Beetroot Salad with Rocket and Walnut Pesto

I've renamed my evening meal Salad Club, Experimental Salad Club on some nights, like tonight... It's totally normal to brand your meals surely...? Chicory, celery, cambozola and honey, I think it worked? Pea, broad bean, pesto, goats cheese, bacon and croutons, bit odd? For my birthday last week we ate a whole pig, a lovely friend gave me some fois gras, there was a venison pie, then the Ouseburn Festival Feast kindly provided me with black pudding rolls, scotch pies, chicken liver parfait and other meaty delights. I desperately need a bit of salad time and this beautiful sunshine makes it even more apt... Salad and sunshine are great friends.

I've been delving into my Ottolenghi Jerusalem book and the Polpo book, a recent favourite, and finding all kinds of delicious salady type treats. I served up two of them at my latest Supperclub on Saturday, a Radish, Fennel, Mint and Ricotta Salad, but I thought you might be a bit sick of radishes so I thought I'd tell you about the Beetroot Salad with Rocket and Walnut Pesto. I'm growing my own beetroot at the moment but it has got a little way to go before it is ready yet. I'm quite proud of it already, I always feel pretty proud of a root vegetable, it amazes me every time I pull one up, that I, me, actually grew it?

This is quite simple, once you know how long a beetroot takes to cook (I didn't, we ate at 10pm). Simply bring your beetroots to the boil in plenty of water with a big splash of red wine vinegar. This will serve 4 to 6 depending on hunger levels. I used 550g of beetroot, big tough as old boots ones and they took about an hour to cook. They need to be tender and the skins coming away easily. I hope my little fells in the allotment will be a bit more tender and speedy to cook. When they are done leave them to cool and then peel and cut into small chunks.

 

To make the pesto, wizz up a bag of rocket, about 70g, 60g of walnuts, 35g of parmesan, 2 cloves of garlic, ¼ teaspoon of salt, black pepper and a big glug of olive oil, using a food processor. I have also tried it with a mix of almonds and pecans which was very good too. There you have your rocket pesto, this is a world away from pesto you get in a jar at the supermarket, so tasty and well worth the effort. It's pretty easy and can be used for loads of other things.

Then simply mix the beetroot pieces with the pesto, you might not need it all, and add a handful of rocket and some toasted walnut pieces. The beetroot is soft and sweet and tangy, delicious with the fresh creamy pesto. A delicious new way to eat beetroot for me and a regular new addition on the Salad Club line up...

Baked Eggs with Wilted Spinach, Wild Garlic and Chilli and Sage Butter

There's a little man with an allotment opposite mine who is always there if I go early before work to water. Last year he gave me some rhubarb to plant and loads of spinach to eat. I accidentally stood on the rhubarb and thought I'd killed it, but it seems to be coming back to life this year, thank goodness, I couldn’t look him in the eye for a while in case he asked about it... He handed me huge armfuls of spinach on Friday morning, he seems like a good one to know...

The amount of meat I have been eating, basically moving from one BBQ to the next over the past few days, required a little spinach based brunch this morning. I flicked through Plenty by Ottolenghi looking for inspiration, and came across a lovely little recipe for baked eggs in rocket that I adapted to suit what I had. Wilted spinach and wild garlic, with eggs baked in the oven, then drizzled with hot chilli and sage butter and a dollop of garlicky yoghurt. Sitting in the sunshine in my little yarden this morning was a pretty delightful way to start the day...

Heat a frying pan with a little olive oil, add a few large handfuls of spinach, a handful of rocket, some torn wild garlic and a pinch of salt and wilt until all the water has bubbled away. When it is ready scoop it all into an oven proof bowl and make two little wells, crack a free range eggs into each and bake in the oven at 150°C for 10-15 minutes until the egg whites are cooked.

While the eggs are cooking mix up a few tablespoons of yoghurt with a pinch of salt and half a clove of crushed garlic. Then melt about 20g of butter, add half a teaspoon of chilli flakes and a few shredded sage leaves, cook for a few minutes until it bubbles.

When the eggs are ready dollop on the yoghurt and then pour the spicy sage butter over everything. It made a delicious little brunch sitting in the sun. The eggs were soft and runny with lovely wilted greens, a tangy fresh yoghurt and warm spicy buttery juices mingling into everything.

Warm Roast Squash and Apple Salad with Toasted Seeds and Honey Dressing

Pop-up Kitchens are tiring but very tasty I have discovered yet again... I've been running my Pop- up Kitchen at xsite architecture this weekend as part of the Ouseburn Open Studios. The whole building was turned into a series of little exhibitions, beautiful illustrations, amazing taxidermy, photography, fine art, architectural projection rooms, the Ouseburn Coffee Company and my little kitchen...

There were soups and stews bubbling away all weekend to keep people warm wandering round the Ouseburn on a chilly weekend. I made the Smokey Spinach, Chickpea and Pancetta stew, but this time I used chorizo, which worked very well, and there was buttery Leek, Potato and Parsley soup and lots of Onion and Gruyere Tarts. The whole of xsite set about baking mountains of cakes, scones, cheese straws and biscuits. Everyone went away very well fed...

This little salad is something I have made a few times in the past few weeks, partly to use up the mountains of apples I have hanging around the house, and also because it is quick and pretty much effort free. Cold dark evenings late in from work require meals that are warming but ready quickly with very little effort. This is my current favourite...

You can use any type of squash for this salad, butternut, onion or pumpkin. This was a little munchkin squash that I cut into small wedges and scooped out the seeds. Just leave the skin on with these little ones, it is so soft you can just eat it when it is roasted, or easily peel away. Preheat your oven to 220°C and put the squash into a roasting tray with a big glug of olive oil and some flaked sea salt. Now quarter 2 small apples, scoop out the core and seeds and add them to the tray with the squash.

Put them all in the oven for 15 minutes, after 15 minutes add 4 cloves of garlic still in their skins and some sprigs of rosemary and cook for a further 15 minutes.

I made a little dressing with a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, a teaspoon of honey and a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar all whisked together. Then toast a handful of pine nuts and pumpkin seeds in a dry pan for a few minutes until they start to turn golden.

When the munchkin squash and the apples are ready take them out, squish the garlic out of its skins into the tray and toss the roasted squash and apple around in it. Then place them on top of a plate of leaves, whatever type you fancy, scatter over the seeds and the dressing. I finished with a crumble of manchego, any excuse to add a bit of cheese to something... The warm roasted garlicky apple and squash are delicious with the tangy dressing and crunchy seeds...

Green herb couscous

I'm recovering from a slightly excessive night in Barn Asia. It's a South East Asian restaurant in Newcastle city centre, and the food was very good. We had huge tempura prawns, shaking beef, a delicious pork and rice dish and tiny cinnamon doughnuts with a strawberry compote. Alongside this was a bit too much red wine so I feel the need for vitamins today. I need something green and this Ottolenghi couscous is about as green as you get...

Slice the onion in half and then into thin slices. Cook it in a tablespoon of olive oil and a big pinch of salt. Cook it slowly for about 10 minutes or more until it is really soft and turning golden brown. Add half a teaspoon of ground cumin and cook for another few minutes.

While the onion is cooking you can get on with all the other stuff. Put 150g couscous in a bowl and cover with the same volume of water or stock, I used chicken stock, I think it gives it more flavour. Cover with cling film and leave it to sit for about 10 minutes, until you've done everything else really.

You really need a food processor for the herbs, I only got one in the last year and it's brilliant. If you don't have one, you are going to need quite a lot of patience and good fine chopping skills... Or you could make something different... You need to wizz up 20 grams of parsley and 20 grams of coriander, it's about the size of the little bags you get in most supermarkets. Then add about half that amount of dill and mint. I've made it with various combinations of herbs and its still good even you're missing some of them. Add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil so its like a loose paste that is very green...

Fork through the couscous and stir through the herb paste. Chop up 3 or 4 spring onions and add them. Chop up one green chilli into fine slivers and add also. Stir through the salty cumin onions.

Roughly chop up a few big handfuls of rockets and stir through, and finally toast off some pumpkin seeds in a dry pan and scatter them into the couscous.

I think this is so tasty, the sweet salty cumin onions really add something special, along with the crunchy pumpkin seeds. It is so green and herby, I don't think I've ever added quite so many to a dish before. I've served it as one of a few salads at a bbq before, on this occasion just with some grilled chicken...