A match made in heaven – avocado and ruby grapefruit

Avocados are really starting to peak and are amazing with ruby grapefruit. This week’s salad is a cinch to make, looks gorgeous on the plate and tastes fab to boot….

A rocket salad with grapefruit and avocado

You’ll need:

A perfectly ripe avocado

1 ruby grapefruit

80gr rocket

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

Maldon salt

Wash and dry rocket removing any stalky bits if necessary. With a sharp knife peel the grapefruit removing as much pith as possible. Cut into segments then slice each segment into two or three. Cut the avocado in half and  remove the stone. Peel each half then cut into small bite-size chunks.

Toss the avocado and grapefruit with the rocket then dress with 3 parts olive oil to 1 part balsamic vinegar with a tiny pinch salt.

This is heaven with some grilled fish or with a cous cous and chickpea salad.

In case you’re wondering………

The gnarly thing in your bag is celeriac and it makes great soup, gratins, is lovely roasted and is pretty amazing in a stew with chorizo. The choice is yours.

There are 2 kinds of greens in this week’s bag – rocket and cima di rapa (the leaves with some yellow flowers attached). These are actually turnip tops and can be tossed on the pan with garlic for a simple but very tasty side or served with pinenuts and chorizo as a very moreish salad.

Have a great week,

Sarah

A warm sweet potato salad with rocket topped with crispy garlic and cumin scented breadcrumbs and pomegranate molasses

When the days are short and the weather cold it’s so easy to reach for heavier food in the evening. A warm salad is a way of bridging the gap between what the body seems to crave and what it actually needs (ie a bit of post Christmas restraint) Thankfully, my post Christmas back to  juicing habit seems to make resisting the stodge easier which is a start.

I used this week’s sweet potatoes last night to make a filling warm salad with some of my favourite middle Eastern flavours.First of all, I parboiled then roasted chunks of  potato then tossed them with a couple of handfuls of super fresh rocket. Then for crunch I made some garlic and cumin scented toasted breadcrumbs which I tossed in the pan with some sultanas before throwing them oven the sweet potato. With all that going on, I kept the dressing simple – extra virgin olive and sherry vinegar (but red wine or cider would have worked well I reckon as well). A final drizzle of pomegranate molasses gave a lovely sweet and sour finishing touch.

It’s the kind of salad that you can eat on it’s own but which works really well with lots of other bits – we ate it with a bowl of quinoa, a simple beetroot and blood orange salad and some parsnip fritters (more on those anon) other partners would be things like hummus, falafel, some simple pan-fried fish, goat’s cheese or feta, some lightly steamed broccoli tossed in sliced pan-fried garlic and chilli, cous cous, a Spanish omelette…. you know the drill.

Roasted sweet potato salad with rocket topped with garlic and cumin scented breadcrumbs and pomegranate molasses

You’ll need:

500gr sweet potato peeled and cut into cubes

Olive oil for roasting

70gr (2 handfuls) rocket or any other salad leaves you prefer

4 heaped tablespoons dry coarse breadcrumbs

1 fat clove garlic

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

A small handful sultanas

For the dressing:

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoon sherry vinegar

To garnish: A generous drizzle of pomegranate molasses

Heat the oven to gas mark 6 and parboil the sweet potatoes. Drain and toss in olive oil in a roasting tray then place in the oven for about 30 minutes (give them a toss half way through to make sure they roast evenly) while you get on with the rest of the salad. Wash and dry the rocket and set aside. If it’s very stalky,  you may want trim it a bit as you go.

Make some breadcrumbs with old bread or use your usual stash (I normally have some in the freezer but didn’t yesterday).I made them quite chunky so they wouldn’t soften too much when mixed with the dressing and lose their crunch. I also stuck them in the oven for a couple of minutes to dry them out a bit more.  Heat 3 – 4 tablespoons olive oil on a pan then push the clove of garlic through the crusher and add that along with the cumin seeds. After about a minute when you can see the garlic beginning to soften, throw on the breadcrumbs.Toss until they have absorbed all the oil and crisped up a little more then throw in the sultanas and mix everything together then take off the pan.

When the sweet potatoes are done, take them out of the oven and let them cool slightly. Make the dressing by whisking the oil and vinegar together with a tiny pinch of salt.

To put the salad together, toss the rocket and sweet potatoes together then add the dressing and toss again. Top with the toasted breadcrumbs and sultanas then generously drizzle with pomegranate molasses and serve.

Enjoy!

Drink your veg – start juicing and feel amazing

It’s been a longer than usual stretch of seasonal overeating this year. I always say I’ll start laying off the Christmas cake after new year’s and never quite manage it and then last week when I finally did (on the 2nd or 3rd) generally craziness coupled with complete exhaustion (I’ve got 3 weeks to go before the baby and seem to be sleeping about 4 hours every night) meant that I just couldn’t get round to writing anything til the kids went back to school yesterday something I’ve been more than ready for for a few days now.  Yes, it has been lovely- late starts, long lunches, afternoon movies and of course whole days spent throwing toys around and walking away but basically the house is beyond trashed and at the moment you could actually lose a baby in the current chaos. Not the picture they paint in the baby books………….

But I digress. This post is about how to get some healthy eating habits going for the new year so here goes…….

Juicing is one of the best ways I know to kickstart healthy eating. When you juice something you take away most of the fibre  which concentrates all the vitamins and allows you to get through a much bigger volume of healthy stuff than you might ordinarily. It would take quite a while to munch your way through a head of kale but you can knock it back in 10 seconds if you juice it – geddit? So far, so brilliant – you get a super-concentrated dose of fresh uncooked good stuff which you can consume in seconds. It’s also really easy to digest which is nice for your insides because believe me they need a break after all the pints and mince pies they’ve had to deal with recently.

So, what to juice? Well, it’s not just things like berries, mangos and pears. Just as juicing concentrates vitamins it also concentrates all the sugar found in fruit so if you just juice fruit you end up taking in a massive dose of sugar. Yes, with loads of vitamins but it’s still a massive sugar hit which is never really good news for your system – your blood sugar will spike then crash when you really want to keep things on an even keel.

To properly get the benefits you need to start with at least 50% veg and from there work up. Yes it seems  hardcore at first  but really once you start to re-educate your taste buds it becomes less and less so. Carrots are an obvious starting place, they’re naturally sweet. Celery and cucumber are other ones to try – not as sweet but not super earthy either. All of these work really well with apples, pears, lemons and oranges. A small knob of ginger is also great. Not only does it add a lovely zing, it peps up your immune system helping you fight colds and flus plus it’s great for digestion.

A good basic juice recipe

3 carrots

4 or 5  sticks celery

1 lemon

2 apples (or pears or oranges or a mix)

A small knob of ginger

Nothing needs to be peeled or cored just well washed. Juice the lot and consume immediately.

Use this mix as a starting point then start adding a little green veg – a handful of parsley or some salad leaves for example then begin ramping up to things like  kale – with veg the darker the variety the more nutrtious is always a good guideline. Obviously you’ll need to pace yourself (things start to get a little bitter when you add things like kale), start with a handful then try to increase it.

The other thing I’d start adding is beetroot simply because it is just so, so, so good for you. It cleanses like nothing else. It’s also earthy like nothing else so 1 bulb is enough to start with.

Ideally you’ll get your veg content up to 75% maybe even higher and believe me this is when your energy levels really start to take off. You’ll feel refreshed and you’ll also feel much less tempted to eat bad stuff – the theory behind that one is that because you’re consuming way above and beyond what you need vitaminwise you’re less likely to get the munchies which are usually interpreted as “must have a chocolate biscuit /that piece of cake/bag of crisps/ all three” as opposed to what they really are ” I need vitamin C/D/E/whatever”

I usually have my juice mid morning and/or afternoon and my kids generally do the actually juicing. It’s one of those tedious jobs that they think is lots of fun (yay!).It also encourages them to drink all kinds of stuff they mightn’t eat which leaves me feeling really smug if there’s a showdown at dinnertime so if you’ve got little ones I’d highly advise getting them involved. Mine complain if there’s too much ginger (“spicey!!”) and kale content can’t be too high either but apart from that they’ll always try anything they’ve made.

Back to normal with recipes next week and my apologies for the slow start. Chuck is distributing pineapples today which are our way of saying a small thank-you for all your support last year. It’s tough out there but your continued support has kept us going and we are more than grateful. As always please feel free to let us know how we can improve things during 2012.

Pineapple is amazing juiced and it’s very good for your digestive system but it is especially amazing with a shot of rum and a dash of coconut milk (but you didn’t hear that from me!) or, you can roast it up with rum, brown sugar,  star anise and cinnamon which makes a dessert that is beyond good.

Happy new year,

Sarah

Some sweet treats for Christmas – chocolate cookies with chinese 5 spice powder and chocolate dipped mango

If you’d told me 10 years ago I’d be baking Christmas cookies to hang off the tree I’d have said you had the wrong girl. I’m just not that kind of cook. I bake and indeed do all my cooking to eat and rarely faff around with too much decoration leaving that kind of Martha Stewart business to calmer types with more time on their hands.

But time and kids have mellowed me and these days I consider it a quite a luxury to have a few hours to devote to baking and, as I’ve often said, find it a superior form of crowd control when it comes to kids (basically they’ll do anything to lick the bowl and after 7 years I know how to use this to my full advantage).

But don’t switch off just yet, these cookies are for grown ups too. I make them with cocoa and chinese 5 spice powder.In fact they’re probably a little highbrow for most kids. Mine love them (sugar is sugar after all) and in our house it signals the start of Christmas eating.

This recipe (adapted from a Nigella one)will make about 50 -60 cookies and about half go on our tree and the rest are for having with coffee or perking up vanilla ice-cream as a quick dessert. For the tree we did stars and dinosaurs today and I decorated them with white icing sugar and Christmassy bits and then the rest were cut into smaller stars and drizzled with dark chocolate which suits my purposes when it comes to coffee and/or ice-cream. They’ll keep for a week in a tin and for a day or two on the tree – after that they start to really soften and the kids tend to leave well alone which suits the Martha Stewart in me (this is what happens!!!) as they do look so sweet…

Christmas cookies with chocolate and Chinese Five Spice powder

You’ll need:

300gr plain flour                                                                  

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

2 level teaspoons Chinese 5 spice powder

100gr butter, diced

100gr light muscovado sugar or any brown sugar you have

2 eggs

60gr golden syrup

First of all preheat your oven to Gas mark 3 (170 degrees Celsius). Sieve the flour, salt, baking powder and 5 spice powder together. Rub in the butter with your fingertips then stir in the sugar. Beat the eggs with the golden syrup then mix through the flour using your hands.

At this stage the mix will probably seem very dry but persevere and using your hands gather everything into a ball. When you’ve got everything together, tip the mixture out onto a floured surface and work it by rolling  and re-rolling the dough with a well floured rolling pin until the dough becomes smooth.

Divide the dough into 2 balls and put half into a plastic bag or wrap in cling film and put into the fridge while you work on the first lot*. Get the remaining dough back into a ball then roll out to about 5mm thick. Cut out your cookies.

Using a spatula, put them on a lightly buttered baking tray. If you are making some for your tree you’ll need to put a little hole big enough to get a thin ribbon, string or wool  through before they go into the oven. I use the point of a chopstick for this.  Place the cookies in the oven for about 12 -15 minutes. They will come out slightly soft but don’t worry, they harden on cooling. Place them on a wire rack . They’ll cool down quite quickly so you can get on with melting chocolate or making icing almost immediately.

*The dough you put in the fridge can either be used straight away or will keep for a few days in the fridge. It can also be frozen.

The decoration

If you’re using icing……

Sieve 150gr grams icing sugar then very gradually add warm water making sure not to let the icing get too runny then drizzle over the cookies. You can drizzle with a spoon but I find the easiest thing is to put the icing into a small plastic bag, loosely tie it then prick with a large needle and use this to pipe the squiggles onto the cookies. We went quite all Sunday supplement low key this year with some white decorations on the white icing. Usually it’s a riot of colour and silver balls. Up to you…

If you go for chocolate…..

Melt a bar (100gr) chocolate in a bain-marie (ie in a heatproof bowl set in a pot of hot water) then drizzle over the cookies.

One thing – I find that the  icing takes a lot longer to dry than you’d think so be sure it’s fully hardened before you put the cookies away away.

Our mediterranean selections all have a bag of dried mango  which makes another brilliant sweet treat for after dinner. Slice into strips and partially dip in melted chocolate. Dry on grease-proof paper. These will store for at least a week in a tin and also go really well with ice-cream and the cookies for that matter.

As for the savouries, I think soup is a definitely way to go – easy and more importantly warming. This week’s sweet potatoes are great with Thai flavours and my recipe for sweet potato soup with coconut and lime  is a cinch to put together or there’s the one I did at Hallowe’en with pancetta, sour cream and crispy sage. If you’re having friends over or hanging out there are those crispy sweet potato cakes with feta and pomegranate molasses which make a brilliant starter or picky thing to have with beers.

The leeks are also brilliant for pretty much any soup – don’t overlook the humble version with spud especially if topped with pan-fried crispy bacon and some sour cream. They’re also great braised in stock and topped with Parmesan .If you have the oven on it’s a great way to go, not least because it’s one of those completely hands-off dishes which I’m more than a little partial to..

Have a great weekend,

Sarah

Pan-fried chorizo with garlic mayo and rocket on lightly toasted ciabatta plus some ideas for kale and fennel

If you’re going out over the next week or so and I’m guessing you are, this week’s recipe sorts the what to eat the morning after the night before perfectly. Pan-fried chorizo with garlic mayo and rocket on ciabatta – heaven in a sandwich. It has not failed me yet. I used to get this from Ochos our local Spanish joint which sadly closed up a couple of months back. And while yes, after a hard night out it is always good to be served breakfast this one really is a cinch to put together yourself with the bonus that dressing is optional which is definitely a fair trade in my mind…..

Pan-fried chorizo with garlic mayo and rocket on lightly toasted ciabatta

You’ll need:

1 chorizo sausage weighing about 100gr – try to get a softish one

2 tablespoon of mayonnaise

1 fat clove garlic

A spritz of lemon juice

A large handful rocket washed and dried

A little onion very finely sliced (optional)

Ciabatta or any other soft crusty bread you prefer

Heat a little oil on the pan, slice the chorizo down the middle and fry over a very gentle heat until it softens and begins to darken on the outside. While the sausage is frying crush the garlic and mix it through the mayo along with a spritz of lemon juice. Taste and adjust as you like. To put the sandwich together, lightly toast the bread then spread with mayo, cover with rocket and a little onion if you’re using it then top with the chorizo and serve.

This week’s bags all have a massive head of kale in from Denis Healy’s farm.  Shredded and pan-fried with slices of chorizo then topped with a poached egg a la Nigella Lawson makes a great quick supper. Otherwise, gently fry it up in butter with lots of garlic then stir through creamy mash for a delicious colcannon.

This week’s fennel makes brilliant gratins or there’s a lovely soup with orange you might like to try while my beetroot will be slow-roasted then served up with a drizzle of walnut oil and balsamic – Yum!!

Don’t forget to let us know about any of the extras you might be needing for Christmas by next Friday and be sure to give us a call if you’re not sure about anything.

Have a great weekend,

Sarah

Brussel Sprouts – they’re not just for Christmas you know….. plus a chocolate refrigerator cake with chestnuts and brandy soaked prunes that is to die for!!!!

For most people they’re a Marmite variety – you either love them or hate them. A lot of this has to do with how they’re prepared. In most houses they get cooked once a year on Christmas day (tradition innit?) when they are boiled for at least 20 minutes then languish on everyone’s plate (in twos and threes) before being tipped into the bin after dinner. It’s a shame because if you treat them right they can be pretty special. No, really. For the last few years I’ve been serving them on the big day in a gratin with cream, bacon and Parmesan and they’ve stolen the show every time. Creamy and moreish with lots of lovely saltiness from the bacon and Parmesan this dish rocks and works with with any roast.

In broad terms, everything you can do with a cabbage you can do with spouts. They are made for things like bacon and cheese while Asian flavours like ginger, sesame oil and mirin really work as well. A simple dish to try is a variation on one I often do with cabbage. Parboil the sprouts, quarter them, fry up with bacon and/or onions til everything is crispy and caramelised then top with grated cheese and grill til golden. With a bowl of creamy mash you’ll be hard pushed to find a more moreish supper now that the weather’s turned cold.

Pan-fried is another great way to go because this way they turn lovely and golden. You can keep it simple and just add a handful of slivered almonds and a spritz of lemon or you can go seasonal and do them with chestnuts and bacon.

Pan-fried brussel sprouts with lardons and chestnuts

You’ll need:                                                                                                   

350gr brussel sprouts halved or quartered if they’re large

1 medium onion chopped

75gr bacon – lardons, pancetta or streaky rashers chopped all work well

100gr chestnuts roughly chopped

Salt and Pepper

Heat a little oil on the pan and throw in the onion. Saute for a minute or two then add the bacon and fry until just starting to change colour. Add the sprouts and gently pan-fry everything until the sprouts are tender and the bacon nice and crispy. This will take about 10 minutes. Be sure to keep everything moving to avoid burning the the onions. Remove from the pan and serve.

This dish can be made ahead of time then reheated either in a microwave or covered in the oven.

Another reason to cook the sprouts this way is that  you’ll have the perfect excuse to make what has to be one of my favourite chocolate deserts – a chestnut chocolate refrigerator cake with chestnuts and prunes soaked in brandy. I mean, what else are you going to do with the rest of that tin of chestnuts? It’s a Hugh Fearnley Whittingstale recipe from years back and I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before but when I made it again recently I decided I had to share it. It’s beyond amazing and, with a cup of strong black coffee, one of the best finishes to a meal I know.

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstale’s chocolate refrigerator cake with chestnuts and brandy soaked prunes

You’ll need:

75gr prunes, roughly chopped

75gr raisins

3 tablespoons brandy

150gr dark chocolate

100gr butter

150gr ginger nut biscuits roughly crushed

150gr cooked and peeled chestnuts, roughly chopped

Combine the dried fruit with the brandy and leave to soak for at least two hours. Line a 20 cm square tin or 20 cm diameter round tin with clingfilm. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir in the fruit, chestnuts and biscuits and mix everything well. Pour into the tin then refrigerate until solid. Serve in either squares or wedges.

This week there are gorgeous red cabbages in all our bags and again I had Christmas in mind when I included them.  The classic slowcooked cabbage with apple and spices which goes so well with turkey can be made ahead of time and frozen. It’s a cinch to make but takes hours in the oven so why not make it in advance the next time you’re doing some slowcooking? Otherwise, salad is an obvious way to go and also bear in mind that red cabbage is beautiful stir-fried.

With Christmas firmly in my sights I’ll have all the details of our Christmas bags ready by early next week. As usual we’ll be able to deliver everything you’ll be needing for the day and beyond.

In the meantime stay warm!!

Sarah

Baked mushrooms with goat’s cheese and caramelized leeks

This week’s flat Irish mushrooms are a great basic. Fried up in butter or olive oil then served on toast they make a brilliant 5 minute breakfast, lunch or snack. Stick them in a folded omelette with some cheese for something a little more substantial. Add some garlic, parsley and a dash of cream to the mix and you’ve got a pasta sauce. And of course they add brilliant flavour to any stew, soup or casserole. Last year’s superwarming chunky soup/stew with cabbage could be one to try seeing as temperatures are dropping.

I’ve been enjoying mushrooms for breakfast a lot recently. Baked in the oven then topped with wilted spinach and cheese they make a brilliant start to the day. This morning I tried some topped with toasted goat’s cheese and leeks cooked down in butter. with a splash of balsamic vinegar just to give things a little bite. Delicious.

Baked mushrooms with garlic, leeks and goat’s cheese (for 2)

You’ll need:

5/6 medium sized flat mushrooms or 2 large portabella with the stems removed

2 tablespoon olive oil

Juice 1/2 lemon

2 cloves garlic crushed

2 leeks trimmed of the tougher green part and washed

A knob of butter

100gr crumbled goat’s cheese

A small handful walnuts

Balsamic vinegar

Begin by mixing the oil, lemon juice and garlic with a little salt and pepper. Place the mushrooms darkside up on a baking tray then drizzle the oil mix over them. Place in a hottish oven (gas mark 5) for 12 minutes. Slice the leeks down the middle then into half moons. Heat a little butter on the pan and  fry the leeks with a pinch of salt for about 7-8 minutes til tender. Take the mushrooms out of the oven and top with the goat’s cheese. Toast under the grill til the cheese is soft with a golden crisp then finally top with the leeks, a drizzle of balsamic and a few broken walnuts. Serve hot on or with toast.

Of course you’ll need some orange juice with those mushrooms and this week sees the return of those great value 6.5k boxes of new season oranges. We’d be delighted to deliver a box with your next order so just give us a shout if you’d like some. They cost €12.

Have a great week,

Sarah

Quesadillas – your lunch in less than 10 minutes

I’m a huge fan of all things Mexican and I think a big part of that comes from the simplicity. Beans, chillies, avocado, tomatoes, coriander, sour cream and cheese are the basic building blocks. You can use as many or as few as you like. For main meals I often use them all (and some more)  but for snacks I pare things down for bites that are easy to put together but more importantly, fast. During the week speed is all. We get home after work, school and creche between 2 or  3 and everyone is STARVING. I always keep a stash of corn tortillas for superfast lunches (yes, yes, I know you can make these so easily but believe me nobody is in the mood for anything that takes more than 5 minutes.

More often than not, I make quesadillas. First of all you throw a tortilla on the pan (no oil) with a handful of grated cheese (cheddar works for me but really any hard cheese will do). Toast over a lowish heat and let the cheese melt. Spread guacamole and/or a tomato salsa over the cheese then top with another tortilla.

Flip over so the top tortilla gets toasted. Take off the pan, quarter then eat with a little sour cream on the side.

That’s a very basic version. After that the combinations are pretty much endless. Here are just a few….

• roughly chopped jalapeno peppers
• scallions if they’re around (onions are a bit too hardcore so I don’t bother with them)
• A generous sprinkling roughly chopped coriander
• Griddled courgettes
• Strips of red peppers – fresh or roasted
• Refried beans (from a tin)
• Rice from the fridge
• Sweetcorn or, ideally sweetcorn salad with roasted peppers and lime
• Salad leaves – anything bar rocket (the flavour doesn’t really go). If I’m using salad I either serve it on the side with a spritz of lime or, instead of using 2 tortillas I use just the one taking it off the pan when the cheese melts, then I add the salad and whatever else I’m having and serve it  folded.
• Greens like this week’s rainbow chard finely chopped or spinach
• scrambled egg
• Any leftover cooked chicken or fish

There are probably lots of other things I just can’t think of at the moment but you can see that it’s a flexible kind of thing. The 2 “recipes” (and I really use that term loosely) I can give you for all this are for tomato salsa and guacamole. Both can be as rustic or as refined as you like. My versions tend to be pretty rustic -after all there’s only so much chopping you can do in the minute it takes the tortilla to toast…

Tomato salsa

You’ll need:

A couple of perfectly ripe tomatoes roughly chopped  

1/2 small onion finely chopped

1/4 fresh red chilli minced (take out some of the seeds if you don’t want things too fiery)

1 lime

A handful coriander roughly chopped

Salt

Combine the tomatoes, onions, coriander and chilli. Add a pinch of salt and lime juice to taste.

Guacamole (my version that is)

You’ll need:

1 ripe avocado

1/2 small onion very finely chopped

1 tomato chopped

Some finely chopped green or red pepper if you have it – not essential and some would say a little controversial but nice

Salt

Lime juice

A handful coriander chopped

Mash the avocado then mix in the tomato, onion, coriander and pepper if using. Add salt and lime juice to taste. If you’re making this ahead of time a trick is to add the avocado stone back into the guacamole to stop things discoloring.

That’s about it really. Obviously this kind of thing isn’t just for snacks and lunches, they make brilliant “I’m too exhausted to cook” dinners – you just eat more!

In case you were wondering…….

The funny looking fruit in the Mediterranean bags is a persimmon aka kaki or sharon fruit. Known as the fruit of the gods in ancient Greece they have a lovely apricot flavour with a mango texture (yum!). They are perfectly ripe so have them for dessert this evening if you can.

Enjoy,

Sarah

A salad with cauliflower, toasted seeds and sumac

A while ago I vowed I’d put a stop to my cookbook habit. I have too many, way too many. A lot come from charity shops where I find you can pick up rare and quite off the beaten track stuff. But there are the new editions I see and find very hard to resist. At the moment  The Family Meal: Home Cooking with Ferran Adria from the legendary Catalan restaurant El Bulli and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s River Cottage Veg Every Day! are on my wish list. I know that Adria’s might fall into the more aspirational end of my cooking (ie much thought about but not actually done) while the River Cottage book will be  a more workaday book – lots of ideas, some to be followed exactly while most will be used for inspiration, a starting point for a new take on an old favourite. This week’s recipe is one of those – A raw cauliflower salad with sumac. I saw it in the Guardian a while back and have kept  the combo on the back  burner in my head ever since. If you’re an Ottolenghi fan you’ll have heard of sumac (he’s the reason it’s stocked in supermarkets in the UK now) but if you’re not, you probably won’t have come across it much.

Sumac is a berry dried and crushed to produce a tart lemony spice that is used in Middle Eastern cooking. It’s a lovely deep red or purple colour and looks great sprinkled on things like salads, hummous and chicken dishes. You’ll find it in Middle Eastern shops and good delis.

Hugh’s recipe was for cauliflower florets tossed with lots of toasted seeds dressed with rapeseed oil and lots of lemon juice. I found his version way too lemony so toned that down a bit for mine. I also added lamb’s lettuce which has a lovely nuttiness that works really well with the seeds and cauliflower. I’ve eaten this straight up as a quick lunch but also had it as part of a mezze style feast with things like Spanish omelette, roasted tomatoes, baked feta cheese and hummous and it’s a fantastic addition. The lemony dressing seems to wake everything else up while the toasted seeds bring a gorgeous smokiness to the table. Well worth a go.

A salad with cauliflower, toasted seeds and sumac

You’ll need:

500gr cauliflower broken up into small bitesize florets

5  tablespoons pumpkin seeds

5 tablespoons sesame seeds

A small handful of parsley roughly chopped

2 decent handfuls lamb’s lettuce washed well and dried

For the dressing:

3 tablespoons rapeseed oil

The juice of 1 large lemon

Salt and pepper

A pinch sugar

1/2 teaspoon sumac plus a little more for garnishing

Make the dressing by whisking the oil and lemon juice with the sumac and a little salt and pepper together then set aside. Heat a pan over a medium heat and toast the pumpkin seeds until they start to change colour. Take the pumpkin seeds off the pan and set aside. Put the sesame seeds on the pan and toast until they start to pop then take them off. To put the salad together,  toss the seeds with the cauliflower, parsley and dressing. Taste and add more lemon juice and/or salt and pepper if you think it needs it. Serve on a bed of lamb’s lettuce with a sprinkling of sumac.

Tracking things down

As I said, you should be able to get sumac in delis and Middle Eastern shops but if you can’t find it The spicery website is a brilliant source for excellent quality spices

Irish rapeseed oil is one of the success stories of local food in recent years and you can have yours delivered with your veggies. A bottle costs €8

We also have pumpkin seeds and they cost €3.80 per 500gr.

Have a great weekend,

Sarah

A hearty chickpea and chorizo stew with celeriac and kale

There may still be a few tomatoes and scallions about, but there’s no denying that veg wise the season has changed. My oven is now on at least a couple of afternoons a week, roasting up parsnips and carrots, spuds, maybe a chicken and if I have any stewing fruit around, there’s usually a crumble in there too. At the moment I’m experimenting with quince and fig recipes but more on that when I’ve figured things out.

This week sees the return of celeriac which, if you haven’t seen it before, probably has you scratching your head. It’s the gnarly round thing at the bottom of your bag. No, it’s not much of a looker but it’s a great multitasker (just how we all want to be described right?). Like all roots, you can roast it, mash it, throw it into soups and stews or just boil it up (but don’t expect dinner to look anything but wartime if you go down this road – add a sprinkling of herbs at least).

As the name suggests, it’s a cousin of celery and the flavour is vaguely similar but there’s also a lovely nutiness so it goes really well with hazelnuts. Cream, bacon, anchovies, onions (especially when cooked down in butter) are also welcome additions.

This recipe started life as a soup at least in my mind, but as I turned it over in by head (yes, folks I probably do think about dinner way too much but it does drown out the white noise of children fighting) I decided a stew was needed. To kickstart things, chorizo was always going to be a key ingredient then chickpeas seemed a logical progression…. I love the mix of aniseed and celeriac together so I threw in some fennel seeds which brought things together nicely. Then for greens, kale in from the Healys this week was an obvious choice. It’s the Raggedly Jack variety which I haven’t bought before due to my allegiance to the Cavelo Nero kind. It’s pretty good – it doesn’t have the gorgeous forest green of its Tuscan cousin but tastes as good. If you don’t have kale, cabbage will work equally well in a recipe like this.

As celeriac is starchy, I served this with bread the first time but we had it with spuds last night and they went down a treat.  Rice or quinoa would work fine as well. Up to you….

Chickpea and chorizo stew with celeriac and kale

You’ll need:

Olive oil

3 medium or 2 large onions roughly chopped

4 fat cloves garlic chopped

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

2 bay leaves

175gr chorizo finely sliced

400gr celeriac diced into smallish bite size chunks

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tin chickpeas rinsed

600ml chicken or vegetable stock

Salt and pepper

Heat some olive oil in a heavy pot or casserole. Add the onions, bay leaves and a large pinch of salt then saute over a medium heat until they start to soften and change colour. Throw in the garlic and fennel seeds, mix everything together then continue cooking for another 2 or 3 minutes before adding the chorizo. Cook for a further 10 minutes or so, letting  the chorizo release its oil and flavour everything. This is a good time to peel and chop your celeriac if you haven’t done so already. When you’re ready, add this to the pot and stir well. Add the tomatoes and sugar and allow everything to fry for a few minutes before pouring in the stock and chickpeas. Bring everything to the boil then turn the heat down, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Wash the kale well and remove any tough stalks. Roughly shred it and add it to the pot. Continue cooking for further 30 minutes removing the lid for the final 15. Before serving check the seasoning, adding more salt if you think it needs it plus a decent grinding of black pepper. To serve, add a scattering of chopped parsley if you have it.

As you can imagine, this keeps very well and is possibly better on the second day.

Enjoy!

Sarah