Category: Main event

For most of you, you would not be making this for a weekday family meal but as a dish to impress this is a great tart. I give it 10 out of 10 for looks and flavour. It’s a bit of a faff but you can prepare each of the elements ahead of time. Just assemble and cook when you are ready to eat.

The recipe can be found on BBC Good Food.com. They don’t though give you the rocket pesto recipe, any fresh shop bought recipe can be used but really it is so simple to make, I’ve given you a recipe below. I think this probably makes more than the 150g needed for the recipe but it keeps well in the fridge if you know you will use it within a few days, otherwise freezing works very well.

I found that the vegetable strips took a little longer to cook in the microwave than the recipe suggested but that really wasn’t a big issue.

Rocket Pesto: blend all ingredients below in a blender or food processor

• 50g chopped rocket leaves
• 25g pine nuts
• 40g parmesan
• 8 tbsp olive oil

A couple of pictures here before the tart went in the oven and half eaten, in one sitting between three of us!

Its British Asparagus season and so out comes one of my old favourites – published in Good Food Magazine in 2007! It is quick to make, very easy (even by my standards) and full of great asparagus flavour.

Recipe link. Do take note that the quantities given in the recipe are for 2 people.

This is a salad that you can make your own, adding whatever takes your fancy – salmon, tuna, tenderstem broccoli, edamame, nori pieces….. mine had rice, edamame, fresh salmon, smashed cucumber, sliced avocado and garnished with red chill, spring onions and toasted sesame seeds. To add to its versatility you can have this as a main salad plate or make up smaller portions for a starter. Either way, it’s perfect for a hot summer’s day.

Below is what you need for the rice, the salmon and the cucumber to serve four people as a main course.

Rice – make this early enough for it to cool

• 250g sushi rice
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1.5 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp salt

Rinse your sushi rice to get rid of the starch. Add cold water to approx one cm above the rice. Hrat the rice with a lid on and simmer up until the point the water has just been absorbed. Take off the heat and leave for 10 mins with the lid on. In the meantime, add the sugar, rice vinegar and salt into a jar and give a good shake. 10 mins after the Stir through the rice when the 10 mins is up and let it cool.

Salmon – this needs to be made up no earlier than 10 mins before eating

• 4 pieces of salmon fillet skinned and cubed
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 4 tsp light soy sauce

Mix the lemon and soy sauce in a dish big enough to hold the salmon. Add the salmon and leave for no more than 10 minutes, the salmon cures in the sauce and so the texture will change.

Smashed cucumber – make this at least 15 mins in advance for the flavours to develop.

• 1/2 to 1 cucumber
• 1 tbsp Chinese black rice vinegar or rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 tbsp chilli oil
• 1/2 tbsp caster Sugar
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1 finely chopped small clove garlic
• 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce

With a rolling pin smash a cucumber so that it breaks up a little before using a knife to cut into cubes. Toss with the dressing ingredients and leave for 10 mins, longer is good too.

This recipe comes from a recipe book called The Green Roasting Tin by Rukmini Iyer, bought for me by my lovely friend Tania. It was the combination of broccoli and blue cheese that spoke to me, and then I was sold on it when I read further and saw it used a ready rolled sheet of puff pastry. It is so quick and easy to make. Its a definite winner on all fronts.

Ingredients: serves 4

• 320g ready rolled puff pastry
• 300g broccoli florets, halved
• 1/2 red onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 125g blue cheese, crumbled
• 30g walnuts, chopped
• 100ml single cream
• 4 eggs
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 clove crushed garlic

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180C
• Line a small deep roasting tin with baking paper and cover with the pastry
• Scatter the broccoli florets, red onion, chilli flakes, walnuts and blue cheese evenly over the pastry
• 
• Beat the cream, eggs, lemon zest, salt & garlic together. Pour over the broccolli and cheese
• Bake in the oven for 30 mins
• Leave to rest for 10 mins before serving.

When I saw that the wild garlic is ready for picking I just had to share this recipe with you. It is another Ottolenghi special. The quinoa cakes can be made gluten free by using gluten free breadcrumbs or gluten free oats instead of breadcrumbs. Don’t worry if you can’t find wild garlic leaves as spring onion can be used instead. I wouldn’t use the same weight though, unless you particularly like that flavour.

Wild garlic leaves can be used in other ways too – to make soup, in salads, or wilt as you would spinach, In fact I think of wild garlic as garlic flavoured spinach leaves. You can use the flowers to decorate your salad plates as they too are edible. There is a photo below to help you spot wild garlic while out and about, usually found in shaded slightly damp areas. A few spots I know you can find it is Arandene Open Space, Darlands Nature Reserve (Totteridge), Scratchwood open space and the Riverside Park Walk in Woodside Park. You don’t need to worry about the possibility of picking the wrong leaf as its smell is very distinctive.

After I posted this, I noticed this recipe for cheese scones with wild garlic. I couldn’t help myself, I had to do a quick update. I’ll be trying these out tomorrow. Can’t wait…

I know it sounds weird but trust me this aubergine cheesecake is amazingly delicious. If my word is not enough, I know that when I tell you that its an Ottolenghi recipe you will believe me. As well as being delicious it is also quick and easy to make. You do need to leave it to rest when it comes out of the oven so factor that into your timings.

You can find the recipe on the Guardian website.

I always use more aubergines than the recipe suggests – 3 medium to large aubergines – leaving the filling quantities as per the recipe.