It’s Easter Day on Sunday…when usually we might be heading out to meet friends, visiting restaurants or even going to church, we must be inventive. We come from a really foodie family – we love the ritual of sharing a good meal with family and sitting for hours talking around the table. This year, perhaps more than ever…our emphasis is going to be on the food we eat to make this Easter like a special one. Both Philippa and I take after our mother, a fantastic home cook, we love nothing more than sitting down to read a cookery book with a mug of coffee…we both love entertaining too, so planning dinner parties and thinking up new and inventive ways to decorate the table also gives us great pleasure.
Below we have compiled a list of recipes we have seen from some of our favourite chefs…recipes which, assuming we can obtain the ingredients in this new lockdown environment, we will be attempting to create for our families over Easter.
Enjoy! Camilla X
Miso marinated salmon with crunchy salad
This salad is brought to you by the girls from Tart – one of our absolute favourites for recipe inspo; If you haven’t visited their website before now…we would strongly urge you to take a browse, it is an absolute feast for the eyes – their food is always bursting with colour and comprises healthy fresh ingredients.
This recipe looks perfect for a spring lunch or perhaps as a light starter for Easter day (which is our plan). Salmon is jam packed with omega-3 fatty acids and considered to be a super-food for skin health because it reduces inflammation, which can lead to the breakdown of collagen and elastin – oh, and the healthy fats in salmon keep your skin moisturised which all adds to giving your skin its glow.
Serves 2
INGREDIENTS
2 Salmon filets
2 inch Ginger, finely chopped
1 Garlic, pressed
1 tbsp white Miso
2 tbsp Mirin
2 tbsp Rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp Soy sauce
2 tbsp Sesame oil
1, Carrot- cut into matchsticks
½ Cumber- cut into matchsticks
½ Daikon- cut into matchsticks
1 inch ginger, very fine matchstick
2 tbsp Rice wine vinegar
½ tbsp. Caster sugar
1 tsp Fish sauce
1 Avocado, thinly sliced
big handful Salad leaves
Toasted seeds
Toasted sesame seeds
Chives
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Mix together the salmon marinating ingredients in a bowl, and then add your salmon. Leave for at least an hour. Heat your grill (if you don’t have a grill, then heat your oven to 220), you want in piping hot.
2. Mix you sliced veggies, ginger with the rice wine vinegar, sugar and fish sauce. Leave for at least 30 minutes. Stir a few times to mix the pickling ingredients
3. Place the salmon in an oven proof dish and place under the grill, with all of the marinating sauce- you want to really char the top of your salmon. Whilst keeping it pink and rare inside. Around 5-8 minutes of cooking.
4. Arrange your salad by tossing your leaves with sesame oil, a little lemon and seasoning. Scatter onto a plate, followed by the pickled matchstick vegetables, slices of avocado and your charred hot salmon- with any excess sauce. Sprinkle over the seeds and chives. Serve immediately.
To view more recipes from Tart visit www.tart-london.com
Foraged nettle gnocchi with wild garlic pesto
We are not natural foragers, but when it comes to something as easy to find as nettles…we really have little excuse. I’m imagining gloves are fairly key when heading out in search of a bunch of nettles (I have never yet tested the ‘grasping the nettle theory’ by putting it into practise, and might just leave that for another day). This simple recipe by Daylesford sounds weirdly delicious – making your own gnocchi is something I wouldn’t ordinarily do – it’s relatively easy to find in the shops! But, with some additional time on our hands (well, that’s the theory anyway), we have decided to give this one a try. Nettles surprisingly have endless health benefits including treating acne and supporting skin health -who knew!?
Serves 2
INGREDIENTS
50g wild garlic leaves
10g parsley
30g parmesan, finely grated
40g pine nuts
100ML Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
pinch of salt
generous twist of black pepper
15g butter
70ml stock
INSTRUCTIONS
- Heat the oven to 180°CWash and thoroughly dry the potatoes and pierce each with a knife. Sprinkle a little rock salt over the centre of a baking tray and place the potatoes on top. Bake in the oven for about an hour until cooked through.
- Meanwhile make your pesto by combining all of your ingredients in a food processor and blitz until you get a coarse texture. Set aside.
Sift the flour into a bowl and stir through the semolina, salt, pepper and nettle leaves. - While the potatoes are still hot, peel off the skin and scoop out the flesh. Pass the flesh through a ricer into the bowl of flour. If you do not have a ricer, you can lightly mash the potatoes with a fork. The trick is not to over mash them though as the stickier the potatoes get, the heavier the gnocchi will be.
- Add the eggs to the bowl and stir everything until it just comes together to form a thick dough. Try not to stir the mixture too much as this will result in a slightly chewy gnocchi.
- Dust a clean work surface with flour and turn the dough out from the bowl. Roll out into a sausage shape around 2cm in diameter and cut with a sharp knife into 5cm long strips to form your gnocchi. Place onto a baking tray dusted with flour.
- Bring a large pan of water to the boil with a generous pinch of salt. Turn down to a simmer before gently dropping in half of the gnocchi. Stir with a spoon and wait as they gently rise to the surface. As soon as they come to the surface, remove with a slotted spoon and place into a bowl. Repeat with the remaining gnocchi.
- Heat the butter in a shallow frying pan until bubbling. Add the gnocchi and fry until they begin to turn a delicious golden brown. Add the chicken stock and 1 tbsp of the pesto and toss everything together. Divide between two plates and serve with a generous scattering of finely grated parmesan.
To view more recipes from Daylesford visit www.Daylesford.com
Rhubarb, blood orange & coconut cream
We are long time fans of Nina Parker’s recipes – often plant based, always delicious and usually healthy.
Nina says ‘This is such a great seasonal plant based dessert, it can literally be thrown together quite easily. This is the beauty of finding some nice rhubarb, the colour means that half the work is already done for you. I used frozen blackberries for the compote but you could just use extra blood orange juice and segments for drizzling over. I made a whipped coconut cream from a tin but you could use a coconut yoghurt for speed. I like the vanilla coconut yoghurt from the brand, Coyo. Any leftover fruit can be thrown into a morning smoothie!
If you wanted to keep this nut-free, then use toasted coconut flakes.’
Rhubarb is also full of anti oxidants, including Vitamin C, beta-carotene, phenolic acid, anthocyanins and more, all of which protect the structural integrity of collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid and help your skin remain plump and wrinkle-free for longer…and it tastes great too!
GF/DF/Vegan
Serves 2
INGREDIENTS
For the rhubarb
400g forced pink rhubarb (it needs to be bright pink from the start), end trimmed and sliced into 4-5cm equal pieces
2-3 tbsp unrefined caster sugar
Zest and juice of 1 blood orange
2 tsp vanilla extract or seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod
1 tbsp Grand Marnier (optional)
For the blackberries:
100g frozen blackberries
1 tbsp unrefined caster sugar
Squeeze lemon juice
For the coconut cream:
160ml tin of coconut cream, stored in the fridge for another hour
1 tsp icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Handful of almond flakes
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line a baking tray with a baking sheet. Add all the ingredients for the rhubarb pieces, toss together. Arrange the rhubarb so that they are neat lines not touching each other and place into the middle of oven for about 10 minutes. Check and see that they are soft but still holding their shape. Remove and leave to cool.
- Put all the ingredients for the blackberries into a saucepan and bring to a boil. When hot, bring down to a simmer for about 3 minutes. Fish out the blackberries and allow the leftover syrup to reduce and thicken a little for about 1-2 minutes. Taste to check the seasoning and it needs to be gently sweet, add a little more sugar if needed as the rhubarb can be a little bitter. Then add the blackberries back and leave to cool.
- If using coconut cream instead of yoghurt, take the chilled tin out of the fridge and scoop the separated cream into a bowl. Add the icing sugar, vanilla and whip to a fluffy consistency. If the cream is quite hard, wait a few minutes for it to soften before whipping. Store in the fridge until needed.
- Plate up with the rhubarb flat (as pictured) or make a sundae and add into glasses, top with blackberries and coconut cream. Drizzle over sauce and sprinkle almonds.
To view more recipes by Nina Parker visit www.ninafood.com
