The Joyful Home Cook. Rosie Birkett
meat, split into white and brown
juice of 1 lemon
pinch of cayenne pepper, plus extra for sprinkling
1 green apple, cored and finely chopped (skin on)
3 spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced
200g asparagus spears, trimmed and each cut diagonally into 3 pieces
handful samphire or sea purslane (optional)
1 baby gem lettuce, outer leaves separated, washed and dried, heart split in half
10g chervil leaves
10g tarragon leaves
10g flat-leaf parsley leaves
sea salt
For the mayonnaise
2 egg yolks
½ tsp sea salt
juice of ½ lemon
100ml extra-virgin rapeseed oil
200ml vegetable oil
pinch of ground white pepper
1 First, cook the potatoes. Bring a large saucepan of well salted water to the boil, add the mint and the Jersey Royals and simmer for 15 minutes, until tender – do not be afraid of overcooking them, as they are far better soft than chalky. Turn the heat off and leave them to cool down in their cooking water (this retains their earthy flavour beautifully).
2 While the potatoes cook, make the mayonnaise. Put the egg yolks, salt and lemon juice in a food processor and blitz until smooth. With the blades still turning, very, very slowly drip in the 100ml rapeseed oil, a drop at a time, until the oil starts to emulsify and the mixture looks smooth and creamy. Once the rapeseed oil is incorporated, very slowly start to drip in the vegetable oil, blitzing the whole time, until it starts to thicken. Once you’ve added about half the oil and it’s looking thick and creamy, increase the pouring of the oil to a steady stream – making the mayonnaise will take 10–15 minutes. If it becomes too thick and stiff to work at any point, just add a few drops of water or a squeeze of lemon and blitz again. If it splits, see tip (see here).
3 Once the mayonnaise is plump and emulsified, add 1 tablespoon of water. This will lighten the mayo and make it creamier. Add the pepper and blitz until combined. Scrape it out into a bowl, taste for seasoning and add a little more salt or lemon juice until it really sings.
4 Mix half of the mayo with the brown crab meat, a squeeze more lemon juice and the cayenne pepper. Fold in the apple and spring onion. Taste for seasoning.
5 Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the asparagus and cook for 3–5 minutes, until just tender. For the last minute, drop in the samphire or sea purslane to blanch. Drain immediately and refresh in iced water.
6 Spread the brown crab meat and apple mayo out on a platter. Top with the drained potatoes, lettuce (leaves and heart), samphire (or sea purslane) if using, and asparagus, building up layers and seasoning as you go with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Top with the remaining mayo, followed by the white crab meat and soft herbs. Squeeze over a touch more lemon juice, sprinkle with cayenne pepper, if you like, and serve.
Cime di rapa
with roast peppers, chickpeas and oregano-baked feta
Serves 2 as a lunch or starter, or 4 as a side
This is a lovely veggie lunch in its own right, or a satisfying summer side to go with a barbecue. Cime di rapa is one of my all-time favourite greens – it has wonderfully sweet and tender leaves and a satisfying bitterness. Translating from Italian as ‘turnip tops’, it is also known as broccoli rabe or rapini, and is great in pasta dishes, on pizza or as a blanched side (dressed with plenty of lovely extra-virgin olive oil) for roasted or barbecued meats or fish.
400g mixed tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
50ml extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
pinch of dried chilli flakes
2 sprigs of rosemary
1 × 400g tin chickpeas, drained
2 romano peppers (or red bell peppers)
200g block of feta
1 tbsp fresh oregano leaves or 1 tsp dried oregano
pinch of coriander seeds
bunch of cime di rapa (or chard or cavolo nero), bases trimmed and leaves separated from stalks
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas 7, or if you have one, fire up the wood oven.
2 Place the tomatoes in a roasting tray with the garlic, drizzle over half the olive oil and sprinkle with the chilli flakes, then season well with salt and pepper. Throw the rosemary in the tray and shake everything together, then roast in the oven for 15–20 minutes, until the tomatoes have softened and are starting to char and caramelise. Add the drained chickpeas, toss to combine, then return to the oven for another 10 minutes, until the chickpeas are roasted and are starting to crisp up.
3 In the meantime, char the peppers over a gas flame, on a barbecue or under the grill, until black and soft all over. Remove from the flame, place in a bowl and cover the bowl with cling film. Allow to cool then wipe away the blackened skin with kitchen paper (don’t worry if you can’t get it all off). Remove the seeds and cut the peppers lengthways into long, thin strips.
4 Put the feta on a piece of foil and drizzle over the rest of the olive oil. Scatter over the oregano and coriander seeds and wrap the foil around the feta. Place in the oven or on the embers of the barbecue and cook for 10 minutes, or until starting to turn golden and tender.
5 Bring a large saucepan of well salted water to the boil. Blanche the cime di rapa stalks in the water for a couple of minutes, then add the leaves, cooking both the leaves and stalks for a further minute, then drain. Remove the tomatoes and chickpeas from the oven, add the red peppers and cime di rapa and toss through. Remove the rosemary sprigs and serve with the baked feta on top and some extra olive oil drizzled over.
Quick wild garlic yoghurt flatbreads
Makes 2 medium or 4 small flatbreads
These speedy, four-ingredient flatbreads are perfect for a quick family lunch, a pre-dinner snack or on the side of the plate with a stew or curry to soak up the juices. They get a lot of airtime in our house, particularly in spring and summer when the wood oven is lit, but you can just as easily cook them on the barbecue too, or a hot griddle or frying pan. They have a moreish sour flavour (thanks to the yoghurt, which reacts with the self-raising flour to puff them up) and are just begging to be slathered with wild garlic pesto or butter while they’re warm. Experiment with some of the other flavoured butters (see here) in autumn: try brushing them with the porcini butter and topping them with fried wild mushrooms and tarragon. Don’t scrimp on the yoghurt with this one, full-fat is the way to go.
210g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
½ tsp salt
210g full-fat natural Greek yoghurt
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
4 tbsp Wild Garlic Pesto (see here), or 30g Wild Garlic Butter (see here), melted
1 Put the flour and salt in a bowl and combine, then spoon in the yoghurt and olive oil. Give it a stir to combine everything, then, using oiled hands, bring the mix together into a soft dough.