Pasta with Raw Tomato

From River Cottage Veg Everyday, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Bloomsbury, 2011.          

For this pasta I took two large tomatoes peeled them and then quartered them. The seeds were then removed and the tomatoes sliced finely and then chopped. The seeds were placed in a sieve and all the juices pushed through that could be gained and added to the chopped tomatoes. A garlic clove was chopped and added. About a tablespoon of capers went into the mix as also did a small chopped red chilli. Six large basil leaves were sliced and added also. A little salt was added to taste. And the sauce was ready.

Pasta was cooked in a pot of boiling salted water and when it was al dente it was drained and had the sauce added to it. When it was served lots of freshly cracked black pepper was added.

This is such a good way to have pasta. If you are using dried pasta you can almost make the sauce while it is cooking and it has such a clean, fresh taste to it that is so different from the usual cooked tomato sauce.     

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Tomato, Thyme and Goat’s Cheese Tart

From River Cottage Veg Everyday!, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Bloomsbury, 2011.

With some puff pastry in the freezer, this seemed a quick and easy dish to make. It was.

I turned the oven on to 200ªC. The pastry was rolled out to about 30cm by 25cm and the edges rolled about 1cm in to make a narrow border. The instructions called for the strips to be cut from the sides and then stuck in place but I felt that a rolled edge would be just as good (though look less professional).

A chopped garlic clove was spread over the tart base and sliced tomatoes placed to make a layer over this. I had previously skinned the tomatoes as I felt that they would make it easier to cut the tart when it was cooked. The tomatoes were seasoned and a little olive oil dribbled over. It was then placed in the oven for about 15 minutes.

The tart now came out and pieces of goat’s cheese were placed on top and thyme sprinkled over. It all went back in the oven for another 10 minutes and it was ready.

This was so easy to make and was full of flavour. I felt that the rolled edges were fine, though an egg wash (as outlined in the recipe) would have given it all a bit more colour. It’s a recipe that can easily be repeated with variations (some supplied) and I’m sure that’s what I’ll do later.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Fresh Garden Soup

From River Cottage Veg Everyday!, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Bloomsbury, 2011.

I read the River Cottage Summer Garden Soup recipe and, even though it was winter, I seemed to have most of the ingredients readily available so decided that it was worth giving it a try; I just couldn’t use its proper name.

There was a lot of chopping and preparing of the vegetables before beginning. Fennel, spring onions and celery were cut into small cubes and placed in large saucepan with olive oil and butter and sautéed for a few minutes.

While these were sautéing the other vegetables were prepared. Two zucchini were chopped into cubes. Broad beans were given a quick blanch to that the hard skins could be removed. Frozen peas were taken from the refrigerator. Some beetroot leaves were shredded finely, as also were some cos lettuce leaves. Some herbs were chopped finely: basil, parsley, chervil and the fine leaves from the fennel.

Once the vegetables were sautéed for about 10 minutes a litre of stock was added to the pot and it was brought to the boil. It boiled for about one minute and the zucchini, broad beans and green peas were added to cook for about 3 minutes. Now the lettuce and beetroot leaves were added and cooked for another minute. The chopped herbs went in next. It was ready.

The soup looked inviting on the plates with the variety of greens sitting in the broth. This was a delicately flavoured soup with the vegetables having a slight crunch to them. It felt that you were eating down health and enjoying it totally.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Fennel and Feta Cheese

From River Cottage Veg Everyday, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Bloomsbury, 2011.

I had some fennel left over so this sounded like a good way to use it up. The fennel was cut thinly and had lemon juice and olive oil dribbled on it. Salt and pepper were added. It was then gently tossed and left for half an hour to macerate (I love that word).

Crumbled cheese (I used feta but the recipe called for goat’s cheese) was then added and it was ready.

This was a quick to make salad that was both crunchy and creamy and went well alongside a main dish as a palate refresher. I must remember it whenever I have some fennel left over.

This cookery book has a whole section devoted to ‘raw assemblies’. These appear to be slightly different from salads in that they concentrate on one or two raw vegetables to bring out their essential flavour. It’s worth investigating further.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔

Herby, Peanutty, Noodly Salad

From River Cottage Veg Everyday, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Bloomsbury, 2011.

Rather than make the dressing as the final element of a salad in this particular one the dressing is made first. The ingredients for the dressing have an Asian touch to them: rice vinegar, zest and juice of a lime, a chopped red chilli, chopped garlic, brown sugar, sesame oil and soy sauce. These are whisked together.

The noodles are then cooked, drained and rinsed. The dressing is added to them, they are tossed and left to cool.

Some French beans and snow peas are cooked for a few minutes, enough to be tender but still having a bit of bite to them.

A small cucumber is cut into thin slices. Spring onions are sliced finely. Herbs (basil, mint and coriander) are roughly chopped. Some salted peanuts were smashed in a mortal and pestle to leave them broken though not too fine.

All of the ingredients were added to the cooled noodles and it was ready to serve.

This fresh salad could almost have been a light meal in itself. It is one that could be varied at will with the ingredients added to the noodles. I think in future I would make a few slight changes to the dressing to give it a little more zing: some more chilli would help (for me) and possibly up the amount of soy sauce for there seemed to be a need for more salt.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Aubergine Parmigiana

From River Cottage Veg Everyday!, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Bloomsbury, 2011.

This book is strongly promoting a meat-free diet and the author presents his reasons at the beginning of each section. These sections are easy to read and the light, informal writing is easily accessed, and tends to go someway towards convincing. The first section is concerned with comfort food and the first recipe is certainly comfort food and bursting with flavour.

Nearly every vegetarian cookbook has a recipe for an eggplant parmigiana and they are usually all very tasty. I like to try each new one to see how they compare.

The eggplants were sliced, sprinkled with salt and left to drain in a colander.

The next step in the recipe was to make a tomato sauce. It was almost identical with one I had made from a Jamie Oliver recipe and since I had some left I decided to use this.

The aubergine slices were then fried until tender. It took a little while to get them all done. A layer of them was placed in a casserole. This was covered with some of the tomato sauce. Over this went some mozzarella pieces. It was supposed to be buffalo mozzarella but my wallet was a bit short this week so it had to be the cheaper variety. Then some grated parmesan was sprinkled over this.  The layers were repeated until all the ingredients were used up and I had ended with a cheese layer. The oven did the rest of the job.

This is such an enjoyable dish. The flavours burst right out and the chewy cheese strands are fun to eat. The author classes it as comfort food and it fits that category extremely well. A recipe to go back to.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

River Cottage Garlicky Flatbreads

From River Cottage Veg Everyday!, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Bloomsbury, 2011.

I’ve really begun to be very interested in making bread-based items. I found a chapter in this particular book that was called ‘Bready Things’. It was encouraging enough to make me look for something to make from the chapter. Garlicky flatbread sounded just right to accompany a baba ghanoush burger.

The dough came from a recipe in the book called ‘magic bread dough’. It was made from a mixture of plain white and strong white flour with salt, yeast, warm water and oil. This was kneaded for a while, a little bit uncomfortably as it was somewhat soft and sticky. It improved as it was kneaded. This was then left to rise.

The garlic oil was able to be prepared while the dough was proving. Garlic was lightly fried in olive oil until it began to sizzle. It was then taken off the heat, poured into a bowl and left to cool.

The dough was now punched back and rolled into small balls. These were rolled out into flat circles. They were left for a few minutes while the pan was heating. It was then only a simple matter of frying them one by one on the dry pan. It only took a few minutes on each side. As soon as they came off the pan, some of the garlic oil was sprinkled over with a little bit of salt.

Though a bit time-consuming from having to wait for the dough to prove, if you have time to spare these turn out to be quite moreish and make a very suitable accompaniment for curries or dips—and in my case, a burger.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔