My local greengrocer in North London has recently started stocking a range of the most beautiful baby vegetables. Shelves are stacked high with technicoloured little pointy carrots, miniature fennel bulbs with amazing long fronds and perfect, blemish-free turnips the size of a radish. And then there is the beetroot, all gold, red and pink. When I first saw them I was shopping for a different recipe, but I was instantly inspired and vowed to return soon.
Thankfully those sweet little beets were still there upon my next visit a few days later, and I grabbed a few bunches, along with a rather elegant treviso radicchio, a bulb of fresh garlic and a few broad beans to form the foundations of this little salad. Next stop, a proper old-school Italian deli close-by for some thin slices of silky lardo and a wedge of amazing strong pecorino (I’m a little obsessed with this at the moment). I skipped home a happy and hungry man, and it wasn’t long before everything was assembled on the plate and ready to eat.
I’m so pleased that I managed to grow up and shake off my childhood fear of beetroot. I think it was something to do with the violently staining red colour, or the strong association with vinegary pickle (a definite no-no for a younger me). Now I adore it, although I’m pretty sure that I’ve managed to marry a girl who loves it even more. Apparently when she was younger, Katie’s grandmother nicknamed her the ‘Beetroot Queen’, for her ability to consume so much. I’ve certainly never witnessed anyone get through a (large) jar of pickled beetroot with such gusto. So naturally, I expect that this salad will become a staple in our house.
Serves 2
Ingredients:
For the beetroot and garlic:
2 bunches of baby beetroot, washed and trimmed
1 bulb of fresh garlic
A few sprigs of thyme
For the balsamic dressing:
½ a lemon, juice only
1 garlic clove, grated
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
For the beans and leaves:
2 handfuls broad beans
A few big treviso leaves
A handful of fresh basil leaves
To finish:
2 tbsp pine nuts
A few shavings of strong pecorino
10 slices of lardo
Preheat the oven to 200⁰C.
Toss the beets, whole garlic bulb and thyme into an oven dish and coat with a glug of olive oil and a good pinch of seasoning. Slide into the oven and roast for 25 minutes, turning occasionally. Once cooked, allow to cool before carefully peeling away the skins.
Fill a saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Blanche the broad beans for 30 seconds. Fill a large bowl up with very cold (ideally iced) water. Transfer the cooked broad beans into the cold water to cool quickly. Once cooled, drain away the water and squeeze the vibrant broad beans out of their shells.
Bring a dry frying pan to a high heat and scatter in the pine nuts. Toast for 2-3 minutes, until golden brown.
Make the dressing by combining the garlic, mustard, lemon juice, vinegar and a good pinch of seasoning in a small bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil, until fully emulsified.
Roughly tear the treviso leaves and add to a mixing bowl with the broad beans and basil. Dress will a little of the balsamic oil.
Plate up by arranging slices of lardo onto each plate, layering the beetroot, treviso, garlic cloves, broad beans and basil on top. Finish with a sprinkle of pine nuts, a generous amount of pecorino and an extra drizzle of the dressing.
One of the great joys of working in a shop is the constant interaction with regular customers. I’ve made some good friends from this, and it’s always lovely to have a catch up and see what people have been up to that week. It makes the job so much more than providing a simple service and selling products, and a busy morning is always brightened up when a familiar face comes along. One day a few weeks ago, I was listening to someone describing how he planned to go shooting rabbits on his friend’s farm at the weekend. It sounded like fun, but I had completely forgotten by the time the following week when he arrived clutching a brace for me.
Food is always a wonderful and meaningful present, and I was determined to make something special with these rabbits, rather than simply and rather flippantly chucking them into a stew. I’ve also been cooking a lot of simpler recipes on this blog of late, so I wanted to push myself and see if I could come up with something a bit special. I’ve cooked with rabbit a few times previously, once when challenged by The Ginger Pig last year, and the time making a soft and comforting ragu with polenta. I love the gamey richness of the meat, delicate, deep and tender.
Choosing what to serve it with was the easy bit. I thought about the rabbit on the farm, and what I could imagine it having a little nibble on here and there. It seems like an almost cruel joke serving rabbit with carrots, but the flavours balance so well, and there are currently an abundance of beautiful multi-coloured bunches available. The other dominant flavours on the plate are thyme and green olives, both spiking with little bursts that contrast yet don’t interrupt the meat.
It is well worth getting more than just the two rabbits, and bumping up the amount that you braise. Not only will this lead to an intense sauce, but you will be rewarded with a pile of wonderfully succulent, almost pulled rabbit. The next night I added dried oregano, fennel seed and sage, and stirred in more butter than I probably should to create a deeply satisfying ragu served with thick homemade pappardelle. Heavenly.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
2 wild rabbits, portioned into legs, racks and loins. Livers and bones kept.
For the braised rabbit:
The legs, bones and trimming from the rabbit
3 shallots, finely chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
5 sprigs of thyme
1 bay leaf
1 large glass of dry white wine
2 litres of good chicken stock
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The livers from the rabbit, finely chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
75g smoked bacon or pancetta, finely chopped
2 knobs of butter
12 rashers of lardo
For the racks and loins:
4 small pieces of rabbit loin, trimmed of sinew
4 small rabbit racks, trimmed
1 large knob of butter
5 sprigs of thyme
1 garlic clove
For the sauce:
1.5 litres of the strained rabbit braising stock
1 knob of butter
½ a lemon, juice only
For the faro:
1 cup of faro wheat or pearl barley
500ml of the rabbit braising stock
For the carrot puree:
4 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
500ml chicken stock
½ a lemon, juice only
1 large knob of butter
2 tbsp olive oil
For the roasted carrots:
1 large bunch of heritage carrots, scrubbed and trimmed
5 sprigs of thyme
To finish:
A few of the carrot tops, washed
A handful of good green olives, stoned and sliced
A bunch of radishes, thinly sliced
Thyme flowers
First get the rabbit legs on to braise. Heat a generous amount of olive oil in a large, heavy saucepan to a medium-high temperature. Season the rabbit legs and bones well, then brown quickly and transfer to a side plate. Add the shallot, carrots, garlic and herbs to the pan and fry until lightly caramelised, then pour in the wine. Reduce by two-thirds, and use a wooden spoon to scrape up any crust from the bottom of the pan. Return the rabbit to the saucepan and top up with the stock. Bring to the boil, then cover and gently simmer for 1 ½ hours, or until the rabbit is very tender.
When the rabbit is cooked, remove the legs from the liquid and shred well with two forks. Transfer to a bowl and set aside. Strain the rest of the stock into a clean saucepan, reserving a quarter separately. Bring the main quantity of stock to the boil, and reduce until only about 200ml of thickened sauce remains. Whisk in the lemon juice and butter, check for seasoning, then remove from the heat and cover until needed.
Pour 1 tbsp of oil into a frying pan and bring to a medium heat. Fry the rabbit livers, pancetta and shallot for a couple of minutes, until tender. Stir in the butter until melted, then tip into the bowl containing the shredded rabbit leg. Combine well, checking that there is enough seasoning. Once the mixture has cooled, lay 3 slices of lardo on a board, so they are slightly overlapping. Spoon some of the braised rabbit mixture on top, then roll the lardo around the filling, tucking in the ends. Repeat with the remaining lardo until you have 4 little parcels. Place onto a lined baking tray and set aside.
For the faro, pour the reserved stock into a small saucepan and add the grains. Bring to the boil, then simmer gently for 25-30 minutes, or until just tender. Add a little more water if it starts to dry out.
To make the carrot puree, bring the stock to the boil in a small saucepan. Add the carrots, then simmer for 15-20 minutes, until very tender. Pour the contents of the saucepan into a food processor and add the lemon juice and butter, along with a little seasoning. Blend to a smooth puree. With the engine still running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil, until completely emulsified.
Preheat the oven to 190⁰C. Scrub and trim the heritage carrots and then scatter onto a baking tray. Add the thyme sprigs and coat with a little olive oil and seasoning. Roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until just tender and caramelised on the outside.
Slide the baking tray with the lardo-wrapped rabbit into the oven and allow to heat up for 6-8 minutes.
Pour 1 tbsp of oil into a heavy frying pan and bring to a high heat. Season the racks and loins of rabbit and add to the pan along with the butter, thyme and garlic. Cook for 1-2 minutes on each side, basting continuously with the butter.
To serve, place a piece of the lardo-wrapped rabbit to one side of each plate, and a dollop of the carrot puree on the other. Arrange the roasted carrots, rack and loin, and scatter on some of the faro. Finish with the sliced olives, radishes, carrot tops and thyme flowers.
Winter seems like it is finally waning. Although those bright mornings still hide a nasty chill, there’s no supressing those green shoots in every park and garden. Ingredients long forgotten are creeping back onto the shelves of my local greengrocers, and my mum and dad excitedly tell me about all of the exciting produce that is coming to fruit at their allotment. I won’t lie, I look forward to the next time I leave their home not clutching yet another bag of sprouts and leeks.
This week I have teamed up again with Campo Viejo, who challenged me to come up with a recipe celebrating this change of seasons. Even on the telly recently, food programmes championing the spring have focussed on glamorous vegetables such as asparagus and peas. To me these aren’t true spring vegetables, and we’ve still got a little while before their seasons truly start. I think of proper old fashioned greens about now, leaves like chard, spinach and cabbages along with the seemingly ever-present broccoli. These all seem to take a lower-ranking, yet I wanted to create a dish that showed that they can be equally as delicious.
As ever my first place to look for recipe inspiration is my local greengrocers at Newington Green. It really is superb, and somewhere that despite moving half an hour away I still return to. On this occasion they had wonderful bunches of cime di rapa, greens that look like spindly, leafy broccoli. Although I had never cooked with them before I just had to have some. There was also a massive pile of wild garlic. Even though the hype surrounding this little herb gets to silly levels every year, finding it on every ‘trendy’ menu in town, it is always something that I look forward to eating. Old favourites of garlic, chilli and lemon were also purchased to bring the dish to life.
For a centrepiece to this warm salad of greens I decided on a globe of wonderfully smokey buffalo mozzarella. Although burrata seems to have stolen the thunder of mozzarella of late, I still think that good quality, creamy mozzarella is hard to beat. I wanted to take this a step further for this recipe by quickly giving it a blast of smoke. Both brassicas and cheese love a hint of bitter, charred flavour so this gentle smokiness helped round everything together. Being a longwinded cook by nature I did this in my garden at home, but if you are short of time or can’t be bothered, try any good Italian deli or cheese specialist.
Back to the wine. I felt that the smokey, earthy and creamy nature of the dish required a fresh accompaniment, so I decided to serve it with a glass of the 2012 Garnacha. This provided a light contrast, perfect on a gloriously sunny spring afternoon.
Serves 2
Ingredients:
For the mozzarella:
2 balls of smoked mozzarella (if you can’t find any, a good creamy buffalo mozzarella will do)
For the greens:
2 good handfuls of spring greens such as sprouting broccoli, spinach, cime di rapa or chard
½ a lemon, zest and juice
A sprinkle of dried chilli flakes
1 garlic clove, grated
For the wild garlic:
8-10 wild garlic leaves
A squeeze of lemon juice
A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
To finish:
8 slice of lardo
A few glugs of extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
If you are using thicker greens such are sprouting broccoli or the heads from the cimi de rapa it is nice to grill them. Preheat the grill to high. Arrange the greens onto an oven tray and toss with salt and pepper and a little oil. Grill for 4-5 minutes, until tender and slightly crisp and charred. Dress with a squeeze of lemon juice. Keep warm.
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Blanch the leafier greens for 2-3 minutes or until just tender.
While the greens are simmering, heat a generous amount of the olive oil in a large frying pan. Gently cook the garlic, chilli and lemon zest for one minute. When the greens are ready transfer them into the frying pan using tongs and toss to combine.
Dress the wild garlic with a little lemon juice and olive oil.
Arrange the greens onto each plate around a ball of the mozzarella. Top with slices of the lardo and some wild garlic leaves. Finish with a squeeze of lemon juice, a drizzle of oil, some more chilli flakes and some salt and pepper.
