Rachel Allen - Home Cooking

3Add the sugar snap peas and beansprouts and simmer for a further 2–3 minutes or until almost cooked but still a bit crunchy. Check the taste and add more lime juice or fish/soy sauce if necessary.

4Divide the noodles between warm bowls, ladle the hot soup over and scatter the sliced spring onions and reserved coriander leaves on top.

Chicken noodle laksa:Use chicken stock rather than vegetable stock and substitute the sugar snap peas and beansprouts with 550g (1lb 3oz) thinly sliced raw chicken breast, legs or thighs, cooking for 5 rather than 3 minutes.

This is a really easy dish to prepare, highly nutritious and perfect for a quick lunch. It’s unusual to have broccoli in a salad of this style, but it combines beautifully with the olives and Parmesan. Serve the salad as a side dish with barbecued food or with toasted or grilled bread drizzled with olive oil, bruschetta style.

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

225g (8oz) broccoli or purple sprouting broccoli, cut into florets

1–2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

½ lemon, for squeezing

8–10 black olives, stoned and chopped

2 tbsp grated Parmesan or Parmesan shavings

1Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil, add the broccoli and blanch for 3–4 minutes, so that it stays crunchy. Drain well.

2While still warm, arrange on plates, drizzle over the olive oil and add a squeeze of lemon juice. Scatter over the olives and Parmesan, add a good twist of pepper and serve.

A fabulously simple salad. The dressing is based on an old-fashioned recipe and is wonderful served with fresh ingredients plucked straight from the garden.

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

5 eggs

4 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

2 tsp soft light brown sugar

2 tbsp lime or lemon juice

1 small cucumber, finely sliced

8 small plum tomatoes, halved

Small bunch of spring onions, trimmed and sliced

15g (½oz) bunch of mint, leaves only

75g (3oz) watercress leaves, any thick stalks removed

1Bring a saucepan of salted water to a rolling boil and carefully add the eggs, cooking them for 6–7 minutes or until semi-hard boiled. Drain and immediately cool under cold running water to stop them cooking. Peel off the shells and cut the eggs in half.

2In the meantime, start making the dressing. Pour the olive oil into a small frying pan on a medium heat, add the garlic and fry for about 30 seconds until golden brown. Remove from the heat and leave the oil to cool completely.

3Place the sugar and lime or lemon juice in a large bowl and stir until the sugar dissolves. Scoop out two halves of egg yolk from the whites and add to the mixture, mashing them down with the back of a spoon. Roughly chop the whites and reserve for serving. Add the cooled oil and garlic, season with salt and pepper and vigorously whisk everything together to form a smooth, thick dressing. Check the seasoning, adding more salt and pepper if necessary.

4Put the cucumber, tomatoes and spring onions into a large bowl and pour over the dressing. Add the mint and watercress and toss all the ingredients together.

5Pile the salad onto plates, arrange two egg halves on top of each, scatter over the reserved chopped egg whites and serve.

Koftas are a type of meatball from the Middle East, but you can find variations (all with very similar names) in South Asia and the Balkans. They are lovely hot or cold, served as part of a meal or eaten as a snack or as canapés. Here I’ve served them meze-style with pitta bread and a variety of cooling dips. You could, of course, use minced pork or beef instead of lamb to make the koftas.

500g (1lb 2oz) minced lamb

½ onion, peeled and very finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground turmeric

Pinch of ground cinnamon ¼ tsp cayenne pepper

2 tbsp chopped coriander

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp chopped mint

1 lemon, cut into wedges

1To make the koftas, mix the lamb in a large bowl with the onion, garlic, spices and coriander and season well with salt and pepper. (For checking the seasoning at this stage, see tip below.) Using wet hands, shape the rest of the mixture into 12 cigar shapes. These can be left in the fridge for up to 24 hours or frozen (so long as the mince hasn’t been frozen beforehand) until ready to cook.

2In the meantime, make your choice of accompaniments (see the recipes overleaf). If making them all, then start with the baba ghanouj (see page 72) as this takes the longest to prepare.

3When you are ready to cook the koftas, add the olive oil to a large frying pan on a medium heat. Fry the koftas for 10–15 minutes or until they are brown on both sides and cooked through. Alternatively, sear the koftas quickly in a really hot ovenproof pan and transfer to the oven, preheated to 220°C (425°F), Gas mark 7 for about 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and leave to rest for a few minutes. When they are cool enough to handle, push a skewer through the length of each kofta to resemble an ice lolly on a stick.

4Arrange three koftas on each plate. Scatter with the mint and serve with the lemon wedges and your choice of accompaniments.

* To check the seasoning before making up the koftas, shape a little of the mixture into a small patty and fry in a pan with a little olive for a few minutes until cooked through. Taste and add more salt and pepper to the mixture if necessary.

* To make sure that you end up with the correct number of evenly sized koftas, break off pieces of the mixture and weigh them, deducting or adding more of the mixture so that each piece weighs about 50g (2oz).

(dips and pittas continued overleaf) Aubergine and tahini dip: baba ghanouj

There are many different versions of this popular Middle Eastern dip — sometimes it’s made with ground cumin or chopped mint, for instance. It is delicious served with the lamb koftas or just as a snack with some toasted pitta bread.

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

2 aubergines

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2–4 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole

3 tbsp light tahini paste (sesame paste)

Juice of 1 lemon

125ml (4½fl oz) Greek-style yoghurt

2 tbsp chopped parsley

1Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F), Gas mark 5.

2Drizzle 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over a baking tray. Cut the aubergines in half lengthways and place skin side down on the tray. Drizzle with another tablespoon of the olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Add the garlic to the tray and bake in the oven for 20–30 minutes or until the garlic and aubergines are soft.