You should always use best-quality produce when creating a salad. Choose fruit and vegetables that are in season and in their prime. Often, you will be serving five or six ingredients mixed together with a dressing, and if only one of those ingredients doesn’t taste great, you can easily ruin the whole meal. You also need to offer more than one texture in a salad to make it memorable. This could be softness, derived from buffalo mozzarella and yoghurt, or crunchiness, from nuts and croutons.
All recipes serve 4
HERB AND OLIVE OIL-POACHED SQUID SALAD WITH CHORIZO, CANNELLINI BEANS, ARAME, SUGAR SNAPS AND BABY POTATOES
Advertisement
Squid and chorizo is a combination I adore. There are basically two types of chorizo: one to cook and another to serve thinly sliced as you would a salami. For this recipe, you need the former. Arame is a black seaweed from Japan, usually bought dried, which is easy to use and available from health-food shops and Japanese food stores. You can substitute hijiki, or other dried or fresh seaweeds. Get your fishmonger to clean and prepare the squid. This salad can be served both hot and cold.
1 small handful dried arame
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 medium red onions, sliced into rings
150ml extra virgin olive oil
1 red chilli, thinly sliced
2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tbsp oregano
2 bay leaves, halved
10 garlic cloves, sliced
600g medium-sized squid (heads 12cm-15cm long)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
5 tbsp lemon juice
400g tin of cannellini beans, drained
300g cooking chorizo sausage, sliced at an angle, 5mm thick
1 large handful of sugar snap peas, blanched and refreshed in iced water
00g baby potatoes, cooked and drained
1 handful flat-leaf parsley
Place the arame and soy sauce in a small heatproof bowl, barely cover with boiling water and leave to rehydrate for about 30 minutes.
Sauté half the onion rings in a large saucepan with all but 2 tbsp of the oil and, when they wilt, add the chilli, herbs and half the garlic. Continue cooking over a moderate-to-high heat, stirring frequently, until the garlic browns. At the same time, bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil and drop in the squid tentacles. Count to 10, then add the sliced head and fins. Give it a stir, count to 5, then drain through a colander.
Add the squid to the onion mixture and lower the heat to moderate. Cook for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Season and mix in half the lemon juice. Remove from the heat. Add the remaining 2 tbsp of oil to a hot pan and caramelise the rest of the onion rings and garlic in it. Add the drained cannellini beans and 150ml of cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning, if necessary, then put to one side.
Advertisement
Grill or fry the chorizo, without oil, for a minute or so on both sides — it will char slightly. Keep warm while you finish the salad. Slice the sugar snaps at an angle and cut the potatoes in half.
To serve, add the bean mixture to the parsley and potatoes, then divide between 4 plates and lay the chorizo on top. Toss the squid with the drained arame, sugar snaps and reserved lemon juice, and divide this between the plates.
RARE BEEF-FILLET SALAD WITH FRESH HORSERADISH, SORREL, RADICCHIO, SALSIFY AND FIELD MUSHROOMS
This can also be made with grilled sirloin or rump steak, roast lamb (loin or leg) or venison (fillet works best). Salsify is a rather odd-looking vegetable — it has black skin, white flesh and a taste not too dissimilar to celeriac and artichokes. If you can’t find any, use either of these, or just potatoes. Fresh horseradish has a wonderful aroma and flavour, but if it’s too hard to get hold of, then use a good-quality one from a jar.
800g beef fillet, trimmed of all sinew and fat
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 lemons
4 salsify roots (about 600g)
8 large field mushrooms, sliced
1 small head radicchio, thinly sliced
1 bunch sorrel, stalks removed
2 tbsp freshly grated horseradish
Advertisement
Lightly season the beef fillet and rub with 1 tbsp of the oil. Cover and leave at room temperature while you prepare the salad.
Bring a saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil with one of the lemons sliced into it (this will prevent the salsify from discolouring when added). Clean the salsify roots under cold running water, cut the ends off each one, peel them, then cut into pieces that will easily fit into the pan. Cook until tender — you should be able to insert a thin, sharp knife into them as you would a potato. Drain and leave to cool.
Heat a heavy frying pan and cook the beef to brown on all sides. I like to cook the fillet in one piece, then slice it, but you may prefer to cook it in steaks and serve them whole.
Use the same pan to cook the mushrooms: add half the remaining olive oil and sauté them over a moderate heat to soften — they will gradually wilt and colour. Season with salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper, then remove from the heat.
Slice the salsify at an angle and add to the mushrooms, along with the radicchio and sorrel and half the horseradish.
Advertisement
To make the dressing, mix the juice of the remaining lemon with the rest of the horseradish and the oil.
To serve, divide the salad between 4 plates and lay slices of the beef on top, then spoon over the dressing.
()
BABY POTATO, GREEN BEAN, SPINACH AND RED ONION SALAD WITH LEMON DRESSING
This is a perfect meal on a hot summer’s day. Using spinach and red onion in two different ways adds texture to the dish.
Advertisement
600g baby or new potatoes (try kipfler, anya or pink fir apple)
1 tsp salt
300g green beans, topped only
3 medium red onions, peeled
100ml extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
500g small spinach leaves
3 medium juicy lemons
1 handful bean sprouts or cress
Put the potatoes into a large pan, cover with cold water, add the salt and boil until just cooked. Next, add the beans to the same pan (making sure there is enough water to cover them) and cook for a further 2 minutes. Drain in a colander and refresh under cold running water.
Meanwhile, halve 2 of the onions, thinly slice them and sauté in half the olive oil in a large saucepan until caramelised, stirring occasionally. Once ready, add the balsamic vinegar and cook to evaporate it off. Add two-thirds of the spinach and cook gently to wilt down. Allow to cool.
Finely slice the remaining onion into rings. Place in a colander sitting in a bowl and gently run cold water through it for 5 minutes to crisp it up. To make the dressing, finely grate ½ tsp of zest from 1 of the lemons, then juice this lemon. Add the remaining oil to the juice and zest, lightly season and mix together.
To segment the remaining lemons, cut off their tops and bottoms and, using a small sharp knife, cut off the skin and rind in downward slices. In turn, hold each lemon in your hand over the bowl of dressing (to collect the juices) and carefully remove the segments by slicing into the centre and cutting close to the membrane that separates each piece. Once you have removed all the segments, squeeze any juice from the core into the dressing.
To serve, divide the cooked spinach mixture between 4 plates. Toss the potatoes with the beans, the raw spinach, half the raw onion rings and half the dressing, then sit this on top of the cooked spinach. Scatter the lemon segments and remaining raw onion rings on top and drizzle over the remaining dressing, then scatter over the bean sprouts or cress.
PINK GRAPEFRUIT, GRAPE, RASPBERRY AND OLIVE OIL SALAD WITH MINTED YOGHURT
Olive oil in a dessert may seem a little odd, but think of it as a flavourful ingredient rather than a fat. Just make sure you use a delicious extra virgin olive oil.
2 pink grapefruits
1½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil
300g seedless grapes, stems removed
1 tsp runny honey
2 handfuls raspberries
12 mint leaves, finely shredded
240ml thick yoghurt (try sheep’s or goat’s milk yoghurt)
Peel and segment the grapefruit (use the same method as for the lemon in the baby potato salad recipe above) over a bowl and reserve any juices.
Heat a frying pan and add 2 tsp of the oil, then add the grapes and cook over a high heat to blister slightly, shaking the pan often. Add the grapefruit juice and cook until it has almost evaporated, then add the honey and bring to the boil. Tip into a bowl and leave to cool.
When the grapes are cold, add the grapefruit segments, raspberries and remaining oil and gently toss. Mix the mint into the yoghurt. To serve, spoon the fruit into 4 small bowls and dollop the minted yoghurt on top.
Extracted and adapted from Salads: The New Main Course by Peter Gordon (Quadrille £18.99). © Peter Gordon. Order from The Sunday Times Books First for only £15.19, plus p&p (0870 165 8585)