Ricotta, Radish, Mint and Fennel Salad

I’m working on my salad repertoire... The menu, at my new venture Cook House, will be full of local seasonal flavour, huge delicious salads, salt beef bagels, roast chicken sandwiches with homemade mayonnaise, granola, stewed fruit, the occasional bacon sandwich, I’m nearly ready to show you the website... so watch this space...

This is a very simple salad I’ve been making for a while now, originally from the Polpo recipe book, I have free styled a bit. It’s really delicious. The radishes are my own, they are so easy to grow and I love the real kick of spice you get from home grown radishes, a much more powerful tasty version of the little bags in the supermarket. I’m also going to give homemade ricotta a go and try it with that... I’ll keep you posted.

These amounts will make one large plate of salad. Use a mandolin or a very sharp knife and thinly slice a big handful of radishes, take half a fennel bulb and thinly slice that too. Add everything to a large bowl. If you have some fresh radish leaves you can thinly slice the small ones and scatter them in, then add a large handful of roughly chopped mint. Add two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and the juice of quarter of a lemon, add more to taste, and a pinch of salt and lots of black pepper. Toss the salad and scatter over a large plate. Then crumble half a pot of ricotta over the top of everything and drizzle over a little more olive oil...

This is delicious with spicy radishes, aniseed fennel and creamy ricotta, fresh mint and lemon, it’ll be on the menu soon, when I’m open and the thunder stops...

Radishes with Butter and Salt

I figured if St. John say you should eat radishes with butter and salt then you probably should do just that; they seem to know what they are talking about, when it comes to all things food. It sounded a bit odd, but I'll give it a go I thought, and I'm pretty glad I did, for this week at least, it is my new favourite thing!

I popped over to check the allotment earlier, I am attempting to be a better gardener this year and so far things are going quite well; there are more plants than weeds which is a first... We have broad beans, french beans, courgettes, onions, beetroot, parsnips, gooseberrys and blackcurrants all doing well; and these little guys, who have suddenly grown into beautiful little red globes over the past week.

I proudly plucked a handful from the ground and brought them home, remembering St. John's advice on 'how to eat radishes at their peak'... Simply top and tail your radish, add a knob of butter, sprinkle with flakes of salt and crunch. The peppery crisp radish with soft creamy butter and crunchy salt is delicious, amazing, I could eat a huge bowl full, thankfully there are lots more little red radishes at the allotment still to pull up... If you find yourself in possession of a radish you must try it, the leaves make a pretty tasty salad too with a good vinaigrette...

Broad Bean, Mint and Pomegranate Salad

The flood warnings didn’t put us off heading over to the Lake District this weekend. Having survived an epic storm and a flooded basement last week we shrugged at flood warnings and set off. There was another little guy along for the ride too, apart from TLI, Mr. Smokerson, my newly acquired smoker and firm friend; but more of him to come... My adventures in smoking have begun...

The weekend turned out to be warm and dappled in beautiful sunshine most of the time, apart from the bit when we were an hour from home up a deserted valley and the heavens opened. I thought it was snow at one point, but no, just huge, huge raindrops soaking us to the skin. Sheltering in the forest seemed a good idea at first; but when the rain stopped outside, we were still in the forest and the water falling from the trees continued to saturate us...

A few hours later I was sitting in the sun making a salad, it is a pretty funny kind of summer we're having... This salad is a little preview of sorts. I am hosting, alongside Carruthers and Kent wine merchants of Gosforth, a little food and wine evening. A taste of the Middle East with lots of different courses of sharing plates matched with different wines, I do the food, they do the wine. The event is part of the EAT Festival, which is currently in full swing. Our original date for the 19^th July sold out more or less straight away, so we have decided to do it again, on the Friday 27^th July. If you would like to come along you can find all of the details here.

This broad bean and pomegranate delight forms one half of the salad course, alongside a tomato, feta and tarragon salad with sumac dressing. As well as smoky dips, Moroccan breads, slow roast salted lamb, pistachio bombs, Lebanese reds, raki and more, it promises to be a lovely evening...

Shell and peel about 600g of broad beans and set them to one side. Then cut a pomegranate open and remove the seeds, you only need the seeds from one half, make sure you pick out all the skin. Finely slice 4 radishes and add them to the bowl with the pomegranate seeds. Remove the leaves from 4 sprigs of mint and finely shred them, add them to the bowl too. Then pick the leaves from 6 sprigs of parsley and add them whole.

Drop the broad beans into a pan of boiling salted water and blanch them for 2-3 minutes. Allow them to cool then add to everything else. At the very last minute dress everything with a glug of extra virgin olive oil and a splash of sherry vinegar. These amounts will serve 4 with other salads, or 2 as a larger portion.

It is a salad full of flavour, crunchy sweet pomegranate seeds, creamy smooth broad beans, peppery radishes and tons of herbs. We ate it in the sun alongside Mr. Smokerson, while he did his smoky thing with a piece of pork for 9 hours. I'm currently documenting the build, the smoking and the mistakes made...