Mushrooms on toast

Life’s simple pleasures.

Serves two classy people for a starter, or one greedy person for a meal.

Ingredients

200g chestnut mushrooms, sliced

1 tbsp (approx) Olive oil

1 echalion/banana shallot, or half an onion, finely diced

1 clove garlic, crushed or finely diced

1 tsp grain mustard

1 tbsp crème fraîche

2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper

½ tbsp (approx) lemon juice

Toast - as much as you like.

Method

In a large frying pan, fry the onions in a glug of olive oil over a medium/low heat for a few minutes until starting to soften and colour. Add the mushrooms and fry for another ten or so minutes, stirring from time to time. Add the garlic and parsley, fry for a further two to three minutes, and then stir in the mustard, crème fraîche, lemon juice, a little salt and a lot of pepper.

Serve with toast. Happy days.

Grilled pepper bruschetta

(nice things on toast, part deux)

Maybe I’ve lost my mojo. It is hard for me to think that maybe my creativity stemmed from my unhappiness, but at least that realisation has given me something to work on.

I have been away at a yoga retreat in Turkey (bliss), and my yoga teacher Dimuthu said something really interesting about scar tissue, and how sometimes we protect old injuries, whether physical or emotional, so carefully that the scar tissue which builds is far bigger than the injury, creating a huge block. That concept resonates with me a lot. I am so much happier now, but maybe I am still protecting those old wounds. 

Inside the yoga studio

I definitely needed a holiday

So anyway, back to food. Being at a vegetarian yoga retreat in Turkey I am, of course eating extremely well. The food is simple and wholesome, and mostly grown in the hotel gardens. I have been taking a lot of notes, and really look forward to recreating some of the dishes when I get home; things like bulgur wheat as a side, full-fat yogurt swirled with olive oil, and tahini swirled with apricot and hazelnuts.

This pepper bruschetta recipe, despite being more Italian in influence, I think it works with the style of the food I have been eating here too – simple vegetables and good olive oil. Some of the best things to eat on a hot day.

Ingredients

Approximately 3 red or yellow peppers. It is hard for me to estimate how many peppers you will need, but obviously it is better to make a bit too much than too little. Any leftovers would be wonderful in a salad or pasta sauce, or just as more bruschetta.

2 tbsp good quality extra virgin olive oil

½ tbsp cider or white wine vinegar

Approximately 5 basil leaves (depending on how big they are), torn up

Coarse-ish sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

For the bruschetta:

6 slices of ciabatta, or similar lovely Italian bread

1 clove of garlic, peeled

Really good quality extra virgin olive oil

Method

This quantity makes approximately 6 pieces of bruschetta – obviously depending on how big your slices of bread are.

Preheat the grill to very hot, but not the hottest it can go.

I find it best to line trays with foil when roasting peppers, as the liquid that comes out of them can be difficult to scrub off trays once it has burnt.

Grill the peppers for 3-5 minutes each side, until softened and blackened in places. When they are done, put them in a bowl and cover it tightly with cling film to let them steam.

When the peppers have mostly cooled down, peel off their skins and take out the stalks and seeds.

Slice the pepper flesh into thin-ish strips and put them in a bowl with the olive oil, vinegar, the torn basil leaves (save a few bits for garnish), and some salt and black pepper.

Cover the bowl and leave the peppers to marinate for at least half an hour. Put them in the fridge if you will be leaving them for longer than half an hour, but make sure to remove them from the fridge in enough time to come back up to room temperature before serving.

To make the bruschetta toast the bread on both sides, and then rub one side with garlic (serving side up).

To serve, spoon the pepper strips onto the bruschetta and garnish with the remaining bits of basil leaf.

 

Broccoli and anchovy bruschetta

Adapted from The River Café Cook Book, officially one of the best books of all time ever.

Sorry that I haven’t written in a while, I’ve been very busy starting a new job and moving into a new flat. Its been an intense few weeks, but I’m feeling absolutely brilliant, and happier than I have felt in a long while. I started out with this blog because I was feeling terribly unfulfilled, and that is certainly not the case now. That definitely doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop blogging now that other aspects of my life are getting better. I feel like my capacity is just getting bigger. Does that make sense?

This little recipe is the first part of a two-parter, otherwise known as ‘nice things on toast, the mini-series.’ Possibly with more nice things on toast to come, because they are always brilliant.

Bruschetta makes an excellent starter or light meal. I love the messiness of it. The unstructured, loose topping and crunchy toast means that you have to use your fingers, with luscious olive oil dribbling down to your elbow. This is especially rewarding when serving it to guests.

This quantity makes approximately 6 pieces of bruschetta – obviously depending on how big your slices of bread are.

Ingredients

About half a large-ish broccoli. Separate into florets and cut each one in half. You could also use tenderstem or purple-sprouting broccoli, which I suppose would be a bit more summery.

20ml olive oil

A large clove of garlic (or two if you like it super garlicky), peeled and thinly sliced

6 anchovy fillets (in oil)

Juice of ½ a lemon (cut the other half of the lemon into wedges for serving)

Freshly ground black pepper

For the bruschetta:

6 slices of ciabatta, or similar lovely Italian bread

1 clove of garlic, peeled

Really good quality extra virgin olive oil

Method

Blanch the broccoli pieces in salted boiling water for a minute or two, until slightly softened but still bright green. Drain well.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan low-ish heat and fry the garlic until it just starts to colour. Add the anchovies and stir until they melt. Add the broccoli and a small amount of boiling water (roughly 1 tbsp). Season well with black pepper, stir and cook for five or so minutes, until the broccoli is soft. Add the lemon juice.

Toast the bread on both sides, and then rub with garlic (I rub one side only).

To serve, pile the broccoli mixture onto the bruschetta and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil, and serve with lemon wedges.

Glorious melba toast

Crispy crackers made out of toast, super easy and just wonderful.

Each slice of bread will make 4 pieces of melba toast.

To make, preheat your oven to 180 degrees c.

Get some slices of brown bread, and toast them in a toaster.  Cut the crusts off, and then cut each slice in half horizontally through the middle, so that you have two thin squares of toast, crisp on one side, fluffy on the other. This sounds tricky, but it really isn’t, use a regular bread knife and it will be fine. 

Cut each slice in half diagonally to create two triangles, and arrange all the toasts, fluffy untoasted side up, on a baking tray. Bake for about 15 minutes until completely crisp and curling at the edges.

Leave them to go completely cold until you box them. Serve with smoked mackerel pâté, humous, this amazing pumpkin seed dip, some posh cheese, or whatever else you fancy.

Sorry about the light...

Smoked mackerel pâté

One of the things I look forward to about becoming a famous food writer/humanitarian/film critic/wag, is being able to go on Strictly Come Dancing, Dessert Island Discs and Saturday Kitchen. Saturday Kitchen is a relatively innocuous food programme, but here is just something about James Martin’s sweet-natured demeanour and the haphazard live format that I just completely love. My food heaven would probably be globe artichokes or fresh tuna, and my food hell would be bananas, and any form of mashed up fish: fish mousse, fishballs and gefiltefish just completely make me gag. Call me a bad Jew, but Gefiltefish is just the most vile thing in existence.* All except for the surprising wonder that is smoked mackerel pâté.

As well as being absolutely delicious, smoked mackerel pâté is also incredibly easy to make, and a really excellent thing to make as a starter/nibble when you are hosting. A bit of smoked mackerel pâté, toast cut into triangles and wine will keep guests very happy while you faff about in the kitchen.  

Ingredients

4 peppered smoked mackerel fillets, peel the skin off the back (yuck)

100g cream cheese (I used a reduced fat one)

1-2 tbsp crème fraîche to keep it lovely and light (I used a reduced fat one)

Lemon juice to taste, no more than half a lemon’s worth

Method

Put the smoked mackerel fillets in a large bowl and use a couple of forks to flake them up – under no circumstances use anything resembling a food processor. 

Add the cream cheese, stir in a bit, and then add one tablespoon of crème fraîche. Mix together well. Use your judgement to see how thick it is looking and decide if you want to use the second tablespoon of crème fraîche. 

Add the lemon juice and stir, taste and add more lemon juice if you think the pâté needs it.

Works very well with melba toast – recipe coming soon.

*Unlike Gefiltefest, the London Jewish Food Festival, which is completely wonderful. The fifth annual Gefiltefest is being held at the London Jewish Cultural centre on Sunday the 15^th of June – save the date!