Green Olive, Almond & Pomegranate Salad

I don't know about you, but for me it's round about this stage of winter that the blues really start to set in.  It's mid-winter and I've pretty much had enough of scraping the ice off the windscreen of my car every morning;  the joy and novelty of winter boots, coats, hats and scarves is wearing thin;  and if I see another root vegetable I'm going to scream!!

As you already know, if you stop by here on a regular basis, my meal of choice nine times out of ten will usually be a salad of some sort.  This of course can get a bit challenging in the middle of winter when so many of the ingredients we normally put into salads are out of season.

It's Secret Recipe Club week again, and this month I was assigned to Bewitching Kitchen, hosted by the lovely Sally.  Born and raised in Brazil, Sally's work as a biochemist has seen her live for a number of years in California and Paris, and currently in Manhatten.  Sally has a great sense of humour, which entertains us all at SRC on a regular basis, and that humour infuses the literally hundreds of posts which you will find on her blog.

Of course, I headed straight to the salad section of Sally's recipe index, and as soon as I saw "Green Olive, Walnut and Pomegranate Salad" I knew I had found my dish.  No seasonal ingredients required (well, there is pomegranate, but I always keep a stash of pomegranate seeds in the freezer, so no problem there), and sounded like a great combination of ingredients and textures.

I made only minimal changes to the recipe, to suit what I had on hand, and I was not disappointed.  I subbed in almonds for the walnuts, as that's what I had in the pantry, and I included the zest from the lemon that was juiced for the dressing.  This salad delivered on every level - brininess of the olives, crunch of the nuts and pomegranate seeds, little bit of sweet and sour from the pomegranate molasses, and citrus zing of lemon.

I loved this so much I made it twice within a few days.  The first time I served it in these lettuce cups - it was delicious to roll the salad up in the lettuce leaves, burrito-style - alongside slabs of fried haloumi cheese for a light lunch.  More recently this was a great accompaniment to some pan-seared monkfish.  This would also be great with roasted chicken.

Other dishes I found on Sally's blog which I can't wait to try are Pumpkin Shrimp Curry, a traditional Brazilian Shrimp Moqueca, and these amazing looking Black Pepper Cashews.

Interested to know a little bit more about Secret Recipe Club?  Then let me explain.  The club has over a hundred members, divided into four groups, and each month one member is assigned (in secret) to another member from their group.  That person then selects a recipe (or more) to make, photograph, and prepare a blog post - all in secret.  Then everyone in the group posts their recipe on the same day, and of course the secret is then out.  It's a always a thrill to find out who has posted something from your own blog, and is a great way to meet and discover some new blogs.   If you are a food blogger and interested in joining the Secret Recipe Club, be sure to check out the Join SRC page.

Green Olive, Almond & Pomegranate Salad Recipe
Adapted from this recipe
from Bewitching Kitchen
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

1/2 cup natural almonds
1/2 cup raw cashew nuts
1/2 cup pitted green olives, roughly chopped
seeds of 1/2 a pomegranate
1x green chilli, finely chopped
large handful flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
1x lemon, zest and juice
2x tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1x tablespoon pomegranate molasses
flaky sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Place almonds and cashews into a dry frying pan, and set over low heat.  Toast until golden brown.  Remove from heat, cool and chop roughly.

Place olives, pomegranate seeds, chilli, parsley and grated lemon zest in a bowl.  Add the chopped nuts, and mix all ingredients together well.

Drizzle over the lemon juice, olive oil, and pomegranate molasses.  Season with sea salt and black pepper.  Mix once again to combine everything well.  Taste and adjust seasoning to your liking.

If time permits, allow salad to stand for an hour or two for the flavours to fully blend and develop.

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did, and visit the links below to check out all the other great dishes my Secret Recipe Club friends made.

An InLinkz Link-up

Autumnal Farro, Fig & Blue Cheese Salad

Over the last few weeks, I've missed out on a bit of our culinary journey with Diana Henry over at I Heart Cooking Clubs, but I felt I couldn't miss the opportunity to join in this week as we bid our fond farewells to Diana.  She is definitely an inspirational cook and I have loved cooking from her culinary tomes in which I have invested - A Change of Appetite and Salt Sugar Smoke.  I love a cookbook which is as much a joy to sit down and read as it is to cook from, and I have certainly found that in both of these volumes.  Sitting down with one of Diana's cookbooks to have a read and find a little dinner inspiration is like sitting down with a good friend, and I know that I will continue to enjoy her company in my kitchen.

Right now my neighbour's fig tree is literally groaning under the weight of its ripening crop, and it's a constant vigil to get to the fruit at just the right time before the birds do.  Must be the spectacular summer that we've had in my part of the world this year, but the fruit seems to be bigger, fatter, sweeter and juicier than ever before, and I knew that my farewell dish to Diana would have to include this much coveted autumn treat.

Inspiration came from Diana's recipe in A Change of Appetite for her salad of farro, hazelnuts, grapes and figs.  I changed things up a little bit to use ingredients I had on hand, but I think the spirit of this dish remains the same.  I tweaked the dressing a bit using red wine vinegar instead of white balsamic vinegar, leaving out hazelnut oil because I didn't have any, and adding in a bit of pomegranate molasses because ... well, just because.  I swapped out red chicory and watercress in favour of baby kale leaves which I had on hand;  I used roasted almonds instead of hazelnuts, blue cheese instead of goat cheese, and plump golden raisins instead of grapes.  I also pan roasted the figs in honey before adding them to the salad.

This salad is the ultimate ode to autumn on a plate.  The nutty flavour and texture of the farro is the perfect foil to the soft, sweet figs, the tangy dressing, the crunch of the almonds, and the salty hits of the blue cheese.  This was easily satisfying enough for me to make a meal out of it all on its own, but would also make a great accompaniment to perhaps a roasted chicken or some great sausages.

A glass of shiraz or a great pinot on the side, and you have a meal made in heaven.  I hope you'll give it a try.

Autumnal Fig, Farro & Blue Cheese Salad Recipe
Adapted from recipe by Diana Henry
from A Change of Appetite
Serves 2 as a generous meal or 4 as a side dish
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

1x cup farro
juice of 1/2 lemon
extra virgin olive oil
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
baby kale leaves
generous handful roasted almonds
generous handful plump golden raisins, soaked in boiling water for 5 minutes
3-4 plump, fresh figs
1 tablespoon honey
50g blue cheese, crumbled

Dressing
3x tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1x tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Put farro in a saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil.  Reduce heat and simmer the farro until tender but still with a little bite - about 20 to 25 minutes.  Remove from heat, drain well and add lemon juice, 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, and season liberally with flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile make the dressing.  Place all ingredients in a small jar and shake vigorously until everything is well combined.  Taste and adjust flavourings to your taste.  Set aside.

Cut figs in half.  Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a small saute pan and add the tablespoon of honey.  Add the figs to the pan, cut side down, and allow the figs to soften and warm through in the pan.  Remove from pan, cool slightly, and cut each half in half again if figs are large.

Now that the farro has cooled, taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.  Add the kale leaves, almonds and plumped-up raisins to the farro, and toss to combine.

Arrange farro mixture on a serving platter, nestle fig pieces into the mixture, and strew nuggets of the blue cheese over the top.  Serve immediately.

If you would like to get to know Diana Henry a little better, and to see what everyone else has cooked up this week, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links (who knows, you might even want to join the journey and cook along with us) ...

... or check out A Change of Appetite and Diana's many other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, or Fishpond NZ.

And make sure to come back next week as we begin a new six month culinary journey of cooking with French chef Jacques Pepin.

I'm also sharing this at Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays, hosted by my very lovely friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen.

Three of the Best - Salad Days # 9, 10 & 11

Out there in blogland I often hear some of you talk about dishes in your "regular rotation", but I seriously don't have any kind of regular rotation going on in my household.  I sometimes think it might make life a little bit easier if I did, but I just don't.  Truth is, even though I often say things like "this was so great, I'll definitely be making this again" - I usually don't.  I get seduced by some new idea and seldom make the same thing twice.

That said, there is a small selection of salads in my repertoire that I really have made several times because they were that good, and so I thought that it bears reintroducing them to you.

Roasted Eggplant, Mango & Soba Noodle Salad

This is a salad, unsurprisingly, from my food hero - Yotam Ottolenghi - and with mangoes (albeit imported ones) and eggplant being in abundance right now, this is a great time for this salad.  Because we don't grow mangoes in New Zealand, they are one of the few imported items in the fruit and veggie department in which I allow myself to indulge over summer, and I really make a feast of it.  Lush, juicy mangoes alongside smokey, roasted aubergines is not a combination I would have ever thought of, but it really works.

Green Tea Soba Noodles with Soy Roasted Salmon & Broad Bean-Radish Salad

Adapted from a recipe by Donna Hay, this is probably one of my favourite dishes I've posted of all time, and one I really have repeated numerous times.  Try this once, and I'm sure it will become one of your regulars too.  A visually stunning dish, packed with great punch of flavour from the wasabi-ginger dressing, and yet quick and easy to prepare.  This is the perfect maximum impact - minimum effort dish.

Baby Spinach Salad with Dates & Almonds

When we had our time over at I Heart Cooking Clubs cooking with Ottolenghi, this was one of my favourite dishes I made.  I know several of my fellow participants, and several of my friends in the Tasting Jerusalem group also loved, so don't just take my word for it - this is a salad you definitely need to have in your "rotation".

This is salad numbers 9, 10, and 11 in my Salad Days, 28 days of salad project.   What's that you ask?  Well,  I've said it here a dozen times or more ... I love salads.  A big bowl, substantial salad is hands down my favourite meal any time of the year.  Such is my love of salad, that I'm challenging myself to come up with a different salad every day for the month of February - that's 28 days of salads - and I plan to share as many of them as I can with you.  I'll also be doing some flashbacks to some of my favourite salads I've shared in the past.

What's more, I'm giving you the opportunity to share some of your favourite salads with me too.  Have a favourite salad you'd like to share?  Simply link up your salad recipe using the linky tool at the bottom of this post.  The linky will be open all month, and you can join in any day or every day, and link as many recipes as you like.  Feel free to grab the Salad Days badge from the sidebar to include in your post if you'd like to.  There's really no rules around linking up, other than please, use your manners and link your post back to this one.  Linking old posts is fine too, just please edit them to include the back link.  Thanks for sharing your favourite salad with us.

Black Cherry & Blue Cheese Salad with Basil & Almond Gremolata - Salad Days # 6

Today's salad is my take on this Goat's Cheese and Macerated Cherry Salad recipe from Diana Henry.

As Diana says, there's nothing new about the combination of goat's cheese and cherries, but she goes on to say that this takes it to a whole new level.  And she's right - it seriously does.  Actually I didn't have any goat's cheese, but I did have some blue cheese which I subbed in instead, and which made for an equally sensational combination.  The cherries and the cheese don't just marry together nicely, they actually really enhance each other, so that somehow each ingredient seems to taste even better in the company of the other than on its own.  Between these two fabulous ingredients, and the flavour packed almond and basil gremolata sprinkled over the top, this has just become a summer favourite that I fully intend to repeat as many times as I can before fresh cherries are gone for another year.

I had this flavour packed salad with a simple piece of pan-fried fish, but I think it would also be great with some barbequed lamb chops or a classic roast chicken.  Whatever it's served with, I urge you to try this - you won't be disappointed.

And come back tomorrow for a sensational seafood salad with tomatoes, avocado and roasted lemons.  You won't want to miss that one!

This is salad number 6 in my Salad Days, 28 days of salad project.   What's that you ask?  Well,  I've said it here a dozen times or more ... I love salads.  A big bowl, substantial salad is hands down my favourite meal any time of the year.  Such is my love of salad, that I'm challenging myself to come up with a different salad every day for the month of February - that's 28 days of salads - and I plan to share as many of them as I can with you.  I'll also be doing some flashbacks to some of my favourite salads I've shared in the past.

What's more, I'm giving you the opportunity to share some of your favourite salads with me too.  Have a favourite salad you'd like to share?  Simply link up your salad recipe using the linky tool at the bottom of this post.  The linky will be open all month, and you can join in any day or every day, and link as many recipes as you like.  Feel free to grab the Salad Days badge from the sidebar to include in your post if you'd like to.  There's really no rules around linking up, other than please, use your manners and link your post back to this one.  Linking old posts is fine too, just please edit them to include the back link.  Thanks for sharing your favourite salad with us.

Tandoori Mushroom Salad with Spinach, Almonds & Fried Egg - Salad Days # 3

I've been addicted to tandoori roasted mushrooms ever since I tried them one night at the Indian Cafe.  Fortunately, they are quick and easy to make at home, especially if you always keep a jar of tandoori paste in the fridge as I do.  As you know, I'm a great believer in making as much as I can from scratch, and there is very little I buy at all in the way of processed foods.  That said, I'm not super woman, and I've long since discovered that a few sachets or jars of a variety of curry pastes in the pantry can be just the thing to transform a few humble vegetables into something fabulous when you want a quick and easy mid-week meal.

So tandoori mushrooms make a regular appearance around here for a quick and easy vegetable side.  I simply mix together equal quantities of yoghurt and tandoori paste (usually about 1/4 cup of each) to make a marinade, toss the mushrooms in the marinade and leave them to develop the flavour for at least an hour.  Finally the mushrooms are removed from the marinade and roasted in a hot oven until tender and slightly charred.

Often as I've made these mushrooms though, I'd never thought to turn them into a salad until I flicked on the TV one night just in time to see Anjum Anand serving up a tandoori mushroom salad.  Unfortunately, I was too late to get the recipe, I only saw what she put on the plate, so this is my version of how I think this dish might go.

I love the spicy, yet slightly lemony, zing of the tandoori flavour, which develops a kind of smokiness when roasted, the earthiness of the mushrooms and spinach, the velvety softness of the spinach leaves against the crunch of the almonds, and finally the oozy, runny egg yolk which combines with the mushroom juices and olive oil to make a rich, glorious dressing.

This salad is great to serve as a meal on its own, and is hearty enough for a cool, winter's evening.

Tandoori Mushroom Salad with Spinach, Almonds & Fried Egg Recipe
Inspired by a dish by Anjum Anand
Click here for a printed copy of this recipe

For each person allow:
4x large mushrooms
generous handful or two of baby spinach leaves, roughly torn
generous handful of roasted, unsalted almonds, roughly chopped
1x egg, fried

To marinate the mushrooms (this will be enough for 6-8 mushrooms, depending on size):
1/3 cup tandoori paste
1/3 cup natural yoghurt

To dress the salad:
juice of 1/2 lemon
extra virgin olive oil
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C (425 degrees F).

Mix together the tandoori paste and yoghurt in a medium bowl.  Add mushrooms to the bowl, and toss to make sure they are all well coated with the marinade.  Set aside for the flavour to infuse for at least an hour.  Place mushrooms in a single layer in an ovenproof dish, and roast in the preheated oven until the mushrooms are tender and slightly blackened around the edges.

Remove mushrooms from the oven and arrange on a serving platter.   Arrange spinach leaves amongst the mushrooms, and sprinkle almonds over the top.  Drizzle over lemon juice and olive oil.  Nestle fried egg on top, and season liberally with flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper.

Serve immediately.  Dig your fork into that runny egg yolk and enjoy!

This is salad number 3 in my Salad Days, 28 days of salad project.   What's that you ask?  Well,  I've said it here a dozen times or more ... I love salads.  A big bowl, substantial salad is hands down my favourite meal any time of the year.  Such is my love of salad, that I'm challenging myself to come up with a different salad every day for the month of February - that's 28 days of salads - and I plan to share as many of them as I can with you.  I'll also be doing some flashbacks to some of my favourite salads I've shared in the past.

What's more, I'm giving you the opportunity to share some of your favourite salads with me too.  Have a favourite salad you'd like to share?  Simply link up your salad recipe using the linky tool at the bottom of this post.  The linky will be open all month, and you can join in any day or every day, and link as many recipes as you like.  Feel free to grab the Salad Days badge from the sidebar to include in your post if you'd like to.  There's really no rules around linking up, other than please, use your manners and link your post back to this one.  Linking old posts is fine too, just please edit them to include the back link.  Thanks for sharing your favourite salad with us.

Anchoiade with Chargrilled Vegetables

Like most of my fellow countrymen, I love to travel.  Sadly, living as we do at the bottom of the world, traveling anywhere is expensive, so jumping a plane and jetting off to places afar doesn't happen as often as I would like it to.

Fortunately, however, keeping a pantry well-stocked with a few interesting and exotic ingredients means I can transport myself to any far flung corner of the globe without even leaving my kitchen.

There is literally a whole world (pardon the pun) of ingredients out there which will transform everyday dishes from ordinary to extraordinary.  And, although, many of these things sound extravagant, if you hunt them out at Asian and Middle Eastern specialty stores, they are generally surprisingly inexpensive.  Many of them too are incredibly easy to make yourself.

My pantry and/or freezer always contain these homemade ingredients:  preserved lemons, harissa, green harissa, hummus, pesto or tapenade, ricotta or mascarpone, chilli jam, pasta sauce, and a variety of chutnies.  I always have on hand a variety of homemade jams, bottled beetroot and roasted red peppers, and vegetables which have been pickled during the height of the season.  A few other ingredients, which I consider pantry staples - spices, fresh herbs, vinegars (red wine, sherry, balsamic, cider, rice wine), mustards (Dijon and whole-grain), pomegranate molasses, sweeteners (honey, date syrup, agave nectar, maple syrup), fish sauce, soy sauce, mirin, cooking sake, oyster sauce, to name just a few, are also always on hand.  With ingredients like these in the store cupboard, you can literally have breakfast in Turkey, lunch in Italy, and dinner in Thailand.

I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting ingredients to keep in my pantry, so I was pretty excited that our theme this week at I Heart Cooking Clubs is "Stock Your Exotic Pantry".  Actually I've been pretty excited ever since I got my hands on Diana Henry's "Salt Sugar Smoke".  This is seriously one of the most inspirational books to grace my kitchen for a long time, so I knew that this was exactly the place I was going to turn to meet this week's challenge.

Diana's anchoiade seemed like the perfect dish to make.  The fact that I could make it using only ingredients I already I had on hand, and turn them into another great ingredient to always have around, seemed very serendipitous.

Loaded with anchovies, garlic, almonds, parsley, lemon, and good extra virgin oil, this "dip" takes just moments to make, and packs a major flavour punch that will still be on your mind hours later.  I teamed this with some chargrilled peppers, aubergine, and asparagus straight off the barbeque, and even though I ate this feast sitting at my kitchen bench, in my mind I was sitting on the sun-drenched terrace of a French villa overlooking the Mediterranean.  This would also be great dished up as a dip with fresh, raw vegetables, or served antipasto-style with sourdough croutons, cos lettuce, baby boiled new potatoes, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, olives, green beans, and chunks of grilled tuna - a kind of deconstructed nicoise salad.  With a jar of this in the fridge, there is always a Mediterranean feast in the house.

Anchoiade with Chargrilled Vegetables Recipe
Adapted from recipe by Diana Henry
from Salt Sugar Smoke

24x anchovies, packed in oil
large handful of roasted, unsalted almonds
3x cloves garlic, roughly chopped
large handful flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
grated zest and juice of 1x lemon
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
1x red pepper, cored, deseeded, and cut into quarters
1x bunch asparagus, woody ends removed
1x medium sized aubergine, cut lengthwise into thick slices

Drain and reserve the oil from the anchovies.

Place anchovies, almonds, garlic, parsley, lemon zest and juice, salt and pepper into food processor.  Blitz until mixture becomes a coarse paste.  Add reserved anchovy oil, then with motor running, add olive oil in a very thin stream until you reach a smooth paste.

Toss vegetables with a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and season liberally with salt and pepper.  Heat the barbeque or chargrill pan, and cook until the vegetables are tender and charred.

Serve immediately or at room temperature, with a bowl of anchoiade on the side.

If you want to keep the anchoiade longer, store in the fridge in a sterilised jar, pouring a thin layer of olive oil over the surface.

If you would like to get to know Diana Henry a little better, and to see what everyone else has cooked up this week, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links (who knows, you might even want to join the journey and cook along with us) ...

Roasted Cauliflower & Almond Salad

This post is going to be brief, very brief.  Right now I'm packing to go on holiday for a month and, as is my usual bent, I have left just about everything to the last minute ("why do today what you can put off till tomorrow?" has long been my motto), so the fact that I'm doing a post at all is something of a miracle.

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs our theme is Pot Luck - normally a week when I like to go a bit "all out" and do something special - but for reasons mentioned above that's just not happening.  Over the last week, as I get myself ready for departure, quick and easy has most times been the order of the day.  And this roasted cauliflower salad from Ottolenghi's Jerusalem: A Cookbook has become a regular stand-by in my kitchen of late.  It's no secret, if you visit here regularly, that one of my favourite meals (summer or winter) is a salad, and in the middle of the southern hemisphere winter this salad is easy to put together (in the absence of leafy greens), and substantial enough for the cooler weather.  It also just so happens that at Tasting Jerusalem this month our theme is salads, so this post is doing double duty.

This quantity would probably feed four people as a side dish, and indeed I think it would be delicious with a bit of lightly roasted salmon or grilled lamb chops, but I love it as a meal all on its own and, as such, this makes two fairly substantial meal sized portions.

Ever one to gild the lilly, I've tricked the original recipe up a little with the addition of some preserved lemon and black olives, as well as a touch of pomegranate molasses.  I also used salted almonds instead of the roasted hazelnuts called for in the original recipe.  I've made it with the hazelnuts too, and even though hazelnuts are frequently my "preferred" nut in so many salads, somehow in this one I think I like the almonds just a little better.

Like every Ottolenghi recipe I've tried so far, this one offers a sensational combination of flavours and textures.  I urge you to try it.  'Nuff said ... I need to get on with the packing.  

Roasted Cauliflower & Almond Salad

Adapted from recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi

from Jerusalem:  A Cookbook

Serves 2 to 4 people

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

1x head cauliflower, cut into small florets

olive oil

flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

1x large stick of celery, thinly sliced

generous handful roasted, salted almonds, roughly chopped

generous handful flat-leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped

1/4 of a preserved lemon, flesh discarded & skin finely chopped

handful kalamata olives

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses

extra parsley leaves to garnish

handful pomegranate seeds

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C (425 degrees F).

Toss cauliflower florets with a generous slosh of olive oil (2-3 tablespoons), and season liberally with flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Tip into an oven dish, ideally in a single layer, and put into the preheated oven.  Cook until the cauliflower is tender and golden (about 25 minutes).  Remove from the oven, transfer to a large bowl, and set aside to cool.

Add another 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the cauliflower, along with the celery, almonds, parsley, preserved lemon, olives, cinnamon and allspice, vinegar, and pomegrante molasses.  Toss to combine everything well.  Taste and adjust seasoning to your taste. 

If you would like to get to know Yotam Ottolenghi a little better, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and see what they've all cooked up ...

... or check out Jerusalem and Ottolenghi's other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK or Fishpond NZ.

         

I am also sharing this post at Tasting Jerusalem, a virtual cooking community exploring the vibrant flavors and cuisine of the Middle East through the lens of “Jerusalem: A Cookbook” by Ottolenghi and Tamimi published by Ten Speed Press. You can follow along and cook with us by subscribing to omgyummy.com, following the hashtag #TastingJrslm on Twitter and Instagram, and liking our Facebook page.

I'm also, because it would be rude not to, I'm sharing this post this week at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the lovely, Michelle at Ms. enPlace, at Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays hosted by my good friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen, at Cook Your Books, hosted by the lovely Joyce at Kitchen Flavours, and at My Meatless Mondays hosted by Chaya at My Sweet and Savory.

                     

Plum & Oat Bars

This week on our journey with Yotam Ottolenghi at I Heart Cooking Clubs, we're Going With The Grain.  I love all kinds of grains, and they form a significant part of my regular diet.  Flicking through my Ottolenghi cookbooks (Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, Plenty and Jerusalem: A Cookbook), all manner of quinoa, rice, farro, barley, freekah and bulgur wheat dishes appealed, but somehow this week I felt I wanted to get a little sweet with Yotam.

His recipe for Raspberry and Oat Bars from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook is one that I've had bookmarked for about three years and, deciding that oats were going to be my grain of choice, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to make it.

In the absence of some raspberry jam, I subbed in some of my homemade plum jam, and I found the tartness of the plum jam to be a good foil to the sweetness of the caramel nut topping.  Oh yes, there is caramel and there are nuts!  Came as something of a surprise to me too.  

Now I don't know about you, but when I come across something labelled as an "(anything) and Oat Bar", I'm mentally imagining something that has some kind of "oaty" topping, or which is vaguely akin to a muesli (granola) bar.  Even when I read through the recipe, I still didn't quite get what this was going to be like - quite possibly because I am not really a baker.  So when Ottolenghi says in the recipe introduction "Wonderful with a strong after dinner coffee", I was thinking "No way!"  Granola bars with morning coffee (possibly even for breakfast), yes, but with after dinner coffee, definitely not.  Were YO and I about to have our first disagreement - surely not.  Now, don't get me wrong, I was not for one moment doubting that these were going to be great, I just envisaged something that didn't quite fit with my idea of a postprandial sweet treat.

The end result is a light, shortbready, oaty base, topped with a layer of sweet-but-tart plum jam, and then the whole thing is topped off with a thick layer of nuts and caramel.  Oh, that topping!!  Gooey caramel and a mixture of macadamias, hazelnuts, almonds and cashews.  Seriously, this slice is all about the topping, so don't let that title confuse you - this is no dull little "health" bar - this is definitely a decadent little treat, and definitely lives up to its promise of being a great after-dinner treat.  I thought about changing the title to something which might more fairly represent what these bars really are, but then it occurred to me that, as long as I keep calling them "Plum & Oat Bars", I can convince myself that it's ok to eat them for breakfast!

I don't do a lot of baking, and so I don't have an extensive repertoire in that department.  I'm also a fairly "apprehensive" baker, so when something turns out great it both surprises and delights the heck out of me in equal measure.   Well let me tell you that these bars might just be the best thing I've ever baked, and it's exciting to discover that Ottolenghi can surprise and delight me in the sweet department as well as all the savoury dishes I've come to love.

I made a few small changes to this recipe.  Firstly, as mentioned I used plum jam instead of raspberry.  I adjusted quantities to fit the slice tin that I wanted to use, as opposed to the small square tin used in the original recipe.  And, I used a different combination of nuts:  the original recipe called for flaked almonds, pecans, hazelnuts and Brazil nuts.  Really you could use any combination you like.

Plum & Oat Bars Recipe

Adapted from a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi

from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

For the base

170g (6 oz) plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

140g (5 oz) butter, cut into cubes

80g (3 oz) caster sugar

pinch of salt

110g (4 oz) rolled oats

For the filling

1-1/2 cups plum jam (I used homemade)

For the topping

400g (14 oz) assorted nuts, roughly chopped

(I used a combo of macadamias, almonds, cashews & hazelnuts)

140g (5 oz) butter

100g (3-1/2 oz) caster sugar

60ml (2 fl oz) milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C (340 degrees F).  Lightly grease the base and sides of an 18cm x 32cm (7in x 12in) slice tin, and line it with baking paper.

Begin by making the base.  Sift the flour and baking powder together and put into your food processor.  Add the cubed butter, and blitz together until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.  (You could rub the butter into the flour by hand, but I'm an inherently lazy cook, so I'm happy for the food processor to do the work).  Remove to a bowl, add the salt, sugar and rolled oats, and mix to combine everything well.

Press this mixture (though not too hard) into the base of your tin, and bake in the preheated oven until lightly golden - about 20 minutes.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Once the base has cooled, spread with the jam.

Now make the topping.  Place the chopped nuts in a bowl and set aside.  Put the butter, sugar, milk and vanilla paste in a small saucepan set over medium heat.  Stir constantly until the butter is melted and the sugar has dissolved.  Remove from heat, pour over the nuts and mix well.

Spread the nut mixture over the jam and return the pan to the oven until the nuts are golden brown - about 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely before removing from the tin.

Slice into bars or squares and serve.

If you would like to get to know Yotam Ottolenghi a little better, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and see what they've all cooked up ...

... or check out Ottolenghi: The Cookbook and Ottolenghi's other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK or Fishpond NZ.

         

And while we're on the subject of Going With The Grain, check out these other grain-filled recipes from Ottolenghi I've shared before:

Aubergine & Lemon Risotto

Fried Zucchini, Pea & Quinoa Salad

This will be my submission this month to Sweet New Zealand, inspired by Alessandra Zecchini and hosted this month by Bridget at After Taste - can't wait to see what sweet treats everyone has come up with this month.

I will also be sharing this post at Food on Friday hosted by Carole at Carole's Chatter and at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the lovely Michelle at Ms. enPlace.

Rocket & Cress Salad with Roasted Figs & Haloumi

Last week when I shared with you this Salad of Baby Spinach with Dates & Almonds, from Yotam Ottolenghi, I thought it was not possible to improve on perfection.  And that may still be true.  But when I set out to make this salad again for my lunch today, and ended up allowing a few different ingredients I had on hand take this in a slightly different direction, I think I came pretty close.

I had some rocket (arugula to some of you) and watercress kicking around in the fridge, which I thought would make a nice change from the spinach.  I also had a nice block of haloumi I'd made a couple of weeks ago, using this recipe from Alessandra Zecchini.

I stuck with the sumac and chilli-spiked croutons and almonds from the original recipe, which I've got to say are so addicitive that I could eat just a bowlful of them on their own as a wee snack.  Sitting on my kitchen bench is also a large bowl of fresh figs, raided from my neighbour's tree, and it seemed like a few of those roasted off would make a nice substitute for the dates.

The result was everything I dreamed it would be, and more.  The peppery rocket and cress, combined with the lemony-spicy croutons and almonds, the sweet, juicy figs, and the salty haloumi was a blindingly-good flavour combination.  While crunchy nuts and croutons, velvety leaves, soft fruit and squeaky cheese all added up to a great textural combo as well.

This is the perfect dish for a light autumn lunch, or would also make a great side dish to roasted chicken or some lovely barbequed lamb chops.  Hope you'll give it a try.

Rocket & Cress Salad with Roasted Figs & Haloumi Recipe

Inspired by a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tomimi

from Jerusalem: A Cookbook

Vegetarian

Makes a meal for one person or side dish for two

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

Note:  Really you don't have to be too fussy about quantities here, just adjust to suit what you have on hand or to suit the number of mouths you want to feed

approx 100g (3-1/2 oz) haloumi, thickly sliced

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for dressing

1-2 slices of sourdough bread, cut into cubes

small handful of raw almonds, very roughly chopped

1 teaspoon sumac

chilli flakes to taste

4x fat, juicy, fresh figs, cut into quarters

2x large handfuls rocket & watercress leaves, mixed

juice of 1/2 lemon

flaky sea salt

Heat a small pan over medium heat, and once the pan is hot, dry fry the haloumi slices until golden on both sides.  Remove and set aside to cool.

Wipe out the pan, add one tablespoon of the olive oil, and return the pan to the heat.  Once the oil is hot, add the bread and almonds to the pan and cook until they are crisp and golden, stirring regularly.  Remove from the heat, add the sumac and chilli flakes, and a small pinch of flaky sea salt.  Toss to combine well, then remove from the pan and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, wipe out the pan again and return to the heat.  Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan and, once hot, add the figs.  Saute for several minutes, turning regularly until the figs are caramelised and softened and juices starting to run.  Remove and set aside while you assemble the salad.

Put rocket and watercress leaves into a serving bowl or platter.  Add the toasted bread and almonds and toss well.  Tear or chop the haloumi slices into bite sized pieces and distribute evenly amongst the leaves.  Arrange the roasted figs over the top, squeeze over the lemon juice, and drizzle generously with the extra virgin olive oil.  Taste and sprinkle over another pinch of flaky sea salt if necessary.

I'm sharing this post at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the lovely Michelle at Ms. enPlace, at Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays hosted by my friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen, and at Foodie Friday hosted by Designs by Gollam.

                     

Baby Spinach Salad with Dates & Almonds

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs, where we last week began our journey of cooking with Yotam Ottolenghi, we are all about Loving the Leaf!  There is certainly no shortage of inspiration in any of Ottolenghi's books for turning out dishes of leafy green goodness, but with his latest book Jerusalem: A Cookbook being the most recent addition to my collection that was where I turned first.  With so many great choices here (Raw Artichoke & Herb Salad;  Kohlrabi Salad with Watercress & Mint;  Swiss Chard Fritters;  Swiss Chard with Tahini, Yoghurt & Buttered Pine Nuts;  Split Wheat & Swiss Chard with Pomegranate Molasses;  Watercress & Chickpea Soup with Rose Water & Ras el Hanout), and that was just in the first half of the book, I needed to look no further.   I would happily devour any one of those dishes, but it was this recipe for a salad of baby spinach leaves tossed with dates, almonds, and crispy croutons that really took my fancy.  Spinach is without doubt my favourite leafy green, and any kind of spinach salad is a favourite meal for me on just about any occasion - combine that with sweet, sticky dates, crunchy nuts and croutons, a little bit of lemony tang from a touch of sumac, and a little kick of heat from chilli flakes, and I am in leafy, salady heaven.

This salad delivered on all fronts - texture, taste (just the right amount of that sweet, salty, sour going on), and leafy goodness.  I made a couple of small changes - I subbed in fennel in place of red onion, which I'm not particularly fond of raw in salads, and I replaced pita bread croutons with sourdough, because that's what I had on hand.  I also adjusted quantities to make a delicious lunch for one person.  This certainly won't be the last time that this salad graces my lunch table.

Baby Spinach Salad with Dates & Almonds Recipe

Adapted from recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi

from Jerusalem:  A Cookbook

Makes a generous meal for one person, or a side for two

Vegetarian

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

1/2 a large fennel bulb, very thinly sliced

(a mandolin is ideal for this if you have one)

3x Medjool dates, cut into quarters, lengthwise (stones discarded)

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

knob of butter

1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra for dressing

thick slice sourdough bread, cut into cubes

small handful raw almonds, very roughly chopped

1 teaspoon sumac

chilli flakes to taste

2x large handfuls baby spinach leaves

juice of 1/2 lemon

flaky sea salt

Put fennel and dates into a small bowl, add the vinegar and a small pinch of salt, toss well and set aside for about 15-20 minutes.

In the meantime, heat the oil and butter in a small frying pan over medium heat.  Add the bread cubes and almonds to the pan and cook until they are crisp and golden brown - stir regularly.  Remove pan from the heat;  add the sumac, chilli flakes and another small pinch of salt.  Mix well and set aside to cool.

Toss the spinach leaves with toasted bread and almonds.  Add the dates and fennel, lemon juice, a generous drizzle of olive oil and another pinch of salt.  Taste to check seasoning, and when it is balanced to your taste, serve immediately.

If you would like to get to know Yotam Ottolenghi a little better, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and see what they've all cooked up ...

... or check out Jerusalem and Ottolenghi's other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK or Fishpond NZ.

           

I will also be sharing this post at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the lovely Michelle at Ms. enPlace, and at Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays hosted by my friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen.