The Wholefood Pantry
Page 4
Trim the outer leaves and stalk from the base of the cauliflower so that it can sit beautifully flat. You can discard the leaves or use them in a veg stock pot if they are still perky. Rub the marinade over the entire cauliflower then place it in an ovenproof dish with a lid. I like to use my heavy-based casserole dish. Sprinkle over the Marsala and put the lid on the dish.
Transfer the dish to the oven and cook for about 1 hour, or until tender. It may need a further 10–15 minutes, depending on the size of your cauliflower.
Remove the dish from the oven and scatter over the cherry tomatoes, thyme sprigs and the reserved lemon zest. Turn the oven up to 220°C/fan 200°C/gas mark 7 and return the dish to the oven without the lid for a further 15 minutes, or until the cauliflower has a lovely golden crust.
When the cauliflower is ready, remove it from the oven, scatter over the toasted almonds and pumpkin seeds and parsley leaves, and spoon over some of the juices from the bottom of the pan. Drizzle over some extra virgin olive oil and grind over a few twists of black pepper.
Carve up and serve right away as part of a bigger spread. Roast veggies, a lovely warm kale salad and some aubergine or chickpea dip would go beautifully with this vegetarian main.
The quickest, tastiest greens around.
SERVES 4
A friend of mine who is a fantastic chef showed me how to cook greens this way. I love this method as none of the nutrition and flavour is lost. All too often broccoli and other green veg are boiled in large quantities of water, meaning that all the goodness ends up in the liquid and not on your dinner plate. You can cook different kinds of greens this way too; cooking times may vary a little, but the method is still the same. I urge you to give it a go – you won’t look back. If you want to jazz up your veg at the end, try topping them with one of my herby butters or drizzle with one of my herb-infused oils (see here).
EQUIPMENT
1 good frying or sauté pan with a tight-fitting lid (or use a heavy-based saucepan)
FOR THE VEG
A few handfuls of tenderstem broccoli
A handful of fine green beans, topped but not tailed
A handful of curly kale, tough stems removed
2 tablespoons olive oil
A generous pinch of sea salt and a few twists of freshly ground black pepper
Start by putting all your veg on a plate right next to the pan – everything needs to be set up for this recipe to work well.
Set the pan over a really high heat and leave it for a few minutes to heat up really well. If you hold your hand just above the surface you should be able to feel the heat coming off it.
Meanwhile, pour the oil and 4 tablespoons of cold water into a cup or small bowl and add the salt and pepper. Set it beside the veg. Make sure the lid to the pan is right beside the veg and the cup of seasoned liquid.
When your pan is piping hot, quickly tip in the salty, oily water, followed by the veg and then at top speed slam the lid on. The water hitting the hot surface of the pan will create a huge amount of steam and this will cook the veg beautifully while locking in all the flavour and goodness, and the oil, salt and pepper will season it as it cooks. The salt also helps the greens retain their lovely vibrant colour. You need to get the lid on super fast to catch all the steam; if you don’t, the technique won’t work as well as it should. Leave the veg to cook briefly – 2–3 minutes should do it. Test by carefully lifting up one side of the lid and quickly scooping out a piece of broccoli and tasting it. You want it tender but not soft – it’s best with a little bit of a bite. When it’s done, remove the lid and using a pair of tongs, place all the veg onto a waiting plate.
You can serve the veg as they are or top with a knob of butter, or for extra flavour, use one of my flavoured herby butters or oils – the wild garlic oil would be sublime.
Spiced cauliflower toasts.
SERVES 4
These delicious little toasts are a revelation. You can serve them with fried eggs, because let’s face it, fried egg ain’t so good without something to catch that beautiful runny yolk. You could also use them in lots of other delicious ways: topped with guacamole and a green salad, or with pan-fried mushrooms and slow-roast tomatoes. Cauliflower is wonderful in so many ways, and I for one am very thankful for the recent image overhaul that cauliflower seems to have gone through.
1 large cauliflower
A generous drizzle of ghee or olive oil
3–4 tablespoons Za’atar, or Pistachio and Kale Ash Dukkah, or just a sprinkle of ground cumin and paprika
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas mark 4.
Trim the base of the cauliflower so it sits flat on the board, but don’t cut too much off as you need it to hold the slices in shape.
Slice the cauliflower from top to bottom into 3cm slices. Lay the slices and the ends out on a baking tray, sprinkle with ghee or oil, then with your chosen spice mix. Season with salt and pepper.
Transfer the tray to the oven and bake the toasts for about 25 minutes or until just catching at the edges and they have a lovely colour.
Remove them from the oven and top with anything you like. Perhaps garlicky, buttery greens and either a poached or fried egg.
Herbed cauliflower rice.
SERVES 4 AS A SIDE
This is a great little dish to make if you don’t want to or can’t eat grains. It goes really well with barbecued meat, or vegetarian mains in place of rice or couscous.
A handful of cashews
½ cauliflower
Juice of 1 lemon
Extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, finely grated
A handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
6 mint stalks, leaves only, torn
Seeds of ½ pomegranate
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Start by dry toasting the cashews in a frying pan over a medium heat. Toss them every 20 seconds so they don’t burn. Toast for a few minutes until they are nicely coloured on all sides. Remove from the pan and place the nuts on a board, chop roughly, then set aside.
Remove the thick inner stalk from the cauliflower. Cut it first into slices, then chop the slices into pieces the size of rice grains. (If you have a food processor you can use it to blitz the cauliflower slices, but be careful not to make the mix too fine or it will turn to a pulp.)
When you have a chunky mix, tip it into a large bowl, squeeze over the lemon juice, add a few good glugs of olive oil, the garlic and cashews and mix thoroughly. Add the herbs, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle over the pomegranate seeds. Et voilà.
Meat and Fish.
A simple spatchcock chicken with a crispy skin.
SERVES 4–6
Spatchcocking a chicken is a great way of achieving a really crispy skin, which we all love.
You could keep it simple and simply spatchcock the chook, then baste with ghee, sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast, or you could spice it up as I have done here with my za’atar spice mix. Both kids and adults love this dish and it’s so easy to create.
The combination of za’atar spices, crispy skin and tender meat is sublime but try cooking this with any of the Spice Mixes from here – it will be just as delicious.
EQUIPMENT
2 full-length bamboo or metal skewers
Strong, sharp kitchen scissors
1 medium free-range chicken
2 tablespoons ghee
3 tablespoons za’atar spice mix
TO SERVE
Seeds of ½ pomegranate
A small bunch of fresh coriander or rocket
Garlic and herb yogurt
Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas mark 6.
To spatchcock a chicken, use kitchen scissors to cut down the length of the backbone of the chicken. Remove the backbone and open the chicken out so that it lays flat with the breast facing upwards and the thighs and legs pointing outwards.
Stick the skewers throu
gh the middle of the chicken so that they form a cross. This ensures the chicken remains flat while it cooks.
Place the spatchcocked chicken on a baking tray with low sides. Rub the ghee over the chicken, sprinkle with the za’atar spice mix and then transfer the tray to the oven and roast the bird for about 20 minutes. Turn the heat down to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas mark 4 and roast for a further 40 minutes. You are aiming for a crispy skin and tender meat that falls off the bone.
Remove the tray from the oven and allow the chicken to rest, uncovered, for about 10 minutes before serving. I like mine strewn with pomegranate seeds and coriander or rocket leaves. Some delicious garlicky herby yogurt on the side wouldn’t go amiss either.
Further seasoning and serving suggestions.
1 spatchcocked chicken cooked with Piri-piri spice mix, served with guacamole and a green salad.
1 spatchcocked chicken cooked with the Mediterranean herb mix, served with homemade chips and my garlic aioli or probiotic tomato ketchup or both and green salad on the side.
My toolbox tips for roast chicken.
Roast chicken is a meal that you can pop in the oven without too much stress or thinking. It’s great for a Sunday roast or for a weeknight supper, which can then be turned into more meals by using the leftovers. Throwing away a leftover carcass is an illegal act in my household. Even if it’s just the carcass that’s left, that can still be turned into another meal by making stock or bone broth as a base for a soup or risotto.
I would like to say at this point that there is no ‘right way’ of roasting a chicken, it’s really down to individual choice and the end result you want. If you like a crisp skin, you can’t add lots of liquid or wine to the roasting dish. If you want lots of juices in the pan, you have to sacrifice the crisp skin to some degree. It’s nigh on impossible to have both perfect. To truss or not to truss? I don’t usually bother, but if you are stuffing your chicken or want a particularly neat-looking roast bird, trussing is a good idea. You can brine the bird before you cook it for extra-tender and juicy meat, but it’s certainly not an essential step to create a tender and delicious roast chicken. There are, however, a few simple rules that I have included here to help you create the perfect roast chicken that will never let you down.
For an extra-tender juicy chicken, poach the bird for 10 minutes in barely simmering water. This will give you slightly less crispy skin but the flesh will be meltingly tender.
Allow the chicken to sit, uncovered, for several hours in the fridge before you take it out for cooking. This allows the skin to dry out and will help you to create that lovely crisp skin.
Never put a bird in the oven straight from the fridge – always let it come up to room temperature before roasting.
Put the chicken into a roasting dish that is the right size. If there is too much room around the chicken the juices will burn.
Always roast your chicken in a preheated oven.
If the juices in the pan are difficult to reach to spoon over the bird, baste it with melted butter.
Always allow your bird to rest before carving. It allows the meat fibres to relax and become more tender after the cooking process, resulting in a very juicy and tender roast chicken. If you are worried you have overcooked it, turn it upside down to rest, breast-side down. This will help the juices to soak back into the dry breast.
If it’s extra crispy skin you’re after, roast the chicken on a rack and cook at a higher temperature.
Buy the best bird you can afford. The health benefits of a free-range organic chicken are well known and the leftover carcass is perfect for making bone broth; this outweighs the extra cost of the bird by creating another meal or two.
A general time and temperature guide for roasting chicken: 20 minutes in a preheated oven at 180°C/fan 160°C/gas mark 4, then 15 minutes per 450g.
To test if the bird is cooked, pull the thigh away from the main part of the body and poke a sharp knife into the thickest part. If the juices run clear the chicken is done.
Perfect roast beef.
SERVES 6–8
This is my fail-safe roast beef recipe that always ticks the boxes for a special Sunday roast. You could use topside for a casual Sunday meal, or if you really want to go to town and wow your friends and family, I would cook a sirloin joint, on the bone with the fillet still in it, or a rib of beef. I love my beef medium rare, served with a beautiful homemade creamy horseradish sauce. It is just a match made in heaven, and if you can find wild horseradish to make your sauce with, all the more wonderful.
For horseradish sauce recipes.
2.3kg cut of beef – topside, sirloin or rib (roughly 3 ribs if using a rib roast)
1 tablespoon mustard powder (optional)
1 tablespoon spelt flour (optional)
3–4 small red onions, halved
1 white onion, halved
1 whole garlic bulb, halved widthways
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 240°C/fan 220°C/gas mark 9.
Ensure the beef is at room temperature and, if you are using mustard powder and flour, rub them over the layer of fat, then season generously with salt and pepper. If you are not using mustard/flour, simply season the beef with the salt and pepper.
Lay the onions and garlic in the bottom of a roasting pan, lay the beef on top and put the pan into the oven for 20 minutes. Then turn down the heat to 190°C/fan 170°C/gas mark 5 and cook the joint for 15 minutes per 450g – this will give you rare beef. Add 15 minutes to the total cooking time for medium rare and 30 minutes to the total cooking time for well done.
While the beef cooks, take the pan out of the oven every so often to baste the meat with its juices – simply tilt the pan and spoon the liquid over the meat. This will help keep the meat moist and succulent. Try to do this as quickly as possible so that you don’t lose heat from the oven while the door is open.
When the beef is done to your liking, remove it from the oven and transfer from the hot pan to a platter or board, cover loosely with foil and a clean tea towel and allow to rest for at least 30 minutes.
As the meat rests it will release some juices – make sure you add those to the pan when you make the gravy.
When you have made your gravy (see instructions) and the meat has rested, carve it and serve alongside your favourite roast beef accompaniments.
A rough guide to making a tasty light gravy that goes beautifully with the rare roast beef… The amount of juice in the roasting pan is determined by the size of the piece of meat you cooked, which, in turn, will determine how much red wine and extra beef stock/broth you need to add. If you only roasted a small joint and there isn’t much juice, place the dish over a high heat, add a splash of red wine, let it bubble quite hard for 1 minute, then add enough beef broth/stock to make as much gravy as you need. Reduce until thickened slightly, taste and season well, take off the heat and whisk in a knob of cold butter. Pour into a jug or gravy boat and serve. Follow this same method for larger quantities of juice from bigger joints, tasting as you go and adding a few glugs or red wine instead of a small splash.
A perfectly juicy steak – 4 ways.
SERVES 2
I have to say that rib-eye is my favourite cut of steak. For me, it has the perfect balance of juiciness and flavour; I also prefer its texture compared with other steak. Sirloin is probably my second and fillet my third, but that’s debatable. It took me a while to get the hang of cooking steak – it can be quite daunting at first, trying to get it right. The method below is pretty foolproof and should give you a lovely juicy steak that is well seasoned. You can keep it simple, or, for a steak with a bit of attitude, marinate it before cooking. You could also use the teriyaki sauce for a Japanesestyle steak. For an incredible flavour combination, try serving my chimichurri sauce with a perfectly cooked juicy steak seasoned simply with salt and pepper or with the Middle-Eastern or Mediterranean marinade below.
2 medium rib-eye steaks, about 2–2.5cm thick
4 tablespoons ghee or olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
A few marinades to choose from...
MIDDLE EASTERN 1 TEASPOON SUMAC
1 teaspoon cumin
A few thyme sprigs
A few fresh oregano leaves
1–2 slices of orange (optional)
2 garlic cloves
MEDITERRANEAN
2 garlic cloves
2 clementines
A few thyme sprigs
A small handful of basil leaves
ASIAN-STYLE
2 teaspoons tamari
Zest and juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon coconut sugar
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
Put the steak in a glass mixing bowl or non-metallic dish. Pour over the ghee or olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, a generous amount – more than you might think. At this point you can keep it as is or add the ingredients for one of the marinades. Using your hands, give it all a good mix, massaging the seasonings gently into the steak. Cover and pop in the fridge overnight or for up to 3 days.
When you are ready to cook the steaks, remove them from the fridge at least 1 hour before you want to cook them.
Heat a ridged griddle pan until smoking hot. Place the steaks onto the smoking pan and leave them to cook for 1½–2 minutes – don’t try to move them at all. Then flip them over and cook for 1½–2 minutes on the other side. That timing will give you a rare steak, cook for a further minute for a medium-rare to medium steak.
When the meat is cooked to your liking, remove it from the pan and place it on a plate or clean chopping board and cover loosely with foil – you don’t want it to steam – and rest for at least 5–10 minutes before you eat it. Resting helps the steak to relax, soften and become more tender. Slice into lovely thick wedges and serve.