THAI BUTTERNUT SQUASH CURRY RECIPE

15 minutes to prepare 25 minutes to cook

• tbsp red curry paste
• 2tbsp coconut cream
• 400ml (13fl oz) skimmed milk
• 3 spring onions, cut into short lengths
• 500g (1lb) butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 12 button mushrooms, halved
• 250g (8oz) cherry tomatoes
• fish sauce, to season
• small bunch coriander, leaves chopped
• cooked noodles or rice, to serve
• 1 lime, cut into wedges, to serve

In a deep frying pan, heat the curry paste and coconut cream together over a low heat, stirring. Pour in the milk, stir well, and bring to a simmer.

Add the spring onions and butternut squash and cook for about 10 minutes, until the squash is just tender. Add the rest of the vegetables and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Season with fish sauce to taste, sprinkle over the coriander and serve on noodles or rice, with the lime wedges on the side.

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Tahini Dressed green bean and courgette salad

Prep time

• 10 - 15 mins

Cook Time

• 5 mins

Servings

• 4

Ingredients

• FOR THE TAHINI (optional)
• 1⁄2 garlic clove, crushed with a little coarse sea salt
• 2 tablespoons light tahini (stir the jar well first)
• Finely grated zest and juice of 1⁄2 lemon
• Juice of 1⁄2 orange
• 1⁄2 teaspoon clear honey
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
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• FOR THE SALAD
•  
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 medium courgettes (about 400g), sliced into 3mm rounds
• Juice of 1⁄2 lemon
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• About 125g French beans, trimmed
• 4 good handfuls of salad leaves
• 12-18 oven-dried tomatoes (see page 304) or semi-dried tomatoes (optional)
• A handful of mint, finely shredded (optional)
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Directions

To make the tahini dressing, put the crushed garlic into a small bowl with the tahini, lemon zest and juice, orange juice, honey and a grind of black pepper, and stir together well. The dressing may thicken and go grainy or pastey, but don’t worry. Just thin it down by whisking in a little water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you get a creamy, trickling consistency. Finally, gently stir in the olive oil. Taste and add a little more salt and pepper if needed. The dressing is now ready to use.

For the salad, heat the olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a fairly high heat and cook the courgette slices in batches, tossing them occasionally, for a few minutes until tender and browned on both sides, transferring them to a bowl once cooked.

When the courgettes are all cooked, season generously with salt and pepper, add the lemon juice and chilli and toss together well.

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil. Tip in the French beans, return to the boil and blanch for 1 minute. Drain, then dunk in cold water to refresh. Drain again, pat dry with a clean tea towel and toss the beans with the courgettes.

To assemble the salad, spread the salad leaves in a large shallow serving bowl and scatter over the dressed courgettes and beans, tomatoes and shredded mint, if using. Trickle the tahini dressing generously over the whole lot and serve.

Nettle pesto

This is a rural Devon, River Cottage version of the classic Italian sauce. We substitute nettles, rapeseed oil, Cheddar and breadcrumbs for basil, olive oil, Parmesan and pine nuts. Use it wherever you would use pesto – it is excellent swirled on top of creamy soups, or tossed through pasta.

Prep time

• 20 mins

Cook Time

• 10 mins

Servings

• 450g

Ingredients

• 20g breadcrumbs
• 100g young nettles (or the top few leaves of older ones)
• 20g strong Cheddar, grated
• ½ garlic clove, crushed to a paste with a little salt
• 150–200ml rapeseed oil
• Salt and black pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4. Scatter the breadcrumbs on a baking tray and bake for about 10 minutes until dry and golden, checkingthem frequently towards the end as they burn quite quickly.Tip on to a plate and allow to cool.

Wearing gloves, pick over the nettles, discarding all but the thinnest stalks, then wash well. Fill a bowl with iced water. Find a pan large enough to take the nettles and half-fill it with water.

Bring to the boil and cram in the nettles, pushing them down with a wooden spoon to immerse them. Cook for just 1 minute, then drain
through a sieve over a bowl to save the cooking water. Immediately plunge the nettles into the iced water. As soon as they are cold, remove and squeeze them as dry as you can – they will not sting you once they are cooked.

Put the nettles into a food processor along with the breadcrumbs, cheese and garlic. With the machine on low speed, trickle in enough rapeseed oil to make a loose paste. (Alternatively, you can grind the nettles, breadcrumbs, garlic and cheese to a paste using a pestle and mortar, then slowly incorporate the oil.)

Season your pesto with salt and pepper to taste. It is now ready to use. As for the nettle cooking water you saved, drink it – it’s too good to waste.

Salmon fish cakes with lemon herb mayo

Children love these simple-to-make fish cakes starring tinned salmon and potato

Salmon fish cakes with lemon herb mayo Photo: YUKI SUGIURA

Serves six

For the fish cakes
750g (1lb 10oz) floury potatoes
2 large tins salmon, about 215g (7½oz) each
optional extras: anchovies, capers, chervil, parsley or chives
plain flour, for dusting
2 large eggs, beaten
150g (5½oz) dry breadcrumbs
sunflower oil, for frying
lemon wedges, to serve

For the mayonnaise 
200g (7oz) mayonnaise
5 tbsp crème fraîche
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp lemon juice
1-2 tbsp chopped parsley or chervil

Boil the potatoes in their skins until tender. Drain, put a clean tea towel on top of the potatoes in the pan, put on the lid and set over a very low heat for four minutes; this dries out the potatoes a bit. Peel each one and discard the peel.

Open the tins of salmon and drain, reserving the juices. Flake the fish and remove any bones or skin. Mash the potato and add the salmon, salt and pepper, plus just enough salmon juice to make it bind. If you are going to add any extras – chopped anchovies, capers or herbs – add them now. Taste the mixture for seasoning.

Flour your hands and put more flour on to a plate. Take handfuls of the fish and potato mixture and form them into 12 cakes about 8cm (3in) across. Dip each one in flour and set on a non-stick baking-sheet. Flour your hands again if necessary – they’ll get a bit sticky.

Put the eggs in a shallow bowl and the breadcrumbs in another. Dip each fish cake into the egg and then the crumbs. Put back on the baking-sheet. If you have time, put the cakes in the fridge to firm up. I hardly ever have time and these behave pretty well without it.

To make the mayo just mix everything together.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large non-stick frying-pan (use two pans if you have them) and cook the cakes on both sides until golden and hot right through – about four to five minutes per side. As you cook the cakes transfer them to a serving platter (or baking-sheet) and put in a low oven to keep warm. Use more oil as you need it.

Serve the fish cakes with wedges of lemon and the mayo, plus some peas or a green salad on the side.

Baked Sweet Potato Falafel

These falafel are Leon's most popular veggie dish to date. They knew they wanted falafel on the menu, but chose not to have deep fryers. After some experimenting, this sweet potato and chickpea flour version was developed.

2 medium sweet potatoes (orange inside), around 700g or 1 1/2 pounds in total
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 small cloves of garlic, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 big handfuls of fresh cilantro/coriander, chopped
Juice of half a lemon
a scant cup (120g) gram /chickpea flour
a splash of olive oil
a sprinkling of sesame seeds
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 425F degrees (220C) and roast the sweet potatoes whole until just tender - 45 minutes to 1 hour. Turn off the oven, leave the potatoes to cool, then peel.

Put the sweet potatoes, cumin, garlic, ground and fresh coriander, lemon juice and gram/chickpea flour into a large bowl. Season well, and mash until smooth with no large chunks. Stick in the fridge to firm up for an hour, or the freezer for 20-30 minutes. When you take it out, your mix should be sticky rather than really wet. You can add a tablespoon or so more of chickpea flour if necessary (the water content of sweet potatoes varies enormously).

Reheat the oven to 400F/200C. Using a couple of soup spoons (put a well-heaped spoonful of mix in one spoon and use the concave side of the other to shape the sides) or a falafel scoop if you have one, make the mixture into falafelly looking things and put them on an oiled tray. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and bake in the oven for around 15 minutes, until the bases are golden brown.

Makes about 18 falafel, enough for 4 - 6.

Hummus en Fuego Recipe

A couple tips before you get started - rub the skins of the walnuts off a bit after you toast them, it's nothing I really pay too much attention to for a recipe like this, but the skins can be a bit bitter and tannic. And again, make the crushed red pepper oil a day or two ahead if possible.

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes

3/4 cup walnuts, toasted
2 cups cooked (or canned) garbanzo beans, drained
1 medium clove garlic
juice of 1/2 a lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
1/2 cup hot water

1/4 cup oil-cured olives, chopped
a bit of chopped cilantro

Make the hot pepper oil a day or so ahead of time by heating the olive oil in a small saucepan for a couple minutes - until it is about as hot as you would need it to saute some onions, but not so hot that it smokes or smells acrid or burned. Turn off the heat and stir in the crushed red pepper flakes. Set aside and let cool, ideally for a day or two - to let the flavor really develop.

To make the hummus, give the walnuts a spin in the food processor, just until they are a sandy texture. Add most of the garbanzos, 1 or 2 tablespoons of the red chile oil (oil only, no flakes), garlic, and lemon juice. Now process until smooth. Drizzle in the water a bit at a time and puree more, until the hummus is creamy and billowy. I tend to let the food processor run for a minute or so at this point, it incorporates air into the puree and makes it a nice texture. Taste, adjust the seasoning - more salt, more lemon juice, etc.

Serve in a shallow bowl, drizzled with plenty of the remaining oil and red pepper flakes. I like to add any remaining garbanzo beans at this point as well as some olives and a bit of chopped cilantro for the final touch.

Makes roughly 2 1/2 cups..