Polenta with peppers and tomatoes

I made polenta recently to go with some pork chops. It is an interesting alternative to the normal carbs, but invariably, I make way too much. This time, I decided to put it in a tray and refrigerate the leftovers in the hope that inspiration would strike.

A couple of days later, after a survey of what we had in the fridge, I decided to pan-fry wedges of polenta and serve them with a sort of stew of red peppers, onion, garlic and tomato on a drizzle of balsamic glaze.

I will admit, I am not a recipe inventor. I am mostly a follower of recipes and rarely cook without one. I was, however, quite happy with my efforts here. The peppers were sweet and juicy and provided lots of flavour for the rather bland base of the polenta. The balsamic gave it some tang and altogether, I thought it worked quite well. The biggest challenge for us when making up recipes is knowing when to stop adding ingredients and I think we did well. Along the way, I didn’t add olives, feta and chilli – all decisions I am happy with.

Polenta with red peppers and tomatoes
Serves 2

100g polenta, cooked according to packet instructions, spread out on a tray and cooled
Red pepper, sliced
Half an onion, sliced
Two tomatoes, cut into thin wedges
Two garlic cloves, chopped
Olive oil
Drizzle balsamic glaze

Heat the olive oil in a large pan. Add the onions and stir for approximately 5 minutes. Add the peppers and cook over a medium-low heat for a further 10 minutes. Finally, add the tomatoes and garlic and cook for another 5 minutes or until everything is soft. Season well.

Meanwhile, heat more olive oil in a frying pan (a grill pan would be even better so you get the fancy lines) over medium heat. Cut the polenta into triangle wedges and pan fry each side for 1 -2 minutes (it is already cooked, so you just need to heat it through).

To serve, drizzle the balsamic glaze onto two plates. Lay the wedges on top and spoon over the peppers.

Rigatoni with Sweet Tomatoes, Eggplant, and Mozzarella

Before we left Australia to come to the UK, we sold pretty much all of our belongings. Bizarrely, one of the things I was most sad to get rid of was all my old cooking magazines. I had a couple of years of Delicious and Super Food Ideas and while I couldn't justify keeping them, it was a bit sad to see them go. That became more critical when it appeared that one of the magazines I sold contained a Jamie Oliver pasta recipe that Kyle loved and was nowhere to be found on the internet.

From memory, we recalled the recipe included aubergine, mozzarella stirred through at the end so it just melts, tinned tomato and chilli. Every so often, I did a browse around the internet to try and find the recipe. It is the internet - everything is on there! Finally, my persistence paid off and I found the recipe on some pregnancy forum! It was slightly different to how we remembered, but it had been a while.

We were so excited and looked forward to the two year plus reunion with this dish. And it was disappointing. I mean, not bad but kinda bland. What was going on?

Jamie Oliver's language is always quite distinctive and the writer of the forum post had used a sentence that reminded me of how Jamie writes, so I decided to google that:

The mozzarella should be just about to melt and a bit stringy at this point cooked by the heat of the sauce.

Bingo! This post came up first (along with three others) and it turns out the recipe is from Jamie's Dinners (not that secret after all!) and the first recipe missed out the vital ingredient - chilli!

The lengths we go to to find a recipe! We haven't yet, but we will give this another try.

Rigatoni with Sweet Tomatoes, Eggplant and Mozzarella
by Jamie Oliver from Jamie’s Dinners
Serves 4

This is a dish I’ve had many times in Italy, on the Amalfi coast. It’s one of those dishes that tastes like home — it’s comfort food, and it makes you feel good. The interesting thing about it is that the cow’s-milk mozzarella is torn up and thrown in at the last minute so that when you dig your spoon in you get melted, stringy bits of it — a real joy to eat. You can eat this as soon as it’s made, or you can put it all into a baking pan with a little cheese grated on top and reheat it as a baked pasta dish the next day, if you wish.

Ingredients
1 firm ripe pink, black, or white eggplant
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
Two 14-ounce cans good-quality plum tomatoes
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 fresh or dried chilies, chopped or crumbled, optional
Bunch fresh basil, leaves ripped and stalks sliced
4 tablespoons heavy cream
1 pound rigatoni or penne
7 ounces cow’s-milk mozzarella
1 piece Parmesan cheese, for grating

Method
1. Remove both ends of the eggplant and slice it into 1/2 inch slices, then slice these across and finely dice into 1/2 inch cubes. Some people prefer to season their eggplant with salt and let it sit for a while in a colander to draw out the bitterness, but I don’t really do this unless I’m dealing with a seedy, bitter eggplant. This dish is really best made using a firm silky one.

2. Now, put a large saucepan on the heat and drizzle in 4 to 5 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil. When it’s hot, add the cubes of eggplant, and as soon as they hit the pan stir them around with a spoon so they are delicately coated with the oil and not soaked on one side only. Cook for about 7 or 8 minutes on a medium heat.

3. Then add the garlic and onion. When they have a little color, add the canned tomatoes and the balsamic vinegar. Stir around and season carefully with salt and pepper. At this point, if you wanted to give the dish a little heat you could add some chopped fresh or crumbled dried chilli, but that’s up to you. Add the basil stalks, and simmer the sauce nice and gently for around 15 minutes, then add the cream.

4. While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and add the pasta, cook according to the package instructions until it is soft but still holding its shape, then drain it, saving a little of the cooking water. I like to put the pasta back into the pot it was cooked in with a tiny bit of the cooking water and a drizzle of olive oil and move it around so it becomes almost dressed with the water and oil.

5. At this point add the lovely tomato sauce to the pasta. By now the eggplant will have cooked into a creamy tomatoey pulp, which is just yum yum yum! Season carefully to taste with salt and pepper. When all my guests are sitting round the table, I take the pan to the table, tear up the mozzarella and the fresh basil, and fold these in nicely for 30 seconds. Then very quickly serve into bowls. By the time your guests start to eat, the mozzarella will have started to melt and will be stringy and gorgeous and really milky-tasting. Just lovely with the tomatoes and eggplant. Serve at the table with a block of Parmesan cheese and a grater so that everyone can help themselves.

Homemade Hash Browns

I would rarely do a full English breakfast, but we were heading to the races for the day and timing-wise, lunch was going to be a hassle, so a big breakfast seemed like a good compromise. Inspired by the sweet potato rosti I made to go with the pigeon breast recently, I decided to make hash browns as something a little different.

The recipe was quite simple, but probably took longer to cook than I would have anticipated (resulting in a bit of a last minute rush for the train to the races!), but the hash browns were really delicious and definitely added some variety to the standard cooked breakfast. With good smokey bacon, scrambled eggs and roasted vine tomatoes, this kept us going until about 6pm. Although, it may have been assisted by a few pints (!) of Pimms!

Homemade Hash Browns
Olive magazine - June 2009
Serves 6 (we made half)

800g waxy potatoes, peeled
onion, thinly sliced (I only had red onion, but I think a brown onion would be better)
clove garlic, finely chopped
1 egg, beaten
4-5 tablespoons oil

Grate the potatoes. Tip into a tea towel, squeeze out any liquid (be careful - there is more liquid than you think! I managed to leak it all over the floor moving to the sink) and put in a bowl. Stir in the onion, garlic, egg and seasoning. Divide into six and shape into patties. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and cook each pattie over a low heat until golden. (This took about 20-25 minutes with the lid on for me).

Serve with the regular breakfast accompaniments.

The Modern Vegetarian: Tomato, Feta, Almond and Date Baklava

This month, Delicious magazine and Waterstones hosted the first book launch for the genuinely charming and enthusiastic Maria Elia, who's first book is The Modern Vegetarian. I am most definitely not vegetarian and neither is Maria, but it is one of those areas of cooking with great potential, but frequently boring options. I mean, there are plenty of lovely vegetarian pasta and risotto recipes as well as the odd curry, but the alternatives are often limited. This book, however, changes that drastically. Maria's recipes are less 'vegetarian' and more just happen not to contain meat.

The evening was lovely - Maria demonstrated her carrot pancakes and a carmelised onion, tomato and feta baklava. Both were stunning and I went on to re-create these myself. She also demonstrated her impressive creativity and natural flair for flavours, by suggesting alternatives to dishes off the top of her head. Take the carrot pancakes - make them 'Thai' style by adding chilli, lime juice and fish sauce to the houmous, that kind of thing. The sort of thing I am patently not good at, being a religious recipe follower. Consequently, I appreciated that the book also includes this kind of commentary. It is particularly helpful for vegetables, where they can be out of season or simply not appropriate to the season, it was great to see comments such as try peas or broad beans instead of the butternut squash.

The book is divided into sophisticated starters, sensational mains, sofa suppers, stylish sides and stunning sweet. Besides being an impressive use of alliteration, this is a practical and useable categorisation. There are lots of beautiful (tempted to say stunning!) photos in the book, although unfortunately, not with every recipe. The recipes are, however, well laid out and easy to read although a guide to overall cooking time would be helpful.

I have tried a few of these recipes over the last week, two successes and one disappointment. We'll start there and work upwards.

I made the Butternut Squash and Rosemary Polenta Chips with homemade aioli from the stylish sides section to go with my very not-vegetarian steak. Maria did mention she likes salt, but these were so salty so as to be rendered almost inedible, which was a real shame. I would make them again, but with about a quarter of the salt.

The next attempt was much more successful. Maria made the Carrot Pancakes with Houmous and a Feta Salad at the event in a cold canape version, which is a great idea. I made the full-sized version with warm pancakes, slightly different but equally delicious. We used some lovely baby carrots from the market to make the carrot pancakes, which are really more fritters and were packed with flavour - chilli, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, ground coriander, fresh coriander and chickpea flour (I believe these are also gluten free due to the use of chickpea flour). These are then topped with roasted carrot houmous and finally a salad with feta and orange segments. While this was an astounding number of flavours and ingredients, the final product mellowed and came together beautifully. A really delicious vegetarian lunch or starter (although I think it would be very filling for a starter).

I also made the Tomato, Feta, Almond and Date Baklava - sounds good already. This seems to be a a bit of a speciality of Maria's - she varies the fillings of her savoury baklavas and serves them at her restaurant. This dish was amazing. There is no other word! It is quite sweet from the caramelised onions, cinnamon, honey and dates, but balanced by salty cheese and crunchy filo pastry. It took much longer to make than the recipe indicates, but was worth the wait!

Tomato, Feta, Almond and Date Baklava
From The Modern Vegetarian by Maria Elia
Serves 6

100ml olive oil
5 spanish onions, halved and finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
pinch of granulated sugar
bunch of dill, finely chopped (or 3 tablespoons dried)
8 vine plum tomatoes, skinned and roughly chopped (reserve half the juice)
3 teaspoons tomato paste
1 packet filo pastry (9 sheets)
150g melted butter
60g blanched almonds, whizzed to a crumble
100g medjool dates, stoned and finely sliced
250g feta cheese, crumbled
6 tablespoons clear honey

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Heat the olive oil in a large-bottomed pan. Gently fry the onions over a low heat, add the garlic, cinnamon and sugar and increase the heat. Fry for about 6 minutes, until carmelised (I found this was more like 20 minutes). Add the dill, tomatoes and half of their juice and the tomato puree and cook for a further 5 minutes, until reduced (again, more like 15 minutes).

Unfold the pastry and cut in half; keep it covered with a damp cloth to prevent it from drying out. Brush a baking try (approximately 30 x 20cm) with melted butter, line the tin with a sheet of filo, brush with butter and repeat until you have a 3-layer thickness.

Spread half the onion mixture over the pastry, top with half the almonds, dates and half the feta. Sandwich 3 layers of filo together, brushing each with melted butter and place on top of the onion and feta mix. Top with the remaining onions, almonds, dates and feta and again top with a 3-layer thickness of filo. Lightly score the top, cutting diamonds or squares, brush with butter and splash with a little water (I found it easier to brush with butter first and then score the top). Place on a baking tray and cook for 30-35 minutes until golden (I cooked it for about 45 minutes and then got sick of waiting!).

Leave to cool a little before serving, then drizzle each portion with honey (not too much, it is already quite sweet). Serve hot or cold with fennel salad or some tzatziki.

Crispy courgette flowers with ricotta and mint

As I've mentioned previously, we visited the Stoke Newington Farmers Market on the weekend, which in a gross oversight considering how close it is, I had never been to before. The market is on every Saturday and is only for local producers, who come from within 100 miles. All the produce is organic, biodynamic or wild so is guaranteed to be seasonal, fresh and hopefully tasty!

While this is all good stuff, the best part for me was spotting these courgette flowers. I haven't seen courgette flowers since we were in Tuscany in 2007 and the owners of our villa also had a farm and provided us with some lovely produce. That was my first experience with courgette flowers and I had to ask Christine to show me what to do with them! That time, we just dipped them in flour and fried them quickly in olive oil. Crispy, fresh and delicate.

This time, I turned again to Jamie Oliver, that reliable guru of seasonal cooking. His recipe is relatively classic - I have had courgette flowers stuffed with cheese in restaurants - but with the twist of being deep-fried in a light and crispy batter.

To be fair, this was not an easy recipe. Opening the flowers, snipping out the stamens and then piping the ricotta cheese mixture in was all quite fiddly. I am still quite new to deep-frying, so that was also a little stressful. The outcome, though, was absolutely worth every minute and every bit of fuss.

The contrast in textures was spot on - the batter light but with a good crunch contrasted beautifully with the creamy, warm cheese. The chilli and mint provided a bit of bang and the courgette flowers were the vessel that brought it all together. Wow!

If you did want to make this for an impressive dinner-party starter, the courgettes and batter could both be prepared in advance, leaving only the 'dunking' and frying to be done last minute. The leftover ricotta mixture was also lovely on crackers, so little treat for the cook!

Crispy courgette flowers stuffed with ricotta and mint
From Jamie at Home
Serves 4 (we made half)

200g good quality crumbly ricotta cheese
pinch of ground nutmeg
small handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese
grated zest of 1 lemon
small bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked and finely chopped
1-2 fresh red chillies, halved, deseeded and very finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
200g self-raising flour
350ml decent white wine or sparkling water
8 courgette flowers, with courgettes still attached
vegetable oil
optional: a small piece of potato, peeled
optional: a few sprigs of parsley (highly recommended)
2 lemons, halved

Beat the ricotta in a bowl with the nutmeg, parmesan, lemon zest and most of the chopped mint and chilli. Season carefully to taste.

To make a lovely light batter, put the flour into a mixing bowl with a good pinch of salt. Pour in the white wine and whisk until thick and smooth. At this point the consistency of the batter should be like double cream or, if you dip your finger in, it should stick to your finger and nicely coat it. It it's too thin, add a bit more flour; if it's too thick, add a little more wine.

Open the courgette flowers up gently, keeping them attached to the courgettes, and snip off the pointed stamen inside because these taste bitter. Give the flowers a gentle rinse if you like.

With a teaspoon, carefully fill each flower with the ricotta mixture. Or, as Jamie prefers to do (me too!), spoon the ricotta into the corner of a sandwich bag. Snip 1cm off the corner and use this as a makeshift piping bag to gently squeeze the filling into each flower, until just full. Carefully press the flowers back together around the mixture to seal it in. Then put the flowers to one side (the leftover ricotta can be smeared on hot crostini as a snack).

Now for the deep-frying bit. Have tongs ready for lifting the flowers out of the oil, and a plate with a double layer of kitchen paper on it for draining. Pour the oil into a deep fat fryer or large deep saucepan so it is about 12cm deep. Heat it up to 180 degrees or, if using a saucepan, put in the piece of potato. As soon as the potato turns golden, floats to the surface and starts to sizzle, the oil is just about the right temperature. Remove the potato from the pan.

One by one, dip the courgettes with their ricotta-stuffed flowers into the batter, making sure they are completely covered, and gently let any excess drip off. Carefully release them, away from you, into the hot oil. Quickly batter another one or two flowers and any parsley leaves - but don't crowd the pan too much otherwise they'll stick together. Fry until golden and crisp all over, then lift them out of the oil and drain on the kitchen paper. Remove to a plate or board and sprinkle with a good pinch of salt and the remaining chilli and mint. Serve with half a lemon to squeeze over. Eat them quick!

The not-so-humble potato

The Jersey Royal potato is all the rage in England at the moment. It is a type of potato only grown in Jersey in the UK, its uniqueness confirmed by being one of the few vegetables in the UK to have PDO (Protection of Designation of Origin) status.

We tried them for the first time about a week ago with pan-fried salmon and English asparagus and almost immediately went back for more, this time for a Jersey Royal, Leek and Goat's Cheese Frittata.

Who knew a potato could taste so good and so different from others of its kind? The Jersey Royals had a creamy texture and real flavour. They truly shone in both of these dishes. Jersey Royals apparently last for only a few short months, so I can see some intensive potato eating in our immediate future . . .

Definitely a defining moment in our English culinary adventures!


Chargrilled Salmon with asparagus in a lime vinaigrette
From Delicious magazine - June 2009
Serves 4

Even apart from the amazing potatoes, this was a really delicious dish. Quite quick and easy to make (takes about 30 minutes), but really fresh and packed with flavour. Importantly though - not too much flavour! I was a bit worried about the ingredients in the vinaigrette being overwhelmingly strong, but mixed together and then with the asparagus and the potatoes (I threw everything in the dressing), it mellowed beautifully.

500g new potatoes, halved (Jersey Royals if you can get them)
4 x 125g salmon fillets, with skin
Olive oil
250g asparagus, halved lengthways and cut into 3cm lengths
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Grated zest and juice of 1/2 lime
2 tbsp drained capers, chopped
1 small garlic clove, crushed
1 tbsp finely chopped flatleaf parsley
1 tbsp finely chopped tarragon

1. Cook the potatoes in a pan of boiling salted water until tender. Drain and return to the pan to keep warm.

2. Heat a griddle pan over a medium-high heat. Rub the salmon fillets with oil and season. Cook skin-side down for 3-4 minutes until crisp. Turn and cook for a further 2-3 minutes or until just cooked.

3. Meanwhile, cook the asparagus in a pan of boiling salted water for 1-2 minutes until tender. Drain, refresh in cold water, then toss with the remaining ingredients and season.

4. Divide the salmon among plates, top with the asparagus mixture and serve with the potatoes.


Jersey Royal, Leek and Goat's Cheese Frittata with tomato vinaigrette
From Delicious - June 2009
Serves 4

350g Jersey Royal or new potatoes, scrubbed
30g butter
3 tbsp sunflower oil
200g young, thin leeks, sliced and washed
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
6 large free-range eggs, beaten
150g chevre blanc goat's cheese, skinned and crumbled

For the Tomato Vinaigrette
4 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed
250g tomatoes, chopped and cored
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp white wine vinegar

1. For the vinaigrette, heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a pan and add the garlic. When it starts to sizzle, stir and add the tomatoes and sugar. Season well and cook for 4 minutes over a high heat.

2. Cool slightly, then transfer to a food processor and whizz to a puree. Pass through a sieve set over a bowl. Whisk in the vinegar and the remaining olive oil. Set aside.

3. Cook the potatoes in a pan of boiling salted water for 10-20 minutes, depending on their size. Drain, then slice. In a large ovenproof frying pan (about 24cm), melt the butter with the oil over a medium heat. Add the leeks and cook until softened. Mix in the potatoes.

4. Preheat the grill to high. Mix the parsley into the eggs and season. Pour over the leeks and potatoes, then crumble over the cheese. Cook for 4 minutes over a medium heat until it firms up around the sides. Grill for 3 minutes until puffed up. Serve hot or cold with the vinaigrette.

Baked Cauliflower and Broccoli Cannelloni

I have been trying to cook more vegetarian food lately. Not for any great political or health reason, but just because it seems like a good thing to do and a way to create more variety in what we eat.

I remembered Jamie Oliver cooking this Incredible Baked Cauliflower and Broccoli Cannelloni on the Jamie at Home TV series and as he is wont to do, he raved about how much everyone - meat eaters included - would love this dish. I must admit, if it wasn't a JO recipe (his recipes are consistently good), I doubt I would ever have tried this. I mean, mushed up cauliflower and broccoli? Doesn't really jump out at you, does it!

But Jamie comes through again, ever reliable. It was a reasonably easy, if somewhat time-consuming dish to make, but as it was a Sunday, I enjoyed pottering around the kitchen to create a really yummy end result.

The broccoli and cauliflower are boiled and then pan-fried for about 20 minutes with lots of garlic, anchovies (okay, not 100% vegetarian), chillies and thyme.


When they are soft, they are mashed up and cooled and then piped into cannelloni tubes. The mixture doesn't look particularly good, but was actually quite tasty. It would probably make a nice dip or spread on crostini at this stage.

The sauces are passata, plus a 'quick white sauce' of creme fraiche and parmesan. A whole bunch of basil goes on top with lots of mozzarella and more parmesan before it is all baked into a steaming, cheesy, enormous dish of pasta. It is quite funny - cauliflower and broccoli are hardly the most flavoursome ingredients in the world, so you get the impression that everything else has been chosen to pack as much flavour in as possible. Oh, did I mention it is probably the most fattening dish I've made in a while with all that cheese and creme fraiche?

But never mind that, it was super tasty, quite unusual and made so much, that we were eating it for days! I served it with watercress dressed in lemon juice and olive oil, which also deserves a mention. Watercress is another one of those very British ingredients I read about all the time and my fruit & vegie shop finally had some. Bit disappointing after all the hype, actually - just tasted like random salad leaf. You win some, you lose some . . .

Incredible Baked Cauliflower and Broccoli Cannelloni
From Jamie at Home
Serves 4 to 6 (or 2 for a very long time!)

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
500g broccoli, washed, florets and stalks chopped
500g white cauliflower, washed, florets and stalks chopped
olive oil
7 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
a small bunch of fresh thyme, leaves picked
25g tin of best quality anchovies in oil, drained and chopped, oil reserved
2-3 small dried chillies, crumbled
500ml passata
red wine vinegar
500ml creme fraiche
200g Parmesan cheese, finely grated
16 cannelloni tubes
a small bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked
200g mozzarella cheese
extra virgin olive oil
salad leaves (Jamie says rocket, we used watercress)
1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 190C. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and drop in the chopped broccoli and cauliflower. Boil for 5 to 6 minutes, until cooked, then drain in a colander, reserving the cooking water.

Heat a wide saucepan, pour in a couple of good glugs of olive oil and add the garlic. Fry for a few seconds, then add the thyme leaves, anchovies, anchovy oil and chillies and continue frying for a few seconds more before adding the cooked broccoli and cauliflower with around 4 tablespoons of the reserved cooking water. Stir everything together, put a lid on the pan leaving a little gap, and cook slowly for 15 to 20 minutes, sitrring regularly. Remove the lid for the last 5 minutes to let the moisture evaporate, then use a potato mashed to crush the veg. Take the saucepan off the heat, taste the vegetables and season carefully with salt and pepper.

Spread the mixture on a baking tray to cool. Meanwhile, get yourself another baking dish or roasting tray (the right size for fitting the cannelloni tubes snugly side by side - test this by actually laying the tubes into the dish, then remove them and put to one side) and pour in the passata with a pinch of salt and a swig of red wine vinegar.

Now, to make a really quick and easy white sauce, mix the creme fraiche with half the Parmesan, a sprinkling of salt and pepper and a little of the reserved cooking water to thin it down.

Spoon your cooled broccoli and cauliflower mixture into a large sandwich bag and cut off the corner. Twist the top of the bag and squeeze it to pipe the filling into the cannelloni tubes. Fill the tubes up and place then in a single layer on top of the passata. Lay the basil leaves over the cannelloni and spoon the white sauce evenly over the top. Season with black pepper, sprinkle over the remaining Parmesan and tear over the mozzarella. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until golden and bubbling on top.

Dress the salad leaves with a squeeze of lemon juice and about three times as much extra virgin olive oil. Serve the cannelloni with the salad (Jamie suggests crusty bread as well, but we didn't need it).

Homemade Dim Sum

The Asian food cravings continue and this time I decided to try and make my own Dim Sum. I found an Asian supermarket on Seven Sisters Road recently - about 20 minutes walk away, so close enough to support any significant Asian food shopping requirements.

My Dim Sum menu was:

• Prawn and chilli potsticker dumplings
• Pork potsticker dumplings
• Chilli salt squid
• Asian vegetables in oyster sauce

I have never made dumplings before, so it was a 'fingers-crossed' dish, but both turned out well. It was a bit time-consuming to make, but my always helpful kitchen hand and I managed to make about 30 odd dumplings without really knowing what we were doing and amazingly, they all held together! The dumplings are fried for a couple of minutes (the 'potsticker' part of the name) and then effectively steamed in the frying pan with a bit of water until cooked through. This is such a great way of cooking dumplings as you get a real contrast of textures - crispy on one side and soft and chewy on the other. You also don't need any fancy equipment, although this meal did necessitate the use of literally every pan and plate we own!

The dumplings tasted pretty authentic, I think! The prawn dumplings benefited from the strong flavour of the coriander, so stood out more than the pork dumplings, but both were really enjoyable.


The chilli salt squid was also a new one for me. I have always been a bit nervous about deep-frying, but after a successful first attempt with some corn fritters a few weeks ago, I was excited to give this a try. It was quite a simple recipe - squid coated in seasoned cornflour, deep-fried and tossed with salt, pepper, chilli, coriander, spring onion and fried garlic. But it was absolutely delicious. I really like calamari and this was fresh and full of flavour with a really great texture. My only complaint is that it got a bit cold while cooking the squid in batches.

Finally, in the spirit of eating the occasional vegetable, I used a Nigel Slater recipe for asian vegetables in oyster sauce. This was the easy part of the meal with the chinese broccoli and pak choy boiled and mixed into a sauce of sauteed garlic and ginger with oyster sauce. Simple, but tasty. The only problem was that the leaves were full of water, so after they were drained and the sauce mixed in, heaps more water came out and diluted the sauce. Next time, more emphasis on draining!

I am really quite proud of this meal - a few new techniques, lots going on and some serious timing concerns, but it all turned out pretty well. Dim Sum (or Yum Cha) is probably one of those things that you're just better off going out for, but it is nice to know you can do it yourself, if you want to (if you can be bothered!).

Prawn and Chilli potsticker dumplings
New Entertaining (Donna Hay)
This recipe makes 30 dumplings - I made half.

500g green (raw) prawn meat, finely chopped
2 shallots, chopped
1 tablespoon shredded galangal or ginger
1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves
1 tablespoon chilli jam (I used sweet chilli sauce)
2 tablespoons Chinese cooking wine
1 tablespoon soy sauce
30 round wonton wrappers
1 tablespoon cornflour
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup vegetable or fish stock (I just used water)

Combine prawns, shallots, galangal, coriander, chilli jam, wine and soy sauce in a bowl. Place 1 tablespoon of mixture onto each wonton wrapper. Mix cornflour and water to for a smooth paste and brush edges of wonton wrapper with paste. Fold wrapper in half, gather up edges like a fan and squeeze with fingertips to enclose filling.

Heat oil in a frypan over high heat. Add dumplings and fry bases until they are golden. Add stock (or water) and cover frypan. Allow dumplings to steam in stock for 3-4 minutes or until tender. Remove lid and allow stock to evaporate. Ensure bases of dumplings are crisp. Remove dumplings from pan and serve immediately with extra chilli jam.

Asparagus Dip

I really do love the seasonality of food in the UK. It seems every week there is a new food-to-be-eating-right-now and the food to be eating right now is asparagus. Well specifically English asparagus, but beggars can't be choosers.

I came across this recipe for asparagus dip and it seemed a good way to embrace the food of the minute. It was actually a really nice, healthy starter and the asparagus was most certainly star of the show. I am keeping an eye out for English asparagus, so there maybe more asparagus in the future.

Asparagus Dip
For the dip:

• 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 bundle asparagus
• 6 tbsp Greek-style yoghurt
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

For dipping:

• 2 bundles of British asparagus for dipping

1. Snap the woody ends off all 3 bundles of asparagus and wash in a sink full of cold water to remove any soil and grit.
2. Steam for approximately 8 - 10 minutes until tender.
3. Set aside 2 bundles for dipping.
4. Place a single bundle into a blender with the chopped garlic, yoghurt and salt and pepper. Blend until smooth.
5. Serve with the 2 bundles of asparagus spears.

Braised artichoke pasta

If the magazines have been inundating me with roast lamb recipes, it seems the bloggers choice for must-cook food of the moment is artichokes. In the last few weeks, I have read about artichokes here, here and here, among others. And then there was the posting from Smitten Kitchen for Artichokes braised in lemon and olive oil. Smitten Kitchen appears to be becoming my favourite source of new and unusual recipes. Her style of writing and photography is readable, pleasant to look at, passionate and practical and this recipe certainly demonstrates those characteristics.

So artichokes had been on my mind and when I saw a pile at the fruit and vegie store on Saturday, I was vaguely interested. They were pretty second hand looking - if Deb thought hers were rough, they had nothing on these - but they offered them to me for free (I did say they weren't great!), so it seemed a good opportunity to practice on this intimidating and complicated vegetable.

I have only ever tried to cook an artichoke once before and it was a dismal failure - I had no idea what I was doing and ended up throwing the artichoke away. Deb's pictures were so helpful and the method of cooking them first and then removing the choke made life much easier. Still, we were surprised at how much of the artichoke is thrown away. We had quite a production line going between us, but this is still a high-maintenance vegetable - it took nearly two hours to cook this. Our lunch of artichoke pasta was quite late in the end!

And they are lovely, very mild flavoured and absolutely not remotely similar to bought artichokes. Unfortunately, the effort to result ratio is a little distorted, so I don't think I would do this all that often.

Baked cannellini beans

I was saying recently that I rarely buy cookbooks in London, but in fact on the day I bought 'Beef', my parents also bought us The London Cookbook as a present, so it was a two-cookbook day. Bit naughty!

I think this will be a great book though - a souvenir of our time (i.e. eating) in London, plus some interesting new London foodie things to do as well as a lot of great recipes. One of the things that immediately caught my eye was the Baked Cannellini Beans.

Last year, I did something I rarely do. I made up my own recipe for homemade baked beans. They were really good. Unfortunately, I didn't write down what I did and now those beans have become the stuff of legend that no beans can compete with.


The Baked Cannellini Beans from The London Cookbook were really tasty served with toasted turkish bread, but did need lots of seasoning. I think maybe more bacon next time and perhaps served with sausages or pork chops would be good.

Baked Cannellini Beans (From The London Cookbook)
Serves 6-8

350g dried cannellini beans, soaked in cold water overnight
2-3 sage leaves
2 tbsp olive oil
1 bay leaf
a strip of pancetta, rind trimmed, chopped into small chunks (I used 3 rashers of streaky bacon, but it needed more)
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 celery stick, chopped
1 x 450g can chopped tomatoes
3 tbsp tomato puree
400ml hot water
a handful of parsley, finely chopped
1/2 tsp sugar
salt and freshly ground pepper

Drain the soaked cannellini beans and place in a large saucepan. Add the sage leaves and enough cold water to generously cover. Bring to the boil. Boil for 1 hour, checking now and then in case the water needs topping up, until the beans are tender; drain, discarding the sage leaves.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-based casserole dish. Add the bay leaf, pancetta/bacon, onion, garlic and celery. Fry, stirring, over a medium heat until the onion is softened. Add the chopped tomatoes, mixing well.

Stir the tomato puree into the hot water and add to the casserole, along with parsley and sugar. Season generously with salt and freshly ground pepper. Mix in the cannellini beans and bring to the boil.

Cover the casserole and cook in the oven for 30 minutes. Serve.

Scrambled eggs with feta and spinach

Some leftover eggs and feta inspired this creamy scrambled eggs with feta and spinach for brunch this morning. With a little bit of cream in the eggs and served on toasted Poilane sourdough bread, this was very tasty indeed!

Homemade chutney

One of the things I love about being in London in Winter is that the cold weather does inspire you to cook things that take a long time. Having the stove on for hours helps to heat the flat and as we are spending so much time in the flat, you can afford to hang around while a big pot bubbles on the stove for 2 or 3 hours.

So I've been thinking about making a chutney now for a few weeks. It does sound terribly English, doesn't it! I've been collecting jars as we finish using them and finally a couple of weeks ago, started looking for a recipe. There are a lot of different variations, so the choice was tricky. In the end, I chose one that suggested you could eat the chutney pretty much straight away, but it would also keep. A lot of them recommended storing the chutney for 1-3 months before eating it. I couldn't wait that long!

So on that basis - and because it did sound good - I chose this Pear and Apple chutney from the UKTV food website. Spread out on the bench, it did seem to be quite a lot of ingredients and had probably added up to 10 pounds, so I was hoping it turned out okay! A lot of chopping later, my biggest pot was full to the brim with lovely looking ingredients - how could all these ingredients result in something that wasn't good?? It took about an hour to come to a simmer (and we gave up and turned up the heat and put on a lid to get it there!) and then let it simmer for an hour and a half. It was still quite liquid-y after this time, but otherwise tasted good. The chutney made six jars full of varying sizes as well as a good-sized portion that we had for dinner with some honey-roasted ham, provolone cheese, Poilane sourdough bread, grapes and red wine. A delicious version of a ploughmans. Lucky we liked it, because it made a lot! I think there is something to the bitey cheddar with chutney, so along with smoked ham, I think that will be the next ploughmans . . . and the one after . . . and the one after . . .