We can’t believe our good luck, day after day of
clear skies and sunshine. Many of our cookery school students who hail from
sunnier climates can’t believe just how much of our
conversation reverts back to the weather.
In some of their home countries, it’s the onset of
the rains that’s celebrated with gusto, and I have to say I’m
longing for a long night’s rain myself to give us a break from
watering plants and to fatten up the rhubarb stalks.
We’ve just dug the first new potatoes, an organic
blight resistant variety called Orla. The seed came from Fruit Hill Farm in
Bantry, Co. Cork and they were planted in a tunnel in early February – such joy
plus an opportunity to make a wish.
I give thanks to Mother Nature every
year and the farmers and gardeners for the wonderful bounty of fresh
produce that keeps coming week after week, we’ve just had the first
cucumber too – the reward for planning seeds in spring.
All those bubbly stews, tagines and casseroles lose
their appeal in this weather, none of us want to spend a moment more than
necessary in a hot steamy kitchen but abundant salads piled high on
plates get an enthusiastic response and bring a smile to everyone’s
face.
The possibilities are endless, there’s still
no definitive definition… could be just a pile of crunchy
vegetables, maybe lots of fresh herbs, freshly roasted spices, a grilled
salad, fruit alone, warm or at room temperature. We love lots of contrasts of
texture and flavour, a meal in itself.
For a main course, a jammy hard boiled egg, adds
protein as does cheese, could be just a sprinkle of freshly grated Parmesan or
aged Coolea over a leafy green salad or some grilled halloumi or little balls
of bocconcini. The combinations are only limited by your imagination.
Warm grilled chicken, a few slices of rare beef
fillet or fish, if you’re lucky, a fresh mackerel or some crunchy squid
rings on top and on and on…
However, it’s worth remembering the
golden rule, always dress a leafy salad as close to serving as possible
otherwise it will lose its freshness and become unappetisingly limp and soggy.
Super tasty dressings add magic and there are lots of exciting options that I’m
loving in Clem Haxby’s new cookbook ‘The Salad Project’ plus tantalising
pictures. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut so this tome will ignite your
imagination and tickle your tastebuds.
Here are a few of the many tempting salad
recipes in Clem’s cookbook that appealed to me.
Recipes are from ‘The Salad Project’ by
Clem Haxby, published by Ebury Press.
The SP Caesar with Chipotle Caesar Dressing
A recipe for Caesar Salad in a book all about salads is, frankly, completely
unavoidable. We have the trusty Caesar to thank for keeping salads alive in the lowest moments of their history, and it’s no surprise. There are few meals
more perfectly balanced, or more likely to cause a bout of food envy. Here we have our classic SP Caesar, loaded with spiced chicken, juicy tomatoes and Crispy Onions, but don’t stop there. Get creative and customise. Go wherever the wind takes you – just don’t use iceberg lettuce, please.
Serves 2
Ingredients
½ tsp ground
cumin
½ tsp garlic
granules
½ tsp paprika
½ tsp cayenne
pepper
½ tsp fine cooking
salt
1 ½ tsp extra
virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
425g mini chicken
fillets
50g kale,
destemmed, rinsed and dried
1 lemon (juice)
½ baby gem lettuce,
leaves whole, rinsed and dried
100g
cherry tomatoes
40g
Parmesan
sea salt
and black pepper
Ready to Rock:
6 tbsp Chipotle Caesar Dressing
4 tbsp crispy onions
Method
Measure the spices, salt and ½ teaspoon of olive oil into a medium mixing bowl and stir well to combine into a paste. Add the chicken fillets and use your hands to coat until the fillets are all well-dressed. Set aside at room
temperature to marinate
while you prepare
the remaining ingredients.
Finely chop the kale and place into a large mixing bowl. Dress with the
juice of half of the lemon, a pinch of sea salt and a grind of black pepper. Use your hands to massage the dressing into the leaves to help soften and enhance the flavour.
Tear the lettuce leaves from the core and add them whole to the kale, gently folding through to distribute them evenly. Add 2 tablespoons of Chipotle Caesar
Dressing and use your hands
to toss through.
Slice your tomatoes into halves and set aside.
Heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil in a frying pan over a high heat and add your marinated chicken fillets. Once sizzling, reduce the heat to medium-high to avoid the outsides burning. Cook for 7-8 minutes, flipping the fillets with tongs every
couple of minutes,
until nicely golden
and cooked through. Remove from the heat and squeeze
over the juice from the other half of
the
lemon, then finish with a sprinkle of sea salt and a drizzle of olive oil.
Load the dressed leaves
onto a serving plate, then grate over half of the
Parmesan using a microplane or fine grater. Pile on your tomatoes and half the Crispy
Onions.
After they’ve
had a couple of minutes
to rest, slice
the chicken fillets
(or leave whole) and lay them onto the salad. Top with the remaining Chipotle
Caesar Dressing, the remaining
Crispy Onions and the grated Parmesan.
Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and a hefty grind of black pepper.
Tip
Make it your own by adding 10 tinned anchovies and 1 tin of sweetcorn.
Chipotle Caesar Dressing
As much as I hate to admit it, because it’s more fun to
develop fresh flavour combinations than follow the guidelines of old classics,
this is a firm favourite among Salad Project devotees – our second-most popular
dressing, in fact.
Dresses 4-6 salads
Ingredients
35g Parmesan
1 garlic clove
130g mayonnaise
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp white wine vinegar
½ lemon (juice)
3 black peppercorns
generous bunch of cayenne pepper, plus extra to taste
(optional)
¼ tsp smoked paprika, plus extra to taste (optional)
1 tsp sea salt
25ml water
Method
Grate your Parmesan
using a microplane or a fine grater and set aside.
Peel and crush your
garlic using the side of a knife or a garlic crusher and a little sea salt to
help turn it into a smooth paste.
Place all the
ingredients, excluding the water, into a blender and blitz until silky smooth.
Gradually add the water and mix with a fork or small whisk until you reach your
desired consistency. Play with the spice level by adding more cayenne pepper
for a hotter Caesar, or more paprika for something a little smokier. Store in
an airtight jar or container in the fridge for up to 1 week.
Sesame Soy Steak with Furikake Croutons
and Pickled Chillies with Sesa-Miso Dressing
We love the combination of textures in this salad. It’s piled with tons
of great crunch but sometimes crunches that aren’t backed up with some more
filling body can leave you feeling a little hungry. That’s why we’ve added some
nutty brown rice, which soaks up the creamy sesame dressing so damn well.
Pickled chillies bring some real zing, as does the steak’s salty marinade. Oof.
Cooking this with two steaks makes it hearty enough to replace your usual steak
night, but for a light dinner for two, just one steak should be enough.
Serves 2
Ingredients
1 garlic clove
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp + 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
80ml tamari (for gluten-free) or light soy sauce
2 beef rump steaks
125g short grain brown rice
500ml water
½ tsp fine cooking salt
125g sourdough (stale or fresh) or bao buns
3 tsp furikake seasoning
100g green beans, ends trimmed
120g radishes
handful of pea shoots, watercress or rocket
handful of fresh coriander leaves
1 lime (juice)
sea salt
Ready to Rock:
6 tbsp Sesa-Miso Dressing
2 tbsp pickled chillies
Method
Preheat the oven to 220°C/Gas Mark 7.
Peel
and crush your garlic, using the side of a knife or a garlic crusher to turn it
into a smooth paste.
Place
the crushed garlic, oyster sauce, 2 teaspoons of the sesame oil and the tamari
or soy sauce into a shallow dish or plastic container and whisk to combine. Add
your steaks and cover well on both sides. Set aside for 10-15 minutes to come
to room temperature.
Weigh the rice into a saucepan
and measure in the water. Stir through the fine cooking salt. Bring the water
to a boil over a medium-high heat, then place a lid on the pot (ideally a clear
one so you can see if you need to add more water at any point) and lower the
temperature to medium. Allow this to simmer until the rice is cooked – roughly
25 minutes. (Simply add more water if it dries out and isn’t fully cooked.)
Slice
your bread of choice into chunky croutons and place in a roasting tray. Add the
remaining 2 tablespoons of sesame oil, a generous pinch of sea salt and 2
teaspoons of the furikake seasoning. Mix well until your croutons are nicely
coated. Pop into the oven for 5 minutes, give them a shake, then return to the
oven for a further 5 minutes until nicely golden and crunchy (if using bao
buns, toast for 3-4 minutes total).
Meanwhile,
place your green beans in a sieve and pop it beneath the lid of your rice pot
while the rice is still cooking to steam the beans for 2-3 minutes. Remove and
run under cold water to stop the cooking, then set aside.
Top
and tail the radishes and cut into halves or quarters, depending on their size.
Place in a bowl of cold water to crisp up.
Now
all your vegetables and croutons are ready, heat a dry frying pan over a high
heat. Once really nice and hot, use tongs to place your steaks into the pan,
pressing down for a second to help them caramelise. Leave the steaks to cook on
one side for 3 minutes before flipping over for rare, or 5 minutes if you would
like them medium. Spoon a couple of teaspoons of the leftover marinade over the
steaks and cook for a further 3 minutes for a rare steak, 5 minutes for medium
Remove from the pan and drape over an upside-down cereal bowl on a lipped plate
(to allow the juices to run out without them going everywhere). Allow both
steaks to rest for at least 10 minutes before
slicing.
While
they rest, cover your serving platter or plates with pea shoots, watercress or
rocket, and gently spoon over your rice. Sprinkle over the green beans,
radishes and half of the croutons. Dress with 3 tablespoons of Sesa-Miso
Dressing.
Slice
your steaks into 2cm thick slices, going against the grain of the meat.
Sprinkle the slices with the remaining 1 teaspoon of furikake seasoning. Lie
your steak slices over your salad and top with the remaining croutons and the
pickled chillies. Finish with some coriander leaves, the lime juice and another
3 tablespoons of your Sesa-Miso Dressing.
Sesa-Miso Dressing
It’s
a non-negotiable for us to have some of this kicking about as a silky drizzle
for salmon, a dressing for mushrooms or a sauce for some soba noodles. These
are all ten-minute dinners that really fuelled us through the early (long) days
of The Salad Project, which ultimately inspired this book!
Dresses
4-6 salads
Ingredients
20
sesame seeds (black add lovely colour, but white are great too)
10g
fresh ginger
80g
tahini
30g
white miso paste
40ml
rice wine vinegar
40ml
tamari or light soy sauce
80ml
water plus extra if needed
Method
Place
your sesame seeds into a dry pan and place over a medium heat, swirling the pan
constantly, until they are nice and toasted – about 3-4 minutes. Set aside.
Peel
your ginger using the edge of a teaspoon and grate into a blender. Add the
remaining ingredients, excluding your toasted sesame seeds, and blitz until
smooth. You can also just pop all your ingredients into a jar and give it a
good shake if you don’t mind a bit of texture from the ginger.
Finish
by stirring through your toasted sesame seeds and adjusting the texture with a
little extra water, if needed but I’d recommend keeping this dressing on the
thicker side, in case you want to use it as a noodle sauce. Store in an
airtight jar or container in the fridge for up to 1 week.
Pickled Chillies
Ingredients
150g
mixed chillies
2
tsp caster sugar
1
tsp fine cooking salt
100ml
white wine vinegar
Method
Slice
your chillies into 2mm rings using a knife or a mandolin. Place the chilli
slices and their seeds into a jar or airtight container.
Add
the sugar, salt and vinegar and stir well. Finally, add boiling water until the
chillies are just covered. Put the lid on and shake well to dissolve the sugar
and salt, then label and leave to pickle for a minimum of 30 minutes. The
longer you leave these, the more they will mellow and build tang. Keep in the
pickling liquid in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.
Hot Honey Halloumi + Dill
Fattoush with Pomegranate and Lime Vinaigrette
This delicious fattoush (a
traditional Lebanese salad made with fried pitta bread) is piled high with
fresh herbs and has a bright acidity that meets its match in the oozingly sweet
and salty halloumi. We like chopping the vegetables nice and fine and spooning
this from a bowl, using the halloumi like little sticky boats – but this also
makes for a gorgeous display salad if you’re cooking for a crowd. Just promise
you’ll cook the halloumi at the last minute; then serve it up straight away.
Serves 2
Ingredients
2 pitta breads
1 tbsp toasted
sesame oil
½ tsp fennel
seeds
½ tsp cumin
seeds
½ tsp coriander
seeds
120g radishes
1 cucumber
150g cherry
tomatoes
15g flat leaf
parsley
5g dill
5g mint
225g block of
halloumi
2 tbsp extra
virgin olive oil
sea salt
Ready to Rock:
6-7 tbsp
pomegranate and lime vinaigrette
1 tbsp hot honey
2 tbsp quick
pickled onions
Method
Preheat your oven to 220°C/Gas Mark 7.
Slice
your pittas along the seams to give you 4 ovals, then slice 4 times across the
width and 3 times down the length to give you rectangles. Place your pitta
chips into a bowl and add the sesame oil, the fennel, cumin and coriander seeds
and a pinch of sea salt. Use your hands to mix well and coat your pitta. Place
into a roasting dish lined with parchment paper, making sure you use a plastic
spatula to scrape all the oil and seeds that haven’t stuck to the pitta into
the roasting tray too. Roast for 8 minutes, or until golden and crispy. Leave
on the tray to cool.
Top
and tail the radishes and then cut into quarters. Place into some iced water to
crisp up.
Slice
your cucumber in half lengthways, then use a teaspoon to scrape out the seeds.
Slice each half lengthways into thirds, then chop across the strands at 1cm
intervals to give you small dice. Place in a serving bowl.
Quarter
your cherry tomatoes and add them to the bowl.
Remove
and discard the bottom 5cm of the parsley and dill stems and pick the mint
leaves from the stalks. Set aside a couple of sprigs of dill for garnish, then
pile the herbs together and roughly chop before adding to the mixed vegetables.
Dress the herby vegetables with 3 tablespoons of pomegranate + lime vinaigrette,
then mix in the pitta chips.
Slice
the halloumi into 1-2cm thick slices. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over a
medium-high heat. When sizzling hot, add your halloumi in a single layer using
metal tongs. After 2 minutes, drizzle 1 tablespoon of hot honey over the
halloumi, then turn to cook on the other side. Leave for 3 minutes, or until
the bottom takes on a dark golden colour. Once it is well coloured, turn over
once more to finish colouring the first side. Use tongs to place your warm
halloumi over the chopped salad.
Top
your salad with the radishes and quick pickled onions. Add 3-4 more tablespoons
of pomegranate and lime vinaigrette and finish with a generous pinch of sea
salt and a couple of sprigs of dill. Serve immediately for the best halloumi
texture!
Pomegranate and Lime Vinaigrette
Tangy and sweet with subtle twangs of spice, this is the chic big sister
to a balsamic vinaigrette. Made from concentrated pomegranate juices, the
fruit’s molasses is highly nutritious, amping up the benefits of pomegranate
itself into a beautiful sweet-and-sour elixir. Pomegranate has been
traditionally used to treat chronic diseases and digestive issues, thanks
to its density of vitamins and minerals. Fortunately for all of us, it’s
easier than ever to pick up a bottle of pomegranate molasses – supermarkets and
speciality food shops increasingly stock it. An excellent light dressing that
can be used to brighten up so many salads. Don’t stop at the recipes here!
Dresses 4-6 Salads
Ingredients
½ tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp coriander seeds
2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
40ml red wine vinegar
1 lime (zest and juice)
1 tsp soft light brown sugar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
100ml extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp sea salt
Method
Place your cumin and coriander seeds into a small dry
frying pan over a medium heat. Swirl gently and allow to toast (careful they
don’t burn) for 2-3 minutes. You should be able to clearly smell the toasted
spices. Allow to cool.
Meanwhile, add all the remaining ingredients to a
blender. Once cooled, add your toasted seeds. Use the pulse setting to blitz
the dressing – you want the liquid to emulsify, but you don’t want to
over-grind the spices.
Rather, aim to crack them so they
release their best flavours and give a nice crunch to the dressing. Store in an
airtight jar or container in the fridge for up to 1 week.
Hot Honey
This is a delicious store-cupboard staple that you can lean on when
you’re in need of a little zhuzh.
Serves 2
Ingredients
150g runny honey
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 ½ tsp chilli flakes
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp sea salt
Method
Measure the ingredients straight into a glass jar and use a spoon to mix
well, then put the lid on. Store in a cool, dry place and stir before use – the
spice will integrate more with time, so this is best used after it has had a
couple of hours to sit. It will keep for up to 3 weeks.
Quick Pickled Onions
Serves 2
Ingredients
1 red onion
1 tsp fine cooking salt
2 tsp caster sugar
150ml white wine vinegar
240ml boiling water
Method
Cut
the onion in half through the root and peel the papery skin. Place cut side
down on a chopping board with the root facing towards the hand you’re keeping
it steaky with. Slice the onion as thinly as your knife skills allow or use a
mandolin to slice your onion into whole circle or half-moon slices, then repeat
with the other half. Push down into a jar or airtight container.
Add
the salt, sugar and vinegar and stir well. Finally, add the boiling water and
use a spoon to push the onion slices under the surface of the liquid. Put the
lid on and give your jar or container a good shake to help dissolve the sugar
and salt. Label and keep in your fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Note: the onions will turn bright pink within an hour or so – after a week, the colour will fade to a purple, but they are still fine to eat.
