Summer Swedish Balcony Salad

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This morning it was raining - tipping it down. A soggy July, hot on the heels of one of the wettest Junes on record! Then this afternoon the clouds parted and out came the sun. After work I headed to the park to take it in. On getting home I knocked up this quick, Swedish inspired salad with the fridge contents, and some fresh pickings from the balcony. The oak leaf lettuce, dill, parsley, and sprouts - are all the fruits of my semi attentive labour

Ingredients

Oak leaf Lettuce

Dill - finely chopped

Parsley - finely chopped

1/3 cucumber - seeded and diced

2 beetroots - diced

1 spring onion - thinly sliced

some fennel seeds

Some crumbled feta

Poppy seeds

a squeeze of lemon juice

a dollop of good olive oil

a drizzle of honey

To Serve - a hard boiled egg and some sprouted mung beans

Method

Mix the lemon juice, olive oil and honey in a small dish until blended. Put the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl, drizzle over the dressing and toss. Top with sprout and boiled egg on the side. Hardly a recipe to change the world, but I had to start back somewhere.

Celeriac & Potato Rosti

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Another Brunch Recipe

It appears that of late I'm writing a lot of brunch recipes. Maybe that seems more romantic than calling them light dinners for one - which is what they are!

So celeriac is a pretty ugly vegetable, maybe that's why I have never cooked with it much. Generally it's treated in a similar manner to a potato. That's where the idea came for combining the two in a lovely rosti.

I won't lie this fell apart slightly when I flipped it over - still tastes great and works really nicely with the poached egg and baby rocket from my balcony.

Ingredients - Serves 1

1/4 of a head of celeriac - outer skin removed and grated

2 small potatoes - grated

Pinch of thyme finely chopped

1 egg yolk

To Serve

baby spinach or rocket

1 poached egg

Method

Pop the grated potato and celeriac into a clean tea towel. Push it all into the centre and then cover with the teatowel. Give it a really good squeeze to push out the excess moisture. Put into a large bowl add the thyme, egg yolk and seasoning. Mix thoroughly.

Heat a small amount of olive oil over a medium heat in a non stick pan. Spoon the mixture onto the pan into whatever size you want. I think mine were however too large, making it harder to flip over. You want to keep them pretty thin so that they'll cook right through. Press down firmly with a spatula. Give them about 3-4 mins on each side until a rich golden brown.

Serve with a poached egg sitting on top of some fresh baby rocket or spinach. My secret to perfect poached eggs (well I'd say good not perfect) First really fresh eggs. Secondly when your water reaches a good strong boil, twirl the water in the pan to create a mini vortex. Pull the pan off the heat. Then gently slide the egg into the spinning water from a cup. The movement of the water will keep the egg white together in a natural shape and will stop it from spreading out and getting thin. Always drain the egg well on kitchen towel to avoid soggy bread/rosti.

Enjoy

Spicy Curly Veggie Fries with Mint & Chive Dip

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I discovered a nice new blog yesterday from fellow Dubliner, David - Kitchen 72, there are some nice recipes with a healthy bent. I read his recipe for carrot and feta salad with mint and harissa and decided that I would make this for my dinner. One hugely failed shopping trip later and I had half the ingredients - so I made this instead - it has carrots, harrisa and mint in too - same same but roasted!
 

Ingredients
Serves 2
2 Yams
1 Sweet potato
2 Large carrots (all cut into thin batons
1 Tablespoon of harissa
5 Cloves of garlic
Salt & pepper
A good dash of olive oil

For the dip (serves one)
2 Tablespoons of yogurt
A handful of chives (finely chopped)
A handful of mint (finely chopped)
A sprinkle of smoked paprika

Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 6. Toss all the fries ingredients well in a big baking tray - the thinner you can spread them apart from each other the crispier they’ll be. Bake on a high shelf for 45-50 minutes turning once or twice to ensure even crisping.
 
To make the sauce simply mix together the yogurt and herbs and sprinkle with a bit of paprika.  The spicy harissa is balanced out with the mint ad yogurt beautifully.
 
This dish would be great with baba-ganoush as a dip  - or roast breast of chicken on the bone  - or some grilled halloumi.

Grilled Endive with Cumin & Lavendar Oil

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While wandering around the Temple Bar Food Market on Saturday, I browsing through a selection of oils, when I came across a small bottle of cumin oil. Cumin is one of my favourite spices, so I was intrigued immediately. The friendly guy running the store seemed pleased I'd picked it up - as they had just got it in as new stock. He had given it to some food critics to sample duriing the week and said they'd been impressed. If it's good enough for the critics well then. I was a little scared when he described it as medicinal, though he assured me it was fine for cooking.

I paired it with some grilled endive - and let the few drops I applied do the talking.

Ingredients

3 heads of Endive/Chicory

a drizzle of olive oil

Salt and Pepper

3 drops of cumin oil per piece of endive

3/4 teaspoon of dark brown sugar

Lay the head of endive on your grill pan - drizzle with olive oil, add the drop of cumin oil and season well. Sprinkle over a little sugar. Pop under a hot grill for 10 minutes, turning once, the heads should be a rich caremlised brown on the edges, soft through witha little bit left in the centre.

I served these with some leek and bread pudding, and topped with a poached egg - delicious! There was a camera emergency while I was trying to cook this causing me to over cook the egg - damn - was still good though. Recipe for leek bread pudding to follow - now I'm going to bed!

Saffron Spiced Bulgur Pilaf with Pomegranate

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Anti-oxidant Rich and Quick

So I have a quick hour to prepare some dinner after work before nipping off to rehearsal. I’d also like some food for my lunch tomorrow, so decide to make up a kind of fancy bulgur pilaf. Something full on flavour and light on time. You can substitute the bulgur for cous-cous, quinoa or rice if you have them handy.

Ingredients
2 as a main - 3 as a side
1 cup of bulgur wheat
5 strands of saffron
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 small red onion - finely diced
2 small cloves of garlic crushed
2 teaspoons of poppy seeds
1 large handful of cashews
1 handful of raisins
1/2 pomegranate - seeds
big pinch of garam masala

In a pan - add one cupful of hot water to the saffron strands, crush the strands gently with a wooden spoon to release the colour. Leave to steep while you prepare the rest of your dinner.

Fry the onion, in a non-stick pan, for two minutes over a medium heat for a few minutes before adding in the garlic. Cook until the onion is translucent. Stir in the garam masala and cook for another minute. Stir in the bulgur wheat until coated with oil, then add in the saffron water, and then another cup of water. Bring to a simmer and cook for three minutes, add a little more water if this begins to stick.

Stir in the seeds, raisins and cashew nuts when you think it’s cooked. A big bunch of freshly chopped parsley would be great stirred in here, or some fresh coriander if you have some. Stir in the pomegranate seeds when off the heat, reserve a few more for garnish.

This makes a great side to serve alongside baked sweet potatoe falafel or hummus, or alongside some sticky ginger roast chicken legs. It would be a great little dish to bring along to a picnic or buffet lunch. The yellow from the saffron and the red little jewels of pomegranate seeds make it a very pretty side dish. I served it with some carrots that I parboiled and then glazed with honey and balsamic vinegar and popped under the grill to get rich and brown.

Almond Pesto

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With roasted vegetable pasta

Lu and I recently came across this new company, fruitfellas, who are better known as Rob and Gav, two lovely lads who for a mere 20 quid will deliver a box of gorgeous, colourful fruit and veg straight to your door. If like me you don't have a car, this is a godsend as it eliminates the need to carry tesco bags up a hill with your arm muscles straining and the bags cutting into your hands. Also, the produce is fresher & nicer than Tescos, and straight from the markets of Dublin to keep everything nice and local, kinda.

We got very excited about or box of fruit and veg, and, finding out that you can also get fresh herbs we ordered a silly amount of basil and flat leaf parsley. One week later, said herbs were still sitting around the kitchen looking slightly the worse for wear. 'We could make pesto if only we had some pine nuts' said Lu 'No way', I'm never eating pine nuts again, I'm too scared of getting Pine nut mouth' said I.

This pesto is subsequently made with almonds, which worked out perfectly. I don't know whey I never tried it before. Much cheaper than pine nuts too which I have seen at an aforementioned super market for €8 a bag!

Almond pesto

NB- I didn't really measure anything, so this is a kind of guesstimate recipe. Use your instincts about how pesto should look and you will be fine

Ingredients

1 big bunch Basil

1/2 a big bunch Flat leaf parsley

about a double handful of flaked almonds (i dunno, about 1 cup in American measurements)

about 100 ml olive oil

2 oz Parmesan cheese, finely grated

1 small clove garlic (or half a big clove)

salt and pepper

In a food processor, whizz up the herbs and almonds. Then add the olive oil slowly while you whizz until the mixture reaches your desired consistency (you know, pesto-like) stop whizzing and transfer to a bowl. Add the Parmesan and crushed garlic clove and mix with a fork. Add salt and pepper to taste, and more olive oil if you think it is too stiff.

We made a delicious pasta with this pesto.

We roasted some vine tomatoes, whole cloves of garlic(in their skins) red peppers and broccoli (that we had blanched in boiling water) all for about 40 mins. Then we cooked some pasta, threw in all the veg (took the skins of the roasted garlic first!) and a couple of big dollops of the pesto. Man was it good! It was so good I decided that Lucy and I are true culinary geniuses (genii?)

Speaking of which, I will be blogging a recipe from my new Julia Child cook book very, very soon, so get ready for butter, and lots of it.

Asparagus and Parma Ham

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The last spear of summer

There has been a lot of talk recently about summer being over and there having been nothing but Rain for 3 months and nothing to look forward to now but winter... blah blah blah...

I wont tolerate this kind of talk, for me, summer is never officially over until After Electric Picnic, so that means there is still almost a whole week to go!!

Whatever about summer, I'm pretty sure that Asparagus season is over, so i felt a bit naughty buying these asparagus (aspsragi?) in Aldi last week... I know, Aldi, terrible terrible person, food miles, child labour, pesticides, etc etc... Anyway, they looked great so I got them out of season. Feck it.

These spears are trimmed, steamed for about 4 mins and then wrapped around with a couple of slices of good parma ham. Then I drizzles them with olive oil, sprinkled with Parmesan shavings, and Voila, a sophisticated, unbelievably delicious starter in 5 minutes. And it looks impressive too!

Try it out, only one week until the end of summer, then it could be TOO LATE!!!!!

Wafer Thin Fennel Salad

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With the lovely fennel I bought at the market I found a great Nigel Slater recipe for a nice salad to go with the great sandwich we created. Like most of Nigel Slater's recipes it''s really simple and with good ingredients that's all you need.

1 bulb of fennel
Fresh Parsley coarsely chopped
Baby Sage leaves (the little ones) finely chopped
Good olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Slice the fennel as thinly as you possibly can. My Dad bought me a great selection of knifes several Christmases ago - and they are possibly one of the most useful things I own (that includes everything I own - possibly second to my computer - but it's a close call)

You can't beat a good chopper - anyway I digress

Scatter onto a plate - scatter over this the sage, salt & pepper, parsley, lemon juice and give a generous drizzle of olive oil. Unlike leafy salad this can stand a little time sitting with the dressing on it without getting limp and inedible.

Yum

1 minute Hummus

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1 minute is all it takes (if you have a hand-blender that is) and yes we did time it!

Hummus

1 can of chickpeas - retain some of the brine
2 cloves of garlic
Good quality olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Juice of one lemon
Dripping tablespoon of Tahini

Put all ingredients into blender - blend - viola - add in a little of the chickpea brine if it's too thick. Sprinkle with paprika and add more olive oil if desired to serve. I used to use a potato masher to do the blending, and produces a coarser hummus which has equal charms.

To serve - pittas, falafel, cous cous, bulgar and roasted veg, sandwiches, add to vinaigrette to make a tasty salad dressing, carrot sticks, celery salad.... any more suggestions welcome.

I made a very tasty variation a few months back - adding in some roasted red peppers and harissa (a North African hot red sauce or paste made from chili peppers & garlic) - possibly the best hummus ever, quite possibly. The variations are numerous and delicious - yum!