STEAK-SALSA-SALAD

I always find it funny how some of simplest homemade meals I post pictures of on Instagram garner the most attention and requests for recipes. This is something that took me 10 minutes to make, but actually, as it uses a cheap cut of meat and is on the healthy side of things, then maybe it's not a surprise that people want the recipe for this steak salad with salsa in January. 

Serves 2

400g bavette steak
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp chilli flakes

For the salsa:
Bunches of any herbs you want - I used basil, parsley and coriander
Half green chilli
3 anchovies
1 tbsp capers
Juice of 1 lemon
Pepper
Big glug of extra virgin olive oil (I used the rosemary and thyme one from my trip to Castelas in Provence - you can get it here)

Salad dressing:
1 tsp mustard
Sprinkle smoked salt
Juice of 1 lemon
Double the amount lemon juice of extra virgin olive oil

Bag of mixed leaves or baby spinach

Mix together the soy, oil, oregano and chilli and coat the meat in it. Leave for 10 minutes - 10 hours. The longer the better!

Add all of the salsa ingredients to the magimix and roughly blend. Add a little water if it's too thick.

Combine the mustard, salt, lemon and oil for the salad dressing in a jam jar and give it a good shake.

Heat a frying pan on a high heat, and once almost smoking hot add the marinated bavette. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side depending how thick the piece of meat is, then remove from the heat and leave to rest for 3 minutes. Slice into cm chunks.

Toss the salad leaves in the dressing and arrange in a bowl with the meat on top. Add dollops of salsa and you're good to go! If you want to bulk it out a bit some boiled potatoes tossed in the salsa verde would be great. 

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A SALAD FOR ALL SEASONS - Harry Eastwood

I love a good salad. It doesn't matter if it's on the beach in the Mediterranean or at home in London in the middle of the winter. Sometimes the freshness of a good salad is all I really crave. Salads are so versatile - they can be warm or cold and can include pretty much whichever ingredients you choose to put in them. Harry Eastwood came to our tv screens about 8 years ago with Cook Yourself Thin and now she's back with her new book A Salad For All Seasons. I got sent a copy to have a look at and I really like it - it's a great book full of delicious sounding salad recipes to follow, but it's also a really good source of inspiration if you've got some salad leaves at home and want to make something with whatever you've got in the fridge. Particular salad recipes that I'm looking forward to making from the book are hot smoked salmon, edamame and cucumber with a wasabi cream dressing; iceberg wedge with blue cheese and bacon (which I think will be even better if I griddle the iceberg wedge); southern salad with root beer brisket; and pan fried bananas with rum butterscotch.

Today though it was Harry's Squash salad with pomegranate and prosciutto that really caught my eye. I didn't follow the recipe as it was, so here's what I did, and to see Harry's version get her book here.

Serves 2

1 butternut squash
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp nigella seeds
100g prosciutto (I used pata negra iberica, which is pricey buy truly wonderful)
1 avocado
Juice of 1 lemon
1-2 tbsp olive oil
Handful of lamb's lettuce - you can use the Florette duo of lamb's lettuce and wild rocket
1 tbsp capers
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Peel the butternut squash and chop into 1.5cm chunks. Toss is the olive oil and sprinkle with nigella seeds and a little salt. Lay the chunks of butternut squash in one layer on a baking tray and roast for around 30 minutes, turning once during cooking.

Puree the avocado, lemon juice and olive oil in with the magi mix or in the blender, until a smooth paste. Swipe some of the avocado on the plate, and top with the washed lamb's lettuce. Put the butternut squash chunks on the plate and add curls of the prosciutto. Sprinkle with capers.

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LONDON PRODUCE SHOW

Last week saw the launch of a new event in London - The London Produce Show set up home in the Grosvenor House Hotel for 3 days, filled with fruit and vegetable producers from all over the world. The lovely ladies organising the event invited me down, via amazing boxes of fruit and veggies that arrived at my house, to the opening cocktail evening and the show the following day.

The first I knew about the show was when Liz got in touch via Twitter to ask if I'd like to come and if yes, what my postal address was. This was followed by a box waiting on my doorstep, that contained a bottle of rum, a cocktail shaker, dragon fruit, grapefruit, limes, mint and lychees. I made a dragon fruit and lychee mojito, which was just like a super healthy fresh fruit juice (with added rum!)

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SIMPLE SUMMER SALAD

This is a really quick and straightforward salad that I made for dinner a few nights ago. It was so well received on social media (and at home!) that I wanted to share the recipe for it here. Other than making some mayo, it's really just a case of boiling the veg - all of which can be done in the same pan. Mayonnaise might seem like it's going to be complicated to make, but honestly, once you've made it once and realised how easy it is, you'll make it over and over again. I've posted a recipe for mayo here before, but actually make it slightly differently when I'm using it as a dressing rather than a dip, so the recipe below is adjusted for this. 

Makes enough for 2 people as a main course, or 4 if served as a side

300g new potatoes, scrubbed and cut into chunks the same size as the smallest potato
125g asparagus
250g frozen peas
1 or 2 avocados
1 tbsp nonpareille capers
1 free-range egg yolk
1 heaped tsp English mustard
Squeeze of lemon juice
1 tsp cider vinegar
40ml rapeseed oil
40ml sunflower oil
Zest of 1 lemon
Pepper

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CHARLOTTE'S W4 - A NEW FAVOURITE

It's not often that I'm blown away by a restaurant, as in really, truly, happily shocked at the whole experience. But that's exactly what happened on Sunday evening when we decided on a very last minute trip to Charlotte's restaurant on Turnham Green terrace. I hadn't been before, but it's been on my radar for a while - I do all my food shopping along Turnham Green terrace (apart from a trip round the corner to Wyndham House butchers) and so I've seen Charlotte's a few times when I've walked past. I've followed them on Twitter for a while and always been intrigued, but have also always felt I need to go more central to find London's really good restaurants - how wrong I was!

We called Charlotte's at 8.45pm on Sunday to see if they could squeeze us in, and were told of course they could, despite normally taking last orders at 9pm, they would wait for us to get there (from Hammersmith). We arrived just after 9 and were greeted by THE friendliest, most helpful waiters and waitresses I've ever come across. They showed us to a table for 2 at the back of the restaurant, under the huge glass skylight that let in the last of the weekend's sunshine. We settled down with the menu, and ordered a "New girlfriend" cocktail for me, which was a delicious combo of Simpsmith vodka, elderflower cordial, rhubarb puree and pink grapefruit, that was actually very similar to the rhubarb and elderflower cocktail I'd served the night before at my pop up! The boy tucked in to a tangy Somerset-made wheat beer, which was really flavoursome but still had that more delicate flavour that comes from wheat beer.

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MAY & JUNE A LITTLE LUSCIOUSNESS POP UPS!

I've got some more pop up dates in the diary! And tickets are still available for both.

I had a hugely successful pop up last Saturday, that my guests loved. It was such a fun evening, and I think (hope) that every went home with full tummies and smiles on their faces after a four course feast of seasonal produce (and lots of wine!). This is a little snapshot of the evening at my house:

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LUNCH AT CHOP'D

Quite a few years ago I was in the Canary Wharf shopping centre, shooting a commercial for O2, and one of the assistants went to get our lunch. She came back with boxes full of fresh, locally sourced goodies from a place called Chop'd and I've never forgotten it. It was such a novel concept to be able to choose your own ingredients and create such a brilliant salad for lunch.

Fast forward about 8 years, and Chop'd now have 9 stores across Central London. I was invited to try a few of their current salad combos for myself and popped into the store in Selfridges to see what's changed since my last visit.

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WEEKEND WONDERS - SALMON and LENTIL SALAD / POPPY BREAD / HONEY WALNUT CHEESE

We're about to have our house refurbished (floors, carpets, bathrooms, kitchen - yey! etc), and have to move out to do so, so spent the whole weekend packing, boxing things up, trying to work out what should go to recycling, and getting the house as empty as possible (again, I'm less than helpful with a broken hand, but I did try!)

Lifting might not be my forte for another few weeks, but I am now able to whip up a few basics in the kitchen as the strength of my thumb/finger grip is getting better. I therefore decided to do my part to help with the weekend move by keeping everyone well fed. The move also forced me to empty the freezer, which is what inspired the first dish I cooked, as I found half a side of salmon in the freezer which I'd got when it was on special offer at Ocado.

It still feels like summer to me, so I made a huge, healthy salad to keep everyone going on Saturday.

LENTIL AND BAKED VERDE SALMON SALAD

Makes enough for 6-8 people

Salmon:

1 half side of Scottish salmon

2 lemons

Handful basil leaves

Tablespoon of capers

Couple of anchovy fillets

Olive oil

Salad:

300g puy lentils

1 cube vegetable stock

1 tsp garlic granules

Basil stalks

3 carrots

2 spring onions

Handful of tomatoes

1 cucumber

Basil

Salt and pepper

Dressing:

1 part lemon juice

2 parts olive oil

Large pinch sea salt

1 crushed clove of garlic

I actually made this in 2 parts - I cooked the salmon on Friday evening and cut off a fillet each for me and the boy, which we had warm with green beans, new potatoes and homemade hollandaise sauce. Then on Saturday I made this salad.

To cook the salmon, preheat the oven to 220C (200C fan).

Slice 2 lemons thinly to create discs. Put the lemon discs onto some tin foil on a baking tray. Sprinkle the capers over the lemons, and add the basil and anchovy fillets. Drizzle with oil and a good grind of pepper. Place the side of salmon skin side up on top of the sliced lemons. Rub the salmon fillet on both sides with olive oil and another good grind of pepper. Put the salmon in the oven and cook for 10-12 minutes (I did ours for just over 10 minutes and it was perfect). Gently peel off the skin when you take the fish out of the oven.

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FENG SUSHI DELIVERY

As you may know, if you read my Tresco holidays post, I've broken 2 bones in my hand. This makes cooking particularly difficult at the moment, as I can't even hold or grip anything in that hand, so I'm really struggling in the kitchen! On top of this, I've barely been home recently as after our holiday, we went straight to Boomtown festival for a week, and then on to my little brother's incredible wedding. So when we got back home to London late yesterday evening, the last thing I felt like doing was fighting vegetables with a knife and no usable left hand! So we chose delivery instead. I've ordered a few deliveries recently, due to the one-handedness, but this was the best by far. I found Feng Sushi via hungryhouse, a website that locates your local food delivery companies. I'm always a little hesitant about ordering sushi for delivery as you can't guarantee the freshness that is essential for good sushi, but I read lots of good reviews and found out that they only use line caught tuna and sustainably sourced fish, and I really wanted fresh, raw, healthy food, so decided to go for it anyway.

We ordered at about 7pm, and our food was with us by 7.50, which is no mean feat, considering that Feng Sushi is about 4 miles from our house!

As usual I went completely over the top with the amount of food I ordered for 2 of us, but it was all so yummy we managed to eat most of it anyway!

I ordered a miso soup, which was just as miso should be; the "heavenly salmon spring roll" starter, that was a cooked salmon spring roll, which was nice but a little greasy and therefore not really what I wanted; an x ray salad, made up of peppers, edamame beans, pomegranate seeds, avocado and poppy seed, that was a big bowl of healthy freshness; the deluxe mixed sashimi selection of hand dived scallops salmon, tuna, yellow tail with kimchee, mackerel and MSC ikura (roe);

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FRESH SALSA VERDE

Well made salsa verde is one of my favorite things. It is great with white fish, such as coley and pollack, and with oilier fish like mackerel and sardines. It also really compliments cooked and cold meats, and is fab with roast chicken, slow roast pork belly, barbecued lamb or Spanish hams. It is equally as good tossed through buttery pasta for an easy mid-week supper. Or just a dip with some nice homemade bread.

Make a lot of it, as you will want to put it on everything you eat (if you're anything like me!), and as long as it is covered with a thin layer of oil in an airtight jar it will last for a couple of weeks in the fridge - not that it ever lasts that long in my house!

1 large bunch of parsley
1 large bunch of basil
Either 1 bunch of tarragon, 1 bunch of corainder, 1 bunch of mint or 1 bunch of spinach
Handful of capers and a bit of their juice
1 tin of anchovies
1 clove of garlic
2 spring onions
Olive oil
1 lemon, juice and zest

Roughly chop the parsley and basil. Depending on what you will serve your salsa with you can also add a bit of tarragon or coriander (great with chicken), mint leaves (for lamb) or spinach (for serving with white fish). It's up to you what variety of flavour combination to go for. 

Next chop the semi drained capers, spring onions and anchovies. Add this to the herbs and blitz for 2 seconds in a food processor with one crushed clove of garlic. When blitzing, try not to over blitz the salsa as it will become a bit slimey if it's chopped too much. Add a glug of good olive oil and the oil from the tin of anchovies, the juice and zest of a lemon and some black pepper. Blitz for ten seconds and transfer to an air-tight jar, cover with a thin layer of olive oil and it's ready for whenever you want it!

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CRAB & HOMEMADE MAYONNAISE

This recipe isn't really for crab - I bought the crab already picked from the fishmongers at our local farmers market. But crab is in season now and any excuse to eat it is good with me.

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BEST BREAKFASTS...

'Breakfast is the most important meal of the day', we're often told. And although I rarely wake up hungry, once I've got ready for the day I am ready for my first meal of the day. Breakfast during the week involves a big bowl of tropical fruit and a black coffee. Not great, I know! But the weekends are when I can really indulge on breakfast, and make something special, and healthy. Though there's not really much cooking involved with these recipes. We normally end up having a late breakfast/brunch and one more main meal on weekend days, which allows us to pig out a little, whilst not overdoing it completely!!

My favorite weekend breakfasts vary, depending on how much or little sleep I've had the night before, but they generally include one of 3 or 4 ingredients - berries, fish, avocado and sweetcorn. Not necessarily all together! Here are some of my favorites.

TUNA, EGG, AVOCADO

This is best if you've had a night out and a long lie-in, as I don't think even I could eat a tuna steak before 11am - so think of this one as more of a brunch! It's a big smack of protein to get you right and ready for the day.

For 2.

2 responsibly sourced tuna steaks
2 free-range eggs
1 avocado
Pinch dried chilli flakes
Sea salt
Lemon juice
2 slices of rye bread
Olive oil

Put a small pan of water on to boil. Once boiling add the eggs, and cook for 5 minutes.

Heat a small amount of oil on a medium to high heat in a frying pan. Once hot, add your tuna steaks and cook for 90 seconds on each side. Remove from the pan, and put to one side.

Mash the avocado, chilli flakes and sea salt together with a squeeze of lemon juice. Smear onto the toasted slices of rye bread, and serve alongside your halved egg, and seared tuna steak. Drizzle with a little olive oil to finish.


BACON with AVOCADO and SWEETCORN SALSA

For 2.

6 rashers free-range bacon
1 small tin of sweetcorn, no added sugar and salt
1 avocado
1/2 red onion
1 red chilli
Lime juice

Heat a large frying pan. Add the bacon and put another pan on top, to flatten it out and make it really crispy. Fry over a high heat for a couple of minutes. Lift the top pan off, turn the bacon over, replace the pan and continue to fry for a couple more minutes, until crispy and cooked.

In the meantime, make the salsa. Chop the avocado and red onion into cm chunks. Finely slice the red chilli. Mix together with the sweetcorn, avocado, onion and lime juice.

Serve the bacon piled high with salsa.

FROZEN BERRY YOGHURT BOWLS

This takes about a minute to prepare, but once ready, tastes like heaven and you can actually feel the good it's doing you.

For 1.

200ml natural probiotic yoghurt
100g frozen berries
Teaspoon of manuka honey
Handful chopped basil and mint

Pour your yoghurt into a bowl, top with berries, honey and chopped herbs. The frozen crunch of the berries is particularly delicious on a lovely sunny morning. Tuck in, and feel better about the day!

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WEEKEND WONDERS - DUCK SALAD / STICKY CHICKEN THIGHS / CAKE

One of my favorite things to do on lazy, quiet weekends is to make a den/nest out of as many duvets and quilts as I get my hands on, in front of the fire, and then serve picnics of delicious food to the members of the nest! Most of this weekend was just me and the boy - perfect - and I cooked up lots of yummy treats for us. Here are just some of them.

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BEST SALAD EVER

Refreshing yet rich, this salad is SO good, and takes 2 minutes to make. It's great on its own for lunch, or with seared steak.

For 2 people

1 bag of watercress

2 cooked beetroot, chopped

1 avocado, chopped

50g roquefort cheese

Pinch of sunflower seeds

Lime juice

Olive oil

Wash and chop a bag of watercress. Add 2 chopped cooked beetroot, 1 chopped avocado and little nuggets of Roquefort cheese. Mix together with some sunflower seeds, drizzle with lime juice and olive oil, add salt and pepper... and enjoy!!!

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SUMMER TUNA NICOISE SALAD

This is my version of a salad nicoise, without some of the traditional ingredients but with others added. You need to cook everything at the same time - the cooked parts of the salad should be served warm, so don't worry if certain elements are done before others.

Serves 4

10-12 baby new potatoes
1 pack of asparagus
4 large free range eggs
2 tuna steaks
Olive oil
1 pack of green beans, ends chopped off
1 bag of salad leaves (lamb's lettuce is great with this)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp grainy mustard

Start by boiling a handful of baby new potatoes.

Whilst these are boiling, trim and grill some asparagus for 4 minutes or until they are just going soft.

Get another pan of water on the boil and when boiling, put the eggs in for 5 minutes 30 seconds.

Put a lightly oiled frying pan on a medium heat, and fry the tuna steaks for 1 minute on each side. Remove the steak from the heat and leave to rest for 3-4 minutes.

When the potatoes are nearly cooked add the trimmed green beans to the water, boil for 2 mins and then drain.

Mix salad leaves with the potatoes and green beans and cover with a dressing made from 2 parts olive oil, 1 part lemon, 1 crushed garlic clove, 1 teaspoon of grainy mustard and salt and pepper. Cover a large plate with this mixture.

Lay your grilled asparagus on top of the salad mixture, and the anchovies on top of them.

Peel the boiled eggs, cut in half and place on top of the salad. Then take your tuna steak and cut into slices and lay over the salad. 

Serve with crusty bread and a bottle of white wine, perfect for a sunny summer evening.

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