Beetroot two-ways with goats cheese, honey and thyme

I bet that some of you have noticed the lack of an apostrophe in the ‘goats cheese’ in the title of this blog post. And I bet that it really annoyed some of you. That’s the funny thing about grammar and punctuation – they make people go crazy.

When I was writing this post I wasn’t sure where to put the apostrophe in ‘goats cheese’. Like any other normal person, I was pretty sure that I would find the answer easily on Google, and that would be the end of it. And then I could write another perfectly pleasant blog post about the many joys of my local Farmers’ Market. I had no idea that can of worms it would unleash. It seems that there is no consensus on the placement of the apostrophe: on the BBC website it is goat’s cheese and on UKTV Food it is goats’ cheese. On Twitter I asked Xanthe Clay and Felicity Cloake and they both said Goat’s Cheese, but I wasn’t convinced.

This is what happened on Facebook to my question of goat’s cheese or goats’ cheese?

           

- Goat cheese. Problem solved!

                 

- That may be good enough for Americans, but it isn't English!

- Capric cheese.


                 

- The Cheese of goats?


                 

- If the cheese belonged to the goat, then it would be goat's... If it was made from a goat but didn't belong to it, it would be goats'... Right????

                 

- if the single cheese was made from a single goat it would definitely be goat's cheese. Other than that I have no idea.

                 

- I'd go with goats' cheese as you can't guarantee its the cheese from a single goat


                 

- I'd say goats' cheese!

                 

- Not sure why but I find this thread really funny!

                 

- Depends, do you want to give it back to them?

                 

- I would have thought *goats cheese*. Have just looked in the fridge to find Goats milk yoghurt and Goat's Cheese. Maybe there isn't just one answer??

- Once had a long conversation with my in-laws in a restaurant over what the menu meant by "a small goat's cheese salad"


                 

- Goat's cheese. Cheese of the goat species. Or just be pretentious and say 'chèvre'.                 

                 

- The cheese doesn't belong to the goat. The milk did, so that would be goat's milk or goats' milk. Now it's turned into cheese, the goat in question is an adjective rather than a genitive noun. Therefore I would go with goat cheese or goats cheese but wouldn't put an apostrophe.

                 

- Neither, as the goat in question does not posses the cheese. It’s not spring's water or olive's oil, is it? Ergo, it is Goat Cheese.

I decided to go with goats cheese. If you disagree, please let me know. But to be honest, I would much rather talk about food than grammar. And I would much rather eat goats cheese then think about how to punctuate it.

Ingredients:

100g creamy goats cheese

2 beetroots – golden if you can get hold of them

Olive oil

Rocket leaves

Fresh spinach – or similar sweet, dark green leaf, like winter purslane

2 tsp. honey

3 sprigs fresh thyme, lemon thyme or a mixture

2 tsp. white wine or cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 180c

Beetroot 1: Rinse the beetroot and scrub off any dirt, but don’t peel. Slice it into 4 or 6 wedges running lengthways. Drizzle lightly with oil and sprinkle with salt. Wrap the wedges loosely in foil and bake for about 40 minutes, until soft. Slice each of these wedges in half again once cooked. Keep warm until ready to serve.

Beetroot 2: Peel one of the beetroots and slice it as thinly as possible – use a mandolin if you have one. Make sure that your slices are going horizontally, so that you get a beautiful ring of colour in every slice. Put the slices in a bowl and toss with a little bit of oil, salt and pepper. Set aside.

Dressing: In a small bowl, mix the honey with a little bit of boiling water to loosen it, and add the thyme leaves to steep. When cool, mix in the vinegar.

Goats cheese: Depending on the consistency of the cheese, either crumble or cut into small squares.

Leaves: Wash in cold water and dry – use a salad spinner if you have one.

Assemble: Build salad in this order – Large flat plate, leaves, beetroot 2, goats cheese, beetroot 1, dressing.

Vietnamese style mango slaw

This recipe doesn’t have the purity or authenticity of my previous mango salad recipe. It is however, just as delicious. It is sweet, spicy, fresh and crunchy. While the other one works best with absolutely rock-solid mangoes, this one is for slightly riper mangoes and is substantial enough for an appetiser, potluck or part of a big meal. This salad has become one of my signature dishes. It is so simple to make but just a little bit different. It may not make a lot of sense, but personally I only buy tropical fruit in the winter - stuff that is imported all year round - so that I can stick to locally grown fruit in the summer and autumn. 

Mangoes, cashews and honey all are considered to be 'tree foods', i.e. things from trees. And while that doesn't seem especially significant to most of us, it is actually significantly important. Tree foods are a vital source of nutrition for families in the drylands of Africa. Every two minutes, a child dies from hunger and malnutrition, which kills more people every year than AIDS, TB and Malaria combined. Trees provide a direct answer to hunger, and the lifeline families so desperately need.

Trees help lift people out of extreme poverty and hunger, and protect the environment

Trees provide produce like fruits, nuts and honey, shea butter and mangoes which villagers grow to eat and to sell, paying for their children’s healthcare and education. Trees can survive drought even when other crops fail.

Trees make the land more fertile by keeping the top soil in place and putting important nutrients back into the ground. Their roots stabilise the ground preventing it from being washed away during the annual rains. Trees mean:

• food, vitamins and nutrients all year round, even when other crops fail
• money from selling tree products to buy food, education and health
• health as some trees can be used in natural medicines
• enriched soil, making the land more fertile for crops to grow
• shade from the scorching heat for people, wildlife and for the crops
• tools and shelter made from bark and fallen wood

With TREE AID, trees are helping people create thriving, sustainable communities in remote and isolated areas of Africa. Our approach is sustainable and cost-effective. We provide:

• trees and seedlings to grow food, improve the environment and much more
• training to grow and care for trees, set up tree nurseries, and earn an income sustainably
• tools such as buckets, pestles, mortars, wheelbarrows and even bicycles!

Read more: http://www.treeaid.org.uk/2015/take-the-tree-food-challenge/#ixzz3uIr1i9Ii

These are the vegetables I like with it, you could also add beansprouts, courgette, red pepper, daikon, mangetout, or whatever crunchy vegetable takes your fancy. 

Serves 6 as a side salad or small appetiser

2 mangoes – not rock solid, but not completely ripe. Peel, slice and cut into thin strips

½ white or red cabbage, shredded

2 sticks celery, finely sliced (crossways – lengthways is too stringy)

½ red onion, finely sliced
1 or 2 large carrots, julienned

2 spring onions, finely sliced duck pancake style, whites and green parts

20g fresh mint, shredded

50g fresh coriander, shredded

1 fresh red chilli, cut in half and finely sliced (take the seeds out if you don’t want it too hot)

Handful roasted, salted cashews or peanuts, roughly chopped

Handful crunchy fried onions (you can make these yourself by frying sliced shallots or smallish onions in coconut oil or veg oil with at least 1/2 tsp salt added - the salt draws the moisture out of the onions and gets them all crunchy)

For the dressing

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
A blob of coconut oil (optional)

1 - 2 tbsp lime juice

½ tbsp honey, or agave nectar

2 tsp. fish sauce (vegetarian/vegan option: 1 tbsp miso paste, or 1 tbsp rice vinegar, adjust to your taste)

1 - 2 inch square of fresh ginger, finely minced

If making the salad in advance keep the dressing, and mango separate until you are ready to serve.

Combine the dressing ingredients in a small bowl.

Gently toss together all of the salad ingredients and mix with the dressing. Serve with the crunchy onions scattered on the top. Eat immediately.

This Christmas, you can help families in Africa grow their own tree foods by supporting the Grow Hope appeal. TREE AID are asking people to support the appeal by fundraising or making a donation. To find out more and make a donation visit the TREE AID website.

Read more: http://www.treeaid.org.uk/2015/take-the-tree-food-challenge/#ixzz3uIqxXpdg

Giant couscous salad with butternut squash and preserved lemons

I love giant (also known as Israeli) couscous – it genuinely makes things interesting, unlike regular couscous which can like a bit of a cop-out unless it is done properly. It is readily available, and I tend to use the Merchant Gourmet brand, because they stock it in my local supermarket and it comes in both regular and whole-wheat – I use whole-wheat.

This salad is fantastic – fresh, sweet and sour, kind of like the big brother of my favourite fruity couscous recipe here. I found it on the brilliant foodie website Epicurious, and I fell in love with the recipe because it includes the instructions for how to scale it up to 50 portions. And this definitely is a good recipe for mass-catering, or potlucks. The original recipe can be seen here. 

Serves 4-6

200g giant (Israeli) couscous

1 small butternut squash (or half a large one) peeled and diced into cubes no bigger than 1 inch

1 tsp cumin seeds

Olive oil

2 preserved lemons

Handful pine nuts or flaked almonds (or both) toasted until golden brown

Handful golden raisins or sultanas

Half a bunch of fresh parsley – washed and roughly chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade.

Rinse the lemons and halve them. Scoop out flesh, keeping both flesh and peel. Cut the peel into smallish dice. Put lemon flesh in a sieve over a bowl and squash with back of a spoon to extract the juice.

Toss the squash with 1 tbsp oil, cumin seeds and salt in a large oven tray and spread in 1 layer. Roast for 30 – 45 minutes, or until it is tender and browned in parts.

While the squash is roasting, cook couscous in a large pot of boiling water according to package instructions, and drain in a colander (do not rinse).

Empty the couscous into a large bowl and add the rest of the ingredients, plus the juice reserved from the lemons, the roasted squash (plus any tray-scrapings) and another tablespoon of olive oil. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Roasted Sea Bass with sumac and za’atar

Hi everyone sorry I haven’t posted anything in a while. This is a slightly different take on my last whole roasted fish recipe but the basic principles and sentiments about eating whole fish and buying it remain the same.Whole roasted or grilled fish is just about my favourite kind of meal. For me it tastes like summer holidays. Its not that it is difficult to make, in fact it is super easy, but it is still a treat. This can be made with sea bass or bream. Versions of this recipe can be seen in most Middle-Eastern cookbooks, and it really is brilliant. Tahini and pomegranate may seem like odd accompaniments if you haven’t tried it before – but believe me, once you try it you will never want to eat fish any other way again. 

Buying fish has become a lot harder lately, but there are some handy websites that you can use to ensure that the fish you are buying has been sustainably sourced. This heightened need for sustainability has led to better labelling of fish and seafood which is a good thing, and most fishmongers should be able to answer all of your questions about where the fish is from – if they can’t, don’t buy from them. Sea bass farmed in the UK is rated ‘1’ according to the Good Fish Guide, associated with the most sustainably produced seafood. Sea bream, which is a good alternative for this dish, can also be bought from sustainable sources. 

In my last post I wrote some advice about buying whole fish, and that advice still stands, I just need to add a little specific to sea bass. Sea Bass have a series of very sharp spikes along their dorsal fins. These spikes will contain anaerobic bacteria – bacteria that doesn’t need oxygen to breathe – and will therefore be much more likely to cause a nasty infection if you stab yourself with one of these spikes. This happened to my mum once – her hand pretty much turned green and she had to get antibiotics from the doctor. So when you are buying them, make sure to ask the fishmonger to cut all of the spikes off for you. Even if buying from a wet fish counter in a supermarket from the confused teenager behind the counter – you have to insist on this. This happened to me once and they called their supervisor over who said ‘of course we should do this’ and then taught said confused young person how to properly trim the fish. If buying the fish pre-packaged (ie from Costco) put some rubber gloves on when you take the fish out of the packet and cut them off yourself before you cook it.

This is not a dish for making earlier and keeping warm – you do not want to cook the fish for any longer than it needs, so make sure that everything else you are planning on making for the meal is ready when the fish is done.

Ingredients:

Whole Seas bass – some are small and so 1 per person, others are larger and can feed more. Sometimes I roast a whole load and put them on a platter for a larger group of people. In those kind of situations, people tend to take a little less and so it can stretch further. You can also use Sea Bream.

1 tsp. Sumac

1 tsp. Za’atar

1 tbsp. Olive oil

Pinch salt – Maldon sea salt if you have it.

 To serve:

Tahini sauce (made with olive oil and lemon juice, see recipe here)

Fresh parsley, well washed and finely chopped

Pomegranate molasses

Pine nuts, toasted in a dry pan until golden brown and fragrant

Fresh pomegranate seeds (if you have them)

Use an oven tray with risen edges, so that the juices don’t spill out into the oven – I tend to put foil on the tray too.

Preheat the oven to 200 if using smaller fish, 180 is using larger fish.

Give the fish a rinse under the tap and check that the middle section has been properly cleaned through – you may have to pull out a few little veiny things. Using a sharp knife, carefully make 3 -4 slashes on both sides of the fish, being careful not to cut through the bone (or slice off a finger).

In a bowl, mix the olive oil with the sumac and za’atar. Put the fish on the tray, coat generously with the spiced oil and sprinkle with salt. Make sure that a little goes into the cuts you have made in the sides of the fish. When using small fish I tend not to flip them during cooking and so only put the seasonings on the top. If using a bigger fish, put the seasonings on both sides. If using a small fish roast for 15 minutes – bigger ones will need around 25, flipping halfway during cooking. Don’t overcook!

Toast the pine nuts and make up the tahini sauce while the fish is cooking, and mix in the chopped parsley. Pour the parsley tahini sauce into a serving dish and top with a little pomegranate molasses and the pine nuts.

Many recipes recommend dressing the whole fish with the tahini and pomegranate seeds, but this doesn’t really work for me. The tahini sauce can cancel out the crispness of the skin on the fish, and the coverings make it much harder to identify any stray bones. I would recommend serving the tahini sauce on the side, with the pomegranate seeds in another bowl for people to help themselves to. Whatever you do, please don’t cut the head off the fish before serving – its just not right.

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!

Humous, my way

Most people have their way of making humous – here is mine.

Humous is one of my staples. I really can’t live without it. During Passover when I can’t have it (because I am of Ashkenazi origin), I really suffer. If I marry a Sephardic Jew (presumably a male one) I will be able to eat chickpeas over Passover – it is problematic because I have always said that I don’t need to marry in order to be happy, but chickpeas might actually be the exception to the rule. Seriously, who needs equality and a strong individual identity when you can have humous for an extra week every year?

I started making my own when I was in university because it was cheaper, and I still do because it is so much tastier. I like it thick and lemony, with a little garlic and spices, with marinated chickpeas on the top for variation of texture, fun, and to make it look super impressive. The only drawback to making your own over shop-bought is that home-made humous only lasts for a few days – although in my mind, by highlighting all of the preservatives in the shop bought varieties, it makes me want to eat them even less.

The quantities given below are enough for a mezze of 10 people. See my new mezze label for more recipes.

For the humous:

2.5 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed (pick through the drained chickpeas and squeeze off as many of their rubbery skins as you can bare. This is time-consuming, but trust me, it makes for a far better humous. I tend to set a time-limit for this, e.g. as many as I can pick off in 15 minutes.)

3 tbsp. runny tahini sauce (made fresh from tahini paste, see method here – I always have some on the go for making humous, baba ganoush, eating with a spoon, and drizzling over roasted fish, aubergines, butternut squash, or whatever else that takes my fancy)
2-3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon, more or less depending on your tastes
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed (depending on tastes or social plans -  if the cloves are big I tend to use one and a half)
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
salt to taste

For the marinated chickpeas:

Half a can of chickpeas

1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. smoked paprika (or more according to your preferences)
1 tsp. sumac
1 tsp. za’atar
salt to taste

Make the marinated chickpeas in advance if possible, or at least before you start making the rest of the humous. Just put everything in a bowl and mix well.

After the skins are removed place the chickpeas in a large bowl with the other ingredients and blend with a hand-blender until smooth. Using a hand-blender as opposed to a food processor will give you greater control over the consistency of the humous – you want it to be smooth, but not blended into oblivion. You may want to add a little water to create a smoother dip – I like mine almost cementy. Season with salt and taste, adjusting the lemon and spice levels according to your preferences.

Serve with the marinated chickpeas on top of the humous (make a little well in the centre of the dish) and drizzle with a little extra olive oil and za’atar.

So that's how I make my humous - how do you make yours? Please leave me a comment if you have any recommendations for interesting combinations or additions 

*breaking news* see my chocolate hazelnut macaroon recipe for Kosher Kingdom here

Get your early-bird Gefiltefest tickets here

Tabouleh with Apricots

Tabouleh is one of my favourite salads, and it has been for as long as I can remember. For me, it is magic salad. A friend recently asked on facebook: ‘what food when you eat it today takes you back to your childhood?’ My immediate response was Spaghetti Hoops, but actually, it is tabouleh, known to my childhood self as ‘magic salad.’ When you are little, I guess absorption is a bit hard to comprehend. Even though I now understand that the water covering the bulgur wheat doesn’t magically disappear, the associations of excitement and wonder remain.

As they say in Jerusalem, ‘If you want to find a good husband, you’d better learn how to chop your parsley properly.’

Tabouleh is all about the parsley.  I cook with a lot of parsley, obviously I am just trying to perfect the chopping method. Traditionally tabouleh is mostly herbs with a little bulgur wheat, but my recipe is more similar to my mother’s, which uses a higher ratio of bulgur wheat. This makes the salad a little more substantial and a little less time-consuming (the herbs take ages to pick and shred properly). Also like my mother and unlike the Ottolenghi/ Tamimi recipe, I don’t put any spices in the tabouleh. I use spices in most of my cooking, so it is nice to have a side salad that is really fresh-tasting, to balance with the rest of the meal.

Dried apricot and spring onion tabouleh, serves 6 - 8

Ingredients:

150g bulgur wheat

1-2 cloves of garlic (depending on your social plans for the rest of the day), crushed

Big punch of fresh parsley, about 100 - 150g, leaves picked and chopped (a little stalk is fine)

Fresh mint, about half a small pack 15 – 20g, leaves picked and chopped

3-4 spring onions, finely sliced (greens as well as white)

handful of dried apricots, diced (I buy these ready-diced. It costs the same and they are coated in a little rice flour so that they don’t stick to anything)

2 – 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

juice of half a lemon, more if you want

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the bulgur wheat in a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water as if you were making couscous. Leave for about 10 minutes until most of the water is absorbed and the bulgur wheat is cooked but still al dente. Drain off the excess water and while the bulgur wheat is still warm, add the garlic and olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Mix in the other ingredients – adding extra lemon juice and olive oil if you want to. Tabouleh gets better over time, and I normally leave it for a day before digging in.

Variations:

Cucumber and tomato (finely diced)

Pomegranate, red onion and crispy fried shallots