is cooked, reserve a small cup of the cooking water, then drain the pasta and blanch with boiling water.
5. Tip the pasta back into the pan you used for cooking it in, and put it on a low heat.
6. Add the mackerel, spring onions, chopped capers, rocket and cherry tomatoes, and stir thoroughly.
7. Season well with salt and pepper.
8. Add a little of the reserved cooking water to help the ingredients soften a little and coat the pasta. Start with about a tablespoon; add more if you think it needs it.  
9. Remove from the heat then stir in the parsley and crisped breadcrumbs.
10. Tip into the warmed bowls and serve immediately. 

Sweet chilli chicken salad

Some people and a bit of salad

This is a delightfully fresh-tasting salad. Grateful thanks to chef extraordinaire, Miss Kate "K-Dog" Turner for the recipe.

Serves 10.

Chilli chicken salad ingredients

• I large bag rice noodles
• 2 whole cooked chickens*
• 3 red peppers
• 1 bunch spring onions
• 2 carrots
• 1 cucumber
• 2 mangoes
• 3 avocados
• I bag mange tout (snow peas)
• I bunch coriander (cilantro)
• Peanuts - about 4 handfuls (I have small hands. Maybe 3 handfuls if you have man-hands)
• A large quantity sweet chilli dressing

*Preferably, buy and cook your own chickens. As in, buy dead chickens then cook them. Though if you want to buy live chickens, spend time raising them, then slaughter and cook them, I take my hat off to you.
Instinct tells me the £4.49 ready-cooked chickens from Tesco probably didn't have a happy a life. If you didn't like the Henry Pig salad photo, consider becoming vegetarian. Personally, I prefer to know that my lunch lived a happy life before it was slaughtered so mI could eat it.

Sweet chilli dressing ingredients 

• Juice of 1 lemon
• White wine vinegar, or preferably, rice wine vinegar - about the same quantty as the lemon juice
• Sugar, or, preferably, palm sugar (1/4 cup), dissolved in the same quantity boiling water
• I dried chili, de-seeded (keep the seeds)
• Coriander powder
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 4 crushed garlic cloves

How to make sweet chilli dressing

1. In a small pan, mix together the lemon juice, vinegar, sugar in water, powdered coriander, fish sauce and garlic cloves.
2. Simmer gently for about 5 minutes, till it starts to thicken.
3. Add the crumbled dried chill along with the seeds.
4. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves. 

How to make chilli chicken salad

1. Cook the rice noodles in some light chicken stock for about 5 minutes.
2. Drain and refresh under cold water.
3. Immediately toss in 1 teaspoon sesame oil, or, if you have some to hand, some sesame-based dressing.
4. Toast raw peanuts lightly in a pan then crush. 
5. Slice the peppers into long, very thin strips
6. Slice the spring onions diagonally into short strips.
7. Cut the carrots and cucumbers into julienne strips.
8. Cut the mango and avocado into thin strips.
9. Chop the coriander.

Lay everything out on separate plates and let people help themselves.**

**For salad club only. At home, mix everything together with the noodles and top with the toasted crushed nuts.