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.

Courgette Fries with Roast Garlic Aioli

There is a house opposite mine that doesn’t open its curtains. Ever. I've been observing it for months now. I thought perhaps it was empty at first, then worried that someone had died in it and was just lying there, morbid I know... But there's a cat, that sits in the window, and it doesn’t look distressed or hungry, perhaps a bit bored, but generally ok. No lights ever come on at night. The other odd thing is that the velux window in the roof is wide open. Come rain or shine, in frost, in storms, high winds... Wide open. Are there people in there? Have they just forgotten it is open? The carpet must be soaked... Maybe they are growing a forest of marijuana in the loft and they need ventilation? Is there anyone in there? Someone must feed the cat? I've never seen anyone use the front door, and the curtains never even so much as twitch...

Until today... They have opened one set of curtains... I have seen a fleeting glimpse of a man and a light on. I've seen movement at the back of the dark room a few times as I have tried to stare discreetly into their house. Why don't they close the velux?! Am I obsessing over my neighbours perhaps... Perhaps.

So I stood in the kitchen and made some courgette fries with roast garlic aioli and watched for further movement or clues! The recipe is from a lovely blog I found this week, A Cozy Kitchen, it's cute, I have blog envy... I thought these looked incredibly unhealthy and naughty at first but actually they really aren’t, they are coated courgettes, baked, not even fried. The aioli is probably a bit naughty, but you need it...

Start by roasting three cloves of garlic in the oven, tossed in a little oil and salt, still in their skins. You want them to be soft and gooey, they should take about 10 minutes at 200°C.

While they are roasting cut three courgettes into batons. Wizz up some stale bread into bread crumbs, mine was a little fresh so went a bit sticky, a few slices... Add a tablespoon of finely grated parmesan, a pinch of salt and pepper, half a teaspoon of dried oregano and half a teaspoon of chilli flakes. Whisk an egg, then dip each piece of courgette into the egg then the breadcrumb mix. Line them up on a baking tray on greaseproof and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes at 210°C until golden.

While they are baking take the roast garlic out of their skins and mash them to a paste with some salt and pepper, add 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise and a splash of olive oil and mix everything up. Dip the hot creamy courgettes with their crunchy, spicy, cheesy crust into the roast garlic aioli and enjoy.

As I'm munching on the tasty fries a light comes on in the mysterious house opposite and I can see right in as it's beginning to get dark. There's no sign of any people...

Spinach and Chilli Pancakes

A little old man at the allotment gave me armfuls of spinach on Saturday while I was there watering. He's very kind, last time I saw him he gave me some rhubarb and planted it on my plot for me. Unfortunately this meeting led to a conversation about how the rhubarb was doing, which in truth is dead. I told him this... he is confident it will come back to life next year. I didn't tell him that it was my stepping on it that may have led to its death...

So I wanted to try these little spinach pancakes that are based on a recipe from the Ottolenghi book Plenty. I've been looking through their books a lot recently and want to get back into making more of their salads now that summer is sort of here...

To start you need to wilt the spinach in a pan with a splash of water, I used about 150g of Jesmond spinach... While that is happening add 55g of self raising flour to a mixing bowl, with half a teaspoon of baking powder, a free range egg, half a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of ground cumin, 75ml of milk and 25g of melted unsalted butter. Whisk everything together until it is smooth.

When the spinach is wilted transfer it to a sieve and squeeze as much water as you can out of it. Add the spinach to the pancake mixture, along with a finely sliced green chilli and 3 finely sliced spring onions. Finally whisk the white of an egg until it forms soft peaks and fold it into the mixture.

These amounts will make about four little pancakes. Heat a splash of olive oil in a heavy frying pan and then spoon in the mixture, a couple of tablespoons for each pancake. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side. They should be about a centimetre thick. You might have to do them in batches depending on the size of the pan.

Ottolenghi make a lime, chilli and coriander butter to serve with their version of these little green pancakes, which sounds delicious, but I opted for the healthier option and chopped a large handful of coriander into a couple of tablespoons of Greek yoghurt. I wanted to make something worthwhile with the spinach gift and they didn’t disappoint. They are lovely little green light pancakes with a hint of spice from the chilli and warm with cumin spice.

Leek Fritters

This recipe for leek fritters comes from the Ottolenghi book 'Plenty', it is an old Turkish family recipe that is really delicious. I was in Turkey twice last year, once for a few days in Istanbul and earlier in the year on the south Mediterranean coast for a very relaxing week. It is a beautiful area. We were staying near the coast which is very dramatic with huge cliffs dropping to tiny little pebble coves that you have to walk down hundreds of steps to reach. But drive twenty minutes inland and we were up in high mountains covered with huge pine trees, with fast rivers full of fresh water trout.

The mountain drive took us home through huge rocky dry mountains surrounding low lush green plateaus of farm land, growing millions and millions of tomatoes as well as corn, aubergines and chickpeas. When we eventually found our way back to the coast, after a few hours longer than planned, we came across a tiny little road side fish restaurant... They had one little boat moored on the rocks, a few chickens and some funny looking dogs, we were brought a green salad with pomegranate seeds and a syrupy pomegranate dressing, thin fried potatoes and a big tray of different sized, shaped and coloured fresh fish to point at which ones we wanted. I can't even remember which ones we went for, but everything was delicious, sat in the sun after being a bit lost in the mountains for most of the day...

To start the leek fritters chop 3 leeks into 2cm thick slices. These amounts will serve 4 people. Finely chop 5 shallots and sauté them together in a pan, on a low heat, with about 60ml of olive oil until they are soft, for about 15 minutes.

While they are cooking you can make the herb yoghurt sauce. Add 100g of Greek yoghurt, 100g of soured cream, 2 crushed cloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, half a teaspoon of salt, 20g of parsley leaves and 30g of coriander leaves to the blender and blitz for a few minutes until it is a green creamy sauce. If you don't want to make the sauce, or don't have a blender, the fritters are still delicious with just a squeeze of lemon.

Take a large bowl and add all of the following: one chopped red chilli, 25g of chopped parsley leaves, ¾ teaspoon of ground coriander, 1 teaspoon of ground cumin, ¼ teaspoon of ground turmeric, ¼ teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of sugar and half a teaspoon of salt. When the leeks and shallots are really soft add them to this mix and let them cool down.

Now whisk one egg white to soft peaks and add it to the cooled leeks. In another bowl mix together 120g of self raising flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, one whole egg, 150ml of milk and 55g of melted unsalted butter and mix everything together to make a light batter. Then stir this batter into the leek mix.

Finally heat 60ml of olive oil in a large frying pan. Spoon four large dollops of the mix into the pan to form four fritters, you will get about eight in total from the mix. Fry them for 2 or 3 minutes on each side until golden. Serve them warm with the sauce and a pile of salad...

Lamb, mint and pinenut meatballs

Middle Eastern type meals are the ones I really love. All their spices and flavours, long stews, fresh salads, tangy yoghurt, toasted flat breads, saffron, almonds, pomegranate salads, dried fruit and meat combinations, grilled fish, mint teas, honey soaked pastry... The list goes on...

We took a trip to Istanbul last Autumn and just ate and drank and tasted and smelt interesting and lovely things the entire time. Highlights were grilled mackerel fillets in a piece of fresh bread from a man fishing and grilling by the river, sitting on the harbour on the Asian side eating sticky baklava watching huge cruise ships, hot sweet milk flavoured with orchid root after a complicated ferry trip up the Bosphorus, amazing sesame flat-breads, grilled lamb, smoky aubergines and dips in a very smart kebab house of sorts, grilled chicken and yoghurt drinks on plastic stools in the Spice Market... I loved every second of it and the list of places to visit in that part of the world is steadily growing... Damascus, Syria, the Bekaa Valley...

This recipe brings a few of those flavours and spices together. Starting with the spicy tomato sauce so it can simmer away while you do everything else. Chop half an onion finely and a clove of garlic, then cook them in a tablespoon of olive oil on a low heat until they are soft, about 10 minutes. Then add a tin of tomatoes, a pinch of chilli flakes and some salt and pepper and allow it to simmer gently until you need it. Keep stirring it now and again to make sure it doesn’t stick.

Chop the other half of the onion finely, along with a few sprigs of mint and another clove of garlic. Add this to 500g of lamb mince. This makes enough for 2 to 3 people. Add half a teaspoon of cinnamon and half a teaspoon of allspice and another pinch of salt and pepper, and mix everything up thoroughly. Roll the mince into little balls about the size of a ping pong ball and roll them around on a plate you have covered in olive oil.

Add all the meatballs to a roasting tray and put them in the oven at 180°C for about 15 minutes. Give them a shake half way through. They should just be browned a little but not too much, you don't want them to dry out.

While the meatballs are cooking measure out 200g of couscous, put it in a pan that can go in the oven and add the same volume of boiling salted water, so 200ml. A teaspoon of salt will be sufficient. Leave it to rest with the lid on, to absorb the water for 10 minutes.

When the meatballs are at the correct stage of brown add the tomato sauce and mix them all together, put them back in the oven for another 15 minutes. At the same time you can take a fork to your couscous and break it all up, it will have become solid as it has absorbed all the water, you need it to be loose in little grains and full of air. Add a large glug of olive oil and mix it through. Put the pan in the oven with the lid on and leave it in for the same amount of time as the meatballs.

I made a sweet cumin yoghurt to go with the meatballs, which is really delicious. It came from The Salad Club originally, but I can't find it on their website, and I kind of make it up a bit differently each time now until it tastes right. Add 4 tablespoons of yoghurt to a small bowl, to this add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil, a heaped teaspoon of ground cumin and a heaped teaspoon of caster sugar. Then whisk this all together. Add a pinch of salt and pepper too.

It is really good on a BBQ-ed lamb kofta, or a lamb skewer, with some spicy tomato sauce, smoky charred aubergines, pitta bread and chopped salad. I'm longing for summer BBQ's on my little bucket BBQ in the yarden...

Take the meatballs and the couscous out after about 15 minutes. Chop a couple of knobs of butter into the couscous and allow it to melt through. It will be soft and steamy underneath and crunchy around the edges, mix it all up evenly.

 

Serve a big mound of steamy couscous topped with meatballs and tomato sauce, some fresh chopped mint scattered about and a big spoon of sweet cumin yoghurt. Buttery couscous, spicy tomato sauce, rich minty lamb and sweet spiced yoghurt...

 

Salt and pepper squid

For a tasty little starter this is really lovely. Ideally pop to North Shields fish quay to pick up the squid, but today it was Byker Morrison's... as time just didn't allow, and we'd already been to the Cumberland Arms for a drink...

The squid need to be cleaned and the insides and cartilage removed... Hold the head and tenticles in one hand and the body in the other, pull in different directions until separate. Cut the tenticles off at the beak, just below the eyes, and throw away the head and everything else attached. Pull the cartilage, a little tranparent quill, out of the body and throw it away. Turn the body inside out and rinse it to clean off anything left. Cut it cross ways into a series of rings and dry them off with some kitchen roll.

Sprinkle a pile of plain flour into a bowl and add a chopped chilli, and a good pinch of salt flakes and pepper. I used a whole red chilli for two quite big squid.

Toss the tenticles and rings of squid in the flour and chilli mixture, until coated all over and ready to go. You'll need to use a vegetable or corn oil to fry them, olive oil doesn't get hot enough. Heat up the oil in a shallow pan or frying pan until really hot and then throw in the squid a few at a time, until lovely and crispy.

Scoop them into a bowl, sprinkle some chopped coriander over the top and dive in with fingers or forks.