Mashed Beetroot with Yogurt and Za’atar

12 11 2011

Following my brilliant day with Yotam Ottolenghi in the Summer, I finally got around to making this delicious earthy, yet fresh and spicy beetroot dip. Serve as part of a mezze or as a light lunch or evening meal with some baked feta and pitta or khobez. Makes a welcome change to the ubiquitous hummus.

You can find za’atar in any Arab or Middle Eastern grocers. There are several different versions around but most are based on thyme, sesame seeds and sumac.

250g cooked (roasted or boiled) beetroot – peeled and cut into chunks
1 clove garlic – chopped
1 red chili – chopped (remove the seeds if you don’t want it too spicy)
125g or so of grrek yogurt
75g mashed potato – not essential but takes a bit of the edge off the earthiness of the beets
1-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon za’atar
a little black pepper
salt to taste
2 spring onions to garnish – finely sliced

Place the beetroot, chili, garlic and yogurt in a food processor and blend until smooth. Don’t worry if you have a few smallish lumps of beetroot. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the potato, vinegar, olive oil, maple syrup, za’atar, salt and pepper.

Transfer to a flattish plate and spread evenly. Top with sliced spring onion. You can also add some chopped hazelnuts and crumbled goat of feta cheese.


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Baked Feta

12 04 2011

As you may have guessed I completed the dairy and egg free month. I was advised to consider eliminating gluten from my diet and eating eggs or dairy only every 3-4 days. That would be far too restrictive so I’ve given up trying to find the root cause and returned to my old eating habits – just trying to eat a little less.

I made this as part of a Mediterranean Medley on Sunday night. Very simple, serve with flatbreads as a tasty pre dinner snack. Sweet cherry tomatoes, fiery chili and salty feta cheese that goes very creamy when baked.

Serves about 4 with lots of bread as a starter

1x200g pack of feta cheese
Small bunch of ripe cherry tomatoes
splash olive oil
pinch of oregano – dried or fresh
1 red chili – halved or sliced depending on how hot you want it. I halved it lengthwise so as to remove the chili after baking for those that fear the heat

Place cheese, tomatoes, chili in tin foil. sprinkle with olive oil and oregano. Wrap in foil then bale in oven at 180C for about 15-20 minutes. Serve hot


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Patatas Bravas (without the patatas)

26 02 2011

I made up a spicy tomato sauce to go with tonight’s Tapas inspired party at a neighbours.

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion – finely chopped
2 fat cloves garlic – finely chopped or mashed
1 stick celery – finely chopped
2 roasted red peppers – finely chopped
2 red chilis – finely chopped
1 dried red chili – crumbled
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 litre passata

Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the onion, garlic and celery. Fry gently until softened then add the peppers, fresh and dried chilis, paprika powder, sugar and salt. Stir well then add the passata, simmer gently with the lid off until reduced by about a third.

Serve warm with fried potatoes or quite nice smeared onto toast with cream cheese.


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Celeriac Soup with Red Pepper Salsa

10 01 2010

As the cold weather continues, the population continues to panic buy at the shops. Having found the local supermarket shelves empty of fresh vegetables I rummages around the bottom of the fridge and found an old celeriac. Must have been in there about 3-4 weeks I guess, but was still quite firm so thought I would turn it into soup. There isn’t much else you can do with celeriac other than soup or perhaps remoulade.

Having made the soup, it looked a little pale, especially as all my soup bowls are white, so I jazzed it up with a hot and spicy red pepper salsa.

For the soup
Knob butter
1 onion – chopped
1 clove garlic – chopped
2 sticks celery – chopped
1 celeriac – peeled and diced
1 medium potato – peeled and diced
Vegetable stock
Splash of single cream
Salt

For the salsa
2 roasted red peppers – from a jar
2 cloves garlic – from the same jar
2 small dried red chilis – or you could use chopped fresh chili
pinch of salt
black pepper
olive oil

Melt a large knob of butter in a large pan then fry the onion, garlic and celery gently until it starts to soften. Add the celeriac and potato, cover with stock, bring to boil then simmer until all the vegetables are soft. Blitz in a blender or puree with a stick blender then return to pan. Add a generous splash of sibgle cream and season to taste. Heat gently.

To make the salsa, simple put everything in a blender and whiz until smooth – adding olive oil as you go to ensure it isn’t to lumpy.

Serve the soup with a blob of salsa in the middle.


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Mr Slater’s Soup

14 11 2009

Whilst I am a big fan of Nigel’s food, I don’t own any of his books. A friend at work made this and thoughtfully shared the recipe with me. This has to be one of my all time favourite soups. Roasted red pepper, tomato and chili soup. Perfect for a wet, windy British autumn.

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Put your oven onto 220C. Take a large roasting pan and place 3 red peppers (halved and deseeded), 5 whole tomatoes and 6 unpeeled cloves of garlic on it. Drizzle with oil, add a little salt and pepper, then roast for about 30 minutes. Nw take 3 red chilis, half them lengthwise and deseed them. Add to the roasting vegetables and close the oven door for a further 20 minutes.

When everything is charred and wrinkly, remove from the oven and place in a pan with 900ml of vegetable stock. Bring to boil then simmer for about 15 minutes. Let it cool a little then whiz it all up in a blender or with a stick blender.

Take a handful of mint leaves. Chop finely and mix with some olive oil.

To serve, put the soup in a bowl, top with some of the minty oil and some crumbled feta cheese.

Reminder to self: Buy some new soup bowls


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Chili Jam

6 09 2009

There are some things in life you just cannot get enough of and this is certainly one of them. Sweet. Fiery hot. Perfect with cheese, scrambled eggs or spread over corn-on-the-cob. It also works well dolloped on top of mushrooms on toast.

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Makes about 3 smallish jars

4 tablespoons olive oil
3 medium onions – chopped
6 or so red chilis – chopped with seeds.
4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
300ml water
50g caster sugar
large pinch of salt

Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onions and fry over a medium heat for about 10 minutes then add the chilis and continue to fry for another 20-30 minutes until everything is really soft. If you like the jam really hot, substitute a couple of red chilis for scotch bonnets or a few dried red chilis in addition to the red chilis. Now add the water, sugar, vinegar and salt. Bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes until it is noce and thick. Stir occasionally to stop it sticking to the pan.

Transfer the hot jam to a blender or food processor and blitz until thick and grainy.

Now take the kilner jars (small jam jars will do) and fill with boiling water to sterilise. Make sure you also sterilise the lid and the rubber band thingy round the lid. Carefull empty the boiling water, fill the jars with the hot chili jam and close the lids.

The jam will keep for months unopened (I had one in the fridge for almost a year). Once opened, if kept in the fridge, it’ll still keep for a good few weeks.


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Spaghetti with Garlic and Chili

4 07 2009

One of my favourite meals. So simple, yet so delicious. I didn’t eat till late last night hence the dark photo.

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Enough Spaghetti for the number of people you are serving
Lashings of olive oil – about 3 tablespoons per person
1 dried red chili per person
1 clove garlic per person
salt
black pepper
bunch of parsley
parmesan

Bring a large pan of water to the boil and cook the spaghetti as per the instructions on the pack

Meanwhile take a small frying pan. Add the oil, crushed chilis, finely chopped garlic, salt and black pepper.

When the spaghetti is done, turn the heat on under the frying pan. Drain the pasta and return to the warm pan. When the garlic and chili start to sizzle in the frying pan, remove from heat and add to the spaghetti. Stir in chopped parsley and serve with grated cheese


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Enchiladas

8 05 2009

Everywhere you look at the moment you can’t avoid the mention of Mexico so here is my contribution. A simple to make meal that tastes great cold the next day in your lunch box. The chili can be made in advance and freezes well. There must be thousands of vegetarian chili recipes available. Here is mine, or you can use your own favourite for the filling. I use bulghar wheat in mine to add some texture and also to absorb some of the liquid which stops the tortillas going soggy.

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This makes 10 enchiladas. 1-2 enchiladas per person depending on how greedy they are.

2-3 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 onion – finely choppped
1 clove garlic – finely chopped
1 red pepper – finely chopped
a few mushrooms – chopped
1x400g tin green lentils – drained
1x400g tin chopped tomatoes
1x400g tin red kidney beans or pinto beans (drained)
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika powder
chili powder – the amount depends on how hot you like it
bulghar wheat
10 flour tortillas
1 pack mozzarella
some grated cheddar
olive oil

heat the sunflower oil in a large an then fry the onion, garlic and red pepper undtil soft. Add the mushrooms and stir gently until these are soft. Now add the lentils and beans, then the herbs and spices. Stir well then add the tomatoes and a little water (about half the tin full). Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about half an hour. Turn off the heat and if it all looks a little runny add some bulghar wheat – probably about 3-4 tablespoons. Stir, cover and leave to stand for about 10 minutes until the bulghar wheat absorbs some of the liquid. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Now take the tortillas. Place a good dollop f the chili onto the middle, then wrap the tortilla around the chili to create neat parcels. I usually tuck the top under, fold in the sides, then roll. Place each burrito seam side down in a lightly oiled oven proof dish, cover with torn pieces of mozarella, grated cheddar and a splash of olive oil. Place the dish in the oven at 190C for about 20 minutes until the cheese has browned.

Serve with rice, iceberg lettuce and thousand island dressing. I make a simple dressing using
4 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons natural yogurt
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2-3 tablespoons ketchup
salt
pepper
½ teaspoon paprika powder

Mix it all together in a bowl


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