Mushroom, pine nut and spinach pie

Serves three hungry people or four polite people

3 big flat mushrooms, torn into chunks
2 big handfuls of spinach (about a colander full)
25g dried porcini muchrooms, rehydrated
Liquor from rehydrating the mushrooms
1 tbs pine nuts
25g plain flour
25g butter
500ml milk
1 pack ready rolled puff pastry
1 shallot, finely sliced
small amount of olive oil and butter (to fry the mushooms in)
1 clove garlic, peeled and bruised

Boil some water and pour over the spinach. Squeeze out the excess water, chop roughly and set aside.
Heat the oil and butter in a pan and fry the garlic until golden brown. Discard the garlic and add the shallots. Cook on a medium heat for five minutes. Add the ripped up mushrooms and cook for another five minutes.
Meanwhile, pour the mushroom liquor in a small pan and simmer to reduce to about a third of its original volume. Set aside.
Make a roux with the 25g each of butter and flour. Add the reduced mushroom liquor, stirring constantly. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly to make a smooth sauce.
Place all the mushrooms, spinach and pine nuts in an oven dish. Stir in the sauce and mix well, then cover with the pastry, make a few holes in the top and bake in a pre-heated oven (180C) for half an hour or until golden brown.

Serve with seasonal greens (such as steamed local asparagus, as in the picture) and a glass of Pinot Grigio.

If you have some pastry left over, why not make some cheese straws with a bit of parmesan, paprika and thyme?

Chicory and rocket salad

A summery, lightly piquant salad. Serves two as a side dish.

2 heads of chicory
Handful of rocket
1tbs capers
half a red onion, very thinly sliced

For the dressing:
1 tbs olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
2 semi-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
1tbs fresh parsley, chopped

Separate the chicory leaves and arrange in a bowl with the other main ingredients.
Mix the dressing ingredients together well, and pour over the salad.

Spaghetti with spinach and pine nuts

A quick evening supper for two.

160g spaghetti
two big handfuls of spinach
2tbs pine nuts
25g unsalted butter
25g plain flour
about 250ml milk
1 clove garlic, peeled and bruised
Maldon sea salt and white pepper to taste
Freshly grated parmesan, to serve

Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan over a medium heat. Toss for a few minutes until they start to colour. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Wilt the spinach by pouring just-boiled water over the leaves. Set aside.
In a pan over a medium heat, melt the butter with the garlic clove. Discard the garlic and add the flour. Stir constantly to make a roux, then gradually add the milk. Cook, stirring, for ten minutes or so until the sauce is a smooth creamy consistency. Remove from the heat, add the spinach and season to taste.
Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti according to pack instructions (ideally, get bronze-die spaghetti, which has a rougher texture and will hold the sauce better).
Add the spaghetti to the spinach sauce, mix well, then serve into warmed pasta bowls.
Top with the toasted pine nuts and parmesan.

Mushroom and artichoke salad

This is a quick and easy weekday supper. Serves two.

Three big handfuls of seasonal salad leaves
A big handful of chestnut or similar mushrooms, quartered
Big dash of soy sauce
75g (drained) artichoke heart antipasto
sprinkle of mixed seeds
Lug of olive oil or 10g unsalted butter

For the dressing:
Juice of half a lemon
1 tsp green pesto, or sprig of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
1 tbs olive oil

Splash the soy sauce over the chopped mushrooms. Mix well to coat the mushrooms and leave to stand for several minutes. Meanwhile, heat a heavy-bottomed frying pan, add the mixed seeds and toast them gently until they're just starting to pop. Don't let them burn. Transfer them to a bowl and set aside.
Add the olive oil or butter to the frying pan and let it get to cooking temperature. Add the chopped mushrooms and cook them for about ten minutes, stirring frequently.
Meanwhile, make the dressing - put all the dressing ingredients in a lidded jar or other suitable container and shake well.
Place the salad leaves in a bowl, lay the artichoke hearts on top, then the cooked mushrooms. Drizzle the dressing over the top and sprinkle the toasted seeds.

Optional extras:
If you like, you can add some parmesan shavings; or half a finely sliced red onion, which has been left to marinate with a little sugar and splash of balsamic vinegar beforehand.

Waterzooi

Recently in Bruges we tried the famous Belgian fish (or chicken) stew, washed down with Bruges Zot, the great local beer. The fish version can be made with any combination of available white fish, mussels, shrimp and eels. Here's my version:

Serves two

Ingredients

300g fish fillets, prepared and cut into large chunks
8 small waxy potatoes, scrubbed
100 ml cream
550 ml vegetable stock
15g butter
small handful of flour
1 leek, sliced finely
celery, cut into julienne
carrot, cut into julienne
1 white onion, finely sliced
1 handful of fresh tarragon and flat leaf parsley
Juice of half a lemon
salt and white pepper to taste

Method

Make the vegetable stock and leave to cool (I'll post a recipe for vegetable stock sometime - if you're stuck, use a good quality bought stock)
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the potatoes for 15 minutes or until tender. Drain and set aside.
Clean the pan, put in the butter and flour and stir constantly over a medium heat to make a roux. Gradually add a little of the stock, stirring to make the basis of the sauce. It should start to thicken after a few minutes. Add the vegetables (not the potatoes) and lemon juice, mix well, then add the rest of the stock.
Simmer for ten minutes then add the potatoes and fish. Cook covered for just a few minutes until the fish is just done, stirring gently so as not to break up the fish too much.
Using a draining spoon, arrange the fish chunks and potatoes in warm bowls.
Add the herbs and cream to the remaining sauce and vegetables, stir well, then pour over the fish and potatoes.

If you're using mussels, cook them separately in a pan, covered, with a splash of white wine (or Belgian beer) for a couple of minutes, shaking the pan. Discard any that don't open. Set them and their cooking liquor aside and add them to the main dish near the end, when you arrange the fish in the bowls.

Leek and potato cheese bake

This is a winter warmer with that classic combo of potato and leek. Serves two (hungry) or three (polite) people

2 medium sized leeks

400g new potatoes

150g hard goat’s cheese, grated

250ml single cream

1tbs English mustard

white pepper

sea salt to taste

10g butter

1 clove garlic peeled and bruised

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Wash and trim the leeks, not taking off too much of the green. Carefully remove the outer leaves by slicing down just one side, so they’ll open out flat. You want them to be a bit like lasagne sheets for this. With the inner parts of the leek, just slice these finely.

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and par boil the potatoes. When they’re done, lift them out with a draining spoon and set aside. Blanche the opened-out leek leaves for a couple of minutes and set aside.

Cut the potatoes into 4mm thick slices.

Melt the butter in a clean pan with the garlic clove. Add the chopped leeks and cook, stirring until translucent but not starting to colour. Remove the garlic, and add the single cream and mustard. Cover and bring to a simmer, then take off the heat and add most of the grated goat’s cheese. Stir well.

Layer the ingredients in a greased oven dish, alternating potatoes, creamy leek mixture and leek sheets. Finish off with the remainder of the cream and the reserved grated cheese. Bake in the oven for half an hour and serve with seasonal veg or salad!

Venetian bigoli with squid

On holiday in Venice I had the chance to try out my (very bad) Italian buying at the Rialto fish market - there was so much to choose from; huge John Dory, tiny crabs, gamberi (prawns), perch, bright silver sardines - but here's how I cooked the squid I bought:

Serves two

300g medium-sized squid, cleaned and cut into big rings, tentacles left whole
150g Venetian bigoli (long tube-like pasta, a bit like hollow spaghetti)
1 medium or 2 small shallots, finely sliced
2 small plum tomatoes, finely sliced
olive oil
15g unsalted butter
sea salt and black pepper to taste

Bring a big pot of salted water to the boil, add some olive oil and cook the pasta according to pack instructions. Meanwhile, in a frying pan, heat the butter and lug of olive oil. Add the shallots and cook until just starting to colour. Add the squid and tomatoes and turn up the heat. Cook until the squid is just done (this will only take a couple of minutes - don't overcook). Drain the pasta, then add the squid, shallots and cooking liquor to the pasta. Mix well and serve with seasonal salad, such as rocket or radicchio.

Tom's pies, with mash and onion gravy

I'm featuring someone else's food for a change - down at Chagstock Festival this weekend we ate some fantastic pies from www.toms-pies.co.uk, who had a stand there. They're made from locally sourced ingredients and are truly delicious, being cased in some of the best shortcrust pastry I've eaten.
We took some home with us to enjoy when we got back, (filling: mushroom and spinach with truffle oil).

I served them with mash, onion gravy and steamed curly kale.

Here's my previous recipe for mash and gravy. You can steam the kale over the potatoes for a couple of minutes as they finish cooking.

So if you're in Devon, check them out!

Quick and easy salsa cruda

It's summer, and I love hot, slightly sweet and fruity stuff in this weather. This quick and easy salsa cruda ('raw sauce') takes only a few minutes to make - although tastes better the longer you leave it.

Three tomatoes, chopped roughly
Half a sweet pointed red pepper, chopped roughly
Half a red onion, chopped roughly
1 red chilli, de-seeded and veined, finely chopped
splash of orange juice
1 tbs tomato pureé
1 tsp raw cane sugar
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp oregano

Put all the ingredients in a blender, and pulse a few times. You don't want pureé, so not too much. If you've got some handy, add some fresh coriander ripped up both before and after pulsing in the blender. It'll taste better after a couple of hours in the fridge (get it out half an hour before serving though). Will keep ok for a few days. It's lovely spooned over some pan-fried fillets of any firm, meaty fish.

Fish en papillote with tray roasted vegetables

Another great recipe for river cobbler, although it'd work with any firm meaty fish fillets. The fish cooks in the bag, and when you open it at the table you get all the gorgeous vapours released. Divine!

2 fish fillets
lemon slices
2 sprigs of rosemary and/or thyme
Sea salt and white pepper to taste

For the vegetables:
1 small sweet red pepper, torn up into small chunks
1 courgette, medium-sliced diagonally
1 small red onion, medium-sliced
A handful of baby plum tomatoes
lemon slices
two garlic cloves, bruised
two sprigs of rosemary and/or thyme
olive oil

First, preheat your oven to 185C. Put all the vegetable ingredients into a shallow baking tray, mixing everything together and laying the lemon slices on top. Roast for about 45 minutes.
For each fish, cut out one 30cm square of foil, and one of greaseproof paper. Rub a little oil on the greaseproof paper so it doesn't burn, and to help it stay in place with the foil. The foil will form the inside layer of your parcel. Place a fillet, sprigs of herbs and a couple of lemon slices on one half of the foil square. Fold over, and start at one end, folding over to make a seal all the way round. Repeat to make a tighter seal and press down all round with a rolling pin or similar.
Put the parcels on a baking sheet and into the oven with the vegetables for fifteen minutes (turn the oven up to 200C and move the vegetables down to the bottom of the oven if necessary).
Serve on warm plates with cold white wine