Rhubarb Sorbet and Ginger Treacle Tart

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I really think this is one of the prettiest and simplest desserts that you can have this time of year. Nothing but some old stale breadcrumbs, humble hardy grown rhubarb and some sweet tangy ginger. Cold golf balls of frozen candy floss to top a pointy slice of warm ginger spiced treacle tart after the slow roasted spring lamb shoulder we devoured for Easter lunch.

I’ve always grown my own rhubarb letting it ripen naturally around the summer time into gangly red and green fingers of sweet and sour goodness. But Portobello market is bursting with the ‘forced’ type at the moment and I couldn’t resist bagging some of the leggy, blushing pastel pink stems for this killer sorbet.

Serves 12

Rhubarb Sorbet

  • 800g forced, pink rhubarb, chopped
  • 175g caster sugar
  • 100ml water
  • 1 lime
  1. Mix the chopped rhubarb with the caster sugar and and place in a saucepan. Heat gently with the water until beginning to soften and simmer for about 5 minutes.
  2. When tender, remove from the heat, squeeze in the lime juice and leave to cool slightly.
  3. Puree until smooth, taste and adjust with sugar or lime (it should be a little sweeter than you like as the freezing with dampen this) and then churn in an ice cream maker for about 30 minutes. Alternatively, pour into a container and freeze, mixing every 30mins-1hr to break up the ice crystals until set.

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Ginger Treacle Tart

Pastry

  • 125g chilled butter
  • 250g flour
  • Zest ½ orange
  • Cold water

Filing

  • 200g white breadcrumbs (the staler the better)
  • 400g golden syrup
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • Pinch ground ginger
  • 2-3 balls of preserved stem ginger, chopped finely
  • ½ lemon, zest and juice
  1. Start with the pastry. Mix the butter into the flour in a processor or with your hands until you form a breadcrumb like texture. Mix in the orange zest. Add a spoonful of cold water, a small bit at a time and mix into the flour and butter until you can form a smooth dough. Shape into a disc, wrap in cling film and leave to chill for about 30 minutes or so in the fridge.
  2. Grease and line a 20-22cm tart tin and preheat the oven to 180°C. Remove the pastry from the fridge and leave to adjust to room temperature before rolling out on a floured surface to about the thickness of a pound coin. Line the greased tin pressing the pastry into the case. Chill the casing for about 10 minutes if you can.
  3. Prick the base with a fork to stop it rising up when cooking and place a sheet of parchment on top followed by some heavy baking beans or dry raw rice. Push it right up to the edges to keep the parchment down.
  4. Bake blind for 20-25 minutes until the casing if lightly golden and cooked. Remove the beans and baking sheet for the final 5 minutes to brown and cook the base.
  5. Remove from the oven and reduce the heat to 160°C.
  6. Now, warm the golden syrup in a saucepan until molten. Remove from the heat and add the ginger, lemon, breadcrumbs and stir to combine. Mix in the eggs making sure the mixture if not too hot first or these will scramble.
  7. Pour into the pre-baked tart tin and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes until golden and set.
  8. Serve warm with the rhubarb sorbet and some slow roasted vanilla speckled rhubarb on the side or a good quality vanilla ice cream.

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The Blood Orange ‘Gin’-ger

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Today the sun was shining contently so I took the opportunity to make the most of my lunch hour and wonder (as I now do familiarly and regularly) around the buzzing streets of Nottinghill and Portobello Road. I love this street and I have huge appreciation for it. Stalls boasting crumpled and soft leather bags, waterfalls of scarfs draped like the limbs of a weaping willow from shop fronts and humble freshly prepared street food. But my favourite sellers are by far the fruit and vegetable stalls. They’re packed and bursting with ripe delights that spill out onto the road as if they too are eager to escape and explore, some not so successfully as tomato seeds and orange pith splatter the tarmac and imprinted into someones car tread.The prices are cheap and the produce is infinitely better quality than the local supermarket. Hands down the biggest and best avocados in town can be found here.

However, on my lunch break today my greedy eyes caught sight of a proudly glowing basket of blood oranges with a cheeky ‘4 for £1’ written confidently in bold. I don’t know what it is about that sign but it undoubtedly screams ‘bargain’! Even if advertising old teeth it would still seems a steal am I wrong? With a brown paper bag of these juicy golf balls and some blushingly pink leggy rhubarb that I just couldn’t leave alone I returned to work and to a state of recipe planning turmoil in my mind….

With Easter Sunday approaching, guests to cook for and plans for a pre-lunch cocktail I decided on using them to accompany a chilled glass of gin, lime and ginger. I needed it too after a sticky commute home knocking out many poor souls with the ends of my lanky giant rhubarb. I made up this recipe adding what I felt it needed and ingredients I liked but feel free to experiment too and add more or less of anything you like to adjust to taste. I image this would also be devine with ginger beer thrown in there somewhere!

The Blood Orange ‘Gin’-ger

Serves 1

  • 1oz good London Gin
  • 2oz freshly squeezed blood orange juice
  • ½ small lime
  • Small knob root ginger
  • Salt
  1. Squeeze the juice from your oranges and add to a tall chilled tumbler with the gin.
  2. Squeeze in as much lime juice to taste just to add a sharp sour hum and a pinch of sugar if it all tastes a little bitter.
  3. Now you can either mash the ginger and muddle in and then strain, infuse with a few slices or finely chop some ginger matchstick and add to the glass.
  4. Coat the rim of your glass with lime juice and dip in a VERY light coating of salt. Fill the glass with your cocktail and sip happily in the sunshine!

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Post Yoga Super Salad

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After a fresh run and my favourite Sunday morning yoga class in the sunshine I returned home fresh, focussed, alive and….hungry! I love taking the time over preparing lunch at the weekend so threw together a super food salad to boost back my energy. This salad is delicious and highly adaptable like many of my recipes. Served with flaked oily smoked mackerel, juicy pink prawns, lemony smoked trout, fried halloumi, molten poached eggs. As a main dish topped with fried fish, add a handful or crunchy quinoa or roasted shredded chicken and bacon for a 21st century Caeser salad! Add raw shaved fennel if you like or change the herbs. Swap in your favourite dressing or take an Asian theme with soy sauce and sesame. The options are truly endless….

Serves 2

  • 1 ripe avocado, diced
  • Handful ripe plum/cherry tomatoes, halved
  • Handful raw sugar snaps, sliced
  • ½ cucumber, sliced thinly
  • Handful mint, leaves chopped (or a herb of choice)
  • 1 tsp Nigella seeds
  • 2 spring onions, sliced
  • 1 tbsp mixed seeds
  • Handful of ‘China rose radish sprouts’ (optional…mine were from Organic planet but they can be found here too)
  • Lemon juice and olive oil
  • Protein to serve e.g. fried halloumi, freshly cooked prawns, smoked mackerel, smoked trout, poached egg, roast chicken
  1. Combine the salad ingredients and mix gently together and season well.
  2. Drizzle over a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice and some olive oil and toss gently together with clean hands
  3. Serve alone or with one of the above suggestions.

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Wild Mushroom and Black Garlic Rice

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This mushroom rice dish was thrown together whilst I was at uni when embracing the challenge of living on a second hand shoestring. It is one of those staple vegetarian meals I often make when I fancy an evening off meat. Mushrooms have such a deep and earthy flavour that you never miss the meat here and this really is just as satisfying. I like to top mine with a quenelle of cool, smooth cream cheese to off set the garlic hum but a molten poached egg with a cascading larva of golden egg yolk would also sit on top here as naturally as clotted cream on a pillowey toasted scone.

However, today I experimented with black garlic. Garlic is undoubtedly good for you. From warning off infections and fighting your bodies battles to pungently and helpfully keep away any unwanted attention from the opposite sex….! Double bonus. I don’t think anyone walks past their local pizza place or Indian with the waft of freshly baking garlic bread suctioning up their nostrils not to momentarily drift into garlicky cloud nice. I love nothing more than the delights and simple efforts of roasting a whole garlic head in the oven before squeezing the obliging sweet contents into a pestle and morta, mashing to a paste and stirring into risottos or sauces. There is nothing as effortless that imparts so much amazing flavour.

So surely black garlic is to be even better. Delicious I can conclude but on a totally different level. Sweet but amazingly deep in flavour these gooey and pastey gloves are like jelly cubes of balsamic vinegar, a ‘fruit pastel’ of balsamic if you will. It is only a matter of time before Heston makes this imported Korean fad into an ice cream (I will await this patiently….very patiently, no rush Heston.) I’m only at the tip of my black garlic experiments using it tamely sliced here. But mashed to a paste, stirred into stews, risottos and sauces I am sure I will be sharing these soon…..the ice cream however will have to wait for now. Black garlic pasta or gnocchi…however…!

Serves 2

  • 250g mixed mushrooms, chestnut, oyster etc, chopped roughly in chunks
  • 4oz wild rice (a mix of brown, Camargue, wild rice)
  • 2 gloves of black garlic OR 2 gloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 large knob of butter
  • Handful of flatleaf parsley, chopped
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 4 tbsp cream cheese/2 poached eggs to serve
  1. Begin by simmering the rice for about 20 minutes until tender. Drain and set aside.
  2. Heat a generous knob of butter with a drizzle of olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium high heat until the butter foams.
  3. Add the chopped mushrooms and some generous salt and pepper and fry for about 10 minutes over a medium heat.The water will be released so continue to cook until this evaporates and the mushrooms are soft and golden. (Now Julia Child fans, remember- don’t crowd your mushrooms, they won’t brown! So cook in batches if necessary)
  4. If using normal garlic, chop finely and add now and fry for a few minutes turning the heat down if starting to catch.
  5. Now, tip in the rice and stir into the mushrooms with the sesame oil and fry for a few minutes.
  6. Add the chopped black garlic and the parsley and mix to combine and heat through.
  7. Serve in large warmed bowls with an extra scatter of parsley some slices of black garlic and a creamy quenelle of cream cheese. Alternatively add that molten poached egg and crack on with devouring.

Sweet Potato, Cashew and Coconut Curry

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With half a can of coconut milk left over in the fridge, some potatoes and not much else but a stocked pantry and an unwilling motivation to delve into my skinny looking purse I threw together a vegetarian (and equally as satisfying) version of my Keralan Fish Curry.

Serves 3-4

  • 1 large onion
  • 1 small red chilli, chopped finely
  • 2cm piece of ginger, grated finely
  • 2 tsp mustard seeds
  • 2 tsp fenugreek seeds
  • 1 tsp coriander seed
  • 1 tsp chilli powder
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • Bunch coriander, chopped
  • 400ml coconut milk
  • 200ml water
  • 1 Kaffir lime leaf OR ½ juice of a lime
  • Handful of desiccated coconut
  • 2-3 small sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
  • 1 tsp tamarind paste
  • Large handful of cashew nuts
  • Few large handful of sugar snaps/mange tout/green beans
  1. Par boil your sweet potatoes until just cooked but still a little firm. Drain and set aside.
  2. Heat a little oil in a heavy based pan. Add the mustard, fenugreek and coriander seed and fry until beginning to pop and smell fragrant.
  3. Add the chopped onion and fry on a lowish heat for about 5 minutes until really soft.
  4. Once soft, add the chilli and cook for a few more minutes before adding the ginger and doing the same.
  5. Add the ground dry spices and cook out for 1 minute or so.
  6. Add the coconut milk, the stock and the lime leaf
  7. Simmer gently for about 10-15 minutes until thicker and creamy.
  8. Once nearly at the desired consistency, add a handful or two of dessicated coconut and a handful or chopped coriander, saving most for garnish. Add the tamarind paste for sweetness.
  9. Add the sweet potato, the cashew nuts and throw in your vegetables for a few minutes.
  10. (If not using a Kaffir lime leaf, squeeze in ½ the juice of your lime here)
  11. Serve with rice or naan bread. Garnish with extra chopped coriander, sliced spring onions if you like and an extra handful or two of cashew nuts.

Chorizo and Balsamic Lentils

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This weekend I journeyed home for a village pig feast that has been vigorously and unheathily circled in the diary for a while! I’ll explain. My home village where I grew up and spent my life can be imaged as a hybrid of the ‘Vicar of Dibley’ and ‘Hot Fuzz’ (without the killings I stress!) A Wiltshire village with a stereotypical local pub, glorious fields and the strong signature smell of manure tainting the air like the smell of perfume at the duty free! For the past few years we’ve shared the caring, feeding and more importantly eating, of two village pigs who we take in turns to feed and water only to butcher respectfully 6 months down the line and divide up the takings. From piglets to healthy happy curly tailed porkers the sausages and juicy joints of pork that have filled our freezer for a long while have been some of the best I’ve had. We’ve had some teathing issues along the way but nothing can beat the taste of happy wholesome and local meat. So this weekend we saved a giant leg to roast and feast on with all the team! It was delicious and I have nothing else to add.

However, after a rich and fatty roast with shards of caramel cracking, sweet and sharp apple sauce and lashings of wine (perhaps too many lashings?) I craved the fresh flavours of fish and vegetables. This little dish is so simple to knock out but so tasty and pleasing in many ways.

Serves 2

  • 2 seabass fillets, seasoned
  • 4oz Puy lentils
  • 100g chorizo
  • 1 large garlic clove, chopped
  • Bunch flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
  • 4-5 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • Vegetables to serve
  1. Simmer the Puy lentils for about 15 minutes until soft and tender but with a slight bite (don’t let them get mushy). Drain and keep warm.
  2. Chop the chorizo into hearty chunks and fry in a medium hot pan until they begin to release their scarlet oils. Add in the garlic and fry for a few more minutes but don’t burn so keep an eye out.
  3. Turn up the heat a little and add the vinegar (and stick on the extractor fan as it will be pungent!). Simmer the vinegar until thickened and syrupy.
  4. Add this chorizo mix with the oily balsamic juices to the lentils. Grate in the zest of the lemon and add the herbs and season. Set aside and keep warm.
  5. Fry the seabass fillets, lightly seasoned, in a tsp of hot oil for a matter of 2-3 minutes on the skin side until crisp turning for the last 30 seconds to finish off.
  6. Serve the lentils topped with the seabass and some freshly steamed and buttery asparagus or green beans.

Vietnamese Salmon and Crisp Vegetable Miso Salad

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Experimenting with miso this week in this delicious dressing. This recipe is super punchy, packed with flavour and as healthy as a detoxing cucumber on a spa day. Aka. Super cleansing.

Serves 2

Crisp Vegetable Miso Salad

Miso-ginger Dressing

  • 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp white miso paste
  • 2 tsps grated or minced ginger
  • 1 garlic clove, grated
  • ½ tsp sugar
  • 2-3 tbsp flavourless oil e.g. sunflower/vegetable oil

Crisp Vegetable Salad

  • 1 Chinese cabbage/white cabbage, shredded
  • 2 large carrots
  • 1 large courgette
  • Handful radishes, thinly slices
  • Bunch coriander, chopped
  • Small handful of mint leaves, chopped
  • ½ small red chilli, chopped finely
  • Small knob ginger, chopped finely
  • 1 lime, zest only
  • Handful roasted peanuts
  1. Combine the dressing ingredients and whisk until combined.
  2. Shred the cabbage and add to a large bowl. Use a julienne peeler if you have one to get thin spaghetti likes strips of carrot and courgette. If not, grate or chop finely how you like.
  3. Combine with the cabbage and add the rest of the ingredients.
  4. Add the dressing, a spoonful at a time (you may not need it all and don’t want to drown the salad) and mix until combined to your liking. Set aside.

Salmon

  • 2 salmon fillets
  • 1 tbsp light brown soft sugar
  • 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp soya sauce
  • 1 tbsp fish sauce
  • 1 stalk of lemongrass, bashed
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  1. Combine the marinade ingredients in a bowl and add the salmon. Chill in the fridge for about 1 hour.
  2. When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 200°C. Line a baking tray with foil and spoon a little of the marinade over the surface to stop it sticking. Place the salmon on top and spoon over a little marinade to keep it moist. Cook the salmon for 7-8 minutes, less for a thinner fillet – you want a really moist piece of fish so remove from the oven when just cooked. It will carry on cooking as it rests.
  3. Remove from the oven and serve immediately on top of the salad and garnish with extra coriander and peanuts.

 

Mango-chilli Salsa and Halloumi

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I don’t know where the first week of March has gone but I can surely say that it officially feels like spring! The suns been out and daffodils are starting to infiltrate their way onto desks and kitchen tables. Time for spring clean of the same old lunch time menu (i.e. soup) and a refreshing recipe….

Serves 2 (for a good lunch)

  • 1 mango, cut into 2cm cubes
  • About 8 cherry tomatoes, diced
  • ½ red chilli, chopped finely
  • ½ small red onion, chopped finely
  • Bunch coriander, chopped
  • Bunch mint, chopped
  • Bunch basil, chopped
  • ½ pomegranate, seeds
  • 1 lime
  • 6 slices halloumi
  • Runny honey
  • Handful sesame seeds
  1. Combine the first 8 ingredients in a large bowl and muddle together with the juice of the lime. Season with salt and pepper. Add a splash of extra virgin olive oil
  2. Heat a frying pan until hot and add a small drizzle of oil. Fry the halloumi until golden on both sides. Turn the heat off and add a tsp of runny honey and the sesame seeds and coat the halloumi for about 30 seconds before removing from the heat.
  3. Serve the salsa topped with the warm halloumi slices.

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Marsala soaked Prune and Chocolate Brownies

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The weather recently (with the odd exception) has been quite frankly horrendous that even the wine samples I bought home from work last week have resorted to their own wetsuits. (Some new Armit wine carriers which were enthusiastically handed out at work). If new to Armit Wines see here….we have a healthy collection of vino.

After a long week, some juicy samples were a welcome bounty to whisk home accompanied with the new sly advertising to an unshameful Friday evening in. Yes, I stayed in. It was bliss.

The wine. This Seresin Estate (Organic) Sauvignon Blanc is a definite crowd pleaser for those who love this NZ favourite. Flawlessly zesty with fresh, acidic and noteworthy mouthwatering and sharp gooseberry flavours. I immediately knew it would please my mum’s taste so off home I went the following day with sample and an extra shiny halo. Its a nice punchy wine but confirms my appreciation for more classic French wines which I’m growing to love more….

In addition to this white I also bought home a downright delicious and luxurious Marsala. My mind instantly went to my favourite wild mushroom, pancetta and marsala baked chicken recipe but I felt the harvest of my kitchen creations should be shared with the office so a baked creation was in order. Rich, moist and deep dark chocolate brownies with plump sweet prunes drunk and bloated on this boozy Marsala…

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It is also ‘Fairtrade’ week so as a nod to the chaps at Green & Blacks and a toast to the founding of the Fairtrade Foundation I urge you to use their Fairtrade chocolate here or another equally good natured product. This basic brownie recipe (minus the prunes) is courtesy of Bill Granger and is one I’ve been meaning to attempt. Warming – they are very rich!

Marsala soaked Prune and Chocolate Chunk Brownies

Makes about 18-20 large ones

  • 350g caster sugar
  • 80g Green & Blacks Cocoa powder
  • 60g plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 200g unsalted butter, melted
  • 200g Green & Blacks dark cooking chocolate, chopped
  • 140g pitted prunes
  • 4 tbsp marsala
  1. Begin by soaking the prunes in the marsala for about 6 hours of overnight – the longer you do this the more they will absorb the booze so the less you will have to waste!
  2. Preheat the oven to 160°C and grease and line a brownie tin (mine was)
  3. Sieve the flour, baking powder and cocoa and mix with the sugar.
  4. Add the melted butter, eggs, vanilla and stir to combine.
  5. Chop the prunes into big chunks and add with the chopped chocolate and mix.
  6. Spoon into the lined brownie tin and bake for 40 minutes or less for an molten centre.
  7. Leave to cool in the tin before removing to a wire rack and slicing into decadent chunks.

Thai Coquina Squash Soup

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You don’t have to use a Coquine squash here – butternut or any other meaty variety will do- but the animated colour was just so bright and vibrant to resist. The sun was finally glowing today to mark the 1st March (already! where has time gone?) so it seemed appropriate to reflect this.

This soup is like a bowl of spicy chilli flecked lava with wonderful flavours. Butternut squash is the king of soup ingredients I think as it creates such a wonderful silky texture. Feel free to use half stock and half coconut milk here for a deeper coconut flavour and an even creamier texture. I didn’t purely as I didn’t have enough to hand.

NOTE: For both garnish and if using in addition to stock, use a thick good quality coconut milk. The cheap varieties in the ethnic sections of many supermarkets are always better value and are thicker and creamier.

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Serves 4

  • 1 large squash
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 red chilli (medium hot or half a hot one…depends on taste), chopped
  • 3-4cm piece ginger, grated
  • 1 tbsp black mustard seeds
  • 1 fresh Kaffir lime leaf
  • 700ml hot chicken stock
  • 1 lime
  • Bunch coriander
  • Coconut milk (to garnish or use 350ml stock and 350ml coconut milk. and half coconut milk for a creamier soup)
  • 2 tbsp desiccated coconut
  1. Heat a splash of oil in a saucepan and gently soften the onion for about 5 minutes.
  2. Once soft, add the garlic, ginger, chilli and mustard seeds and fry for a few more minutes until the flavours have combined.
  3. Meanwhile, peel and deseed the squash reserving the seeds. Chop into chunks and add to the pan and combine with the onion mix.
  4. Add the stock (if you like you can use half stock half coconut milk) and the lime leaf and some seasoning and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 15minutes until the squash is soft.
  5. Remove from the heat and discard the lime leaf. Blend until fine and smooth with a hand blender. Add the juice from the lime and all but a handful of coriander and bend again.Taste to check the seasoning and keep warm.
  6. Heat a frying pan until hot. Remove any pith from the reserved seeds and fry in a tsp of oil for a few minutes. Add the desiccated coconut and fry until toasted. Remove from the heat.image
  7. To serve, fill warm soup bowls with the soup, drizzle with some coconut milk and garnish with the toasted seeds and extra coriander.

I served mine with some warm charred flatbreads (see here) spiked with Nigella seeds and smothered in butter.