A handful of vegetable recipes for early summer
COCOTTE OF SPRING VEGETABLES WITH MOROCCAN-STYLE LEMONS
For this recipe the lemons must be prepared a couple of weeks ahead - they will keep for months. The vegetables go well with grilled fish (sea bass, red mullet, fresh cod or mackerel) or duck or chicken breasts.
Serves 4-6
4 lemons
100g salt
150g sugar
½ litre water
several sprigs of thyme
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp coriander seeds
2-3 spring carrots
2 sticks celery or a 100g piece of celeriac
1 courgette
1 aubergine
1 fennel bulb
2-3 spring turnips
250g tiny new potatoes
a handful of broad beans, shelled (buy 1 kg beans)
200g coco beans or mangetout, cut in lozenges
5 cloves garlic, chopped
15g olives (black or green), stoned [pitted] and chopped
1 teaspoon capers
1 tsp marmalade
3 tbsp well-reduced vegetable stock
1 small bunch of fresh coriander, chopped
more olive oil
For the lemons, wash the fruit and blanch three times in boiling water, discarding the water each time. Pack the lemons into a large, wide jar with a tight-fitting lid into which they will just fit. Dissolve the salt and sugar in the water and bring to a boil. Pour this salty syrup over the lemons. Cover and refrigerate them for several weeks. For this recipe, remove one lemon and rinse thoroughly. Cut it into 8 slices.
Heat the oil in a large deep sauté pan or casserole. Stew the lemon slices gently in the oil with plenty of fresh thyme for about 10 minutes until tender and fragrant. Lift them out and put them on a plate. Crush the coriander seeds in a pestle and mortar, or under the blade of a heavy knife. Using the same pan and oil, fry them gently until fragrant (don’t let them burn). Cut the carrots, celery, courgette and aubergine in little finger-sized pieces. Slice the fennel, peel and quarter the turnips, scrub and halve the potatoes. Add all these vegetables to the pan or casserole with the stock. Season to taste, cover and cook over moderate heat for about 20 minutes or until just tender and the stock absorbed. Stir occasionally.
Bring a small pan of water to a boil, drop in the broad beans and mangetout or coco beans and boil for a couple of minutes. Drain, refresh in cold water and add to the casserole, together with the garlic, olives and capers. Cook for a further 10 minutes. Just before serving, stir in the marmalade. Tip into a serving dish, sprinkle with the chopped fresh coriander and arrange the lemon slices on top.
WILD GARLIC RISOTTO WITH PRAWNS (SHRIMP)
At this time of the year around us, the forests are full of wild garlic (Bärlauch, ail des ours), free for the picking. It’s traditional in springtime dishes in Alsace, Switzerland and the Black Forest. If you can’t find it (or don’t like it) substitute spinach. This is the method for risotto used in restaurants – you stop the cooking halfway through and finish it off at your convenience. (If you have a few green asparagus spears loafing around, they make a nice addition.)
Serves 6-8
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
300g round-grain (risotto) rice
200ml dry white wine
1 litre [about 4 cups] vegetable stock * or stock cubes + water
a little butter
a handful of wild garlic leaves (40), trimmed and chopped
18-20 cooked prawns/shrimp
Heat the oil in a heavy pan or small casserole and soften the shallot gently in it without allowing it to brown. Stir in the rice and fry it gently for 5-6 minutes or until thoroughly glistening in the oil. It should not brown. Add the wine and cook, stirring, until it is completely absorbed. Add a cup of hot stock, and cook, stirring until absorbed once more. Add two more cups of stock, repeating the procedure each time. (You should have a cup of stock left). If you don’t want to complete the cooking yet, pull the pan off the heat and tip the rice into a shallow dish or plate. Allow it to cool thoroughly. The risotto can then be refrigerated and finished later.
To finish the risotto, reheat the remaining stock. Put it in the blender with the wild garlic and blend till smooth. Melt a little butter in the pan, add the rice again and the hot, garlic-infused stock. Cook, stirring, until the stock is almost absorbed. The risotto should be quite soupy, and the grains just cooked [al dente]. Stir in the prawns/shrimp at the end and allow them to heat through (or heat briefly in the microwave).
*Vegetable stock
Trim and/or peel and roughly slice a couple each of the following: onions, carrots, leek, celery, turnip. Put all the vegetables in a large pan with 2 large, sliced mushrooms, a bay leaf, a sprig of thyme, some parsley and/or coriander stalks and 1 tsp peppercorns. Cover with 2 litres water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer gently for 1 hour. (Do not salt the stock.) Strain, discard the vegetables and use the stock as needed. Or freeze in 500ml containers.
TOFU AND COURGETTES WITH A SPICY ALMOND SAUCE
This gorgeous Mexican sauce (a recipe from the chef at the Hacienda Los Laureles in Oaxaca) is traditionally used with fish, chicken or pork. It works well in this recipe, and cheers up tofu no end.
Serves 4-6
2 packets (2 x 250g) tofu, cut in large cubes
2 tbsp soy sauce
juice of 1 lime
salt and pepper
2 courgettes, cut in thick slices (or round ones, quartered)
2 tbsp oil
30g blanched (peeled) almonds
1 slice slightly stale bread, cut in cubes
2 tbsp sesame seeds
a pinch of thyme
a 2 cm piece of cinnamon stick, crumbled
½ tsp peppercorns
2 cloves
2-3 tomatoes (about 300g), peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, mashed
½ onion, chopped
2-3 pickled red chillies, seeded and finely chopped
250 ml (1 cup) vegetable stock *
Put the tofu in a shallow dish and add the soy sauce, lime juice, salt and pepper. Leave to marinate for a few hours or overnight.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a high-sided frying pan or sauté pan. Drain the tofu (reserve any juices) and fry it until golden, turning once. Remove and put in a side dish. In the same pan, fry the courgettes until golden, turning them once. Remove and add them to the tofu. If necessary, add a little more oil to the pan and fry the almonds until golden – turn them once. Add the sesame seeds and allow them also to take a little colour (beware: they burn easily). Use a splatter shield as the sesame seeds tend to pop about. Add the bread cubes and spices and continue frying until over moderate heat until nicely toasted and the spices yield their aromas. Add the tomatoes, garlic, onion and chillies and fry for a few minutes more until the mixture is quite dry. Scrape the pan contents into the liquidiser and add 1 cup of stock. Blend till smooth.
Heat the rest of the oil in the same pan and tip in the blended sauce. Cover the pan to avoid splashback and when the worst of the explosions have died down, remove the lid and cook the sauce, stirring, for a few minutes. Add enough stock to thin the sauce to a lightly coating consistency. Simmer for 20 minutes. Put the tofu and courgettes into the sauce and simmer gently for 5-6 minutes to heat it through.
