A Wee Bit of Cooking

Cheating a little tonight as I’ve posted this recipe before but using purple sprouting broccoli rather savoy cabbage.  It’s one of my favourite winter recipes though as, aside from being really tasty, the greens and herbs and brown pasta give this dish a really wholesome feeling.  Just what one needs when flus and colds and other such bugs are out in force.

 Savoy Cabbage, Anchovy and Herb Pasta

(for 1)

2 tblspn olive oil

3 anchovy fillets

1/2 onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 tsp chopped rosemary

1 tsp chopped parsley

6-8 black olives, chopped

1 tblspn capers

1/2 lemon

Approx. 4 large leaves of savoy cabbage, finely shredded

75g whole-wheat spaghetti

Parmesan shavings

• In a heavy based frying pan, melt the anchovy fillets gently.
• Once the anchovies have melted into the oil add the onion, garlic, rosemary, parsley, capers and olives and fry gently until onion is softened and the flavours have combined.
• Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in plenty of salted water.  Add the cabbage to the pan 5 minutes before the spaghetti is cooked.  Save a little of the cooking water.
• Drain the spaghetti and cabbage and add to the onion mixture.  Loosen with a little cooking water and the juice from the lemon.
• Season very carefully (remember the anchovies and parmesan are salty) and serve with parmesan shavings.

My first souffle.  And it worked!  And it was divine!

So proud I could pop. 

Squash Souffle

(serves 5/6 as a starter)

1 small butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks

Olive oil

Seasoning

Pinch of mace

150ml thick bechamel sauce made using SR flour rather than plain – I use this method.  Half the amounts then reduce the amount of milk again by about 50ml.

2 eggs, yolks and whites seperated

1 tblspn chopped parsley

Optional – blue cheese or goats cheese or parmesan

Finely grated Parmesan

• Toss the squash with a little olive oil, seasoning and mace.  Roast in a 200 oC oven for 40 mins until soft and golden brown.
• While the squash is roasting, make the bechamel sauce and set aside.
• Mash the squash, parsley, egg yolks and cheese (if using) together.  Mix in the bechamel sauce.  Season carefully. 
• Whisk the egg whites until they are stiff.  Use a metal spoon to fold the egg whites very carefully but thoroughly into the squash mixture.
• Spoon mixture into lightly oiled ramekins until 2/3 full.  Sprinkle lightly with parmesan and bake in a bain marie (baking tin with 2m of water in it) for 20 minutes until risen and golden brown.

It’s a rare autumn day that a butternut squash is not found in my kitchen.  I haven’t tried growing them (yet) but I love them.  Their smooth skins and big bums always look so appealing and they keep so very well that, even on the weeks I have no plans of using squash, I tend to surreptitiously sneak one under the floppy greens in my trolley.  It’s never a mistake.  There’s so much one can do with a squash, I think.

Like this.  This idea came from last month’s Olive magazine.  As soon as I saw the picture I had to make it.  It didn’t disappoint.

Butternut Squash Roast

(serves 2)

1 butternut squash, cut in half length ways and seeded

Olive oil

1/2 tspn chopped rosemary

1 clove of garlic

1 small courgette

1 red pepper

Small red onion

Handful of cherry tomatoes

Goats cheese

Bread crumbs

Parsley

Seasoning

• Preheat oven to 180 oC.  Score the flesh of the butternut squash deeply and brush with the olive oil.  Rub in the chopped garlic, rosemary and seasoning.  Roast for at least an hour until the flesh is soft and yields to a fork.
• Meanwhile, chop the courgette, onion and pepper into small cubes and toss with a little olive oil.  Roast in the same oven as the squash for 20/30 mins until soft and slightly brown round the edges.
• When the squash is ready, remove from the oven.  Add the roasted vegetables and halved cherry tomatoes to the cavity of the squash and pile the remainder along the neck.  Sprinkle with goats cheese then parsley then the breadcrumbs.  Season and roast in the oven for another 10 – 15 minutes until the breadcrumbs are toasted and the goats cheese is all gooey.

Usually what happens when the school holidays roll around is that I have much more time to devote to blogging.  Well, not so this time.  My dreamy plans of long walks, boozy visits, vigorous runs, lazy lunches and plentiful posts were dashed to pieces by both unfortunate unforseen circumstances and underestimated study commitments.  It was, in the end, a rather fraught couple of weeks and I’m actually now rather glad to be back in the  bustle of the classroom for a “break” from it all.

I still had to eat though.  And I still made sure I ate damn well.  So one upshot of my hectic holidays is a backlog of recipes to share.  Hooray for bright sides!

A simple one to start with.  Ate this every day until the pastry ran out. 

Tomato Tart

Ready made & rolled puff pastry

Tomatoes

Basil leaves

Milk

Seasoning

Optional – blue cheese

• Cut the rolled pastry into a circle or rectangle big enough for you or how ever many you are feeding.
• Slice the tomatoes thickly and place onto pastry layering slightly and keeping a couple of centimetres from the edges.
• Tuck some torn basil leaves in here and there.  Season and sprinkle the cheese over the tomatoes if you are using it.
• Brush the edges of the pastry with milk.
• Bake in a 210 oC pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes until pastry has risen and tomatoes and cooked through.

When I read that Julia and James were holding a food event in honour of the late Keith Floyd, I knew I wanted to join in.  News of his death last month sincerely saddened me as his cooking style and recipes and joie de vivre always inspired me and made me smile.  Have you read the epilogue in Floyd on France?  It’s a short chapter describing a day of eating and socialising in a small French town - possibly Provence, don’t have the book to hand – and it’s one of most uplifting pieces I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading.  Really.  Seek it out.

It was his TV programmes Floyd was perhaps most famous for.  I have to admit, I’m generally not into food shows.  Don’t have anything against them at all and I do have my favourite celebrity chefs (Jamie!) but watching demonstations of cooking and listening to hints and tips just doesn’t suit my learning style at all.  I get bored.  Just give me a cookbook and let me start experimenting!  That said, Floyd’s programmes were the exception.  Perhaps it was the interesting variety of places he cooked in or the variety of people he introduced us too or the alcohol fuelled tantrums or the wry enthusiasm he exuded, I’m not sure.  All I know is that half an hour of Floyd flew by in a haze of giggles and scribbled notes.

Back to the blogging event…

It took me a long time to decide what dish to make and post about.  Looking through Floyd’s books there were lots of things I hadn’t tried and was intrigued by and more that I had made and enjoyed.  Plenty of options then.  In the end I settled on a simple tabbouleh not only because there are still plenty of good tomatoes around but also as it was the first Floyd recipe I ever made.    I remember hurriedly jotting down the recipe in a Finnish library at a time when I was just, just starting to get interested in cooking.  It was successes that came from recipes like this that encourged me to keep cooking and eventually created the food obsessed monster that writer to you all now.

P.S. Must admit, this is no longer the only version of tabbouleh I make. The Ottolenghi version that was in The Guardian recently was really very good and much bolder than the version I’m used to.  Still think this is my favourite though.

Tabbouleh (which book this came from and how much it resembles the original recipe I’m not sure!  It’s been tweaked from some hastily written, fairly indecipherable notes on the back of a library leaflet.)

(serves 4)

1 cup bulgar

5 perfect ripe tomatoes, skinned, seeded and chopped finely

1 garlic clove, crushed

1/2 small red onion, chopped finely

1 spring onion, chopped finely

Big handful of parsley, chopped finely

Big handful of coriander, chopped finely

Small handful of mint, chopped finely

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

• In a small pot bring the bulgar and 1.5 mugs of water to a boil.  Put the lid on and simmer for a few minutes until water is almost absorbed.  Remove from heat but keep lid on for 10 mins.  Remove lid, fluff up bulgar and leave to cool.
• Mix the tomatoes together with garlic.
• One bulgar has cooled add all of the ingredients to a large bowl and toss well to combine.  Taste for seasoning or extra lemon juice or whatever else isn’t quite right.

We ate this last night with lamb and aubergine kebabs and tzatziki.  Very good it was too.