Roasted leeks with walnuts, yogurt and tarragon

Because she is wonderful, when my flatmate Shana came back from her last trip to the States, she brought back some cooking magazines for me to flick through, and I found ideas that inspired this recipe. American cooking magazines are so much fun, British ones look like dowdy sensible aunties in comparison.

I had never cooked leeks in this way before. They had always been a hidden ingredient in something else, and never the main element of a dish. This recipe really makes leeks shine, they are sweet and oniony and delicious.

This would make a brilliant starter or side for two people (increase quantities as needed)

Ingredients

3 leeks

1 tbsp olive oil

Sea salt

15g walnuts

75g natural yogurt

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Zest of 1 lemon

Approx. 2 tsp chopped fresh tarragon

Method

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees

Clean and trim the leeks, and cut them in half lengthways. A clever thing to do (which of course I forgot), would be to keep the stem of the leek, to stop them falling apart when you cut them open.

Arrange the leeks on a baking tray, drizzle them with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast them for 20-25 minutes, turning occasionally, until softened with some delicious roasty dark bits.

While the leeks are roasting, toast the walnuts in a dry frying pan (or put them in the oven), until they are fragrant and a bit charred in places. Let them cool and brush off any burnt skin with your fingers. Toasting really transforms the flavour of the walnuts so don’t miss this step out. Crumble up a few of them for the artful garnish later.

Make the yogurt dressing by mixing together the yogurt with 2 tsp of extra virgin olive oil, lemon zest, tarragon and a pinch of salt. Save a little of the tarragon for the artful garnish later.

To serve, arrange the luscious, roasted leeks on a serving plate, and use a grater to grate some of the toasted walnuts all over them. This might seem a bit odd, but it works really well.* Drizzle with the yogurt dressing and garnish with the reserved artful garnishes - tarragon, and crumbled walnuts.

*It was a bit of a revelation actually, as it is so hard to find vegetarian parmesan. 

Homemade labneh with parsley and pistachios

Someone once said ‘blessed are the cheesemakers’ and I think they had a point.*

When I was in Italy in the autumn we went to visit an artisan cheese factory somewhere in Umbria. It was all a bit stinky and damp, but the cheese was phenomenal.

Here is a way to make the super delicious Middle-Eastern yogurt-cheese labneh. It is also a bit damp, but not stinky. Much much love to Shana for showing me the way, and for the use of the genuine Australian cheesecloth.

To make approximately 500g of labneh you will need:

1 kg natural yogurt (low fat is fine)

Cheesecloth/muslin

A big bowl

To make the labneh exciting and delicious you will need:

Extra virgin olive oil

salt

½ clove garlic, crushed (optional)

Big handful fresh parsley, finely chopped

Handful pistachios, chopped

1 tsp sumac

Lemon juice

Method

  

Fold the cheesecloth in half and drape it over the big bowl. Pour the yogurt into the cheesecloth, gather the edges together, and knot or tie with elastic bands. Liquid will immediately start seeping through the cheesecloth. Hang the ball of yogurt so that it can drip freely, and leave overnight. 

Note the ingenious use of cupboard handle to hang cheesecloth

The following morning, untie the cheesecloth and scrape the thickened yogurt-cheese into a container.  Add a generous pinch of salt and a drizzle of olive oil, and mix well. At this stage you could also add a bit of garlic if using, some sumac, or any other nice spice. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Before serving, stir through some fresh parsley and sumac, and scatter with the pistachios, and some more parsley. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.

You could also roll the labneh into balls, roll the balls in za’atar or chilli flakes, and store in the fridge in olive oil, which is very nice too.

*Because cheese is amazing. I'm not saying that I am especially blessed by making labneh. 

Roasted cauliflower with tahini and date syrup

Dear wonderful followers, occasional readers, and one-off Googlers,

Sorry that things have been a quiet round here. I have been having a bit of a hard time in the part of my life that isn’t to do with food or films. I realised that I completely wear my heart on my sleeve, so I have been trying to keep to myself, to contain any misery. I know it isn’t emotionally healthy, but I have never been very good at following my own advice.

What is interesting is that in spite of all that is going on with me, I have been eating relatively healthily, and doing more exercise than usual. Partly it is because comfort-eating is such a f**king cliché, and partly is that eating well and doing some endorphin-generating activity does actually make me feel better. I never thought I would be the kind of person who sweated voluntarily, but it seems to really work for me. I have been told on a few separate occasions that I have the legs of an athlete, so maybe the rest of my body will catch up soon.

Cauliflowers are for me probably the big fluffy duvet of the vegetable world. This recipe is really delicious, and I have been eating a lot of it lately. It is a bit like a healthier, Ottolenghified cauliflower cheese.

One medium-sized cauliflower will make enough for a mezze dish for up to 4 people. I tend to buy the extra-large cauliflowers wherever possible. I have left the quantities here vague so that you can scale up/down depending on how much you are making.

Ingredients

Cauliflower – separated into florets (ranging in approximate size from walnut-egg).

Olive oil

Sea salt

Tahini sauce (directions on how to make can be seen here. Omit the garlic and add enough liquid to make a good drizzling consistency).

Date syrup

Za’atar

Method

Preheat your oven to 200 c (180 with fan)

Toss the cauliflower florets in olive oil and arrange them in one layer on a baking tray. Grind some salt over them, and roast them for 25-35 minutes, or until cooked through and browned in places. Try not to eat all the pieces straight out of the tray, and let them cool to room temperature.

Arrange the cooled cauliflower on a nice plate (this is very important), and drizzle with tahini in artful swirls. Add an artful swirl of date syrup on top of the tahini (a little goes a long way), and sprinkle some za’atar over the top.

And feel better.

Coriander and peanut pesto, for noodles

Noodle pesto!! This is definitely one of the most exciting things I have come across in a while. This recipe is my invention, but was inspired by Niki Segnit’s coriander pesto concept in the wonderful Flavour Thesaurus, under the paragraph on coriander/peanut. The Flavour Thesaurus is a truly wonderful book and I highly recommend it as gifts for creative foodie people.

This Vietnamese style pesto has the same wonderful consistency and richness of regular pesto, but with a flavour profile that works wonderfully with noodles. It would also be a good way of using up fresh coriander – it always seems to come in bunches that are just impossible to get through before they go soggy and soapy. Just make a load of pesto and freeze it.

When cold this pesto will be a little more solid than regular pesto because the coconut oil solidifies, but don’t fret - it will absolutely behave like pesto in all its wondrous ways once you introduce it to some hot noodles.

Ingredients

Makes enough for 2-4 portions of noodles (depending on how you like your noodle:pesto ratio)

1 handful roasted salted peanuts

2 cm lump fresh ginger, roughly chopped

1 medium sized fresh red chilli, roughly chopped – don’t remove the seeds

1 handful fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped

2 handfuls fresh coriander, roughly chopped (pick out particularly woody bits of stem)

3 tbsp coconut oil, melted.

Method

You could, I suppose, just put everything but the oil in a food processor, blitz to pesto consistency and then add the oil. But here is how I made mine:

Pound the peanuts in a mortar and pestle until they form a coarse crumb, then add the chilli and ginger and pound to a dry-ish paste. Add this to a large bowl with the herbs and blitz a bit with an immersion blender. Add 2 tbsp of oil and blitz again until it looks more or less like pesto. Stir in the rest of the oil, taste and see if it needs extra salt (depending on how salty the peanuts were). You might want to add a bit more oil too.

 

What I then did with it

I boiled up some soba noodles with frozen peas, and stirred in some of the noodle pesto, and a splash of lime juice. This was then mixed into a salad with quorn fake chicken pieces, shredded lettuce, some peanuts, chopped mint and coriander. And it was delicious.

Lentil and chestnut soup

For the past few months I have been followed around by really perfect pulse and chestnut soups. My stalkers tend to be inanimate – I was once stalked by a £10 note.

The first time I encountered a perfect pulse and chestnut soup was in Italy on Silvia Nacamulli’s fabulous cookery course (see here for more superlatives). It was a chickpea and chestnut soup, flavoured with garlic and rosemary, and it was astounding. I had never experienced so much flavour coming from a bit of lumpy broth before. I tried to recreate it when I got back home, but it just wasn’t the same.

The second time I encountered a perfect pulse and chestnut soup was at my work’s Christmas lunch at a fabulous gastro-pub called the Anglesea Arms in Hammersmith. It was a lentil and chestnut soup, thick and dark, butter-rich, and swirled with buttermilk and herb oil.

With these two perfect pulse and chestnut soups now inspiring me, I set out to try and create something on my own. So here is my version. It is thick and rich, and although it is long past Christmas, while it keeps raining like this I’m sure that hearty soups will stay welcome.

Ingredients

275g brown lentils – approx 1 and a half cups.

250g peeled chestnuts, not frozen. 

1-2 tbsp olive oil 

1 onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 sprigs rosemary

1 carrot, peeled and diced

vegetable stock cube

salt and black pepper

To serve:

yogurt or crème fraîche in fancy swirls or drizzles

olive oil

toasted pine nuts, pumpkin seeds or almonds

sherry vinegar, a few drops

Makes about 8 servings

Method

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, add the onion, carrots and rosemary and fry on a medium until the onion is golden and the rosemary fragrant. Be patient, it might take a while. Add the garlic and fry for a few minutes more.

Add the lentils, chestnuts, and carrot bits, together with the vegetable stock dissolved in one litre of hot water. You will need more water, but I find it better to just top it up as needed, as opposed to putting too much in to begin with.

Bring the soup to the boil, put the lid on and simmer for about 40 minutes until the lentils are soft. Add more water as needed.

Remove the rosemary stalks, add some salt and pepper and blend with a hand blender until more or less smooth, with a  few lentil-y lumps. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed. 

Please note that this soup needs a bit of developing time – it tastes much better if made ahead of time and reheated than fresh.

Serve with all or some of the suggested serving flourishes.

Accompany, as I did (on all pulse and chestnut soup occasions), with a lot of wine.

Not Duck – Slow cooked turkey legs for Chinese pancake joy

Here is another guest post, this time from my Mum. She contributed the wonderful Panzanella recipe a while back, and also taught me how to cook, so I think she is pretty brilliant. She also doesn’t get too miffed when I claim credit for her recipes…

She has made Not Duck a few times, and it works fantastically every time. It makes a really excellent Shabbat meal, especially if you have a lot of people to feed. Turkey legs are much cheaper (and bigger) than duck, so it is also an economical way to have a full-on feast.

Here are her words:

One of the things I love to eat the most is Crispy Aromatic Duck – this is not it; but it comes close! I was introduced to this recipe by my niece Michelle, who I believe got it from her sister in law and on it goes.

I am convinced that one of the reasons that this is so successful is due to the theatre of the dish. All of your senses are involved.  It couldn’t be easier to make but you do need to use a slow cooker.

Ingredients

2 turkey drumsticks (or more if you have a big enough pot)

Vegetable oil

Duck sauce or Hoisin sauce, whatever kind you like

To serve:

Duck pancakes

Spring onions, cucumber

More Hoisin/Plum sauce

Method

Massage a thin coating of oil onto the turkey drumsticks and put them in the slow cooker cook on low for at least 7 hours. I tend to put it on before I go to bed and turn it off when I get up the following morning. It feels very scary not to put in any liquid, but I promise you it does work.

Leave the drumsticks to cool in the liquor they have generated for a short time. Then remove them and shred the meat finely, throwing away any bone, skin and yucky bits. I have tried to do this elegantly with forks, but really you will get the best results by using your hands to do it also make sure that the turkey is still hot when you do it. The meat should fall apart into long luscious strands.

Having shredded all of it, put in a suitable baking dish and moisten with a little of the turkey juice. Then come the magic, add about 3 tablespoons (or so, sorry I don’t use precision for this bit) of your duck/hoisin sauce. Mix well and bake in a hot oven (200⁰) for about 20 mins until turkey is warmed through and has gone a bit crispy on top. If you aren’t going to use it all, freeze it at this stage.

Serve with warm duck pancakes and the usual accompaniments of plum or hoisin sauce, shredded spring onion and cucumber. Assemble, roll up and enjoy! 

Peanut butter and cherry cookies

Adapted from a recipe I tore out of a Sainsburys magazine

There is something completely cathartic and magical about baking, and I don’t do it anywhere near as much as I should. Cookies are actually really quick to knock together, and oh so satisfying. As the winter carries on and gets even more damp, dark and relentless, treats like these are always welcome.

As you may have noticed, I love cooking with peanut butter. Peanut butter and jam on toast is one of my guilty pleasures. I practically lived off it when I was at university. For me the jam has to be a purple kind as opposed to red – blackcurrant or cherry, never strawberry. Classy people may turn their noses up at ‘pb and j’, but really, it is just another example of how sweet and salty can be the best of friends.

These cookies are absolutely fantastic - they echo the ways in which peanut butter and jam work, but in a more sophisticated and less sticky way. I have reduced the sugar a lot from the original recipe, but they are sweet enough, with delicious bursts of sweet and sour from the cherries.

Makes 24 ish

Ingredients

100g unsalted butter, softened

125g light muscavado sugar (this is les sugar than the original recipe)

200g crunchy peanut butter – I use Meridian brand, which contains no added sugar, salt, palm oil, or anything else other than peanuts - I recommend using it for cooking, but for just eating it on toast it takes some getting used to.

1 large egg

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

200g plain flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract, optional

125g dried cherries – I used dried morello cherries

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 c with fan, and line two baking trays with baking paper.

Mix the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until creamy and amalgamated. Mix in the peanut butter and egg, and then sift in the bicarbonate of soda, flour, and salt. Stir well and add the cherries and vanilla if using. Mix everything together until a soft dough forms.

Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls and space them evenly on the baking sheets, use a fork to flatten them a bit and make some cute groove shapes in the top.

Bake for 12 – 14 minutes – it is a little tricky to tell if they are done because the dough is brown-ish anyway from the peanut butter. They will be soft when they come out of the oven, but will harden up as they cool down.