Shredded Winter Salad

I hate boiled white cabbage with a vengeance but like it as or in a salad. This is a Jamie Oliver inspired recipe from Jamie's Great Britain. Jamie uses mayonnaise but I opted for something a little lighter.

2 large carrots, coarsely grated
2 uncooked beetroot, coarsely grated
2 handfuls of very finely sliced white cabbage
1 Abate pear or 2 small pears
1 bunch flat leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
2 small handfuls of toasted, chopped walnuts

Dressing:
150 ml soured cream or crème fraîche
1 tsp mustard
2-3 tbp extra virgin olive oil
2-3 tbsp (elderflower infused) cider or sherry vinegar
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Place the vegetables, fruit, herbs and nuts into a large bowl. Make the dressing and mix together. Marinate for about an hour.

Autumnal Filo Tart with Butternut Squash and Pear

I got the idea for this last year ago on a German blog and now that autumn's here again I'm finally trying it out as I love the combination of sweet and savoury. Unfortunately, I can't find ready-made pizza dough in British supermarkets so have resorted to filo pastry on several occasions. It's a little more work because every sheet has to be oiled but it's faster than making a yeast dough from scratch and really tasty. You can make this using hokaido or other seasonal pumpkins, I just find them too floury when baked. I think some rosemary sprigs would work really well with this, too.

1 packet of filo pastry
1/2 medium butternut squash
1 large or 2 small pears
1/2 red onion
200 g soured cream* or crème fraîche
50-60 g pancetta
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch of flat parsley
1 large garlic clove
extra virgin olive oil


1. Peel the butternut squash and onion and slice very thinly (2-3 mm). Cut the pancetta into small strips. Leave the pear for now.

2. Finely chop the parsley. Squeeze the garlic into the cream, season with pepper and salt, add the chopped parsley and mix.

3. Layer the filo pastry onto a baking sheet or pizza try oiling each layer, including any overhangs. I like to roll up the overhang giving it one last brush with the oil and enjoy its crispiness when cooked.

4. Spread on the cream and herb mix. Scatter the pumpkin, onion and about 2/3 of the pancetta over the top. Now, core and thinly slice the pear. Add with the remaining panchetta. Season and drizzle with a little olive oil.

 5. Bake at 200° C, gas mark 5 for 20-30 minutes until the squash is cooked.

*British soured cream has a higher fat content then, say, the soured cream available in Germany (10%). It doesn't state how much but it certainly has lots more calories and doesn't curdle when used like this.

Chicken Stock

I try to not just throw out the bones and skin of a roast chicken (recipes here and here) but to make a light chicken stock with the left-overs.

bones and skin of 1 roast chicken
garlic and herbs from inside the chicken
1 onion
2 bay leaves
1 tsp black pepper corns
1 celery stick
2 litres of boiling water
any left-over juices from the roasting tray

optionally any or all of these:
1-2 carrots, roughly chopped
fennel fronds/herb
celeriac
parsnip

Place all the ingredients into a saucepan and lightly boil for 20-30 minutes. Drain through a sieve or colander. (I didn't forget to add salt, BTW.) Use for soups or risottos or anything else you can think of.

Fennel Chicken

I've almost finished the lovely organic veg from our friends at Rowanbank now but there were still a few things left today: wee fennel bulbs including the lovely herby fronds, tomatoes and potatoes. Add to that a free-range chicken and you have a Sunday roast dinner on a Monday night. Not bad, not bad at all!

(serves 4 - 6)

1 free range or organic chicken (approx. 1500-1750 grams)
1 lemon
sea salt
black pepper
1 whole bulb garlic, julienned
olive oil

vegetables for 4-6 servings:
fennel bulbs with fronds
cherry tomatoes
potatoes
fennel seeds, optional

Season the chicken inside and out with pepper and salt. Place the fennel fronds, garlic and lemon inside. Cook in a preheated oven at gas mark 5/200 °C for a total of 90 minutes.

Peel the potatoes and cut into large chunks. Parboil for 10-12 minutes in salted water. Drain and leave to dry. Drizzle with olive oil. Slice the fennel, season with pepper and salt and drizzle with olive oil. After 45 minutes add the potatoes, fennel and fennel seeds (if using) to the roasting tray and cook for approx. 25 minutes before adding the tomatoes. Mix all the vegetables and cook for a further 20 minutes.

Pierce the chicken thigh. If the liquid runs clear the meat is cooked.

Porcini Risotto

Included in our organic haul was at least 500 grams of chard, Swiss, red, yellow and orange, which I turned into a warm salad. You can find the recipe here, look for 'variation'. To accompany this I opted for risotto. Not having any fresh mushrooms I made my first risotto using only porcinis. Very satisfying!

(serves 2)

150 g arborio rice
1/4 red onion
1/2 celery stick
1 garlic clove
500 ml vegetable stock
200 ml porcini stock
150-175 ml dry white wine
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
50 g freshly grated parmesan
10 g butter

Boil 200 ml of water and soak the porcinis for 30 minutes. Remove the porcinis and reserve the stock. You'll use it when making the risotto. Coarsely chop the porcinis and set aside.

Now make your risotto as described here. After the wine has been absorbed add the first ladle of porcini stock and, since I used home-made, unsalted stock, season the rice with salt. Once you've used up the porcini stock, start adding the vegetable stock. Once the rice is cooked to your liking add the chopped poricinis and season with black pepper. Stir in the parmesan and butter. Cover and leave for a couple of minutes. Serve in warmed plates.

Cooked Salad of Green Beans and Hard Boiled Eggs

Last weekend, we were given a heap of organic veggies by our friends from Rowanbank and have been eating really well all week. Normally I sauté green beens with onion and garlic before adding stock and/or tomatoes and serving them as a vegetable side dish or salad. Today I fancied doing something a wee bit different and steamed them instead. While the salad was marinating I hard boiled some eggs for no specific purpose. Not having had any lunch I decided to add a couple of the egss to the beans. The result was icredibly morish. I could have eaten the whole lot by myself!

500 g green beans
2 hard boiled eggs
fabby vinaigrette
dried oregano
freshly ground black pepper
sea salt

Top and tail, then wash the beans. Cut them into 2-inch pieces, place into a steamer, season with pepper, salt and oregano. Bring some water to the boil, place the steamer on top and cover. Steam the beans for 5-8 minutes until just tender turning them occasionally. Place into a large bowl and dress to taste with the vinaigrette. Leave to cool but mix them every so often so prevent the beans from cooking further. Chop up two hard boiled eggs and gently mix with the beans. Eat slightly warm or at room temperature.

Vanilla Ice Cream with Blackberry Sauce and Pistachios

Today, we bought some blackberries but when we got home we realised that they were very soft and on the cusp of going off. We had to eat them quickly. So I came up with this easy dessert.

(serves 4)

200-250 g blackberries
maple syrup
unsalted pistachios, chopped
vanilla ice cream

Puree the blackberries adding maple syrup to taste. Spoon over four portions of vanilla ice cream and sprinkle with pistachios.