Category Archives: Vegetable Dishes

Polenta………& learning to love it.

01 Thursday May 2014

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I know that there are plenty of you out there who are as I previously was with Polenta. You started off curious so tried it in various restaurants and found yourself underwhelmed. It was allright, but you couldn’t see what the fuss was about.

Not types to give up, and armed with the opinion that Italians know about food, so it would be worth giving it another chance, you have a go at cooking it at home. Armed with an authentic Italian recipe from a reliable source you boil, and stir, and stir, and cool, and cut and reheat with a sauce………and still find yourself unexcited.

So you abandon Polenta for a number of years…..

…….then when you have forgotten all about it you are served in a restaurant to accompany the meat, a golden cake lightly browned and crisped on the edges and creamy in the centre. Filled with tiny strips of fried bacon and diced vegetables, flavoured with garlic and chicken stock. It is absolutely delicious. It takes you some time to realise that the main ingredient is the polenta that you have up to now been unimpressed by.

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A re-evaluation is obviously in order. This is where the path to loving Polenta starts, let me lead you through my trials to success and enjoyment.

Firstly the Polenta itself. I read somewhere that it is only good during the first six months after it is milled. I have tried fresh and It does have a slightly more corn flavour, but not so much that it makes that much difference. Having said that any dried goods – beans, lentils, quinoa, rice, flour, and polenta should not be kept for more than a couple of years and preferably used within a year. These are products where the use by dates should be taken note of, you won’t get food poisoning but the grains lose their ability to reconstitute and stay dry and hard and of course the flavour of them slowly fades.

Cooking liquid. I have read debates as to whether water or milk are the best and most authentic cooking liquids, but I am not impressed with either. Let’s face it, polenta is a pretty bland grain, and so any extra flavour that can be added should be. I like to cook the polenta in a light stock, either chicken, veal, or if you are vegetarian, a vegetable stock.

Stirring. Every recipe I have come across, and the instructions on the polenta packet, tell you to bring the liquid to the boil, whisk in the polenta, stir until boiling again and then keep stirring for forty minutes with the heat turned low. Well, I haven’t got the time or patience to stand around stirring for forty minutes and I suspect neither do Italians or you. I find that stirring from time to time during the first ten minutes will do, then turn off the heat, cover with a well fitting lid and leave it to continue cooking in its own steam for forty minutes. Alternatively once it is back boiling after adding the polenta, pour into a slow cooker and continue cooking on a low setting for half an hour, then turn of the cooker and leave the polenta to cook in the residual heat for another half hour.

BASIC RECIPE – for 8-10 servings

350 grams polenta

1.75-2 litres light stock

salt and freshly ground black pepper

If you want a very firm polenta for leaving to cool and form into a cake, use the smaller amount of stock, and if you want a softer puree consistency for eating immediately, then the larger amount of stock.

Put the stock in a thick based saucepan with half a teaspoon of salt and bring to the boil.

Pour in the polenta in a steady stream stirring continually. Turn down the heat and keep stirring as the polenta thickens, this should take about 10 minutes.

Either put a lid on the polenta and turn of the heat leaving the polenta to continue cooking in its own steam or transfer the polenta to a slow cooker on the lowest setting and leave to cook for 30 minutes before turning off the heat and giving it a stir.

Continue with your chosen recipe.

POLENTA AND VEGETABLE CAKE – Pictured above

I make this when I have a lot of people to feed as almost all can be prepared the day before, all that has to be done on the day is slicing the loaf and putting it onto a hot tray in the oven. Plus it is the vegetable and starch all in one.

It is great with something saucy like a stew. Last time I made it was to go with Pork Bourgignon – see previous post on Pigs Cheeks.

If you want to make a vegetarian version of this substitute nut pieces for the bacon and use olive oil for the frying

100 grams streaky bacon – cut into small dice

30 grams bacon fat – cut into small dice

1 clove garlic – finely chopped

1 small onion or half a large one – finely chopped

200 grams vegetables – cut into small dice – choose three or four from the following – carrots, parsnips, peppers, mushrooms, sweet peas, Florence fennel, broccoli, celeriac, butternut squash. Try to mix the colours to make it interesting.

Thick polenta as master recipe – cooked in vegetable stock if making the meatless version.

Heat a thick based frying pan and add the dice bacon fat. Cook on a low heat until it has rendered down and released its fat.

Add the bacon and cook for five minutes.

Add the onions and garlic, stir in and fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the diced vegetables and fry for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are about half cooked and have lost some of their moisture.

Add the vegetable and bacon mix to the polenta while both are still warm and gently mix the whole together. Season with plenty of freshly ground black pepper and check if it needs more salt.

Turn into a small loaf tin lined with cling film. Gently flatten to make sure that there are no pockets of air and smooth out the top. Fold the cling film over the top and put the loaf in the fridge to cool and firm up.

About 45 minutes before you need to serve the loaf, heat the oven to 180 centigrade. When the oven is hot, put in a shallow baking tray containing a couple of tablespoons of tasty dripping or olive oil.

Take the loaf out of the fridge and remove from tin. Peel off it’s cling film and cut into slabs about one and a half centimetres thick.

Put onto the now hot fat in the baking tray. Put back In the oven and roast for about 15 to 20 minutes until browned and crispy at the edges.

WHITE POLENTA PURÉE WITH FENNEL AND ORANGE.

Salmon, White Polenta, Saffron Sauce

White polenta is traditionally eaten with fish in Italy. It has a slightly softer smoother texture. Don’t worry if you can’t find white polenta, this is still good with the more easily available yellow.

Master recipe soft polenta made with white grains.

100 grams Florence fennel – cut into small dice

25 grams butter

Grated zest and juice of one orange

Salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Fry the diced fennel slowly in the butter until cooked but still with a little firmness.

Cook the polenta as the recipe. Add the orange zest and juice. Stir well to mix in.

Add the fennel and stir gently to mix in.

Serve with fish of your choice.

SOUFFLED POLENTA

Use either white or yellow polenta

Firm polenta as master recipe

3 eggs

50 grams finely grated Parmesan cheese

Cook the polenta as recipe and leave to cool a bit.

Heat the oven to 170 centigrade.

Grease an ovenproof dish about the right size to take the soufflé, individual ramekins can be used if you like.

Separate the eggs. Add the yolks to the polenta and beat to mix in.

Add most of the cheese to the polenta keeping back enough to sprinkle on the top of the soufflé. Mix well.

Beat the egg whites until very firm and white.

Fold into the polenta mix trying not to lose too much air about of the egg whites.

Turn into the greased dish and bake for about half an hour until risen and golden on top.

Serve immediately.

 

Bodega Aranda – Almeria City

11 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by in Fish, Food for One, Snacks and Tapas, Starters, Sweet Things, Vegetable Dishes

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After visiting the central market in Almeria we had worked up an appetite for lunch, and remembered that this ancient tapas bar was not far away.

Having installed ourselves at a table we asked the waitress to bring us a selection of what was good at the moment. She suggested the house salad, a couple of plates of fish and fried potatoes topped with broken eggs and the local made chorizo and morcilla. Perfect we said, not realising what culinary delights lay behind these simple descriptions.

The house salad arrived. Rich green corn salad, walnuts, pine nuts, raisins, and a halo of tomatoes surrounding a mound of blue cheese ice cream. The waitress had a small bowl of dressing – olive oil and sherry vinegar with seasonings – which she poured over the salad, then she cut the ice cream into pieces and gently mixed it with the salad.

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It was heavenly. I am working on a recipe for the ice cream – maybe have it perfected for the next post.

The fish course was next –

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Fillets of baby Cod and Smelts in light batter and fried served with the best Ajo Blanco I have ever tasted. You could taste the slight bitterness of the almonds, a hint of garlic that was not overpowering, the sauce was made smooth with bread and olive oil and balanced with white wine vinegar.

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Jureles en Escabeche. Escabeche is a way of mildly pickling fish. It is gently poached in a broth of olive oil, white wine vinegar and water which is flavoured with onions, peppercorns, saffron and bayleaves. Frequently smoky Pimenton is added as well, but in this dish of small fish it wasn’t needed.

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Next was the Potatoes with Chorizo, Morcilla and broken eggs.

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To finish the meal a succulent large date each, dark chocolate covered raisins and mint tea.

Aubergine Salad & Exquisite Hummus

27 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by in Food for One, Snacks and Tapas, Vegetable Dishes

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This is one for the boys, namely George and Joe, who both love this aubergine salad recipe.

I have been making this salad for so long that I now don’t recall the origin of the recipe. It is equally good as a salad, or puréed in the food processor as a vegetarian pate.

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The herbs can be changed to vary the flavour depending on taste and what you have available fresh. In the master recipe I have specified Oregano, I also like Coriander or Mint.

AUBERGINE SALAD

2 largish aubergines

Half teaspoon cumin seeds

1 large or 2 small cloves garlic – finely chopped

2 table spoons extra virgin olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

Pinch of salt

Fresh oregano – finely chopped

Fresh chilli – finely chopped

Chives finely – chopped

I have found that the best way to cook the Aubergine for this is in the microwave, although you can roast them if you prefer.

Prick the Aubergine all over with a fork to prevent any explosions and put on a plate  in the microwave. Cook at full power for two minutes.

Turn over and cook for another two minutes.

Depending on the size of the vegetables and the power of you microwave they may now be cooked . They want to feel soft all the way through.

If they need a bit more cooking, turn them on their side and cook for another minute.

They can be turned to the other side and given another minute of cooking if you think that they need it.

Let cool until only warm and handleable.

Meanwhile toast the cumin seeds in a shallow thick based pan until they are slightly coloured and you can smell their aroma. Grind them and the salt with a pestle and mortar.

Once the aubergines are cool cut them into small cubes. I grow on the farm a variety of Aubergine called Gandia which has very thin soft skin, so I leave it on, but if the skin is tough remove it before cutting up the flesh.

Put in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

If you are making pate, put all the ingredients in the food processor instead and process to a purée.

Leave for an hour at room temperature for the flavours to develop with one another before serving.

HUMMUS.

A classic revisited.

hummus

Mass production has turned this dish into a bland cream, let’s get back to the super tasty dish that it started life as. The deep nutty flavour of the toasted sesame seeds blended with that of the chick peas should be the first to hit the taste buds, then the pungency of the garlic closely followed by the citrus sharpness of the lemon. If you like you can also add some finely chopped fresh coriander to add yet another flavour.

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1 jar or tin chick peas

2 cloves garlic – chopped

Grated rind and juice of a lemon – unwaxed if possible

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Picante paprika or pimenton

Put the sesame seeds in a shallow thick based pan and toast on a low heat shaking from time to time until light brown and giving off their distinctive aroma.

Grind to a paste with a pestle and mortar adding the olive oil to moisten as you go along.

Drain the chick peas from their liquid and rinse well to wash off the starchy residue.

Put in the food processor with the sesame paste, garlic, lemon rind and juice. Process to a paste – but not a smooth puree – leave some texture in the chick peas. Add more oil if it seems too dry.

Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Put in a small bowl with the paprika sprinkled over.

Serve with warm pitta bread.

Try hummus rissoles – add egg, then egg and breadcrumb or flour and fry

Potatoes Anna

21 Saturday Sep 2013

Posted by in Main Courses, Vegetable Dishes

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Every few weeks myself and some girlfriends get together to have lunch and exchange books that we can recommend to one another. What started as a literary meeting with lunch has now evolved into a culinary exchange as well. Each person contributes a dish, and with the minimum of consultation it all works well together.

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This week our hostess Doris decided to salt a loin of pork for the lunch and suggested I bring a potato dish. I immediately thought of Potatoes Anna. Similar to the better known Dauphinoise, but lighter and with a flavour as strong as the cheese that is used in it.

Lynda made a tangy salad of prawns, mango, red onions and leaves, dressed with sweet chilli sauce and lime. Corrine courgettes with a spicy rice and tomato stuffing. A beetroot jelly to go with the ham completed our main course. All delicious.

Dessert was a plum pie made by Pat served with vanilla ice cream.

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POTATOES ANNA

Floury potatoes – about 150 grams per person

Chicken stock

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Firm cheese –  pecorino, emmental or parmesan

Peel the potatoes and slice as finely as you can. A mandolin or the slicer on the food processor is ideal for this.

You will need a shallow oven proof dish of the size suitable for the number of portions you are making.

Lay a single layer of slightly overlapping potatoes in the dish. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and grate over a thin layer of cheese.

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Continue with the layers of potatoes, seasoning and cheese. It is worth at this point putting on one side enough nice evenly sized slices for the last layer.

On the last layer concentrate on prettily overlapping the potatoes. Don’t season straight away.

Heat the stock until simmering. Pour over the potatoes until just level with the top layer.

Season and spread a thicker layer of cheese onto this last layer.

Cover with tin foil and put in an oven preheated to 200 centigrade. Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove the tin foil from the potatoes and put the dish back into the oven for a further 20 to 30 minutes until golden brown.

Let rest in the dish for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

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An Indian Feast

03 Tuesday Sep 2013

Posted by in Main Courses, Vegetable Dishes

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?????????????????It is a warm summers evening and I have friends coming for dinner. I am in the mood for something spicy and hope that my guests are too. I have a piece of loin of pork that I was going to salt to have as ham at a future date, I recall this recipe for pork cubes in a creamy sauce flavoured with honey and citrus, spiced with cinnamon, cardamoms and turmeric.

I cooked far too much rice yesterday, there may be enough, if I add some chick peas there will definitely be enough. I will fry some red onions and garlic, then add the rice and chick peas to heat them through. A garnish of chopped chives should finish off the dish.

A vegetable dish then. Not in a sauce as I already have one, and picante seeing as the sauce is mild and sweet. I have in my minds eye those lovely spicy vegetable fritters that you get in Indian cooking, but I want to make them lighter and less calorific. I have some courgettes fresh from the garden, in slices they will absorb the flavours of a marinade, then I plan to dust them with Gram flour and grill them.

Some Nan bread and Sweet & Sour Lime Pickle from the farm shop will complete the meal.

 

PORK BRAISED WITH HONEY – SHIKAR KORMA

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For 4
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic – finely chopped
2 tablespoons honey
30 grams butter
500 grams lean pork cubes
Half teaspoon Cardamom seeds
Heaped teaspoon Turmeric
1 broken quill of cinnamon
2 strips each lemon and. Orange peel
2 tubs full fat yoghurt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Salt
1 large onion – sliced
Cream
Fresh coriander
Peel the onion and cut up into small pieces. Put in a shallow pan with the garlic and half the butter. Fry until just starting to brown.
Put in the honey and continue cooking until the honey is thickened and starting to caramelise.
Add the pork cubes and the rest of the butter. Cook until the pork is sealed and browning.
Stir in the turmeric and cardamoms. Add the yogurt and stir in. Add the cinnamon and the strips of peel – use a potato peeler to remove the strips from the fruit.
Lower the heat to the minimum, cover and leave to cook for about 20 minutes.
The dish can be cooked in advance up to this point.
To finish peel and slice the second onion. Fry rapidly in butter until browned and dry.
Rewarm the korma if you have cooked in advance. Add the cream and continue cooking to thicken the sauce. You can remove the pieces of peel and cinnamon at this point in you want to.
Garnish with the chopped fresh coriander and the fried onions.
SPICY GRILLED COURGETTES for 4

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2 medium sized Courgettes – washed and cut into half centimetre thick slices

Marinade –

1 clove garlic

Half teaspoon salt

Piece ginger roughly 2×2 cm

Green chilli

1 tablespoon Olive oil

1 tablespoon Gram (chickpea) flour

Chop the garlic and put it into a mortar with the salt. Mash to a pulp.

Grate the ginger into the mortar and mash to blend with the garlic.

Finely chop the chilli and add to the mortar. Mash again to blend moistening with the olive oil as you go

Add the marinade to the courgettes and mix to make sure that the slices are evenly coated with the marinade. Leave to let the flavours seep into the courgettes for at least an hour.

Heat a griddle or thick based non-stick frying pan.

Dust the courgette slices with gram flour and grill or dry fry until turning from time to time until browned and cooked but still with some bite.

Thai Green Curry with Seafood & Oriental Salad

26 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by in Fish, Food for One, Main Courses, Sauces, Vegetable Dishes

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THAI GREEN CURRY WITH SEAFOOD

I fell in love with Thai cooking on a visit there many years ago, and took copious notes of everything that I ate. Once home I set about recreating the dishes that I had enjoyed while there. I started by buying in the curry pastes, but now that I grow all the essential ingredients on the farm, I make my own, and I am not sure that I could now go back to the bought ones. The difference is the freshness of the taste, that if you do not over process you can have texture to the paste, and also of course that you can balance the proportions of the ingredients depending on how spicy you require it to be.

For a seafood curry, I like spice, but not overpoweringly so, but I still want a good strong flavour of ginger, garlic and lemon grass, so I put with them a milder pale green chilli which still has spice together with a good pepper flavour.

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For the paste – enough for a curry for 4

4 cloves garlic

2 stalks of lemon grass

A piece of ginger, or galangal if you can get it, roughly 5 cm x 2 cm

2 tablespoons Nam Pla – Thai fish sauce

Roughly chop the garlic and pound to a pulp in a mortar.

Take the outer leaves off the lemon grass and cut off the tough base. Finely slice the tender part at the base, usually you get about 2 cm of tender part.

Add to the garlic.

Scrape the skin off the ginger and grate into the mortar with the garlic and lemon grass. Mash with the pestle until a paste adding the fish sauce as you go along.

This paste can be made in advance and be left developing its flavours in the fridge until needed.

For the fish –

Large peeled prawns

Mussels

White meaty fish like swordfish, shark, monkfish, cod, haddock

1 tablespoon each of red and black fish eggs

A large sweet onion or 5-6 spring onions

Large can of coconut milk

Good bunch of basil leaves or Thai parsley

Olive oil for frying

Peel and slice the onion. In a pan big enough to take the curry, soften the onions in oil.

Add the curry paste and fry for a few minutes.

Add the coconut milk and stir well to mix in. Bring to a simmer and start adding the fish.

Keep the curry on a low heat while the fish cooks to ensure that it doesn’t overcook.

The white fish wants to be cut into chunks. If you think that all the fish requires the same amount of cooking, you can add it all in one go.

The fish shouldn’t need more than five minutes to cook.

Lastly add the fish eggs. I had assumed before putting these in hot dishes that they would melt into the sauce, but they don’t and so add colour and texture to fish dishes. They look particularly effective on Salmon with pasta.

Garnish with the chopped herbs and serve with plain boiled rice.

ORIENTAL SALAD

This is adapted from a recipe in Sri Owens fabulous book of Indonesian recipes. I would not call this a fixed recipe as I use whatever is fresh in the vegetable garden. If I plan ahead enough, I get some beansprouts sprouting a few days in advance. They are not available to buy fresh here in Spain, so you have to grow your own. If you cannot get fresh ones, miss them out rather than use the cooked ones that come in jars, the flavour and texture are just not the same.??????????????????????????????????

A selection of the following –

Fresh bean sprouts

French or Yard Long beans – blanched by pouring boiling water over them, leaving them a minute, and then draining and leaving to cool

Chinese leaves or other greens – finely shredded

The following all cut into fine julienne –

Radishes

Carrots

Small tender courgettes

Green peppers

Red peppers

Plus –

Basil leaves – Thai is best, but the usual or Lettuce Basil will do – shredded

Fresh mint leaves

For the dressing – these amounts are for a salad for 4

100 gms roasted peanuts

1-2 cloves of garlic – finely chopped

1teaspoon crumbled shrimp paste or 1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce

Red chilli – to taste – it wants to be quite spicy – finely chopped

1teaspoon soft brown sugar

Juice of a lime

Salt to taste

Put all the prepared vegetables in a dish with the herbs and mix together.

Prepare the dressing. In a mortar pound all the ingredients except the lime juice until a rough paste with the nuts still having some bigger bits for texture. Add the lime juice and mix. Add just enough water to make into a sauce.

Pour over the salad and mix well. Serve at room temperature.

Borscht – Another Cool Summer Soup

19 Monday Aug 2013

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The beetroot grow so fast on the farm here that, throughout the summer, they are tender and tasty. I love them just grated as a salad with a dressing of Balsamic Vinegar and Olive Oil and some cubes of goats cheese on top. When I tire of that, then a lovely light soup is a great dish to make with them. Delicious chilled or hot.

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BORSCHT

For 4

500 grams beetroot

2 cloves garlic

3 tablespoons olive oil

1.5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

500 ml clear chicken stock

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Sour cream to serve

Peel the beetroot and chop into small dice.

Peel and finely chop the garlic.

Put  the beets and the garlic in a saucepan with the olive oil and fry gently to soften for about ten minutes.

Add the chicken stock, balsamic vinegar and half a teaspoon of salt. Bring to a simmer and cook until the beetroot is tender. Leave to cool.

Puree in the food processor or liquidiser. Check the seasoning.

Served either chilled or reheated adding a spoon of sour cream.

Cool Summer Soups

17 Saturday Aug 2013

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????????????????At this sultry time of year I like to have a jug of soup chilling in the fridge. Solid food is too much in the August heat, and soup can be breakfast. lunch or dinner. When I first came to Spain I quickly found out how to make the classic Gazpacho which uses the richly ripe summer tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers blended with sweet garlic and olive oil. Then in Cordoba I came across Ajo Blanco, made with the new crop almonds and deliciously creamy. Some time later it occurred to me that these soups follow a sort of formula and maybe other vegetables – and fruits could be used to make Gazpacho.

It all started with a bumper crop of slightly too acidic Loquats or Nispero and a vague memory of being served a fruit soup in Hungary while visiting a friends family there with her. The soup was delicious. Since then I have made soup from almost each fruit as they come into season. Cherries are particularly successful. I have used the flat white peaches that we grow on the farm, which make for a very creamy textured soup of the gorgeous delicate peach colour illustrated below. Nectarines, Plums, Apricots – all good.IMG_0377

Right now Watermelon is the fruit, so I have used that for the master recipe. Now that the melons come without seeds that you need to pick out, it is even quicker to make.

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This made 1.2 litres, enough for at least 6 servings

Half a watermelon

2 cloves garlic

half a teaspoon of salt

60 ml good olive oil

Simply cut the flesh from the melon into cubes, peel and roughly chop the garlic and then add these with the rest of the ingredients to the food processor or liquidiser and blitz to a puree.

Check the seasoning and then put in the fridge for a couple of hours to chill down and for the flavours to meld.

If you are using a more solid fruit like peaches or plums, you will need to add water to get the right consistency. Some fruits that are very sweet or very ripe benefit from the addition of lemon juice to balance the flavour.

Have fun experimenting with your fruits.IMG_0416

Apicius Inspired Onions, Pork Cutlet & Garlic Mash

19 Tuesday Mar 2013

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Marcus Gavius Apicius, renown Roman gourmand, to whom the first European cookbook still in existence was dedicated. My friends are well aware of my passion for all things culinary and when they come across interesting or obscure books on the subject are likely to treat me to a copy. This one was a gift from my lovely friend Suzane.

It is considered to be the work of several chefs of the time and so the recipes vary in the detail and style quite a lot, with many of the recipes appearing to be notes to oneself or to other chefs who already know the basics of the recipe. I have a couple of recipe books which are collections of recipes by women in a particular region of Spain, and the style is similar in that they assume for example that everyone knows how to make a basic potato tortilla and so only give you their variation on the recipe.

So although the Apicius cannot be used as a straightforward recipe book, it gives a fascinating insight into the cuisine of rich ancient Rome, and there is enough information in some of the recipes to be inspirational. The use of herbs and flavourings is particularly interesting to me. They used a range of fermented sauces, almost concentrated stocks, one of the favourites being that made from Lovage, a descendant of which is still much used in Germany, Maggi Wurze. The fish version sounds very similar to Nam Pla the Thai fermented fish sauce. For sweetness they went for concentrated sweet wines, such as date wine as well as honey. Sweet and sour, salt and sweet, bitter sweet, the new and trendy Umami, they are all there and often skilfully heightened by the use of fresh herbs.IMG_0102

This onion dish I have made before and served it as a vegetable dish, but with the addition of a little extra water during cooking, it makes a really good sauce come vegetable.

APICIUS INSPIRED ONIONS

Per person

Peel a medium sized onion and cut into slices.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a sauce pan, and add the onions. Cook over a low heat with a lid on to keep in the heat and the moisture. Stirring and turning the onions over from time to time.

When the onions have cooked down and are an even golden colour and translucent, add the seasonings.

A quarter of a teaspoon of Maggi Wurze – which is a lovage essence.

A teaspoon  of good honey.

A teaspoon of red wine or sherry vinegar

a good pinch of fresh thyme.

The same of fresh oregano, chopped finely.

Salt and pepper.

A tablespoon water

Continue cooking until very soft and almost a puree.

Serve as a sauce or vegetable accompaniment to meats and fish.

Garlic mash is a regular favourite and there are several ways of making it.

If you want the mash to still be creamy white but with a hidden punch then slow roast the garlic cloves. Leave them in their skins for cooking, but cut a slash across the centre to allow the insides to expand. If I am cooking a Sunday roast, I often throw in a few extra cloves of garlic to have garlic mash the next day. Just add the garlic pulp to your potatoes when mashing.

Another method is to finely cut the garlic and fry it in butter or olive oil until golden brown, and then add that to the mash and mix in. This is the style of mash here. I have used spring garlic as it is in season. For those of you unfamiliar with this, it resembles spring onion but has a pink tinge towards the roots, and has a lovely mild and sweet garlic flavour. I also deglazed the pan in which I cooked the cutlet and added this to the mash for extra flavour.

Broccoli with Orange Butter & Tagliatelle with Chicory, Pine Nuts and Raisins

13 Wednesday Mar 2013

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Early morning sun viewed from my kitchen terrace

Early morning sun viewed from my kitchen terrace

We have had some lovely rain and now suddenly spring has arrived. The patio is atwitter with swallows recently returned from wintering in Africa and now busily repairing their mud nests. The air is starting to be filled with the scent of citrus blossom – very early this year – and the raucous cries of the Great Spotted Cuckoos looking for mates.  All the deciduous trees are already pruned and now that the winter harvest of limes have been gathered, we are starting with the pruning of those. The trees have vicious thorns, so thick gloves and long handled secateurs are necessary. Once the pruning is done, then a feed of horse manure and iron chelate will be given to each tree, the groups of baby limes will be thinned out and then they can be left to enjoy growing in the spring sunshine. Lime trees being tropical don’t like even the small amount of cooler weather that we have here and always look a bit scrappy and sad at this time of the year, but the boost of fertilizer followed by some warmth will transform them into the lush green trees that they should be.IMG_0070

In the vegetable garden  the cycle continues of sowing, maturing and harvesting. There are continually salad crops, right now being harvested are a variety of chicories and endives, Florence fennel and three types of lettuce. I have seedlings of more lettuce, chicory and oriental greens just about ready to go in the ground. The mange toute peas have been fantastic this winter and are just coming to an end. I had sown some French beans to follow on, but it looks as though the birds might have stolen their heads as soon as they were out of the ground, so I am going to have to resow those.

With the early warmth I am thinking that I may be able to start sowing some of the summer vegetables – aubergines, beetroot, peppers, courgettes.  For some of these I can buy seedlings very cheaply from the local market.IMG_0082

Just starting to be ready are the asparagus and purple sprouting broccoli. The very first head of broccoli this season, I had with orange butter as a starter, absolutely delicious. Butter sauces are a little out of favour at the moment with the concerns with cholesterol and saturated fats, but I would rather have the occasional bit of real butter than weird tasting margarines made with emulsifiers and who knows what base oil. You can of course use green broccoli for this or the green Romanesco cauliflower, white cauliflower I think is too bland for this sauce. Asparagus, either green or white are both complemented well the flavour of the orange butter.

BROCCOLI WITH ORANGE BUTTER

Per person

3-6 florets of Broccoli depending on the size

15 grams butter

Grated zest of a quarter of an orange plus 1 tablespoon of juice

Cook the broccoli for a few minutes in salted boiling water until cooked but still with some bite. You can use your serving plate as a lid and warm it at the same time.

Meanwhile put the butter, orange juice and grated zest into a small pan and heat over a low heat. Swirl the pan around continuously to mix the ingredients and get a smooth emulsion. The sauce wants to warm but never bubble, so do not go away and leave it heating. It is ready when the butter has melted and made a smooth warm sauce with the orange juice and zest.

Drain the broccoli and lay on a warm plate. Pour over the sauce. IMG_0099

Best eaten with your fingers scooping up the lovely orange flavoured butter as you go.

The tender and mild centres of the red and green chicories I have been using in salads, and the slightly tougher and more bitter outer leaves I have saved to cook.  This next recipe is inspired by the cooking of Sicily with its arab influences of using pine nuts and raisins in savoury dishes. I thought the sweetness of the dried fruit would off set the slight bitterness of the chicory and it does very well and the red chicory contrasts beautifully with the pale pasta and pine nuts. This sort of sauce can also be served as a vegetable on its own.

TAGLIATELLE WITH CHICORY, PINE NUTS AND RAISINSIMG_0085

Fresh tagliatelle – see post – The Beginners Guide to Making Fresh Pasta – for recipe

For the sauce per person –

olive oil for frying

1 clove garlic – finely chopped

20 gms pine nuts

20 gms raisins or currants

1 tinned salted anchovy – finely chopped

6 leaves green chicory – cut into fine strips

6 leaves red chicory – cut into fine strips

Parmesan for garnishing

Put the water for the pasta on to heat up, adding a dessertspoon of olive oil and a pinch of salt.

In a shallow pan heat some of the olive oil and add the garlic.

When it is starting to change colour to a golden colour, add the pine nuts and continue frying until they are golden all over.

Add the green chicory which is tougher than the red and stir fry for about 5 minutes.

Add the red chicory and continue frying for a further 3 minutes.

Add the chopped anchovy and the raisins. If the raisins are large then cut them in halves or quarters.

Continue stirring and cooking for a couple of minutes.

Once the pasta water is boiling add the pasta and let it come back to the boil. Cook the pasta for about 3 minutes.

Drain the pasta reserving a little of the water and add the pasta to the chicory mix. Stir well to mix together.

If it is very dry add a little of the reserved pasta cooking liquid.

Check the seasoning and add salt and freshly ground black pepper as required.

Serve with grated parmesan cheese to sprinkle over.