Papas aliñadas / Simple Cadiz-style potato salad

This is one of those dishes that seem super simple but where the homemade version never quite measures up to the one served in restaurants (or in this case, bars). I stopped making this at home a few years ago because my efforts, while always perfectly good, fell disappointingly short of what I was aiming for.

Was there some missing ingredient? Some magic technique? Did the Spanish hospitality business have access to a mystery supply of a unique variety of potato?

Satisfyingly, I think I've cracked it. The key:  the right kind of potatoes (when Spanish recipes say 'new' they don't mean what we understand to be 'new potatoes' in English; they just mean ones that have been harvested relatively recently); cook the potatoes in their skins and peel them afterwards; use a lot of oil; add the onion and parsley just before serving.

Ingredients

700 g of white potatoes (Maris piper work well)

1 teaspoon of coarsely ground salt

100 ml of good quality olive oil

30 ml of sherry vinegar

100 g of mild onion

plenty of fresh parsley (about 2 tablespoons?)

Method

1. Steam or boil the potatoes in their skins until just done. Peel, chop into large chunks (about 2 cm).
2. Combine the potatoes, salt, oil and vinegar in a large bowl.
3. Roughly chop the onion (it's there for flavour, not to be eaten), finely chop the parsley and add to the potatoes just before you serve.

Hummus

The key to a light hummus is... water.

Ingredients

400g tin of chickpeas, drained

60 g tahini
60 ml water
30 ml olive oil

juice of 1 lemon
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method

Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor and blend very thoroughly for a couple of minutes.

You can use this basic recipe for any bean-based dip; swap out the chickpeas for another pulse (butter beans, broad beans, kidney beans); replace the tahini with peanut-butter, cashew nuts or walnuts; throw in some other spices (cumin, coriander); heat it up with some chilli sauce; swap the lemon for a lime.

Plain scones

 The secret to a good scone, in my opinion, is to knead the dough lightly and shape by hand. If you don't knead the dough enough, the scone will be too crumbly; knead it too much or - heaven forbid! - roll it out, and your scone will be too heavy.

Ingredients

300g self-raising flour
50g caster sugar
75g butter
160ml milk

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180oC. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl, add the sugar, cut the butter into small pieces and add to the flour and sugar mixture, rubbing it gently with your fingertips until it is the texture of breadcrumbs.
2. Add the milk, mix with a spoon, and then knead gently until you have a smooth dough.
3. Divide the dough into eight even pieces, form each piece into a ball, and flatten slightly to form a fat, rough disk. Any cracks and folds will add texture to the finished scone.
4. Place the rounds on a lightly floured baking sheet and bake for about 14 minutes, until they are golden.

I've been making scones for years but I have to confess that it took me a while (okay, years!) to realise that, while not rolling and cutting them was fine, I'd gone too far in the other direction and that by barely kneading the dough at all my scones were crumblier (and heavier) than they should have been. Nonetheless, I have lots of happy memories of making scones with my kids for friends and family, so here are a couple of photos from the archive.

Stir-fried cucumbers with peanuts and black bean sauce

 Now that I don't always have other people to cater for, my daily cooking often consists of a quick and simple vegetable dish served with noodles. I had never even thought of cooking cucumbers until I had them in a Chinese restaurant with chicken but it struck me that the European aversion to doing so is quite irrational - a low-level taboo even.

Ingredients

1 cucumber
2 tbsps black bean and garlic sauce
1 tbsp minced ginger
2 tbsps vegetable oil
50 g peanuts
1 tbsp soy sauce
6 spring onions

Method

1. Cut the cucumber into thick matchsticks.
2. In a wok or large frying pan, combine the  black bean sauce and the ginger with the vegetable oil, and fry gently.
3. After a minute or so, add the peanuts, fry for another 30 seconds or so, then add the cucumber.
4. Turn up the heat and fry for another 3 minutes, add the soy sauce and chopped spring onions, cook for a further 30 seconds and serve.

Sweet potato, green bean and coconut curry

 I'm not sure if my spice tolerance has gone down over the years or if I've just come to my senses and realised that too much chilli gets in the way of other flavours. Whatever the reason, I use far less chilli in my own cooking and studiously avoid anything excessively spicy when eating out. This is a very simple mild curry that can be prepared from beginning to end in about 30 minutes.

Ingredients

1 onion
500g sweet potato
200g green beans
2 tbsps vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp minced ginger
mild curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
400 ml coconut milk

juice of 1 lemon
small bunch of fresh coriander

Method

1. Peel and chop the onion. Peel the sweet potato and cut into small chunks. Top and tail the green beans and cut into 3 cm lengths.
2. Gently fry the onion in the vegetable oil until it is translucent.
3. Add the finely chopped garlic and minced ginger and fry for another minute or so.
4. Add the curry powder and salt, fry for another 30 seconds.
5. Add the sweet potato and the coconut milk, and simmer gently until the potato is almost done (about 15 minutes).
6. Add the green beans and cook for another 5 minutes, until they are done.
7. Add the lemon juice and chopped coriander, mix and serve.

Curry powder

Lots of recipes call for huge numbers of individual ground spices - and even roasting and grinding spices from scratch. It's the kind of detail that can turn preparing a simple dish into an unappealing chore. It's often quicker and easier simply to use a ready-made spice mix and it may be better, too: using spice mixes means you can cook with a far wider range of spices, and your spices will probably be fresher too. 

Steamed spicy sour aubergine

 It's the sign of a good dish when it evolves in your kitchen over the years. I first started making a version of this as 'yu hung aubergine' about 15 years ago but since then I have simplified it and also pushed it in a spicy sour direction.

Ingredients

1 aubergine
2 tbsps vegetable oil
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tsp chilli sauce
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsps light soy sauce
4 spring onions

Method

1. Cut the aubergine crosswise into 3 pieces, then cut each piece lengthwise into 6 or 8 wedges. Steam the aubergine for 8 minutes, until cooked but still firm.
2. Combine the oil, ginger and chilli sauce in a frying pan and cook gently for a couple of minutes. (I avoid adding minced ginger to hot oil as it will spit.)
3. Add the aubergine, mix well to coat in the sauce, and fry for another minute or so.
4. Add the vinegar and soy sauce, stir well and simmer for another couple of minutes.
5. Finely chop the spring onions, add to the aubergine mixture and cook for another 30 seconds or so.

I've probably eaten some version of this about once a week for the last five years, usually served with noodles for a quick lunch or supper, but sometimes as a side dish or pimped up with the addition of some firm tofu. The simplest way to vary this dish is by using a different chilli sauce. The aubergines above were made with a tablespoon of Laoganma's Crispy Chilli in Oil. It's not too hot, and includes crunchy soy beans and is flavoured with Szechuan pepper.

Pickled mushrooms in olive oil

This is a method of preserving vegetables called "sott'olio" in Italian (under oil). It consists of parboiling them in seasoned vinegar, then covering them with oil. It can be used for aubergines or courgettes as well.

Ingredients

250g of mushrooms

200ml of cider vinegar

1 tsp of whole coriander seeds

1 tsp of black peppercorns

4 bay leaves

1/2 tsp of salt

100 ml of olive oil

Method

1. Add the coriander, peppercorns, bay leaves and salt to the vinegar, bring to the boil, reduce heat to minimum, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
2. Wash and slice the mushrooms (not too thinly) and add them to the vinegar. Bring back to the boil, turn off heat and leave to cool.
3. Transfer the mushrooms to a jar or a small tupperware, adding oil between each layer and more to cover, and store in the fridge.

I wasn't sure whether to post this but then I got really hungry late at night, remembered I had a bowl of this sitting in my fridge and immediately ate half of it (with crackers and hummus) and it was absolutely delicious.

Risotto with fennel and courgette

I used to make a sausage version of this (and sometimes still do) but I've gone semi-vegetarian over the last few years so one of the key flavourings in the sausage version (fennel) gradually took centre stage. I often do variations on this - leaving out the fennel altogether, throwing in some peas or plenty of fresh basil, squeezing some lemon juice into it... A good recipe should have a method at its core, and the details should provide one way of implementing this. I'm always in favour of simplifying recipes where possible and also of taking advantage of whatever may be available - in your fridge or the local shops.


Ingredients
100g butter
1 fennel bulb
1 courgette
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
300g arborio rice
900 ml of boiling water
1 vegetable stock cube
freshly ground black pepper
freshly grated Parmesan

Method

1. Roughly chop the fennel bulb, slice the courgette, finely chop the garlic
2. Dissolve the stock cube in the boiling water
3. Put 50 g of the butter, the fennel, courgette, garlic and salt into a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan and fry gently for about 10 minutes, until the fennel and courgette have softened.
4. Add the rice and stir thoroughly.
5. Add a few ladlefuls of the stockwater to the rice, and stir gently until the liquid is almost absorbed.
6. On a low heat, add the rest of the stock, a ladleful at a time, stirring while you cook, until the rice is tender but not mushy. (This should take about 30 minutes).
7. Remove from heat, add the remaining butter, stir well, cover and leave to sit for 2 minutes. Serve sprinkled with black pepper and Parmesan.

Raspberry blondies

Ingredients

175 g butter
200g soft light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
200g white chocolate
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
200g self-raising flour
75 g frozen raspberries

Method

1. Melt the butter, light sugar, caster sugar and 100g of the white chocolate in a bain marie. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
2. Line a square 20 x 20 cm tin with greaseproof paper. Preheat oven to 180oC.
3. Add the vanilla extract to the cooled mixture, followed by the beaten eggs, one at a time.
4. Add the flour, and mix until smooth.
5. Add 50g of the remaining white chocolate, broken into small pieces, together with the raspberries, and pour the batter into the tin.
6. Bake for 50 minutes until just set, and leave to cool in the tin.
7. Melt the remaining 50 g of white chocolate in a bain marie and drizzle over the blondies.

Mango, coconut and lime cake

I've been a late comer to Great British Bake Off but now I'm hooked. I have to admit that I'm in awe at how talented (most of) the participants are, but it's also clear that keeping it simple and getting the basics right is often the surest route to success.

One thing that I hadn't expected was to be inspired by the use of unusual ingredients, but after watching a recent episode I decided it was time to reboot my banana bread.

The 'recipe' here is just the proportion of dry to wet ingredients, the basic methods and cooking times. You can use it as a template and swap ingredients in and out - tinned peaches instead of mango, oat milk instead of coconut milk, replace the chilli with some ginger and so on.

Ingredients
120g caster sugar
60g soft butter
150g tinned mango, drained and pureed
50g coconut milk
1 egg, beaten
140g self-raising flour

juice of 1/2 lime
2 or 3 drops of chilli sauce

Method

1. Set the oven to 180oC and line and grease a small loaf tin.
2. Cream together the sugar and butter.
3. Add the mango, coconut milk and egg to the butter and sugar, and mix well.
4. Mix the flour into the resulting batter, then add the lime juice and chilli sauce.
5. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin, and bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes until golden.
6. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack.

Sliced mushrooms with ginger dressing

This has been a staple of ours for a few years.  I usually make it as a salad to accompany a meal but it always seems to get eaten before the rest of the food is ready.

Ingredients
250g of sliced brown mushrooms
1 tsp minced ginger
2 tsps sesame oil
2 tsps sunflower oil
2 tsps light soy
handful of chopped coriander

Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl.  Leave to sit for at least 15 mins to give the mushrooms a chance to absorb the dressing before serving.

Ma Po tofu

In my ongoing search for vegetarian dishes, I cooked this from Fuchsia Dunlop's brilliant book, Every Grain of Rice. Tofu itself is quite bland, so enjoying it is all about using it is a vehicle for other flavours, and appreciating the texture of the tofu itself.

Ingredients

500g plain tofu

4 tbsps of cooking oil

2 tbsps of chilli bean paste

1 tbsp of fermented black beans, rinsed and drained

1 tbsp of minced ginger

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

100 ml of vegetable stock

black pepper

2 tsps of potato flour, mixed with 2 tbsps of cold water

1/2 tsp of ground roasted Sichuan pepper

the green parts of 4 spring onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal

Method

1. Cut the tofu into 2 cm cubes, cover in very hot, slightly salted water, and leave to steep. Prepare the other ingredients. (When I'm cooking Chinese food, I tend to arrange all my dry ingredients on a plate, in their order of use.)  Remove the tofu from the water with a slotted spoon, and put it on a plate.
2. Heat your wok until it is nice and hot, add the oil, reduce heat to minimum, and add the chilli bean paste. Stir fry for about 30 seconds, add the black beans, and stir fry for a few seconds more. Add the ginger and garlic, stir for a few seconds more.
3. Add the tofu, stir gently to coat with the sauce, and add the stock and a few grinds of black pepper.
4. Bring to a boil, simmer for a few minutes, then add the flour and water mixture, and continue to simmer until the sauce thickens.
5. Transfer the tofu and sauce to a serving bowl, sprinkle the Sichuan pepper and spring onion greens over it, and serve.

Pock-marked old woman's tofu

Apparently this is what the Chinese name of this dish means. One can only admire the honesty - it makes a refreshing change from all the adjective-laden titles of restaurant dishes in the UK.