Dal, that gorgeous spiced lentil soup, is one of those dishes that I revert to on a cold day outside. When I want something full flavoured that requires little attention, something that I can make a big batch of, and eat for the next couple of days, treasuring every bowl. It is also one of the most frugal bowls of food that you can eat. Just pulses, water and spice and some garlic. In season, I add chopped tomato too. If I have it in the fridge, I will add some fresh coriander. Curry leaves are wonderful with dal too, fried a little with the spices. Dal is one of the dishes that I make when I don’t have the time or the inclination to get to the shop, so I work with what I have. To make a meal of it, I add a boiled egg on top, better still gorgeous perky quails eggs, boiled until just set with the yolks still soft.

I use moong dal for this, occasionally chana dal. I prefer moong dal as it is mushier when cooked, whereas chana dal tends to hold its shape. A combination of the two works well too. This time I added some pumpkin, well a kabocha squash to be precise. I love the rich deeply flavoured orange flesh, and the gentle creamy texture it acquires when cooked through. Some coconut milk gives it a layer of richness and mellows it out.

Recipe: Pumpkin & Coconut Tadka Dal

Ingredients

makes enough for 3-4 bowls

200g moong dal
200g chopped peeled pumpkin
1 tsp turmeric
200ml coconut milk
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp brown mustard seed
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 chilli, finely chopped (and extra milder ones for decoration if you like, as I did)
light flavourless oil like groundnut or sunflower, coconut oil works too

Method

Cover the dal and pumpkin with water in a sauce pan, ensuring that the water covers the dal to an inch higher than it. Add the turmeric and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and allow the dal to simmer gently. It will take about 20 – 25 minutes to cook. Top up with water if you need to, a little at a time.

About 10 minutes in, toast the cumin seeds in a dry hot pan for about a minute. Grind in a pestle and mortar or spice grinder.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in the frying pan and add the garlic and chilli for a minute. Then add the ground cumin and mustard seeds and fry for a couple of minutes. Turn the heat off.

When the dal is almost tender, add the coconut milk and stir through. Allow to cook further. When the dal is tender it is ready. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. The black pepper is important as it enhances the absorption of curcumin in turmeric, which is a natural powerful anti-inflammatory agent and anti-oxidant. It tastes good too.

Serve the dal with a teaspoon of the spices and garlic (and some extra chilli too if you like, fry it first). Garnish with whatever else you fancy as per the blurb at the top.

Enjoy!

The food inspired by hunger, a lack of time and what is available is often the best. Sometimes that is how I come up with my most interesting recipes. Like today.

There is something about a crispy egg with a runny yolk. And what is the point of a runny yolk if you don’t have something gorgeous to drag through it? Something that will grab on to it and greedily try and entice some of that yolk and pull is with it as it is dragged through. The crispy egg was the first thing I craved as I was at my desk this morning.

Pasta. Good pasta. In this case a spiral noodle extricated using a bronze die so it has a firm grip and superb texture. I just know that the bends in it will show that egg yolk who is boss, but what to have with the pasta?

I thought herbs, and contemplated sage. Something fragrant and light. But then I remembered the feisty ‘nduja lurking in my fridge waiting for its moment. Firey and rich, a Calabrian spreadable sausage made with pork, hot Calabrian chillies and lard. So good. And perfect for this dish. ‘Nduja makes an instant sauce, is wonderful to boost a tomato sauce, and is perfect just on bread, or fried with some seafood like scallops or prawns.

This is easy and speedy and the best reward for 15 minutes work. Make it and enjoy it. And be prepared to make more immediately after.

Note: feel free to substitute spaghetti or linguine. I used Iberico lard as a cooking fat because I had it and I love it, I encourage you to seek it out. But also feel free to substitute with any other fat (butter, oil). Lard is misunderstood and is not unhealthy when used in small amounts. It is a real food, it isn’t processed, and it is a wonderful base oil for cooking. The best savoury pastries are made with lard too. If you can’t find ‘nduja (you should be able to source it online), substitute with chorizo, and chop it small.

Serves one hungry person – takes 15 minutes – prepare to make more immediately after.

My trip to San Sebastian wasn’t all about pintxos and restaurants, although it was all about eating. I spent Sunday afternoon cooking with Tenedor Tours, and learning all about Basque food that I could cook at home.

We met in the lively old town of San Sebastian in a gorgeous apartment dedicated to Gabriella’s cooking classes. There was a long room with an open kitchen at one end, and a table set up for us to eat at after. The light was beautiful, crisp and Autumnal, and Gabriella was waiting, brandishing a bottle of Txacoli and a warm welcome.

Gabriella has been running tours in Spain since 1997. In San Sebastian she works with chefs from the Basque Culinary Center (where she also teaches), and puts together sociable fun Basque cooking workshops followed by a meal where you devour your efforts. Our chef was Íñigo Zeberio (Princess Bride fans, there are a lot of Íñigos in San Sebastian, and you may find that phrase  – My name is Íñigo etc. – circling around your head repeatedly). A San Sebastian native, Íñigo brought us through seven recipes, all very hands on with lots of tips and tricks shared too. 

We started with a clever recipe for vermut stuffed olives where the vermut (Spanish vermut, not vermouth) was stuffed with a very simple vermut gel made with vermut and xanthan gum. Vermut is a terrific drink if you haven’t come across it yet, it is gorgeous with soda and orange bitters (I brought both back with me). Then we moved on to that pintxo classic, the Gilda, which requires a little bit of skill to put it together, all very well described with a hands on demo, the details are in the recipe below too. 

After the gilda, we made a homemade mayonnaise which became part of a gorgeous rich salsa rosa, which in turn went into stuffed peppers. Urchin prawns (I immediately thought hedgehog when I saw them!) were prawns coated in crisp dried pasta and fried, served with basil mayonnaise as a dip. Pork secreto (yes: pork secret), is a fabulous cut from the pata negra pig shoulder. Dense, rich and so luxurious, we had this with a fruity piperrada, a pepper sauce which we made too. Íñigo also fitted in a gorgeous scrambled egg with fresh boletus (porcini).

Gabriella is on hand at all times with stories and plenty of Txacoli and Vermut. It was such a fun afternoon and now I can have a little taste of San Sebastian at home too.

More on San Sebastian: Where to Eat Pintxos in San Sebastian (Donostia), in Spain.

Gabriella runs many different types of tours, you can find out more on her website Tenedor Tours. With thanks to Gabriella for sharing her lovely recipes. 

The “Gilda”

A classic pintxo, perhaps the first with a name of its own. Green, salty, and a bit spicy, it’s the taste of the Basque coast on a stick.

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 olives
12 guindilla peppers
4 good salt-cured anchovies Maldon salt
Extra-virgin olive oil
4 long toothpicks

Method

Line up the peppers and cut off the stems. Put three peppers on each toothpick, followed by one end of the anchovy.

Deftly slide the three peppers and lone anchovy to the other end of the skewer, and wrap the anchovy around the peppers, bundling them all up.

Bring everything back to its rightful and pointy end, and poke the pick through the last remaining bit of anchovy.

Add the olive to the end, drizzle it generously with good olive oil, and crush a pinch of flaky sea salt over the top.

With one bold move, eat the gilda in a single bite, followed by a sip of txakoli.

“Urchin” Prawns

Serves 4

Ingredients

8 prawns (or 12 prawns…or 16, perhaps)
Might as well go ahead and make it 20 prawns, to be safe. All-purpose flour
An egg from a happy hen
1cm pieces of angel hair pasta
Salt and pepper
Neutral vegetable oil
Mayonnaise + your choice of fresh herbs (try cilantro or basil!)

Method

Arrange your breading station: a plate with flour, a bowl with a beaten egg, and another plate with the noodles.
 Set a couple of centimeters of oil to gently heat up while you work on your production line.

Clean the prawns, leaving the tail and last joint, and remove the gut with a toothpick.

Salt and pepper a clean plate. Yes, salt and pepper the plate. Arrange the prawns on the plate, and salt and pepper them from above. Both sides are now seasoned, no turning over required.

Gently flour, egg, and noodle the prawns, making sure the noodles are really stuck on there, and arrange them on an empty plate.

Heat the oil until a piece of the pasta sizzles on impact, reduce the heat a little and fry the prawns until golden.

Drain the excess oil on paper and let them cool for a minute while you make the dipping sauce.

Chop and add the herbs and spices of your choice to the mayonnaise.

Dip, crunch, enjoy.

This post was brought to you as a result of the #SeeSanSebastian blog trip, created and managed by iambassador in partnership with San Sebastian. I maintain full editorial control of the content published on Eat Like a Girl, as always. All of our lives are too short for any alternative!

Have you got plans for the weekend yet? No? Right, get your pencil ready and write this list:

squid ink spaghetti (or just great pasta)
the best chorizo you can find
lots of lovely fresh clams
parsley
garlic
drinkable dry white wine (some for the pot & the rest for you)

and then make this. Do! I promise you won’t regret it.

This dish is perfect for an Autumn Saturday. It is speedy and it is so flavoursome. The chorizo gives the gorgeous briney clams a rich lightly spiced depth, the chorizo itself the colour of Autumn leaves. The squid ink noodles make it all very deep and rich (predominantly visually). It is speedy. The whole thing will be ready start to finish in 15 – 20 minutes. And you will want more, so prepare to have enough for seconds. You might even think of sharing it, with someone you like very much. Maybe.

Clams seem complicated but they are the easiest thing to cook, and the flavours are perfect, especially when you have the rumble of chorizo and the finely chopped parsley to keep it all in line. White wine helps make a gorgeous sauce with the garlic and the sea water released from the clams. And all you are doing is heating them until they cook and release the tight catch on their shells. The sauce coats the pasta beautifully and it is all so very good.

If you have never cooked with clams before do try this, and let me know how you get on with it. And don’t worry about it being fishy. This is light and briney and like getting a delicious splash of sea water on a seaside frolic.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Spaghetti with Clams & Chorizo

Serves 2

Ingredients

200g squid ink pasta (I uses tonnarelli al nero di seppia from Rustichella d’Abruzzo) or good spaghetti or linguine will do well too
500g clams, fresh and in the shell
100g diced chorizo (fresh or cured)
A handful of fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped very fine
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
a small glass of white wine
a little light oil or extra virgin olive oil for cooking
sea salt (if necessary)

Method

Soak the clams for up to an hour in room temperature water to remove any grit. Rinse thoroughly and remove any open shells that don’t close again when you tap them (they are dead and not good to eat).
Cook the pasta according to packet instructions and while it is cooking heat a tablespoon of oil in a large frying or sauté pan with a lid over a medium/high heat. Cook the chorizo until releasing its oils, then add the garlic and cook for a minute. Then add the clams and the wine and stir through. Allow the wine to reduce by half over a few minutes, then put the lid on and allow to cook for a few minutes until the shells have opened and the clams are cooked. Stir again. This should time nicely with the pasta being ready.
Drain the pasta when done and add to the clams with the parsley. Toss so that the pasta is covered with the lovely sauce and season with salt if necessary (it will likely be salty enough)>

I posted a lot of photos of lobster rolls when I was in Nova Scotia. Some of you were good about it, others were like: I WANT A LOBSTER ROLL, WAIL! So, it is only fair that I shared a recipe with you as soon as I returned, and here you are.

Lobster in Nova Scotia is plentiful and not expensive. A lobster roll costs less than £10 in a cafe or restaurant and is invariably packed with delicious fresh sweet meat. There are different approaches. Some are just soaked in melted butter, some are with mayo, others with creamed lobster, some have celery and pepper, some have nothing but lobster inside. They are almost always served in a bun, and usually a hot dog bun (although the hot dog buns in Eastern Canada are different to ours). 

One of my favourites was one that I made with the Kilted Chef, Alain, in his kitchen at a lobster-tastic evening, also involving gorgeous lobster caesars (a caesar is a Canadian take on the bloody mary with clamato, which is tomato juice with clam juice). Alain first steamed the lobster by cooking the lobster in a lidded pot in about an inch of salted water, the salt is important as the lobster is salty too, and if the water isn’t salted much of the flavour will leave the lobster for the unsalted water.

Alain suggests not killing it first, but if you are worried put it in the freezer for a few minutes to put it to sleep (they hibernate in cold conditions). After it was steamed and had cooled down, we extracted the meat and used it for the roll. They were gorgeous. Lobster rolls are served traditionally with potato chips or potato salad, we had a lovely fresh salad with ours.

To replicate the Nova Scotian hot dog buns, cut the sides off yours before toasting.

Thanks for the recipe, Alain! Enjoy everyone! 

Recipe:  Old Fashioned Grilled Lobster Rolls

Ingredients

6 hot dog buns
75g soft butter
500g lobster meat chopped
2 tbsp mayonnaise
50g diced celery
pinch of sea salt
pinch of pepper
75g shredded iceberg lettuce, divided into 6

Method

Butter your hot dog bun on both sides and grill them on both sides. In a bowl mix the lobster meat, mayonnaise, celery and salt pepper to taste. Open your grilled bun and place 1/6 of your iceberg lettuce in, then spoon the lobster mixture onto the
center of the hot dog bun and serve.

Enjoy!

With thanks to Tourism Nova Scotia and Destination Canada who sponsored my trip.

I love potatoes. They are just the best thing. I have always been a fan, as a child I had a phase where I would eat nothing else, and I have found a myriad of things to do with them since. I grew up surrounded by potato fields and we would collect the unwanted baby ones to make things with at home. Now of course they are trendy and more expensive than the bigger ones. Life is a funny thing. 

My potato joy expanded when I discovered that there were more types than just the potato that grew in the field behind my house. There were waxy and floury, red skinned and blue fleshed. There are even yellow fleshed potatoes from Peru. Of course all potatoes are from Peru originally, but you know. 

Occasionally I can get my mitts on purple potatoes at my farmers market. They used to be at the supermarket too but I guess maybe I was the only person buying them as they don’t sell them anymore. It is hard to beat a purple potato, both for visuals and flavour. They have wonderful sweet rich flesh (although nowhere near as sweet as a sweet potato, they are still quite savoury too). 

I have made crisps with them before (I love crisps), and served them with a chilli mayo dip. This time I went the hasselback route, cutting the potato into thin long wedges and roasting until crisp. Increasing the surface area this way not only looks superb, but it tastes great too. Especially when you baste them with butter relentlessly. And I did. They also look a lot more complex than they are. They are just potatoes that are not quite sliced through, and carefully. 

Of course you can use normal white potatoes and they will be just as good, but do keep an eye peeled for the purple ones just to try them. They are addictive and I think would be perfect for Halloween too, no? 

Recipe: Hasselback Purple Potatoes with Chorizo, Squash, Green Chilli and Cheddar

Serves 2 (or you know one for now and one for lunch the next day as I did)

Ingredients

4 medium potatoes, skin on, washed
125g butter (yes it is a a lot but the potatoes don’t absorb all of it)
75g chorizo, sliced in half lengthways and then chopped into horizontal slices
1 small pumpkin or squash (not a munchkin though!), deseeded, peeled and diced
1 mild green chilli
a few sprigs of thyme
100g cheddar, finely grated
sea salt
fresh ground black pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 deg C.

Prepare your potatoes by slicing them with a sharp knife not quite through to the end every 3mm or so.

Grease a baking tray and place the potatoes in. Divide the butter in 5 and firmly squish one fifth on top of each potato. Leave the remaining to the side. Sprinkle with sea salt and some of the pepper.

Put in the oven for 20 minutes, after which you should baste the potatoes with the melted butter, and continue to do this every 20 minutes. They should be finished after 60 minutes but this will depend on the size of your potatoes. They will be done when nice and crisp on top and soft within (test with your sharp knife gently).

While the potatoes are cooking, in a separate oven proof dish add the remaining butter, chorizo, chilli, pumpkin, thyme and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Mix well and put in the oven once the potatoes have been in a half an hour or so. Take them out after 10 minutes and give them a good stir. These should be cooked (when the pumpkin is tender), once the potatoes are done. If done before the potatoes, remove them and put back in the oven for 5 minutes before serving.

Serve when done with a quarter of the cheese on each and the chorizo and pumpkin mix.

Enjoy!

Fans of Ottolenghi (and I am one) will be thrilled to discover that there is a new cookbook to explore from Nopi, their central London restaurant. The book has been co-authored by Yotam Ottolenghi and Nopi head chef Ramael Scully. I popped by to have brunch with them and chat about their book before I left to explore Canada a couple of weeks ago.

The first thing you notice when you chat to Ramael is just how enthusiastic he is about cooking. He loves it and has lots of little projects on the go in the Nopi kitchen. I tasted some fermented rice that he was playing with (and that was good, very interesting & complex flavour!), and chatted to him about his culinary influences. The food at Nopi is a little different to the food at their other restaurants, steered by Ramael’s cultural influences which include his Malaysian heritage. He is also clearly inspired by other Asian cuisines, the food and recipes that result are joyful and very interesting.

I cooked the Sweet Potato Pancakes with Date Molasses from the Nopi cookbook at home, with a cheeky substitution of cream cheese for yogurt as that was what my fridge offered up that day. I would recommend it, the sharpness of the cream cheese was wonderful with the date molasses and sweet potato pancakes. I also highly recommend the Black Rice with Coconut Milk, Banana & Mango and the Courgette and Manouri Fritters with Cardamom Yogurt (both of which I have had in Nopi but I have yet to cook at home. 

Date molasses? A syrup that is made from pure date juice, wonderful, unctuous and thick. I am lucky that I can get it locally, but you can buy it online from Ottolenghi too (they deliver worldwide). Or, substitute maple syrup or honey. 

Recipe: Nopi’s Sweet Potato Pancakes with Date Molasses

from NOPI: The Cookbook

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 medium sweet potatoes, unpeeled (about 700g)
200g plain flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp grated nutmeg (do this fresh – it makes a huge difference)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 eggs, yolks and whites separated
150ml full fat milk
50g unsalted butter, melted (plus 80g extra cut into dice for frying)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp runny honey
coarse sea salt

To serve

160g Greek yogurt (or cream cheese if feeling indulgent)
60g date syrup
1 tsp icing sugar, for dusting (optional: I didn’t include this but it is in the original recipe)

Method

Preheat your oven to 240 deg C (220 deg fan oven).

Place the sweet potatoes on a parchment lined baking tray and roast for an hour until completely soft and browned. Remove from the oven, set aside to cool, and peel. Discard the skin and place the flesh in the middle of a clean piece of muslin or j-cloth. Draw up the sides, roll into a ball and squeeze out any liquid that is released from the flesh. The drained weight of the sweet potato should be about 320g. Reduce the oven temperature to 180 deg C (160 deg fan).

Mix together the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and cinnamon in a medium bowl with 1.5 teaspoons of salt. Place the egg yolks, milk, melted butter, vanilla and honey in a separate bowl and whisk well to combine. Fold into the dry ingredients and stir to combine before adding the sweet potato flesh. Whisk well until completely smooth. You can make the pancakes a day in advance up to this stage.

Place the egg whites in a separate bowl and whisk until stiff, this should take 3-4 minutes if whisking by hand or 1-2 minutes if using an electric whisk. Gently fold into the sweet potato mix and set aside.

When ready to serve put 20g of the diced butter into a large frying pan and place on a medium heat. When the butter starts to foam, ladle about a heaped tablespoon of pancake mix into the pan. You should be able to cook 3 pancakes at a time. Cook for 3-4 minutes, turning once half way through once the edges of the pancake are brown and the mixture starts to bubble in the middle. The pancakes are quite soft, so be careful as you turn them over. Transfer to a parchment lined tray and set aside while you continue with the remaining mixture, wiping the pan clean before adding 20g butter with each new batch. You should make 12 pancakes. Transfer to the oven for 5 minutes to warm everything through.

To serve place 3 pancakes in the middle of each plate (or create a ridiculous tower as I did ;) ), and spoon the yogurt (or cream cheese) on top. Drizzle with the date syrup, dust with icing sugar (if using), and serve.

So you made a big batch of ragu, and you have leftovers, or you are about to. And you don’t want to eat the same meal every day, several days in a row. People fret about leftover pasta, reheating means it loses its al dente texture, and it might get all flabby. Don’t worry, help is here. Turning leftover pasta into a frittata is a joyful thing to do. 

I first described this idea in recipe form with a papardelle and ragu leftover frittata in Comfort & Spice (my first cookbook) in 2011. Recently, I had a fabulous spaghetti carbonara frittata at Vico in Cambridge Circus (the new outpost from Jacob Kenedy and team in Cambridge Circus). It got me thinking as I stared at my bowl of leftovers yesterday. 

Normally, I would have parmesan with my spaghetti and ragu but I envisioned a cheesy frittata, and I needed something that would melt beautifully and that was also sharp, so I chose cheddar. This is so so simple, and intensely gratifying. The pasta on top becomes lovely and crisp encouraged by its cheesy chaperone. If you have fresh herbs feel free to add them too. 

Recipe: Cheesy Spaghetti and Ragu Frittata

serves one

leftover spaghetti and ragu (or similar) – about 2/3 of a portion per person
2 eggs, beaten lightly
50g grated cheddar cheese
a pinch of sea salt
optional: some chopped tomato, fresh herbs like thyme or basil
light oil for frying

small frying pan / skillet – I used a 20cm / 8 inch frying pan (I recommend a pan this size if you regularly cook for one person)

Method

Add half the cheese and a pinch of salt to the eggs and beat lightly. Add the leftover spaghetti and ragu and stir through. If using tomato or herbs add now too.
You can fry or bake it at this point – I have done both. Frying is quicker but requires a little more attention (if baking bake at 180 deg C for about 10 minutes).
Add a little oil to your frying pan. Add the frittata mix and cook over a medium heat for 4 – 5 minutes.
Cover the top with the rest of the cheese and put it under a hot grill to finish. When the cheese is bubbling and starting to crisp it is ready to eat.
Enjoy!

There is no point making a little ragu. Proper ragu is about time and patience and a glass of red wine and a book while you wait for it, inhaling those gorgeous smells all the way. So I make a lot, even if I am making it just for myself. I eat it in different ways over the following days, ragu just gets better and better the day after, and the day after that. Have it with pasta, put it in an empanada, or make a terrific frittata with the leftover spaghetti and ragu.

I have written about authentic Italian ragu in the past (Making Tagliatelle with Ragu with Anna – an Emilia Romagna Recipe), authentic in that the recipes that I sourced were all from Italians, and mainly people from Emilia Romagna, the home of Tagliatelle with Ragu. What I learned is that ragu varies, not just regionally (Romagnola ragu is heavy on the tomato, Emilia ragu is heavy on the meat), but from house to house.

Ragu usually starts with a soffrito (celery, carrot and onion). After that the meat varies (usually pork and veal but often beef and sometimes including sausage), some use milk, some use red wine, others use white wine. One person I cooked with used red and white wine, because that is how is father does it (white first and red later), there is always tomato but the amount varies. For seasonings some use bay, most use rosemary. I had a wonderful ragu in a countryside restaurant made with lard and white pepper. One thing that they all agree on is that there is definitely never any garlic and any Italian will fight you about that. But they don’t have black garlic, and if they did, I bet they would stick it in there. Controversial, right? Not when you taste it.

Black garlic is cured garlic from Korea. It isn’t fermented (as kimchi is) but it is cooked gently at a very low temperature over a number of weeks so that it caramelises, resulting in sticky black garlic that is rich, deep, savoury and sweet. It tastes a little like liquorice, a lot like molasses and balsamic vinegar, a little like roast garlic. It is a flavour bomb, and you know how much I love them.

I have never tried to make my own. I thought about it, I do love a bonkers project like this, but everywhere I read that it stinks your flat out, and I didn’t think that even I could cope with that in my small old London apartment. It is easy to buy now, besides. I have bought some in pharmacies in Asia, it is viewed as a health food there, and while I have not seen any scientific evidence, anecdotally it is referred to as a super garlic and is said to boost the immune system and lower cholesterol. They also make a tea with the husks. There are producers in the UK now too, and it is easy to source online (Ottolenghi uses it a lot and black garlic is available from their online shop too). 

Black garlic is terrific with lots of things, but I love it with beef. I make marinades for BBQ steaks with it, and I love sneaking some into a ragu. I say sneaking because nobody actually knows it is there, they just know that they love that deep lovely flavour. 

Give this a try, and come back tomorrow for a lovely recipe for the leftovers, it is worth making this just to make my lovely cheesey spaghetti and ragu frittata. Enjoy!

Note on the recipe: this takes time, give it at least two hours. Ragu tastes of little until it comes together, and then it tastes of everything, all at once. Worth the wait!

Spaghetti with Beef and Black Garlic Ragu

Makes enough for 6 – 8 people but use as much as you need and store the remainders in the fridge for 3 days or in the freezer for a month

Ingredients

1kg minced beef (fat is flavour – don’t go for a lean one)
2 red onions, finely chopped
4 sticks of celery, finely chopped
4 carrots, finely chopped
2 bay leaves
8 cloves black garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp worcester sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 x 400g tins good tomatoes
light oil for frying

1 tbsp fine grated parmesan per person, to finish
fresh basil leaves

100g spaghetti per person
sea salt

large sauté pan or frying pan / skillet that will accommodate the volume

Method

Make your soffrito by gently sweating the carrot, onion and celery in a tablespoon of oil over a gentle heat until starting to soften, about 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and leave to the side.

Add another tablespoon of oil and cook the beef in batches so it isn’t crowded over a medium heat until brown. Return all of the beef and soffrito to the pan and add the black garlic. Stir for a couple of minutes, then add the tomatoes, worcester sauce, soy sauce and bay leaves. Bring just to the boil, reduce the heat to low and cook for at least two hours. Season to taste when done.

When you are happy with your ragu, cook your spaghetti according to packet instructions. Add a ladleful of ragu per portion and mix completely. Top with parmesan, and the fresh basil leaves.

Eat immediately. The ragu keeps very well in the fridge for 3 days or in the freezer for a month.

Enjoy!

Do you know Magic Corn? Those little stalls that you see in random places? They sell corn mixed with butter (although I think margarine), spices, powdered cheese etc. I must confess to having a little pang every time I walk past it. I know it is utterly processed but it tastes so good. I discovered it in a moment of weakness in a suburban shopping center a few years back. I try not to have any now. My body is a temple, a temple dedicated to indulgence and joie de vivre. I am trying to turn that around just a little bit.  Incidentally, the same goes for haribo, which is my kryptonite. 

So, rather than fail and submit at the Magic Corn stand, I started to play around with corn combinations at home. Corn in butter or oil with spices, different cheeses, lots of different curious dressings. One of my favourites is Esquites from Mexico, where they have 59 different types of indigenous corn and a lot of wonderful corn dishes. Esquites is similar to Elote, where corn on the cob is slathered with mayonnaise (I sometimes prefer creme fraiche for brightness), Mexican cheese (feta works), coriander and lime. It is gorgeous. Esquites is pretty similar but the corn kernels are shucked from the cob. The result is a gorgeous vibrant corn salad, a world away from Magic Corn and with even more satisfaction. 

Note on the recipe: I used dried chipotle, which I suggest you seek out (you can buy from Cool Chile Co online and in some shops and delis, The Spice Shop also sells chipotle online. I love the smoky heat, it is gorgeous with the corn. You can also get tins of chipotle in adobo which you could use too. You can substitute normal chilli, and it will still be good, but the chipotle gives it something special. You can substitute frozen corn if out of season, about 500g. In Mexico cotija cheese is used but I substitute feta as it is more easily available here. 

Chipotle Elotes (Gorgeous Mexican Corn Salad)

Serves 2

Ingredients

3 ears of corn, corn kernels removed (cut the end off, stand the cob vertically, then run a knife down close to the core, releasing the gorgeous kernels – save the cores for stock!)
1 tsp finely chopped dried chipotle
1 tsp dried oregano (I used Italian oregano, which is not the same as Mexican oregano but works very well)
3 cloves garlic (peeled and finely chopped)
3 spring onions, finely sliced (green and white parts)
150g feta cheese (in the US you can easily get cotija cheese, but feta substitutes well in Europe)
2 tbsp mayonnaise
juice of one lime
1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp light oil

sea salt and black pepper to season

Method

Sauté the corn kernels in the butter and oil over a medium heat until tender – about 12 minutes.
Add the garlic, oregano and chipotle and cook for a few minutes further.
Take off the heat and stir through the spring onions, mayonnaise and lime juice. Season to taste. Crumble the feta on top and stir through lightly.
Eats well warm or cold.
Enjoy!

Yeah, that is right, the 9 minute one pot pasta dish from Puglia that is taking the internet by storm. It surely can’t be good, can it? I mean, really?

I gave it a try and I was pleasantly surprised. I will make it again, and again. I am obsessed with pasta and all the good carbohydrate things (hello potato!), but I like to do things properly, and well. This doesn’t mean that they need to take a long time. I love geekery and tricks, I love surprising new ways of doing things. I like to cook something really good in just a few minutes (my first book has a chapter on Speedy Suppers which are a regular feature of my week). 

It is easy to be suspicious of simplicity, but I think we are all agreed that simple good things, taste really, well, good. My curiosity around this pasta dish was based mainly in the fact that nothing was sautéed first. Wouldn’t that affect the flavour? Most dishes require a little bit of sauté, whether that for pasta is simply starting with a speedy hot oil bath for garlic or pancetta to release their joy and goodness.

It was in Asia that I first realised that this is not essential for flavour. I have cooked with home cooks and restaurant chefs there who don’t sauté a thing, not even the meat, and the finished dishes don’t miss a thing. What about the lack of sauté here? Well, you don’t get any browning and the garlic slices leave a pungent (and gorgeous) taste, but when this dish is finished, you top it all off with some glorious extra virgin olive oil and parmesan. When you use good tomatoes, the flavour is so round, you don’t miss a thing. 

Cooking pasta by absorption, another great pasta trick and one that is similar to what is used here, is a superb way of cooking pasta. In Italy this is called pasta risottata (cooking pasta like risotto), and it simply means that in the same length of cooking time and with a little more care, you can create a perfectly textured pasta dish by adding hot water a little at a time and letting the pasta absorb it. The flour that coats the surface of the pasta remains in the sauce instead of in the water in the pot that you throw away. For this, you need very good pasta for it to work well. 

The advantages of this dish? Speed, flavour, and it really delivers. But you must use good pasta, you must pay attention and stir it regularly, and ensure you finish just as the pasta is al dente and no later. Like all simple dishes, the quality of your ingredients will determine the end results, so best tomatoes and best everything else. I always have a stash of great pasta in my pantry, it is a worthwhile investment, and there is no going back once you start using it. Hit your local Italian deli and ask their advice, or seek out Rustichella d’Abruzzo* (which you can buy from Odysea in the UK) or Pastificio dei Campi (which you can buy online from Food in the City). Both cost a little more but are worth every penny.

*I visited Puglia with Rustichella d’Abruzzo recently but this did only served to reinforce my faith in their product. I highly recommend it. They have lots of gluten free pastas too but more on that soon. 

Nine Minute One Pan Linguine with Tomatoes, Chilli and Basil

Based on the original Martha Stewart One Pan Pasta recipe, as told to Nora Singley in Puglia. The story of which is detailed nicely here on Food52 (along with 7 further recipes).

Nine Minute One Pan Linguine with Tomatoes, Chilli and Basil

Adapted to serve 2 people (generously) and with metric measurements, I didn’t include onion in mine

Ingredients

200g linguine
200g cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered if large or a diced peeled great tomato
2 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
a pinch of chilli flakes (to taste)
2 sprigs basil, plus torn leaves for garnish
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
500ml water (you may need to top it up a little – I didn’t – have some water boiled just in case)
freshly grated Parmesan cheese, for serving

a large pan that will fit the linguine horizontally, I used my sauté pan

Method

Combine the dried pasta, tomatoes, garlic, chilli flakes, basil, oil, 1 teaspoon salt, a pinch of pepper and the water in a large shallow pan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Boil the mixture, stirring and turning pasta frequently with tongs, until the pasta is al dente and water has nearly evaporated, about 9 minutes. But keep an eye on it.

Season to taste with salt and pepper, divide among 2 bowls, and garnish with fresh torn basil. Serve with a drizzle of oil and Parmesan.

Yes, feta dip. All your problems solved. Salty and sweet. The perfect weekend indulgence for when the weather is just being a pain outside. Crackers, feta dip, juicy pop-sweet tomatoes. Are you ready?

This is so very easy. All it is is a little single cream (or heavy cream if you are stateside), some cream cheese, and then the bulk of it is feta, proper feta from Greece. None of that fetta or anything that looks like feta but isn’t. Real feta is protected and nothing else can be called feta, that is f-e-t-a.

Feta is made from sheep’s milk, or sheep and goat’s. Never with cows. If there is cow milk in there, it is not the real deal. You want real feta for the sweetness and richness of the sheep’s milk which is brilliant with the salty brine. I thought I didn’t like feta until I went to Greece when I was a student, all I had had before then was the weird inferior stuff with the odd taste.

You can of course just shovel whipped feta into your carcass but it is a little better and nicer with gorgeous lightly roasted tomatoes. Staying Greek, I roasted them with oregano, a small pinch of salt (the feta is salty enough) and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Some crackers as a delivery vehicle work perfectly, as does toast. Anything really, but try to get something that isn’t flavoured or salty if you can. There is enough salt and flavour here and you want to focus on that.

Whipped feta with roast tomatoes, oregano and mint

Recipe: Whipped Feta with Roast Tomatoes, Oregano & Mint

Ingredients

200g feta
75g cream cheese
50ml single cream (heavy cream)
a handful of gorgeous small tomatoes
1 tsp good dried oregano
1 tsp fresh mint
extra virgin olive oil
freshly cracked black pepper

crackers or similar to serve with

Method

Preheat your oven to 18 deg C. Put the tomatoes, oregano and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil in an oven proof tray. Roast for about 10 minutes until just squishy.

While the tomatoes are roasting prepare your dip. Whip the cream first, then combine the feta and cream cheese separately in a blender, then fold the cream in with a spoon.

Serve with the tomatoes on top and a little fresh mint and black pepper.

Enjoy!

I have this thing with lardo. I want to help you embrace it. It is so misunderstood. All of this clean eating lark, well it is a bit depressing, isn’t it? All of that unnecessary deprivation, where is the joy? I am not suggesting you go out and eat fried chicken for a living (although certainly you must eat good fried chicken once in a while), what I am saying is, it is important that we just enjoy eating, eat what we like, and what our body needs and enjoys. Throw off all the anxiety related to it, eat well if you can (many can’t), and take pleasure in it. If we don’t eat well we suffer, we become ill, we can become neurotic when we obsess about the details. Walk a little bit to balance it out, dance occasionally. Life is good, right? 

I try to embrace a balanced diet, and eat a little meat, I try not to eat a lot of it. I love vegetables. I adore fruit, I love salads, I love lightness. I adore fish, and avocados. I try everything and build a naughty list of stuff that I won’t try again. Before avocado toast was trendy, people considered it too high fat to have regularly at home. I always did because it is delicious, and it is healthy. Those fats are good for your brain, and for your soul. I love lardo too. Lardo? It is pure cured aged pork fat that you eat by the slice. Bear with me. 

There is always some confusion about lardo because people confuse it with lard. (Pork) lard in Italy is called strutto, and it is used for many things including piadina, those lovely Emilia Romagna flatbreads (which I have a recipe for, and which I will share later on). Lardo is charcuterie, or more accurately salumi (which is different to salami). Salumi is an umbrella term for Italian cured meat products, predominantly but not exclusively made of pork. It gets more confusing when you see that you can buy lardo in a jar that is spreadable, or when you come across pesto Modenese (a lardo based pesto made with lardo, rosemary and garlic). These are made with lardo, but look like lard. It doesn’t help that almost everyone translates lardo as lard. It just isn’t the same thing. 

Lardo is the jewel in the salumi crown for me. The cured back fat of a pig, a pure white block of cured slippery gorgeous fat, flecked with herbs  and very occasionally striped pink with a little meat. It is usually served sliced so fine that the minute it hits your tongue, it succumbs and releases its gorgeousness, it lasts just a minute, it is divine.  Lardo has incredible flavour and texture and there are many regional variations to explore.  

If you already know lardo, it is likely that you know or have tried lardo di Colonnata, a Tuscan lardo that has been made since Roman times in the hamlet of Colonnata in the Apuan Alps. Lardo di Colonnata has an IGP just as parmesan does (Protected Geographical Indication – it can’t be made anywhere else in Europe and called this, by law). Carrara marble is also mined here, and lardo di Colonnata has been traditionally cured with salt and fresh herbs in large carrara marble boxes over a period of months. I really need to visit. This is no ordinary pig fat, and it demands our respect and attention. 

Lardo selection appetiser at Roscioli in Rome

There are many more types of lardo, and one of the joys of Italy is that you can order things like a lardo selection as an appetiser (pictured above in Roscioli in Rome last year). It is also relatively inexpensive, and once you vac pac it, it is absolutely fine to take home (within the EU anyway). I brought four types of lardo home from my last trip. Pre sliced, as you need it really thin to appreciate it as it is. Unless of course you intend it as an ingredient for pesto Modenese or similar, then you can just chop it. I love lardo so much, I am contemplating investing in a small meat slicer so that I can slice it finely at home.

Lardo egg – dream breakfast

It has been a fun week at home of lardo play and indulgence. Lardo is wonderful on toast, yielding slightly on it, but still standing strong. Lardo makes the most perfect soldiers for your dippy boiled egg when draped over sourdough toast and cut accordingly. I have covered my breakfast egg (mainly the yolk) with fine slices of lardo and allowed it to gently protect it as it cooks. This is bacon(ish) meets egg in a delicate and intrinsic fashion. The lardo shelters the egg and then becomes part of it. For me, this dish is an expression of love.

You can do almost anything with lardo. Lardo is divine when allowed to melt into a steak as you finish cooking it, just on top, just as it finishes. Better still on the BBQ. I made lardo chicken wings recently which were as good as you are now imagining, I also covered a spatchcock chicken in lardo and allowed it to roast tenderly. For a speedy evening meal for one, spatchcock a poussin, season it and cover it with a lardo blanket before roasting it with some bright veg on the side. It will be done and on your plate in 45 minutes. One of the best things about poussin is the ratio of skin to flesh is perfect. Lots of crispy skin. 

Spatchcock lardo roast poussin

Go on. Do it. And enjoy! 

Buying lardo: any good Italian deli will have it, and you can source it easily online. The Ham & Cheese Co in Bermondsey Spa Market have a particularly good one.

Recipe:  Spatchcock Lardo Roast Poussin

Ingredients

per person

1 poussin
enough finely sliced lardo (of your choice) to cover it – I used 6 slices
a little sweet hot chilli flakes (like Calabrian chilli, pasilla chilli or Turkish pul biber)
fresh rosemary, the needles from one sprig, chopped really fine
black pepper

veg of your choice – I used baby courgettes, tomatoes and peas
sea salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 deg C.

Spatchcock your poussin (or have your butcher do it) by cutting out the breast bone using a sharp knife or poultry scissors. This is the bone in the centre of the two breasts (I know, obviously but just in case!). Press it flat with your hand and put it in an oiled ovenproof tray that will accommodate it.

Sprinkle a little chilli and the rosemary on the poussin. There is no need to salt it as the lardo is quite salty already. Cover the poussin with a layer of lardo and put it in the oven to roast. It will take 35 – 40 minutes. It will be done when the juices run clear, as with a chicken. Baste it every ten minutes or so and keep adding that lardo flavour to the poussin.

After about 25 minutes add the veg and spoon the fat over them. You can roast them separately in olive oil if you prefer.

When the poussin is done let it rest for 5 minutes. Serve on top of the veg with a very light sprinkle of salt, it won’t need much. How good is that crispy lardo? I can still taste it.

Enjoy!

You might think that I have lost the plot here. It isn’t the most attractive of recipe titles but, trust me, this new recipe of mine for boiled eggs with a lively black bean chilli sauce is GOOD. And it is simple and speedy too. I mean, we all love black bean sauce, right?

Fermented black beans, also called salted black beans or preserved black beans, are a Chinese staple. You can get them in most Chinese food shops, often with ginger. They are really inexpensive plus a little goes a very long way. I recommend that you all get some for your cupboard, you will find them indispensable on days when you want something speedy with a flavour punch. The work has all been done in advance for you with the fermentation of the beans.

These are superb in a speedy sauce with pork, they are excellent with clams and thin strips of pork belly too. I have used them with beef in a speedy Asian ragu that I had with rice noodles (fusion much?). These little black beans are super versatile. Treat yourself to some (they won’t cost you more than £2) and play around. They are easy to source online too if you don’t have a Chinese shop nearby.

Start here! Enjoy.

Recipe: Breakfast Eggs with a Lively Black Bean Chilli Sauce (Trust Me)

per person – although you might want 2 eggs, I did! So maybe double up :)

Ingredients

3 tbsp black beans
2 spring onions, chopped finely (white and green parts)
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp mild flaked chilli or one fresh mild chilli deseeded and finely chopped
2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves
light oil like groundnut oil
1 gorgeous egg

Method

Soak the black beans in enough water to cover them for a few minutes, then drain. Heat a tablespoon of oil over a medium heat. Add the garlic, spring onions and chilli if using a fresh chilli. After a couple of minutes add the chilli if using dried chilli, and allow to cook over a gentle heat for about 5 minutes.

In this time boil your eggs until just done. For me, and the eggs I like to use (Old Cotswold Legbars that are usually large but sometimes more medium), I add them to boiling water and take them out after 6 or 7 minutes. A trick I learned when I was a kid is that your eggs are boiled when the water evaporates off the shell immediately when you take them out of the water. Peel and quarter.

Stir the coriander leaves through the black beans, saving some for a garnish. Spread a little of the black bean mixture on the plate – those eggs can be slippy! – then place the eggs on top. Place the remaining black bean sauce on the eggs, gently with a spoon. Garnish with the remaining coriander leaves.

You will notice I don’t salt them, the beans season the dish plenty. But yours might be different, so taste first and then decide.

Enjoy!

This post is about vongole (clams) but we must first talk about guanciale, the magical bacon that is cured from the jowl of the pig. It has a flavour that is different to all others. It is bacon, sure, but it has a volume to it, a roundness that consumes you when you eat it. It is big, it is present, and it is one of the best things that you can eat. It is traditionally Italian, and can be tricky to find here, I think because in the main we are so nervous about fat, which is ridiculous as fat is flavour, and we are built to digest it. Partially, it may be because it was traditional to eat the whole of the pigs head here, and maybe not cure it. Guanciale is perfection, eat it, just don’t have it every day.

Clams are perfect with pasta and so good with pork. There is something about the subtle brine and flavour of the sea released from each shell, the slick saline sauce that coats the pasta and compliments the sweet pork meat. The pop that is each small clam as you retrieve it as you eat. 

I have made many versions of vongole (Italian for clams) with linguine or spaghetti over the years. This time I had a gorgeous plump sweet Roman tomato, so I put that in. Peeled and deseeded, which is so worth the effort, so that you just get the purity and intensity of the tomato flesh. And who wants to pull tomato skin out from between their teeth? Chilli, because I love it, and it is a perfect flavour enhancer plus it gives a vibrance to the dish. Guanciale is perfection wherever it sits, and it is brilliant here. Peter Hannon makes a terrific guanciale which is stocked at Fortnum & Mason in London, and any decent Italian deli will have it too. If you can’t get guanciale, I would suggest looking online for it, or substitute with pancetta or streaky bacon.

Recipe: Linguine Vongole with Guanciale, Tomato & Chilli

takes 30 minutes
per person

Ingredients

350g fresh vongole / clams
100g linguine
1 gorgeous fresh tomato, peeled and deseeded (peel by cutting a cross in the base & covering with boiling water for 30 seconds, drain and peel skin)
1 mild chilli or some fruity dried chilli, deseeded and chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
50g guanciale, chopped into 1 cm dice
a handful of chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
sea salt
a little fresh cracked black pepper

Method

Soak the clams in water for as long as you have, up to an hour, although just 10 minutes will be ok too. Just to remove any sand that might be still in them. Then drain, discard any that are open and won’t close when you tap them (these are dead) and leave the remaining to the side.
Sauté the guanciale in its own fat for a few minutes over a medium heat, stirring as you do. Add the garlic and chilli and fry for a minute, then add the tomato.
Cook your linguine in salted water until al dente. When there is just a few minutes to go, add a ladle of the pasta water to the tomato and guanciale mix, then add the clams. Cover with a lid for a couple of minutes or until the clams open.
When the pasta has a minute or two to go, drain it and add the pasta to the clams. Stir through ensuring the linguine is well coated in the sauce.
Add the parsley, stir through, check the seasoning and add salt if necessary (with the guanciale and clams you may not need to), and finish with a little black pepper.
Enjoy!

Yes! I am back in my kitchen after 10 days in Italy. My trip was split between Abruzzo and Rome and was deeply inspirational, if a little hot. No very hot, and all the mozzies got the memo that the pink Irish person was in town. Little gits.

Italy always gets my cooking neurons firing, I go there as often as I can, but this trip was particularly interesting as I was travelling mainly with talented chefs and food writers. The trip in general was centred around one of my favourite things, pasta! But, more on that soon.

I got back last night, very late after lots of delays. I was tired, my luggage was heavy with wine, charcuterie, beans and maybe a small arrosticini grill. There may have been a chitarra too. I know, I know, I have a problem. It was a lot to lug home solo, but the people of London were awesome, as always, and so many total strangers offered to help me as I went. I got home eventually, hungry, and enthusiastic to cook. I needed to make something speedy with a punch. The answer to that turned out to be a steak salad with ‘nduja onions. And it was good.

‘Nduja onions? What even are they? Red onions, caramelised gently for half an hour or so, with firey ‘nduja stirred through. ‘Nduja is a magical concoction of pork, fat and Calabrian chilli, in a spreadable sausage. I mean, YES. I actually can’t have it in the fridge all the time as I find it hard to go past it. The ‘nduja goes perfectly with the sweet onions, and the onions disperse the chilli a bit? You will want to put them in everything. You will want to dry them, and grind them to a powder, and well… use as a rub? (Gotcha!). I think these are a perfect garnish generally, and I plan to make a big batch and keep them in a jar in the fridge to use as I go.

Along with my brazen onions, I also had a perfect Roman tomato that I had brought with three others in my hand luggage home. I had some sorry looking potatoes which I revived by peeling off the limp skin, dicing, par boiling, and then frying gently until completely crisp and fluffy inside. I love a fluffy spud, it tickles my insides and awakes childhood culinary memories as it does. Memories of fields and flowers and summers spend gathering leftover small potatoes to do whatever we wanted with. Usually we tried to make crisps, but we were always disappointed (I have mastered the craft now ;) ). Anything, a country childhood forces you to be creative and I am still grateful for that.

Almost there. (Puglian) oregano is about the only thing that can shout over ‘nduja and calm it down a bit, so I popped some of that on too. For contrast, a little bitterness and some texture, I wilted some baby gem lettuce in the last minute or so. Then an egg, fried until the white is perfectly set and the yolk still runny.

It is good to be back in the kitchen! And back at my desk too.

Happy Monday, all! I hope your week is a good one.

Recipe: Potato & Tomato Hash with an Egg & ‘Nduja Onions

45 minutes
serves 1

Ingredients

‘Nduja onions – I would recommend quadrupling this and storing it in the fridge, if you can

1 red onion, peeled, cut in half and finely sliced
2 tbsp ‘nduja

Potato, Tomato & Lettuce Hash

1 average potato, peeled and diced
1 meaty tomato, peeled, deseed and roughly chopped (or a handful of good cherry tomatoes, halved)
1/2 tsp dried oregano (removed from the stem)
1 small head of baby gem lettuce, washed with leaves removed

1 egg
sea salt
light oil for frying

Method

Heat a tablespoon of oil and add the onions. Cook gently for half an hour or so (longer if you have time), then stir through the ‘nduja. Leave for a further 5 minutes then turn off the heat.

Parboil your potato until just tender, which will take just a few minutes. Heat a further tablespoon of oil in a new frying pan and fry over a medium heat until crisp all over. Add the tomatoes and oregano, the potatoes will get a little squishy, but that is what you want. Cook them for a further 5 minutes. Add the lettuce leaves for just a minute.

At this point I would normally just crack an egg in the middle here, but this morning I fried it in a separate pan. Up to you! I find I get my eggs perfectly right when fried over a medium heat with a lid on top. This allows the white to set perfectly while still having a runny yolk. I am a bit freaky about egg whites, I must confess.

Season the egg and hash with sea salt, and serve the hash with the egg on top, and finish with those feisty ‘nduja onions.

Joy! Enjoy it.

I am summer roll crazy right now. When at home I have made them at least twice a week, and always with different fillings. Sometimes prawns, sometimes tofu, and yesterday, with chilli and lime salmon and samphire, and then the ultimate pork belly & crackling. Crunch, swoosh, zing. 

A summer roll is really just a beautifully packaged noodle salad. And  a very portable one. Hello, lunch? Rice noodles (vermicelli) and friends, all neatly packaged in a water softened rice paper wrap. They seem complicated but they are not all that difficult to roll, with practice. After 3 or 4, you will have the knack, and they will take over your summer. I keep the noodle content low, as I find they get a bit rubbery if there is too much. I like to keep them packed with colour and freshness, grated carrot, fresh coriander and mint, and the zing of a fresh fruity not-so-hot chilli. 

The wraps are fairly easy to source, I buy them in Chinatown usually but my local health food shop and supermarket stock them also. You can buy different sizes, I go for the bigger one, they are just easier. You can put whatever you want in your summer roll, I love these flavour combinations, and any leftover filling, should you have any, is perfectly good as a salad on its own.&nbsp

Recipe: Vietnamese Summer Rolls Two Ways; Chilli Salmon & Samphire Rolls and Pork Belly & Crackling Rolls

Makes 12 – 16 depending on how big you make them

Ingredients

Vietnamese rice paper wraps  – 12-16 to start but I suggest stacking up

50g vermicelli rice noodles, prepared according to packet instructions (mine needed to be soaked in boiling water for 12 minutes)

a handful of chopped fresh mint leaves
a handful of chopped fresh coriander leaves
1 mild fruity red chilli, seeds removed and finely chopped
1 carrot, grated
4 spring onions, finely chopped

Salmon filling

350g salmon
1 lime
good dried chilli
sea salt
fresh cracked black pepper
greaseproof paper

a handful of fresh samphire

Pork belly filling

750g pork belly with skin on (allowing some for the cook to nibble on while they work ;) )
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp black peppercorns

Method

Pork belly – score the top using a sharp knife (or stanley knife – really, that skin is tough!) cutting through the skin until before the flesh. Don’t cut through to the flesh as it will lose moisture while cooking which affects the crackling making it rubbery, and also makes the flesh dry. Put the pork on a wire tray (like a grill pan) skin side up and pour boiling water over it to puff the skin up. Drain and dry the skin with kitchen paper. Leave at room temperature for half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 220 deg C. In a pestle and mortar / spice grinder combine 1 tsp sea salt / 1 tsp black peppercorns / 2 tsp final and grind until a rough powder. Dry the pork belly skin again, completely, if you own a hair dryer this works well (again, really), I use kitchen paper, and rub the fennel mixture all over the pork – skin and flesh. Place in the oven at 220 deg C for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 170 deg C and cook for a further 45 minutes. Check the skin, if not puffed up, blast at high heat for 5 minutes or place under the grill and keep a very close eye on it – it will burn quickly. Remove and leave to cool down a bit.

I cooked the salmon in the same oven for the last 20 minutes. Squeeze the lime over the salmon and top with a little sea salt, some chilli and pepper. Place on some greaseproof paper, enough to make a parcel (about 3 times the length and width) and fold the greaseproof paper tight on top to secure it. You can tie it with string but mine was fine like this. Cook for 20 minutes at 170 deg C. For the last two minutes add the samphire to the parcel, just to soften it. The samphire is also lovely raw so you can just put it in raw too). Remove from the oven and allow to cool down.

Combine the rest of the ingredients for the rolls – noodles, herbs et al.

Put about an inch of water in a bowl or deep plate large enough to fit the wraps (one at a time). Soak each one for 30 seconds or so, until just soft and pliable but not too soft (they will tear). You will get a feel for it.

Place a small amount of pork belly and crackling or salmon and samphire in the bottom centre third leaving an inch at the end (see photo). Place some of the noodle mixture on top. Fold each side over, then roll from the bottom (see photos).

Leave on a plate while you roll the others. Leave space between them or they will stick.

Eat immediately or store covered in cling film in the fridge.

Good, eh?!

What? You never thought of having almonds with your eggs? Well think about this: how good would a fried almond slick with chorizo oil be dipped into a runny egg yolk? Yeah! Lets get cracking. This is so simple and you will have your breakfast of champions on your table within 10 minutes.

First, lets tackle what is likely at the forefront of your mind. THAT poached egg. Let me let you in on a secret, I poach eggs all the time and my first poached egg for this dish was a disaster. I created my whirlpool as I always do, I even added vinegar as I knew my egg was not as fresh as I would like. I would need a very fresh egg for a great poached egg but vinegar helps tighten a tired white and pull it all together. My poor egg couldn’t handle the whirlpool and the yolk bolted away, the white clinging on only just. The yolk poached perfectly and it is the best bit anyway, but you know, that was a disaster of a poached egg.

Do you feel discouraged? Don’t, 95% of the time these work out fine. My second one was from the same box and so I let the water relax and be still then cracked the egg into a small cup before gently easing it into the water. This one was perfect. And there we are. None of the fuss was warranted, all this egg needed was some water that was not quite boiling (and that is very important too – tiny imperceptible bubbles are what you want). You can fry your egg or even boil it if this is too much of a pulaver but I would walk across hot coals for a perfect poached egg on the mornings that I desire one.

This requires less of a recipe, it is more of a conversation. Fry a handful of chopped chorizo until it starts to release its oil, then add a couple of tablespoons of almonds for a couple of minutes, stirring as you go, coating them in the lovely chorizo oil. This whole time your egg should be cooking, whichever way you want. Add the tomatoes and cook briefly so that they stay firm. Finish with a little salt, to taste, and a flourish of basil. Egg on top.

Lovely, eh? Enjoy!

You know how it is. You have leftovers, and you need to use them. Or you are tired, and all you want to do is use the leftovers. Either way, this is leftover city and we have to use them up. Leftovers get a bad rep but they are the best thing in a kitchen. Flavours are usually at their best the next day, at the very least they can be livened up quickly and you can have a terrific meal in minutes. 

Take a chicken. Say, leftover roast chicken. So good on its own, wonderful with mayo and stuffing in a sandwich, but what about looking East and giving it a little heat, then pumping it awake with some aromatics, some nuts for texture (I am putting peanuts in everything at the moment) and you have a dish that will make you want to roast a chicken and not eat it, but save it for this. Of course you can just roast a chicken thigh for one person to order, which I also did today.

Plus, isn’t it hot? I want something refreshing, bright and quick. This takes 10 minutes to put together and I have eaten this three times since I came up with it last week. Rice noodles with shredded chicken, fried peanuts, spring onions, a little hot chilli, a pinch and punch of garlic and ginger, tickle of fresh coriander, lick of fish sauce and sprinkle of fresh lime. 

Sounds good, right? Here is how. 

Recipe: Chicken Rice Noodles with Peanuts, Chilli & Coriander

Serves 2 

Ingredients

100g thick rice noodles (thin will do fine too)
300g leftover chicken, shredded
1 chilli, as hot as you like, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 inch ginger, peeled and finely chopped
3 tbsp peanuts (peeled or unpeeled are fine)
4 spring onions, chopped finely
a handful of fresh coriander leaves
juice of one lime and extra lime wedges to serve
2 tbsp good fish sauce
sea salt to taste
light oil for frying

1 tbsp fresh mint leaves (optional – they give another fresh layer)

Method

Cook the rice noodles according to packet instructions (mine needed to be soaked in boiling water for 12 minutes).

Sauté the chicken and peanuts in a little light oil for a few minutes. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli and sauté for a further 2 minutes. Add the spring onions, stir through, then add the noodles. Mix until well combined. Add the lime and fish sauce and taste for seasoning. The fish sauce acts as a salt (it has a lot of salt in) so you may not need any. Adjust lime and fish sauce for your taste if required. Finish with the coriander and mint (if using), stirring through, and serve with an extra lime wedge on the side.

Enjoy! This eats really well hot or cold. Perfect lunch or picnic food too.

On a quiet street in Fornells in Menorca is an unassuming restaurant, Es Cranc. Es Cranc has a large menu, but most come here for the Caldereta de Langosta, a popular lobster soup from Menorca made with the native blue spiny lobsters which Es Cranc is particularly well regarded for.

Caldereta gets its name from the pot that it is cooked in, a caldera. Traditionally this was a fishermans dish, cooked with the broken lobsters that they had caught. Now, it is a luxury and an indulgence, cooked at home for special occasions and at specialist restaurants like Es Cranc in Fornells.

Behind a side door next to Es Cranc is a path that meanders to a room of large water baths, and these are full of spiny lobster. Spinning and weaving, large and small, these lobsters are mostly destined for the caldereta, some will be served simply grilled on their own. This is where the fishermen deliver their catch, for Es Cranc that is 5 different day boats that go out up to 7 miles out to sea. . 

Es Cranc was full on the Sunday that I went for lunch. Jovial large tables with extended families, all there for the caldereta. The soup has a base of tomato, onions and green pepper, and is light and fruity, with lovely lobster cooked just so inside, still sweet and tender. It is served on top of thin sun dried slices of bread, like crackers. A bib is provided – and you need it. We had some lovely local white wine on the side.  

The langosta lobsters can only be fished between March and August, so pencil it in your diary for then. Alternatively, you can recreate it at home. One of my favourite food writers Claudia Roden has a lovely recipe for caldereta from her superb book The Food of Spain. She serves it with a picada of almonds, garlic and parsley. Here it is for your Sunday lunch pleasure. Lets let the sunshine in, even if it doesn’t want to be here!

Notes on the recipe: As above, this recipe is adapted from Claudia’s Caldereta de Langosta in The Food of Spain. Claudia includes monkfish and fennel which I have omitted (including extra lobster instead) so that it is closer to the one that I had. Buy your lobsters just before you need them and have your fishmonger kill and chop them for you into chunks just over an inch. The sun refuses to play frequently enough for us to sun dry the bread, and even though it is considered a cheat in Menorca to roast it, if they were here, they would have to too! :)

Recipe: Caldereta de Langosta

Serves 6

Ingredients 

For the caldereta

3 x 700g raw live lobsters (as your butcher to prepare them as per the notes above)
1 large onion, chopped
1 green or red bell pepper,cored, seeded, and chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
350g tomatoes (4 to 5),peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon sugar
1 litre fish stock
125ml brandy or cognac
salt and pepper

For the picada

12 blanched almonds
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tbsp olive oil
handful of flat leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
4 tbsp brandy or cognac

One good baguette, sliced into narrow slices and toasted or roasted in a medium hot oven until crisp

Method

Fry the onion and the pepper in the oil in a large pot (I used my shallow casserole which was the closest I had to a caldera) over a low heat until very soft. Add the tomatoes and sugar and cook until the sauce is reduced and jammy. Blend until well combined (in the pan with a hand blender or a food processor – whatever you have, you can mash coarsely if you have neither).

Meanwhile, for the picada: Fry the almonds and garlic in the oil in a small skillet over low heat for moments only, turning them once, until they are golden. Pound them to a paste with the parsley in a mortar, or blend them to a paste, and add the brandy.

Add the fish stock and brandy to the tomato mixture and season with salt and pepper. Add the lobster, and bring to the boil. Boil for five minutes and stir the picada into the lobster soup. When the lobster shells are bright red and the meat is firm the soup is done, this will take only a few more minutes at most. Take care not to overcook it, lobster is best when tender.

Serve immediately in bowls with the bread and savour your work. A crisp white wine or rosé perfect this. Aim for a Menorcan or Spanish one :)

Easyjet have just launched direct flights from London Southend to Mahon.

I travelled to Menorca as part of a project between iAmbassador and Visit Menorca, who sponsored this project.  As always, I’m free to write what I like and I do! Life is short etc. :)