COURGETTE & WATERCRESS SALAD // BULGAR WHEAT

These are two simple salads that we had with the Herby chicken on the previous post. Eating courgettes in a raw form follows the new trend of RAW FOOD eating which has the added benefits of retaining as many nutrients as possible that would usually be lost in the cooking process.

BULGAR WHEAT 

RECIPE

100g Bulgar Wheat 

1 tsp Vegetable stock, Bouillon powder is best

1 handful of fresh mint leaves chopped

1 tbsp Extra virgin oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

METHOD

1. Put the bulgar wheat in a bowl with the bouillon powder and cover with boiling water. Set aside for 10 minutes to soften and absorb the liquid. Drian off any excess.
2. Place in a bowl, stir though the mint, lemon juice and oil & season with freshly ground pepper.

A bit of yogurt mixed with lemon zest goes very nicely with this.

COURGETTE & WATERCRESS SALAD
RECIPE
*Adapted from "Marinated Courgette Salad with pine Nuts & Parmesan" BBC GoodFood

1 Large courgette (or 2 small ones), cut into long ribbons using a potato peeler.
2 Large handfuls of fresh watercress
1 Red chilli finely chopped
1 tbsp Extra virgin oil
1 tbsp lemon juice

METHOD

1. Whisk together the oil, lemon juice and chilli.
2. Toss the courgette in the dressing and let sit for 10 minutes.
3. Add the watercress.
4. Place in a bowl, season with freshly ground pepper and scatter a few coriander leaves.

MIKE & OLLIE'S SUPPERCLUB

Since going to Eat Meet Supperclub I have once again got the bug for Pop-up Supperclubs! So this time I managed to convince Ben to come along to Mike & Ollie's Supperclub. Which I have been desperate to go to for ages!

I first came across Mike & Ollie at Brockley Market, which is fabulous food market in South East London. It is based not in Brockley, as the name suggests, but next to Lewisham College (closest station is St John's). I've often pop down there and always end up having one of M&O's fantastic wraps! Always different, always seasonal, always delicious!

We had planned to go in June but due to some problems they had to cancel the evening and re-organised it for the 18th July. For the inconvenience they gave us a bottle of wine on the house!

We were requested to arrive at the address in Camberwell at 7pm sharp!

Greeted by Mike himself and the team, we were welcomed into the place where they were both serving and creating the meal. As we sat down at one of the two long wooden tables, Mike came over with freshly made kiwi cocktails and told me how he'd made all the wooden furniture out of old pallets and crates. It is clear these guys are both talented and incredibly resorceful too.

Jam Jar Kiwi Cocktail - A good way to start!

The first course arrived on wheels - literally. Each course was served on planks of wood that were wheeled down the middle of the table. A portion for each person, to be dragged onto their plate.

The first course was sea bass, cauliflower, sumac and sourdough croutons.

Our bottle of red opened for the arrival of our next course, the Venison!

The sardines!

 I was so busy talking that when they came to clear this course I'd barley started. 

Apologising to Mike for my gossiping and confirming how I loved this dish, he disappeared reappearing with another two sardines for me! Grinning from ear to ear, he'd made his point that there was no need to rush.

This is the wonderful Rosie and Domenica, our companions for the evening! Domenica, a sculptor who studied the masters in Florence & Rosie, a nutrition blogger who is studying to be a dietician. They were such fun and I was fascinated to hear about their stories and travels. So much so that Ben and I are booked in to try out their very own supperclub in a couple of weeks. Check out Rosie's blog here: Gluten Free Rosie

In return Domenica took a photo of us

Orginally starting on red wine, which was wonderful but due to melting in the heat we went onto chilled white. This was a beautiful Spanish dry white wine. Delicious!

Highly recommend!

Valdesil Montenovo Godelle 2012 Vilamartin De Valdeorras

Sorry for the slightly overexposed shot here (might have something to do with the second bottle!?)

These scallops were delicious!

Rosie doing her blogger thang ;D

Gooseberry fools and homemade shortbread disks with strawberries. The shortbread melted in your mouth and the fool was a delightfully light and refreshing. The only problem was I had to share ... ;)

Follow Mike & Ollie on Twitter  or even better visit their stall at Brockley Market or better still book into their supperclub. You won't regret it!

**Please note I am waiting for the exact details for each course and will post them up.

MINT PEA HOUMOUS // SAFFRON CHICKEN SALAD

I grew up understanding the importance of a Sunday Lunch. It wasn't the fact you were having a roast dinner, but the fact it was the one day in the week where the family would all sit together to eat. It is so easy to get wrapped up in day to day life, hectic schedules and social media that the 'here and now' seems insignificant. However the 'here and now' is all we have. Sit, take your time and eat rather rushing to consume food before hitting the next task. But the most important part is that you end up talking to one another.

Last week I made a simple Sunday lunch for Ben and his parents. The sun has been out in full force recently and rather than cooking a hot heavy rich roast dinner I thought a light summer zesty menu would fit the bill a lot better.

MINT PEA HOUMOUS
This was a last minute addition to the menu. I only decided to do this an hour before the Pickett's arrived. It's definitely an adapted recipe as I had to work with what was in the fridge and there was no fresh broad beans! Fortunately we already had a lovely fresh loaf of sourdough.

RECIPE 

*Adapted recipe from "Incredible smashed peas & broad beans on toast " Jamie oliver

450g Frozen peas, defrosted and drained.

1/2 Red onion, finely chopped

1 Garlic clove, peeled and crushed.

1 small bunch of fresh mint leaves

Juice of 1 lime

115g yogurt

50g Finely grated parmesan plus extra for serving

2 tbsp Extra virgin Oil *Highly recommend reasonably priced Sainsbury's Kalamata Extra Virgin Oil PDO £5.50

Freshly ground pepper and salt.

4 Slices of Sourdough bread, toasted & halved.

METHOD

1. Put the peas, onion, garlic, mint, lime juice, grated parmesan, yogurt olive oil and seasoning into a blender and whizz up. *I got a little carried away with the blender and think in retrospect that it would've been better to have it slightly courser with perhaps a few peas smashed by hand and then mixed through.
2. Chill the houmous in the fridge for a bit before serving.
3. Toast the sourdough and put a dollop of the houmous on the toast. With a peeler, peel a slither of parmesan place on top and fishing with a drizzle of olive oil, lime juice, fresh pepper and a mint leaf.

 

SAFFRON CHICKEN SALAD

I have recently got myself Ottolenghi's PLENTY recipe book. Now that I'm slowly gathering a library full of cookbooks I am made a decision to try to use recipes from the books I already have,  however I did get this recipe from his other cookbook 'jerusalem' which I haven't yet added to the collection. This was delicious recipe and I would do it again in a heartbeat! 

RECIPE

*Adapted recipe from "Saffron chicken and herb salad " Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi

1 Orange

50g Honey

1 tsp saffron threads

1 tbsp White wine vinegar

300ml Water

700g Chicken breast

4 tbsp Olive oil

2 Small fennel bulbs, thinly sliced *Try using a mandolin as long you don't cut your finger off!?

15g Fresh coriander leaves

15g Basil leaves

15g Mint leaves

100g Rocket

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 Red chilled, thinly sliced

1 Garlic clove, crushed

Salt and pepper.

METHOD

1. Heat the oven to 180°C. Trim and discard 1cm off the top and tail of the orange and cut it into 12 wedges, keeping the skin on but picking out any pips. Place the wedges in a small saucepan along with the honey, saffron, vinegar and just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and simmer gently for about an hour. At the end, you should be left with soft orange pieces and about three tablespoons of thick syrup; add water during the cooking, if needed. Use a food processor to blitz the orange (skin and all) and syrup into a smooth, runny paste; again, add water if needed.
2. Rub the chicken breasts with half the olive oil and plenty of salt and pepper, and place on a very hot ridged griddle pan. Sear for about two minutes on each side, to get clear char marks all over. Transfer to a roasting tray and roast for 15-20 minutes, until just cooked.
3. Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, but still warm, break it up with your hands into quite large pieces. Put these in a large bowl, pour over half the orange paste and stir. *The remaining orange syrup will keep in the fridge for a few days, and makes a good addition to a herb salsa to serve with oily fish.
4. Add the remaining ingredients to the salad, including the rest of the oil, and toss gently. Taste, add salt and pepper and, if needed, some more olive oil and lemon juice.

A Sunny Sunday Roast

Every Sunday without fail Pete suggests we should have a 'ROAST'. A very manly request, that takes them back to the feral carnivorous stages of wanting MEAT and two veg. Anyway don't know if you noticed but this weekend was a bit of a scortcher and even though saturday had all the glory Sunday was still rather hot day. so the thought of having a heavy hot roast dinner wasn't really very appertising.

As my mother has always said to me ' compromise, compromise, compromise' and my father says 'Don't see a problem, See a solution'. Wise words don't you think! So knowing that a salad would not to do I thought we should just combine the two. Nice and easy.

So here is what I made: Whole chicken baked with rosemary & garlic - A great recipe from AntonioCarluccio's simple cooking book.

Served with a simple salad and also a spicy puy lentil, bean, broccoli salad. Ooo will be doing that puy lentil salad again it was lush!

SPICY PUY LENTIL BEAN SALAD

• 100g Puy lentils
• 500ml hot vegetable stock
• 100g broccoli
• 70g frozen soya beans , thawed
• 70g sugarsnap peas
• 1 red chilli , deseeded and sliced

FOR THE DRESSING

• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• juice 1 lemon
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 40ml reduced-salt soy sauce
• 3cm piece root giner, finely grated
• 1 tbsp clear honey  

1. Boil lentils in stock until just cooked, about 15 mins. Drain, then tip into a large bowl. Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil, throw in the broccoli for 1 min, add the beans and peas for 1 min more. Drain, then cool under cold water. Pat dry, then add to the bowl with the lentils.
2. Mix together the dressing ingredients with some seasoning. Pour over the lentils and veg, then mix in well with the chopped chilli. Pile onto a serving platter or divide between 4 plates and serve. 

And then to finish off individual rhubarb, apple & raspberry crumble served with orange creme fraiche. Hmm maybe I ended up making a pretty big meal anyway!? Rhubarb is ace!