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.

Beef with broccoli

This recipe is a slightly tweaked version of the one on the magnificent Chinese food blog Woks of Life.

Ingredients

500 g of beef steak
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
50 ml water

for the marinade
2 teaspoons of cornflour
2 teaspoons of vegetable oil
2 teaspoons of oyster sauce

for the sauce
100 ml chicken stock
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
1 teaspoon of dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
a few grinds of pepper

500g of tenderstem broccoli or broccoli florets
vegetable oil for frying
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 inch of garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons of Shaoxing wine (or use dry white wine)
1 tablespoon of cornflour, mixed with 2 tablespoons of cold water

Method

1. Slice the beef into fine strips (use a very sharp knife and chill the meat for 30 minutes in the freezer beforehand - or just buy beef that has already been cut for stir-frying).
2. Put the beef in a large bowl, add the baking soda and water, massage the mix into the beef, mix the marinade ingredients, add to the beef, and leave to tenderize for at least 30 minutes.
3. Combine all the sauce ingredients.
4. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil, blanch the broccoli quickly - no more than 1 minute - strain and set aside.
5. Once the beef has tenderized, fry it in batches in a very hot wok for two to three minutes. (You'll probably need to do at least four batches.) Set aside.
6. Heat a little oil in the wok, add the garlic and ginger, fry for a few seconds, add the Shaoxing wine, then add the sauce ingredients and bring to a simmer.
7. Next, add the cornflour and water mixture, and cook briefly to thicken the sauce.
8. Turn the heat up to full, add the beef, stir well to coat and cook for a minute or so, before adding the broccoli.

Hummus

Ingredients

60 g tahini
juice of 1 lemon
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
60 ml water
30 ml olive oil
400g tin of chickpeas, drained, reserve the water

Method

1. Combine all of the ingredients except for the chickpeas, in a food processor or nutribullet and blend very thoroughly for a couple of minutes.
2. Add the chickpeas, blend for another minute or so until very smooth.

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 200oC. 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 14 minutes.

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.