Beef salad with capers and parsley

I've decided this year to cook my way through Elizabeth David's Summer Cooking, and I've started with this very good cold beef salad, which we ate last night for supper. ED gives this as the best use for the little bits left over at the end of a baked brisket, but I used the remains of a roasted silverside.

As she says, better made into a salad rather than reheated in a hash or rissoles - but who does that nowadays, anyway?

Elizabeth David's beef salad with capers and parsley

Slice your beef into ribbons. Make a vinaigrette dressing with finely chopped shallot, crushed capers, chopped parsley, red wine vinegar, olive oil and seasonings. If you are using curly-leafed parsley it should be finely cut, if flat-leafed, you can chop it quite roughly. Combine everything and serve.

Honey-seared salmon with noodles

Guest post from daughter Lettice, who cooked dinner for the two of us this evening. She's just back from three months volunteering in South Africa, and says she really missed cooking:


Just tried this recipe and it was delicious. Few things: i didn't use the bean sprouts (couldn't find them) we thought they/cold cucumber sticks/mushrooms would have been equally nice. Also the frying pan was too small, and everything went everywhere, so maybe use a deep set pan or a wok - which we have i just failed to use! The pan was also slightly too hot when i added the salmon so slighty too cooked outside/not cooked inside... just cook how you would normally cook salmon - not how the recipe says!

2 strips egg/rice noodles
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 thick salmon fillets, skinned and sliced 2 cm thick
1 tbsp runny honey
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sesame seeds
1 bunch spring onions, sliced
100g spinach leaves

Cook the noodles; drain, add a little sesame oil. Toss the salmon with the honey and soy sauce. Heat a non-stick frying pan over a high heat and toast the sesame seeds until lightly golden. Remove from pan. Add half the oil to the pan; once hot, cook the salmon for 1 minute each side. Remove from the pan; keep warm. Add the remaining oil to the pan; fry the noodles, spring onions and bean sprouts. Add the spinach, seeds, remaining honey and soy mix. Toss until the spinach wilts. Sit the honey seared salmon on top of the noodles and spinach - serve.

Pork chops with plums and spices

Here's a lovely seasonal recipe, hard to beat when the plums are on the trees (although all ours were barren this year, frost I think). It's adapted from Diana Henry's lovely book Cook Simple. Despite the chilli and ginger, it's flavoured rather than hot, and was fine for my family of spice-haters. This amount of sauce will do for 4-6 chops

450g/1lb plums, stoned and halved
4-6 pork chops

5 tbsp runny honey
1 tsp Chinese five-spice
1 tsp ground ginger
a little red chilli, chopped fine
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
juice of an orange
1 tsp wine vinegar

Arrange the chops and plums in a single layer in a casserole, then pour over the mixed sauce ingredients. Cover and cook at 180C/365F for 45-50 minutes. Diana Henry cooks this in an uncovered pan in a slightly hotter oven: hers is crisped and brown at the edges, mine is soft and succulent.

I cooked this in the oven of our new wood-burning range ... I'll post about that soon, when I'm over the euphoria of cooking entire meals using a couple of small logs for fuel.

Chicken nosh

In the first of the spring sunshine, it feels a little foolish to be posting a winter standby supper recipe, but last night was so cold that some comfort food was in order. Chicken nosh is hugely adaptable, so we never get tired of it.

I generally make it with the leftovers from a roast chicken; this time I bought chicken pieces specially. I use chicken stock if I have it for the sauce, otherwise skimmed milk. Chicken nosh can be eaten as a stew with baked potatoes, as a pie with pastry (olive oil pastry would be good) or a mashed potato topping, or strewn with breadcrumbs. My all-time favourite is anchovy breadcrumbs, the salt contrasting with the sweetness of a bechamel made with olive oil (beats butter bechamel hands down).


















Chicken nosh

Onions
chicken
bacon pieces (optional)
mushrooms if you've got some
olive oil
plain flour
skimmed milk or chicken stock
thyme, lemon zest

You need to make a white sauce, using olive oil instead of butter, a little flour, and either skimmed milk or chicken stock. At the same time, chop and gently fry some onions (or, as I did last night, use some left over roasted onions). If you are using bacon, this can be added to the onions when they are soft. If you are using uncooked chicken, you need to cook this off; otherwise, pick the meat from your bird.

Combine all these ingredients, plus flavourings - thyme and lemon zest is delicious, but so, too, is nutmeg (especially if using prunes rather than mushrooms); I haven't experimented with hot spices, but they'd be good too.

If it's just a quick stew you're after, warm it through and serve with baked potatoes or rice, and lots of vegetables. Otherwise, put everything into a shallow ovenproof dish, and cover with your topping of choice. It needs half an hour in a hot oven, around 200C.