Summer Swedish Balcony Salad

Tweet

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.

Fried haloumi & peach salad with a mint, lemon & caper dressing

Tweet

Super Success Summer Salad

I'm pretty proud of this salad, I must say. It's the perfect balance between salty and sweet, crunchy and smooth, hot and cool. It's similar to the Grilled Peach and Mozzarella Salad we made inspired by Junior's in Ringsend. This would be lovely served as a starter sitting outside in the sun - oh we can only dream of sun today! Also it could be wonderful on a buffet, sitting on a nice bed of leaves. Some crisp lambs lettuce or peppery rocket would work well. These Pan Tao peaches are just perfect and arrived in my veg box this morning, begging to be made into something special. They're flat and have a white flesh, supposedly you can push the stone out from outside, I haven't managed it! 

Ingredients
Serves 1
3 sliced of haloumi - a little less than 1cm thick
a little plain flour
sunflower oil fro frying
1 ripe peach or nectarine
For the Dressing
1 heaped teaspoon of capers drained
Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
Handful of fresh flat leaf parsley
Handful of fresh mint
Good quality olive oil for dressing - a good tablespoon

1. First chop the fresh herbs roughly along with the capers. Mix the in with the rest of the ingredients for the dressing, season and set aside. 
2. Next lightly toss your slices of haloumi in the flour. Heat the sunflower oil in a non stick pan. When the oil is relatively hot pop your slices into the pan. they should sizzle but not spit - cook for about 2 minutes on each side until golden. Drain on kitchen paper.
3. Next slice up your peaches, arrange alone with the haloumi on a plate and drizzle with the amount of dressing you like. Welcome to my new favorite salad

Cooks Academy Week 3

Tweet

Monday

Have I got your attention yet - mmm I'm yummy!

Up bright and early an continuing on with the Italian theme again mostly. Pea Risotto, Chorizo and Chickpea and Apple Tarte Normande, ok so that makes it more European Day then I guess. My lack of partner today saw me tackle the whole menu alone.

Practising my mise en place. You know on TV cookery shows when the chef says 'I'll just add some finely diced onion' and promptly tips a small glass bowl full of perfectly diced onion into his pan. I always thought this was just for TV shows. Apparently not. This is what you do if you're a super organised chef - like myself of course. Yup, even two cloves are lovingly placed in their own little tiny receptacle - cute.

Now this is super helpful - if you have a little assistant/elf/kitchen hobbit. Lacking any of these and even a human cooking partner; I set about establishing a veritable colony of little bowls filled with all my ingredients.

The words 'must try harder' were invented for this photo

Now I can cook. The morning passed in a super efficient manner, until I got to making my risotto. Glancing over my shoulder I noticed that nobody else was even cooking anymore - whoops. Oh well and I wasn't even the only one cooking solo today. Ah well nothing to do but keep going. So one I went stirring and stirring risotto, stir stir stir all alone whhhhhhy - oww my arm.

The big mistake I made with the risotto was to add stock a little too early before all the liquid had been absorbed. The end result wasn't too pretty but what risotto is. It was delicious, and there is some fresh mint in there too - a nice subtle amount with the peas and Parmesan - nice.

Chorizo Soup

The tarte Normande was amazing, anything involving pastry and apples is a winner in my book. Alan was the first to reply to my free cake tweet. So the lucky guy had some cake delivered to his place of work in Temple Bar.

Chorizo soup was nice I might leave the lid off for a little longer next time to thicken up a bit more, I was otherwise preoccupied with the other dishes to pay it too much attention - many apologies pot of soup!

Tuesday

I'm typing up Tuesday antics on Wednesday morning with the last slice of Apple Normande for breakfast  - it's grand it has apples in it! I also awoke to find that all my nice white chef smocks have been turned pink by a rouge sock - I'll never get work in a Michelin star restaurant in these.

Lamb Madras

Yesterday was Indian Day, which saw us produce an array of delicious and authentic (with some deviation towards the Middle East) We prepared Lamb Masala and lamb koftas. Along with these we also made naan breads spiked with onion seeds.

Koftas

Yumbo dessert

For dessert we prepared cardamon cream pots.  A lovely subtle and light (ish) dessert ideal served with fruit. It was a chance to use some gelatin for the first time - very easy a good trick to have up your sleeve allowing you to turn many delicious liquids into impressive and tasty desserts.

The lamb koftas were spicy and full of flavour, and ideal starter, for the barbeque or smaller for canapes.

The afternoon demo was jam packed. Our pastry expert showed use some sugar boiling techniques and then produced an amazing and sparkling array of spun sugar cages, nests and spirals. To be tried at home with extreme caution due to very high temperatures of the sugar/caramel mix and the fact that you need to kind of throw it around the place. Utensils to be well oiled before starting!

A whole salmon was poached and prepared, with eyes and scales recreated from various other food items. It looked  bit creepy, but I can imagine on the centre of a  large buffet it would look pretty impressive.

We had a demo on how best to prepare and cook scallops - quickly and at a high heat. They were made into a tasty linguine with pancetta, spinach and rosemary butter mmmmmmm.

Finally an large bowl of hummus was prepared, illustrating my need for a food processor once again (hint hint Internet philanthropists!) One of the best recipes I've tasted, nice and spicy a good amount of lemon and lots of tahini. About to be late now for Wednesdays sushi workshop, so 'd better run off in my pink smocks.

byee

Wednesday

Looking at today on the timetable made me feel a bit quesy. Sushi workshop, then cheese tasting, followed by canape making and a wine tasting evening. That's a lot of food to be putting in one stomach - oh and wine.

Sushi to start. The rice seems to be a  key part in how your sushi will work or not. Japanese sushi chefs can train for up to 16 years. The wash must be washed many times, until the water runs clear (or near to clear) Then the rice must be put in cold water before being brought to the boil, then boiled for 15 mins, then sits for 15 minutes. Then covered in rice vinegar and sugar solution, spread on a tray and fanned! la de dah miss sushi rice!

Skills!

Now a careful and colourful assembly of fillings was prepared - after a quick demo on riling techniques we were a bit pushed for time. I still managed to make a few nori rolls, sashimi and sushi balls. It's a shame that the morning was a bit rushed, but that's the nature of the game. I will def be making sushi again, lots of fun and above all delicious.

Lunch

Cheese Montage

The morning demo was then from Kevin Sheridan from Sheridans cheese. He explained the broad cheese making processes and main types of cheese. How various factors influence the finished cheese, such as cultures, temperature, milk type, cutting, turning, storing, heat, size, the list goes on and on!

He brought in a nice range  of cheeses for us to taste,  some Irish traditional like Gubeen, Cashel Blue and a few more recent additions to the Irish cheese circuit (agh I've forgotten their names - will look at my notes) a lovely young, soft goats cheese, and a smaller more mature goats cheese as well as an amazing cheese very like Comte. Comte is the biggest selling cheese in France! There was also the most divine French Camembert.

He made the case for artisan farmers and producers clear in a succinct statement. Artisan suppliers foremost priority is taste, supermarkets foremost priority is profit. Nothing new there but I just thought it summed it up well. The manner in which supermarkets sell and display cheese is harmful to the taste, cheese is essentially very ugly really. Supermarkets attempt to make this product more attractive and in the process homogenise the taste appearance and personality of the cheese. This is a whole other argument - so this is only a small mention of a huge overall point!

After lunch it was full steam into canape preparation for the evening. I think I might have been tasted out as I was finding it very hard to get excited about our canapes - or make some taste decisions. Maybe my palette was a little overwhelmed.

Mini Lemon Tarts

With Our Sushi Combined

The evenings wine tasting was great, everyone in the class invited along a friend. We tasted a variety of red and white wines and had our canapes to accompany various wines. Ok I know I should write more about his but I'm tired - it was fun! There were lots of different canapes but my camera ran out of batteries - damn!

Thursday

Quick Chorizo Pasta

Ok so we're all a little tired after yesterdays hectic schedule and possibly also the many wines! Luckily the timetable for this morning was made up with this in mind. Nothing too taxing.

First we made up mayonnaise - add the oil slowly slowly - from the tip of a fork and you'll be alright - seems to be the major factor in success. I'm feel like I'm stuck in second gear so no chance I'll be rushing. One of the really interesting things about looking at every ones finished products is how different they are. We all followed the same recipe, used the same ingredients and equipment. The finished mayos were greatly varying in consistency. It was a point that our tutor made the day before that even the most highly trained chefs will make the same dish differently. We're like little chef snowflakes - perfectly unique (poetic!)

Also prepared was a delicious salad of Cashel blue cheese with honeyed pecans, watercress and pear - loved it. Linguine with chorizo, rocket and Parmesan - didn't sound the best on paper, but was light and fresh despite the heavy ingredients. Other dishes made included Spaghetti Carbonara (my all time favourite pasta dish) Chestnut and Carrot cannelloni (amazing) Monkfish putanesca, spicy aubergine parpadelle and a range of salads, including Ceasar, chicken  and roasted veg pesto and an spicy horseradish coleslaw. A good feed for all.

Very yummy salad

The afternoon saw our tutor making beef Wellington, moule marinere, potatoes with thyme and tallegio, creme brulle and chicken Ballentine. A delicious and impressive demonstration of multi-tasking and blowtorches, that'll stop you falling asleep!

Muelle Marinere

Afternoon Demo Foods

That's it I'm hiding away form the crazy weather in my apartment practising my wine tasting skills for the night.

Friday 

There was cooking alright - look at the pretty pictures!

Romantic Themed Raspberry Creme Brullee

Salmon Yakatori - very very nice dish

Cerviche

Paella

Chicken Balentine Tastes better than this photo

Grilled Peach and Mozarella Salad

Tweet

This recipe is heavily inspired by (copied from??) a dish Lucy and I ate at Juniors a few weeks ago. It was so delicious we spent the whole time trying to figure out and take note of exactly what was in it. Being the season for stone fruit, we decided it wouldmake a perfect and unusual starter for our alternative to the electric picnic: the Accoustic dinner party (geddit?!)

The dish was a huge success, as was the whole evening, which as planned turned into a big rowdy singalong into the very early hours, which saw us making up alternative lyrics to the tune of 'dirty old town' for the benefit of our American friends. Fun times, huge hangovers the next day!

So try this soon, before peaches are out of season. You wont regret it. But I think its important to get really good quality, creamy mozzerella (we got ours from Little Italy near Smithfield) and very ripe, almost over ripe peaches (or nectarines).

Serves 4

4 large RIPE peaches

1 large ball good quality buffalo mozzerella

4 handfulls mixed leaves, whatever you fancy (we used rockett and baby spinch)

about 16 whole walnuts

1/2 small packet pine nuts

lemon juice

good quality balsamic vinegar

olive oil

salt and pepper

First make the dressing.

Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan over a low flame until they have browned on all sides. Allow them to cool and then grind them up using a pestle and mortar until they look like bread crumbs. Place the ground nuts into a bowl and add enough olive oil to give the mixture a good runny consistency. Add the juice of half a lemon (more if you like) and mix together with a grind of pepper and some salt to taste.

Toast the walnuts in the oven and allow to cool

Using a sharp knife, cut the peaches along their seams, and twist to separate the two halves. If they are ripe this should be easy and the stone should come away easily too. Brush them on both sides with olive oil and add a sprinkle of salt and a grind of black pepper. Place them under a very hot grill for about 10 mins on each side or until they are golden. You could also use a griddle pan if you have one.

To assemble the salad, place the leaves on a plate, add the peach halves and the mozzarella, torn into chunks. Then sprinkle the walnuts over and drizzle over the pine nut dressing. Lastly, drizzle the thick balsamic Vinegar artistically over the whole thing.

Rainbow trout with herby salad

Tweet

Wow, the weather today is fantastic AND I have a day off work! That never happens! So I went to the Phoenix Park and cycled around the park for 2 hours on my old lady raleigh bike, a massive sunny smile on my face listening to summery music on my ipod. Bliss!

After all that exertion I definitely needed something healthy but satisfying so I stopped in to Fresh and bought a nice fillet of rainbow trout.

The garden has gone into overdrive so I used a handful of mixed herbs to dress the accompanying salad. Fresh, zingy, healthy and delish!

For the fish:

2 sprigs dill

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon fennell seeds

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 glug olive oil

Mash the seeds with a pestle and mortar. Place the fish on a large piece of tin foil. Chop the garlic VERY thinly and sprinkle half it over the fish. Add the sprigs of dill and the ground seeds. Drizzle over the olive oil. Bake at 170c for 10 - 15 mins.

Meanwhile make the salad.

Get a large handful of whatever herbs you have to hand (I used dill, rocket, rosemary and sage but you could include parsley, chives, basil, coriander, whatever you have, really)

Chop the herbs very finely and place them in a bowl. To this add about 4 tbsps good oil and a squeeze of lemon, to taste ( roughly half a lemon), salt and pepper. This is a delicious fresh dressing which can be used on loads of different salads.

Balsamic roasted beetroot, orange and feta salad

Tweet

A recipe and some waffle - not a waffle recipe!

I’m celebrating by heading off to a festival for the bank holiday. It’s called Vantastival  - so we’re taking down our lovely van Mister to hang out with all the other old VWs. There is lots going on for the weekend - lots of music, Kila, Sleep Thieves, Fred, Ambience Affair - and little xs for eyes (my band)

Most importantly - I will be entering the second cooking competition of my life! The first was Aoife Mac’s Pie Off. This is  a camper van cook-off. All contestants must cook up the best meal they can with limited ingredients and the cooking facilities of their vans - for me that’s a two ring hob. We toyed with the idea of connecting a rotisserie arm to the engine - but sadly that ‘s not allowed - any suggestions for how to cook a nice desert on a hob would be appreciated I’m drawing a blank right  now. See picture  of the Facilities!! Wish me luck

I’ll update you all when I return - have a great bank holiday you guys!

Also a fail to report - I tried and failed to make yoghurt yesterday - but I have not been put off I will persevere - blog post to follow when successful

What a load of Waffle, here’s a recipe

Balsamic roasted beetroot, orange and feta salad
2 fresh beetroots - diced (1cm cubes)
1 orange segmented
big handful of parsley - chopped
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
1/3 block of feta

Toss your beetroot in 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar and season. Pop into a preheated oven for 35 mins at a high heat (gas mark 7)

When it’s roasted and turning nicely deep red, remove from the oven. Prepare the rest of your ingredients in a bowl. Mix together the olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. Combine the beetroot with the other ingredients and toss well with the dressing.

This is a great salad - with a huge range of flavour. I had sprouted some watercress especially for this salad (it took a week to sprout) then I forgot to add it in. The sharp peppery taste would definitely add to the overall flavour, but it was still delicious without.

Here's a photo of this salad from Jenny Hammerton from Silver Screen Suppers Blog. Thanks for sending it onto me - always good to get feedback. Check out her blog - it's great themed around food the glamourous stars of yesteryear cooked! 

Grilled asparagus salad with warm poached egg

Tweet

Spring is here!

So, I was sick all last week and feeling very sorry for myself. My wonderful mother thought she needed to perform some real old fashioned motherly duties and arrived at our house bearing gifts: a care package containing bunches of flowers and two shopping bags full of lovely treats like papaya, grapes, chocolate Swiss roll, more baked goods than is good for me, a whole chicken, and loads of lovely fresh veggies including two bunches of asparagus. She even hoovered the hall stairs, what an amazing lady! I am now systematically cooking my way through all the delightful ingredients she brought, and last night I whipped up this dish for Lu and I. It tasted even better than it looks!

(for 2 people)

Ingredients:

1 Bunch asparagus

2 eggs

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

2 large handfuls rocket leaves

6 leaves of romaine lettuce

2 slices good crusty Italian (or similar) bread

1 clove garlic

juice of half a lemon

olive oil

mustard

honey

Hold each asparagus spear at either end and bend until it breaks where it naturally should break. Discard the woody ends. Toss the asparagus spears in olive oil and pepper and place under a hot grill. Grill for 4-5 mins on both sides until slightly charred and softened.

Meanwhile, bring a shallow pan of water (about 3 inches in depth) to a rolling boil. Wash the salad leaves and dry. make the salad dressing using 3 parts olive oil to 1 part lemon juice, and about a teaspoon of honey and a teaspoon of mustard (depends on how you like it). Use this to dress the salad leaves.

Toast the bread and cut the garlic clove in half. Rub the cut edge of the garlic all over the slices of toast.

Turn the heat down on the boiling water until it is just simmering. Add the vinegar. Break an egg into a shallow cup or ladle, and tip it as quickly as you can into the water. The idea is to try to get the egg to stay as 'together' as possible while you are tipping it into the water. Do the same with the other egg, you can cook the two of them together in the same pan. Use a slotted spoon to check if the egg is cooked. The white should be firm but the yolk still runny. Give it about 3 minutes.

To serve, assemble the salad & asparagus on the toast and top with the egg. This would also have been nice with some Parmesan shavings or some grilled pancetta.

Lu's new camera has really come into its own, hasn't it! So worth it, look forward to our photos improving even more from here on in!

Leek & Potato Salad

Tweet

What’s good for the soup, is good for the salad

St Patrick’s day brunch was happening in our house, so me and Sarah knocked together a few salads and then asked everyone to bring a few things, and we’d see how it all came out. Lola had made a yummy whiskey cake a few days before and she was slowly basting it in a decadent whiskey syrup daily! It was included in the St Patricks Day Parade over at the Daily Spud - check it out, a throroughly impressive collection of Irish inspired recipes, enough to keep you going until next St Patrick's Day.

I wanted to make a potato salad for the day that was in it, but something a little different from the mayonnaise soaked standard, not that I am adverse to that version either. I decided on a roasted potato salad, which I teamed up with sweet and carmelised roasted leeks and salty sharp feta, and a rich roasted garlic dressing. I was delighted with how it turned out. It disappeared pretty fast, so I can only presume it was well liked.

Ingredients
20 or so baby potatoes
2 leeks
1 head of garlic
Two sprigs of rosemary
5 tablespoons of Olive Oil
Block of feta - cubed
1 tablespoon of Balsamic vinegar
3/4 teaspoon of Coleman's mustard powder

Cut the baby potatoes into little cubes - toss in olive oil, season and bake in at Gas mark 7 for an hour - tuck the head of garlic in amongst them. Cook the spuds until gold and crispy. Also slice the leeks into thin rounds and lay flat on a baking tray with some oil underneath them, sprinkle them with a little paprika. Cook these in the top of the oven for 45 mins, remove when they’re starting to carmelised, there’s a fine line between gold and sticky and burnt!

While you’re allowing you potatoes to cool you can prepare the dressing. Mix together the mustard powder with a drop of warm water to form a paste, add 3 tablespoons of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Take a sharp knife and slice the bottom off the head of garlic, you should then be able to squeeze the roasted garlic out of the bulbs - you’ll get messy hands alright - but your fingers will taste great!

Mix half of the roasted garlic into the dressing. When your potatoes have cooled, combine with the cubes of feta in a large serving dish. Remove the sticks of rosemary, you can leave the leaves in there. Carefully lift your rounds of leeks and place them on top of the potatoes and cheese. When you’re ready to serve, spoon the dressing over and mix well.

I put the other half of the head of garlic on some bread and ate it for my lunch. I thought that pushing a whole head of garlic on my hungover friends might have been a step too far, I showed a little garlic restraint for once!

Japanese Green Bean Salad

Tweet

> 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!

Carrot Salad with Galangal, Honey & Soy Dressing

Tweet

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

Lemon Infused Courgette Salad with Red Quinoia

Tweet

Summery Salad Confusion

Arriving at my local shop hungry and tired after a long day at work, I collected for myself a wonderful collection of random purchases, with little or no logic as to what I was making for dinner apart from salad. From chaotic beginnings, came a very delicious result - score!!


Quinoa originates from Peru, Chile and Bolivia. It is a complete protein making it a very healthy option for vegetarians and vegans, more info on how wonderful Quinoa is here my blog ain't big enough to fill you in on all the wonders of this little grain! It's delicious and crunchy, with a nutty taste and can take the place of rice, or pasta in many dishes. I prefer the red quinoa as it looks more substantial than it's white counter part which goes quite translucent. A little white sprout comes out of them when the grains are cooked - so don't panic - that's normal.

Ingredients
I large courgette
Juice & Zest of half a lemon
5 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt & Pepper
A small bunch of chives -chopped finely
3 scallions - sliced finely
1 cup of red Quinoa
1/2 cup of sundried tomatoes in oil - drained & diced
crumble of stock cube
1 teaspoon tahini
1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar
Freshly grated Parmesan
1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano

Grate the courgette into thin slivers - I use my potato peeler to do this, it leaves you with an awkward centre piece that you can't grate so I just chopped this into little cubes and threw it in too. Potato peelers are also handy for cutting nice thin slices of cheese I find, and also to julienne carrots. By jullienne I mean slice thinly, cause I'm not sure of the exact meaning.

Toss your courgette strips with the juice and zest of half a lemon, tablespoon of olive oil and some salt and pepper. If you have anything to do for about half an hour, like some gardening or washing, it'd be nice to leave them infuse for a little while, if you're really hungry fear not, it'll still turn out great. Toss well and then pop under a medium grill.

While they're grilling cook some Quinoa in twice it's volume of water - I crumbled in a small amount of stock cube in, for the laugh, not sure it made any difference. Cook till it is soft and starting to brown nicely - give it a bit of a stir around every so often to cook evenly.

To make the dressing put oregano - 4 tablespoons of oil, tahini, white wine vinegar, salt & pepper, and blend well. I'm trying to wean myself of popping a clove of garlic into everything I make, starting with this salad.

Remove courgettes from the grill and allow to cool slightly, drain quinoa and run under cold tap to cool. Put sun dried tomato, scallions, chives, courgette and quinoa, then pop into bowls and top with freshly grated Parmesan, and some black pepper. If you have a food blog - garnish with some parsley to look pretty! I would have popped some finely chopped parsley if I had managed to grow more than 2 sprigs in my garden.

Enjoy outdoors if possible

Potato Salad

Tweet

The Anti-Salad

Not sure whether it was worth blogging a simple potato salad – but you never know. Mostly I eat salads to get some low carb, low fat and high vegetable content into my life – this salad does not comply to the above standards – being actually the complete opposite. But it’s Sunday and I’m hungover and I miss my friend Kate so all bets are off ok.


Ingredients
5 small new potatoes
5 shards of chives
3 sprigs of parsley
4 little pink radishes
2 spoons of mayonnaise
Salt & Pepper
1 slice of ham
a small handful of cashew nuts
1 teaspoon grainy mustard

The lovely Sarah Lowry introduced me to radishes in potato salad and now I wouldn’t have it any other way. Cook potatoes, chop parsley and chives, slice the radishes finely, slice ham and crush nuts gently. Combine all ingredients in a bowl – mix and serve.

I like to pop the potatoes in still warm – but if you want to cool them down – just run them under the cold tap for 30 seconds or so.

It’s great as a side dish for barbecues and summer food, quiches, fish and chicken – eat outside if possible. To prepare as a side dish simply leave out the ham and nuts

Carrot & Corriander Salad

Tweet

Not one to blog the odd lunches I cook myself sometimes, but this one turned out so well that I really wanted to write it down. So in the morning as I have my coffee and breakfast sometimes I knock together my lunch for that day. This is a good and filling lunch that you can make in ten minutes or so, Bulgar wheat is a tasty and fast way to bulk up some light dishes.

I large carrot grated -grated
A handful of fresh coriander
1 clove of garlic - crushed
¾ cup of Bulgar wheat
Olive Oil
Mustard Seeds
White Wine Vinegar
A handful of cashew nuts
Some toasted almond flakes
A small handful of raisins

Cook the Bulgar in twice it’s volume of water – cooks in about 5 mins or so.

Put a layer of chopped coriander at the bottom of your lunch container (I use an old soup pot – the cylindrical plastic ones – with the pop top lids – so no leaking in my handbag) Then add the almonds and then the chopped carrot.

When the Bulgar is cooked stir in the olive oil, salt, pepper, mustard seeds, cashew nuts, raisins and vinegar, mix well and allow to cool for as long as you have till you leave the house.

When it was time for lunch I mixed it all together, and popped it in the microwave – it was thoroughly delicious, a little squeeze of an orange would have made it divine, I’m sure it would be equally as good cold.

Cyprus Salad

Tweet

Cyprus salad
This is the same as a Greek salad, but I went to Cyprus last summer and every restaurant served it and calls it Cyprus Salad. Its lovely and refreshing, and I ate pretty much nothing but this with hummus, pitta bread and grilled haloumi cheese the whole time I was there. Its the best meal that you can throw together in 5 minutes for a really hot day. Its also really satisfying and filling serves 2 1/2 cucumber 1/2 jar black olives 2 ripe tomatoes large handful fresh flatleaf parsley 1/3 pack feta cheese (optional, and if you are going to have grilled haloumi leave the feta out) olive oil, juice of 1/2 a lemon salt & pepper peel the cucumber and slice into thick rounds. Then cut these into quarters. Chop the tomatoes into similar size pieces, and also the cheese if you are using it. put everything into a roomy bowl with the olives and mix. Tear up the parsley a bit and add to the bowl. give it a mix and add a glug of olive oil and the lemon juice to dress. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with hummus in a pitta bread.

Look Shelia and Rayne have located the sun in Cyprus - how clever!