In another attempt to find another tasty use for those artichokes, this recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Every Day might fit the bill – and you don’t even need to peel them. He says, ‘The earthy flavour of roasted artichokes is delicious with toasted hazelnuts. They have a tendency to collapse into fluffiness when roasted, but keeping the skin on stops them breaking up too much.’
Serves 4-6
Preparation and cooking: 50 minutes
Ingredients
75g hazelnuts
600g jerusalem artichokes
4 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
2 sprigs of thyme
1-2 bay leaves
1 tsp hazelnut oil (optional)
½ lemon
a couple of handfuls of winter salad leaves (optional)
75g hard goat’s cheese, crumbled or shaved into strips with a vegetable peeler
salt and pepper
Method
First, toast the hazelnuts. Spread them out on a baking sheet in a single layer and place in an oven preheated to 180C/gas 4 for about 5 minutes, until lightly coloured and the skins blistered and cracked. Wrap in a clean tea towel for a minute and then rub vigorously with the towel until the skins fall off. Cool the chop very roughly or leave whole.
Turn up the oven to 190C/gas 5 and put a large roasting tin in to heat up. Scrub the artichokes well and cut into halves or quarters lengthways, depending on size – you need chunks about 1.5cm thick. Put them in a bowl and turn over in 3 tbsp of the oil with the thyme, bay and a little salt. Tip into the hot roasting tin and roast for about 35 minutes, until tender and lightly golden, turning them after about 15 minutes. Allow to cool slightly.
Whisk the remaining tbsp of oil with the hazelnut oil (if using), trickle it over the warm artichokes, squeeze on a good spritz of lemon juice and season with salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Turn them over gently with your hands to combine everything well. Add the hazelnuts and the salad leaves (if using), toss gently then divide between serving plates. Scatter over the crumbled or shaved goat’s cheese and serve.
A recipe from Skye Gyngell’s How I Cook. It specifies small leeks but works just as well with larger ones although they’ll need to be cut up a bit smaller than she suggests! It can be prepared ahead and reheated just before serving.
Serves 6
Preparation and cooking: around 40 minutes
Ingredients
12 small leeks
50g unsalted butter
bunch of thyme
60g freshly grated parmesan
salt and pepper
1 tbsp chopped parsley
Method
First trim off the top of the leeks, leaving only a small amount of green, and trim the root end. Now slice the root lengthways into quarters, cutting almost but not quite through to the base. Rinse well under cold running water,shaking to loosen any dirt.
Lay the leeks in a medium, shallow pan and pour in just enough water to cover.Bring to the boil over a high heat, then lower the heat to a simmer and cook, uncovered, until the water has reduced by a third. Add the butter and thyme and continue to cook until almost all the water has evaporated, leaving glossy, sweet, soft leeks. Discard the thyme.
Scatter over the parmesan and season generously with pepper, adding a little salt only if needed. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley and serve.
To celebrate the fact that the Cornish Pasty Association (CPA) has received Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status for its world famous pasty, we thought you might like a traditional Cornish pasty recipe. The difficulty is finding the decisive recipe – there are as many variants as there are pebbles on the beach – but most people agree on the following:
- use a good cut of beef – skirt is the best, chuck is an alternative
- include swede (known as turnip in Cornwall), onion and potato but never carrot
- whether the ingredients are diced or sliced is debatable, but they must go in raw
- seasoning is restricted to salt and plenty of pepper
- the pastry is traditionally shortcrust, made with lard (though a Cornish friend always makes rough puff pastry for hers)
- add a knob of butter or a spoonful of cream for extra richness
The recipe that follows uses grated frozen lard – which adds to the preparation time. Use your normal shortcrust pastry if you prefer.
Serves 4
Preparation: 1 hour +
Cooking: 45-50 minutes
Ingredients
for the pastry:
350g block of lard
450g strong plain flour
pinch of salt
ice cold water to mix
for the filling:
400g beef (skirt or chuck), trimmed and diced
200g onion
200g swede
600g potatoes
salt and pepper
butter/cream
egg wash
Method
Put the lard in its wrapper in the freezer and leave for about an hour until hard. Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Remove the lard from the freezer, peel back the paper, dip into the flour and grate it into the bowl, dipping back into the flour every now and again to make the grating easier. Mix the grated lard evenly into the flour by making sweeping scoops with a palette knife until it resembles heavy breadcrumbs. Stir in 1 tbsp of water at a time until the dough clings together, then form it into a ball. Place the dough in a plastic bag and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6. Keeping separate piles, peel and coarsely chop the onion and peel and dice the swede and potatoes. Roll out the pastry and cut out four circles about the size of a small dinner plate. Sprinkle onion and swede across the centre of the pasty in an oval shape, leaving a 2cm border. Season with salt and pepper. Cover with the meat and then half the potato. Season again and then add the remainder of the potato.
Moisen half the pastry border with a little water, bring up each side of the circle of pastry to enclose the filling, and press together to form a ridge. Crimp with your fingers (see note below).
Grease a flat baking sheet and sprinkle with water. Transfer the pasties to the sheet, prick them in a few places on either side of the seam with a fork and paint all over with egg wash. Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 150C/gas 2 and cook for a further 30-40 minutes.
NOTE: How and where to crimp is another question. Some say the crimp should be on top, some on the side. My Cornish friend says she does the crimping on the side then turns the pasty over as she puts it on the baking sheet so that the crimp ends up on top. The CPA’s own recipe shows the crimp on the side.
From Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook. Good with a sharp tartare sauce or mustard mayonnaise, she says. They freeze well, so you can make lots in one go.
For 8 fishcakes
Preparation and cooking: 40 minutes
Ingredients
½ onion, chopped
75g streaky bacon, chopped
300g smoked haddock
1 bay leaf
6 cloves
275 milk
150g parsnips, chopped
150g potatoes, chopped
10g butter
chopped parsley
1 red chilli, finely chopped (optional)
salt and black pepper
seasoned flour
1 egg, beaten
80g white breadcrumbs
olive oil, for frying
Method
Cook the onion with the bacon over a moderate heat for 10 minutes and put to one side.
Put the smoked haddock into a pan, together with the bay leaf and cloves. Pour over the milk, cover and bring to the boil. As soon as the milk boils, remove from the heat and allow the fish to cool in the liquid.
Boil or steam the parsnips and potatoes together until they are tender. Mash them with the butter and a dash of the boiled milk and season well.
Combine the onions, bacon, mashed potatoes and parships, parsley and chilli, if using. Barely flake the fish, and fold carefully into the vegetable mixture. The fishcakes are far nicer if the flakes of fish are intact. Adjust the seasoning.
Dust your hand with seasoned flour and shape balls of the mixture into cakes. Dip these into the beaten egg and coat with the breadcrumbs.
Shallow-fry in the olive oil until golden or bake for 15-20 minutes in an oven preheated to 180C/gas mark 4. They can be made in advance and kept on a baking tray in the fridge until you want to cook them.
From Sybil Kapoor’s Modern British Food. Eat as soon as it’s cooked.
Serves 4
Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking: 10 minutes
Ingredients
115g soft goat’s cheese, roughly diced
1 tbsp finely chopped chives
2 tbsp walnut (or olive) oil
4 spring onions, finely sliced
225g red cabbage, cored, quartered and finely sliced
1 dessert apple, cored, quartered and thinly sliced
30g walnut halves
1-3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
Method
Place the goat’s cheese and chives in a large salad bowl.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan and quickly stir-fry the spring onions and cabbage until they begin to wilt. At this stage add the sliced apple, walnut halves, vinegar and seasoning to taste. Allow to heat through and then toss into the cheese and chive bowl. Quickly mix and serve warm.
This is a classic recipe from Elizabeth David’s French Provincial Cooking. It’s a dish to make, she says, ‘when you have a glass of wine, red, white, rosé, sweet, dry or aromatic (ie some sort of vermouth) to spare’.
Serves 4-6
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 1½ hours
Ingredients
6-8 onions, all the same size
1 tbsp olive oil
small glass of wine
water
salt and pepper
Method
Peel the onions and put them with the olive oil in a thick pan in which they just fit comfortably. Start them off over a moderate flame and, when the oil is beginning to sizzle, pour in a small glass of wine. Let it boil fiercely for a few seconds. Add water to come half-way up the onions. Transfer to a low oven and cook uncovered for about 1½ hours. Put back on top of the stove over a fast flame for 2 or 3 minutes, until the wine sauce is thick and syrupy. Season. Serve as a separate vegetable, or round a roast.
From Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall who says: “Of course, you don’t have to stick to three roots: you could use two, four or as many as suits you. Do always include potatoes, however, to give the mash body and to stop it getting too sweet.”
Swede or celeriac could also be used as a mash with potatoes.
Serves 6
Preparation and cooking: 30 minutes
Ingredients
500g carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
500g parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks
500g floury potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
50g unsalted butter or 50ml rapeseed oil
100ml milk (or half milk and half double cream)
freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Cook the carrots and parsnips in a pan of boiling salted water until tender. Cook the potatoes in a separate pan. Drain the vegetables and let them steam dry for a minute or two.
Put the carrots and pasnips in a food processor (or mash with a potato masher), with half the butter or oil, and blend to a creamy puree. Heat the milk and the remaining butter or oil in the pan in which the potatoes were cooked, then add the potatoes and mash until smooth.
Combine the mashed vegetables, adding plenty of seasoning, including nutmeg if you like, to make a creamy, golden mash. Serve steaming hot, with sausages or roast lamb or venison.
From Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook. Serve with basmati rice and cucumber raita (yoghurt, garlic and chopped cucumber). It’s really tasty.
Serves 8
Preparation and cooking: about 40 minutes
Ingredients
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
a little vegetable oil
1 heaped tsp medium curry powder
25g fresh grated ginger
2 green chillies or 1 red, finely chopped
salt and black pepper
25g chickpeas, soaked overnight and cooked till tender, or 2 x 400g tins
400ml tin of coconut milk
250g button mushrooms, halved
juice of 1 lime
2 lemon grass sticks
15 medium kale leaves
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp Thai fish sauce
large bunch of coriander
Method
Fry the onion and garlic gently in the oil until soft. Add the curry powder, fresh ginger, chilli, salt and pepper and stir.
Next, add the cooked chickpeas (drain and rinse tinned ones if using), coconut milk, mushrooms, lime juice and lemon grass sticks, and simmer for 30 minutes.
Remove the stems from the kale and chop the leaves into strips. Steam them for 5 minutes and then add them to the chickpea mixture. Add the soy and fish sauces.
Scatter with coarsely chopped coriander. This is best served warm when all the flavours seem to sing out.
From Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook. Based on a recipe by Irish chef Denis Cotter, she says it ‘has lots of different flavours, with a lovely after-bite.’
Serves 6
Preparation and cooking: 20 minutes
Ingredients
450g onions
½ savoy cabbage (about 400g)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 red or 4 green chillies, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
about 5cm fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed
800ml good vegetable stock
400ml tin of coconut milk
bunch of fresh coriander, chopped (optional)
juice of 3 limes
salt and black pepper
Method
Finely chop the onions and very finely shred the cabbage. Heat the oil in a pan, add the cabbage and onion and cook over a moderate heat for a couple of minutes before adding the chillies, garlic, ginger and coriander seeds. Continue cooking for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly, until the onion and cabbage are tender but still have a bite to them.
Bring the stock to the boil in a separate pan and add it to the vegetables. Simmer for 5 minutes, then add the coconut milk, half of the fresh coriander (if using), the lime juice and finally salt and pepper.
Serve the soup with extra coriander to taste.
NOTE: chopped parsley could be substituted for the coriander.
A recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s new River Cottage Everyday cookbook. ‘Soft, buttery, wilted leeks bring a lovely sweetness to any kind of lightly cooked cabbage or greens,’ he says. ‘Easy to throw together, can be made with different seasonal green throughout most of the year and works as a side dish to everything …’ It’s just got to be worth trying.
Serves 4
Preparation and cooking about 15-20 minutes
Ingredients
about 500g leeks
a knob of unsalted butter
1 savoy or other green cabbage, 2 heads of spring greens, or a few bunches of curly kale
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Trim the leeks, slice them finely (maximum 5mm) and give them a good rinse to get rid of any grit. Heat the butter in a large frying pan or wide saucepan and add the leeks with a pinch of salt. Let them cook gently for 5-6 minutes, stirring or shaking the pan occasionally, until wilted and tender.
Meanwhile, grim and coarsely shred the cabbage, greens or kale. Cook lightly – in either a steamer or a large saucepan of salted water – for 3-4 minutes, until wilted and tender but not too soft. Remove from the heat immediately, drain well and let the excess moisture steam off for a minute or so. Then add to the pan of buttery leeks, along with some more seasoning, and stir over a low heat for about a minutes until thoroughly combined. Serve straight away.
In theory you can use any leftovers for bubble and squeak … but in practice there rarely are any.
