Salad

February 2, 2015 Recipe

Saffron Chicken

My Ottolenghi obsession continues: this saffron chicken salad with fennel has the warm notes of saffron, and the bright piquancy of blood oranges. There’s something about Middle Eastern cooking that fascinates me at the moment. Though I’m normally firmly routed in an Italian sensibility, for the last couple of years Hubby has increasingly cooked dishes from the Indian subcontinent. As a result we’ve become attuned to the subtlety of spices and herbs. Curries and the like can still be a little overwhelming for my Mediterranean palate, but Middle Eastern cuisine sits very comfortably between the two: bright herbs and warm spices, the food is flavoursome, colourful and healthy. Though this dish isn’t a traditional Israeli one, it was born out of that food culture. It can be served on its own, or for a more substantial meal, you could pair it with Persian Jewelled Rice.

Ingredients:
1 orange ( I used two small blood oranges)
50g honey
½ tsp saffron threads
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
about 300ml water
1kg skinless chicken breast
4 tbsp olive oil
2 small fennel bulbs, thinly sliced
15g picked coriander leaves
15g picked basil leaves, torn
15 picked mint leaves, torn
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 red chilli, thinly sliced

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/Gas Mark 6.
Trim and discard 1cm off the top and tail of the orange and cut it into 12 wedges, keeping the skin on. Remove any pips. Place the wedges in a small saucepan with the honey, saffron, vinegar and just enough water to cover the orange wedges. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for about an hour. At the end you should be left with soft orange and about 3 tablespoons of thick syrup; add water during the cooking if the liquid gets very low. Use a food processor to blitz the orange and syrup into a smooth, runny paste; again, add a little water if needed.
Mix the chicken breast with half the olive oil and plenty of salt and pepper, and place on a very hot, ridged griddle pan. Sear for about 2 minutes on each side to get clear char marks all over. Transfer to a roasting tin and place in the oven for 15–20 minutes, or until just cooked. Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, but still warm, tear it with your hands into rough and quite large pieces.
Place in a large mixing bowl, pour over half the orange paste and stir well. (The other half you can keep in the fridge for a few days and would make a good addition for herb salsa to serve with oily fish such as mackerel or salmon.)
Add the remaining ingredients to the salad, including the rest of the olive oil, and toss gently. Taste, add salt and pepper and, if needed, some more olive oil and lemon juice.

November 2, 2014 FrontPage

Pink Peppercorn Salad

I adore the scent and tang of pink peppercorns. I can distinctly remember the first time I tasted them in a sauce in Frederick’s Restaurant in Islington, nearly thirty years ago. These little berries of the South African baies rose plant aren’t related to peppercorns at all. Their flavour is very complex, both aromatic and sweet, and though I can’t find them listed at the Umami Information Centre, I’m certain they have a high umami level. I’ve used them in everything from panacotta’s to venison stew, and their scent and flavour profile are immediate identifiable… Here I wanted to enliven a warm green salad with a spicy little dressing, but not overwhelm the flavour of the veggies in the way, say, chilli might. The crushed peppercorns were a vibrant addition to the salad.

Ingredients:
100g of mixed green salad
200g of green vegetables (I used broccoli, and asparagus)
1 small shallots, finely diced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 clove garlic, minced
1 little olive oil

For the salad dressing:
1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons pink peppercorns, crushed in a pestle and mortar
1 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Method:
Fry the shallots, cumin and garlic in a little olive oil
Prepare and cook your vegetables (c’mon, you don’t need me to tell you how to cook broccoli!)
Crush the peppercorns, and then incorporate the remaining vinaigrette ingredients
Toss all of salad, vegetables and dressing together in a bowl

Et voila! Welcome to the wonderful world of pink peppercorns… Now you can use them to infuse cream for a panna cotta, to impart flavour to white chocolate, in marinades for meat, even in cocktails – a pink peppercorn martini anyone?

October 1, 2014 Recipe

Cumin spiced carrot salad

I thought it might be fun to make Indian food for our inaugural book club meeting. Being a handful of girls, it clearly had to include a salad – but I suddenly realised that actually, I’m not sure what an Indian salad looks like… Having never been to India, I haven’t see any first-hand, and I’ve never seen anything beyond raita, or onion salad on an Indian restaurant menu. {I even looked at the menu on the Benares website, just to make sure I hadn’t forgotten any} Most vegetarian dishes tend to be cooked rather than raw…

So the thought process began somewhat in reverse: which spices could I use to marry to the other Indian dishes, and which salad ingredients might marry to those spices.

After my intense cardamom overload of late, I thought I’d switch to cumin seeds, which led me to combining them with carrots. Cumin, caraway, parsley, and carrots are all members of the same Apiaceae family, and compliment each other well. The rest, as they say, is history… I kept some in the fridge until the following day, and it was just as refreshing then…

Ingredients:
8 large carrots, sliced into shards (or lengthways)
1 tablespoon of cumin seeds
1 teaspoon of caraway seeds
3 tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar
8 spring onions, finely sliced
½ cucumber, peeled, deseeded, and cut into slices
handful of parsley, finely chopped
salt and pepper to season

Method:
Combine all of the ingredients together and leave to meld – you need to leave it for at least an hour to allow the cumin seeds and carrot to soften a little. You will see my bowl is only half full – I put some additional salad leaves into mine, but clearly not while it was ‘curing’, or it would have wilted the leaves

April 21, 2013 Recipe

Prawns, Pork and Squid Noodle Salad

The sun is coming out, and so it’s time to eat ‘cleaner’ food. I’m a huge fan of Japanese cuisine, but there’s something very appealing in Asian noodle salads from all over the continent. This Cambodian salad, from Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey, really hits my buttons. Best of all, it can be made in advance – perfect for Sunday evening when you’re trying to recover from the post-Sunday lunch blow-out!

Ingredients:

vegetable oil for frying

100g shallots

200g glass noodles

200g large raw peeled prawns

200g squid, sliced into 5mm-thick rings

100g minced pork (or meatballs, see the Notes)

25g dried shrimp
3 Tbsp fish sauce
4 Tbsp lime juice
20g mint leaves
1 Tbsp palm sugar
50g peanuts
1 red bird’s eye chillies

Method:

Pour 1cm oil into a large, deep, frying-pan. Add the shallots and fry over a medium heat until they are crisp and golden brown. Lift them out with a slotted spoon onto plenty of kitchen paper and leave to drain. Reserve the frying oil.
Bring a large pan of unsalted water to the boil, add the noodles, take the pan off the heat and leave them to soak for 2 minutes. Drain well, roughly cut the noodles into a manageable length and set aside to drain even further. If there is a lot of excess water in the noodles, place some folded sheets of kitchen paper into the bottom of a bowl and tip the noodles on top.
Heat 2 tablespoons of the shallot-flavoured oil in a wok or large deep frying pan, add the prawns, season lightly with salt and stir-fry for 2 minutes or until just cooked. Lift onto a plate, add another 1-2 tablespoons oil to the pan and add the squid, season lightly with salt and stir-fry for 1-11/2 minutes until nicely caramelised. Add to the plate with the prawns. Finally, heat another 1-2 tablespoons il in the pan, add the minced pork and stir-fry for 1-11/2 minutes, breaking it up with a wooden spoon into small pieces as it browns.
Put the noodles into a large bowl and add the pork, prawns, squid, peanuts, mint, dried shrimp and chilli, and toss together well. Mix the lime juice, sugar and fish sauce together, toss through the salad and serve at room temperature.

Notes:

I had to use those fresh rice noodles, but they come with an oily film over them. I’ve tried washing it off in the past, but the result is not ideal. I’ve tried soaking them in juice too, but it’s not much better… The easiest solution I’ve found is to toss them for a few minutes in about a tablespoon of sesame oil. This compliments the overall dish, and adds a further level to the flavour combinations.
I didn’t use the squid, didn’t have any :0)
I found the pork mince a little… flaccid… I popped it into a hot oven for 5 minutes or so just to really give it a more roasted, and crispy edge – it much improved the texture
I did add some halved baby gem leaves too, for a little more texture, clearly that’s not authentic, but does improve the texture overall
The next time I made this, I bought mini meatballs instead, and pressed them down in the pan as I was shallow-frying them. I then popped them into the oven for 15 minutes. Chopped into quarters, they form a much better crunch than the mince (imho)

There are lots of other interesting recipes in Rick’s book >