The British Larder» Salad Recipes

Warm Peppered Pig with Charred Pak Choi and Sprouting Broccoli Salad

Madalene — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 23:31:50 +0000

I embrace ingredients from around the world and try to incorporate cooking techniques or ingredients from other cuisines in my genre of cooking. We live in a multicultural society and some of us are fortunate enough to have travelled and visited other countries and continents too.

This recipe is one inspired by my many food shopping crusades to London, where I enjoy snooping around the streets and small shops of Brick Lane, China Town in Soho and Borough Market, to name but a few.

The pork is my version of the now very popular and fashionable pulled pork. If you’re not keen on spicy food, then I recommend that you tone down the pepper and chillies. Fresh peppercorns are amazing and if you are lucky enough to get hold of them I highly recommend that you give them a go – they are incredibly fragrant and immensely complex in flavour.

This dish is a main meal in itself and does not need anything to accompany, but you can serve some plain steamed rice with it to tone down the intensity a little, if you like. My preferred option is to leave room for a delicious pudding instead!

Salt-baked Parsnips with Golden Beetroot and Jersey Milk Curd Cheese

Madalene — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 12:45:27 +0000

I like to make fresh curd cheese every now and then, so when I do get the offer of some raw Jersey milk I jump at the chance to make curd cheese. If you do not have access to raw milk, then buy pasteurised Jersey milk as it contains a good amount of cream and is very tasty. Standard full-fat milk will also do.

The salt-baked parsnips are great. I have done other ingredients in the same crust before, such as sea trout, salmon, mackerel, celeriac and beetroot, and it’s a great cooking method as the salt crust steam-roasts the contents inside and the seasoning penetrates the food, resulting in a tasty, succulent and well seasoned dish inside (you can’t eat the salt crust). It’s definitely worth the effort.

I pickle almost anything I can find, so the pickled parsnips here add a lovely, interesting texture and taste element to this wonderful dish.

Pickled Peach, Green Bean, Feta and Hazelnut Salad

Madalene — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 16:19:42 +0000

Personally, I am not keen on mixing fruits into salads, and I find the combination of strawberries and watermelon in savoury salads an acquired taste, but having said that, I could not resist this recipe.

This season I have enjoyed many delicious and superb-tasting peaches, and a few peach recipes have made their appearance because I am passionate about making the most of when they are in season.

The key to success for this recipe is to use the ripest peaches possible, as these will deliver the best flavour. This recipe is easy to make and can be prepared in advance. It is delicious served warm or chilled as a starter for a special dinner, or as a light lunch with buttered sourdough bread, or as a side dish alongside grilled pork chops. Alternatively, you can toss the whole lot into a bowl and serve it family-style on the table for everyone to tuck in and help themselves.

I prefer the simplicity of the salad as it is, but if you wanted to make it a bit more substantial, then thin slivers of air-dried ham would work a treat.

Salad of Sugar-cured Tomatoes with Crushed Broad Beans and Oregano Crème Fraîche

Madalene — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 07:26:00 +0000

You will find in my cookbook (The British Larder, A Cookbook for All Seasons) for the month of July, a page dedicated to tomatoes. Tomatoes surrounded me as a child and my grandfather used to grow them. When we visited my grandparents, my grandmother used to have the salt and pepper, a wet dish cloth and a sharp knife at the ready for my father, because the first thing he used to do when we arrived was to visit the tomato vines and eat as many as he possibly could in one go! Deliciously ripe and picked straight from the vine, the tomatoes were still slightly warm from the baking summer sun. I toddled along beside my father and patiently stood waiting for my share to be passed over – the smell and taste of those wonderful tomatoes is something I will never forget.

In my book, I semi-dry the tomatoes to preserve them for a little longer. This is a favourite method of mine as it intensifies the flavour of the tomatoes, and this taste in turn brings back those fond memories of times gone by.

A twist on that favourite recipe from my book is that I have now added sugar to create this new recipe. I serve the sugar-cured tomatoes with crushed broad beans and oregano crème fraîche to create a really simple yet very delicious dish. It is ideal served as a starter or as a simple accompaniment to a meal (serve with roast chicken or duck, pan-fried cod, barbecued steak, etc).

I quite enjoy the family-style of dining where plates of food are placed on the table for everyone to help themselves. This grazing style of dining suits me best as plenty of different dishes can be enjoyed at the same time without looking too greedy. Well, I think that’s what get-togethers are all about, sharing and enjoying food with family and friends and having a great time creating memories for the future.

Roasted Ruby Beetroot Ricotta with Pan-fried Asparagus and Broad Bean Salad

Madalene — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 18:13:35 +0000

This recipe celebrates early summer and light eating and it is not only pretty to look at but pretty tasty to eat too! I very much enjoy eating and cooking with ricotta as it takes me back to my younger years when I spent a little time in Italy. The taste of fresh ricotta remembered from those happy days still ‘rings in my mouth’ as sound would ring in your ears. The freshness and utter simplicity smacked me right between the eyes. All you needed for a simple lunch or antipasto (before some more spectacular dishes emerged from the kitchen) was a good helping of fresh ricotta, seasoned with salt and pepper, drizzled with good-quality extra virgin olive oil and served with warm crusty bread. Delizioso!!

The ricotta that we buy here in the UK is not quite the same, but it’s perfectly delicious and is good enough for me to bring back many happy memories. I recommend not buying half-fat or low-fat ricotta because the taste is just not the same. If you are going to eat and enjoy it, it is best to buy full-fat ricotta and only eat half the amount.

This recipe is ideal for a starter or light lunch, served with fresh crusty bread.

Celebration of Garden Peas

Madalene — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 06:19:41 +0000

Peas, glorious peas! Such an underrated vegetable, peas are loved by many but equally disliked by others. Mr P and I both love peas and coming up with this recipe, which is very popular at the British Larder Suffolk, was a joy.

Selling this starter is not always an easy task for Kevin, Laura and the team, though. They talk about its deliciousness and hope that people will enjoy it, but when I say goodbye to customers at the end of their visit, I usually get high praise for this particular dish. I think it’s because it’s unusual and also not what people would expect.

I call this a party pleaser, as it’s easy to prepare in advance and feeds a crowd. The pea mousse can be set in metal rings to be unmoulded on the plates, or as we did for a party last week, set the mousse in small bowls and then garnish with the salad and fritters to make individual servings.

Baked Butternut Squash and Chickpea Falafels

Madalene — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 13:49:44 +0000

I am fond of butternut squash and have featured many recipes on this website that include it. I suppose my love for all squashes and pumpkins comes from my mother. She too has a special affection towards this fruit (botanically it’s a fruit, not a vegetable), cooking it often when I lived at home with her when I was younger. Mum usually adds sugar, lots of cinnamon, some nutmeg and a great lump of butter to peeled, deseeded and diced squash or pumpkin, then cooks it all together in a saucepan with about 4 tablespoons cold water over a very low heat for about 30 minutes. The result is slow-cooked squash or pumpkin with slightly caramelised sweet and savoury notes – delicious! It’s ideal served with roast leg of lamb, roast potatoes and plenty of gravy. Just the thought of it makes make me long for Mum so many miles away.

I have borrowed Mum’s combination of spices with the squash, but instead of cinnamon and nutmeg, I have used another one of my favourites and that is ras el hanout, which also contains these spices in the blend. It has a slight spiciness that works perfectly with the chickpeas in my version of falafels.

I like falafels and have made many versions with roasted puréed vegetables added to the ground chickpea base, to add interest and flavour, but the idea of deep-frying them has always put me off a bit. By baking them in the oven you still get a crispy outside, not as crisp and crunchy as if they had been deep-fried, but it’s definitely worth the sacrifice as they’re far healthier and in my opinion the flavour is saved.

This recipe is ideal for a starter or light lunch.

Poached Salmon Rillettes with Smoked Eel and Cox’s Apple Salad

Madalene — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 20:09:24 +0000

The compilation of this dish is one I like very much. I quickly get bored of dishes when the textures are mostly similar or ‘monotone’ – this is how I refer to it in the kitchen when talking to our chefs about creating new dishes. I find a dish consisting of a few surprises and gems makes the best eat.

The fresh apple, crispy bacon and soft pâté-like texture of the rillettes, plus the silky softness of the smoked eel, all work beautifully together in this recipe. Do not overdo the smoked eel as it could easily overpower the dish and it’s also pricy. You don’t really need that much either.

We have a wonderful smokehouse situated 9 miles from us here in Suffolk, called Pinney’s of Orford. Their award wining oak smoked wild English silver eels are delicious and perfect used in small quantities in a salad such as this one.

Crab Beignets with Fiery Apple Chutney

Madalene — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 16:07:57 +0000

The days are getting shorter and the nights longer now, with most days being cooler and some having a decidedly chilly nip to them. The central heating is on and I’m looking forward to lighting the log fire soon. Until then we use food to warm us up, and this fiery apple chutney does exactly that. Steve, our sous chef, is partial to chillies, he even grows his own, and last week he brought in a splash of his scotch bonnet chilli oil that he made at home for this creation. The oil itself is hot enough to blow your taste buds to shreds, but once cooked with the apples, vinegar, spices, lemongrass and sugar, it becomes more mellow with a lovely heat that makes the perfect ‘pick-me-up’ for these fabulous crispy crab beignets.

After making choux pastry in the Thermomix the previous week, Steve wanted to try this method for himself, and yes, it works a treat! The only difference is that the sugar is left out of the choux pastry recipe and replaced with a pinch of salt. The beauty about choux pastry is that you can make the dough up to 3 days in advance, keep it in the fridge until needed, then fold in the flavouring and hey presto!, cook and serve. You also get plenty out of one recipe, which means you can either feed a small army or make plenty for the following day. I include both the conventional method and the Thermomix method for making choux pastry. See the Cook’s Tips at the end of the recipe for the Thermomix method.

These crab beignets are delicious served either hot or cold. Served cold they will lose a bit of their crispness, but they are just as delicious.

Crab Salad with Semi-dried Tomatoes and Sugar-cured Lemon

Madalene — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:58:41 +0000

Don’t you just love a good traditional British summer?! We have so far had a pretty rubbish start to the summer; the central heating still comes on during some of the cold June evenings. It is quite depressing to think we are heading for the ‘height’ of summer when the longest day and shortest night will come and go and I am still wearing my winter clobber!

Anyhow, enough said of the weather because the British natural larder is a good indication that it’s summer. The asparagus season is nearing an end, but peas, broad beans and tomatoes are all in season, not forgetting too about the fabulous sweet crab from the Norfolk coast. We live by the coast and not far from Cromer where the world-famous Cromer crab comes from. Well technically, it’s nearly seventy miles from us, but in this side of the country distance does not really matter, especially if you need to go that extra mile for good food. Having said that though, Suffolk also has a wonderful array of top class British seasonal ingredients on offer.

I like Cromer crabs because the ratio of white meat to brown is considerably more. I prefer the white meat as personally I’m not fond of the pâté-like texture of brown crab meat – it’s good to cook with but in a salad like this one the flaked fresh white meat is best.

This dish is easy to prepare and it’s fresh and perfect for a starter or a light lunch served with a glass of chilled British sparkling wine. I would class it as a dish fit for a king. The combination of fresh garden peas, cucumber and tomatoes, all with their own natural sweetness, complements the sweet taste of the fresh crab.