Meera Sodha’s Fresh India won the Observer Food Monthly’s 2017 ‘best new cookbook’ award. Cook this and you’ll appreciate why. She recommends serving with ‘a fiery pickle, hot chapattis and yogurt, or with dal and rice’.
Savoy Cabbage, Black Kale and Potato Subji (Savoy Aloo Gobhi)
Serves 4 to 6 as part of a main course.
Ingredients
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
3 tablespoons rapeseed oil
15 curry leaves
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
800g potatoes, cut into 1-inch chunks
200g savoy cabbage, finely shredded
200g black kale, finely shredded
1¼ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon chilli powder
¾ teaspoon ground turmeric
Preparation
Lightly grind the coriander and cumin seeds with a pestle and mortar. Put the oil into a large lidded frying pan over a medium heat and, when hot, add the curry leaves and mustard seeds. When they crackle, add the onion. Cook for around 10 minutes, until golden and sweet, stirring occasionally.
Add the crushed coriander and cumin, followed by the potatoes. Cook for 10-15 minutes, turning every now and then until crispy. Add a couple of tablespoons of water, cover with the lid and cook for a further 5 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender and no longer resist the point of a knife.
Finally, add the shredded cabbage and black kale to the pan with a couple of tablespoons of water and stir-fry for 3 minutes. Add the salt, chilli and turmeric, mix well, cover with the lid, reduce the heat to low and cook for another 4 minutes, or until the cabbage and black kale have wilted. Enjoy!
(Recipe adapted from Meera Sodha, Fresh India.)
Roasted vegetables dotted with cheerful, green pesto. Delicious for a mid-week dinner. It’s nice served with brown rice, or any other grain you might have lying about, but it’s good on its own as well. I suspect it would be tasty tossed onto pasta.
Roasted Anything with Anything Pesto
Serves 2
Ingredients
Roast Vegetables
A mixture of root vegetables and/or pumpkin. For two people one of those little Canalside squashes, 2 medium potatoes, and 4 large carrots would be fine, for instance.
shell of a squeezed-out lemon, if you happen to keep such things around.
Olive oil to drizzle
Salt and pepper to taste
Any twigs of thyme or rosemary that you happen to have to hand
1 whole head of garlic, unpeeled
Anything Pesto
1 handful of packaged pumpkin or melon seeds, or pine nuts, or almonds, or a mixture. I think you could add sunflower seeds, as well.
1 bunch of any fresh herbs. A mixture is fine and the quantity isn’t crucial. I used a blend of parsley and a little dill.
any feathery carrot tops
Olive oil
1 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
Red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)
Optional Toppings
Capers
hard cheese, grated or chopped into little cubes
Home-made roasted squash seeds (see below)
Yoghurt
Preparation
For the Roast Vegetables
Preheat the oven to 220C.
Scrub the root vegetables and peel them if you prefer them unpeeled. Cut them into bite-sized pieces. Ditto the squash or pumpkin, if you are using it. After you cut it open remove the seeds and set them aside for use in the pesto.
Place all the vegetables in a roasting tin and toss them together with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Slice the lemon shell into thin shreds and add this to the tray. Scatter any thyme or rosemary over the top. Place the unpeeled whole head of garlic in the tray as well.
Put the tray in the oven and roast for 30-45 minutes, until the vegetables are tender when you poke them with a fork. Toss them periodically so that they roast evenly.
For the Squash or Pumpkin Seed Garnish (if used)
Once you’ve put the vegetables in the oven you can prepare the fresh pumpkin seeds. Wash them carefully and pick out the seeds from the tangle of pumpkin fibres. Place the cleaned seeds on a baking tray and put them in the oven as well. Roast them for 10-15 minutes, tossing occasionally. They should begin to turn golden. At that point take the tray out of the oven and toss the seeds with a little more olive oil and salt. Put them back in the oven for another 3-5 minutes. They should now be crisp and toasted. Set them aside to cool. Nibble a few while you prepare the pesto.
For the Nuts or Seeds for the Pesto
Place the nuts or packaged seeds on a baking tray and put them in the oven to toast. Check them after about 3 minutes as pine nuts in particular burn easily. Once they start to turn golden remove them from the oven and set them aside to cool.
For the Anything Pesto
Blend the herbs and carrot tops (should you have any) in a hand-held blender, or, if you are feeling energetic, pound them a bit at a time in a mortar and pestle.
Add about the toasted nuts/seeds, and blend/pound some more to make a thick, herby paste.
Find the roasted head of garlic and squeeze out the now-tender garlic from each clove. Add this to the pesto and blend. Thin the pesto with olive oil until it reaches the consistency you like.
Grate in the zest of the lemon. Juice the lemon and add some juice to the pesto, along with some salt and pepper. Add a pinch of pepper flakes if you like.
Now taste it: does it need more lemon juice? More salt? More oil? Adjust the flavours and consistency until you are pleased with the result.
To Serve
Arrange the roasted vegetables on a platter. Dot or pour the pesto over the top and garnish as desired with capers, cheese, or your home-made roasted pumpkin seeds. Serve, if you like, with a bowl of salted yoghurt on the side.
You can serve this together with rice or another grain if you like. Perhaps you have some leftover rice in the freezer?
(Recipe adapted from Anna Jones, The Guardian.)
Ingredients
3 large potatoes, peeled
1 egg
1 tablespoon plain flour
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon butter and one tablespoon plain oil, for frying
Preparation
Preheat the oven to about 150, if you’d like to keep your pancakes hot.
Grate the potatoes into coarse shreds. Place the shreds inside an old tea towel and, standing over the sink, twist the tea towel to squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Set the tea-towel of potatoes aside while you mix the other ingredients.
Combine the egg, flour and seasonings in a mixing bowl.
Return to your tea towel and squeeze some more until you’re satisfied you’re unlikely to extract any more liquid. Mix the squeezed potato shreds with the other ingredients.
Heat the oil and butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Once it’s hot add about a third of the potato mixture. If you’re using a tiny pan you’ll want to use less—the goal is to spread the potato out as thinly as possible. Pat it out to form a thin a layer and leave it to cook for about 5 minutes. Take a peek at the underside. When it looks attractively golden, flip it over and cook the other side for 3-4 more minutes. Remove the crispy potato pancake and cook the remaining pancakes in the came way. You can keep the completed pancakes hot in the oven if you like.
Beetroot halva
Ingredients
1lb / 450g beetroot
1 ¼ pints / 700 ml milk
8 whole cardamom pods
5 tbsp vegetable oil or ghee
3 tbsp caster sugar
1-2 tbsp sultanas
1 tbsp shelled, unsalted pistachios, lightly crushed
Preparation
Peel the beets and grate them. Puncture the cardamom pods, then put the grated beetroot, milk and cardamom pods in a heavy bottomed pan and bring to the boil. Turn heat to medium and cook, stirring now and then, until there is no liquid left. Adjust the heat, if you need too. This boiling down of the milk with take at least half an hour (in this case 3 hours!) depending on the width of your pot.
Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan over a medium-low flame. When hot, put in the beetroot mixture. Stir and fry until the beets no longer have a wet, milky look. This can take 10-15 minutes.
Add the sugar, sultanas and pistachios if using. Stir and fry for another 2 minutes.
This halva can be served warm or at room temperature. If you want, serve with clotted or double cream on the side (although it is already very rich indeed!).
Adapted from Carrot Halva in Madhur Jaffrey’s ‘Indian Cookery’
This is currently my favourite salad. It’s based on a recipe from Anna Jones, which I keep simplifying. The full Anna-Jones version is very good, too, of course. You can find it on the link below.
Carrot and Cashew Salad
Serves about 1 if that 1 person is me. It’s supposed to serve 4.
Ingredients
200g carrots
salt, to taste
some fresh coconut—the amount is very flexible and the coconut can be omitted altogether. Try a quarter of a whole coconut, or about half of one of those little pots of pre-chopped coconut you can get in the supermarket.
2 tablespoons vegetable or coconut oil
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1 inch of fresh ginger (optional), peeled and grated
10 curry leaves
1 big handful of cashew nuts, roughly chopped
1 big handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
juice of half a lemon
Preparation
Peel the carrots and shred them coarsely. Put them in a nice bowl and toss them with some salt. Try about a quarter teaspoon to begin with.
If you are using the coconut, you need to prepare it. Extract the coconut from the shell, if necessary, or open the small plastic packet you bought in the shop. Peel off the dark brown inner husk, and either grate the coconut into your bowl on the same coarse grater you used for the carrots, or peel it into thin strips using a vegetable peeler, or just chop it into little chunks. In any case, mix it in with the carrots.
Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. When it is hot add the mustard seeds. They will start to pop, and shoot out all over the top of your cooker. At that point add the grated ginger (if you’re using it) and stir for a minute. Then add the curry leaves, stir for a few seconds until the curry leaves frizzle up a little. Turn off the heat, but leave the pan on the burner. Add the cashews and stir them a little, so that the cashews start to colour a little in the still-warm pan. Pour the whole thing over the carrots and toss vigorously.
Mix in the chopped coriander. Squeeze the lemon juice over the salad, and toss it all together. See if you need more salt, or more lemon juice. This makes a very agreeable lunch.
(Recipe adapted from Anna Jones – https://www.theguardian.com/…/raw-vegetable-salad-recipes-a…)
Carrot and Cashew Salad
Serves about 1 if that 1 person is me. It’s supposed to serve 4.
Ingredients
200g carrots
salt, to taste
some fresh coconut—the amount is very flexible and the coconut can be omitted altogether. Try a quarter of a whole coconut, or about half of one of those little pots of pre-chopped coconut you can get in the supermarket.
2 tablespoons vegetable or coconut oil
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1 inch of fresh ginger (optional), peeled and grated
10 curry leaves
1 big handful of cashew nuts, roughly chopped
1 big handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
juice of half a lemon
Preparation
Peel the carrots and shred them coarsely. Put them in a nice bowl and toss them with some salt. Try about a quarter teaspoon to begin with.
If you are using the coconut, you need to prepare it. Extract the coconut from the shell, if necessary, or open the small plastic packet you bought in the shop. Peel off the dark brown inner husk, and either grate the coconut into your bowl on the same coarse grater you used for the carrots, or peel it into thin strips using a vegetable peeler, or just chop it into little chunks. In any case, mix it in with the carrots.
Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. When it is hot add the mustard seeds. They will start to pop, and shoot out all over the top of your cooker. At that point add the grated ginger (if you’re using it) and stir for a minute. Then add the curry leaves, stir for a few seconds until the curry leaves frizzle up a little. Turn off the heat, but leave the pan on the burner. Add the cashews and stir them a little, so that the cashews start to colour a little in the still-warm pan. Pour the whole thing over the carrots and toss vigorously.
Mix in the chopped coriander. Squeeze the lemon juice over the salad, and toss it all together. See if you need more salt, or more lemon juice. This makes a very agreeable lunch.
(Recipe adapted from Anna Jones.)
This rich and buttery sauce is loosely based on a classic recipe from Marcella Hazen. The carrot adds a touch of sweetness. This is easy and flavoursome.
Buttery Tomato Sauce
Enough for 4 servings of pasta
Ingredients
1 medium onion
1 large carrot
2 400g tins of tomatoes
5 tablespoons butter
Salt to taste
Preparation
Peel the onion and cut it into 8 pieces. Peel the carrot and cut it into 1-inch lengths.
Melt the butter in a saucepan and then add all the other ingredients, including the liquid from the tomato tins. Add a pinch or two of salt.
Bring to a simmer and adjust heat so that the sauce is simmering very gently. Cook, uncovered, for about 45 minutes. Stir it occasionally to make sure it isn’t sticking at the bottom. The tomatoes should have dissolved into a smooth, thick sauce; you can mash them with the back of a spoon to encourage them. The onion and carrot should be soft and infused with a rich, tomato flavour. Taste it to see if you’d like more salt. Some recipes advise removing the onion and carrot, but I think they’re very tasty and make a nice addition to the meal. Of course, if you’d like a smooth sauce feel free to remove them.
To serve, cook as much pasta as you’d like, and drain it. Then add the pasta to the pan with the sauce and toss them together to blend. Let it cook over low heat for a minute or two to allow the flavours to meld, and then serve.
Layers of sliced potatoes, onion, and salmon baked with egg, cream and fresh dill make a memorable meal. Serve with a green salad.
This is a classic Swedish recipe, invented to use up leftover salmon. I don’t think we suffer from this problem, but in fact you can use any sort of salmon you like—uncooked fresh salmon, leftover cooked salmon, smoked salmon, probably even tinned salmon—or a mixture. You can think of this as a Swedish lasagne, with potatoes instead of pasta.
Laxpudding (Salmon and Potato Pudding)
Serves 4-6.
Ingredients
For the Pudding
1kg potatoes
2 onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon butter
450g salmon, cut into bite-sized pieces (you can use a mixture of different types of salmon).
50g fresh dill, finely chopped
3 eggs
300ml milk
120ml double or whipping cream
½ tsp salt
freshly ground pepper, to taste (if you have white pepper here is a good opportunity to use it).
Decorations for the Top
100g butter (optional)
additional sprigs of fresh dill
thin slices of lemon
Preparation
Put the potatoes in cold water and bring slowly to the boil. Simmer gently until they are just tender. Drain. When they are cool enough to handle peel them (unless you like the peel), and slice them thin. Set aside while you prepare the other ingredients.
Heat the oven to 200C and butter an ovenproof dish. Something on the order of 25cm x 35cm is about right but there’s no need to be precise.
Sauté the onion in the butter until it softens, without browning. Set aside.
Mix the salmon with the dill and set aside as well.
Whisk the eggs, milk, cream, salt and pepper together.
Now assemble the pudding: put a third of the potatoes at the bottom of the pan. Spread half the onions over the potatoes, and top these with half the salmon and dill. Make another potato layer. Top this with the remaining onions, and then the remaining salmon and dill. Finish with a final layer of potatoes.
Pour the eggy mixture over the salmon pudding.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until the pudding feels firm and the crust is nicely browned.
To serve, first decide if you wish to use the additional butter drizzle. If you do—and it’s traditional—melt the butter in a small pan until it starts to turn a hazelnut brown colour and smells nutty and tempting. Pour this over the baked pudding. Garnish artfully with sprigs of dill and slices of lemon. Serve cut into squares.
(Recipe courtesy of Ulrika Andersson, Swedish Collegium of Advanced Studies, Uppsala.)
Did you make any of the roasted curry powder from the recipe on 28 July? Here’s another opportunity to use it. Shreds of spiced beetroot mix with the flavours of curry leaf and coconut. Serve with rice and a peppery little relish for an uplifting dinner. If you have some of the curry powder to hand the whole thing comes together in well under half an hour. Making the curry powder will add about 15 minutes.
In case you didn’t make any roasted curry powder I’ve repeated the recipe.
You can get curry leaves from the Oriental Store on the High Street, or at Sandhu’s on Russell Terrace—just ask them and they’ll fetch some from the back of the shop. They keep for a long time in the freezer.
Beetroot Curry with Roasted Curry Powder
Serves 2
Ingredients
For the Roasted Curry Powder
1 tablespoon basmati rice (brown or white)
3 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons cumin seeds
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon fenugreek seeds
1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
For the Beetroot
400g beetroot, peeled and cut into thick matchsticks
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon chile powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons oil
a spring of curry leaves
1 red onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 fresh green chilli
2 teaspoons roasted curry powder
1 tomato, sliced
150-200ml coconut milk
Preparation
For the Roasted Curry Powder: Heat a dry frying pan over medium heat. Add the rice and toast it for several minutes, until it starts to turn brown (or browner, if it’s already brown). Add the other spices and toast for 3 to 5 minutes, until they start to darken but are not getting burnt. Turn the heat down if necessary and stir regularly.
Remove from the heat and let it cool. Once it’s cool you need to grind the mix. You can either use a spice grinder, if you possess such a thing, or ask someone else to grind it for you in a mortar and pestle. The latter is hard work, which is why I’d recommend asking someone else to do it.
Put the ground spice mixture in a jar and label it so you don’t forget what it is.
For the Beetroot: Put the beetroot in a bowl and toss them with the fenugreek, turmeric, chilli powder and salt. Set them aside.
Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. When it’s hot add the curry leaves and stir until they start to sizzle. Then add the onion, garlic and fresh chilli and fry for 5 minutes, until the onion is starting to brown.
Add the curry powder, stir, and cook for a few minutes, to allow the flavours to emerge with the heat.
Add the beetroot and fry for another 2-3 minutes. Mix in the tomato, and fry for another minute or so. Then add 150ml of coconut milk.
Turn the heat down a bit, and cook for about 10 minutes, until the beetroot is tender. If it looks a bit dry, you can add some more coconut milk. Check to see if it needs more salt, and serve, with rice and THIS refreshing relish:
Green Relish
Ingredients
1 cucumber, shredded on the coarse side of a grater
2 big handfuls of lettuce, OR fresh coriander, OR spinach OR anything else along these lines, shredded
3 spring onions OR half a red onion, thinly sliced
juice of 1 lime
salt, to taste
chilli flakes, to taste
Preparation
Put the shredded cucumber in a colander and set it to one side until you’re ready to eat so that some of the cucumber’s vast amount of moisture can drain away.
Mix the other ingredients in a bowl. When you’re ready to eat mix the cucumber into the bowl, check for seasoning, and serve.
(Recipe adapted from Rosie Birkett, Guardian 22 July 2017.)
Moist and satisfying. You don’t need to use the glaze if it all seems a bit much. (This recipe uses US cup measures; a US cup is equivalent to 8 fluid ounces.)
Don Farmer’s Fresh Apple Cake
Ingredients
Cake
2 cups sugar
1.5 cups oil (use a neutral oil such as sunflower)
3 eggs
2 cups plain flour
1 cup wholewheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3-4 cups chopped apples
1 cup chopped walnuts
Caramel glaze
4 tablespoons double cream
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons white sugar
4 tablespoons brown sugar
Preparation
Preheat oven to 165C.
Butter the inside of a bundt or tube pan, and sprinkle it with flour to stop the cake from sticking. Set aside while you prepare the batter.
Whip the sugar and oil together in a large bowl for several minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract. The mixture should be light and fluffy.
Mix together the flour, baking soda, spices and salt. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the egg-oil mixture.
Fold in the apples and walnuts.
Turn the batter into the cake pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out dry.
Remove the cake from the oven and let cool. Once it is cool, remove it from the pan, and place on a plate. Then prepare the glaze:
To make the Glaze: melt all the glaze ingredients together in a saucepan over gentle heat. Bring to the boil and boil for one minute. Pour this over the cake and let cool.
(Recipe adapted from James Beard, The New James Beard, 1981.)