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1 green apple, cored and finely chopped (skin on)
3 spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced
200g asparagus spears, trimmed and each cut diagonally into 3 pieces
handful samphire or sea purslane (optional)
1 baby gem lettuce, outer leaves separated, washed and dried, heart split in half
10g chervil leaves
10g tarragon leaves
10g flat-leaf parsley leaves
sea salt
For the mayonnaise
2 egg yolks
½ tsp sea salt
juice of ½ lemon
100ml extra-virgin rapeseed oil
200ml vegetable oil
pinch of ground white pepper
1 First, cook the potatoes. Bring a large saucepan of well salted water to the boil, add the mint and the Jersey Royals and simmer for 15 minutes, until tender – do not be afraid of overcooking them, as they are far better soft than chalky. Turn the heat off and leave them to cool down in their cooking water (this retains their earthy flavour beautifully).
2 While the potatoes cook, make the mayonnaise. Put the egg yolks, salt and lemon juice in a food processor and blitz until smooth. With the blades still turning, very, very slowly drip in the 100ml rapeseed oil, a drop at a time, until the oil starts to emulsify and the mixture looks smooth and creamy. Once the rapeseed oil is incorporated, very slowly start to drip in the vegetable oil, blitzing the whole time, until it starts to thicken. Once you’ve added about half the oil and it’s looking thick and creamy, increase the pouring of the oil to a steady stream – making the mayonnaise will take 10–15 minutes. If it becomes too thick and stiff to work at any point, just add a few drops of water or a squeeze of lemon and blitz again. If it splits, see tip (see here).
3 Once the mayonnaise is plump and emulsified, add 1 tablespoon of water. This will lighten the mayo and make it creamier. Add the pepper and blitz until combined. Scrape it out into a bowl, taste for seasoning and add a little more salt or lemon juice until it really sings.
4 Mix half of the mayo with the brown crab meat, a squeeze more lemon juice and the cayenne pepper. Fold in the apple and spring onion. Taste for seasoning.
5 Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the asparagus and cook for 3–5 minutes, until just tender. For the last minute, drop in the samphire or sea purslane to blanch. Drain immediately and refresh in iced water.
6 Spread the brown crab meat and apple mayo out on a platter. Top with the drained potatoes, lettuce (leaves and heart), samphire (or sea purslane) if using, and asparagus, building up layers and seasoning as you go with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Top with the remaining mayo, followed by the white crab meat and soft herbs. Squeeze over a touch more lemon juice, sprinkle with cayenne pepper, if you like, and serve.
Cime di rapa
with roast peppers, chickpeas and oregano-baked feta
Serves 2 as a lunch or starter, or 4 as a side
This is a lovely veggie lunch in its own right, or a satisfying summer side to go with a barbecue. Cime di rapa is one of my all-time favourite greens – it has wonderfully sweet and tender leaves and a satisfying bitterness. Translating from Italian as ‘turnip tops’, it is also known as broccoli rabe or rapini, and is great in pasta dishes, on pizza or as a blanched side (dressed with plenty of lovely extra-virgin olive oil) for roasted or barbecued meats or fish.
400g mixed tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
50ml extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
pinch of dried chilli flakes
2 sprigs of rosemary
1 × 400g tin chickpeas, drained
2 romano peppers (or red bell peppers)
200g block of feta
1 tbsp fresh oregano leaves or 1 tsp dried oregano
pinch of coriander seeds
bunch of cime di rapa (or chard or cavolo nero), bases trimmed and leaves separated from stalks
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas 7, or if you have one, fire up the wood oven.
2 Place the tomatoes in a roasting tray with the garlic, drizzle over half the olive oil and sprinkle with the chilli flakes, then season well with salt and pepper. Throw the rosemary in the tray and shake everything together, then roast in the oven for 15–20 minutes, until the tomatoes have softened and are starting to char and caramelise. Add the drained chickpeas, toss to combine, then return to the oven for another 10 minutes, until the chickpeas are roasted and are starting to crisp up.
3 In the meantime, char the peppers over a gas flame, on a barbecue or under the grill, until black and soft all over. Remove from the flame, place in a bowl and cover the bowl with cling film. Allow to cool then wipe away the blackened skin with kitchen paper (don’t worry if you can’t get it all off). Remove the seeds and cut the peppers lengthways into long, thin strips.
4 Put the feta on a piece of foil and drizzle over the rest of the olive oil. Scatter over the oregano and coriander seeds and wrap the foil around the feta. Place in the oven or on the embers of the barbecue and cook for 10 minutes, or until starting to turn golden and tender.
5 Bring a large saucepan of well salted water to the boil. Blanche the cime di rapa stalks in the water for a couple of minutes, then add the leaves, cooking both the leaves and stalks for a further minute, then drain. Remove the tomatoes and chickpeas from the oven, add the red peppers and cime di rapa and toss through. Remove the rosemary sprigs and serve with the baked feta on top and some extra olive oil drizzled over.
Quick wild garlic yoghurt flatbreads
Makes 2 medium or 4 small flatbreads
These speedy, four-ingredient flatbreads are perfect for a quick family lunch, a pre-dinner snack or on the side of the plate with a stew or curry to soak up the juices. They get a lot of airtime in our house, particularly in spring and summer when the wood oven is lit, but you can just as easily cook them on the barbecue too, or a hot griddle or frying pan. They have a moreish sour flavour (thanks to the yoghurt, which reacts with the self-raising flour to puff them up) and are just begging to be slathered with wild garlic pesto or butter while they’re warm. Experiment with some of the other flavoured butters (see here) in autumn: try brushing them with the porcini butter and topping them with fried wild mushrooms and tarragon. Don’t scrimp on the yoghurt with this one, full-fat is the way to go.
210g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
½ tsp salt
210g full-fat natural Greek yoghurt
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
4 tbsp Wild Garlic Pesto (see here (#litres_trial_promo)), or 30g Wild Garlic Butter (see here (#litres_trial_promo)), melted
1 Put the flour and salt in a bowl and combine, then spoon in the yoghurt and olive oil. Give it a stir to combine everything, then, using oiled hands, bring the mix together into a soft dough. Briefly knead and scrape around the sides of the bowl to pick up any crumbs or scraggy bits, then allow the dough to sit in the bowl for a couple of minutes. While it’s resting, either heat up a cast-iron skillet over a high heat or set your grill to its highest setting. For those with a wood-fired oven, these are also great cooked in there as you would the Sourdough Pizza (see here (#ulink_fc3e3f2c-33a4-51eb-bbe1-8d4095070811)).
2 Lightly dust the surface with flour and tip your dough out onto it. Split the dough into two or four, depending on whether you prefer 2 medium flatbreads or 4 small. Roll each piece of dough into a smooth ball and flatten each one on the surface with the palm of your hand, then roll it out using a rolling pin to your desired thickness and shape – I like these quite thick and pillowy (about 1cm thick).
3 If using a griddle pan, place your flatbread on it and cook over the highest heat for 3–5 minutes on each side, until golden and puffed, then remove from the pan and slather the top with the wild garlic pesto (loosened with the tablespoon of oil first) or butter while the bread’s hot. If using the grill, place the flatbreads under the grill and grill for about 4 minutes, until puffed and golden, then brush the tops with the wild garlic butter or pesto and return to the grill for another minute or two. If you’re cooking them in the wood oven, bake them as you would a pizza and brush them afterwards with the pesto or butter. Eat while still warm.
Waste not, want not allotment greens pasties
with cumin and za’atar
Makes 4
These rustic, meat-free pasties take their lead from Greek spanakopita and are perfect for picnics. They can be made with any combination of greens you like – it’s all about using up whatever you’ve got lurking in your fridge. I came up with them after a meagre and rather random haul of greens from my allotment; a mix of spinach, chard and kale along with some window-box herbs. The cumin in the pastry adds a pleasing earthiness, while the za’atar brings a bright blast of herbaceousness. Serve with a simple tomato salad.
1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 slices of preserved lemon, deseeded and finely chopped (shop-bought or (see here (#litres_trial_promo))), or grated zest of ½ unwaxed lemon
250g mixed greens (chard, spinach, watercress, kale) and soft herbs (lovage, parsley, dill, basil, tarragon)
1 tbsp lemon juice
75g Fresh Curd Cheese (see here (#litres_trial_promo)), ricotta or cream cheese
100g feta, camembert or mozzarella, diced or roughly chopped
1 tsp Fermented Green Chillies (see here (#litres_trial_promo)) or shop-bought pickled green chillies (optional)
nutmeg, for grating
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp za’atar
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the pastry
180g light spelt (or plain) flour, and 20g wholegrain rye flour (or 200g spelt or plain flour)
100g ricotta or full-fat natural yoghurt
1 tsp fine sea salt
½ tsp ground cumin
20ml olive oil
1–3 tbsp iced water
1 First, make the pastry. Place the flour(s), ricotta, salt and cumin in the bowl of a food processor and blitz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the olive oil and the iced water, a tablespoon at a time, sprinkling it all across the crumb and blitzing between additions until the dough clumps together (you may not need all the water). Tip the dough out into a bowl and mould it into a ball. Wrap it in greaseproof paper (rather than cling film, which makes it sweat) and leave it to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
2 Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and slide in the onion, garlic and preserved lemon or lemon zest with a pinch of salt. Cook for about 5 minutes, until softened and fragrant but not colouring, then add the greens. Season with salt, pepper and a little lemon juice, put the lid on and let them wilt down for a couple of minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer the greens to a sieve to drain, pressing down on the greens to get rid of any excess moisture. Roughly chop them, then tip into a bowl, add the cheeses and fermented chillies (if using) and toss to combine, grating over a little fresh nutmeg and salt and pepper. Leave to cool.
3 Remove the pastry from the fridge, unwrap it and divide it into four equal balls, pressing the balls into discs. Dust the surface with flour and roll each ball out to a circle about 20cm in diameter and just a little thinner than a pound coin.
4 Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6 and line a baking sheet with baking parchment.
5 Fill each circle of pastry with the cooled greens and cheese mix, leaving a 2cm border around the edge of the filling, drizzle over a little more olive oil and fold the pastry around the filling to seal. It’s up to you how you do this. You can either fold one half of pastry over the filling, seal to the other half and crimp like a pasty, or you can fold the edges up into the middle like an envelope or a little bag. Once formed, place on the lined baking sheet and chill for about 10 minutes, until firm.
6 Remove the pies from the fridge and brush them with the beaten egg. Scatter over the za’atar and bake in the oven for 35–40 minutes, until the pastry is crisp and golden.
Asparagus, pea and lovage croquettes
on a garden salad
Serves 4
Broken open, these crunchy, golden croquettes reveal all the joys of spring. Oozing with a vivid green filling of peas, asparagus and fragrant, slightly spicy lovage, they are at once indulgent and virtuous, and serious fun. Here I serve them with a dollop of sour cream but they are also lovely with the homemade mayo (see here).
For the asparagus
420ml salted water
200g asparagus spears, trimmed
juice of 1 unwaxed lemon
1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
For the croquettes
150g frozen peas
25g lovage leaves and stems (or flat-leaf parsley), roughly chopped
40g butter
1 tsp crushed pink peppercorns
150g plain flour
1 tbsp white wine
