Ideas for horseradish

Horseradish is one of those things that I knew I liked from the jars and restaurants, but I had no idea what it looked like until I bought one a month or so ago at the Spice Shop off Portobello Road. It looks like this:

It is worth noting that this is A LOT of horseradish. As I said, I bought it a month ago. I have made a lot of things with it (some that worked and some that did not) and it is still going strong.

Here are some of the things I did that were more successful:

Cold roast beef and veggie salad

Roast root veggies like onions, beetroot and carrots and toss with rocket and a salad dressing with grainy mustard and grated horseradish. Serve with roast beef.

Celeriac and apple soup

Make a celeriac and apple soup, and garnish with grated horseradish, black truffle oil and black pepper.

Sausages with apricot ketchup

Soften onions and add fresh apricots, apricot jam, grated horseradish and water. Bring to a boil for a few minutes and then reduce it to a simmer until thick. Add more grated horseradish before serving.

I am trying to come up with additional ideas of how to use it, as I love the short, sharp heat of horseradish, that fades, rather than burns like chilli. Suggestions welcome!

Pumpkin seed oil – the sweet

Pumpkin seed brittle ice cream that serves 4 people in an hour or so (this includes cooling time for the brittle)

I’m just going to put it out there right up front, so we can get it all over with. This recipe involves pouring oil over ice cream – yes, oil over ice cream. Please don’t be turned off, read on. It’s delicious and worth it!

One of the things I love most about pumpkin seed oil is its colour – a rich orange-brown that almost looks green by the edges. As a result it is a beautiful thing to use to finish a dish, drizzling it on a butternut squash soup, risotto or, in this instance, ice cream.

I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but I wanted to do a sweet with this oil due to its awesome drizzability. Having seen olive oil on ice-cream in Italian restaurants, I decided this was the approach I would take and made a pumpkin seed brittle to go with it. Pumpkin and caramel are a lovely flavour combination after all (just ask an American).

Ingredients:

• 50g pumpkin seeds
• 50g sugar
• 25g butter
• 1/2 tsp sea salt flakes
• 2 tbsp water
• 4tsp pumpkin seed oil
• 8 scoops of vanilla ice cream

Put a large flat frying pan on a medium heat and toast the pumpkin seeds until they are very slightly brown – just a slight shade darker than they are regularly. Then shake onto a big piece of wax paper.

Turn the pan down to a medium-low heat and add the sugar, water and salt. Once the sugar has melted, bring it to a boil, until it is bubbling.

Stir it and let the sugar brown to a caramel colour. Then add the butter.

Pour the caramel all over the pumpkin seeds and let cool.

Once cooled, break it into chunky pieces.

Scoop two scoops of vanilla ice cream into 4 bowls. Drizzle each with 1-1.5 tablespoons of pumpkin seed oil and divide the brittle between the bowls. Mmmm …

Pumpkin seed oil – the savoury

A warm potato salad that serves 2 in 30 minutes or so.

My friend Katie used to live in Vienna. On my very first visit I saw pumpkin seed oil in her fridge. This was a totally new oil for me and, as I like trying new flavours, a tremendously exciting discovery.

The oil is quite popular is the Styria region of Austria. It is not an oil that should be heated or used for cooking as it is really delicate in constitution but it is delicious in salad dressings, drizzled over cooked things like pumpkin and asparagus, and even on ice cream. It should also be noted that it goes off quite quickly, which is why Katie was storing it in her fridge.

It is nutty and earthy, just like a pumpkin seed, so it can be used to top hearty, flavourful vegetables and meats. However, it is not a dominant flavour like truffle oil. It is a simple and subtle flavour that likes to work with the ingredients with which it’s combined.

Pumpkin seed oil is quite often used when making potato salads – the German style with a dressing rather than the mayonnaise laden kind – so I made one. …

1. Oak leaf lettuce

2. 500g baby pearl and Roseval potatoes (or other small potatoes, but the Roseval are full of flavour)

3. 200g lardons

4. Dressing:

• 2 tsp pumpkin seed oil
• 4 tsp sherry vinegar
• 2 tsp grainy mustard
• 2 squeezes agave nectar
• 1 tsp chopped shallots
• 4 tsp chopped parsley
• S&P

Cut the potatoes into quarters or so – bite size pieces – and steam.

At the same time prep all other parts of the salad:

• Wash and chop the lettuce
• Cook the lardons on a medium heat so they become really crispy
• Combine all dressing ingredients

When the potatoes are done, toss them with the lardons and dressing and then add the lettuce and toss again. Overall it has a very deep and earthy flavour – a delicious potato salad that feels like a whole meal, not a side dish.

Orange almond cake with blackberry and yoghurt

Serves 12 and is ready in 1 hour 25 minutes, with about 1 hour of that being cooking time.

I tend not to be much of a dessert person. I much prefer salty to sweet. The idea for this cake came from two things:

1. Reading the Nigella Lawson cookbook ‘How to Eat’, which my friend Eliza kindly gave me for my birthday. (Although I have not used her recipe as I was afraid it would be too sugary for my taste.)
2. Walking in the beautiful English countryside as the blackberries were coming into season. I love being able to pick berries off the bush and eat them. ☺

I combined the two as I love how orange and blackberry tastes together.

Blackberries are particularly special as they really represent to me the English countryside in late summer/early autumn. The bushes grow in great big tumbles of long thorny arms and look like overgrown weeds that contrast so much to the fruit. Somehow the thorns seem to make the berries much more of a prize and taste sweeter.

The cake is surprisingly low-cal as it does not have flour or butter in it. It is also very, very moist. It was a big hit at the office.

The basic recipe is here: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/14822/flourless+orange+cake

I made some important changes:

1. 1 tsp orange flower water – I added this to the syrup in step 7
2. 1 punnet blackberries – I added this to the syrup in step 7 and boil it for 10 mins, rather than 2-3
3. Olive oil – I used this instead of butter to grease the pan
4. Bake for 45 mins – I am not sure why but I found I needed to bake it for 15 mins less than what the recipe required
5. Greek yoghurt – I served it with Greek yoghurt on the side as I love the combination of fruit and yoghurt and it cuts the sweetness further

Pork five spice salad with persimmon

Light meal for 3 people in 40 minutes 

Often I buy something in bulk so I can experiment with it and get the recipe right. I did that will this one. I have been dying to do something with five spice and my male friends say I don’t have enough meat-based recipes on the blog. This pork was supposed to rectify that, but after getting things wrong a few times, I have ended up with what is generally not thought of as a manly meal: a salad, albeit one with meat.

Five spice is just as it says on the tin: a powder mix of five spices, although the mix of spices can vary. The one I used included star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper and fennel seeds.

In looking at five spice recipes, I learnt the mix is based on the yin and yang principle, and is supposed to produce balance in the flavour of the food by encompassing the five main flavours: sweet, sour, bitter, pungent and salty. Although there are two things wrong here:

1 – there is nothing salty in five spice

2 – pungency is not one of the five main flavours, but umami (or savoury) is

At the Spice Shop off Portobello Road you can buy a handy mixed bag of the whole five spices so you can grind them yourselves for a fresher mix.

For this recipe, you will need:

1. Pork

• 1 pork loin of about 300g
• 4 tablespoons five spice powder
• Salt and pepper to season
• 1 Persimmon cut into sections

2. Dressing

• 3 limes
• 6 small squeezes agave syrup (or as sweet as you want)
• 3 tablespoon roughly chopped coriander
• As much finely chopped chilli as you want
• 9 peanuts, skin removed and crushed

3. Salad

• 3 cups chopped baby leaf lettuce

Cover a cutting board with a layer of the five spice and salt and pepper. Roll the loin in the spice, like so:

Sear the pork on all sides in medium high heat, browning it on four sides.

Put it on a roasting tray rack topped with foil with the persimmon sections. Put the tray in a 250 C oven for 15 minutes, making sure the centre of the loin is no longer pink.

While it is cooking make the dressing by combining all dressing ingredients, mixing well.

Take out the loin, let it sit for five minutes and then cut into 1 cm-thick-ish slices.

Combine the dressing and the salad and plate. Place the slices of pork on top and serve.

Steak soft tacos with tequila pineapple salsa

Quick recipe for 1 that only takes a few minutes to prepare but needs some marinating time.

Wow! I have taken a long break. A long break from writing, but not from cooking. I have a stockpile of recipes I think are blog worthy just sitting.

I generally write on Sundays, and the break started when, for a couple Sundays in a row, I had things on and couldn’t write. But then, for the last couple Sundays, I found myself sitting down in front of the computer and not able to write. I couldn’t believe that after only a few weeks of writing I already had writer’s block, particularly because I deliberately try to keep my posts writing light and food focused.

This week I realised I was not blocked, but simply putting waaaaay too much pressure on myself. I wanted to say something grand and I wanted the recipe to be something grand, but neither are the point of this blog. Again, the point is to be food focused. The food is supposed to be delicious, but easy to execute and accessible, highlighting an ingredient that is seasonal, lesser known or unusual in the context of the recipe.

This recipe is just that. Not grand. Not groundbreaking. The pineapple and tequila is simply a lovely change to a tomato-based salsa.

Ingredients

1. 2 corn tortillas

2. Steak
(What we are going for here is a smokiness and subtle heat.)

• 1 piece flatiron steak
• 1 heaped tablespoon chipotle in adobo
• 1 heaped tablespoon of ground cumin
• Juice of half a lime
• Couple twists of salt

3. Salsa
(What we are going for here is the balance of liquor, salt and lime you get with shot of tequila.)

• ¼ cup finely diced pineapple
• ½ shot to 1 shot tequila
• Juice of half a lime
• ¼ tsp lime zest
• ½ tsp chopped red onion
• 1 spring onion
• 1 tbsp chopped coriander
• 1 tbsp chopped mint

Method

Combine the chipotle, ground cumin, lime juice, salt and rub into the steak. Place in a baking dish and marinate overnight.

Preheat he oven to 250C.

Combine the pineapple, tequila, lime and lime zest and let sit while the oven heats up and the steak cooks.

Put the steak on in the baking dish on top shelf for 7 minutes, flip and cook 5 more minutes. The steak will then be medium to medium rare. Take the steak out and let sit on a cutting board.

Meanwhile put the rest of the salsa ingredients in with the pineapple mixture and mix it well.

Warm the tortillas in the microwave for about 30 seconds.

Slice the steak and divide between the tortillas. Top with salsa. Note: The salsa has a lot of tequila in the bottom, so don't empty the dish over the tortillas, but fish out the salsa with a fork to drain it.

Lovely summer lobster salad

This will take 1 hour-1.5 hours-ish (a lot of this time is for cooling the lobster and mayonnaise, so not active cooking time), and serves 4 as a starter

I had never cooked lobster ahead of this dish. But, I got talking to the fish guy at the Maltby Street Market, and it turned out he had one destined for me. Most of his seafood is ordered ahead, but he had this extra, little lobster, a tiny half-kilo. A good starter lobster I decided, so I bought him.

As I walked around the rest of Maltby market and was sitting on the tube home, I found myself talking to him. I would peek in the bag to check on him and make sure he was ok. I called him baby.

I half-joked that I was debating filling my bathtub with water and salt and keeping him as a pet. Reality struck when my friend Sidd alerted me to the fact my day was beginning to mirror a Simpson’s episode; the one where Homer buys a lobster, names him Pinchy and keeps him as a pet. You can see some clips here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Un7nBbSet0

I ended up cooking mine.

Isn’t he beautiful when done!

I turned him into a lovely lobster salad – summery and rich, creamy and sweet. This salad is delicious!

You will need:

1. 1 head endive/chicory

• Wash and separate 8 leaves

2. Tail meat only of one half-kilo lobster

To prepare the lobster, put in a pot and pour over boiling water to cover. Boil for 8 minutes, then drain and cool. Chop the meat finely and season.

3. For the mayonnaise:

• 1.5 oz groundnut oil
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 egg yolk
• Salt and pepper to taste

Put the yolk, salt and pepper in small bowl, squeeze in the juice of the half of lemon. Blend with a hand blender until mixed well. Pour in the oil slowly while blending. Refrigerate.

4. For salad

• 2 tbsp mayo from above
• 1 pink lady apple (or other sweet over tart apple, the sweetness is necessary) – about 1 cup finely chopped
• 1 small bulb fennel – about 1 cup finely chopped
• ½ tsp finely chopped tarragon
• ½ tsp finely chopped feathery fennel tops
• Juice of ½ lemon
• Salt and pepper to taste
• ¼ tsp finely chopped shallots

Put all the salad ingredients and lobster in a bowl. Add as much mayonnaise as desired and stir together.

Spoon the salad into the endive leaves and arrange 3 per plate.

A sweet and bitter salad

This salad takes 10 minutes to make as a side for two people.

Like many Londoners I work hard. I like to cook, but I got to a point where making food at home consisted of grabbing bags of lettuce and packages of baby plum tomatoes off Tesco’s shelves and dressing them. That’s more like mixing than cooking.

This salad is more like mixing than cooking as well, but it is simple, unusual and balances sweet, bitter, creamy and sour.

I first put it together last summer, when I looked in my fridge and all I had was rocket, radicchio, peaches and ricotta. Sometimes having a limited number of ingredients at your fingertips is a good thing. It forces creativity in a way that can be difficult when you have an endless array of items available to you. I find having too many things often causes me to over-complicate a dish, adding too many different types of ingredients or spices.

When I first tasted the salad, it was a wonderful, unexpected surprise. So good, I made it again and again and again. Needless to day, this salad has turned into one of my favourite summer salads.

You will need:

• 3 flat peaches
• ¼ head radicchio
• 1 handful rocket
• 1 tablespoon soft cow curd cheese or ricotta
• Juice of 1 lemon
• ¼ - 1/2teaspoon of olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Chop the flat peaches into chunks. Wash the radicchio and cut into thin strips. Combine the peaches, radicchio and rocket in a bowl. Then mix the last four ingredients together really well, add to the bowl and toss.

Squash flower tomato salad (basically fancy cheese and tomato)

In 20 minutes you will have a delicate (read not super filling) summer starter for 4 people

I went to Maltby Street Market and these were two of the things I bought:

On the left are squash flowers and on the right is fresh, soft cow curd cheese (also available at some Waitrose and Ocado).

I have been obsessed with the idea of cooking squash blossoms – they are just so beautiful. I really fell in love with the colour – the deep yellow, almost orange that is quite unusual for fresh produce.

However, all squash blossom recipes seem to involve frying. I am not a huge fan of fried things (except for potatoes of course), particularly when they are also battered. So, I was super pleased to see my friend Erin post this recipe on Facebook a few weeks ago: http://nyti.ms/MYob8Q

I decided to take inspiration and do my own thing, pairing the blossoms with another summer produce that always draws my eyes with its bold colours:

When I was in San Francisco we called these heirloom tomatoes. Now I am in London, they are called heritage tomatoes. Striking me as quite a subtle difference in name, upon a bit of light Googling I found that thesaurus.com uses the words as synonyms, and either name in reference to tomatoes just means old variety. Maybe it’s just one of those differences to be different about, like a tomato, tomahto thing (Sorry!).

After a bit of experimentation, this is the salad I did the best …

For the flowers:

• 100g soft cow curd cheese
• 4 squash flowers
• ¼ tsp lemon zest
• 1 pinch smoked paprika
• salt and pepper to taste

For the salad:

• 1 punnet heritage tomatoes – chopped and seeds removed (Note: Removing the seeds from the tomatoes is key, otherwise it is just all too watery.)
• 1 large (like beefsteak) tomato sliced very thinly
• 1 lemon juiced
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp finely chopped basil
• 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
• ¼ tsp smoked paprika
• salt and pepper to taste

Wash the squash flowers, which can be quite dirty, and then let dry thoroughly.

In the meantime, combine the rest of the ingredients for the flowers and mix well.

Then, combine and mix well all salad ingredients, except for the beefsteak tomato slices. 

Place 2 slices of tomato on each plate. Divide the tomato salad evenly between each plate.

Once the blossoms are dry, remove the stems from the outside and the stamens from the inside of the flowers. With a small spoon or knife fill each blossom with cheese and twist the ends closed.

Put one flower on top of the salad on each plate and then spoon over a teaspoon of the dressing left in the bowl from the tomato salad.

While the whole cheese and tomato flavour combination of this dish is very traditional, the end result is simply visually stunning:

Cold salmon with pickled samphire and creamy dill sauce

For 2 people in 30 mins

Yes, we have all had salmon with dill sauce – no surprises there, but this recipe is on here because of the pickled samphire. The samphire is the star of the show. It took me absolutely forever to find the right accompaniment for the samphire. I tried it in all kinds of ways, with white fish, in an Asian style, not wanting to use salmon. Finally, I had to admit to myself that it had to go with salmon.

I can run hot and cold on salmon as it is such an oily fish, but the acid in the pickled samphire cuts right through this, making it just delicious.

I have been obsessed with the idea of doing something with samphire simply because it was a BRAND NEW food for me when I moved to the UK. I love trying new things and the fact that it comes from the sea, just made it all that more exotic to me. Look at it, it's kind of alien isn't it?

The samphire just needs to sit in the vinegar for 10 minutes or so to pickle it, so super simple.

To make this dish you need:

1. 2 pieces salmon

Put salmon in pan with 1.2 cups wine and enough boiling water to cover salmon. Cook for about 10 minutes until cooked through. Then put in the freezer to cool down quickly – you want it around room temperature.

2. For samphire:

• 2 handfuls samphire
• ½ cup white wine vinegar
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Squeeze of honey or 
• Large pinch salt
• Pepper 

Put the samphire in the colander and pour hot water over it. Then run under the tap to stop it from wilting/darkening. Mix all other ingredients together in a shallow bowl. Immerse the samphire in it and let sit for 10 minutes while you make the sauce, check on the salmon, start assembling the salad, etc.

3. For the sauce:

• 1 large teaspoon double cream
• 1 small teaspoon grainy mustard
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped dill
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped tarragon
• Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together.

4. For the salad:

• 2 handfuls of pea shoots
• Some pink stemmed ice plant for decoration if you like (totally not necessary but I found it in a market so used it for a wet crunch and different texture). It looks like this:

Layer two plates with pea shoots, pink stemmed ice plant, samphire, then pour a couple teaspoons of the samphire marinade over to dress. Place a piece of salmon on each and top with the cream sauce.