Recipes

crispy oyster mushroom skewers with crushed chickpeas

July 14, 2022 Carlisle CullenLeave a comment

serves 2 There’s a hierarchy of mushrooms, and oyster are at the top.

400g oyster mushrooms

chilli oil

80g olive oil

60g rose harissa (or 30g regular harissa and 2 tbs olive oil)

3 ⁄4 tsp Urfa chilli flakes

(or dried chilli flakes)

3 ⁄4 tsp caster sugar

14 ⁄ tsp table salt

crushed chickpeas

300g jarred chickpeas (drained weight, see tip) 80g Greek-style yoghurt, plus 20g, extra (use coconut yoghurt to keep this vegan)

1 small garlic clove, crushed

1 tbs olive oil

salsa verde

5g fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped

10g fresh chives, finely chopped 2 tbs olive oil

2 tbs fresh lime juice

Pinch of sea salt flakes

1 Preheat oven to 240°C/220°C fan forced. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

2 For the chilli oil, mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl.

3 Tear any larger mushrooms in half. Add to chilli oil. Mix until coated. 4 Thread mushrooms onto six 22cm metal or presoaked bamboo skewers. Arrange on tray, spaced apart. Roast, basting halfway, for about 18 minutes or until the edges are crisp and golden brown. 5 While mushrooms are roasting, put all the chickpea ingredients in a large bowl. Roughly crush with a potato masher (or pulse in a food processor). Season with salt. I like a contrast between room-temp chickpeas and hot mushrooms, but warm the chickpeas, if you like. 6 Mix salsa verde ingredients. Spread chickpeas on a platter. Swirl through extra yoghurt. Top with skewers, oil from tray and salsa verde.

Recipes

Thai Crispy Rice Salad

July 14, 2022 Carlisle Cullen1 Comment

Walking through the doors of Supawan restaurant in King’s Cross, we were greeted with the unmistakable waft of Thailand – a familiar warm pungency, the smell of fish sauce, of curry pastes frying and umami in the air. Reading the southern Thai menu, I felt giddy with excitement – and I’m delighted to say the food more than delivered its promise. The crispy rice salad – or yam khao tod – was so good we ordered seconds, and it is the inspiration behind this recipe. The rice is fried for a crispy, chewy texture, then combined with a zingy Thai dressing, herbs and crunchy peanuts. Simple but incredible. Note, day-old rice is better here than freshly made, as it won’t go mushy when cooked again.

Serves 2 as a starter or as part of a bigger meal

200g cooked jasmine rice, cooled (approximately 90g uncooked weight of jasmine rice; 60g if using basmati)
½ tbsp Thai red curry paste
3 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp neutral oil

For the dressing:

3 tbsp lime juice (approximately 2 limes)
2 tbsp soft brown sugar
1½ tbsp fish sauce
1 red chilli (use bird’s-eye if you like it hot), finely chopped

For the salad:

½ small red onion, very thinly sliced
Small handful of mint, shredded
Small handful of coriander, shredded
50g roasted peanuts, roughly chopped

Mix the rice with the curry paste and a good pinch of salt and combine well. Stir in the cornflour, ensuring each grain is well coated.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the rice in a thin layer and press down. Leave to cook for around 5–7 minutes, or until a golden crust forms. Gently turn over and repeat on the other side. You may need to add a drizzle more oil. It doesn’t matter if it breaks up, but you do want to try and make sure you have as much crust as possible. Remove the rice from the pan and leave to cool.
In the meantime, make the dressing. Combine the lime, sugar, fish sauce and chillies, making sure the sugar has dissolved.
Put the rice into a large serving bowl and break any larger pieces into chunks. Pour over the dressing and mix through the salad ingredients. Eat immediately.

Recipes

The perfect … Cucumber soup

June 25, 2022June 25, 2022 Carlisle CullenLeave a comment

When it’s so hot that trainers stick to the tarmac, even I tend to lose my appetite for anything apart from cold liquids. And there’s nothing more refreshing than cucumber, a vegetable that’s 96% water and 100% delicious, green coolness. Many cultures have a cucumber soup recipe in their repertoire; here’s mine.

Cut two of the cucumbers in half lengthways, scoop out and discard the seeds, then roughly chop the flesh

The cucumber

Unless you happen to be dealing with older, thick-skinned varieties, there’s no need to peel cucumbers – or indeed “degorge” them with salt before use. If you’re not sure about one you have grown yourself or picked up from the farm shop or market, just taste it; if the skin unpalatably bitter, peel and deseed it, cut it into chunks, toss with a little salt and leave in a colander for 30 or so minutes before use.

Chef Tom Kerridge lightly sautes the cucumber in the recipe in his book Best Ever Dishes, which makes it a halfway house between the completely raw versions of Simon Hopkinson, Anthony Demetre and others, and the cooked soups featured in Margaret Costa’s Four Seasons Cookery Book and Clarissa Dickson Wright’s Comfort Food, which seem to link back to the hot cucumber soups of Eliza Acton and her Victorian brethren. Although I can’t detect any real difference in taste, save for the fact that the cucumbers take on the flavour of the oil or butter they’ve been cooked in, and that the softened cucumbers are certainly easier to puree, I’m loth to recommend turning on the stove unnecessarily in high summer, not least because it means the soup will take longer to chill afterwards.

The liquid

Watery as cucumbers are, you’ll need to add more liquid to turn them into soup. Yoghurt, either in combination with soured cream or creme fraiche, or water, is popular, though milk, chicken stock and cream are also possibilities; Hopkinson’s deliciously savoury take in Second Helpings of Roast

Peel the garlic and destem the chilli, then roughly chop both and put in a blender with the chopped cucumber

Recipes

A JOYFUL, DELECTABLE JOURNEY THROUGH JUNETEENTH CUSTOMS

June 18, 2022 Carlisle CullenLeave a comment

NICOLE A. TAYLOR SHARES RECIPES IN ‘WATERMELON & RED BIRDS.’

JUNETEENTH has been celebrated in the U.S. for well over 150 years. The June 19 holiday, which celebrates the day enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned that they were free, and thus officially marking the end of slavery in this country, has become even more widely known outside of Black communities since summer 2020, when George Floyd’s murder brought the nation’s eyes to the atrocities that Black people face in the U.S. in a way that many could no longer ignore.

NICOLE A. TAYLOR Watermelon and Red Birds

Since then, Juneteenth has gained popularity among Black Americans as a way to celebrate their ancestors’ freedom and honor their heritage at the same time. But unlike most other holidays in this country, there has never been a cookbook dedicated solely to its foods and customs. With “Watermelon & Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black

Celebrations,” author Nicole A. Taylor has done just that, and it is already an indispensable part of my library.

Spread throughout the book are history lessons of Black creators, inventors and writers who have contributed to the culture Juneteenth celebrates. One chapter is all about red drinks, a custom tied to the West African tradition of imbibing drinks made from kola nuts or hibiscus leaves, which dye liquids striking shades of red.

Taylor writes that “red soda, red Kool-Aid, or red punch” are most common, but she transforms watermelon, strawberries, blueberries and ginger into tonics to fit the occasion. Her Sweet Potato Spritz turns the traditional Italian aperitivo into a bubbly concoction made with red Cappelletti and a warmly fragrant sweet potato syrup teeming with vanilla, star anise and cinnamon.

In another chapter, Taylor writes about the importance of public parks and fairgrounds in Black Americans’ leisure lives while also educating readers on the racism that played out in those spaces over the past centuries that ostracized Black Americans too.

Fair foods such as funnel cakes, turkey legs and corn dogs connect Black Americans to these spaces and are wonderful for celebrating Juneteenth, as the holiday falls near the start of summer, exactly when these foods are best to enjoy. Taylor’s recipe for corn dogs is straightforward and simple enough that anyone can bring the fair into their home.

Reading through “Watermelon & Red Birds” is a joyful experience. From a section listing numerous BIPOCowned food companies to a delightful compilation of Juneteenth food gadgets, Taylor’s book is a trove of invaluable resources for celebrating the holiday. And there is so much inspiration and so many wonderful recipes that anyone can plan menus for several holidays to come.