Beetroot & Celeriac Gratin

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This is a very simple recipe that I got from the Irish Times this weekend - by Domini Kemp. it sounded tasty and involved a turnip that had been hiding in my veg drawer for some time, so that was enough to convince me!

It's a nice simple dish that would be great served along side some roast beef and horseradish.

Ingredients

1 head of celeriac - finely sliced

2 small beetroot finely sliced

1/2 turnip - finely sliced

3 cloves of garlic crushed

300 mls of cream 

Some fresh nutmeg

Seasoning - quite a bit is neede

Layer all of your veg up in an oven proof dish. Mix together the cream, seasoning and the nutmeg. Pour this over the veg and bake at 150 or gas mark four for an hour and a half. Check that it's not drying out after about an hour - if it's getting too crispy - just pop the lid on.

The beetroot gives this dish a nice pink hue and celeriac a nice texture. It's covered in a thin crispy top which gives way to layers and layers of delicious creamy sauce and bright dashes of colour.

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.

Japanese Green Bean Salad

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> The pit-falls of food photography

Sometimes it’s just very hard to take a photo food, to convey how delicious it was, to keep on re-arranging your composition while your dinner is getting cold, it’s a stressful business at time. In an ideal world I guess I would make an extra dish, but most of the time you’re feeding yourself and your housemates, or friends, so it’s all going to get eaten straight away. So here’s my first attempt at a recipe with no photo at all, none - zip!

Lola cooked some baked potatoes which we had with some butter and sea salt and a big grind of black pepper. Perfect. Along side this we served a nice salad of blanched green beans with a Japanese dressing. A wonderfully simple supper, but sometimes, this is as good as a super complicated dinner using 35 ingredients. The dressing was so good I thought it was well worth sharing.

Ingredients

1/3 Teaspoon of wasabi powder (you can use pre-mixed also though it may not be as hot)

1/5 Teaspoons of dark soy sauce

2 Tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds

1/3 large clove of garlic

Milled pepper

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Blanch your bean sin boiling water for two minutes, until they take on a bright green colour. Drain and rinse under a cold tap to halt the cooking. You could also steam the beans.

Toast the seeds until fragrant under a hot grill - keep an eye on them, they can burn in a few short seconds.

Mix the other ingredients together in a small cup. Combine all three and serve.

A few sliced and toasted almons would also be great in here, as would be a finely sliced red chilli, and some cubes of marinated and fried tofu. The hotness of the wasabi makes this a nice salad to serve in the winter, but would also work equally well during the summer months - on a picnic, with some nice salmon! Summer dreaming in the February rain!

January Detox Vegetable Bowl

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It's never too late

Well now, I know that this recipe is coming a little late into January, but after the turkey, ham, 20 different kinds of cheese, new years in a house with a deep fat fryer, the big freeze necessitating comfort food and then a quick trip to the alps with all the fondue and frites France could provide, I’m just getting down to a bit of healthy eating. It’s never too late don’t ya know.

I got loads of nice food pressies for Christmas - and this dish gave me a chance to use my new mandolin, thanks mum! It’s grate!! (sorry it had to be done) Basically it’s a nice big bowl of stir-fried veg with some nice dressing and a sprinkling of omega 3 rich nuts and seeds. It would make a nice side dish with some grilled salmon or a nicely fried pork chop, to make a nice low carb meal. The cabbage really looks like spaghetti in this shot, so you could pretend. It would also be super yum with red cabbage

Ingredients
Serves 1 as a main - 2 as a side
1/4 of a head of cabbage - finely sliced
2 small carrots - finely slice
1 white onion - finely sliced
4 spears of asparagus
3 cloves of garlic finely sliced
a handful of sliced almonds
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds
a dash of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of white wine (or other ) vinegar
2 tablespoons of olive oil - and a little extra
1/3 teaspoon of English mustard
a handful of raisins/sultanas
Salt and Pepper

Under a hot grill toast the slivered almonds and sesame seeds, until turning nice and golden.

Heat up a dash of olive oil in a large frying pan/wok. When hot fire in your onion and garlic,, keep it moving gently with a wooden spoon, until soft and starting to take on a nice tinge of dark brown on some parts. Throw in the cabbage and carrots, and cook for two mins, keeping it moving still then fold in your asparagus tips and cook for another one minute.

Mix together the remaining ingredients to make your sauce., then stir it into the frying pan. Serve sprinkled with the toasted nuts and seeds, enjoy and feel virtuous. (PS I had a dream that there was lots of parsley in the fridge last night - Freud would say that if I could have, I would have, added some Parsley)

Guest Chef no.2

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Lu's Mum - Braised Red Cabbage

I was about to write this recipe like I'd cooked it - but I didn't. When I arrived home to Limerick on the train this Friday night - it was waiting for me - along some bangers and mash. It's one of my favourite ways to prepare a vegetable - a could eat an entire bowl - piping hot! The only other place I've seen red cabbage recently is inside a kebab.

The recipe is edited by my mum - but originates from the Paupers Cookbook by Jocasta Innes - first published in 1971. Having a quick flick through it mentions unpasteurised milk and tongue, which have slipped off my everyday radar. Though it gives some shopping lists and then provides recipes for the whole week - using up leftovers from previous days etc which is pretty interesting. I did spot a nice recipe for homemade yogurt - which I wouldn't mind trying

Back to the point -

Ingredients

1 small head of red cabbage - finely sliced

1 large onion - diced

1 large cooking apple - cored and chopped

2 oz butter

2 tablespoons of brown sugar

2 tablespoons of vinegar

6 cloves

Salt

Pepper

In a pan - melt the butter, then add in your vegetables and apple until they are evenly coated. Then stir in the sugar, cloves and vinegar. Cover with a well fitting lid, turn down the heat and leave to cook for 1.5 hours.

When cooked it's sweet and spicy and the most beautiful deep purple. I can't think of any dish right now that has such strong colour, well apart from beetroot. Great with bangers and mash. This vegetable dish improves with time - giving the flavours time to deepen - so cook loads and eat it today and tomorrow - you'll want to!

Carrot Salad with Galangal, Honey & Soy Dressing

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I'll Admit it's Autumn Salad

Now this week we're trying to detox a little - add a few vegetables back into the diet after a pretty unhealthy few weeks in New York. Having said that this recipe is inspired by a green salad that I ate on Broadway in a Japanese restaurant.. It had the most amazing ginger dressing - now that's an ingredient I hadn't considered as an ingredient in dressing before.

A simple carrot salad - improved by the addition of ginger - but alas - there was none in the house, so I used galangal root instead - which is similar to ginger but with a more intense heat and peppery taste.

Ingredients - two servings

4 carrots - peeled and grated

A handful of raisins

A handful of pumpkin seeds

A spoon of sesame seeds

Dressing

1 dessert spoon of white wine vinegar

1 serving spoon of olive oil

a thumb sized piece of galangal root - grated

1 teaspoon of honey

1 dessert spoon of Thai chili sauce - optional

1 clove of garlic minced - optional if you're not too keen on garlic

a pinch of asa foetida - optional

a pinch of salt

Freshly milled black pepper

a small pinch of turmeric

Pop your seeds on a baking tray under a hot grill for about 4 mins - keep an eye on them as they burn easily. They should start to pop when done. Add these seeds to the raisins and carrots in a bowl. Combine the other ingredients in a cup and blend with a fork - or if you prefer make it in a jam jar and shake it together - any remaining dressing can be stored in the fridge for a week or so.

Pour dressing over salad - toss and serve. Can be served as a side to many dishes - the galangal root/chili sauce gives it a hot kick, seeds are nice and crispy against the carrot sweetened with raisins.

Bringing the carrot salad kicking and screaming out of Summer and into Autumn - that's where we're at

Homefries

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Like they do in NY diners
Well truth be told - they probably only have potatoes and onions in common, but that's what sprang to mind when I was making them so that's what they're called. This is just another way to enjoy a big bowl of potatoes - and sure lash in whatever you fancy - meat, herbs, spices, cheese...

6/8 boiled new potatoes cubed
1 onion chopped in large chunks
3 cloves of galic sliced thinly
1/2 teaspoon of Cumin Seeds
1 teaspoon Poppy seeds
1 teaspoon of grainy mustard
1 teaspoon of honey
salt and pepper
grated cheese - optional
A few sprigs of fresh Rosemary
Olive Oil

Heat up you oil in a frying pan, then fry your cumin seeds and rosemary for 30 seconds before adding in the onion and garlic. Cook this until it starts to become translucent. Then add in the potatoes and poppy seeds. Cook for a few minutes to heat through the potatoes. Then stir in the mustard, honey and seasoning. Cook this until the edges of your potatoes and onion start to blacken slightly. Top with cheese to melt it just before serving. This would be great with some nice red peppers, cauliflower or some roasted squash. Also would be nice to fry some chorizo at the start so that the spicy red oil could get into it all. Great as a main, or a nice side.

Tomato and Courgette Gratin

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Vegetable gratin: do you see a theme developing here?

I know, more French food! Actually I didn't realise until just now that most of what I have been cooking has had a distinctly Gallic theme, ever since Lucy went to France. I must be subconsciously living vicariously through her through the medium of cookery. We definitely have some kind of psychic thing going on... how strange...

anyway, I went through a phase of making this recipe loads, and had kind of forgotten about it. Why, I don't know as its amazing and very easy. This particular combination is inspired by one of Delia Smith's recipes, but modified somewhat by me. Vege

table gratins take much less time to cook than potato gratins, and you can leave out the cream if you want to be good and replace it with a little olive oil. You can also use any combinations of vegetables you have lying around, I have used mushrooms, parsnips, peppers, broccoli, carrots, all with great success. Courgette and aubergines only work if you fry them first, as I have done below. Otherwise they go a bit slimy.

Serves 4

2 courgettes

6 tomatoes

1 clove garlic

dried basil or oregano

100 ml cream or 2 tbsps olive oil

Parmesan or white cheddar cheese to grate over

salt & pepper

Cut the garlic clove in half and rub all over the inside of a shallow oven proof dish. Grease the dish with olive oil. Slice the courgette and fry the slices in hot olive oil until browned both sides. Slice the tomatoes. Layer the cooked courgettes and raw tomatoes in overlapping rows, like roof tiles. You can also add some butter in amongst the veg slices for extra decadence but I try not to. Crush the garlic and flick it evenly over the vegetables. Pour the cream or olive oil over everything and top with a couple of hand fulls of grated cheese and salt and pepper. Bake in a medium over (about 250c) for half an hour or until golden brown and bubbly.

This is great served with a green salad and french bread, or as we did, as a side dish to a meat main course such as a casserole, stew, steak or chicken dish.