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).

Paprika and Cumin Soup

Cold weather and snow makes me think of soup, as I'm sure it does most people.

This Paprika and cumin soup has a high level of garlic too and is probably up there with chicken soup if you are feeling under the weather or just in need of an infusion of spice on a Winter's day.

For this recipe I have used my base vegetable stock but any good shop bought one will be good for this as would a light chicken stock if you think you may need a protein injection as well.  As the stock never goes above simmering temperature, there less evaporation than with many other soups so less stock is required.  However, this is very scalable recipe and for those of you who love more of a kick (but keeping the essence of the soup itself) increase the spice load in the appropriate ratio otherwise the black pepper does tend to overpower the cumin.

Five or six large fresh Paprika or sweet peppers are needed for this, but experiment as I've also made a thicker version with twice as many.  For this particular soup I use red ones but if you like, you can use the slightly sour greens which are also particularly tasty - but as they less fleshy, they do need a lower heat (say 150c).  Roast these whole and slowly in a medium (160c) oven for about 30 minutes.  Put a layer of oven foil on your baking sheet and sprinkle with just a little olive oil.

• Five or six large Paprika or sweet peppers (as above)
• Two dessert spoons of cumin seeds
• One dessert spoon of black pepper corns
• 25 mls of good olive oil
• One large white Spanish onion, halved and roughly chopped
• Five large cloves of garlic roughly chopped
• 25 mls of cold water
• One teaspoon of salt
• One litre of vegetable stock
• 50 mls of dry vermouth

In a spice mill, freshly grind the cumin and peppers corns.

In a large pan, and over a medium heat, add the olive oil and as this starts to warm through add the onion and garlic.  As these start to soften, add the ground spices and stir constantly until the onion just begins to change colour.  Add the cold water and lower the heat.  As the onion/spice paste starts to thicken slightly, add the salt and about a third of the stock.

Meanwhile, taking the Paprika/sweet peppers out of the oven and allow to cool enough to handle.  De-stalk and seed them and roughly chop them up.  The stock should be warming through and just below simmering point when you add the peppers.  Stir and then add the remaining stock and again bring to just below simmering point.  Take off the heat and cover and allow the flavours to amalgamate for approximately an hour or more.

About 30 minutes before you are ready to serve, blend the soup to a smooth consistency and add the vermouth.  Place on a low to medium heat and again, bring just below the simmer point.

Serve with a small spoon of sour cream in the centre and a little bowl of caramelised onions on the side.

Potatoes, a taste of Provence

Feeling the pangs for Summer, or at least warmer temperatures and a little sunshine amongst the grey clouds, colour on your plate is always satisfying as is the freshness of peppers and spring shoots.

Although our bodies crave the reassurance of carbohydrates it is our minds that crave the Summer sun.

A simple dish to allow both body and mind to be at peace is potato dish which brings with it the taste of Provence and a little of the sun further around the Mediterranean.

• Two good sized waxy potatoes, sliced thinly
• Three or four anchovy fillets, chopped finely
• Four dessert spoons of parsley, chopped finely
• A dessert spoon of capers, chopped finely
• A handful of olives, pitted and chopped
• A large clove of garlic, grated
• Two large red sweet peppers, one sliced thinly and the other liquidised or passed through a sieve
• 25 mls of dry sherry
• 50 mls of vegetable stock

Pre-heat your oven to 160c.

In a medium sized Gratin dish, place a layer of potato, a sprinkling of anchovy, parsley, capers, olives and garlic and few strips of pepper.  Repeat for three layers.

In a small bowl, add the sherry, stock and liquidised pepper and pour gently over the top.  Cover tightly with kitchen foil and place into your oven for about an hour and a half.

Serve with grilled fish and a very cold glass of something fizzy on the side.

Baked Beetroot with Feta

One of the pleasures of Winter cooking are the abundance of root vegetables. 

I love most of what Winter can throw at me but I do gravitate towards beetroot and onions.  If only because of the alchemy involved when cooking both these vegetables can make them rather addictive.

Baking (as opposed to roasting) beetroot is mainly due the amount of liquid and heat applied.  I don't think the method I outline below can be called roasting per se, as the outcome isn't browned vegetables, rather a more sturdy braised version.

I've utilised some bulb fennel is this recipe, although not essential as I have used fennel seeds in other incantations which have also worked very well indeed.

Using sesame oil along with a cooking oil is also one of my preferred flavourings, not just because of the flavour itself, in this case, but because there is such an effective coupling with the sweetness of the root vegetables that really does make this dish sing.

For this, I've used an oven tray with a deep (1 inch lip), so it acts as a shallow dish more than a tray.  With this mind, a large, shallow dish would also be an option, but in either case, remember to toss the vegetables regularly so that they do not dry out.   The liquid in the tomatoes and fennel should be enough, but do add a little water with a touch of sherry vinegar, if they start to catch (thereby imitating the slight acidity of the tomatoes).

• 25 mls of olive oil
• One dessert spoon of sesame oil
• Five or six small to medium sized beetroots, with three inches of stalk remaining and scrubbed thoroughly, quartered lengthwise
• One large bulb of fennel, sliced thinly
• Two medium sized red onions, cut into wedges
• Two large tomatoes, cored and cut into wedges
• Two teaspoons of dried thyme
• One teaspoon of salt
• A handful of black pitted olives, chopped roughly
• 200 grams of feta, chopped roughly
• 3 dessert  spoons of chopped parsley

Preheat your oven to 190c.

In a large bowl add all the ingredients except the olives and feta and toss thoroughly so that oil and seasonings evenly coat them.

Add to the tray as evenly as possible and place in the oven for an initial 20 minutes.  Toss the vegetables and return to the oven for a further 15 to 20 minutes and toss again, this time adding the chopped olives. 

After a further 10 minutes, the beetroot should be almost done, the colour should be still be dark and flesh should be firm but not undercooked.    Turn off the oven and add the feta now over the top of the vegetables and place back into the oven for a further 10 minutes so that it softens in the residual heat.

On taking out of the oven, toss once more with half the parsley and sprinkle the remaining parsley on top.   A great dish on its own (generous portions for two) or as an accompaniment or winter starter.

Kitchen Diary: a simple fish pate

Eliot was a neighbour of a friend.  He was a "theatrical bachelor" in his mid-sixties and had lived in his studio flat just off the Charing Cross Road for over twenty years when I met him in the late eighties.

He was a handsome gentleman and very well attired.  John, my friend at the time was an assistant booking agent and Eliot had been one of the actors who from time to time he had encountered along the way.  After a while they had become friends.

The studio itself was on the third floor of a Victorian mansion block, from the communal stairwell you entered directly into a large room with a recess at the back which was curtained and behind which was the sleeping arrangements.  Just to the side of this was a little inner hall with two doors, one to bathroom and the other to a little kitchen.

His kitchen was literally a large cupboard with a window, not much more than six feet square with a small service sink and drainer, a 1950's bright green pantry cupboard and a small one ring hob on a waist high shelf, lined up against a wall.  Just inside the door was a small table and chair which looked out of a window towards the stage door of a famous theatre.  John and I visited him a few times for tea, he thought me a bit of a bubble head to begin with (I was 19 when I first met him), but when he realised my love of food, he also showed an uncanny ability for imaginative preparations.  With very scarce kitchen amenities John told me later, this very small flat was routinely the centre for small scale receptions.  So handy was its location, Eliot's fellow actors would come by for impromptu theatre salons and literary discussions well into the small hours.

This quick fish pate (and a number variations on this theme) was particularly good.

• One small fillet of skinned salmon, poached and mashed
• One hard boiled egg, mashed well
• Two dessert spoons of chopped parsley
• The juice of a small lemon
• 25 grams of softened salted butter
• A dessert spoon of chopped caper berries
• A good helping (of say half a teaspoon) of ground black pepper
• A pinch of cayenne pepper

Mixed thoroughly together, with a little added vegetable or other tasteless oil if the mixture is too solid.

Eliot served this with thin slices of French bread, which he had griddled on a flat iron over the single ring of his hob.

Related food links:

Retro Entertaining, 1980s Style
Entertaining, Simple Asparagus Rolls
Entertaining, Three Best Dips
Entertaining, Mid-Week cheeky one - Bloody Mary Tomatoes
Retro Entertaining, Leeks Vinaigrette
Entertaining, Mid-Week cheeky one - Chilli Baby Aubergines
 

Five January pick-me-ups

Christmas and New Year's Day are now over and either you are of the mind to wash away all those extra pounds, hibernate until the mornings start getting lighter or simply to feel better about the things you drink or eat, here are five great ways to beat the Winter blues.

Morning smoothies:  a great way to increase vitamins but also a brilliant alternative to breakfast too - especially if you are in a rush in the morning.  Try utilising some dried fruits (such as sour cherries or apricots - kept soaking in the fridge in apple juice) to give a little more substance and, if you need that spike of spice, add freshly grated ginseng, ginger or dried chili flakes which are a great way to wake up those taste buds.

Green tea:  an acquired taste for some, but if you're finding it hard even with the promise of all those extra anti-oxidants, try adding a bag of mint or blackcurrant tea to the mix as well.

Slow roasting:  already a fan?  Our bodies crave root vegetables at this time of year and slow roasting brings out their natural sugars and flavours.   Adding vegetable stock and blitzing in a food processor is an easy soup to make and you can make the flavours you want, use as little fat as you want and take any excess to work for lunch - also saving the pennies to beat the January blues.  Great flavour combinations would be ginger and beetroot, carrot and fennel seed and one of my particular favourites, parsnip and cumin.

Uplifting colours on your plate:  we are cheered by bright colours and best of all, foods which are deeper in colour tend to loaded in vitamins.  Use kale and red cabbage as much as you can and, although mentioned above with ginger, beetroot roasted and allowed to cool with steamed carrots is just heaven on a plate, try making a warm salad dressing with sesame oil and aged balsamic.

Let the sun shine:  it's a simple thing, I realise that many of us work during the day, but if you are an office worker and the sun is out, take a minimum of 30 minutes to take a walk in it.  Sunshine makes us feel good even if the temperature is minus 5, its still good to feel sunshine on your face.

Roast Chicken Risotto with paprika

This incredibly addictive version of a chicken risotto came to me after roasting chicken pieces for a party.   I tried this method with chicken which had gone cold but it didn't quite hit the right spot.  Freshly roasted however, and roasted for purpose, makes this recipe sing.

Any addition to a basic risotto needs careful consideration, as the you don't want the result to be too salty or to overpower the silky quality of the risotto itself.  In this case, instead of salted butter for your base recipe, use unsalted as the dressing for the chicken, before it goes into this oven will have salt already added.

25 mls of olive oil
800 grams of chicken thighs (with the skin left on)
4 teaspoons of sweet smoked paprika
1 teaspoon of salt

Pre-heat your oven to 220c, it needs to be this hot for chicken to cook to the crispy(ness) that this recipe demands.

In a roasting pan, add your oil to cover its bottom completely.  Add the chicken pieces skin down and sprinkle half the paprika and salt as evenly as possible.

Place in the oven for 20 minutes and when ready, take out, turn over and repeat the process with the remaining paprika and salt.  Returning the chicken to the oven and starting on your risotto, which with luck will take about the 30 minutes that the chicken will need to finish up.

When the chicken is ready, take out of the oven and allow to rest for a few minutes.  The skin should be crispy and highly spiced.  Start shredding the chicken away from the bones, and together with the skin, fold these glorious pieces into the risotto at the end of it's cooking time and serve immediately.

Risotto - my simple Zen moment

My friend Anna insists that Risotto is a dish of patience. 

I would disagree, it is more a recipe of contemplation, or if you are me, it's all about having a Zen moment.  You have all the ingredients to hand before you start so that you don't have to leave the hob for the 30 minutes it takes to make.

You're world is your deep saute pan (which will need a lid) and your ingredients.

25 grams of salted butter
10 mls of good olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves of elephant garlic, chopped
6 grams of marjoram (or oregano, parsley or thyme), chopped
250 grams of arborio rice
approximately 1 litre of liquid (normally in the form of a good vegetable, chicken or fish stock)

On a medium heat and in the deep pan mentioned above, melt the butter along with the olive oil.  Add the onions, garlic and chopped herbs until the onions start to turn translucent.

Add the rice and mix in with the herby onions until well coated. 

Slowly, at about a cupful at a time, add your liquid, stirring continuously.  This is where you get to your Zen contemplative mode, as the liquid is absorbed into the rice, you start to automatically top up the liquid.  If you aren't careful, you will have cooked your rice without realising the time has passed.

If you are adding vegetables (for an asparagus risotto, for example) you need to add these after two thirds of your liquid has been absorbed.

Turning the heat slightly lower, continue the process as before the vegetables were added, and use half the remaining liquid.  Then, add all the remaining liquid and cover with your lid.  Checking every few minutes, but if the heat is turned to its lowest setting, this should provide sufficient time to just cook the vegetables int he remaining cooking time, of about six or seven minutes.

The rice should have just a little "bite" remaining. 

Just before serving, you may add your grated hard cheese of choice if you wish, but this creamy, simple risotto is good on its own.

Pea shoot potato cakes

A great addition to the Sunday breakfast or a mid-week brunch - the pea shoots give a modern twist on an Irish classic.

The flavours here are enhanced with smoked paprika, giving it an earthy undertone.

I've also used rocket in exactly the same way.  The sharpness is more suited for a later meal and is an ideal accompaniment for steamed salmon or pan-fried blackened cod.


Ingredients

• 250 grams of cold cooked potato, crumbled into small pieces
• 75 grams of pea shoots, chopped roughly
• 2 large eggs, lightly whipped
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 level teaspoon of sweet smoked paprika
• 2 tablespoons of corn oil

Method

Mix the potato and pea shoot thoroughly and add the eggs and seasonings.  Combine and the resulting green salad takes on the more familiar thick potato batter like consistency.  Finally, add the sweet smoked paprika to taste. 

Allow the mixture to rest for five minutes. 

Heat a medium sized frying pan over a medium to high heat and add the first tablespoon of oil.  At the same time, turn your oven onto it's lowest warming setting and place an oven proof plate to warm.

Using a dessert spoon, add four spoons of the batter to the hot oil in four separate piles.  Flatten each one slightly and then add a further spoonful on top of each and again flatten each of them.

The potato cakes will take a few minutes to brown.  You may want to lower the heat slightly - depending upon the intensity of your hob.

Turn the cakes over to brown the other sides and add to your warm plate/oven whilst you do your second batch.

Great with strips of bacon, or using the same pan, slices of haloumi and/or a poached egg.  Just what you need on Winter's morning.

Linguine Cabonara

Wonderfully creamy dish which is always a show stopper - I have my own version which at least has the feel of something a little lighter than the traditional cabonara and with the addition of asparagus, gives a little freshness.

We had the pleasure of a great twice-cooked ham over the weekend and some of the leftovers are ideal for this.  Especially this "light" version.

• 200 grams of chopped ham (or cooked bacon)
• 15 grams of butter
• 2 dessert spoons of olive oil
• 2 cloves of smoked garlic
• 2 dessert spoons of plain flour
• 50 mls of cold water
• 150 grams of fine asparagus - with the last three to four centimetres of stalk cut off the end
• 75 grams of cooked linguine - set aside after drizzling and tossing with a little olive oil so that the strands do not stick together
• 1 large egg
• 75 grams of fromage frais        

In the bottom of a deep pan, warm through the ham in the butter and olive oil, adding the garlic and then the flour after a few minutes.  The heat shouldn't be too intense so leave the heat to medium throughout.  As the aroma of the garlic comes through, add the water a little at time, stirring constantly so that the mixture doesn't catch on the bottom.  Add the asparagus, stir thoroughly and then cover for a few minutes.  If concerned about the level of heat, turn this down to low. 

Add the linguine and the raw egg and stir thoroughly once more.  Covering the pan again for a few more minutes.

Almost at the end, add the fromage frais and stir once more, again leaving covered for a few minutes.

Serve immediately.

Sweet pepper and sour tomato Frittata

This is a generous six egg Frittata which for a 22 cm frying pan is a good size.  Fresh and extremely good either on its own, with buttered toast or served with herbed mushrooms or crispy bacon on the side.

A great cold weather breakfast.  The mild heat of ground spices make this very attractive to the palette. 

Cook's note:  If you can't find the tomatoes, try pickled ones - I know a little bizarre for an omelet but I also came across these recently in a Turkish grocery store and they are pretty amazing!

• Two medium green (or under ripe) tomatoes, or sour North African ones (these latter ones tend to be "dry" in the middle as well as having a sharp "green" taste).  If small, halve on the round.  If larger, halve the tomatoes, deseed and slice them diagonally.  Set aside on some kitchen paper and sprinkle with a little salt.  Rinse when ready use and pat dry.
• A selection of sweet peppers (approximately 150/175 grams) sliced relatively thinly, on the round if quite narrow, halved and sliced on the diagonal if larger.
• 5mls of olive oil & a large knob of butter
• One large clove of garlic, chopped finely
• A generous pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon of ground coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon of ground fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon of dried thyme
• Six large eggs, lightly whipped with a fork
• Three tablespoons of single cream or full fat milk

Pre-heat the grill to medium/hot.

On a medium heat, add your oil & butter and your vegetables, along with the garlic and spices.  Cook until the vegetables have only just started to soften.

In separate bowl, mix together the eggs and the cream or milk along with the thyme and add this mixture to vegetables.  Using a light touch with the back of a fork, start tracing the bottom so that this starts to set.  Place under the grill until just turning golden.

Savoury Potatoes with Mahon cheese

A little number that's always a good tasty reminder of how well potatoes and cheese go together.

 

Discovering this cheese whilst on holiday, its the Menorcan equivalent of English cheddar, and the islanders are just as proud of this as their Menorcan Gin. 

• 250 grams of waxy potatoes - cut into rough dice/small wedges
• 25 grams of butter or 25 mls of olive oil
• A half teaspoon salt
• A teaspoon of smoked paprika
• 2 heaped teaspoons of dried thyme
• A teaspoon of ground cumin
• A teaspoon of dried oregano

Finishing:

• 50 grams of mature Mahon cheese - cut into small cubes
• A large egg - whisked lightly with a fork
• Two handfuls of baby spinach

Preheat your oven to 175c.

In a medium sized oven proof dish add the potatoes butter/oil and place in the oven for about 10 minutes.  Taking out of the oven, add the salt, spices and herbs and mix thoroughly.

Place back into the oven for approximately 30 minutes, checking and stirring half way through. 

Taking the dish out of the oven, stir through the cheese and egg and place back into the oven for a further five minutes to warm through.  On its penultimate exit out of the oven, fold in the spinach and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes so that the leaves are wilted.

This should be enough for two generous portions.