Linguine with Kale & lime

A quick supper, normally defined by me as doable in under 30 minutes, is always a blessing, especially if you arrive home in the evening no earlier than 7pm most week days.

With coat off and cooker switched on; pan and water (and a good pinch of salt) on the hob and glass of wine in hand, not necessarily in that order, I can make dinner, change into more comfortable clothes and be at the table eating in 30 minutes with this dish.  You will need a second lidded saucepan and good eye for timing.

Whilst water is on, change and have a quick hand scrub.  Another slurp of wine, stripping the kale from its spine and roughly cutting into strips before thoroughly washing in cold running water, and we're off:
 

Per person:

• Salt
• Water
• Linguine - a handful/or your usual portion
• Olive oil - four tablespoons
• Kale - 150 grams, washed and cut into rough strips
• Garlic - a clove finely chopped
• Caper berries - five or six large juicy ones, sliced
• Lime - both zest & juice
• Parmesan - four table spoons, finely grated

Whilst your linguine is cooking your pan of salted boiling water, your second pan should be on a medium heat with a half your olive oil, a little pinch of salt, your kale and your garlic with the lid on.  After a few minutes shake the pan (with the lid on) and then continue to cook on a slightly lower heat for five to eight minutes.

When your pasta is ready, drain and add the other half of your oil so the strands do not stick together.

Once your Kale has had sufficient cooking time, add your pasta, caper berries and lime and mix together off the heat.  Add half your Parmesan and combine and then as you serve add the rest.

Kitchen diary: Wild garlic

One of the key ingredients to my cooking this week has been a very old friend, wild garlic.

Personally, I think this herb is very underused and probably more useful that the bulb variety (don't misunderstand me, wild garlic does have a bulb, but the ones I've picked are of no size and it is the stalks and leaves which seem to have the most character to me).  It still grows wild, although you are likely to find it on the Isle of Wight or Kent than anywhere else and of course, it is now grown commercially.

For some locals it is still known as Ramsons, which probably relates to the old key indicator for woods, especially in the south of England. 

If you do go out walking, you will probably smell it before you see it.  If late on in summer you will see a "skinny" version of the regular onion head, i.e. a globe of flowering head stands on stalk above the leaves, which to look at are quite shiny, wide and pointy.  The leaves have visible parallel veins and the underside is soft and the leaf as a whole slightly cushioned or squishy, as the four year old of a friend of mine used to describe it.

The reason I say more "useful" above is that the stalked of the leave, although short are very friendly when finely chopped to butter sauces, and rather gorgeous too in savoury version of welsh cakes.   The leaves themselves can be eaten raw and put into salad, but can (and should) be used instead of chives. 

 

A brilliant use is for a garlic and potato soup or for a very English pesto utilising hazel or cob nuts instead of pine nuts.  Rapeseed oil is such a good oil to use here, or if it is nutty you want, go for more hazelnut, always a winner especially with a mushroom sauce.

Weekend food

This weekend was a busy one for food and without the formal recipes.  Saturday was a steak and olive oil/sea salt encrusted baked potato and enough salad to sink a small island kind of meal.  And no microwaving the potato first, it was a hot oven for an hour jobby, which always produces the best of crispy skins.

Sunday was scrambled egg day, regular scrambled egg after watching the other half look through Moroccan Riads and south Spanish Moorish villas inspired a more north African take on one of our regular Sunday breakfasts.  Hence the addition of chopped wild garlic and a toot (a half teaspoon apparently) of sweet smoked paprika.  Again, no microwaving, just cooked gently in saucepan with butter and a little Argon oil.

Sunday dinner was more steak - this time lamb wrapped in streaky bacon with whole wild garlic leaves between the different meats.  Laid on a deep baking sheet with a little cider balsamic and orange juice used as basting liquor.  The garlic and mint gravy utilised the resulting sweet meaty juices just right.

Warm salmon salad

This is a great dish for a supper for friends.

As with many supper dishes, this is infinitely scalable so the quantities below are per person.  Depending upon the size of your fish portions and your tomatoes, you may need a little more/less butter and and you may like to add a little more seasoning to your tastes.

For the fish

• Two table spoons of good extra virgin olive oil
• Two large ripe tomatoes, cut into thick slices
• Two tablespoons of fresh chopped tarragon
• One salmon portion
• Salt and pepper for seasoning

For the salad

• A quantity of leaves
• A small sweet pepper, de-seeded and cut into fine strips

For the dressing

• 25 grams of butter
• A half teaspoon of smoked paprika

Preheat your oven to 170c.

On a baking sheet, lay a piece of oven foil and use half of the oil to coat it.  Lay half the tomatoes on the bottom and a third of the tarragon.  Place the fish on top and lay the remaining tomatoes on this.  Sprinkling a further third of the tarragon on this with the remaining oil and season.  Create a parcel out of the foil and place in the oven for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, add the leaves and sweet pepper to a plate and bring water to a low simmer in a large saucepan.

When your fish is done, take out of its parcel and allow to cool on the side. 

Place a bowl over your pan of hot water and place the tomato and fish juices into it.  Add a little butter at time and whisking continuously this should be enough to make a creamy tomato butter dressing.  Add the remaining tarragon.

Once the sauce is ready, the fish should be cool enough to handle and flake onto the salad.  Pour the dressing over this and dust with the paprika and serve.

Simple suppers: Warm Lamb's liver salad

Warm Lamb's liver salad with fresh figs and a cider balsamic dressing.

A simple yet elegant supper is this very flavoursome salad, just the thing to bring a little spring freshness your evening.

As the liver (and the dressing) has full on favours, less is definitely more.

A selection of baby/spring salad leaves, in this case pea shoots, lambs lettuce and baby spinach, set on your plates.

• A large knob of salted butter and a tablespoon of good extra virgin oil
• Portions per person:
• Two fresh figs, topped and tailed (if needed), halved and then sliced and portions set on top of your leaves.
• 100 grams of lamb's liver, sliced thinly
• 30 mls of cider balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon of capers, chopped
• 2 tablespoons of fresh mint, chopped

On a medium to hot heat, add your butter and oil to a medium sized frying pan.  As the butter finishes bubbling, add your liver and turn as it browns.  A few minutes later (as this is all it will take) add your balsamic vinegar and capers and half of the fresh mint and reduce the liquid by half.

Turn off the heat and add the remaining mint, stir and then pour the mixture over the salad leaves and figs.

The whole dish takes less than 20 minutes.

Quick & Simple Suppers

For neither of these recipes have I put quantities, use as much or as little as you like as both are scalable and either can be made at the drop of a hat.

Passing by my corner shop in evening on the way home is always an adventure so it normally depends on what they have as to what is cooked for supper.  Mushrooms and green vegetables are always a great standby, especially if you have some chunky bread or a can make a quick mash alongside (but then, that's another story - a mash of what?  Potato (regular or sweet), chickpeas or butter beans, or maybe, as with last summer, my broad bean and basil mash went down a treat!).

Mushrooms on toast

One of my personal favourites for the a quick tea, with really fleshy Portobello mushrooms, sliced thickly and fried with a little smoked garlic in half salted butter and half extra virgin oil.  A little added sweetness is provided by a red pepper, cut in half and sliced thinly into half-moons which are softened along with the mushrooms.

Topped with roughly chopped mint and a half teaspoon of caraway seeds a few minutes before serving on  sourdough toast, just the best.

Here I've also set these under the grill topped with goat's cheese.

Crispy bacon with steamed chard

Another quick supper which takes less than 20 minutes to prepare and cook. 

Strip your cleaned chard and add, along with a sliced red pepper, and a crushed garlic clove to a heavy bottomed saucepan along with a little olive oil and a couple of spoonful's of cold water (none however, if you haven't shaken your chard too vigorously after washing) on a medium heat.  Cover tightly and shake the saucepan after a few minutes and again another five minutes later.  The chard should be more or less cooked at the is point, so add a shot of sweet sherry and cover again before returning to a very low heat.

In a separate pan, heat through a generous knob of butter and a tablespoon of extra virgin oil and add to this 75 grams of chopped salty bacon.  Fry until crispy.  Then, add to this the chard mixture and fold through and serve with bread and butter.

Kitchen Diary - Butter Sauces revisited

Roasts and sometime, flavourless meat and fish are a necessity of our daily lives it seems.

Depending on your mood, a butter sauce, with or without a little flour as a thickener can be a delight to make and to serve.

Utilising pre-floured butter portions as well as herb and garlic butters are always a quick solution to recipe's short comings in flavour. 

There comes a time when you don't really want to over season fish or white meat as you aren't completely aware of its provenance and leftovers, especially roast pork, beef and turkey can be a little bland without their regular accompaniments, and these are grateful for the added moisture and silkiness a butter sauce provides.

A good standby (and quick butter sauce) utilises a Provençal style butter which is easily kept in the freezer.

 

Provençal style butter

 

Take:

• 250 gram pack of softened butter
• Four or five cloves of garlic
• Four heaped tablespoons of finely chopped thyme, rosemary and oregano
• Four chopped and then mashed anchovies

Blend them together with three/four tablespoons of good olive oil.  Stand in the fridge for just five or ten minutes and roll into a sausage about an 3 cm in diameter and divide into four portions and freeze.

The sauce itself in simplicity itself, a reduction of 175 mls of dry white wine and 175 mls of vegetable stock - so that you are left with about 150 mls of liquid.  Add half a portion of your butter and melt into the sauce.  Then, with a hand whisk, add the remaining butter a small amount at a time until the result is an emulsion which covers the back of a spoon evenly.

Alternatively, add a small chopped onion to a medium heat with a quarter of the portion of butter and, as the onion softens, add two teaspoons of plain flour.  Stir until the flour has been absorbed by the butter and then add the reduced wine and stock as above.  As the sauce thickens and cooks out the flour for about 10 minutes, reduce the heat slightly.  Take the sauce completely off the heat as you are about to serve and add small extra knob of butter and whisk in gently to give the sauce a sheen.

Of course, a little goes a long way but if you feel the need baking vegetables in the a sauce (especially leeks or onions) is an extremely good accompaniment or a fantastic dish in its own right and for this you will probably need a larger quantity, a little experimentation goes a long way.

One of the best butter sauces I have made in recent times is a tomato and sage sauce which is used to slowly bake courgettes red peppers.

 

Courgettes and red pepper bake in a tomato and sage butter sauce

• 3 tablespoons of good olive oil
• 1 kilo of tomatoes, skinned and roughly chopped
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 50 grams of cold water
• 2 tablespoons of plain flour
• 250 mls of dry white wine
• 250 mls of vegetable stock
• One portion (approximately 65 grams) of sage and garlic butter
• 500 grams of courgette, sliced on the diagonal
• 500 grams of red sweet peppers/paprika, cut into strips

In a large pan and over a low to medium heat, add the olive oil, tomatoes and onion and slowly cook down until the tomatoes have loosened and the onions are turning soft.  The mixture should be too dry so add the water just as things start to soften, so that by time the tomatoes and onions have started to turn into a sauce it is not sticking to the bottom of the pan.  Add the flour now and stir so that the mixture doesn't catch on the bottom.  Once thoroughly mixed through, add the wine and stock, stirring again to ensure that everything is thoroughly combined.  Cover and allow to come up to a low simmer.

At this point pre-heat your oven to 180 c and have a 25 cm x 25 cm oven dish ready.  Ideally about 4 to 5 cm deep.

Taking the lid off the pan, allow the sauce to reduce by a third and then add half the butter and stir in and place to one side, covered and off the heat.

Just before adding to the oven dish and the vegetables, in small portions, add the remaining butter and using a hand whisk, combine thoroughly.

With a large spoon or ladle, add about a quarter of sauce to the oven dish and then arrange the vegetables on top.   Add the remain sauce, there should be enough to coat the vegetables although they will not be submersed.  The vegetables will, as they cook, bake down so that the finished result should look like a pink Gratin!   The dish should be covered initially with kitchen foil for the first 25 minutes of the cooking time.  Uncover, and then bake for a further 25 minutes placed towards the bottom of the oven (if you're oven is fan assisted, turn your heat down to 160c).