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. 

Asian-poached chicken salad

Chicken noodle salad

 

Feeling utterly uninspired last night I decided to poach a whole chicken with Asian flavours. 

I had no idea how it was going to taste as the recipe was loosely based on several I found online, what sounded right to me and what I had in the fridge.  

Asian-poached chicken ingredients

• 1 large free range chicken
• 2 sticks celery, cut into batons
• 1 large carrot, cut into thick slices
• 2 spring onions, cut into long sticks
• 1 onion, peeled and cut into quarters
• 2 star anise
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• I large piece root ginger, peeled and cut into rough chunks
• 5 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 fat (or 5 normal) garlic cloves, crushed but not peeled
• 1 lime, halved
• 5 tablespoons Shaoxing rice wine

 

Method for making Asian-poached chicken

Poaching a chicken

1. Add all the ingredients to a stock pot
2. Cover with water 
3. Bring to the boil for 20 minutes
4. Reduce to a simmer and continue to cook for 40 minutes

A couple of recipes I found online gave instructions to switch off the heat after the 20 minutes boiling and leave the chicken in the poaching liquor for 3 hours. However this would have meant eating at about 10.30pm so I simmered it for 40 minutes instead.

After 40 minutes I switched off the heat and left the chicken to cool slightly in the poaching liquor for about half an hour.

Chicken and vegetable noodle salad

 

I pulled some of the meat from the poached chicken to add to a noodle salad. 

Chicken noodle salad ingredients

Meat pulled off the chicken

• 5cm carrot
• 5cm courgette
• 5cm cucumber
• 2 spring onions
• 1/2 red pepper
• A couple of slices of a small red cabbage
• 2 nests noodles (I used medium egg noodles, but feel free to use whatever type you have)
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds 
• A handful mint leaves
• A handful coriander leaves
• As much chicken as you want to eat, torn into strips
• Chopped red chilli, to serve

Chicken noodle salad dressing ingredients

 

• 3 tablespoons sesame oil
• Juice of a lime
• 2 tablespoons peanut relish
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce

How to make the chicken noodle salad 

1. Combine the dressing ingredients in a screw-top jar and shake vigorously.
2. Cut all the vegetables into long strips.
3. Chop the mint and coriander finely.
4. Cook the noodles per the instructions and rinse under a cold tap.
5. Tip the noodles into a large serving bowl and pour over the dressing.
6. Add the herbs, vegetable and chicken strips and toss to coat with the dressing.
7. Sprinkle over the sesame seeds.  
8. Serve with the chopped chilli on the side for people to add as much as they like. 

Although this salad was good, it did lack a little oomph. I'd used the last of my root ginger poaching the chicken, but think a teaspoon or so would have been a welcome addition to the dressing. Personally, I would have added the chilli to the dressing too, but put this on the side because I was cooking for someone with a very low heat threshold. 

Chicken stock for soup

 

Today I made chicken stock to use in chicken or noodle soups.

1. Heat the oven to 180⁰C.
2. Strip the remaining meat from the carcass.
3. Strain the poaching liquid through a sieve then return to the stock pot.
4. Put the bones and carcass in a roasting tin and roast for 25 minutes.
5. Add the bones to the strained liquid.
6. Bring everything to the boil.
7. Reduce the heat to a simmer and continue simmering for 1 hour.
8. Strain the liquid through a sieve again. 

Magic number tomato sauce

The magic cooking number is 190⁰C fan assisted. If in doubt about oven temperature, this is what you use. But sometimes, just like in life, 3 is the magic number. 

Here is my 3 is the Magic Number utility tomato sauce recipe.

I used to make tomato sauce using approximate quantities of 2, but this leaves an annoyingly small amount of leftover sauce which is not quite enough for another meal. So I thought I'd make one and a half quantity, which also happens to be an easy recipe to remember. 

Magic Number tomato sauce ingredients

• 3 onions
• 3 tins plum tomatoes (not chopped - this makes the sauce to watery)
• 3 very fat garlic cloves
• 3 celery sticks
• 1.5 carrots. The 3 ratio slips a little here as 3 carrots would make a very sweet sauce, unless they were very small. I hope you can remember to use 1.5 carrots instead.
• 3 herbs: parsley, thyme and oregano
• 3 small bay leaves
• Splash red wine (optional)

A very bad photo of tomato sauce

This is a basic tomato sauce that goes with a myriad of dishes. Today I am making a batch for vegetable lasagne so will add some grilled veg, but will have enough to stick in the freezer for another meal. This may be sausages and lentil, pasta and feta, gnocchi and cream, pizza base, white fish...

How to make 3 is the Magic Number tomato sauce

1. Heat a little olive oil in a large casserole dish.
2. Chop the onion as finely or roughly as you want.
3. Chop the celery into very fine slices - some people hate cooked celery so it's best to try and make it look like pieces of onion and deny its existence. 
4. Add these to the pan and fry till soft. 
5. Finely chop the garlic.
6. Grate the carrot. 
7. Add the garlic and the carrot to the pan and stir everything round. 
8. Cook for a further 5 minutes till softened.
9. If you want to add a little richness to the sauce, add a splash of red wine to the pan and turn  up the heat till most of the wine has evaporated (otherwise it will taste harsh and horrible).
10. Add the tins of tomatoes to the pan.
11. Add a little water to one of the empty tomato tins and swill it round to dislodge any remaining juice from the side of the tin.
12. Pour this into the next empty tin and repeat, till you have rinsed the remaining juice from all 3 tins. Pour this into the sauce.
13. Bring the sauce to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes.
14. Break up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon.
15. Leave to simmer for a further 15 or so minutes till the sauce thickens slightly. 

Your tomato sauce s now ready to use.

Party nibbles

My friend Kerry is hosting a party at her house and wants some suggestions for nibbles. Here's a few ideas.

Honey and mustard cocktail sausages

You will need:

• William Rose cocktail sausages*
• Runny honey 
• English mustard

1. Heat the oven to 190 degrees C (the magic cooking number)
2. Mix together equal quantities of honey and mustard in a large dish
3. add the cocktail sausages and toss to coat
4. Add a few grinds of black pepper
5. Tip into a roasting dish
6. Roast for about 10 minutes, then shake the tin and roast for another 10 minutes
7. Serve warm or cold

Variation

If you don't fancy using mustard, or just want to have a couple of different flavours, try sprinkling the sausages with dried chilli flakes instead of coating with honey and mustard.

*William Rose is the excellent butchers in East Dulwich. I always buy meat from there when I have people round. Of course if you don't live near East Dulwich you will have to get your sausages elsewhere, but do try and get them from the butchers and not the supermarket.

Pesto pastry puffs

Pesto pastry puffs ingredients

• 1 quantitiy ready rolled puff pastry
• I quantity homemade pesto
• Parmesan or good cheddar cheese

How to make pesto pastry puffs

1. Spread the pesto over the pastry.
2. Sprinkle with a thin covering of finely grated cheese.
3. Either roll up the pastry into a tiht roll, then thninly slice the roll, and lie each piece flat on a baking dish.
4. Bake at 190 degrees C for about 20 mins, or till the pasty is golden and cooked through.

Variation:Feta and sundried tomato puffs

• 1 quantitiy ready rolled puff pastry
• I quantity homemade pesto
• 1/2 pack feta cheese
• About 5 sundried tomatoes

1. Spread the pesto over the pastry then cut the pastry sheet into small squares and place on a baking sheet.
2. Bake for 20 mins, remove from the oven and allow to cool.
3. Cut 1/2 pack feta cheese into small cubes.
4. Cut the sundried tomatoes into small pieces using scissors.
5. Mix the feta and tomatoes together in a bowl with some olive oil, salt and pepper.
6. Top each square with about a teaspoon full of the cheese and tomato mix.

Salmon and cream cheese rolls

Salmon and cream cheese rolls ingredients

• Smoked salmon or trout
• 1 tub Philadelphia cream cheese
• 1 bunch watercress
• lemon

How to make salmon and cream cheese rolls 

1. Cut the salmon into long strips.
2. Spread each strip with a thin layer of the cream cheese.
3. Place a sprig of watercress in each strip.
4. Roll each strip up lightly.
5. Place on a serving plate, grind over some black pepper and squeeze over some lemon juice.

Cannelini bean hummus

Make just like normal hummus but use cannelini beans instead of chickpeas. You probably won't need as much oil as for chickpea hummus as the beans are very creamy.
Serve with toasted pitta bread.

How to stop colleagues stealing your salad dressing at work

Let's face it, dressings are what make salads worth eating. Without dressings, your salad is essentially tortoise food. Having been told that I look like a tortoise when I eat, I am keen to remove myself from further comparisons, and so prefer my salads to be dressed with a healthy portion of oil and vinegar. For some reason, I find the addition of salt and pepper to a salad to be hedonistic, and never add either. Except to tomatoes.

I always make salad dressings myself rather than buying them. I normally make at least double, more often triple, quantity, so I always have some in the fridge when I need it. Basic dressings made with oil, vinegar, honey and mustard can be stored for months in screw-top jars. Since fresh herbs will go black once cut, you can always sprinkle herbs over the salad rather than adding to the dressing if you want to include them.

Do not store your salad dressing in the fridge at work: someone, or, more likely, several people will steal it. Unless your dressing contains dairy, it doesn't need to be kept in the fridge; just keep it in your drawer (which, for a reason I don't know, we call a pedestal).

Strangely, I always keep salad dressing in the fridge at home. It is unlikely someone will steal it from here. In fact, the opposite is true: I often hide things I don't want O to eat in the salad drawer of the fridge, as I know he will never look in there for snacks. 

Here's some salads to have with your dressing:

Ham salad, 70s style 
Apple and rocket salad
Roasted vegetable salad

Or some more substantial salads:

Sausage salad
Vegetarian salads
Chicken noodle salad

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.)