Open Table

Beetroot & Basil Salad

Living in London in the summer tends to turn our small terraced house into a bit of a furnace ... I tend to keep cooking to a minimum and embrace cold meats, cheese, fresh baguettes and salads.  

My youngest is addicted to beetroot, this salad is one of his favorites.  It is simple, delicious and really brightens up the table.  

BEETROOT & BASIL SALAD - Serves 4 (as a side)

Ingredients

250g of Cooked Beetroot (in water not vinegar), 1 Large Handful of Basil, Olive Oil, Maldon Sea Salt 

• Slice the beetroot and layout on plate
• Sprinkle over a large handful of basil leaves
• Drizzle with olive oil
• Sprinkle over a pinch of salt and serve

 

Roast Sweet Potato with Pecan and Maple

July was a scary month for us.  Our four year old was in hospital with suspected encephalitis ... She started hallucinating so we rushed her to the Chelsea and Westminster where she was put on intravenous antibiotics for five days.   

Having never spent a night in hospital my eyes were opened to the NHS.  The doctors and nurses gave our daughter wonderful care.  Nothing was too much trouble day or night.  They worked long shifts dealing with not just sick children but also worried parents.  We left with a real sense of admiration for all the staff on Neptune ward.  A big thank you to you all.

After five days of fairly bland hospital food Thea and I were both very keen for some home cooking ... as we got in the car, Thea asked for duck breast with asparagus ... she was definitely feeling better!  Over the next few days we ate both of her requests as well as a lot of other fruit and veg as we got her strength back up.

Last week we thought a family outing was needed.  We popped up to Westbourne Grove and spent the morning showing the children all the wonderful produce and playing ‘name the vegetable’ in Daylesford Organic.  We popped into Melt (a wonderful chocolate shop) and watched the chocolatier creating stunning treats and finished by having lunch in one of our favourite places ... Ottolenghi.

If you have not been I urge you to.  It is wonderful.  The window is piled high with the most beautiful cakes and meringues.  As you walk past the cakes you see the savoury food ... enormous white dishes are filled with the most stunning food.  Butternut squash, herbs, aubergine, nuts, beef ... it is quite simply ... food heaven.

We had a delicious meal and Thea has not stopped asking to go back.  We are now on holiday and I packed  ‘Ottolenghi the Cookbook’ so we could enjoy more wonderful flavours while we are away. 

Yesterday we had a shoulder of lamb and I cooked the following sweet potato dish.  It was delicious and so wonderful to sit round a table with two healthy children.  As we raised our glasses I said a little thank you to all those who helped her get better ...

OTTOLENGHI’S ROAST SWEET POTATO WITH PECAN AND MAPLE - Serves 4-6 as a side

Ingredients

850g Sweet Potato, 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil, 35g Pecan Nuts, 4 Spring Onions (thinly sliced), 4 Tablespoons roughly chopped flat leaf Parsley, 4 Tablespoons roughly chopped flat leaf Coriander, 1/4 Teaspoon Dried Chilli Flakes, 35g Sultanas, Salt and Pepper

Dressing

4 Tablespoons Olive Oil, 2 Tablespoons Maple Syrup, 1 Tablespoon Sherry Vinegar, 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice, 2 Tablespoons Orange Juice, 2 Teaspoons Grated Fresh Ginger, 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

• Heat the oven to 190
• Do not peel the sweet potatoes.  Cut of and discard the ends of the sweet potato and then slice the remaining into 2cm rounds and place into a baking tray.   
• Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper and mix with your hands.  Once all the sweet potato is covered spread them out on the baking tray, the sweet potato rounds should not be touching. 
• Pop them in the oven for 30 minutes until just tender.  Turn them over gently half way through cooking.
• Place the pecans in a frying pan and on a low heat gently toast them.  Stir them every ten second or so with a wooden spoon ... it should take a couple of minutes to toast them.  Remove them from the pan and place on a dry chopping board to cool.  Once cool roughly chop them.
• To make the dressing, place all the ingredients in a small bowl with some salt and pepper and mix together.  Taste and adjust the seasoning
• When the potatoes are ready transfer them into a large bowl or plate with high sides.  Allow to cool for a couple of minutes while you cut up the herbs.  Add the spring onions, parsley, coriander, chilli, pecans and sultanas and then pour over the dressing.  Toss the ingredients together gently to combine all the flavours.  Season to taste and serve hot or at room temperature.

Cooking notes

Take care not to over cook the sweet potato, they need to be just tender.  If you cook them too much they will go mushy and fall apart when you add the other ingredients. 

The pecans need to be hot in the pan for about a minute any longer and they will burn.  Once cooked remove them from the frying pan or they will continue to cook and may burn.  If you are not sure about cooking them in a frying pan you can cook them in the oven.  Place on a baking tray and pop in at 190 for 4-5 minutes.

If your sultanas are a little hard (it sometimes happens if they have been sitting in the back of your cupboard for a while) then pop them in a bowl of hot water for 5 minutes.  Drain and dry before adding to the salad.

Adapting

If you are not sure about any of the ingredients do substitute them ... I would recommend trying it as written above first and then adapting if you want to.  I was not sure about the sultanas ... but they work really well.

Lambs Lettuce, Blue Cheese & Pear Salad

I have just read ‘The Busy Trap’ an interesting article which discusses how busy our lives have become.   

Living in London with two small children their are times where I feel that my feet don’t touch the ground.  Reading the article reminded me that much of our busyness comes from over organising our lives.  

We volunteer to help friends, arrange all kinds of extra circular activities for our children, say yes to lots of wonderful invites and the result should be a full and busy life.  I use the word should here ... as sometimes it is hard to get the balance right and the busy takes over.  It is in these moments where it helps to remember to stop so we can enjoy our lives, our friends and make time for little pleasures.

One area where I need to stop the busy and have a little pleasure is over lunch.   

If the children are home we sit down and eat together ... if not I tend to get distracted by my to do list and run round immersed in the busy forgetting to stop and recharge my batteries.

Today, I was inspired to stop.  I gave myself half an hour to make and eat a simple salad and remind myself that busy is good ... to much busy ... is not. 

LAMBS LETTUCE, BLUE CHEESE AND PEAR SALAD - Serves 2 as a light lunch (4 as a starter)

Ingredients

100g Lambs Lettuce, 75g Castello (soft blue cheese), 2 Firm Pears, 1 Heaped Teaspoon of Butter, 1 Heaped Teaspoon of Sugar

• Wash and dry the lettuce 
• Using your hands crumble the cheese over the lettuce
• Peel and core the pears and slice each pear in to quarters then eights
• Place a frying pan on a medium heat and add the butter.  Once the butter is hot and bubbling add the sugar and pears to the pan and gently stir until all the pears are covered and sugar melted.
• Cook the pears for a minute or two on each side till they are soft and slightly caramelised
• Remove the pears from the pan and place on top to the cheese, pour over the juices, drizzle with olive oil and serve with a crusty baguette

Cooking notes

I love Castello for this salad.  If you can not find it Dolcelatte or another similar soft blue cheese will taste good.  If the cheese is too sticky to crumble then just tear of pieces and dot it over the salad. 

You need fairly firm pears for this recipe.  They should be just to ripe to eat.  If they are to ripe they will disintegrate when cooked.

Adapting

If you have a day old baguette to eat up then make some croutons to go in the salad rather than serving with a baguette.  

To do this cut the bread into 1cm chunks, drizzle with olive oil and and pop them in the oven at 180 for 5-10 minutes until golden.  Allow the croutons to cool slightly.  Once cool, sprinkle on the salad leaves just before you add the pears. 

 

Raw Asparagus Salad

Where I can, I try and eat with the seasons.  This week I was excited to see the start of the asparagus season.  Our local shop had bunches of aspargus piled high ... I could not resist a Raw Asparagus Salad.

When I first tasted this salad, with my wonderful friends Emma and Jono, I was intrigued by the idea of raw asparagus, it was not something I had tried before ... one taste and I was hooked.  

It is wonderfully crunchy, very fresh and the perfect side for a slightly cooled roast chicken on a warm day ... or in my case a day when I need to taste a little summer after all this rain! 

RAW ASPARAGUS SALAD - Serves 2 (as a side)

Ingredients

8-10 pieces of Asparagus, 50g Parmesan, 1 Lemon, Runny Honey, Olive Oil, Salt & Pepper

• Remove the woody bit at the bottom of the asparagus 
• Using a potato peeler gently peel the outside of the asparagus.  Start peeling about 4cm down the asparagus and peel to the end of the stalk, you do not peel the head as you want this piece to look pretty in the salad.
• You are now going to cut the asparagus into thin batons similar in shape and size to a match stick.
• Cut each of the asparagus in half lengthways
• Cut the heads of each half of the asparagus (the top 3-4cm) and place in a bowl
• Slice the two halves of asparagus in half again lengthways so you are left with four thin strips of asparagus (if you have very thick asparagus you may need to cut each half into thirds)
• Cut these strips into 4cm lengths and place in bowl
• Repeat with the remaining asparagus
• Using your potato peeler shave the parmesan on top of the asparagus
• Make your dressing by placing the following in a bowl and mixing together: 1/2 teaspoon of honey, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 4 tablespoons of olive oil
• Season the dressing with salt and pepper and pour three quarters of the dressing over the salad, mix and taste, add the remaining dressing if required

Cooking notes

I tend to use 4-5 pieces of asparagus per person ... however this will depend on the size of your asparagus, if you are using very small asparagus you may need more and vice versa.

I do not like over dressed salads so tend to add dressing a little at a time.  

Adapting

If you don’t have any parmesan to hand you could try this with another hard cheese, Comte would be good.

 

 

 

FIG & GOATS CHEESE SALAD

We popped into have a cup of tea with friends this morning.  They kindly offered to feed the children Spaghetti Bolognese for lunch, we accepted straight away ... a big thank you.

With the children fed we took them home for a sleep.  We had just enough time to make a bits and bobs lunch for friends who were bringing their gorgeous 2 week old baby boy to meet us.  

A bits and bobs lunch is what I grew up calling a lunch where you open the fridge and place lots of bits and bobs on the table.  Today I grabbed a packet of frozen petit pois and made Pea Soup, threw a Fig and Goats Cheese Salad together and placed a baguette on a chopping board surrounded by a variety of cheeses and cured meats ... and a little qunice.

The end result was a delicious lunch that took a matter of minutes to throw together.  

This recipe is very simple ... and it is more throwing things together than cooking but for me a Fig and Goats Cheese Salad really makes a bits and bobs meal ... I hope you enjoy it.  

FIG & GOATS CHEESE SALAD - Serves 4 as a Side

Ingredients

1 Bag of baby leaf and herb salad, 4 Figs, 75g of Creamy Goats Cheese

• Place the salad leaves in a bowl
• Cut each of the figs in eight segments and place on top of the salad leaves
• Crumble over the cheese and sprinkle with salad dressing to taste

Salad Dressing

3 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, 1.5 Tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, 1 Tablespoon of agave or runny honey, 1 Teaspoon of wholegrain mustard, 1 Clove of grated garlic and a pinch of salt and pepper

• Place all the ingredients in a jam jar, shake for ten seconds 

Adapting

If you want to add another ingredient to the salad then lay strips of parma ham on top of the cheese or cut it into pieces and mix through the salad.

If you have any ingredients left over and people popping in for drinks ... you can make Fig and Goats Cheese Canapes with the left overs.