Anna Jones - The Modern Cook’s Year

Potatoes are pretty magical in all their forms: the crispy-edged golden brown crunch of a roastie; cloud-like mash; a little new potato, boiled and tossed with grassy green herbs, good oil and flaky salt… This warm potato salad has become a household staple, a dinner for cold nights and wet homecomings: bolstering, full of flavour and comfort. I bake the potatoes in miso until deeply golden brown, then slather them in a tomato and ginger dressing before mixing them with lentils and toasted almonds. A complete meal.

Although new potatoes aren’t around yet, I find this recipe works well with smaller potatoes, so I buy them from the loose bin and pick out the smallest ones I can find. If yours are bigger you might want to cut them in half or quarters.

SERVES 4

1kg small floury potatoes

2 teaspoons white miso paste

2 tablespoons olive oil

the cloves from 1 head of garlic, skin on

1 x 400g tin of Puy lentils or 250g home-cooked, (see here), drained

100g almonds, skin on, toasted and sliced

a handful of basil, leaves picked

FOR THE DRESSING

2 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, chopped, plus 2 tablespoons of their oil

the zest and juice of 1 unwaxed lime

a thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 220ºC/200ºC fan/gas 7.

Rinse the potatoes, scrubbing off any gnarly bits, and dry well. Mix the miso and olive oil with 1 tablespoon of water. Put the potatoes into a large baking tray or two smaller ones, add the miso mixture and toss well to coat.

Put the garlic cloves into the tray as well. Roast the potatoes until they are fluffy inside and golden outside: this should take 25–35 minutes depending on the size of your potatoes.

Meanwhile, make your dressing. Mix the sun-dried tomatoes and their oil with the lime zest and juice and the ginger, and mix well.

Remove the potatoes from the oven and spoon out the garlic cloves. Squeeze the softened cloves from their papery outsides, mash them and add them to the dressing.

Tumble the potatoes into a large bowl, add the lentils and the dressing and toss together. Top with the almonds and tear over the basil.

Roasted Savoy and squash with Cheddar and rye

In the colder months of the year I find it all too easy to lean on Asian, Indian or Mexican flavours to perk me up and create a bit of excitement when the offerings of the season have become a bit monotonous. But truthfully it’s at this time of year I want simple British flavours most, and this salad sings with them. The sometimes forgotten Savoy cabbage is roasted into crisp-edged wedges, more pleasing to me than the now ever-present roasted broccoli or kale, and paired with plump roasted squash, caraway seeds, a rye crumb and a mustard-spiked dressing, all finished with a crumble of sharp Cheddar (though vegans can happily leave this out). This dish is so rooted in time and place, and that’s when eating and cooking feels best to me.

SERVES 4

a small Delicata or butternut squash (about 500g)

1 Savoy cabbage (about 400g), tough outer leaves removed

olive oil

1 teaspoon caraway seeds

50g rye bread (about 2 thin slices)

2 tablespoons baby capers, drained

100g good sharp Cheddar, crumbled

FOR THE DRESSING

1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard

1 teaspoon honey

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

3 tablespoons good extra virgin olive or rapeseed oil

Preheat the oven 220ºC/200ºC fan/gas 7.

Halve and deseed the squash and cut into wedges 2cm thick. Cut your cabbage into eight chunky wedges. Place them both on a large roasting tray and sprinkle with a good amount of salt and pepper. Add a good drizzle of oil and the caraway seeds and roast in the hot oven for 35 minutes until the squash is soft and cooked through and the cabbage is golden and crisp and charred at the edges.

Meanwhile put the rye bread into a food processor and blitz until you have rough breadcrumbs – you still want a good bit of texture here. Put the crumbs on a baking tray with a drizzle of olive oil, a good pinch of salt, a generous grind of black pepper and the capers, and toast in the hot oven for 5 minutes until they smell toasty and have a pleasing crunch, being careful not to burn them – with the dark colour of the rye bread it can be easy to overcook them.

Mix the dressing ingredients, season well and put to one side.

When the cabbage and squash are cooked, take them out of the oven and tumble on to a platter with the Cheddar. Drizzle generously with the dressing, mix well, then scatter over the rye crumbs and take to the table.

Toasted quinoa, roast brassicas and spiced green herb smash

There is something about the burnished edges of a vegetable, especially brassicas, which suit the darker nights and more complex flavours I love. These roasted florets sit next to some lemon-scented toasted quinoa and are topped with a Yemeni herb and spice smash called skhug . It’s good stirred into hummus, to finish a soup or mixed with oil to dress a salad.

SERVES 4–6

1 small head of broccoli (about 400g)

1 small cauliflower (about 400g)

a pinch of dried chilli flakes

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

a good drizzle of olive oil

250g quinoa (see note above)

1 unwaxed lemon

½ a vegetable stock cube or 1 teaspoon of vegetable stock powder

100g almonds, skin on, toasted and roughly chopped

FOR THE HERB SMASH

a large bunch of coriander

the juice of 2 lemons

1 clove of garlic, roughly chopped

1–2 green chillies (depending on how hot you like things), roughly chopped

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

½ teaspoon ground cardamom (or the crushed seeds from 5 pods)

a pinch of ground cloves

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Preheat your oven to 200ºC/180ºC fan/gas 6.

Roughly chop your broccoli and cauliflower into small florets, about 2–3cm, and the stalks and root into thin slices. You want to cut your cauliflower a little smaller than the broccoli as it cooks a little slower. Place the lot on a baking tray with the chilli, cumin seeds and a good pinch of salt. Drizzle with the olive oil and roast in the hot oven for 20–25 minutes.

Next, cook the quinoa for a couple of minutes in a large dry saucepan over a medium heat, letting it crackle and toast. This will give it a deep nutty flavour. Once it is beginning to smell fragrant, cut the lemon in half, place both halves in the pan and quickly pour over 600ml of water. Crumble in the stock cube and bring the liquid to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, until most of the water has been absorbed. Top up with more boiling water, if needed, as you go.

To make the herb smash, put all the coriander, including the stalks, the juice of one of the lemons and the other ingredients into a food processor along with 2 tablespoons of cold water and blend on a high speed to make a smooth grassy-green sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary, adding more lemon, garlic or oil as you see fit. (Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to one week.)

Once the brassicas are roasted and the quinoa is cooked, tumble them all into a bowl and pour over one third of the dressing. Scatter over half the almonds, mix well and finish with the rest of the almonds and a good squeeze more lemon.

Little pea and white bean polpette

This recipe is made out of stuff I always have on hand in the store cupboard, freezer and fridge. It’s at this time of year that I rely on these staples: frozen peas and preserved lemons add a flash of green and some freshness, an interruption from the roots and grains while we wait for the fresh green march of spring. I make a batch of these and turn them into a few meals: served with a grain and greens for dinner, in a wrap with some pickles or with spaghetti and a spiced tomato sauce (see here). I add a little Parmesan to balance the flavour here, but vegans can use nutritional yeast.