Roasted chicken with Jerusalem Artichoke and Lemon

I can’t believe that I am reaching the stage where I have all the ingredients to cook Ottolenghi dishes – my cupboards are bursting since I started buying tons of tahini paste, pomegranate molasses, date syrup, kecap manis, sumac, pink peppercorns, barberries…

I have a complete mental block when it comes to following recipes – or following instructions of any kind. My mind wanders and inevitably I miss out a vital step sometimes I find it easier to read a recipe and then close the book and just do my own thing. I need to really focus my mind and concentrate to follow a recipe fully, but even then it rarely works, my big head gets in the way and I decide to do my own thing anyway.

With Ottolenghi cookbooks, I think that the recipes are written unnecessarily complicated-ly. For me, this makes cooking from them an exciting challenge and a bit of an experiment. They are always really delicious though.

I have adjusted the quantities in this recipe a bit, based on trial and error during the cooking process. Some of this is just because the specified volume was just plain ridiculous, and another was to calm down some of the very strong, and slightly conflicting flavours.

Do the prep before you start cooking – so so much prep for this recipe. I know it does seem like a lot of work, but essentially once everything is chopped you just bung it in the oven, making it a surprisingly simple Ottolenghi recipe. The finished dish does taste like something that someone spent a lot of time on, so I think its worth it.

 Whoever thought that raw chicken could look that pretty?

Ingredients

8 chicken thighs or mixed pieces, on the bone with skin

Roughly 450g Jerusalem artichokes – AKA fartichokes, AKA duvet-lifters. If you buy these from a grocers or good supermarket, the slightly pink skin may be really clean and they won’t need peeling. When I buy them from the Farmers’ Market no amount of scrubbing with a nailbrush removes all the dirt, and they need to be peeled. To prepare them for this recipe, peel or not, and cut in half lengthways – or more wedges depending on how big they are – you want the wedges to be a similar size to the shallot halves

10 banana or echalion shallots, peeled and cut in half lengthways

8 cloves of garlic – this seriously is less than the recipe – peeled and sliced

1 lemon, cut in half lengthways and sliced thinly

1 tsp saffron – if you have it

50ml olive oil

150ml water

1tbsp pink peppercorns, bashed a bit (in a mortar and pestle if you have one). This is less than the original recipe

10g fresh thyme

10g fresh tarragon, plus a few more leaves for garnish (this is also less than the original recipe)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Put the Jerusalem artichokes in a saucepan, cover with plenty of water (add a squirt of lemon juice to the water) and simmer them until tender but not completely soft –roughly 10-15 minutes. Drain and leave to cool.

Mix the cooled Jerusalem artichokes with all of the remaining ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Cover and leave to marinate for at least two hours – overnight is better.

When ready to cook, pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees, or 200 with fan. Arrange the chicken pieces (skin-side up) in a large roasting tin, and tip the veggies and saucy marinade liquid around the edges and gaps. Season with salt and pepper, and roast for 40 minutes. Cover with foil and cook for a further 15 or so minutes, until the chicken and the veggies are cooked through. Serve garnished with a few flourishes of reserved tarragon leaves.

Puy lentils with cherries, spinach and blue cheese

This is another recipe adapted from the fantastic Ottolenghi cookbook. I have cooked more from this book than any other cookbook I own.

Lentils, cherries and blue cheese might sound like a bit of an odd combination, but it really works. I first made this dish mainly because I was curious as to how the flavours would work together and had all the ingredients to hand, and I was completely blown away by how yummy it was. Sweet, salty and rich, it would make a lovely starter for a seasonal posh dinner, or a really fabulous lunch.

Serves 2, 4 if serving as a starter

Ingredients:

125g puy lentils, or 1 can of ready cooked

2-3 shallots, or half a small onion, finely chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp water

1 tsp caster sugar

60g dried cherries (I used dried morello cherries)

50ml red wine vinegar

80g fresh spinach

About 120g blue cheese (it is a strong flavour so just add as much as you fancy. The recipe specifies gorgonzola, but I used blue stilton)

Salt and black pepper

If you need to cook the lentils, wash them and then boil them in a lot of water with a couple of bay leaves for about 20 minutes, until they are cooked but al dente.

To make the sauce, heat the olive oil in a saucepan, add the shallots and sauté over a low heat for about 10 minutes, until softened and golden. Add the water, sugar, cherries and vinegar, and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Drain the lentils (either from saucepan or can) and add them to the cherry sauce, stir, and if using ready cooked lentils, warm them up in the sauce. Add the spinach and keep the heat on until it wilts. Taste and season with salt and pepper (not too much salt as the cheese is quite salty).

Serve warm or at room temperature, with a little raw spinach and the blue cheese crumbled over the top.

Roasted aubergines with walnut and pomegranate salsa

Adapted from http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/roasted_aubergine_with_99135

A while back there was a TV programme on the BBC about the various fruits and vegetables grow in the UK but underutilised by suppliers and consumers. Either the food item itself wasn’t very popular, or it was just a lot cheaper to grow them overseas. For each episode a famous chef would investigate a particular item, talk to growers and then share some recipes. It was disappointingly dull. One good thing to come out of it though, was this incredible recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi on an episode focused on walnuts. Who would have thought that a half hour television programme about the British walnut growing industry could be boring? I was shocked.

I had never eaten or even seen a pickled walnut before I made this recipe, but I like walnuts, and vinegar, so thought they couldn’t be that scary. Boy was I mistaken. They are icky like how vacuum-packed cooked beetroot is icky – with added layers of ick due to the fact that they look nothing at all like a walnut, but a brown squishy blob thing. But my inner feminist domestic goddess would never be beaten by something as trivial as a pickled walnut, so I ‘ovaried up’ and carried on with the recipe. And it was definitely worth it.

Ingredients

4 medium aubergines

4 tbsp olive oil

Coarse salt (sea salt or I use pink Himalayan rock salt) and freshly ground black pepper

For the salsa:

125g walnuts, chopped

80g or 2 whole pickled walnuts, chopped

2 tsp liquid from the pickled walnuts jar

1 and a half tbsp cider vinegar

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp chopped parsley

The seeds from ½ pomegranate. My insights into de-seeding pomegranates can be seen here.

Method

Preheat the oven to 200c.

Cut both the aubergines in half lengthways through the stalk (its prettier that way). Score the flesh in a criss-cross pattern, being careful not to go through the skin and stab yourself in the hand with a knife.

Oil the cut side of the aubergines. Aubergines can absorb an awful lot of oil. I reckon that the best way to make sure they are coated but don’t absorb too much oil is to pour a little on the baking tray and press the cut side of the aubergine into it for a second or two.

Sprinkle the aubergines with a generous pinch of salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Place on a baking tray, flesh-side up, and roast in the oven for about 40 minutes, or until the flesh is cooked through and turns a dark golden-brown. Leave them in the oven with the oven off and the door closed for at least another 10 minutes.

Make the salsa by mixing all the ingredients together just after you put the aubergines in the oven. I reduced the levels of vinegar from the original recipe, as I wanted it to be a little lighter. Just before you are ready to serve it, taste it and judge if you feel it needs more vinegar.

Serve the aubergines on a big platter slightly warm or at room temperature, with the salsa spooned over the top. If you have any extra parsley and pomegranate seeds you may want to scatter some over the top of the finished dish too.

Creamy kohlrabi salad with mint and sumac

This week I have been tweeted by Nigel Slater, Mollie Katzen and Esther Walker, and so am feeling like an absolute star.

Here is my version of the kohlrabi salad in Yotam Ottolenghi's wonderful cookbook Jerusalem. I know kohlrabi isn’t particularly summery, but this salad would make an excellent alternative to coleslaw at a barbecue, a picnic, or part of a light but luxurious summer evening meal.

I made this salad for the first time using mint from the mini-allotment in the garden at Moishe House London, after spending a few hours turning soil, digging up weeds and hacking up an out-of-control lovage plant. Covered in dirt, smelling like homemade rotten nettle plant food and with spiders in my hair, this salad was the perfect reward for my rare attempt at manual labour (along with hazelnut vodka, and cheesecake).

Kohlrabies look a little bit like alien baby heads. They are super delicious, tasting a little bit like a

cross between radish, cabbage, and granny smith apple. Kohlrabi is excellent in a salad as it keeps its freshness and ‘crunch’ really well, even after sitting in dressing for a few days. I have reduced the dairy content of the original recipe a lot, so there is just enough creamy-ness for the salad to feel special, but hopefully not enough to induce any food-guilt.

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 kohlrabies, peeled and cut into 1.5cm dice

2 soup-spoon-sized blobs of crème fraîche

1 small clove of garlic, crushed

2 spring onions, finely sliced, if you like them

about ½ tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

lemon juice

5 big mint leaves, shredded

sumac, about 1tsp

some little spinach leaves, or watercress

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Mix the kohlrabi cubes with the crème fraîche, olive oil, garlic, spring onions if using and mint. Add a squeeze of lemon or two, and season with salt and pepper.

To serve, either mix the salad with your chosen leaves, or pile the salad gently on top of them. Sprinkle the sumac over the top.

Fried butterbeans with feta, sorrel and sumac

This recipe is adapted from ‘Plenty’, the excellent vegetarian book by Yotam Ottolenghi. Sorrel is a little like lemony spinach, and if you can’t get hold of it, just use spinach and add a little more lemon.

Sorrel is a traditional ingredient in some Eastern Jewish recipes, most notably a soup known as Schav. I thought this recipe was interesting in a fusion kind of way in that respect. I have never really liked butterbeans, but the recipe had sumac in it, and therefore was probably right up my street. And it was delicious - it turns out that I just don’t like butterbeans in cholent.

This salad was filling and fresh tasting. The creaminess of the butterbeans, with the lemon and salty feta was a really fantastic combination.

Serves 2

1 can butterbeans, drained and rinsed

Olive oil

3-4 spring onions, sliced lengthways into strips

1 garlic clove, crushed

100g sorrel, washed and cut into 2cm strips, with some reserved and sliced finely for garnish

1 tbsp lemon juice (add more or less depending on how much sorrel you have, or how lemony you like it)

50-80g feta, cubed/crumbled

2 tsp sumac

Handful chopped fresh parsley

salt and freshly ground black pepper

You will probably need to fry the beans in two batches.

Fry the beans in a little olive oil on a medium-high heat until golden brown and blistered.

When cooking the final batch, when the beans are almost done, add the spring onions, sorrel and garlic, and fry for about a minute.

Take the pan off the heat and mix together the beans from both batches, and season lightly with salt and pepper (remember that the feta you will add later is salty). Cool down to room temperature.

When cooled, drizzle over the lemon juice, and scatter with the feta, extra sorrel, parsley and sumac.

Some of the butterbeans will burst a little, but don't worry about it - its tasty!

Celeriac Sofrito

I first tasted this dish a few weeks ago when I volunteered, together with Moishe House and Brondesbury Park Synagogue at Rumi’s Kitchen, in Cricklewood Mosque. About once a month, a group of people come together and cook for the homeless. What’s wonderful about it, is that it isn’t so much about the food, but about creating a sense of community. Much love to Becky for introducing them to me. See below* for details about Rumi’s Cave.

I had never worked in an industrial-sized kitchen before, and absolutely loved it. The pot I was stirring was so big that it went over four rings on the hob, and the heat was so intense that two of us were stirring together to keep the celeriac from sticking. The original recipe was chosen by someone from the synagogue, it is an Ottolenghi dish, served with oniony meatballs. This recipe here is my adaptation.

In Jerusalem, Ottolenghi/ Tamimi explain that a sofrtio has its origins in Sephardic Jewish cooking, and refers a cooking method. Originating from the Spanish verb sofreir (to fry lightly). It involves slowly cooking meat in a pot on the stovetop with only oil and very little liquid. The result is a very tender texture and rich, comforting flavour. Turmeric, garlic and lemon are traditional flavours for this. Although traditionally associated with meat, it works incredibly well here with just veggies.

Celeriac is a pretty new ingredient for me. I have never been the biggest fan of root vegetables, but celeriac is brilliant. Every day on Masterchef Professionals someone seems to be making celeriac puree, so it can’t just be me. I have made this recipe a few times now, and I really love it. It’s sunshine-yellow and lemony, and the spices add an incredible warmth. I’ve added a few potatoes for a little variety in texture – the celeriac becomes really soft and almost creamy.

Makes enough for 4-6 as a side dish.

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil


1 celeriac, peeled and cut into approx 5cm x 1.5cm batons. I intentionally cut some a little small and some a little big, for different textures.

About 8 small waxy potatoes (I use charlottes) cut into quarters

2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed


1 tsp ground turmeric

½ tsp each cumin and coriander


1 tsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed


¾ tsp smoked paprika


1 mug-full of chicken or vegetable stock (1 cube) – you may need a little extra liquid


Juice from half a lemon – more of less depending on your preferences


Salt and freshly ground black pepper

The potatoes take a little longer to cook, so start them off cooking before you peel and chop the celeriac. Heat the oil in a large saucepan/or deep frying pan and add the potatoes, stirring quite frequently on a medium heat. Add the celeriac when it is ready, along with the turmeric, fennel seeds and other spices. Fry these all together for 5-10 minutes, until the spices start smelling fragrant and the veggies look cooked at the edges. Add the garlic and fry for another 5 minutes, stirring all the time to prevent it from burning. Then add the mug of stock, and simmer for at least 20 minutes. As there isn’t that much liquid, you will need to stir quite regularly to prevent it from sticking to the bottom (you may need to add a little more liquid, but don’t add too much).  When the potato quarters have cooked through and the smaller wedges of celeriac have started to disintegrate and thicken the sauce, season with the lemon, salt and pepper. Goes very well with thick Greek yogurt or Labneh.

8 celeriacs cooking in the giant pot at Rumi's Kitchen

Another volunteer and I stirring the giant pot. I love my apron 

my normal-sized version - slightly too orange as my hand slipped with the paprika - tasted nice though

Served with herby labneh and pomegranate seeds

*Rumi’s Cave is a community space located in the heart of Kilburn in London. It is run by charity, Ulfa Aid as a way of engaging and reaching out to the community. At Rumi’s Cave, we aim to create an environment of spirituality, creativity and learning for everyone, despite race or religion. Their mission is: Spirituality, Creativity, Education, Community, Charity.

http://rumiscaveblog.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/162/

Cold Soba Noodles with Chilli and Peaches

Adapted from Plenty. This salad is one of the nicest things I have made in a while. It is sweet, refreshing, sharp and spicy. Multi-coloured, and pretty easy to put together too.

One of the things I love about my community is the pot-lucks.  When I first moved in just over two years ago, the concept terrified me. As some of you may know, sometimes, I can be a little tightly-wound – the thought of coming together for a meal comprising of unknown food was too much to cope with. What if the balance of carb/ veg/ protein was off? What if there was too much humous? What if there was Indian and Chinese food? But of course, I was wrong.

The unknown is the best part. Debbie D says this much better than me:

“[Communities] such as Wandering Jews, Carlebach Minyan and Grassroots Jews are fuelled by vast pot-luck dinners. Alongside shop-bought goods, guests can showcase their signature dishes to a chorus of ‘Mmm, who made this?’ The quality and quantity of food may vary, but the symbolism of each guest contributing to a communal meal is not lost on the convenors of these transient communities.” (http://cartoonkippah.com/come-lchaim-with-me-a-new-dining-experience/)

At this year’s Grassroots Jews New Year, I was privileged to be part of a pot-luck with about 200 amazing people. ‘Mmm, who made this’ went round a lot. This dish came to me through a rumour – someone said, I can’t remember who, that there was a noodle salad with mangoes and aubergine that I just had to try. When I saw it I recognised it immediately as being from the vegetarian cookbook Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi. And it was delicious. I’m still not sure who made it, but they kindly left the recipe, which is now taped to the fridge in the Moishe House.

Cold noodles is one of my favourite things to eat, and so a week ago I decided to try out this recipe for myself. When I got to the supermarket though, the new-in-season peaches looked so fantastic that I knew I needed to use them. I had also just spent what felt a week of my life grilling aubergines and didn’t really want to cook with them either (you can have too much of a good thing). So here is my variation of the soba noodles in Plenty, with peaches and a few other tweaks.

Serves 3-5, as a salad.

Ingredients

100ml rice vinegar

1-2 tsp honey* (more or less, depending on your tastes)

2 tsp soy sauce (likewise)

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 medium sized fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced

1-2 tsp toasted sesame oil

grated zest and juice of 1 lime

250g soba (buckwheat) noodles

2 ripe peaches, stoned and sliced (I like to leave the skin on for the colour, it also prevents the fruit from disintegrating into the salad)

1 large handful beansprouts

Toasted broken-up cashews, about ½ a cup

2 spring onions, whites and greens sliced on the diagonal

½ a bunch of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

To make the dressing, warm the rice vinegar with the honey – I used a microwave. When the honey has melted in and everything is warm, remove from the heat and add the garlic, chilli, sesame oil and soy sauce.

Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions (my packet said to cook for 4-6 minutes and I boiled them for 4, but in hindsight I should have taken them out at 3). Drain them and rinse them under cold water to halt the cooking process. Shake off the excess water and leave them to dry a little on a tea towel.

In a large bowl mix the noodles with the dressing and the rest of the ingredients. If not serving immediately, leave out the coriander until you are ready to serve, otherwise it will wilt.

*I have labelled this vegan despite the honey, so feel free to use some sugar or agave syrup if you would like to

Baba Ghanoush, my way

Here is another ode to the aubergine. A dip of roasted, smoky aubergine and tahini. When I first came across it, its greyish and lumpy appearance wasn’t the most appealing to be honest, but the taste soon won me over. In The New Book of Middle Eastern Food Claudia Roden describes baba ghanoush as “exciting and vulgarly seductive” – possibly one of the best compliments anything could have. People also make a version with mayonnaise, which I hate with a fiery passion. Somehow it transforms this wonder into a sweet, eggy sort of wallpaper paste.

There are infinite ways to make this, and this one is my favourite. And I really do love it. My flatmate Claudie just asked how long it keeps in the fridge, a perfectly valid question, but the answer is that it never lasts long enough for me to find out. According Jerusalem, there is apparently major disagreement as to whether proper baba should have tahini in it, or just olive oil. I am in the tahini camp.

I wrote in the miso aubergines post that I wasn’t sure how aubergines have become such a symbol of Jewish food – but I have done a tiny bit of research and of course Claudia Roden and Yotam Ottolenghi/ Sami Tamimi provide the answers. Apparently, while aubergines were brought to Spain and Italy by Arabs, Jewish people are credited for introducing them because they took them into the countries when fleeing various aggressors and moving and trading among the Arab Moorish and Christian cultures in the 15^th and 16^th centuries.

Ottolenghi/Tamimi writes in Jerusalem:

“Few ingredients have reached the level of veneration achieved by the humble aubergine or have found their way to almost every table in Jerusalem. Everybody loved to be associated with the aubergine – it’s like the local celebrity. The number of people who claim to have invented baba ghanoush, or at least elevated it to the level of fine food, is extraordinary.”

Ingredients:

2 aubergines

1-2 cloves garlic, crushed – you can either use these raw, or fry them slowly in olive oil until glossy and sweet

olive oil

tahini sauce** 

ground cumin – freshly toasted and ground if you have the time, this is however one of the few recipes where I give you permission to use the ready-ground

smoked paprika

lemon juice

salt and pepper

handful chopped fresh parsley – optional but very tasty

Turn the oven to 190-200C

Method:

Prick the aubergines all over with a fork or sharp knife. Put them in the oven and bake for at least 45 mins. You can check on them after this time by pressing them gently with a fork or some other non-finger implement – they should have wrinkled and be soft to the touch. Depending on how hot/pre-heated the oven was, this could take a good hour. This would be a lot more authentic by the way if done on a barbeque. I wouldn’t recommend scorching them over a flame on the hob though – however fun it may be to stick a fork in a pepper and burn it over a flame (terrifying flatmates in the process), aubergines are just a bit too big. And the concept of covering your entire hob in foil and just leaving the aubergines on the rings for half an hour sounds a bit much. Leaving them alone in the oven is just easier.

Once the aubergine is soft and a little collapsed, allow it to cool until it can be handled – this is a hands-on messy bit. Putting the aubergines on a large plate or oven tray, carefully peel away the skin, reserving any flesh that comes away with it. Break the aubergine open a little to allow some of the excess water to drain away – you don’t want a watery baba! At this stage I also remove some of the big clumps of seeds – there is hardly any flesh on them and I just don’t think they are that good. Give whatever flesh is left a squeeze or shake to get rid of any remaining water, and chop the whole thing up – so that it goes a little pulpy in parts.

Add the chopped aubergine flesh to a big bowl with the tahini, garlic and parsley if using. Add about ½ teaspoon of cumin and ¼ teaspoon of the smoked paprika, a few spoons of lemon juice, salt and pepper. Mix well and taste, adjusting the different seasonings to your liking. I like it with a lot of lemon, and sometimes also a little bit of hot chilli powder or cayenne pepper.

I love it with pita, quickly warmed in the toaster – so that the edges are a little charred, but it is warm and soft in the middle. Apparently it goes very well with rye crackers too.

** Tahini: I used to buy this in little jars from health food stores or supermarkets, but over the past few years I have become so addicted to it that I now buy it in 1kilo plastic tubs from local Middle-Eastern stores. I use it whenever I make humous, baba, as a dressing for salads, roasted fish or meat, or as a dip in its own right. I always turn it into a sauce first  – when using the paste ‘neat’ it has too cement-y a texture.

To make tahini sauce, put a few tablespoons of tahini in a bowl and add a little water and lemon juice. When you start stirring, the mixture may seize and become grainy, but don’t worry this is normal. Continue adding water and mixing until the sauce becomes creamy. Add more lemon juice to taste along with a little salt, pepper and some garlic. This makes a good salad dressing with a little honey added too. 

*BREAKING GEFILTEFEST NEWS* For next year's festival, there will be two new awards, 'The Gefiltefest Jewish Cookbook Awards'. One will be a public poll for the best English language cookbook, and there will be a panel of expert judges giving a separate award. Any publisher is welcome to submit books relating to any aspect of Jewish food, as long as they are published between May 2012 and May 2013.

Green beans and Mangetout with Hazelnuts and Orange

Here is another recipe from the wonderful Ottolenghi cookbook (I just pre-ordered the next one-yippee!). This salad is refreshing, crunchy and a little unusual. The nuts make it more substantial than a standard veggie salad, adding a warm and protein-y element.

I have made this salad twice. The first time I cooked the green beans and mangetout seperately as the recipe suggested, and it worked fine, but having all that water, saucepans and colanders was a bit too much of a logistical challenge for my very small brain. So the second time I made it, I cooked the veggies all-together, carefully timing it so that the mangetout went into the water after the green beans had been in for 3 minutes. But then small brain struck again, and I realised that it was far too much to all fit in the colander at the same time - and they need to be drained pretty quickly so that they can be refreshed, and the cooking ceased. I won't go into the details of the mental bean-balancing act that followed. So i will write the method staying true to Ottolenghi, and leave any time-saving ideas to your own judgement.

I have scaled down the oil somewhat from the original recipe - the addition of orange juice is mine as well (seemed silly not to incorporate it).

They suggest toasting the hazelnuts in the oven, but i always use a frying pan. For a simple reason that I always burn nuts and seeds if they are not toasting under my watchful gaze! I leave the choice of toasting venue up to you.

I recently tried a variation on this made by Suzy, which included fresh green peas, and dill and red onion instead of the chives and hazelnuts. Also potentially lemon instead of the orange - I forgot to ask.

They say that it serves 6 – but it stretches much further depending on how many other dishes you are serving with it.

Ingredients

400g green beans, stalks trimmed

400g mangetout (or sugar snaps, that works too)

70g hazelnuts, toasted and roughly chopped

1 orange, zested and juiced

20g chives, chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp hazelnut oil (or walnut oil, which is what I used)

salt and pepper

Bring plenty of water to the boil in a large saucepan (you need a lot of space for the veggies, to preserve the colour). Blanch the beans in the water for 4 minutes, the drain them in a colander and run them under tap water until cold. Leave to drain and dry. It is really important to make sure that they get completely cold so that they don’t continue to cook – no-one wants overcooked green beans! Repeat this with the mangetout, but only cook for 1 minute (see above note).

Mix the garlic and chives with the oils, zest and a tbsp or so of orange juice, and season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Toss the dressing with the green beans and mangetout, and scatter the hazelnuts over the top.

Interlude number 2 – the cookbooks

Here I am with another break from cooking (don’t worry I haven’t stopped). As I said in my first ever blog, I have too many cookbooks. I really do love them though, and as far as addictions go, it isn’t exactly the end of the world. Yes it is much easier to look for a recipe on the internet, but there is something about their physical presence, squashed on the shelf, arranged according to food style (of course). I love books where the emphasis is on the prose, and the personal journey or nostalgia of the writer.  They inspire me with my cooking, with my foodie adventures and my writing.

Not all of the cookbooks on the shelf are mine, others include: a great book on food activism Soy not “Oi”; Vegan Cooking for One, possibly the most depressing cookbook on the planet; Claudia Roden’s wonderful epic The Book of Jewish Food; Aromas of Aleppo, a great book on a really specific and rich culture – sometimes I wish that my own cultural heritage was a bit more complex than potatoes, herring and beetroot. I do love chrayne though…

Here is a list of some of my favourite cookbooks, what they are like and how they inspire me. I have left out a few of my favourites as I have harped on about them enough for the time being (The Moosewood Cookbook, Apples for Jam, Ottolenghi, River Cottage Veg Everyday!). Most of my favourite books were given to me as gifts, and so much love and thanks to those wonderful people who gave them to me.

Spooning with Rosie – Rosie Lovell

I first heard about this book eavesdropping a colleague talking on the phone about what she was cooking for dinner (a colleague whose food judgement I trust). I heard the word ‘spooning’ and I knew that I had to look into it. Anything that includes spooning is ok by me. Rosie Lovell owns a trendy little deli in Brixton, and she is a little bit like the kind of person I want to be. Her writing is multi-sensory and evocative “another late night in Soho…Now as usual, my alarm is pounding at me, calling me to the deli. Showered and squeezed into trusty jeans, I dash out the door of my damp 1930s flat. Round the main road I pass Simon, one of the more amenable local down-and-outs. ‘All right, Ma’am.’ He’ll be in later for his hot chocolate with five sugars…Electric Avenue is particularly alive at this time of morning, with sex-workers, red snappers, pig’s tails and pulsing beats coming from every crevice…”

The book includes a range of recipes in different styles, with a fantastic breakfast section. I haven’t actually made anything from this book yet, but there is a lot on my hit-list, including some coconut cakes made almost entirely out of condensed milk, a smoked mackerel and chard bake with a crunchy top, and grated apple and cheese on toast – genius! My one criticism would be that there aren’t enough photographs of the dishes, and the spine is pretty solid, so the book doesn’t prop open as easily as I would like from a cookbook. There are however some incredible illustrations of food-maps, pairing traditional flavours, kitchenware and hygiene tips. There is also a little section on food ethics.

The Great British Bake Off – Linda Collister, Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood

I loved this show so much. When it comes to competitions on TV, I’m not into sports, amateur singers make me cringe, and even potential next top models can’t hold my interest. Give me cake and an unrealistic amount of pressure and I’m there. Watching the contestants plead into the camera about how their kids won’t love them if they don’t win, or crying into their potatoes just makes me so happy.  From the looks of my Facebook and Twitter feeds, I think everyone else loved The Great British Bake Off too.

This book is just fantastic, it has all of the really good recipes from the show – both from the participants and the technical challenges, with incredibly detailed step-by-step instructions and beautiful photos. It is easy to follow and every chapter begins with an explanation of the practicalities and science behind baking. I haven’t cooked anything from this book yet but Hannah recently made the coffee and walnut traybake, and it was really delicious – she was really impressed with the book, and said that it explained the principles of cake in a way that most other books fail to convey. Recipes I want to try include Earl Grey cupcakes, Mary Berry’s Brandy snaps, filled with cream and dipped in chocolate and pistachios, and Jason’s (the really cute young one) salmon and pak choi quiche.

And Mary-Anne! Remember her? Remember her incredible patterned sponges? Truly one of the best things I have ever seen on a cake, and the recipe is in there! Makes me so happy. One day I am going to be organised and motivated enough to make someone a cake with ‘happy birthday’ or something written into the sponge.

I am unimpressed with the macaroons though, even the photos aren’t that good – mine (Ottolenghi’s) are better.

World Vegetarian – Madhur Jaffrey

This book had more little paper bookmarks in than any other book I own. It is an opus – over 600 recipes listed alphabetically according to vegetable (first artichoke, then asparagus), each with an introduction, place of origin and easy to follow recipe. There is also a section on dried beans, lentils and nuts. The book is well-researched and exotic: while there is a focus on Indian food, there are recipes from places such as Trinidad, Sri Lanka, Sumatra, Afghanistan and Korea. Makes an incredible index and research tool, useful for how to prepare veggies, and aspects of food culture and history. One of the recipes which I have made many times is the poached aubergines with a Korean hot sauce – the recipe says that the kochu jang can be substituted with a mixture of miso and cayenne pepper. And its very tasty. Recipes I want to try include Papas a la huancaina – Peruvian potatoes with a spicy cheese sauce; Goan style black-eyed beans flavoured with anise, coconut and ginger; Nigerian red kidney bean stew with a peanut sauce – it’s a recipe that has peanut butter in it, so of course I am there.

The Flavour Thesaurus – Niki Segnit

Emma bought me this book as a present for my 25^th birthday. From what I can recall she gave it to me on the train, and I then spent the rest of the entire journey jumping up and down in my seat and reading bits of it out loud to her, like an over-excited 7 year old. An opus of 99 different flavours and their best, and worst combinations. The concept of the book is “Pairings, recipes and ideas for the creative cook” – it’s a book for those who know how to cook, so the actual recipes are stripped back and presume a large amount of knowledge. I like this because it makes me feel a little bit smug every time I understand what she is talking about. As well as recipes there are tips, bad ideas, history, pop-culture and nostalgia.

I keep a bookmark in the book covered in my notes- recipes and ideas I want to try. I bought the novel Like water for chocolate after she referred to it a few times amongst various flavour combinations, and of her other advice was as good as that, this book is my new bible. Her writing is evocative and resonant – in terms of writing styles, hers has influenced me the most. Check out this tip about aubergines: “ideally an aubergine should be as tight and shiny as dolphin skin. Similarly they should squeak when you pinch them.” Recipes on my list to try so far include a chocolate cardamom tart and fennel seed crackers to serve with Stinking Bishop or a similar washed-rind cheese.

The Vintage Tea Party Book – Angel Adoree

“A complete guide to hosting your perfect tea party.” This is a really lovely book.  Angel Adoree runs the Vintage Patisserie and has perfectly set flame-red hair, and an enviable cleavage. As well as recipes the book has cute little crafting sections (invitations, painting on china, fascinators) as well as all the other tips you may need to become a super-hip vintage chic. Her tips for styling the perfect victory curls have been very useful. Some of the recipes are really interesting – the cakes, eggy things and chocolates especially. On one page, Angel arranges open triangular sandwiches with ribbons like bunting – SANDWICH BUNTING!!! Can you think of anything more brilliant? Perfect for the jubilee weekend I think. I haven’t made anything from this book either, but there is a very interesting recipe for an Earl Grey chocolate truffle which I am very keen to try. There is one recipe which is so incredibly complex, simple and sensual that my thighs tremble a little bit just thinking about it – I’m going to keep it under wraps for the time being, but I will let you know if I make it!

Moro, The Cookbook – Sam and Sam Clark

I think the main reason for buying this book was because Moro is so damn trendy. I was once walking down a street and ACTUALLY WALKED PAST MORO! I have never felt cooler by association.  It is actually a lovely book, and the paper just feels so nice. And Sam and Sam really know what they are talking about. This is probably one of the best-researched books I have (Claudia Roden’s doesn’t count because I don’t technically own it). Spanish/ Muslim Mediterranean in style, the recipes are spicy, exotic and warming. As I don’t eat pork, there are actually a lot of recipes in this book that I can’t eat – but they sound so good I have been known to try and convince others to make them, and describe it to me (yes I know, I’m a dork). It also requires ingredients like proper Spanish sherry and sherry vinegar – like Ajo Blanco, a very delicious white gazpacho – a vehicle for legitimately eating copious amounts of garlic. The fish tagines look incredible too, and the cauliflower with saffron, pinenuts and raisins. And the bitter chocolate, coffee and cardamom truffle cake – oh my.

Pistachio shortbreads with cardamom

One of these days, I am going to become the kind of person that always has homemade cookie dough in the freezer – always half an hour away from a freshly baked cookie. What could be better? And these babies are a pretty fantastic place to start. This is another recipe from the Ottolenghi cookbook, which is definitely up there with the greats. I have now made 6 dishes from this book and they have all turned out perfectly, and my friends who have tried others say that they were all brilliant too. To have a book with inspiring recipes, interesting prose, fantastic photos and recipes that actually work is pretty special.

These were first made to celebrate a working oven at our little flat in Willesden – for the first time since moving in a year and a half ago, we have an oven whose temperatures I trust. Precision is pretty fundamental to baking. I have made these a few times first without the pistachio border (I didn’t have any pistachios) and I thought they were brilliant – but then I tried them with the nuts and oh wow. They add a sort of savoury, complex balance that’s hard to explain, but really really delicious.

Makes about 20 cookies – fits perfectly on 2 baking trays so no need to cook in batches.

Ingredients

8 cardamom pods

200g unsalted butter – softened

25g ground rice or rice flour (this is really vital to making these cookies ‘not just short, but positively tiny’ and can be found in healthfood stores and good supermarkets)

240g plain flour

½ tsp salt

35g icing sugar

60g shelled pistachio nuts chopped finely with a knife or food processor – not as fine as ground almonds – you want some larger lumps too

1 free-range egg, lightly beaten

2 tbsp (or so) vanilla sugar (if you don’t happen to store your vanilla pods in sugar, you can buy vanilla sugar quite cheaply in supermarkets in handy little shakers)

Use a pestle and mortar to split the cardamom pods and grind their seeds into a fine powder.

Ottolenghi suggests using an electric mixer with a beater attachment to make the dough, but I managed pretty well with a big bowl and a spoon. Either way, you want to incorporate the flours, cardamom, salt, icing sugar and butter until it forms a dough. If doing this by hand it may help to soften the butter for about 10 seconds in the microwave first (you do not want it melted).

Turn the dough out and roll it into a log 3-4cm in diameter. This can either be done by dusting it in a little flour, or with a piece of cling film folded over the dough. Either way, when it is shaped, wrap the log in cling film and leave it in the fridge to set for at least half an hour.

Brush the cookie dough log with the beaten egg and roll it in the ground pistachios, and then wrap it back in the cling film and put it back in the fridge for at least another half hour.

While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 150c (with fan). When ready, remove the cling film from the dough and cut the log into slices 5mm – 1cm thick. Lay them on trays lined with baking parchment (or foil, parchment is better though), and dust with the vanilla sugar.

Bake the cookies for 20-25 minutes – you want them to look slightly golden but not much more than that. Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool before carefully removing from the tray – except for that one, slightly misshapen one that gets picked up hot off the tray, just for quality control though! Store the cookies in a sealed jar, box or cookie tin.