Easy foolproof Caesar Dressing

A traditional Caesar dressing is essentially an anchovy and garlic mayonnaise. When emulsifying with olive oil, there's a risk of the mixture splitting, which can be annoying. This method uses a shop bought mayo as a base but incorporates the essential rustic flavours you want from a good Caesar. It will also sit happily in the fridge for a couple of weeks.

Small tin anchovies in oil

2/3 plump cloves garlic, crushed

2 heaped tspns Dijon mustard

A good dash of Worcestershire sauce

Juice of 1 lemon

3 cups decent shop bought mayonnaise 

Seasoning to taste

Method:

Combine all the ingredients except the mayo un a food processor and blitz to smooth. Add the mayonnaise and blitz to incorporate. If desired the sauce can be thinned with a little water. Season to taste and serve with grated Parmeggiano.

Ensaladilla Rusa - the King of potato salads

Ingredients
1kg Maris Piper potatoes
3 large carrots
3 tins tuna steak

1/2 tin anchovies in olive oil

3 cups frozen garden peas
2 cups chopped pickled gherkins

1 cup chopped pitted green olives
2 cloves garlic
Extra virgin olive oil
Wine vinegar

3 cups mayonnaise

4 hard boiled eggs
Roasted red pepper for garnish (jar version is fine)

Spanish smoked paprika (Pimenton)

Method:

Place the potatoes in a large pan salted water and cook until knife tender, approx 25mins. Also cook the carrots in the same water but for about 10mins less. In the meantime roughly chop the gherkins and olives. Once the potatoes and carrots are done, use the boiling water to cook the frozen peas for a couple of minutes, and then hard boil the eggs for 10mins. 

Once the potatoes are cooked, put aside until they are cool enough to peel and roughly slice. Dice the cooked carrots. Combine the carrots, potatoes and peas in a bowl and season. Poor over the olive oil from the tins of tuna and anchovy, as well as the extra virgin oil and vinegar. In a mortar and pestle combine the anchovy fillets with 2 cloves of garlic and some coarse sea salt and grind to a fine paste. Combine with the potatoes, and add in the chopped gherkins and olives. Fold in the mayonnaise.

Place in the serving dish and garnish with hard boiled eggs and the red peppers, as per the picture attached.

Enjoy!

Mojo Rojo y Mojo Verde (Red and Green spicy sauces)

 I first came across these wonderful spicy sauces in Fuerteventura, where they are served with the locally grown "papas", small potatoes which are boiled dry in salty water leaving them salt crusted. The sauces go well with meat, fish and vegetables, hence their inclusion in my list of favourites. It is worth going to the trouble of making both sauces because they contrast so well, and will keep fresh in the fridge for a number of days. 

Mojo Verde

• 3 generous handfuls fresh coriander, stems and all
• a bunch of spring onions
• 3 green chillies
• 125ml sherry vinegar
• 250ml extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2tsp cayenne pepper
• 3tbsp cumin seeds, ground to powder
• 25g castor sugar
• seasoning to taste

Combine all ingredients into the food processor and blitz thoroughly. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Mojo Rojo

• 200ml extra virgin olive oil
• 1nhandful flatleaf parsley
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 tsp smoked pimenton (Spanish paprika)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 150g tomato puree
• 75ml white wine vinegar
• 25ml water, to loosen
• 25g castor sugar
• 1 tbsp fennel seeds, powdered
• 1 tbsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• seasoning to taste

Again, combine all ingredients into the food processor and blitz thoroughly. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Store in sterilised air-tight jars in the fridge.

Pickled Carrots

Pickled Carrots

For the pickling brine:
1 cup water

2.5 cups vinegar

1 cup sugar

2 tbsp sea salt

4 bay leaves 

1 tbsp turmeric 

15 pepper corns

1 tbsp mustard seeds

1 tbsp fennel seeds

4 cloves garlic

2 tbsp chilli flakes or 2 dried chillies - more if you dare

6 cloves

2 shallots thinly sliced into rings
About 6 large carrots, thinly sliced lengthways

Method:
Put all the ingredients for the pickling brine into a pot and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Make sure the sugar is fully dissolved. 
In a large jar place the carrots and shallots. Pour over the brine and make sure the vegetables are covered - yo can top up with more vinegar/water as required. Seal the jar, refrigerate once cool and try to resist eating them for at least 3 days!

This brine will work well with most garden vegetables.

Tandoori Chicken on the grill

A whole chicken, quartered and skinned.

For the marinade:

4 heaped tbsp Greek yoghurt

Juice of a lemon

2 tbsp vegetable oil

4 cloves of garlic, crushed

A large finger of fresh ginger, peeled and pureed

4 tbsp Tandoori masala spice blend 

Hot chilli powder/cayenne as desired

Optional: A few drops of red food colour or raw beetroot juice (without vinegar)

Season well

Method

Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a bowl.

Slash the flesh of the chicken in a few places to allow the marinade to penetrate.

Marinade ideally 4hrs to overnight

For best results cook indirectly on a hot grill/BBQ

Serve with a squeeze of lemon

Lobster Spaghetti

2 small cooked lobsters

1 tin tomatoes blitzed

15 baby plum tomatoes quartered

3 cloves garlic crushed

1/2 cup evoo 

1tbsp sugar

1/2 cup chopped parsley

2 bay leaves

splash white wine

cooked linguine pasta 

Gazpacho Andaluz

Gazpacho is all about the freshness and quality of the ingredients.  So here goes...

Traditional Gazpacho Andaluz

Like all European classic dishes, there are 1,001 versions of this wonderfully refreshing cold summer soup that comes from the Andalusian part of Southern Spain.  I will stick to a very traditional recipe and would remark that the process for making the soup is probably more important than defining strict ratios between the different ingredients.   The vinegar features in the soup and will impart a distinct characteristic, so whether you opt for red, white or sherry vinegar, use a good quality one.  The exact quantities of salt, vinegar and oil will vary with the quality, flavour and water content of your vegetables, so adjustments will be required.  The origins of the soup can be traced back to Roman times when a more basic version of bread, water, oil and garlic was made.  Christopher Columbus brought tomatoes and bell peppers back from the New World which subsequently got added to the soup. Incidentally, in the days before stick blenders, the bread and vegetables were pounded to a paste in a very large mortar, before being passed through a sieve.

Kitchen equipment required:

A stick blender

A conical sieve and conical wooden pestle

Ingredients:

1 kg ripe flavourful tomatoes

1 small cucumber, skinned

1 medium Spanish sweet onion

1 or 2 cloves garlic, to taste

1 red or green pepper, seeded

2 slices stale bread. Stick or sourdough would be ideal.

75ml vinegar, or more to taste

200 ml extra virgin olive oil (or more to taste)

250 ml Water

Salt & pepper

Method:

Roughly chop the tomatoes, cucumber, onion, garlic and peppers and place in a large bowl on top of the stale bread. Generously salt the vegetables (but don’t overdo it as the salt can’t be removed later), and add a couple of teaspoons of vinegar. Leave to macerate in the fridge, ideally for a few hours.

After the maceration, add the cold water to the bowl and stick blend until the mixture is smooth.  Now pass the liquid through the conical sieve, which will remove skin, pips etc. and leave you with a pleasant consistency.

Into the mixture add the extra virgin olive oil and once again stick blend to emulsify the oil. The more oil you add, the creamier the soup will become.

Refrigerate the soup until required.  Adjust the seasoning and vinegar before serving as the refrigeration make alter the levels.

Traditionally, the soup is served with a garnish of finely chopped red pepper, tomato, onion, cucumber and croutons, which are spooned individually into the bowls at table side, and a small swirl of fine extra virgin olive oil on the surface of the soup.  Enjoy!