The Joyful Home Cook. Rosie Birkett
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1 tbsp creamed horseradish (or ½ tbsp freshly grated)
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 Place the beetroot in a blender, food processor or Nutribullet with the horseradish and rapeseed oil and blitz to a smooth purée. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
2 Stir in 1 tablespoon of beetroot and horseradish purée when you add the bicarbonate of soda in the crumpet method (see here) – it will make the mix bright pink.
3 To cook the blinis, grease a flat, non-stick frying pan or hot plate (see here) with a little butter and oil and set over a medium heat. Add 1 teaspoon of the batter to the pan and cook for a couple of minutes (cook a few at once if your pan is big enough), until bubbles appear on the surface, then flip over and cook for a bit longer. Transfer to a plate lined with kitchen paper and repeat with the rest of the batter. Keep warm and serve, or allow to cool, then put in the oven at 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6 for 5 minutes to heat up.
TIP: You don’t use all the beetroot and horseradish purée in step 2, so keep it in a jar for eating on toast with smoked fish, salt beef etc., or use in salads.
Broad bean and raw courgette salad
with ricotta
Serves 4 as a side
This salad screams early summer, with its nutty raw courgette ribbons, vivid green broad beans, lemon juice and sprightly fresh herbs. I use smaller, firmer courgettes for this as they are the stars of the show. If you grow your own and have any courgette flowers, tear them up and add them for extra colour. This makes a really special al fresco lunch, and is nice piled onto the warm yoghurt flatbreads (see here).
2 medium courgettes, peeled into long thin ribbons with a vegetable peeler
handful of mint leaves
handful of basil leaves
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
grated zest and juice of ½ unwaxed lemon
1 tsp runny honey
1 garlic clove, grated
pinch of dried chilli flakes or 1 fresh red chilli, desseded and finely chopped (optional)
100g podded fresh or frozen broad beans
100g ricotta, drained in a sieve, or Fresh Curd Cheese (see here)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 Put the courgette ribbons in a bowl with half the herbs.
2 Whisk the olive oil, lemon zest and juice, honey, garlic and chilli flakes (if using) in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3 Dress the courgette ribbons with the dressing.
4 Prepare a bowl of iced water. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and blanch the broad beans for a couple of minutes, then drain and immediately plunge them into the iced water. Once cool, drain again and squeeze the broad beans from their skins, using your nail to pierce the skin. You can skip this step if you’re using super-young broad beans, as the skins are less bitter than the older ones.
5 Pile the dressed courgettes onto a platter, scatter the broad beans onto the salad and dot over the ricotta or fresh curd cheese. Garnish with the rest of the herbs and serve with any remaining dressing on the side.
TIP: Broad beans can be fiddly to peel so I usually blanch and peel them as soon as I get them, then keep them in a bowl in the fridge dressed with a teaspoon of olive oil ready to use whenever I fancy. They will keep for a few days like this.
Mackerel with buttered greens
and pickled radish
Serves 1
One of my favourite food festivals takes place in May each year on the beach in St Ives, Cornwall. The setting could not be more inspiring – you can smell the sea as you cook. This dish came together one year when I heard about a mackerel honesty box where you could buy the freshest local mackerel for pennies. A kindly local gent was known for having a mackerel ‘shed’ which was always stocked with ready filleted, sparklingly fresh catch just outside his house. I couldn’t resist walking the streets until I found the box. I paired the mackerel fillets with freshly foraged three-cornered leek, which grows like a weed in Cornwall, and is beautiful wilted in butter and served with pan-fried mackerel. If you can’t find wild leeks, use the greens of spring onions or baby leeks, thinly sliced lengthways, with a handful of spinach.
handful of samphire
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
sprig of thyme
1 × medium fillet of mackerel, pin-boned
10g unsalted butter
handful of baby spinach
60g three-cornered leek (or spring onions)
½ lemon, for squeezing
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the pickled radish
1 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tsp caster sugar
pinch of salt
2 radishes, thinly sliced, preferably with a mandoline
1 First, quick-pickle your radishes. Whisk the vinegar, sugar and salt in a bowl until the sugar has dissolved. Toss the radish slices through the vinegar and leave them to pickle while you cook the fish.
2 Blanch the samphire in a saucepan of boiling water for 30 seconds, then drain.
3 Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based, non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the thyme and allow it to infuse in the oil for a few seconds, then add the mackerel fillet, skin side down. Season the flesh with salt and pepper and cook, without moving the fillet, for 3–4 minutes, until the skin is crispy and the flesh is starting to cook through and become opaque. Carefully flip the fillet over and continue cooking on the flesh side for a matter of seconds, then transfer to a plate to rest.
4 Add the butter to the pan, followed by the samphire, spinach and three-cornered leek. Season with salt and pepper and wilt the greens in the butter for 2–3 minutes, tossing to thoroughly combine. Pour away any excess liquid, squeeze over a little lemon juice and serve the mackerel on the wilted greens with the pickled radish on the side.
Crab, Jersey Royal and asparagus salad
Serves 2–4
This recipe unites my two favourite spring ingredients – Jersey Royal potatoes and asparagus – with creamy crab, fresh green apple and soft herbs for a celebratory salad. The dish has everything: an irresistible earthy minerality from the potatoes (which are fertilised with seaweed), buttery green goodness from the asparagus, and luxury from the crab and mayo which dresses the salad as you eat it. It’s worth making your own mayonnaise (you can make it in advance, it will keep in the fridge for a few days), but if you’re pressed for time, shop-bought works, too – just stir a good fresh egg yolk through it to enrich it. This is a lunch worth carving out a couple of hours for with a friend.
sprig of mint
300g Jersey Royal potatoes or new potatoes, scrubbed