Chard Parcels

Chard is not difficult to grow. The difficulty comes in deciding what to do with the copious amounts of chard you have grown, after the first few days of steaming, stir frying and dressing in salads. Here's a nice, easy recipe for packages that make great appetizers or a side for an Asian main dish, but that are also portable enough for a summer picnic. Serve them warm or cold.

2 lbs (around 30 leaves) of Swiss chard
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp fine Japanese soy sauce
2 tbsp peanut oil
few drops toasted sesame oil
handful toasted sesame seeds

Bring 6 pints water to the boil in a large pan. Meanwhile, trim all but 3" of stem off each chard leaf. Blanch whole leaves in water for 3 minutes, in 2 or 3 batches, depending on the capacity of your pan. Try to place in pan with stems in water and leaves exposed, as the stems take longer, and the leaves will cook in the steam if your pan has a lid.

Remove chard, drain and place on a cookie sheet lined with paper towels to absorb residual moisture and to cool. When the chard is all cooked and cooling, press the garlic cloves into a bowl. Add the oils and allow to infuse.

To make the chard parcels: take a leaf, fold the stem in half and wind the leafy green around it fairly tightly so it holds its shape. When you have made all the packages up, heat the garlic-oil mixture gently in a 10" skillet. Carefully add the parcels to the skillet. Drizzle soy sauce evenly over them and cover the pan. Fry on low for 2 minutes then turn off heat.

Transfer packages to serving dish and sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds.

Three Dips

You don't have to be on a Greek island to enjoy the flavors of the Mediterranean. These dips, accompanied by pitta bread or vegetable sticks, make great appetizers that will go very well with a cocktail. They are also good with my falafel.

Fava Bean Dip

2 cups dried fava beans (Bob's Red Mill brand, for example), soaked overnight in plenty of water
4 cloves garlic
2 scallions
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp paprika
1/4-1/2 cup lemon juice
salt & black pepper

Drain the soaked beans. Put them in a pan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil, then simmer, with the pan partially covered, for about 1 1/2 hours until the beans are tender. Top up the water during cooking time if necessary so the beans remain covered. Tip all ingredients into food processor and process until smooth. (Keep aside some herbs and a little olive oil to decorate your final dish.)

Taramosalata

4 slices of bread, crusts removed

6 ounces tarama (smoked fish roe)

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, pressed

3/4 cup light-flavored olive oil

juice of 2 lemons

fresh parsley or cilantro

Soak the bread in water for 5 minutes the squeeze dry. Place in food processor with tarama, onion and garlic. With processor running, gradually add olive oil, thinning with lemon juice, as if making mayonnaise. Stop when you have a well-mixed emulsion. Stir in a little black pepper and some finely chopped parsley or cilantro. 

Hummus Bi Tahini

2 x 15 oz cans garbanzo beans 

1/2 cup tahini

6 tbsp lemon juice

3 garlic cloves, pressed

1 tsp ground cumin

salt & black pepper

Drain beans, reserving the liquid. Blend beans, along with the other ingredients and 1/4 cup of the liquid. Process until the mixture is smooth, adding more of the reserved liquid until the desired consistency is reached. Season with salt and pepper, adding more cumin and/or lemon juice to taste.

Toad in the Hole

Serves 4-6

First catch and kill a substantial-sized toad or two small ones*. Generously oil a shallow metal pan. Add the toad and a little chopped onion; sprinkle with herbs. Make a pancake batter by sifting 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour with 2 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt. Beat 1 large egg with 1 cup milk and incorporate into flour mixture.

Place pan in very hot oven (425 F) for 5 minutes until the oil sizzles then remove and pour batter over. Return to oven for 20-25 mins until the batter is brown, crusty and risen, with bits of toad peeking through. Serve piping hot with freshly steamed kale or other greens.

*When toad is not in season, substitute six large, high quality pork sausages, from which you have removed the casings - carefully, so as to retain the shape.

Blackened Shad

If you live on the East Coast, near a river, look out for the American shad in Spring, when it leaves the waters of the North Atlantic and makes its way up river to spawn.

If you are lucky enough to get hold of the roe, fill a smoke box with pre-soaked applewood chips and put it on the Weber. Smoke the roe on a very low grill for 25 minutes. A whole shad is delicious smoked this way too – again, the grill must be set to very low, and allow a couple of hours, refilling the smoke box several times during the process.

Serves 24

Juice of 3 lemons
6 lb American shad, gutted, spine and major bones removed
3 red onions, thinly sliced
1 1b mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 cup white wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1½ tsp salt
Black pepper
2 cups extra virgin olive oil

Make a marinade for the shad from the oil, vinegar, lemon and seasoning, in an ovenproof dish. Dip the fish in, skin side down, then turn. Sprinkle mushroom and onion on top, and make sure they’re covered with the marinade too. Allow to stand for a couple of hours. With the broiler as hot as you can get it, place shad skin side up under grill for up to 10 minutes until the skin begins to blacken and the fish is just cooked and moist. (If you are using an outdoor grill, again with it as hot as possible, place the fish skin side down on an oiled griddle and watch carefully as it cooks.) 

While the fish is cooking pour marinade into a wide-based pan or wok, and stir fryl over a high heat until the vegetables are soft and the liquid has reduce by half; season to taste and spoon over shad.

Served with boiled baby Yukon Gold potatoes and steamed asparagus.

Note: try to obtain the largest American shad you can, as deboning smaller fish is very hard work.

Oxtail Stew

What can be more delicious than the smell of oxtail slowly stewing in its own juices? Here's a recipe for this underrated classic, taken not from Mrs Beeton but from a worthy successor, Leiths, the London cookery school established in the 70s by the very talented South African, Prue Leith who, incidentally, calls herself a fraud - a 'good' but not a 'great' cook. So there is hope for us all!

Ingredients for 6

4 pounds oxtail
all purpose flour
3 tbsp sunflower oil
12 oz carrots
12 oz onion
few sprigs thyme
2 garlic cloves
1/2 bottle dry red wine, such as Merlot or Pinot Noir
1 pint good meat stock
1 bay leaf
1 tsp sugar
1 tin chopped tomatoes
salt and pepper

Method

Heat oven to 300 F. Wash and dry oxtail, trim off excess fat, cut into 1 1/2" lengths. Season flour with salt and pepper, and toss the oxtail pieces in this mixture. A bag is useful for this process.

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat and brown the oxtail, a few pieces at a time, evenly on all sides. Remove each batch to a plates when ready. Deglaze pan in between batches by pouring off excess oil, adding a little water to the pan and scraping up the sediment. This can be returned to the mix later as long as not burned.

Peel carrots and cut into thick slices. Halve and peel the onions, then cut into wedges through the root. Heat a little more oil in the pan and brown the vegetables evenly. Chop thyme leaves, peel and crush garlic.

Pour wine and stock over browned vegetables. Add herbs, garlic, sugar, seasoning. Add tomatoes, bring to boil, then reduce to simmer. Reap turn oxtail to pan. Cover and cook in oven 3-4 hours until very tender and coming away from bone. Reduce oven temperature if necessary during cooking time to maintain no more than a very gentle simmer.

Remove oxtail and vegetables. Allow cooking liquid to sit for 30-40 minutes so fat rises to the surface. Skim off fat. Taste sauce, heating again to reduce volume if a more intense flavor is required.

Remove and discard carrots, onion and bay leaf. Return oxtail to pan and reheat gently to serve.

This is delicious with creamy mashed potato and some freshly steamed root vegetables.

Blueberry-Lemon Sheet Cake

Ingredients

1 stick + 1 tbsp butter at room temp

8 oz white sugar 

2 large eggs

9 oz sour cream

2 cups all purpose flour sifted with 3 tsp baking powder + 1/4 tsp salt

juice and zest of 1 unwaxed lemon

6 oz blueberries

For the cream cheese topping

2 oz butter, at room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar, sieved, plus extra for dusting

7 oz cream cheese

2 oz blueberries

Method

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and line a baking tin (10½in x 8in).

Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs, one at a time, until well combined. Stir in the sour cream, lemon juice and zest, flour, baking powder and salt, then carefully fold in the blueberries.

Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven, and set aside until completely cool. Cut into 12 slices.

Meanwhile make the topping. Beat the butter and powdered sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the cream cheese and lemon juice, then spread over the top of the cake. Sprinkle over the blueberries and dust with extra powdered sugar.