Yesterday was a record breaking hot day – and this was lunch.  I made some olive bread and put together a Greek-Style Tomato Salad, too, but I’ll post them next week.  I think I must be thinking ‘Greece’ because the news is so full of scenes from Athens.  Tough times ahead for a lovely country whichever way they vote, I fear.

I love Greek food, but then I love the herbs that predominate in it – oregano, mint, dill, bay leaves, Greek basil, thyme and fennel are the ones that spring to mind.  Being a home cook, I have to use what I can buy.  My oregano is not the evocative rigani, as far as I’m aware.  It’s Bart’s.  Greek basil, I can get.  The bitter salad leaves don’t taste quite as bitter as they do under Greek sunshine, but I probably would balk at so many unnecessary air-miles just to feed my children lunch.

Nothing for it, a visit to Greece is in my future.

In the meantime, we’re coming to the end of the British asparagus season.  I have treated my early spears with utmost respect and I’m now putting them in tarts, wrapping in pancakes and making them into salads.

I picked up a couple of bundles – which was a little over 500g.  There’s a point on an asparagus spear where it’ll snap naturally.  That place marks the end of the fibrous bit and the start of the tender, delicious bit.

(Incidentally, I read something the other day about the English style of eating – and cooking – asparagus.  Apparently, we steam the whole asparagus spear and then use the fibrous bit to hold.  I will confess to eating with my fingers on occasion, but I’m afraid I eat the whole thing and would be irritated to get fibrous bits between my teeth.  Plus, I am inclined to lick my fingers when no-one is looking rather than look for a finger bowl.  I would be more disappointed in myself if the writer didn’t labour under the assumption all households own an asparagus steamer but I have never lived in a household which possessed one.)

If you are aesthetically fastidious, you can neaten up the ends with a knife.  I do that.  Sorry!

My asparagus I would classify as ‘medium’.  What chefs call sprue asparagus (that’s the spindly ones) I’d use for something else.  Fatter asparagus will need peeling.  Just the lower part to make sure what you have in your salad is tender.

Whatever you are left with – pop the snapped off ends and any trimmings in a freezer bag.  That’s asparagus soup in the making.

The asparagus spears I give a rinse under running water and fill a wide saucepan with about 5cm/2″ of water.  Just enough to cover the asparagus in a single layer.  Ish.  You can be a little relaxed about it.

When the water is boiling add a little sea salt.  I season lightly, partly because I’m going to save the asparagus water for soup and that will intensify the salt content and partly because these spears are going in a flavourful dressing.

Simmer for 3 minutes.  It’s almost more of a blanch.  Just tender.  Then drain, reserving the water if you want to make soup.  I put mine in a freezer bag for another day.  Usually, I lay the spears on kitchen paper to dry .. but I’d run out.

And the dressing …

Finely zest one lemon.  Put it and the juice into a bowl.

100ml/3½fl oz of cold-pressed Greek olive oil.  Use one you like the flavour of.

1 teaspoon of dried oregano.

Salt and pepper.  This is such a subjective thing, but I used 2 scant teaspoons of coarse sea salt and crushed 1 teaspoon of black peppercorns in a pestle and mortar.

Give the drained – and still perky – asparagus a toss in the dressing.

Finely chop three shallots and add those.

A small bunch of flat-leaf parsley.  I had to use a small supermarket pot and I used it all.  Roughly chop.  It’s part of the salad so I like to see bits of parsley.

Give everything a light toss and leave it at room temperature for all the flavours to get acquainted.  If you want to leave it longer than an hour, pop into the fridge and bring it back to room temperature before serving.

Eat.

Greek-Style Asparagus Salad

Serves 4-6 as a side.

• 2 bundles of medium asparagus spears (about 500g/1lb)
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 100ml/3½fl oz of cold-pressed Greek olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of dried oregano
• 3 shallots, finely chopped
• small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon of roughly crushed black peppercorns
• Sea-salt, to taste

Snap off the tough ends of the asparagus spears and freeze to use in stocks or soup.  Rinse the spears under running water.

Bring 5cm/2½” of water to a boil in a wide saucepan.  Season lightly and add the spears.  Simmer for 3 minutes, or until the asparagus spears are just tender.  Drain and spread on kitchen towel to dry.

Place the zest and juice of the lemon in a bowl.  Add 100ml/3½fl oz of cold-pressed Greek olive oil, 1 teaspoon of dried oregano and season with salt and crushed black peppercorns.

Lightly toss the asparagus spears in the dressing.

Add the finely chopped shallots and the roughly chopped parsley.  Give everything a final toss and serve at room temperature.

Eat.

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The parent dish of this salad is peperonata.  It must be sixty plus years since Elizabeth David’s ‘A Book of Mediterranean Food’ was published in the UK and brought it to our notice.   I do think we’ve got over the grief of not being a misplaced mediterranean country now, but peperonata remains a lovely part of my summer.  It’s that silky mix of sweet peppers, onions and tomatoes. Sometimes with garlic, basil and, I read the other day, potatoes …

Really lovely – and I make it and use it in all kinds of sacrilegious non antipasto situations.

Here, the same ingredients become something different.  Rather than stew everything together over a low heat for 40 minutes or so, I’m roasting my peppers and onions.  It’s super easy to make and, like the French-Style Potato Salad, sits perfectly happily in the sunshine.

If you want to make it ahead, it will only taste better if it’s been allowed to sit in the fridge overnight.  It makes a good side dish for a barbecue or buffet and the leftovers are fantastic in a wrap.  (Try it with hummus.)  I love it in a baked potato with or without cheddar.  And, if I’m still trying convince you to give it a try, it freezes brilliantly.

It begins with lots of good things.  This is the recipe in which to make use of the bowls of small peppers you find at the market or bagged together at the supermarket.  If they are particularly small, simply add an extra pepper or two in.  As far as colour goes, I like a sunshine mix but it really doesn’t matter.

Cut off the top and the bottom.  Then run your knife along the remaining pepper strip, removing the seeds and the pith.

And slice into 5mm strips.

If presentation were my main concern I’d probably use the ends for something else, but it isn’t – and I don’t.  Slice them up.

A bowl of summer sunshine.  I’ve used 6 medium sized peppers here.

Then, top and tail the onions.  Peel and slice into 5mm crescents.  1 onion for every 3 peppers.  Roughly.  It really isn’t an exact science.

Don’t be horrified at how much garlic is going in this.  Once it has been roasted it’s sweet and mellow.

2 whole bulbs of garlic went into my salad.  1 bulb for every onion.  Roughly.  Peel and cut in half if the clove is particularly enormous.

Place everything into a big bowl.  Add 4 teaspoons of dried oregano, 2 teaspoons of ground cumin, a grinding of peppercorns and a drizzle of olive oil.

Then spread out onto baking trays.  You want the vegetables to roast rather than steam, so don’t overfill the baking trays.  Cook at 200ºC/Gas Mark 6/400ºF for 15 minutes.  (Aga Roasting Oven:  fourth set of runners for 10 minutes.)

Meanwhile, prepare the tomatoes.  6 tomatoes.  De-seed.

And cut into cubes.

When the initial cooking time is up, add the chopped tomatoes.  Give everything a stir and return to the oven for a further 15 minutes.  (Aga: 10 minutes).

Squeeze the juice from a lemon.  (I used a microplane grater to remove the zest first.  You don’t need it for this, but it freezes.  I made ‘rock cakes’.)

Place all the roasted vegetables into a big bowl and add the juice of the lemon.  Give everything a stir and let it all cool.

Just before serving, roughly chop a large bunch of parsley and add that to the salad.  Basil is a nice alternative.

Eat.

Roasted Pepper Salad

Serves 8

• 6 medium-sized peppers in a mix of colours, de-seeded and sliced into 5mm strips
• 3 onions, peeled and sliced into 5mm crescents
• 2 bulbs of garlic, separated into cloves and peeled
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil
• 3 teaspoons of oregano
• 2 teaspoons of ground cumin
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 6 tomatoes, de-seeded and cut into cubes
• juice of 1 lemon
• large bunch of chopped parsley

Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC/Gas Mark 6/400ºF.

Place the pepper strips, the onion crescents and the peeled garlic cloves into a big bowl.  Add the oregano, ground cumin, freshly ground black pepper and olive oil.  Mix everything together.

Lay everything out in a shallow layer on baking sheets and cook for 15 minutes.  (Aga:  Roasting Oven fourth set of runners – 10 minutes.)

Add the chopped tomatoes and give everything a stir.  Return to the oven and cook for a further 15 minutes.  (Aga:  Roasting Oven fourth set of runners – 10 minutes.)

Transfer everything into a bowl and add the juice of a lemon.  Allow the salad to cool.  Just before serving add a large bunch of roughly chopped parsley.  Stir.

Eat.

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I bought myself a present.  There is no justification for that other than I saw, I wanted .. and I bought.

I like to think I economised because I bought the smaller of the two sizes available which was cheaper, but it was probably a false economy because I now know I need the bigger one.  (We can pause here and discuss how irritating the sizing of bakeware is.  I’m happy to go metric or imperial but it would be really helpful if we’d make a decision …!)

Coincidentally, I also bought a bumper box of tomatoes at the market and immediately set about playing.

As a child, grilled tomatoes on toast was one of my favourite breakfasts – and my love for it made it just a short step to putting them on flaky puff pastry for lunch.  There was a short hiatus after an unfortunate .. incident whilst pregnant with Dominic.  Probably too much information to share on a foodie blog, b-but … tomatoes are quite acidic.  The Duchess of Cambridge and I have both experienced hyperemesis gravidarum.  I’ll let you google that.

I’m over it now.

Cut the tomatoes in half through the core.  If you cut the other way you’ll end up with half your tomatoes having a dot in the centre when you flip your  finished tart out.  It will taste exactly the same, but it won’t be as pretty.  And, yes, pretty matters.

For my 8″ tin, I used 9 medium sized tomatoes.

50ml of olive oil (that’s about 4 tablespoons).  Add 1 tablespoon of dried oregano.  Marjoram is also lovely.

Microplane 2 cloves of garlic (or chop finely) and add to the oil and dried oregano.  Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Lay the tomato halves cut side up on a baking sheet.  Then pour and dab the garlicky/herby/oil between the tomato halves.

Mine went into the Roasting Oven fourth set of runners for 1 hour until they were soft, slightly shrunk but not coloured.  In a conventional oven I would bake at 160ºC/325ºF/Gas Mark 3 for about an hour and half.  It will depend on how big your tomatoes are.

Lightly brush your tarte tatin dish with olive oil and arrange the tomato halves.  Make sure the cut side is facing upwards.  It’s the same principal as the pineapple upside-down-cake you probably made at school.

Squeeze them in closely.  Any gaps will spoil the effect.  Then set aside to cool.  That bit’s important.  If the tomatoes are warm when you add the puff pastry the butter will start to melt and you’ll have much less puff.

If you are using bought puff pastry – use an all-butter one.  You can  console yourself with the thought it has far less butter in it than if you use home-made ..

Roll out to something between 3mm and 5mm.  Cut around the rim of the tarte tatin tin.

While the tomatoes are chilling, place the pastry circle back into the fridge.  I use the base of a flan tin.  (Don’t waste any of the off-cuts, but don’t scrunch them up as you would shortcrust.  Fold the pieces on top of each other so you don’t interfere with all the layers and use it to make cheese straws.)

Now would be the time to increase the oven temperature to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas Mark 6.

Place the pastry circle on top of the cold tomatoes.  Carefully tuck the pastry down the sides so it hugs the tomatoes.

Mine went in to the Roasting Oven fourth set of runners for 20 minutes.

At 200ºC/400ºF/Gas Mark 6 it will also take 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.  Just loosen the edges if it has caught anywhere.

Place a cooling rack over the tarte tatin tin and flip it over.  I have a baking sheet underneath to catch any escaping juices.

Then allow it to cool.

It can be served warm or at room temperature.  Grind over some black pepper.  Decorate with basil leaves.

Eat.

Tomato Tarte Tatin

Serves 4

• 9 medium sized tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves, microplaned or chopped finely
• 1 tablespoon of dried oregano
• 50g/4 tablespoons of olive oil
• 250g home-made or all-butter puff pastry
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• To serve:  fresh basil leaves and a lightly dressed baby-leaf salad

Pre-heat the oven to 160ºC/325ºF/Gas Mark 3 and lightly grease an 8″ tarte tatin tin.

Cut the tomatoes in half through the core.  Lay them on a baking sheet, cut side facing upwards.

Add the microplaned garlic and the dried oregano to the olive oil.  Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Drizzle the mixture over the cut surface of the tomatoes.  Bake for about 1½ hours.  Aga:  Roasting Oven, fourth set of runners, for 1 hour.

Roll out the puff pastry to a 5mm thickness and cut around the rim of the tarte tatin dish.  Arrange the tomatoes, cut side facing upwards, in the tarte tatin tin.  Chill both the tomatoes and the pastry.

Increase the oven temperature to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas Mark 6.

Lay the pastry over the tomatoes and tuck the edges down the sides.  Bake for 20 minutes.

Allow to settle for 5 minutes before flipping over on to a cooling rack.

Serve warm or at room temperature with a grinding of black pepper, some basil leaves and a lightly dressed baby-leaf salad.

Eat.

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Fasolakia (Φασολακια) simply means ‘green bean’ in Greek – and this is a deliciously old fashioned Greek green bean casserole.  It doesn’t take much imagination to realise it’s a way of using up a summer glut but, truly, it’s so much more than the sum of its parts.

It’s one of those recipes where the origin is lost in the mists of time, but it’s something you find in tavernas all over Greece.

Sometimes there is potato, sometimes courgettes and even the occasional beef rib bone.  I rather like the beef rib bone – if you happen to have one around.  I prefer it without the courgette and, since I like  to freeze this down in batches, I don’t include potato.

Non negotiable are the green beans.

It’s too early for any beans to be harvested in my garden – and I suspect the plants are drowning since we’ve had so much rain this year.  I’m not holding out for a glut.  Fortunately, I happened upon a bargain.  (There’s a lot to be said for picking up your daughter from work!  I shall miss that when Liddy starts uni.)

The easiest way to deal with the topping and tailing is to slice through the bag.  Any bean evading my knife can be easily dealt with but it’s so less mind numbing than working through them individually.

I wanted to make a bumper batch of Fasolakia so I added some stringless Helda beans to my stash of bargain fine green beans.  It’s entirely in the spirit of the thing to use all and every type of bean.  Use whatever is the best value.  (Bet you can’t beat 10p for 280g!)

Fasolakia is the kind of thing you want to eat with a fork so cut the beans into bite sized pieces.

Chop your onions into small dice.

Cut the top off the onion.  Then cut in half leaving the root attached.  Peel the skin away.  If you want something to hold you can leave it attached.  Cut two horizontal cuts.

Then make lots of vertical ones.  Working towards the root, slice downwards to make dice.

Soften in olive oil – or groundnut oil – until soft and translucent.  Take your time.

While that’s happening, grate the carrot.  I use a chunky box grater.

Toast and grind some coriander seeds.

Put the seeds in a dry frying pan and place over a low heat.  Keep an eye on it as they can burn quickly.  You know when it’s ‘done’ by the smell.  If you’re cooking on an Aga – place your seeds in a frying pan and place in the Roasting Oven for 5 minutes.

Either way, transfer the warm seeds to a pestle and mortar and grind.

If I lived in Greece I’d use fresh tomatoes, but I don’t.   Out-of-season tomatoes seem to taste of nothing so I prefer to use tinned tomatoes.  I buy ‘whole’ tomatoes in preference to ‘chopped’.

If you think about it, it’s obvious the better quality tomatoes go into the ‘whole tomato’ tins and the less-than-perfect tomatoes end up in the ‘chopped’.  It’s not much effort to give it all a squeeze.  Clean hands are convenient and you don’t cut into the seed which is the most bitter part of a tomato.  A teaspoon of sugar per tin mimics the sweetness of sun ripened fresh tomatoes.

Garlic.  I grate mine on a microplane grater because I think it distributes the garlic more evenly through the dish.  If you don’t own a microplane grater – add it to your Birthday List – and bash and finely chop in the meantime.

Then, place all the vegetables and garlic in a nice big casserole dish.

Add some chilli flakes to the semi-ground coriander.  Grind.

Now, some ginger.  The easiest way to peel a knobbly lump of ginger is to use a teaspoon and scrape.  A coarse microplane grater is the best tool to reduce it to a desirable mush but a box grater also works well.

Everything goes into the casserole.

Add chicken or vegetable stock.

Chop lots of fresh parsley.

Add the softened onions and most of the parsley to the casserole.  Now, it’s a question of cooking long and slow.

Cover and simmer over a low heat for 1 hour.  Aga:  Place in the Simmering Oven.

Taste.  Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Now it the point at which it freezes wonderfully.

Feta is best bought ‘in brine’.  It means you can take what you need and store the rest in the fridge for another day.

Sprinkle the Fasolakia with a little chopped parsley and some crumbled feta cheese.

Fasolakia is even tastier the day after you make it; when all the flavours have become acquainted.  It’s even lovely served cold in pita bread.

Personally, I love it warm and served with lots of freshly baked crusty bread.  Try it as a side dish with barbecued lamb.  Just lovely.

Eat.

Fasolakia

Serves 4 with crusty bread (more with slow-cooked lamb)

• 500g/1lb green beans, cut into bite sized pieces
• 2 onions, diced
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil or ground nut oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, grated to a pulp
• 2 carrots, peeled and grated
• 1 x 400g tin of whole tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon of coriander seeds, toasted and ground
• Pinch of dried chilli flakes
• A chunky thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated to a mush
• 100ml/3 ½ fl oz chicken or vegetable stock
• Large bunch of freshly chopped parsley
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Soften the diced onions in oil until they are soft and translucent.

Place the beans, grated carrot, garlic, tomatoes, ginger, ground coriander, chilli flakes, ginger, stock, chopped parsley and the softened onions in a large casserole dish.  Mix everything together.  Cover and simmer gently for an hour.  (Aga:  Bring up to a boil and transfer to the Simmering Oven for an hour.)

Taste and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

To serve, sprinkle over some chopped parsley and some chunks of salty feta cheese.

Eat.

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French-Style potato salad as opposed to one that’s dressed in mayonnaise or soured cream.  I did play about with calling it ‘Herby Potato Salad’ because there are a lot of herbs, but the vinaigrette dressing swung it.  In my house, this is just called ‘Potato Salad’.  It’s my default setting for any summertime barbecue and I love it – not least because it’ll sit in the sunshine without coming to any harm.

You know how chefs say they go to the market and look for what’s fresh and their imaginations start buzzing with ideas of what they’ll create .. well, it wasn’t quite like that.  I went to the supermarket and there was a trolley full of reduced Jersey Royal potatoes .. and I immediately thought, ‘Good, potato salad’.

Does that count???  It’s certainly the way I cook.

Jersey Royals are usually expensive and have EU protected status.  The reason is not the type of potato but the growing conditions.  They’re been grown on the island of Jersey since 1880 and are planted on the steep south facing coastal slopes in well-drained and nutrient-rich soil.  Vraic, which is the dialect word for the locally collected seaweed, is used as a fertiliser and the steep slopes mean much of the crop has to be harvested by hand.

99% of the harvest ends up on the UK mainland, the rest the islanders eat themselves.  This late in their season they’re getting larger than the ones that appear in May.  Best are the ones with mud clinging to them – but I’m grateful for my bargain.

With a Jersey Royal it’s skin-on.  Always.  The skins are paper thin and all the nutrients are just beneath it.  I’m inclined to do that with all small waxy potatoes.  I’m going to sell it on the grounds of health, but I hate scraping potatoes.  Give them a good wash and, for preference, steam rather than boil.  Conventionally, it takes about 20 minutes.  Aga – bring to the boil in cold salted water.  Give it a couple of minutes on the boiling plate and then drain completely of water.  Replace the lid and pop into the simmering oven for 30 minutes.

You are looking for ‘tender at the point of a knife’.

Then cover the saucepan with a clean tea-towel, replace the lid and let it steam dry for a further five minutes.

Hopefully, they’re now dry and cool enough to handle.  Cut into bite sized pieces.  Smaller ones I cut in half, the larger potatoes into four.

Place them in a bowl and pour over a glug of white wine.  Most recipes that call for that will tell you to use what’s left in a bottle.  Who are these people?  Nigel and I would finish the bottle!  So, whenever I open a bottle, I take a little bit off the top and freeze it.  Useful for making a risotto, too, and probably better for us to consume a little less alcohol.  If you don’t drink alcohol, you could miss this stage out completely or use a little bit of chicken stock.

Give it all a stir and then cover with plastic wrap.  The potatoes will soak up the wine.

Meanwhile, make the vinaigrette.  It can be as simple or as complicated as you like.  Considering the quantity of fresh herbs I’m about to include, I keep it really simple.  One part good quality white wine vinegar with three parts good olive oil.  I do spend money on the ingredients for a dressing because they have nowhere to hide.  In this case I actually didn’t use olive oil but a cold pressed rapeseed oil.

Then, I added a blob of Dijon Mustard, salt and pepper.  Give everything a shake and taste.  Now’s the time to make any adjustments.  If you don’t use all of it in this potato salad it’s a lovely dressing on a green salad and will keep happily in the fridge for a few days.

The herbs are the stars of the salad.  Parsley – flat leaf or curly.  I can’t see that it matters.

Basil.

The easiest way to chop basil is to pile the basil leaves up and roll into a cigar.  Then chop with the sharp knife.  If you have any green sludge on your board it’s because your knife is too blunt and you are bruising the herbs rather than chopping them.

And that’s a chiffonade.

I served this potato salad with salmon which made dill an obvious choice.  In fact, any ‘soft’ herb is lovely and when my herb bed is really flourishing I have fun.

I like the tang of spring onions and chop both the white and green parts.  When Seb is home from uni I often omit them and use chives in their place.  Of course, in the interests of honesty, I should mention I get fed up with accommodating his preferences and will revert to spring onions when he’s been home a few weeks.  (You might like to remind yourself of my problem when making cottage pie.)  Finely chopped shallots are also lovely.

By now the potatoes will have sucked up the alcohol.  Add as much of the vinaigrette as you need to coat everything, but not so much as you have a pool of it at the bottom of the serving dish.  Then add the herbs and the spring onions.

If you want to keep this in the fridge, do bring it to room temperature again before you serve it.

Eat.

French-Style Potato Salad

Serves 8 generously

• 1.5kg/3lb waxy potatoes
• 50ml/2 fl oz white wine
• 50ml/2 fl oz white wine vinegar
• 150ml/6 fl oz good olive oil or cold pressed rapeseed oil
• 1 tsp Dijon Mustard
• 1 tsp of salt
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 8 spring onions, both the white and green parts, chopped
• 3 generous tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley
• 3 generous tablespoons of chopped basil
• 3 generous tablespoons of chopped fresh dill

Thoroughly scrub the potatoes to get rid of any dirt and steam until they are ‘tender at the point of a knife’.  Cover with a clean tea-towel, replace the lid, and allow to steam for 5-10 minutes longer.

Cut into bite sized pieces and place in a shallow bowl.  Add the white wine and give everything a gentle stir.  Cover with plastic wrap and allow the potato to absorb the wine.

Meanwhile, make the vinaigrette.  I like to use a parfait jar or empty jam jar.  It’s one part white wine vinegar to three parts oil if you like to do it by eye.  Otherwise, 50ml/2fl oz of white wine vinegar in the bottom of the jar.  Add 150ml/6 fl oz of good quality olive oil or cold pressed rapeseed oil.  Add 1 tsp of Dijon Mustard.  A teaspoon of sea salt and ½ teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper.  Replace the lid on your jar and give everything a shake.  Taste.  You can add more seasoning, more vinegar …

Chop your choice of soft herbs.  Parsley, basil and dill are easy to buy and are my default selection.

Remove the plastic wrap and add enough of the dressing to coat the potatoes.  Then the herbs.  3 generous tablespoons of each.  Give everything a gentle stir and serve at room temperature.

Eat.

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