Monthly Archives: February 2020

Fideua de Verduras

18 Tuesday Feb 2020

Posted by in Main Courses, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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It’s a cool drizzly day today and I have been busy sowing peas and planting lettuce so that they can benefit from the dampness. So after that, a warm hearty lunch is required. My first thought was to make a vegetable paella, and I found that I’d forgotten to buy rice but while looking in the cupboard I saw that I had fideuá. These are small pasta, usually, but not always, rice shaped, that are cooked in place of rice in a paella pan with similar ingredients to a paella. As with paella Spanish cooks vary the ingredients depending on what vegetables are in season, and of course if you are a meat or fish eater, then small pieces of these can be added to your ingredient list.

Today’s fideuá – this makes two portions

70 grams fideua

olive oil

1 large spring onion – sliced

1 large spring garlic -sliced

2 shiitake mushrooms – halved and sliced thinly

150 grams fresh broad beans

half a picante green pepper – cut into small cubes

200 grams courgette – cut into bite sizedcubes

150 grams fresh globe artichokes – prepared, sliced and fried

1 large tomato

few sprigs of thyme

pinch of saffron threads

pinch of smoked pimienton/paprika

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

vegetable stock

Prepare your artichokes first. I had some left from a previous dish. Clean the artichokes down to the tender leaves. Top and tail them. Cut into thin slices and fry immediately in olive oil until about half cooked. Remove from pan.

Add more oil and fry the onion, garlic and green pepper. Cook until the onion is translucent.

Add the mushroom and stir in. Cook for a couple of minutes

Add the courgette, stir in and let fry for five minutes.

Cut the tomato in half and grate the flesh up to the skin into a bowl. Discard the skins.

To the pan add the tomatoes, pasta and broad beans. Stir to mix.

Add the seasonings and then enough stock to come just to the top of the pan contents. Turn the heat down low, cover the pan and let cook slowly for five minutes.

Add the artichokes and more stock as needed.

Check the liquid level in the pan every few minutes until the pasta is cooked. If you are using the rice shaped pasta this will only be another five to ten minutes, other thicker pastas will need longer. The dish does not want to be as dry as a paella.

Once the pasta is cooked, turn off the heat and leave to sit for 5 minutes before serving with wedges of lemon to squeeze over.

Iceplant Salad & Soy Sesame Dressing

17 Monday Feb 2020

Posted by in Foraging, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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We had a reasonable, for here, amount of rain before the shortest day of the year, and now we have warm sunny days and cool damp nights, the result of which is that the countryside is blooming with Spring plants and flowers. Many of these are edible and begging to be foraged. There is wild garlic and asparagus on the hillsides, and by the sea, samphire and ice plants.

Part of the mesembryanthemum family, these succulent faintly salty leaves are delicious in salads. It’s easy to see why they have the name iceplant as they seem to be covered in tiny glistening ice droplets.

These plants like the Sandy soil near to the sea and are frequently found next to Samphire. Pick the tender shoots that are sprouting at this time of the year. You may have to part the sturdier tough stems at the top of the plants to find the more tender leaves underneath.

Give them a good wash in two or three changes of water, and then they are ready to use.

This salad has a particularly delicious dressing which perfectly complements the iceplant leaves.

Iceplant Salad & Soy Sesame Dressing

150 grams ice plant leaves

2 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons light soy sauce

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 tablespoon agave syrup or honey

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon sesame seeds to garnish

I had garlic cloves which I had roasted with vegetables the day before, but if you are starting with raw garlic, fry them very slowly in a little oil until they are soft.

Mash the garlics in a small bowl.

Add the rest of the ingredients except the sesame seeds and mix well.

Slice up the iceplant leaves and put into a salad bowl. Add the dressing and mix well.

Sprinkle over the sesame seeds and serve.

Salt & Sweet Lime Pickle

11 Tuesday Feb 2020

Posted by in Preserves

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Before my lime crop finishes I thought I ought to make a batch of lime pickle. Over the years I’ve tried various recipes but this one is my, and all my friends, favourite. It’s salt, sweet, citrusy tangy and packs a picante punch, a fabulous accompaniment to any curry.

This makes 10 jars of 270ml

2 kilos limes – small ones if you can get them

100 grams fresh ginger

240 grams sea salt

500 grams white sugar

2 heaped teaspoons fenugreek seeds

1 tablespoon star anise

2 tablespoons mustard seeds

3 large green chillis

Wash the limes, cut them into quarters and remove any seeds. Put them into a large bowl.

Peel the ginger and cut into tiny cubes. Add to the limes.

Add the salt to the limes and ginger and mix well. Leave to marinate for 24 hours.

The next day drain the liquid from the limes into a saucepan and add the sugar. Heat slowly to dissolve the sugar stirring from time to time.

Grind the fenugreek and star anise in a coffee grinder or pound in a pestle and mortar. You are not aiming for a powder, more just to break the spices into smaller pieces. Add to the drained limes.

In a thick based frying pan heat the mustard seeds until they begin to pop. Add to the limes.

Chop the chillis small, either in a processor or by hand. Add to the limes.

Mix the limes and spices very well.

Pack the limes into clean jars and then fill up with the hot salt and sugar syrup.

Seal and leave in a cool dark place for 4 weeks for the pickle to mature.

Spicy Buckwheat Pancakes with Cool Tomato Relish

08 Saturday Feb 2020

Posted by in Starters, Vegetable Dishes

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I love plain buckwheat pancakes for breakfast with a fresh fruit salad, but sometimes it’s nice to have a more spicy start to the day so these spiced up pancakes with a fresh tomato relish fit perfectly.

This amount makes enough pancakes for 6 servings

125 grams buckwheat flour

1 level teaspoon baking powder

1 heaped tablespoon garam masala spice

1 fresh red chilli – finely chopped

1 spring onion – cut in thin slices

pinch of salt

1 egg

275 ml vegetable stock

Olive oil for frying

Mix all the dry ingredients together with the spring onion and chillis.

Break the egg into the stock and mix well.

Gradually add the liquid to the dry ingredients to make a smooth batter.

The batter can be used straight away but improves if kept in the fridge for a day or two, so if you don’t use it all at once the rest can be kept very well for another day.

Heat oil in a small frying pan and when hot pour in a small cupful of batter. Fry until golden before turning over and frying the other side.

For the tomato relish simply cut a well flavour tomato into dice and season with salt a finely chopped fresh coriander leaves.

Strozzapreti with Tomato Sauce

07 Friday Feb 2020

Posted by in Food for One, Main Courses, Starters, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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Strozzapreti, meaning ‘priest strangler’ as it is reputed to be enjoyed so much and in such quantities by the holy fathers that it chokes them, is a rolled pasta that goes very well with this tomato sauce. You can of course use other pastas if you can’t get hold of Strozzapreti.

For 2

120 grams pasta

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large clove of garlic – finely chopped

1 small onion – finely chopped

1/4 red bell pepper – cut into short slices

2 tablespoons chopped Florence fennel

125 grams button mushrooms – halved and then sliced

200 grams chopped plum tomatoes

2 heaped teaspoons tomato purée

fresh oregano finely chopped plus a few sprigs for garnishing

4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese if you are making the vegetarian but not vegan version of this dish

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Orange zest

Put salted water with a splash of olive oil on to boil for the pasta, and then cook the pasta according to the timings on the packet.

Meanwhile heat the oil in a frying pan and add the garlic and onion. Fry until translucent.

Add the red peppers and cook for á couple of minutes before adding the fennel and mushrooms. Stir well and leave to cook for five minutes.

Add the chopped tomato, purée and oregano. Cook slowly for 15-20 minutes until the sauce looks thick and richly red.

Season with salt and pepper.

If using the Parmesan cheese, add most of it now leaving a little to sprinkle on top of the pasta and stir into the sauce letting it melt.

Once the pasta is cooked but still with a little bite, drain from the water and add it to the sauce. Stir to mix.

Serve in shallow bowls with a grating of orange zest and a few sprigs of oregano to garnish. Of course if you are including Parmesan in your dish then add a garnish of grated cheese as well.