Orange and fennel salad

Another quick summer salad post...

Another classic mix of ingredients...

Another recipe so simple that there's practically no excuse to not try it...

This is a lovely, crunchy, 'different' salad that's great with fish, cold meats or just on its own as a snack. I slice the fennel by hand, it has to be really quite thin so the brave amongst you may use a mandolin, I refuse to own one as I'm still mentally scarred by an incident akin to skin graft harvesting suffered when using one as a child (responsible 1980s parenting on display).

Ingredients

1 orange (blood oranges are great when in their disappointingly short season)
1 head of fennel
Good quality olive oil, salt and pepper

Directions

1) Remove the whispy herb top from the fennel and retain, remove the root / base and tough outer leaf. Slice the fennel very thinly (see above, try to avoid blood loss).

2) Segment the orange over the salad bowl (top / tail and slice down removing all peel / pith from the orange and then cut between each segment, squeeze the leftovers to extract any juice into the salad).

3) Season sparingly and then add a good glug of olive oil, taste for balance and adjust seasoning as necessary.  I like mine quite peppery, but that's a very personal thing.

4) Finely chop the fennel herb and sprinkle over the top of the salad in a vague attempt to make it look pretty.

This is another salad that's different but just as good after 24hrs refrigeration, another great reason to try it!

Enjoy and share...

Tomato, mint and caper salad

A nice straightforward summer salad using the best of what's in the garden (and the store cupboard).

I love this salad with barbecues, the mint and cider vinegar add a delicious garden freshness and cut through the richness of the meat.

As ever this is more of an idea than a recipe and can be used as a starting point to add to / substitute ingredients and make it your own (onions / olives / anchovies / garlic / lemon juice / olive oil all work well).

With a dish this simple it's really important that the tomatoes are super ripe and fresh, only make it in season and buy the best that you can afford.

Ingredients

Tomatoes to fill a dessert bowl
Tblsp capers (brined, salted or pickled are all OK here)
Small bunch of mint leaves (stalks discarded)
Tsp extra virgin rape (canola) oil
Tsp cider vinegar

Directions

1) Chop tomatoes to bitesize pieces, even if they're small cut them in two as it allows the dressing to coat / mix with the juices, add a little salt (but remember the capers will also season).

2) Finely chop the mint into ribbons (easier if rolled up into a 'cigar' first).

3) Add the tomatoes, mint and capers to the bowl with the vinegar and oil, combine well and serve.

The salad's delicious fresh but is also great the day after, the flavour will have changed and combined but not at all in a bad way!

Home cured salt beef

This is a firm favourite in our house and is another one of those homely recipes that requires a little planning ahead but little actual work.  

Salt beef / corned beef is a great first cure to try at home, it will always work, it's inexpensive and you can play adding ingredients and flavours to your heart's content.

I tend to use brisket as I think that it has a wonderful flavour and has not yet become 'trendy' enough to be expensive.

There are so many variations to the basic method here that I'll write my simple version with optional additions as we go...

Essential ingredients;

1 piece of brisket at least 1kg in weight

Around 200g salt (table is fine, we're looking for the chemical effect rather than delicate seasoning here)

Around 200g sugar, again any variety is fine, you can play with flavours.

Optional extras (for the cure);

Allspice

Cinammon

Black pepper

Coriander seed

Mustard seeds / powder

Bay

Rosemary

Thyme

Chilli

Cloves

Almost anything else that you'd like to try!

Optional extras (for the cooking);

2 carrots

1 onion

2 sticks of celery

1 tblsp english mustard

Beef bones

Directions

1) Mix together the salt /sugar and any other cure ingredients that you wish to try, they will only quite subtly flavour the meat.  Totally cover the meat in the cure (in a non-metallic dish) and refrigerate for 5-10 days.  You will notice water coming out of the meat and collecting in the container, strain this off and add more of the curing mix if you like a stronger flavour.

2) After 5-10 days your beef should resemble that pictured below, rinse off the salt and place in a pan with enough cold water to just cover.  If you add stock veg/bones at this point you end up with a delicious beef stock.

3) Bring to the boil and simmer for 3 hours skimming any scum that rises to the surface.

4) Remove the beef and strain the stock.

Variations

To serve warm;  I simply add mustard to the stock (taste, you made need to water down if too salty) and boil some potatoes and vegetables in the same stock until just tender, I then serve these with thick slice of the beef and a ladleful of the stock.

To serve cold;  I usually allow the beef to cool in the stock and then remove, chill and slice thinly with a salad or quick pickle.  Retain the stock, adjust the seasoning (again if it's too salty water it down) and use as you see fit, mine went to make the nettle soup on my previous post!

Not fancy or posh, this is just another example of the type of food that I love to cook and serve at home.

Nettle soup

I love this simple spring soup, it really is a 'something for nothing' dish.

To make this soup you need a good hearty stock base, you could use cubes but I like to make my own, it feels very virtuous.

My basic stock recipe is left over roast bones (I used the carcass from a  barbecued chicken here) 2 carrots topped and split, one onion split with the skin left on and a few sticks of celery, I add a bay leaf and a few sprigs of thyme along with about 10 whole peppercorns and enough cold water to just cover the bones.  I bring to the boil, skim and then simmer for a few hours before straining, I never salt until I know how I'm going to use the stock and how much I'm going to reduce it, much more flexible that way...  For example, I used this stock to cook a piece of home cured beef before reserving it for this recipe, it added more flavour but I was very glad that I hadn't salted the stock before I'd started.

Ingredients

1 litre of good strong stock
Equal volume of fresh stinging nettle tips (best in spring for flavour and avoiding stalks as they can be very fibrous)

Directions

1) Bring the stock to the boil and add the washed nettles, return to the boil and simmer a couple of minutes, no longer or you may lose the wonderful colour.  Blitz, strain through muslin if you want it to be posh, adjust the seasoning and serve.

That's it, nowt to it.

The flavour's wonderful, very green, a little like peppery watercress or rocket and quite herbal.  I'd urge anyone to try it, it will really surprise you, just take precautions and wear gloves when you're picking those stingers...

Please, enjoy and share!

Brûlée rice pudding

Tasty, warming, comforting etc. etc.  This was my planned dessert for the MasterChef quarterfinal (unfortunately I crashed out the round before cooking this).  Again put your own mark on this, I use just vanilla but you can add cardamom, the classic nutmeg even cinnamon to the rice. I put raspberry jam in the bottom flavoured with star anise and lime, but you can use fresh raspberries cooked down to a compote (with sloe gin for a cheffy touch), any other fruit, or indeed just leave this component out.  Apologies again for the photo as a friend pointed out last week, I REALLY need a food stylist!

Ingredients (4 large portions)

300g short grain rice (arborio, carnaroli or any other variety are fine)
450ml double cream
450ml full fat milk
4 tablespoons of white caster sugar (with extra for brûlée topping)
1 vanilla pod (or a teaspoon of extract)
4 tablespoons of good quality raspberry jam
Juice of 1 lime
1 star anise

Directions

1) Add the rice, milk, sugar, split vanilla pod and half of the cream to a large saucepan and bring to a very gentle simmer stirring continuously.  Watch that you don't burn this mixture and add the reserved cream as necessary to achieve a loose texture.  Check the rice for tenderness and flavour after around 1 hour, it should be completely soft, there's no room for al dente here!

2) Heat the jam (or fresh raspberries if you're using them) with the lime juice and star anise warm gently, allow to infuse for around 1 hour.

3) Place the infused jam / berries in the bottom of individual ramekins or a large dish to share, spoon the rice on top and then sprinkle the reserved sugar to completely cover the top.  You must quickly place under a hot grill or blowtorch before the sugar dissolves and allow to caramelise until dark brown.

Allow the pudding to rest a little before serving so that the sugar sets hard and cools, boiling sugar in your mouth's not fun!  This dessert really needs no accompaniment and has converted many who weren't too sure about rice pudding....

Rhubarb crumble and custard

This is so simple as to hardly be a recipe. I've not included quantities just ratios where applicable as this really is a store cupboard / fruit bowl fave and works wonderfully with any fruit (or combinations).  This one definitely makes it onto my death row dessert list...

Ingredients

Rhubarb (or other fruit of your choice, I actually added orange and apple to the one pictured here) with sugar added to taste, rhubarb takes a lot!
Plain flour
Half the flour quantity of fridge cold salted butter
Equal quantity of caster sugar (brown or white) to butter

And for the custard...

4 egg yolks
1 pint of milk (ideally full fat)
1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract / paste (it's the star of the show here so avoid nasty chemical essence if possible)
2 tablespoons of caster sugar
2 teaspoons of cornflour

Method

1) Prepare your fruit first, cut into chunks and add (raw) with an appropriate amount of sugar to an ovenproof dish, remember that you have sweet crumble and custard going on top and so depending on your tastes a little tart isn't the end of the world.

2) Preheat the oven to 180C.

3) Make your crumble topping by rubbing together the cold butter, flour and sugar until they resemble breadcrumbs (ie no raw flour but still some chunks of butter).

4) Add enough topping to cover the fruit completely and put in the oven for 30-40 minutes, turning up the heat at the end if the top's not browning.

5) Whilst the crumble's in the oven make your custard.  Heat the milk and vanilla to almost simmering point and whisk together your egg yolks, sugar and cornflour.  Add the milk to the eggs, whisk to combine and place back on the heat until thickened (do not boil unless you like sweet scrambled eggs) as soon as the custard's thickened remove from the heat and strain into a bowl / jug to stop it cooking further.

6) Eat and enjoy.

I use salted butter in my topping as I like that slight seasoning, but use unsalted if you prefer.  Custard's an essential with crumble and I find the above method the easiest way to avoid disaster, purists would remove the cornflour and add extra egg yolks but this is less stable, scrambles very easily and frankly, life's just too short.

As ever with my food, this may not win any beauty pageants or be particularly "cheffy" but it's simple and delicious!