Leek Fritters

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So we ran out of food midweek. This only ever happens when we are oncall for work and can’t go out !

Anyway I decided to dig out my copy of Yotam Ottolenghi – Plenty.

This was the first book I scoured for recipes and struggled to eliminated anything I didn’t want to cook. In the end I made half the things in the book – including the Leek Fritter dish. Sadly I forgot to take a photo at the time – hence me making it again.

This isn’t a quick dish – but it is worth the effort. It certainly fills a hole and is very tasty.

All you do is sauté some leeks and shallots and once they have cooled down toss them in a spiced batter and egg white mixture.

Fry them like pancakes and they go all fluffy in less than 5 minutes – mainly due to all the self raising flour and baking powder.

These are really yummy – especially with the yoghurt and sour cream dip which has been blended with garlic, coriander, parsley and lemon juice.

They must be good. My mother in law loved them!

A definite keeper – and you can make these in advance – and take them to work the next day and reheat.

Polenta Pizza with Crumbled Sage

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This dish took ever so slightly longer than most. I actually had to cook something this time!

Cook up some polenta and when it’s done pop it into a round pizza type dish about 2cm deep. I think mine is less as I used a bigger dish. Let the polenta cool down so it solidifies – you want it to resemble a pizza dough somewhat. I left mine outside as a frost was on the way. Fortunately the local wildlife didn’t get at it!

Then simply top with Mozzarella and Parmesan, olive oil, dried chilli flakes and fresh sage (that you have dried – not dried sage) and bake in an oven until it’s bubbling.

I dehydrated my sage in an halogen oven – to book suggests leaving it on a window sill for a few days – but who has time for that during the working week!

I got sucked into the vortex that is talking to my in-laws whilst making this and by the time it was ready it was too late to eat it – so it’ll have to do for lunch tomorrow. Hence the uncut pizza picture.

There’s no reason for it not to be yummy with the amount of cheese in it. Just be careful not to over salt the polenta as the parmesan is pretty salty already.

UPDATE:

We had this for lunch and it’s just too heavy. I think if you could halve the Polenta and put a bit more flavour in it than just salt then it might work – but for now I’m going to give this a miss.

Quick Scallion Kimchee

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This won’t be ready for another 72 hours. Not sure what a not quick kimchee is – having never made one. But there you go.

You simply trim several bunches of spring onions (scallions) and marinade in a dressing of ginger, garlic, chilli flakes, fish sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar and sesame oil and seeds.

I’ve never had this before but I’m guessing it’s going to have quite a kick given the amount of chilli flakes in it.

Another incredibly quick and easy recipe to prepare from One Good Dish by David Tanis.

UPDATE:

We ate this after it had marinated for 3 days.

Half a cup of chilli flakes is going to give you some idea of how hot is was!

It would be lovely in a burger – or with something meaty. I had it ‘as is’ and it was a bit much! The leftovers I cooked in an omelette, and that was amazing!

Radishes a la Creme

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This isn’t cooking in any sense of the word. It’s cutting up some radishes and putting a blob of creme fraiche next on top.

If you don’t have a watermelon radish, or daikon it’s not going to be particularly exciting. That said – if you do it really works !

The combination of the three radishes (salad, daikon and watermelon) offers different textures and crunches.

Dressed with some whipped up Creme Fraiche and salt and pepper – this dish couldn’t be simpler or quicker provided you have a very sharp knife.

You never know what you are going to get when you buy a watermelon radish. Sometimes they are really colourful inside and look amazing. Other times (like this time) they just don’t offer the amazing contrast on the plate.

Red Beet Salad

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We cook with beetroot (red beets) a lot. It’s not unusual for us to have several bunches on the go at once. To think that as a youngster I assumed you only got this out of a jar in vinegar is quite unbelievable.

It’s good to keep track of the times you eat beetroot. It does tend to colour ‘things’ a day later!

More importantly, if you are cooking with fresh beetroot you have to be prepared to get red splatters everywhere and to gradually discolour all your chopping boards! Definitely keep the book you are following well away from them!

We typically roast beetroot in a halogen oven – then peel it and add it to dishes but this dish is with raw beetroot.

If you are as unfortunate as I was – to get the smallest beetroots ever – you’ll find peeling them and julienning them to be very fiddly indeed. Bigger beetroot is better I think – although you can’t predict what will arrive in your online shop.

This dish is essentially beef tartare with the beef substituted for raw beetroot. The dressing has capers, cornichon, parsley, dijon mustard, olive oil and spring onions (scallions). The recipe suggests serving with hard boiled eggs – which is convenient given I had two left over from the Egyptian Bean Salad!

Looks beautiful doesn’t it! Marinate the beetroot in the dressing for a while and it’ll really come together beautifully.

This is a great salad – but it can get messy – so be careful and don’t wear your best T-Shirt!

Egyptian Breakfast Beans

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I was going to hold off making this until the dried peeled fava beans arrived from souschef.co.uk but we happened to have a couple of tins of broad beans in our shop this week. I’m assured that fava beans and broad beans are the same thing but I’m not convinced.

Anyway I made this recipe without the slog of boiling the fava beans for an hour and it came out pretty good. You essentially boil up the beans until they start to fall apart, add garlic and olive oil and cook some more. Serving is simply spooning it in a bowl and garnishing with red onion, ripe tomatoes and hard boiled eggs. The dusting of toasted and ground cumin seeds really finishes the dish off.

I will make this properly when the dried fava beans arrive but the tinned beans variety wasn’t bad at all. Very filling and warming. We really like this kind of warm dish dressed with raw onions and chopped tomatoes. It’s like seasoning it with salt and pepper.

This took less than 30 mins to make but I did cheat with the tinned beans.

Moroccan Carrots

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If you – like me – always end up with a bag of carrots in your fridge then this is what you should make with them.

I love this – and it is so easy.

Boil and simmer some carrots and when they are tender drain them and let them cool right down. Then make the dressing which as just enough ginger and garlic to give you a bit of heat but not too much that it overpowers the carrots.

Mash the carrots a bit (I didn’t as I didn’t have a masher! – I just blitzed them for 5 seconds in a Magimix) and dress the carrots in the dressing and top with mixed olives, feta and coriander (cilantro in the book) and optionally some spring onion (scallions) and preserved lemons.

This really is a keeper – and I can’t imagine not having this every week. There’s loads left over too (there’s only the two of us) so we’ll have the rest for lunch at work.

Hopefully the dressing with infuse even more with the carrots and it’ll be even better!

Turkish Spoon Salad with Haydari

Posted on March 21, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

What’s a Turkish Spoon Salad.

Well it’s a lot of fine chopping I can tell you.

Tomatoes, Romano Peppers, Red Chilli, Shallots and Cucumbers. All chopped and mixed with Harissa, olive oil and white wine vinegar.

After throwing in lots of mint and parsley this really does make a really fresh and tasty salad.

It was it bit spicy for my fiancé but I liked it that way.

The Haydari isn’t dissimilar to Labneh. It’s a kind of goats cheese you make with Greek yoghurt and lemon juice which you strain in muslin for 24 hours. Haydari is accented with dill, green chilli and sumac.

This is a very nice salad if you have time to make it and remember to get the Haydari on the day before.

Another keeper from Diana Henry

Right now to get ready for a night of Rock n Roll dancing!