Samphire

For the second time in under a week, I must be charmed as it's not often I see this succulent vegetable. It is probably the most straightforward to cook (plunge into boiling water for just two or three minutes) and one of the quickest to eat.

My favourite way of presenting it is to fry some thinly sliced garlic in unsalted butter very gently and to pour this over the deeply green fragments to serve.

Great with either grilled fish or chicken which in turn is served simply or with a light lemon sauce.

Chicken Provencal

Chicken Provencal, a name that evokes sophistication and an epicentre of French cooking.

Summer holidays in the South of the country, sun beating down as you sit outside a cafe, perhaps under the shade of the local communal broadleaf which just so happens to conveniently sit outside Messr [fill in the appropriate Patron's name from your favourite holiday] establishment.  The broadleaf is also home to the local gossipers, mainly men, who spend their time watching the tourists, making some of them paranoid with the gestures and toothless smiles and their rapid exchanges.

Perhaps the street is one sided and across the road you see greenery marching towards the sea.  The breeze brings the scent of wild thyme and you smile as the combination of the lunch time heat and the distant aromas mingle with the gossiper's French tobacco and their voices wrap you up in the moment.

The Patron comes out with your wine and asks if you are ready to order and your eyes are drawn to the number of dishes of the area.  But the one that always endears me is the chicken dishes.  When I want to evoke Summer and warmth, this is the dish that always comes to mind.

In the South of France, different families and villages will all have a slightly different take on this dish.  There is always lots of garlic and herbs and of course tomatoes and olives.  What may be different is how "wet" the resulting stew is.  Some will add courgettes and sweet peppers so that the sauce is more of a rattatouille.  This dish can be cooked quite quickly (in just an hour or so) but one of my friends introduced me to cooking it slowly in a low to medium oven for an hour and a half in total.  Yes, it can be a little overcooked, but the flavours are sublime and if leftovers (if there are any) are frozen, are great quick supper with mashed potatoes or pasta.

My suggestion for quantities are to accompany one kilo of chicken thighs (skin and bones are not removed but you can if you prefer):

• three large cloves of garlic - chopped roughly
• two medium sized onions - halved and sliced thinly
• six anchovy fillets - in oil, chopped finely
• one kilo of fresh tomatoes - chopped roughly
• 1 250 ml glass of - red wine
• a mixture of thyme, rosemary and oregano - the quantities are up to you but if this is the first time you've tried this dish - try two heaped dessert spoons for early in the cooking and a further dessert spoon for near to the end - finely chopped
• green or black pitted olives - a mixture is good, traditionally black only
• two teaspoons of capers

Suggestion:

If you want a "drier" sauce, cut down amount of tomatoes rather than the wine.

Method:

On a medium heat on the top of your cooker, use a heavy based deep oven dish with a lid, such as le creuset, and warm through a generous measure of good olive oil.  Before it gets hot, place the chicken thighs skin down and a further amount of oil on top.  Add the onion, garlic and herbs at this stage.  They will start to steam whilst on top of the chicken. 

Wait until you hear the cackle of the oil before you turn the chicken over and stir thoroughly. Leave for a further five minutes, and reduce the heat to low and then add two dessert spoons of plain flour - it will help later on to thicken the dish.  If you are hesitant of something burning - then the flour can be added later as a paste.

Add the chopped anchovies next and wait until these have amalgamated a little before adding the tomatoes.  The heat should be enough for the tomatoes to heat sufficiently to just below a simmer.  Then add the wine and olives.  Stir thoroughly again and cover. 

Place in a pre-heated oven at 175 degrees C for 40 minutes.  Check on it after 30 minutes if you are cooking it dry to see if you need to add more liquid.  At the 40 minute mark, add the capers and some more mixed herbs if the mood takes you and place back in the oven covered for a further 20 minutes or so.

Let the dish cool down and serve with mini roast potatoes, tossed in butter and a green salad or leave to cool completely and eat the following day.

Bursts of Summer, Ultra Red Tomato Salad

This is a vibrant salad for any Summer table.  Remember to leave the tomatoes out of the fridge if that's where you normally store them as you will want as full a tomato flavour as possible.  Add sweet red peppers or fresh red paprika and slice them as thinly as the red cabbage.  Lay all the salad ingredients in a bowl, nicely mixed together.

The dressing, with its raw garlic and chilli needs to stand in the oil and vinegar for an hour before being poured over the salad itself so that a certain amount of "cooking" is done.

The salad

• 250 grams of ripe medium tomatoes (left out of the fridge for a least half a day and thickly sliced)
• One large red onion (halved and thinly sliced)
• One Quarter of red cabbage (thinly sliced)
• Sweet peppers/paprika to taste
• Two large bulbs of beetroot (roasted with olive oil for 35 minutes in a 180 degree C oven, allowed to cool, skinned and thickly sliced)

The dressing 

• Two large cloves of garlic (crushed)
• Two teaspoons of capers (preserved in salt and rinsed - chopped finely
• A small red chilli (deseeded and chopped finely)
• Three dessert spoons of red wine vinegar
• One teaspoon of honey
• Three dessert spoons of extra virgin olive oil

Bring on the Summer

We've moved house recently and I'm still finding notebooks with recipes and references to who inspired them.  I don't think I've ever thrown out a cookery book so some of the references that have been made in sometimes very old note books have been great reminders of how my role models have changed over the years.

Elizabeth David, a great cook and writer, really influenced me in my earlier years, especially for her almost casual way of describing recipes.  In a her book an omelette and a glass of wine, I was fascinated by her travels and her people watching skills but, not only that, but by the title of the book itself.

It inspired almost 20 pages of notes, on a Spring day in April 1992, on the omelette but not, unfortunately for Elizabeth (sorry Elizabeth) of the French kind.  It was the Spanish omelette that actually drew me in.  As a tapas or as a picnic contribution or as a meal in itself, this humble food appears in my notes dozens of times over the years.

The basic recipe is simple:

• a good glug of olive oil
• four medium potatoes, peeled, thinly sliced and par boiled or precooked from the previous day's meal
• a large white onion, halved and thinly sliced
• four large eggs
• a good pinch of salt

In a eight inch /20 cm hot pan put the oil, potatos and onion.  Turn the heat down and flip the potatoes until cooked.

Whisk the eggs with the salt and add to the mixture, using a fork around the base to help the egg cook through.  Once the base is cooked, place a dinner plate over the top, flip it and slide the omlette back into pan and cook for a further five minutes or so.  Alternatively, place under the grill.

In much of Spain this recipe is the base of many a left over feast - as in households in many other countries I have no doubt, left over cooked vegetables, meats and fish are added wherever you are.

Great for breakfast as well as for the aforementioned picnics, this is an all year Summer feeling dish.

As you can see in the picture, breakfast can be great with left over peas, beans and roasted potatoes, especially with some great smoked bacon on the side!  This particular omelette also had a pinch of smoked sweet paprika, good pinch of dried thyme and a small finely chopped clove of garlic.  Fantastic with a glass or two of Bucks Fizz.

The great people of the Wine Pantry in Borough Market have suggested a number of British wines for both picnics and simply to drink on their own.

Here's what they suggested for their top five:

• Avonleigh Brut Sparkling - used in the great Bucks Fizz mentioned above
• Camel Valley Rose - a great social wine, they also have a Sparkling Red from the same label
• Balfour - a fresh British alternative to Champagne
• Biddenden Ortega - good "sipping" wine and good with spicy food
• Pheasant's Ridge Bacchus - a great social wine and great with one of my favourite foods - Cheese!

Cheddar Caesar Salad

Well, when you think you know what's in your fridge and actually you don't, but it turned out great anyway!

SO impressed with Marks and Spencer for stocking baby red salad onions that this Caesar had red jewels in its crown.

Cos lettuce with the aforementioned baby red salad onions roughly chopped and with, very untraditionally, chunks of sweet cucumber.  A rough Caesar dressing of finely grated strong cheddar and warmed fresh egg (90 seconds in water which has been brought to rolling boil before you place egg into it - yes it cracks but there for only 90 seconds) and a good pinch of dried thyme and a crushed garlic clove.

In this case, topped off with some grilled chicken marinated in thyme and olive oil.

A one egg wonder

Amazing how you get to remind yourself that simple is great!

Breakfast one morning and we realised that there was very little in the cupboard.  It was raining and there was not a lot of motivation to set foot outside the front door.

Two eggs, three bread rolls and an assortment of larder items in the cupboard, so what to do.

Individual one egg omelettes with shallots (one each - the cupboard really was bare)

A few pinches of mix herbs - we were getting desperate

The last gratings of parmesan and the heat of a small green chilli.

A great sandwich, a great breakfast and happy tummies until the rain stopped.

Quick Summer Supper - Haddock Loins

One of my favourite white fish that needs so little cooking.  The flavour is great and so all you need is to keep everything simple and fresh.

If you keep to bright colours, it also makes a very cheerful supper on a rainy Summer's evening.

• A 150 gram loin per person
• One red and one small green pepper per person (cut into strips)
• One heart of chicory (cut into strips)
• A small red onion (halved and sliced thinly)
• Lemon slices (and the juice of the remaining half a lemon)
• Olive oil
• Thyme
• Salt

This was so quick - less than 30 minutes including preparation time and cooking.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C

Place a sheet of baking foil, shiny side down onto the baking sheet - this should be twice the size of the baking sheet so that it forms a parcel around the fish.  Brush some oil onto the base and place a few slices of onion on the base, and place the loin on top.

Place a couple of lemon slices on top.  Sprinkle a little salt and thyme on top of this and then close and seal the foil.  Making sure there is mini-tent of space above the fish.

Put in the oven for 15-18 minutes, depending on whether there is just one loin or a more in the parcel.

With the remaining strips of pepper, the strips of chicory and slices of onion, place in a bowl and add a little salt and thyme and toss.  Keeping a the remaining lemon and a little oil reserved to the side to dress the salad once the fish is ready.

Once the time is up for the fish.  Take it out of the oven and leave in its parcel whilst plating up.  Dress the salad with the lemon juice and oil and toss once more.  Place the loin on top of the plated salad.

Great fresh flavours in under 30 minutes,

Summer's here - cheese part two

Blanket Banquets are almost here!

With (hopefully) some hazy sunny days ahead of us and if not sitting in the park or our gardens, have a chance picnicking by the beach or in the grounds of some local stately home, I thought some top ideas for eating on the hoof or simply sitting on a blanket may help for the coming weeks.

A great start is cheese, especially some Camembert or Brie with crusty bread.  For lazy afternoons what could be better than a cold bottle of fizz or rose.

The great people at Only with Tilia have recommended some great summer cheeses.  Here are their top five:

Montgomery Cheddar, a Somerset cheese with a 70 year pedigree and made from Manor Farm's heard of Friesian cows.  Great for on its own or for an almost endless list of snacks and suppers.

Hoe Stevenson Red Leicester has a  slightly nutty, sweet and peppery flavour.  Great for macaroni apparently, but great on its own.

Gorwydd Caerphilly has won many awards, Best British Cheese, Best Welsh Cheese and Best Traditional Cheese. It has a lemony taste, creamy texture and as with all cheeses in its family crumbles well and so is great for cooking.

Beenleigh Blue is one of the few British ewe cheeses and is based on a Roquefort recipe.  This softer cheese means it's great for spreading on that crusty bread!

Stinking Bishop isn't for wimps so perfect for outside picnics.  Try it as additional topping for a walnut and green leaf salad or on its own with some good pudding wine or a cold long beer.

Some fine blanket banquets have been had with a range of cheeses and a few well chosen spreads and salads to accompany them.

One of my favourites is this very easy Spicy Onion Jam enough for a few of you but you can make as much or as little as you like.

• One large onion (cut in half and sliced thinly)
• Two tablespoons of olive oil
• One large clove of garlic (finely chopped)
• One small (but hot) chilli (deseeded and finely chopped)
• A two inch stick of ginger (grated)
• One firm green apple (cored, peeled, cut in half and sliced thinly)

• Three heaped tablespoons of brown sugar
• 50 mls of malt or cider vinegar

And spices to be ground together:

• one teaspoon of coriander seeds
• one teaspoon of mustard seeds
• one teaspoon of black pepper corns
• one good pinch of salt

Once you have all the ingredients together, in a medium saucepan, add the oil, onion, garlic, ginger and chilli along with the ground spices, to a medium heat.  Cover with the lid and let the mixture sweat slowly.  Once the onions have started to soften add the remaining ingredients and bring to just under the boil.  Cook for 10-15 minutes and set aside to cool.  Store in clean, sterilised jar.
A really good standby and also very easy is coleslaw (yes you get it in a tub at the supermarket but in this case, fresh really is best), using white cabbage (the hard round kind, cored and sliced thinly) and onion (skinned, halved and again, sliced thinly) and grated carrot, for the dressing try using half mayonnaise and half crème fresh and adding some extra cider vinegar and olive oil to loosen the mixture up a bit.  For an extra bite add a crushed clove of garlic and a finely chopped chilli.

Carrying on a theme, Red Cabbage Crunch, is slightly cooked version of a coleslaw.  Sweet and spicy at the same time.

• one large red onion (halved and thinly sliced)
• A quarter of a red cabbage (cored and thinly sliced)
• one large mild chilli (finely chopped)
• one large clove of garlic (finely chopped)
• one heaped teaspoon of sweet smoke paprika
• two tablespoons of runny honey
• two tablespoons of olive oil
• one tablespoon of poppy seeds

In a medium sized saucepan and over a medium heat, add the oil, onions, chilli and garlic and let them warm through.  Add the paprika and stir thoroughly. 

Add the red cabbage and mix through and then cover the pan tightly so that the moisture in the pan steams the cabbage for approximately 5 minutes.

Then add the honey and poppy seeds into the mixture and leave to cool off the heat, with the lid on.

Watch this space tomorrow for some suggestions from the Wine Pantry and a few more ideas for the park!

Summer's here - cheese part one

Feta, the king of the Eastern Mediterranean, is one of the most loved cheeses of the region.

Use Feta for spice loaded lentil salad or for the traditional Greek salad.   Feta pastry parcels with pine nuts and fresh oregano are a must for picnics and daytime snacks.

Greek Salad

To many, Greek salad consists of chunks of sun ripened  tomatoes, succulent and cool cucumbers, sweet and sharp red onion, black olives soaked in peppery extra virgin oil and, depending upon the island or parts of Greece they've visited, the salad may also have slithers of fragrant fennel or bitter green pepper. A sprinkling of dried oregano seems to bring back memories of sun, sand and blue skies. 

When making your own, remember to leave the tomatoes out of the fridge, so many of us rely on keeping them there, but if they are left to bring up to room temperature, they're original full flavour may not return, but at least the flavour that's left will be more apparent.  When choosing your onions try the largest and firmest of the red varieties and remember to peel your cucumbers (again at room temperature) before adding them.  If you do like a little fennel in your salad, remember to slice them as thinly as you dare.  The olives should be ones you like the most, so don't worry if you prefer green as opposed to black, dry verses those steeped in oil or brine.  And then, the crowning glory, the creamy sharp taste of Feta.  Incredibly heady, the flavours are enhanced if again left out of the fridge for a little while. 

I buy Feta by the block and cut into cubes and store in olive oil in a jar in the fridge.  Naughty, but heaped simply on bread for a sneaky snack on coming home from work is just a reminder of Summer in a jar.

Feta pastry parcels

These can be made with filo pastry or thin short crust.  But traditionally would have been with the former.  The filling is simplicity itself.

For eight parcels of Greek gorgeousness:

• 150 grams of Feta
• 2 teaspoons of dried oregano
• 4 dessert spoons of chopped fresh mint
• 4 dessert spoons of pine nuts
• 1 large egg
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 1 packet (yes I know not fresh!) of short crust pastry

Crumble the feta into a bowl, add all the other ingredients (saving a little of the beaten egg) and mix thoroughly with a fork.

As with the tarragon chicken parcels, roll out thinly, use a dessert bowl or a saucer as a template and cut a number of rounds.  Divide the filling between them, seal and crimp the edges and place on a buttered baking tray and brush lightly with the reserve egg.  Place in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees C, for approximately 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Southern Mediterranean slow cooked pork

Entertaining and socialising through food creates strong bonds of friendship and, if done well, lasting ones through positive shared experiences.

The turkey pappettes which my friends and family enjoy at parties are just one small variation of a theme. The original recipe for pappettes uses leftover slices of cooked meat which is rolled and placed in a shallow baking dish and covered with various sauces (depending on meat and or region of France the cook, or the teacher of the cook, is from) and then baked for thirty or forty minutes in a medium oven.

For this particular dish I've used pork neck fillet cut lengthwise so that it opens like a book. Beat the flesh so that it is about, or just under, a centimeter in thickness. Cut the meat in half.

Use the same filling as the turkey pappettes and roll in a similar way - although these rolls will be somewhat larger!

Place the two rolls in a casserole dish.

Then take a medium aubergine and slice lengthwise into half cm thicknesses. Brush with olive oil on both sides and roll in a similar way but with just a few mint leaves in each roll. Place these in the dish.

Add roughly chopped red and green peppers. Add chopped garlic and a scattering of smoked sweet paprika.

Sprinkle two good pinches of dried tarragon and thyme and a good pinch of salt.

In a small bowl add the juice of half a lemon and 5 dessert spoons of olive oil and whisk together and pour over the casserole and add a cup of cold water.

Then take a couple of dozen leaves of mint or 8 or 9 tips to insert into the top of the dish.

Heat your oven to 165 degrees and when ready, cover your casserole with foil and fit the lid tightly on top.

Cook slowly for an initial hour and a half. Uncover, then stir and season further if needed. Recover and bake for an additional 45 minutes.

Along with some savoury rice this should feed four with some further steamed vegetables on the side or a very generous supper for two.

Five uses for Sweet Summer Basil

• for a Summer morning after remedy why not try six or seven large basil leaves in a mug of boiling water with a teaspoon of honey
• slow bake eight or nine halved medium sized tomatoes, a large red pepper cut into strips and laced with some good olive oil.  Once cooked and slightly cooled, tear a dozen leaves of basil and combine together. Great as vegetable with grilled lamb chops
• a Summer vinaigrette for mixed leaves and cucumber wedges. Tear a dozen leaves of basil with two dessert spoons of fresh lemon juice and a little zest and four dessert spoons of first pressed extra virgin olive oil. Great with grilled fish or sliced poached chicken
• a dozen basil leaves torn with a small finely chopped onion and four dessert spoons of Greek yogurt. A wonderfully fresh and quick filling for a baked potato
• a few dozen basil leaves, the juice of half a lemon, 4 dessert spoons of extra virgin oil, a generous pinch of salt and a handful of green olives. Blend into a paste and mix into freshly cooked linguini

 

Post Eurovision recipe - number three

Bloody Mary Tomatoes

Makes 24-30

Easy and very alcoholic

Take 24-30 small vine tomatoes (I know, technically all tomatoes are…)

For the filling

• two dessert spoons of tomato puree
• a 200 gram can of drained chopped tomatoes (or another 10-15 skinned small vine tomatoes chopped and drained)
• a dessert spoon of tabasco
• two dessert spoons of premium vodka
• two dessert spoons of dry sherry
• a level teaspoon of celery salt

Combine and leave aside for at least 2 hours

Cut the top off each of the tomatoes, extract the seeds and excess pulp.  Fill each one carefully with the above mixture.

Dress with chopped parsley.

Great with vodka Martini's … HIC!