Whose sorrel now?

Yesterday I went to our local fruit and veg shop to do our weekly shop and was quite excited to see that they were selling sorrel. I'd noticed it in loads of recipes but have never seen it for sale, so I bagged some pronto.

And oh what a marvellous thing it is! It looks like spinach, but packs a crazy tanginess that's a lot like licking a battery. I didn't want to dilute this taste sensation by cooking it too much so I decided to turn it into pesto and mix it through some hot spaghetti. I'm warning you - once you go down this path, you will never see pesto in the same light again.

Unconventionally I have used almonds in this recipe, I think they compete better with the punchy lemony flavours than pine nuts would.

What you need

1 bunch of sorrel (the big leafed variety), roughly torn up

half a handful of almonds

1 big garlic clove

big pinch of salt

big glug of good olive oil

a food processor

The do

Put the almonds on a baking tray and roast them under the grill, jiggling them around every so often. Keep a close eye on them, they can burn quite suddenly. When they are done, set aside.

In the food processor, blitz the garlic, oil and salt first, then add the sorrel and blitz again. Add a little more oil if it's too dry and gets stuck. Add the almonds and pulse to keep the nuts chunky. Season with salt and pepper. When you are happy with the consistency of your pesto, it's ready to go. Serve tossed through some hot spaghetti (reserve a little cooking water to loosen up the pesto when you are tossing it though the pasta). If you are lucky enough to have any left this would keep in a jar with a thin layer of oil on top, but it may lose some of its vibrancy.

Tunes,
Director's Cut Kate Bush

Chocolate time is here

Being pregnant has made me chocolate obsessed, so one night after work in the lead-up to Christmas I decided to make my own festive chocolate. Making your own chocolate is fun because it's all about taking something you like and remolding it into something even better. Plus, doing it yourself allows you to control what goes into it - keeping it free of excess sugar and additives

What you need
2 handfuls of brazil nuts (or any other nuts that you like, macadamias - for an Australian vibe, pistachios, peanuts)
1 1/2 blocks of Green and Black's dark cooking chocolate
1 block of Green and Black's milk chocolate with almonds, broken into pieces
1 handful of dried cranberries

The do
Line a 15x15 tin or container with non-stick baking paper. Put the nuts into a plastic bag and bash a few times with a rolling pin to break them up, don't pulverise them!
In a bowl, melt the cook's chocolate in the microwave on high for 1 minute at a time until completely melted.
If you don't have a microwave, melt the chocolate in a bowl fitted over a saucepan, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the simmering water.

Spoon a 5mm layer of melted chocolate into the tin/container. Sprinkle on the cranberries, nuts and squares of almond chocolate then cover with the remaining melted chocolate. Keep in a cool place to set, then chop into bite-sized squares with a sharp knife.

You can add anything you like to this 'chocolate sandwich' - experiment with white chocolate or other dried fruits.

Morocco, part three: sweet pastilla

I love Saturday. A real, proper day off with a sleep-in at the end and vague memories of drunkenness from the night before. So, onto a sweet Moroccan dessert, perfect for the weekend.

Apple and cream pastilla for two

Three large apples (peeled and chopped into small cubes)
1-2 sheets of filo (to make about 6 small rounds)
250 grams of almonds
1/2 litre milk
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp orange flower water
2 tbsp honey
Corn starch
Butter
Nutmeg

The do
First, a neat trick for shelling almonds: soak them in boiling water for about twenty minutes and the husk will slide right off. Then toast them on a low heat in the oven until they are golden. While the almonds are toasting, soften the chopped apple pieces in a pan with the butter and a sprinkling of nutmeg. Cut your filo sheets into rounds and toast them in the oven until they are crisp and golden. Roughly crush the almonds and mix them in a bowl with warmed honey until they are coated.

In a saucepan, bring the milk to the boil. As soon as it boils, lower the heat and whisk in some corn starch. Add the sugar and orange flower water. Simmer until it thickens into a cream and let it cool.

Lay a filo round on each plate, pile with some of the apple then the nut mix, drizzle with a little more warmed honey then repeat the layers until you've used all the mix. Finally, pour the cream over the top and crunch your spoon into this sweet pile of appley goodness.

bringing home the baked goods

A couple of weeks ago I brought a tray of cupcakes to work. It just so happened that a fellow inmate, Stef D, had baked some muffins on the same day. Naturally, we challenged each other to a bake-off. It took place on Monday and was a joy to behold; a bundle of cooks produced so many baked goods people were getting high on the sugar fumes alone. From Swedish Macaroons and rude gingerbread bodies to mince pies and five types of brownies, the spread was amazing.



My hands down favourite sweet was Stef's version of this Choc-hazelnut Meringue Cake from the BBC's Olive Magazine. Include it in your festive spread on Christmas day (alongside Chew's Leek and Sweet Potato Roulade of course) and the folks will adore you. I took a punt with a few recipes I hadn't tried before, including these nutty Russian balls I nicked from Smitten Kitchen. I used a combination of pecans, hazelnuts and almonds and added a little sweetened condensed milk to the dough because I found it quite dry. The result was a very tasty treat for nut freaks.

With so many sweet nibbles on the bake-off table, we raised over a hundred quid in donations for the homelessness charity, Crisis. Job well done.

Chilly fusilli

Pasta salad is misunderstood. Its vintage association with seventies barbecues and cheap salad bars have done it untold damage (I’m looking at you, Swagman).* But fuck all that because a good one is bloody delicious.

Obviously cold fusilli on its own is not the least bit exciting, which is why you need to dress it with a feisty blend of clingy flavours. Adding a little razzle dazzle on the side can distract from its smorgasbord roots (tonight's grilled and seasoned aubergines come courtesy of the River Café Cook Book) but is not entirely necessary. After chowing it all down, Adam happily declared he could eat this for dinner forever.



* If you have 30 seconds to lose, visit the Swagman link for what is sadly one of the most memorable TV ads of my childhood.

Base salad ingredients (for 2 pretty large serves)
1 big cup of wholeweat fusilli pasta
1/2 a continental cucumber (chopped into small slices)
200g feta cheese
1 handful cherry tomatoes (halved)
1 spring onion, finely chopped
Handful of blanched almonds
Handful of fresh basil leaves

Marinated mushrooms ingredients
250g button mushrooms (halved)
Japanese Soya Sauce
Balsamic Vinegar
A hefty teaspoon of Miso paste mixed with around 1/3 cup of water
1 clove garlic (finely sliced)


Extra dressing
Olive oil
Juice 1 lemon

And you’ll need 1 med-large eggplant/ aubergine.



Doing it
Don't worry too much about quantities. Any leftovers make for killer next day lunch box filler.

Cook your pasta then cool it straight away in cold water and set it aside to drain. Mix all your other salad ingredients together in a large bowl (crumbling the feta with your fingies).

Dry fry the blanched almonds in a hot pan, turning frequently to prevent them burning. Once they are lightly toasted, set them aside to cool then add them to your salad.

The mushroom marinade was entirely spontaneous so use whatever you've got. I mixed a big splash of balsamic vinegar, soya sauce and diluted miso paste in a bowl then thoroughly tossed through the button mushrooms and sliced garlic. Let the mush absorb the juice for a few minutes then pour the whole lot into a hot pan and cook it until the juice has reduced to a caramely sludge. Set aside to cool.

Finely slice your eggplant and grill it on both sides then toss it in olive oil, lemon juice and seasoning.

Thoroughly mix your pasta and mushrooms (with any juice) through the salad then pile it onto a plate alongside your sliced eggplant.

plane food

Some people have a strange little love affair with plane food -- something to do with the romance of getting a meal that looks like a mini version of a prison tray. The rest of us know that plane meals are wrong on every conceivable level. This week I have used my skyving time at work to find out just how wrong.

Before it reaches you, your little meal has been cooked, cooled, stored, transported (from somewhere miles away) and reheated. If you're in the northern hemisphere, it has probably come from Germany or Switzerland -- home to the world's two biggest commercial suppliers of airline food. Together they account for over 260 airlines, with the German one, Sky Chef, preparing a million meals a day. With an average per unit cost of between 70 cents (US) and US$1.30 a unit, I think we can safely assume they ain't cooking organic.

Then there's this from ex-air hostess and author, Diana Fairechild:

"Working over 10 million miles as a flight attendant, I have prepared and served countless airline meals... I have been there when: food that had been dropped on the floor was served to passengers; ovens were inoperative so that the food served to passengers was not cooked properly; passengers and crew members have gotten sick from food poisoning. For these and other reasons, I recommend that passengers abstain from eating on board."

Delightful.

On her website, she also points out all the biological changes going on at high altitude, meaning certain types of food are better than others to minimise jet lag. Apparently it's not just your feet that swell up; your intestine is dehydrating, lacking oxygen and ballooning at Elvis-like speed.

Miss Diana advocates fasting. Given I am flying non-stop for 22 hours, I beg to differ. So I'm making my own food; taking on board her and other people's advice that small, carb-heavy snacks are best as they place less strain on your freaked out digestive tract.

So here's what Adam and I will be taking in our airplane lunch box tomorrow...



Bean Salad

Haven't packed so writing this in a hurry... blanch beans then dry fry em with some lemon juice and sea salt. toast almonds. Do the kidney beans (soak overnight then boil the crap out of them till they're tenderised). Discard carrot peel then use the peeler to make ribbons of the rest of it. Toss it all together with a little sesame oil/ lemon juice/ balsamic/ dill/ whatever you've got.

Risotto Balls

These are great if you have leftover risotto from the night before (see recipe here). Roll your balls (add some flour to the risotto if they're a little wet... or egg if they need binding). Coat the balls in bread crumbs then finely grated parmesan then sesame seeds (my balls were wet, man.) Fry your balls till they're golden, turning once, then get the outer skin crunchy by popping them in the oven (200c) for a bit. (20 mins maybe). Mmmmmm, crusty salty balls.

Have a happy easter to y'all. I'm going home! (Eating beans and farting all the way.)

Diana Fairchild's website.

Oozing and gooey, just like the other VD

Some people might think it no coincidence that Valentine’s Day and Venereal Disease share the same initials. Apart from the fact that they are equally horrible, both can mock us, drive us to despair or make us feel silly and hate people. It's easy to opt out of a commercial scam but I can't dismiss its sentiment altogether, this idea of expressing hope for love on a rainy day in February. There is but one heart-plumping answer: food.



Just read this lusty missive written by my friend Joan (who you can visit here):

Conjure luscious creaminess in your mouth along with Italian provenance and you may think of (no, not that) you may think of gelato. But forget that. For a truly scrumptious creamily mouth-coating oral experience, it has to be risotto.

Risotto: plump, warming, tongue pleasing and piquant. Good risotto is the reward of patience; the outcome of a relationship between the rice and the chef. The stirring of each granular pearl so that it becomes infused with butter, wine, stock and a medley of ingredients. Slowly cooked, it is a dish best eaten slowly, and in good company.

Risotto often presents as modest in appearance but, as mother said: don’t be fooled by appearances. The first forkful will seduce you and how sublime to know that satisfaction will assuredly follow.



What you need:
Arborio rice
An onion (or leek or shallots) and garlic
Ingredients of choice: just about anything goes in a risotto. For this one: mushrooms, green beans (or spinach), fresh sprigs of thyme, almonds (slivered) and lemon (one)
6 to 8 cups of veggie stock and white wine (one cup for the stock, one for you)
A very generous block of parmigiano reggiano
Patience: At least half an hour to cook alone, stirring always. It’s best to have music and a glass of wine by your side at all times.



How it goes:
Heat the stock and wine together to just simmering and leave it that way
Finely chop your onion (or leek or shallots) and garlic and soften them in olive oil over medium heat (add a little butter if you like)
After a few minutes add your thyme and arborio rice (1/2 to 3/4 of a cup for two) and stir it so that it is coated in oil and starting to go transluscent. Do not let it brown or burn – death to risotto if you do.
Add grated lemon rind, slivered almonds and a squeeze of lemon juice. (If you had long cooking veggies, e.g. pumpkin, now would be the time to add them.)
Ladle in a cup of liquid – or enough to cover the rice.
When there is more mush than liquid, add more stock. Repeat for 10-15 minutes.
Add your softer chopped veggies (mushrooms, tomato, beans or asparagus) and keep doing the stock thing.
After another 5 or 10 minutes the rice isn’t really absorbing much liquid anymore. Try a granule to make sure it is firm but not chewy.
When it’s good, add a handful of grated parmesan, some pepper and a couple of tablespons of butter.
Stir rapidly to mix everything together and get it extra creamy.
Turn off the heat and let the risotto sit for a few minutes before serving. Sprinkle with shaved parmesan and cracked pepper.
Eat naked by candlelight and lick away any spills.
That’s amore.

And who better to opine about having love on your side than Dusty Springfield...

Dusty Springfield - Just A Little Lovin' mp3 download
Dusty Springfield - Breakfast In Bed mp3 download