Cannellini and Coppa salad

I followed this one from Nigel, and was a little disappointed. The flavours just didn't quite mesh the way I expected them to. It's possible that we added way too much spinach, but his portion sizes were just tiny, and I knew we'd be hungry, so I added eight handfuls instead of four. Or maybe we should have used watercress instead, which would have had a lot more flavour. I also found that the olives were so big that we ended up eating them individually, and they rather overwhelmed the subtle cannelloni and herbs. I've added a few suggestions to modify the original recipe, especially the dressing, which was much weaker than it should have been. I think the whole thing would work better with tomatoes instead of olives; maybe I'll try that in future. Oh and croutons are very good with this, preferably toasted with garlic since there's none in the dressing.

Ingredients:

This does NOT look like the version in Kitchen Diaries.

• a tin of cannellini beans
• a bag of mixed spinach, watercress and other flavourful leaves
• a large handful of basil leaves
• 75g thinly sliced coppa or prosciutto
• a handful of black olives, pitted and quartered, or, a handful of cherry tomatoes, pitted and quartered
• 6 tbsp olive oil
• 4 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp dijon mustard
• 1 tsp grain mustard
• 2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves

Drain the beans, wash and spin the salad and basil leaves, and shake up all the dressing ingredients. Nigel suggests marinading the olives in the dressing but I found it made absolutely no difference since olives are so strongly-flavoured anyway. I'd just toss the whole lot together and top with croutons. Should be better with the mods :)

Cold Noodle and Tomato Salad

Yesterday was almost unbearably hot and muggy. The forecast promised a thunderstorm to break the tension, but it failed to materialise. My planned meal of sweet and sour pork seemed far too heavy and I decided to make another of Nigel Slater's salads from last Sunday's Observer Food Monthly. I'm not usually a fan of noodle or pasta salads but this one converted me. I was also a little nervous about not using any oil at all in the dressing; I usually use extra-virgin rapeseed oil for Asian salads but I followed instructions and left it out. This might have improved things by ensuring that the noodles were not at all slimy, instead absorbing the tangy dressing and providing a nice soft contrast against the juicy vegetables.

Once again we correctly guessed that Nigel's estimate of four servings would only work for tiny people with no appetite, so we made and ate the full recipe between two of us, and picked up a couple of spicy pakoras from the local Asian store for good measure. It's also impossible to buy sprouted seeds at the moment, thanks to the German E Coli scare. So we used sugar snap peas and it was just as good. And we substituted baby broad beans for peas as I love them, and the season will end be over soon.

Ingredients:

• 60g rice vermicelli
• 100 g small broad beans, shelled weight
• 125g cherry tomatoes
• a large handful of sprouted seeds or sugar snap peas
• 1 red pepper
• half a cucumber
• 100g salted, roasted cashews or peanuts
• a small bunch of coriander
• 4 sprigs of mint
• juice of a lime
• 3 tbsp nam pla (Thai fish sauce)
• 1 tsp caster sugar

Cover the vermicelli in boiling water and soak for 2 minutes, or as according to the packet instructions. Drain and run under cold water, then leave to drain again. Pod the broad beans and simmer for 4-5 minutes, until tender, then drain. Finely slice the sugar-snap peas and halve the cherry tomatoes. Peel and deseed the cumber, then dice. Deseed the pepper and finely slice. Finely chop the herbs, then combine all of the ingredients in a big salad bowl and toss very thoroughly. Chill for half an hour before serving.

Smoked Mackerel Salad

This was a quick meal thrown together after a nice walk in the sunshine. Tasty and easy to leave until the end of the week, as the vacuum-packed smoked mackerel fillets keep very well in the refrigerator.

Ingredients:

• One pack of mackerel fillets (usually 2-4 large pieces)
• 8-10 baby new potatoes
• lettuce or other salad leaves
• handful of parsley
• a handful of cherry tomatoes
• 1 tbsp capers
• 2 tbsp crème fraîche
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar

Scrub and simmer the potatoes until just tender, about 15 minutes. Skin and tear the mackerel fillets into smaller pieces. Finely chop the parsley, quarter the cherry tomatoes, wash and roughly chop the lettuce leaves, and add to a salad bowl with the mackerel and cooked potatoes. Shake the rest of the ingredients in a jam jar and pour over, then toss to combine.

Artichoke and Soft-boiled Egg Salad

Apologies for the lack of updates but I have been in Croatia, first at a conference and then for a short holiday! I was hoping to write a long post about Croatian food, but while it was all very fresh and delicious, the Northern Dalmatian cuisine was not particularly innovative or exciting. Mostly it was grilled fish or squid served with a simple salad, and potatoes or fries, or pizza with any sort of random topping - we even had one with kidney beans!

So when we returned we'd had that typical holiday experience where the only vegetables you've managed to eat for a week are the side salads, and you start to feel just a teensy bit scurvy. So we had a big salad of all sorts of tasty things, with a strong storecupboard emphasis as we're preparing to move house!

Ingredients:

• a 400g tin of artichoke hearts
• 10-12 baby plum tomatoes
• 200g fine green beans
• a large handful of basil
• 5-6 baby new potatoes
• 2-3 eggs
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 tsp dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp red or white wine vinegar

Set the tin draining in the sink. Scrub the potatoes and simmer gently for 15 minutes until tender. Get a pan of water simmering and then lower the eggs into it, and cover. Count out one minute on a timer, and then remove the pan from the heat and leave for a further seven minutes, after which you should drain the eggs and cool them, then peel and slice into quarters. (If I could cook the eggs at exactly 57 C as per Molecular Gastronomy, I would!) 

Cut the beans into bite-size pieces and blanch in boiling water for a few minutes, until bright green and sweet, but not soggy. Slice the tomatoes into halves and the artichoke hearts into quarters, and put in a large salad bowl. Tear in the basil. Add the potatoes and cooked beans, and season with salt and pepper. Combine the dressing ingredients in a jar, then pour almost all of it over the salad, then toss well. Lay the soft-boiled egg quarters on top and add the rest of the dressing.

The Special Sandwich

This has been my favourite sandwich since I was a tiny child. I was very set in my ways and would always have tomato-and-cream-cheese or cucumber-and-cream-cheese at school, but at the weekend when I ate lunch with my parents, I would absolutely demand 'the special sandwich'. I now use cheddar instead of Monteray Jack; I'm sure if I could source the latter here in the UK, I'd be instantly transported back to the kitchen in Houston two decades ago.

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of granary or wholemeal bread, preferably home-made
• 2 tbsp (approx) of Helmann's mayonnaise
• 4-5 slices of pastrami
• a handful of grated cheddar cheese
• 3 fluffy leaves of lettuce, washed and spun

Spread the mayonnaise over one side each of the bread slices (not all on one side!). Fold the pastrami slices into attractive fluffy wiggles on one piece of bread, so they are well aerated - this gives the sandwich more air and I reckon it makes it taste even better. Add the grated cheese, and then the lettuce leaves, and then the other slice of bread. Slice diagonally (sorry, Doug!) and serve with cherry tomatoes.

The greatest sandwich of all time.

Trout in Parchment

I didn't feel like anything too heavy tonight, but I did want something nutritious to help me recover from the last traces of my cold. The lovely SO popped by the supermarket on the way home and the freshest fish on the counter were some rainbow trout. Eschewing my usual pan-fry, I decided to try roasting them in parchment, which gets you the high temperature of roasting combined with the moisture-retention of steaming. Simple flavours were enough tonight, with tomatoes and lemons providing a pleasing acidity to contrast the sweet pink flesh. We served the trout with Boulangère potatoes (another new dish for me) and some crisp steamed broccoli.

Ingredients:

• 2 fresh rainbow trout, gutted, scaled and cleaned
• a small vine of cherry tomatoes (10-12)
• half a lemon, sliced
• a few tbsp of chopped rosemary leaves
• white wine

Preheat the oven to 170 C. Line a roasting tin or tray with a big piece of baking parchment. Place the rainbow trout on it, and make a few deep incisions on the fattest parts of the flesh. Tuck the cherry tomatoes around the trout, and the lemon slices on top. Scatter over the rosemary leaves and splash in a half-glass of white wine - you can drink the other half...! Scrunch the paper closed over the fish, tucking it underneath if you need to. Don't worry if you pierce it, just wet the edges and stick it back together. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the eyes of the trout are opaque and the flesh is tender.

Meatballs and Tomato Sauce

Yesterday's meal still needs a bit of refinement before I post it. I got it from the Observer Food Monthly and it was ok... just a bit bland. I did everything I could to jazz it up but, meh. By contrast the meal I cooked for my fiancée was good, maybe a bit fiddly, but I think my execution of it was poor. So a couple to work on again another time.

In the meantime, here's a classic that simply works. The meatball recipe is foolproof and makes loads of lovely tasty meatballs that freeze well, and you can vary the flavourings with whatever you have to hand or feel like. My suggestions would be:

• pork, ginger and chilli
• lamb and mint
• beef and mustard
• lamb, beef and rosemary
• chicken and lemongrass

The recipe below is a simple generic Italian style that works with any pasta sauce; I actually made a big batch a few days ago and just took 10 out of the freezer this morning. My family loves to layer them in a deep casserole dish with cooked pasta, tomato sauce, ricotta cheese and wilted spinach, then top with cheese and bake for half an hour. As a fast weekday meal after walking out to vote, tonight we served them simply with tomato sauce and pasta - and I felt like peas, so I made peas!

Ingredients:

For the meatballs:

Meatballs and tomato sauce

• 3-4 slices stale bread
• a good chunk of parmesan
• a small bunch of parsley
• 500g beef mince
• 500g pork mince
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• milk

For the tomato sauce:

• 1 red onion
• 1 large clove of garlic
• a splash of red wine
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp mixed herbs
• 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

Meatballs fresh from
the oven

Whiz the bread in a food processor in batches until it forms medium-coarse breadcrumbs, removing each batch to a very large mixing bowl as it is done. To one or two of the batches, add the leaves of the parsley and grate in the chunk of parmesan. Put the pork and beef mince directly into the mixing bowl - blending them would give you a very finely minced, bland meatball. Add the egg and season well with black pepper.

Using your hands, combine the ingredients; you're aiming for a texture where the mixture sticks well to itself but not to the sides of the bowl. If your bread is very stale, you may need to add a tablespoon or so of milk, but be careful not to make the mixture sloppy. When the mixture is well-combined, but not completely homogeneous, form meatballs of your desired size. I like them large, rather than bite-sized; if you like them small, make sure to reduce the cooking time later.

From here you can either fry the meatballs in batches, which can take awhile if you're making a large batch, or you can roast them in a 220 C oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown on all sides. Allow them to cool if freezing, or use straight away with, for example, the tomato sauce:

Finely chop the red onion and gently fry it in a deep-sided frying pan until translucent and beginning to colour. Crush in the clove of garlic and cook for a further minute, stirring halfway to make sure it doesn't stick. Pour in a splash of red wine and deglaze the pan, then add the rest of the ingredients and stir well. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes, checking that the mixture doesn't stick to the bottom. If it appears watery, remove the lid and allow the steam to escape; if it is very dry then add a splash of hot water. For the last two minutes, add the meatballs and allow them to heat through in the sauce (or five minutes if cooking from chilled). Serve with a long pasta like tagliatelle or spaghetti, torn basil, and plenty of parmesan cheese at the table.

Pasta Primavera

A lovely meal to cook in the spring and adapt throughout the season, this relies on a good assortment of fresh vegetables, a few storecupboard tricks and a piquant cherry tomato sauce. Our family adaptation is to add a little seafood - usually some smoked or boiled prawns, or a few flakes of smoked fish, or in this case some succulent sauteed scallops. This serves six hungry people- you can see my dad getting ready to tuck in :)

Ingredients:

• 1 kg fresh spring vegetables like baby sweetcorn, sprouting broccoli, green beans, asparagus, shelled broad beans, peas etc
• half a pack of dried porcini mushrooms
• 200g pine nuts
• 2-3 punnets of cherry tomatoes
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
• 1-2 dried chillies
• Enough fresh linguine for 6
• 6-12 large fresh scallops
• Parmesan cheese

Steam or parboil the vegetables until blanched and crisp. Cover the mushrooms in boiling water and a plate, and soak for 20 minutes. Toast the pine nuts over a low to moderate heat in a non-stick frying pan, until they are golden brown.

Slice half of the cherry tomatoes in half and the rest into quarters. Finely chop the chilli(es) and add with the garlic into a few tbsp of hot olive oil in a deep frying pan, and add the quartered cherry tomatoes thirty seconds later. Allow the tomatoes to collapse gently, over about five minutes, then add the halved cherry tomatoes and cook for a further five minutes. (Two different cuts of tomatoes will give the sauce more texture.)

Set the pasta on to a rolling boil in a slightly salted water. Melt together a tbsp of olive oil and a small slice of butter in another frying pan, and when it is hot and beginning to go gold, add the scallops. Sautee for two minutes on each side, until golden brown. Drain the linguine and toss with the vegetables and plenty of grated Parmesan, seasoning with a good grinding of black pepper. Serve in a large dish topped with scallops, alongside small bowls of spicy tomato sauce for people to add, and more Parmesan if desired.

Guest Dish: Tray-Baked Chicken and Crushed Pots

This weekend we visited a friend of ours from our college days in Cambridge, and his lovely girlfriend. On the Friday night, I was totally zonked from driving for four hours during one of the busiest times of year, so couldn't help make any dinner. But it was no problem; he prepared this meal single-handedly in about half an hour, and it was absolutely delicious. I think it's a Jamie Oliver recipe; the SO guessed immediately because of the presence of cherry tomatoes. I've reconstructed the recipe from the dish itself, and portioned it for two.

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts
• 4-6 slices of streaky bacon
• a handful of cherry tomatoes on the vine
• fresh tarragon, thyme and rosemary
• a few cloves of garlic
• 4-6 medium waxy potatoes
• 2-3 spring onions
• a big bag or bunch of fresh spinach
• a few tbsp crème fraîche

Preheat your grill to a high setting. Wrap the bacon around the chicken and in a non-stick pan, sear it quickly to seal the flesh. Place in a wide casserole dish or baking tray, add the cherry tomatoes on the vine, the fresh tarragon and thyme, crush in the garlic, and toss with a little olive oil. Grill for 10 minutes each side, until the bacon is crisp and the chicken is cooked through.

Meanwhile, parboil the whole potatoes for about 5 minutes, until just beginning to show tenderness. Sautee them whole with the rosemary, in olive oil over a moderate heat, and crush them downward with a potato-masher to break them into flattened ovoids. Turn once or twice so that you get plenty of good crispy bits.

Roughly chop the spring onions and sautee in a little olive oil. Rinse the spinach, add to the spring onions, cover and cook it briefly in its own juices. Remove, squeeze out the water, return to the pan, stir through the crème fraîche and heat through. Dash over a grating of nutmeg and season to taste.