Cook Book Club: October

The longer days and brighter skies bring with them tastes of spring – asparagus is already available, peas and broad beans will follow, and avocados are piled high (the main season here is from September). This time of year then is good to start thinking about spring produce, about things to eat on warmer days. Jo of Brookford Kitchen Diaries, who hosts the Cook Book Club, has proposed salads for our October theme, and as she is also in the Southern Hemisphere, is also thinking ahead to summer.

My favourite book for salad inspiration is Peter Gordon’s wonderful book Savour. I have featured it on here before, so had a good browse around the cook book shelves and decided to go with ideas from Around the Kitchen Table by Sophie Hansen and her mother, Annie Herron. This is a delightful book of recipes from Sophie and sketching ideas from her mum. As ever with her style, the recipes are very much with ‘easy entertaining’ in mind, so need to be adapted for two.

I had three chioggia beetroot in the fridge, so decided to make this beetroot salad, and the roasted capsicum salad which I was also trying out as a possible Christmas side dish. The dishes were part of a chapter called Feeding the Artists, things put together when Sophie has been cooking for her mother’s residential classes.

First up, I made the roasted capsicum salad which we ate on Saturday evening with roast chicken. I halved the quantities since there were just two of us (and there was a lot left over for me to enjoy at Sunday lunch). Preheat the oven to 180C. Lightly oil an ovenproof dish, and add 4 quartered red capsicums, 4 tomatoes (I used 1 large capsicum and a couple of good handfulls of cherry tomatoes), 8 anchovy filets, 4 finely chopped garlic cloves and 2 tablespoons of capers. Drizzle with olive oil and a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and toss to combine. Bake for 45 minutes or until the capsicum and tomatoes are soft and tender. I chopped up the capsicum into bite sized pieces before assembling the salad on top of a bed of rocket. I forgot to get some basil, which would make a perfect topping.

Verdict: excellent. Do again? Yes.

With Karl away, I took the opportunity to use up the beetroot I mentioned above. I am not a great beetroot lover, but the chioggia ones are not so earthy and I can eat them. Karl hates beetroot in any guise. The recipe calls for 4 beetroot, but I think this would be nice with baby beetroot in different colours. Anyway, preheat the oven to 180C, then wrap the beetroot in foil and bake for as long as it takes to cook them through. Mine took far longer than the suggested 40 minutes. Allow to cool when done.

Grab a good solid frying pan and add a good glug of olive oil, then add 1/2 teaspoon of cumin seeds and 1 tablespoon of brown mustard seeds and cook until they pop. Mix 2/3 cup of Greek yoghurt with 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard and 2 preserved lemon quarters chopped up finely (see Monday’s post for why I had to use lemon juice instead…). Spoon the yoghurt into a flat now, add the sliced beetroot, pour the seed mix over the to and scatter with, in my case, mint, as I have loads in the garden, though the recipe suggest dill.

Verdict: very nice Do again? Probably as easy and a good way to make a salad to take for work lunches.

On the next page in the book, was an idea to serve asparagus with toasted nuts, which is just what it says. I used almonds and sesame seeds, to top the asparagus, with a squeeze of lemon. I would definitely do this again.

So…there we have three salads (well, one and a serving idea), the roasted pepper one I would definitely do again as we move to warmer weather and tomatoes drop price.

Next month’s challenge is 25 November. Check Jo’s post for details.

Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer and good food. Thistles and Kiwis can be found on Facebook and Instagram @thistlesandkiwis