Chiu-chow style chilli oil Nik Sharma Chiu-chow style chilli oil is cheap and accessible and takes things to a different level; it has this hit of umami, which really lifts food. All you need to do is stir up the thick chilli sediment and you can add it to a bunch of different things. Chinese cooking really benefits from it, but I find it works really well with Indian cooking, too. If I make a dal and don’t want to bother with frying the spices to finish it, I’ll serve it with a spoonful of this. I use it for salad dressings, with lime juice or vinegar. As I’m not a big fan of mayo in egg salad, I use it for that, and it works well in chicken salad, too – mix it with a bit of creme fraiche or yogurt. You can also stir it into mayonnaise to bump it up bit. Nik Sharma’s potato salad with chiu-chow style chilli oil Remember to stir the chilli oil well to grab the bits of chilli and the other flavourful components at the bottom of the jar. I sometimes toss in a chopped hard boiled egg. For an extra note of crunchiness, add 2 to 3 tablespoons of toasted peanuts or hazelnuts to the salad before serving. Serves 4 new potatoes 910g fine sea salt shallot 1, peeled and thinly sliced spring onions 4, chopped (both white and green parts) brined capers 2 tbsp, drained fresh coriander leaves 2 tbsp For the dressing chow-chiu style chilli oil 2 tbsp rice vinegar 1 tbsp ground black pepper 1 tsp fine sea salt Scrub the potatoes under running cold water to remove any dirt. Put them in a medium saucepan and cover them with enough water to come 4cm above the potatoes. Add salt and bring the water to a rolling boil over medium-high heat. Turn the heat to low and let simmer until the potatoes are completely cooked and tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Your cooking time might vary depending on the width of the potatoes and the variety. Drain the potatoes and pat them dry with a clean kitchen towel. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut them in half and put them in a large mixing bowl. Fold in the shallot, spring onions, capers and coriander. To prepare the dressing, mix the chilli oil, vinegar and black pepper in a small bowl. Pour this over the potatoes in the bowl and toss gently to coat evenly. Taste and season with salt. Serve warm or at room temperature. Nik Sharma is a cookery writer and the author of Season; abrowntable.com Cornmeal Andi Oliver It’s a good time for people to be cooking. Cornmeal pudding is a Caribbean staple. What Italians call polenta, we call cornmeal, and you can get it in any supermarket. Maybe once you decided to make polenta and bought a bag that was too big, and now it’s sitting in the back of your cupboard and you don’t really know what you’re going to do with it. Well, this is a great thing to do with it. Andi Oliver’s cornmeal pudding You can eat cornmeal pudding with some cream as a sweet dish, or combine it with salty and savoury things such as bacon, sausages or eggs as an addition to a gorgeous brunch. Serves 4 For the pudding coconut milk 750ml, tinned or fresh unsalted butter 30g brown sugar 175g vanilla extract 3ml golden rum 1 level tsp fine cornmeal 225g self-raising flour 40g raisins or sultanas 50g (optional) ground nutmeg 1 level tsp ground cinnamon 1 level tsp salt 1 level tsp For the “soft top” coconut milk 120ml brown sugar 30g ground cinnamon 1 level tsp Preheat the oven to 180C fan/gas mark 4, butter a 23cm tart tin and set to one side Put the coconut milk, butter, brown sugar and vanilla extract into a medium saucepan and warm gently, but do not boil. Heat until the sugar is dissolved then remove from the hob, add the rum and set aside. Thoroughly combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Gradually add the warm liquid to the dry ingredients stirring well all the time. Ensure that once all the liquid has been added there are no lumps. Pour the mixture into the buttered tin. If you are adding raisins, now is the time to throw them in. Slip into the oven and bake for 25 minutes. While it’s baking, mix together all the ingredients for the “soft top”. Remove from the pudding from the oven – it will be three-quarters cooked. Pour the soft top mixture over it, then bake for a further 15-20 minutes. The bottom will be set, with a lovely silky soft finish on top. Andi Oliver is a chef and the host of BBC Two’s Great British Menu Tinned sardines Rosie Sykes Tinned sardines are very underrated and you can do the most simple, delicious things with them. And they’re so good for you – all that omega3. I don’t think it matters if you buy them in oil or water. Sardines on toast is proper old school; I think it’s nice with chopped egg, herbs and a good squeeze of lemon. They’re so nice with spaghetti and capers, garlic, chilli and lots of parsley. Or have them with a dill, honey and mustard dressing – nice with potatoes. Lucio’s sardines by Rosie Sykes This recipe comes from a favourite kitchen porter I worked with at the Coach & Horses in Clerkenwell, east London. Serves 4 extra virgin olive oil 2 tbsp red onion 1, finely sliced ground coriander seeds 1 heaped tsp ground fennel seeds 1 heaped tsp dried red chilli flakes 1 tsp, or less depending on your taste garlic 4 cloves, finely sliced tomato juice 200ml, or 150ml passata and 50ml warm water orange zest and juice of 1 lemon zest and juice of 1 parsley a small handful coriander a large handful tinned sardines in olive oil 3 x 120g toast of choice sea salt Heat the oil in a medium-sized pan over a medium to high heat. Add the onion, then turn the heat right down and let it cook without browning for a good 7 minutes. Once the onion is soft, add the spices and chilli flakes and cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes. Next add the garlic and let it cook for a minute before adding the tomato juice and the orange and lemon zests. Bring to a simmer and cook until reduced by half. While that’s happening, finely chop the parsley and coriander. Open the tins of sardines and, keeping them whole, add the sardines and half of the oil from the tins to the pan. Stir gently to coat in the onion and spice mixture, then add the citrus juices and all but a generous pinch of each of the coriander and parsley. Let this lot simmer away gently until the juices have reduced right down to a syrupy coating about 7-10 minutes. Taste for seasoning, then spoon onto hot toast. Scatter over the remaining parsley and coriander. From The Sunday Night Book (Quadrille); Roasting Pan Suppers by Rosie Sykes is published in May Tinned peaches Jack Monroe I absolutely adore tinned peaches. Put them in a tagine, in a stew with chicken, through couscous with olives and salty cheese – any way you would use dried apricots in cooking, you can use tinned peaches. Anything that sits still round here usually ends up in a Kilner jar, so I pickled them: drain them thoroughly, reserve the juice and boil it up with vinegar, oil and a generous pinch of salt, then pour over the peaches in a sterilised jar. They’re sweet and salty; great in a salad or with cheese. I just love them. As a kid, I used to eat them out the can (I still do), or with yogurt or evaporated milk. There’s something so childish and comforting about them – really nostalgic. For me, it’s all about simpler times: sitting at my parents’ table after dinner, just me and my tinned peaches and nothing to worry about. Jack Monroe’s peach and chickpea curry This my most popular recipe. Some people think it’s weird, and then they try it – unanimously people love it. Originally, it was made from a food-bank box. I got a tin of chickpeas, a tin of tomatoes and a tin of peaches and I stood looking at them and thinking, “OK, I have to make a meal out of this.” Somewhere at the back of my brain, I remembered a chicken curry I used to have, and swapped the chicken for chickpeas and apricots for tinned peaches. When I wrote it, I had a weaning toddler, so I’ve increased the spices here. The peaches just melt away into the sauce. You can also blend the peaches with the tomatoes and you won’t notice them at all – they’ll just add a smooth sweetness. Serves 2 chickpeas 1 x 400g tin onion 1 large garlic 4 fat cloves oil a splash curry powder 2 tbsp peaches 1 x 411g tin chopped tomatoes 1 x 400g tin vegetable stock cube 1 First drain your chickpeas and rinse them vigorously. Pop them in some fresh water in a saucepan and boil rapidly for 10 minutes to soften. Meanwhile, peel and finely chop the onion and garlic. Pour a little oil into a medium, heavy bottomed pan and add the onion and garlic, then the curry powder, and cook gently on a low heat for a few minutes to soften the onion. Don’t be tempted to turn the heat up – burned onions will permeate your whole curry, whereas sweating them will add a delicious sweetness. Drain the peaches, reserving the juice, and chop into small pieces. Add to the onion mixture in the pan, along with the reserved juice. By this time, the chickpeas should have finished boiling, so remove them from the heat and drain them, and tip them into the peaches-and-onion pan. Pour the chopped tomatoes in and crumble over the stock cube, then stir everything together. Reduce the heat to a low setting, and cook gently for 30 minutes. You may need to add a cup of water to the sauce if it starts to get a bit thick. Stir well, and serve. Will keep in the fridge, cooled and stored in an airtight container, for three days, or in the freezer for three months. Reheat to piping hot to serve. Jack Monroe is a cookery writer. Her new book is Good Food for Bad Days, published on 28 May (Bluebird); cookingonabootstrap.com Tahini Georgina Hayden Tahini is a complete staple for all Greek Cypriots, I buy it in bulk, in massive 3kg tubs, and we have it with almost everything. Tahinopita – tahini cinnamon swirls – are my actual favourite things in the world, they are so delicious. And tahinosoupa is really simple, so delicious and nourishing. It only has a few ingredients: rice, lots of lemon, garlic, chickpeas and tahini. If you look at it, you’d think it was cream-based – because it’s so creamy. When I make it, I roast chickpeas, because I like having the texture on the top. I coat them with herbs and spices. Georgina Hayden’s tahini cinnamon swirl with carob – tahinopita me charoupi I cannot resist a fresh tahinopita, and no matter how big it is (and you can get massive ones) I just can’t save any for the next day. If you can’t get hold of carob syrup don’t worry, just leave it out. It’ll still work brilliantly and will be delicious. Makes 4 tahini (dark tahini if you have it) 200g carob syrup 3 tbsp (optional) sugar 125g olive oil 3 tbsp ground cinnamon ¼ tsp fine sea salt bread flour 350g, plus extra for dusting bicarbonate of soda ¼ tsp yeast ½ × 7g sachet honey 4 tbsp Preheat the oven to 160C fan/gas mark 3. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the tahini, carob syrup (if using), sugar, 1 tablespoon of olive oil and cinnamon. Add a pinch of salt and leave to one side. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ½ teaspoon of sea salt. Make a well and pour in the remaining olive oil. In a jug, mix together the yeast with 250ml of warm water. Pour into the flour well and mix everything together with a fork. Add a little flour or water as necessary to get the right consistency; you want it to be smooth and elastic, not too sticky or firm. When the dough is ready, divide into 4 balls. Dust your worktop with flour. Roll one of the balls out into a rough circle to fit the palm of your hand. Hold it and spoon in 1 tablespoon of the tahini mixture. Seal together the dough to encase the tahini and press it flat onto the worktop with the palm of your hand to shape into a rough circle. Spoon in another spoonful of tahini, again seal the dough round it, and don’t worry if some starts to spill out. This can all be very rough – you just want to build up the dough and tahini layers. Guide the dough into a long sausage shape, use a knife to spread on a little more tahini mixture, then take each end in each of your hands and twist the sausage in opposite directions so it starts to twirl like a cheese straw. Roll the twirled dough into a spiral, tucking the end underneath, and flatten onto your worktop with the palm of your hand. Place on a lined baking sheet and repeat with the remaining 3 pieces of dough and the tahini mixture. When they are all ready, bake the tahinopites in the oven for around 20 minutes, until golden and cooked through. Drizzle immediately with honey and leave to absorb for 5 minutes before eating. From Taverna by Georgina Hayden (Square Peg) Nut butter Billy White I love peanut butter. My mum was a pretty bad cook, so often peanut butter on toast would be preferable to her cooking. Mine is not a romantic cooking-with-mother story; it was a necessity to be a chef. Now, I generally make my nut butter because it tastes a bit nicer than the stuff you buy, but I do also buy it. I use whatever nuts we have: peanuts, almonds or cashews. Walnuts can be a bit bitter, so I often add dates. Homemade nut butters are easy to make, they keep for at least two weeks in a sealed container in the fridge and taste delicious. Billy White’s peanut butter and banana cake I always have the ingredients for this cake at home. If you have any bananas that are getting a bit over-ripe, put them in the freezer, they will work well for this recipe. Feel free to experiment with any other nuts you have in the cupboard. Shop-bought nut butter works just fine here too. For the peanut butter (makes 200g) lightly roasted peanuts (or other nuts) 200g sea salt a pinch For the cake butter 80g, plus extra for greasing peanut butter (or other nut butter) 100g caster sugar 225g bananas 4 ripe, 3 mashed, 1 cut in half lengthways yogurt 85ml free-range eggs 2, whisked unsalted roasted peanuts 50g, chopped (optional) plain flour 285g, sifted bicarbonate of soda 1 tsp salt ½ tsp First make the peanut butter. Blend the nuts in a high-powered food processor until the mixture is smooth, you can use a stick blender and a jug, but the result will be less smooth. You may need to add a couple of tbsp of neutral oil. Add a pinch of salt. To make the cake, preheat the oven to 180C fan/gas mark 4 and grease a 1 litre loaf tin with a little butter. Cream the butter, peanut butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the 3 mashed bananas, yogurt, whisked eggs and additional nuts, and mix together. Fold in the sifted flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt, and pour into the loaf tin. Lay the sliced banana on the top and press into the mixture. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. If you can wait, allow it to cool before eating. Billy White is the head chef at Rosendals Trädgård, Stockholm and the author of Eat, Run, Enjoy; billywhite-chef.com Sherry vinegar José Pizarro Everyone should use more vinegar. When I was a child I used to drink it – my mother and grandmother had to hide it. Of course when you get older, you get a little bit more sophisticated. Now I love sherry vinegar. You can use it in every single salad dressing, even the simplest ones, such as tomatoes with good olive oil, salt and sherry vinegar. José Pizarro’s pan-fried pimenton chicken Serves 4 extra virgin olive oil 3 tbsp, plus more to serve garlic 4 cloves, unpeeled bay leaf 1 sea salt and freshly ground black pepper chicken thighs 8 boneless, skin on, cut in half pimenton de la vera picante (hot smoked paprika) 1 tsp sherry vinegar (PX if you have it) 4 tbsp mashed potatoes to serve First of all, infuse the oil that the chicken is going to be cooked in with the flavours of the garlic and bay leaf. So, heat the oil over a very gentle heat and add the garlic cloves and the bay leaf. It should take about 20 minutes to colour the garlic, very slightly: it’s a warm bath, not a frying pan experience. Once cooked, remove the garlic and bay leaf. Set the cloves to one side (you’ll need them later). Turn the heat up to high. Season the chicken, add it to the pan and fry for 4 minutes before turning the pieces over – you want a nice crispy golden outside. Cook for another 4 minutes. Add the pimenton de la vera and the sherry vinegar; give everything a good stir and leave to bubble gently for 5 minutes. Serve with olive oil and mashed potatoes. Spoon the mashed potatoes into the middle of a platter, place the chicken on top, and pour over the juices and the garlic. José Pizarro is the chef-owner of four restaurants and author of six books; josepizarro.com Rice Sri Owen I grew up eating rice three times a day. We had rice for breakfast, rice for lunch, rice for supper. If you have plain rice, cooked well, you can eat it with whatever you have in the cupboard, whatever you are cooking that day, with grilled meat or fish, vegetarian dishes, or leftovers. I usually cook rice in my rice cooker now, but many people don’t have one. The easiest way to cook rice is in one saucepan – the absorption method. I find basmati rice a bit too dry and jasmine rice a bit too soft, so I use half basmati, half jasmine. Sri Owen’s absorption method rice Serves 4 moderate rice eaters long grain rice, white or brown 450g water 570 ml Put the rice and water in a saucepan, put the saucepan on a moderate heat and bring to the boil. Stir once with a wooden spoon. Let the rice simmer, uncovered, until all the water has been absorbed. This will take about 10 minutes (brown rice, perhaps 15 minutes). To finish your rice the traditional way, keep it in the saucepan and put the lid on as tightly as possible. If the lid isn’t tight-fitting, you can put a layer of aluminium foil between the lid and the pan. A tea-towel is better still – it stops steam condensing inside the lid and dripping back into the rice. Turn down the heat as low as possible, and leave the rice to cook undisturbed for 10 or 12 minutes. (The time for brown rice is the same as for white.) Don’t take off the lid. Take the pan off the heat and set it on a wet tea-towel on your draining board. Leave the rice to rest for 5 minutes, still with the lid on. (The wet cloth will stop the bottom layer of rice sticking to the pan.) Then uncover the pan and put the rice into its serving bowl. With white rice, you will find that there is a layer of rice grains, about ½ cm thick, stuck together on the bottom of the pan like a thin cake. Don’t throw this away! In Indonesia, we call this rice cake intip. Dry it in the sun, or in the oven as if you were drying bread for breadcrumbs. Then break it into smallish pieces and store in an airtight container. When you have a worthwhile quantity, deep-fry the pieces of intip until they become golden brown. Sprinkle them with a little salt, and you have an unusual and delicious quick snack to serve with drinks. (With brown rice, the intip is so thin and brittle that you can just mix it in with the rest of the boiled rice.) If you don’t want to eat this crusty bottom layer of rice, don’t stand your saucepan on a wet cloth while it rests at the end of cooking. The bottom layer will then stick to the pan, and you can soak it off and throw the rice away. Sri Owen’s Philippines chicken adobo with rice Here the boiled rice is served in a separate bowl and everyone can help themselves and mix it with their chicken adobo. I suggest you boil the rice while the chicken dish is cooking. For 4-6 people chicken 1.1-1.4kg, cut in pieces, the fat and skin discarded garlic 6-8 cloves, finely chopped white vinegar or rice vinegar 112ml water 1.1 litres kaffir lime or bay leaves 1 or 2 coarsely ground black pepper or chopped chillies ½-1 tsp salt 1 tsp peanut oil 2 tbsp ground turmeric ½ tsp paprika ½ tsp very thick coconut milk 140ml fish sauce or light soy sauce 2 tbsp plain, boiled long grain rice 450g (see above) Put the chicken pieces into a large saucepan, add the garlic, vinegar, water, kaffir lime or bay leaves, pepper or chilli and salt. Bring to the boil, cover the pan. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken pieces to a colander. Turn the heat up under the saucepan and boil the stock until it has reduced to half its original quantity. This will take about 20-25 minutes. Heat the oil in another saucepan and add the turmeric and paprika. Stir, and add about 6 tablespoons of the coconut milk. Stir once and put in the chicken pieces. Stir these until every piece is coated in the orange-coloured sauce. Pour in the reduced stock and the rest of the coconut milk. Bring the liquid to the boil and let it bubble gently, stirring often, for 10-15 minutes. Add the fish sauce or soy sauce. Adjust the seasoning, and serve hot, with the plain boiled rice. Any lightly cooked or stir-fried vegetable will make a suitable accompaniment. From The Rice Book by Sri Owen. A new edition will be published by Bloomsbury next year Anchovies David Tanis Of the many non-perishable products in my pantry, anchovies top the list. (So-called white anchovies, boquerones, are delicious, but they are pickled and herring-like, so not suitable here.) I suggest giving all anchovy fillets, whatever their origin, a quick dip in tepid water, then blotting them on kitchen paper. This gives you a chance to examine them and remove any stray bones, the odd fin or scrap of skin. If you intend to use the fillets whole, to drape over a tomato salad, for instance, or halved hard-cooked eggs, let them marinate in a few tablespoons of good extra virgin olive oil. (The oil from the tin or jar in which the anchovies are packed is not very tasty, and often not olive oil.) David Tanis’s anchovy vinaigrette A lovely garlicky anchovy vinaigrette is a very useful back-pocket recipe to have. It’s an ideal dressing for endives, radicchio or sturdy salad leaves. Try it with boiled asparagus, artichokes or cauliflower, or nearly any vegetable, cooked or raw. As for something else store-cupboardy, it can dress tinned white beans (or freshly cooked dried beans), or tinned tuna, or both in combination. Makes 120ml garlic 2 cloves, medium salt anchovy fillets 4-6 dijon mustard 1 tsp red wine vinegar 2 tbsp lemon juice 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 6 tbsp freshly ground black pepper to taste Put the garlic in a mortar with a pinch of salt and pound to a smooth paste. (Alternatively, use a knife to mince the garlic, sprinkle with salt and smash to a paste with the side of the blade.) Slice the anchovies crosswise very thinly. Add to the garlic in the mortar (or put the garlic and anchovies in a small mixing bowl). Add the mustard, vinegar and lemon juice and whisk vigorously with a fork to break up the anchovies a bit and dissolve the mustard. Slowly whisk in the oil and add pepper (the dressing need not emulsify but it should be thick-ish). Taste and adjust seasoning. David Tanis is a chef and author of A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes, Heart of the Artichoke and Other Kitchen Journeys, and One Good Dish; davidtanis.com Dried beans Olia Hercules The nice thing with dried beans is that you can boil up a big batch at the beginning of the week, keep them in the fridge, and then do different things with them throughout the week – so you don’t get bored of one dish. You can have them with tinned tomatoes and whatever spices you’ve got, get creative with it. You can add them to a soup: kidney beans in borscht or in a Tuscan bean soup with cabbage. Blitz them up and make a bean hummus too. In west Ukraine, there’s a dish called shupenya. You boil soaked dried broad beans until they’re super soft, then crush and mix the beans through mashed potato. It can be eaten as it is, with crispy onion, herbs and sometimes lardo on top, or used as a filling for dumplings (shupenya) or baked buns (pyrizhky). Olia Hercules’s buns with potato and beans Because potatoes and beans are quite similar in texture, they supplement each other very well. It is a very good way to bulk up your mash if, like us, you have a lot of beans but are running out of potatoes. Do not throw away the baked potato skins, they are great for flavouring simple vegetable broths, or fill them with some cream cheese or tuna mayo. Makes 8 For the dough yogurt 250ml, or milk or water fast-acting dry yeast 7g honey ½ tbsp fine sea salt ½ tsp sunflower oil ½ tbsp plain flour 400g, plus extra (you can use half wholemeal) For the filling potatoes 150g, unpeeled beans (any beans) 1 x 400g tin, or 150g dried beans, soaked and cooked until very soft fine sea salt sunflower oil 2 tbsp, plus extra for frying onions 100g, peeled and sliced Whisk the yogurt or milk with the yeast and wait 10 minutes to make sure the yeast is alive (it will froth up). Then mix in the honey, salt and sunflower oil. Finally add the flour and give it all a good mix in the bowl. The dough might be a little wet, but don’t worry it will come together once it rises. Cover the bowl with a towel and leave for 1-2 hours or until the dough is double the size. For the filling, bake the potatoes whole for 40 minutes or until they are really soft inside. Scoop out the flesh and put it into a bowl. Do not throw the potato skins out, you can chop them into a veg broth. Mash the beans with the potato – a slightly lumpy texture is OK. Heat the 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil in a frying pan, add the onions, season them with salt to help release moisture and cook over a low heat, stirring from time to time, for about 20 minutes. Once the onions are caramelised stir them with the beans and potatoes. Season this well. Flour the surface and scrape the dough out onto it. Knead the dough, adding more flour if it is still sticky. The dough will be soft, and will eventually stop sticking. Preheat the oven to 180C fan/gas mark 4. Divide the dough into 8 parts. Flour a surface really well and roll each piece out into 10cm circles. Place about 50g of the filling into the centre of each dough circle. Bring the edges up and pinch them together to seal, then flip the buns seam-side down onto the floured surface. Place the buns side by side on a lightly oiled baking tray to rise for 30 minutes, covered with a towel. The buns will merge together as they rise, and as they bake. If you can, glaze with a little milk. Bake for about 20-30 minutes or until golden. They make for a very good lunch or breakfast. Olia Hercules is a chef and food writer. Her new book Summer Kitchens is published in June (Bloomsbury) The Observer aims to publish recipes for fish rated as sustainable by the Marine Conservation Society’s Good Fish Guide