Roasted butternut squash with cardamom and black onion seeds

This is Ottolenghi, by way of our friends S and N who have been staying with us these last few days. They are the first to test our 'spare' room, which we haven't really worked out what to do with yet. The squash was really delicious: the spices were perfect, and they made it with wild rice mix, which soaked up the wonderful juices really well. It is a surprisingly straightforward recipe for Ottolenghi: basically just squash and some stuff we always have in the cupboards.

20 g unsalted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large red onion, peeled and cut into 1 cm thick slices
1 large butternut squash, peeled and cut into 3 cm pieces
salt
30 g pumpkin seeds
1 tsp nigella seeds (black onion seed / kalonji), plus extra to garnish
½ tsp each ground cumin and coriander
¼ tsp ground turmeric
4 cardamom pods, lightly crushed
1 cinnamon stick
1 green chili, halved lengthways
1 tbsp caster sugar
200 ml vegetable stock
100 g Greek yoghurt
1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

Heat the oven to 200C/400F. Put butter and oil in a large pan, and fry the onion for eight min over medium heat until soft. Add the butternut, turn the heat up to medium-high and cook for 10 min, stirring occasionally, until it starts to colour.

Remove from the heat and add half a teaspoon of salt, the seeds, spices, chili and sugar. Mix and transfer to an ovenproof dish large enough to hold everything snugly. Pour in the stock and roast for 30 minutes, by which point the butternut should be tender and all the liquid absorbed or evaporated.

Serve warm with yoghurt spooned on top, a sprinkling of chopped coriander and a few nigella seeds.


Note: This other butternut squash Ottolenghi recipe looks good too. I really ought to buy one of his books.

Dry kale and coconut curry

I can't get enough coconut at the moment, and kale and beetroot have been very regular fixtures in our veg bag. So when I came across these recipes for beetroot and kale curries I was dead set on making them asap. Not least because they reminded me very much of the delicious coconutty food I'd eaten in Tamil Nadu and Kerala in southern India many moons ago.

I made the kale one first, and it is great. I was totally going to follow it with the beetroot one (I have  a guilty beetroot mountain in the fridge - much though I love the stuff I have not been getting through it quickly enough!) but the site was down when I looked on Friday... So I made this beetroot soup instead. Very much intending to do the beetroot one soon too though (yes, I do still have more beetroot in the fridge)!

½ cup / 45 g desiccated coconut
½ cup / 125 ml coconut water (didn't have - just used water)
4 cups / 130 g shredded kale
1 small red onion (used white), sliced
1 tsp ground cumin
¾ tsp fine sea salt, plus more for garnish
1 green chilli, if desired (used a bit of red), finely chopped
juice of ½ lime, plus extra for garnish

Mix desiccated coconut and coconut water in a small bowl and let soak for about 30 min. Prepare veg while you wait.

In a large pot over medium heat, add the onions, salt and cumin. Stir often, letting the onions soften in the pan. Add a couple tablespoons of the liquid from the soaking coconut if the pot becomes too dry (reserve as much liquid as you can, however). After about 8-10 min, add the kale and the coconut mixture. Stir to coat, and quickly cover the pot with a lid so that the kale steams inside. Wait just 30-60 sec (or a bit longer if your kale is tough) – the kale is ready when it is bright green and tender. Remove from heat and squeeze in the lime juice. Season to taste.

Note: I ended up with loads of liquid at the end. I evaporated it with the pan tilted to avoid overcooking the kale, but it's probably smart to avoid adding extra water as much as possible, and to make sure the kale is well dried after washing.

Birthday mohnkuchen; and birthday pasta cake

 It was S's birthday yesterday. I had decided weeks ago upon his cake: mohnkuchen. I'd bought the poppy seeds even longer ago, in Germany, and had been meaning to make mohnkuchen ever since. Seems like I make cakes less and less often... But birthday cakes are essential!

I used the same recipe as before, without veganising it this time. I made it the day before, and it was delicious on the day and he loved it. BUT it was the ugliest cake ever. I mean, black poppy seeds don't make for the most beautiful cake to start with, but on top of that the mohn mixture rose up in a wall all around the edges like crazy. This didn't happen before and I don't understand why it happened this time. Perhaps I didn't put the streusel mixture thick enough on top? Anyway, I trimmed that bit back down so it didn't look quite as bizarre, and it tasted great. It meant it was a bit more sunken in the middle and the mohn layer wasn't quite as thick as it should have been, but it held together well and I can't really complain.

We had a good day - a good balance of making plans and being spontaneous, and being lucky. Cake and presents for breakfast; bus over to the sauna, some sunny sauna action; up to Papirøen for good food (the best pizza place has gone completely vegetarian, including many vegan options - wahoo!); bus back in time for S to watch Dortmund, who won, and it started raining as soon as we got back... While S watched football and then spoke to his mum, I decided to cap his day off by making his this spaghetti pie for his dinner - I had seen the recipe a few weeks back and it had his name written all over - pasta, cheese, crispy pasta, more cheese... This was a perfect opportunity to make it!

butter for greasing springform
8 oz broccoli rabe, chopped into few-inch segments
1 lb dried spaghetti
1 1/2 cups milk
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
2-3 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp coarse salt
8 oz aged pecorino cheese, grated, divided
8 oz fontina cheese, grated, divided

Heat oven to 425F (220C, 200C fan). Butter a 9 in springform baking tin and wrap the outside tightly in foil. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add broccoli to the pot and boil for 1-2 min, until just tender. Fish out with a large slotted spoon and drain well. Set aside.

Add spaghetti to boiling water and cook until 2 min short of done (i.e. very al dente) as the spaghetti will continue cooking in the oven. Drain well and let cool slightly.

Wring all extra moisture out of the broccoli and blot on paper towels to remove as much moisture as possible. Chop into very small pieces.

In a large bowl, whisk eggs and milk together with salt and pepper. Stir in all but 1/2 cup of each cheese and chopped broccoli. Add spaghetti and toss to coat.

Pour mixture into prepared tin and sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Bake for 50+ min (mine took more like an hour and a half), until the top is brown and there is no runny egg in the centre. If the top browns before the center is set, cover with foil for the remaining cooking time.

Cut around the springform ring to loosen, then remove ring. Run a spatula underneath the pie to loosen the base and slide onto a serving plate. Cut into wedges.


The mixture only just fits in the tin, but doesn't rise up so that's OK. It is huge, and very filling, so definitely serves many people or makes lots of leftovers. It took ages to cook: definitely not something to make in a rush or when hungry! It also messed up the springform quite a lot. I won't be making this often but it had a lot of impact for a special occasion for a pasta lover! He was pretty excited!

Black garlic dill dough balls

We went to the big Yayoi Kusuma show at Louisiana one evening last week. It was amazingly busy for a cold Wednesday night. But it was a super fun show. We'd seen some of her work at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh and at Louisiana before, but I was only really familiar with her reflecting rooms and polka dots. Turns out there was a whole lot of other stuff I didn't know about, which was just as great if not better. I really enjoyed her nets, and her pumpkins (especially the large bronze ones). And her earliest work: colourful paintings and beautifully precise botanical sketches. Although it felt very much of its time, her 60s NY stuff - pasta handbags, cut-out dresses and nude happenings - was interesting to see too. I wasn't very familiar with that period of her work, and it was all very smart and humorous. S got inspired by a little footnote listing the performers at one of her happenings - someone called Dill Dough...

So on the train back we decided that we should buy some dill and experiment with Dill Dough recipes. At the weekend we bought dill from a shop in København NV. And last night I was in the kitchen making fritters and decided it was time for dill dough. We still had anytime dough in the fridge from our latest pizza efforts. I also decided to include some black garlic, which we had bought on a whim the other day and is really interesting. It doesn't really taste like garlic at all - sweet and tangy - perhaps more like miso? Somewhere inbetween yeast extract and miso? Anyway, I mixed some of that in too...

1/3 quantity of pre-made dough
2-3 tbsp chopped dill
4-5 cloves black garlic, chopped
1-2 tbsp flour, as needed
butter to finish

Take the dough out of the fridge and add the dill and black garlic. Mix and knead a little to combine. Shape into bread roll shapes (this made 4 but it's flexible depending on dough quantity / ball size preference). Space on a baking sheet covered with baking paper and prove in a warm place for about 30 min. Preheat the oven to 200C and bake the dough balls for 20-30 min, until they sound hollow when tapped on the base. Take out of the oven and smear a little butter on the top of each one to melt. Best eaten still slightly warm.

Salsify fritters

Our latest veg bag came with some charismatic roots (besides the usual tatties and beets): salsify and horseradish. I've never cooked salsify before, so it seemed like a fun challenge. A silver lining to having to leave work early to get the veg bag is that I arrive home with time to cook before S gets home / before I get super tired and hungry. So I got busy in the kitchen. These fritters were one of the first salsify recipes I came across. I had all the ingredients and it had been a while since I made a fritter, so I decided to go with it. Salsify has quite a subtle, slightly sweet flavour, so I wondered if it would be overpowered by the chilli, garlic and coriander. It wasn't though: it was fine.

300 g salsify (5-6 roots), peeled and coarsely grated
1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
1 small red chilli, chopped
3 tbsp chopped coriander
1 egg
1 tbsp flour
salt+pepper
butter and olive oil for cooking

Wash, peel and grate the salsify. Melt 1-2 tbsp butter in a frying pan and cook the grated salsify until it is tender, 5-10 min. Transfer cooked salsify to a bowl and add garlic, chilli, coriander, egg, flour and seasoning. Shape into fritters - it should make 5-6. Heat 1-2 tbsp butter and 1-2 tbsp olive oil in the frying pan and fry the fritters about 4 minutes on each side until browned on the outside and cooked through. Eat right away.

Exciting pizza

S has a different approach to the kitchen than me. I tend to make different things all the time (as evidenced here), and get bored if I make the same thing too many times. He finds things he likes and makes them again and again until he reaches perfection. Like pasta. Or pretzels: he reaches a level of perfect replication in pretzel shapes that I have never achieved with anything. The latest thing to gain his attention is pizza. Since I discovered the speedy dough trick, we have developed a system: I make the dough and leave it in the fridge, then anytime he wants he can make pizza (and then I can eat it)!

Since we got back from Italy he's been getting awesomely adventurous. One success was white pizza with mozzarella and truffle paste, inspired by pizza we had in Rome and truffles we brought back in a jar. Another, which I guess was more inspired by Otto's in Boston, is pizza with spicy tomato sauce, white beans and potato. I cannot fully express just how well beans work on pizza: they get a little bit crispy on the outside: a bit of a falafel vibe? Very good! Both beans and potato are best cooked before putting on pizza to simplify matters.

Red lentil and pumpkin pottage

Pottage is a nice word, isn't it? It evokes thick, lovely, stick-to-your-ribs warmth. Which is exactly what this is. This is from my New Covent Garden Soup Company book. I am not sure I ever made before, perhaps I had dismissed it for its apparent simplicity. It is simple, but it is good. And simple can be wonderful on chilly winter nights.

Also, I just came back from Italy struck by how good simple food can be. Basically every pizza or pasta dish we ate there comprised just one main ingredient besides the pasta or dough, often something cheap and hearty: pasta and spinach; pasta and chickpeas; pizza with aubergine, pizza with zucchini... All so good. I remember the first time I realized what Italian food really is, when I first visited Italy: I ate a dish of spaghetti with oil and garlic expecting to be underwhelmed but instead I got it for the first time after a life of boring non-Italian Italian food.

This little kabocha squash was loitering around from our last vegetable bag before Christmas, and we returned from Italy to a cold, busy day of unpacking and sorting things out, and simple soup from good ingredients, all of which we happened to have at home, was exactly what fitted into the day.

For the soup:
2 oz / 50 g butter
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1 medium kabocha squash (or butternut... 1 1/2 lb / 675 g), peeled and diced
1 bay leaf
red lentils
1 3/4 pints / 1 litre vegetable stock
salt and pepper

To serve:
yogurt or creme fraiche
chopped fresh coriander
toasted pumpkin seeds

Melt butter in a lidded saucepan and fry the onion, squash and bay leaf with the lid on until slightly tender but not coloured. Add the lentils and stock, bring to the boil and simmer for about 30 min until the vegetables and lentils are soft. Taste for seasoning, let cool a bit and blend until smooth. Reheat gently and serve in bowls with yoghurt swirled on top and sprinkling of coriander and pumpkin seeds. Those New Covent Garden Soup Company soups are endlessly great.