by Jamie Oliver
It really is all about twists and turns and putting new tyres on old wheels. Sometimes I’ve thought I’ve invented something new and have found out that it’s already been done slightly differently by someone else, but it doesn’t stop me and it shouldn’t stop you really taking cooking by the horns and making it a part of your life that you enjoy. Trust me, you’ll love it. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who says they hate cooking or food just doesn’t know that they like it yet.
Very often when I’m inventing new dishes I’ll draw them before attempting to cook them for the first time. It helps me to see things visually, so try out whatever helps you — it’s a bit like writing a shopping list or drawing up plans for a new garden. Here’s a funny little montage of some of the things that inspire me — designs, feelings, people, experiences — things I feel I relate to and that make me happy. You’re bound to have your own list, and everyone’s will be different.
Unlike the other chapters, this one doesn’t generally concern itself with a particular method of cooking. There are still many easy skills that are needed for making great salads. I hope you get lots of inspiration from this chapter. It’s all down to your sense of taste, having a good combination and keeping it as fresh as possible.
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CRACKING SALADS
purple potato salad
my new best salad
broad bean & crispy pancetta salad with a pea, pecorino & mint dressing
moorish crunch salad
GRATING & PEELING
ribbon celeriac salad
lamb’s lettuce & lychee salad with lucky squid & chilli jam
stir-fried warm salad of prawns & baby courgettes
warm salad of roasted squash, prosciutto & pecorino
the proper french side salad
fresh asian noodle salad
purple potato salad
I like to use new and purple potatoes in this salad, but if you can’t find any purple ones, just use all new. But do try to hunt them down — they’re great!
SERVES 6
extra virgin olive oil
1—2 lemons, to taste
250g crème fraîche
600g baby new potatoes
500g purple potatoes
1 bunch of radishes, finely sliced
½ a bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked and finely chopped
½ a bunch of fresh chives, finely chopped
Make the dressing by mixing 6 tablespoons of olive oil with the lemon juice and crème fraîche. Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for 20 minutes, or until tender, then drain well. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, rub off the skins with a knife and slice into bite-sized pieces. Toss in the dressing, add the radishes and herbs, then season to taste with sea salt and black pepper.
my new best salad
This salad is one of the best things that’s happened to me this year. Really tasty, really clean and fresh. I haven’t yet given it to anyone who didn’t absolutely love it. The recipe uses tarragon instead of any other salad leaf. This is quite shocking for me, as I’ve always been scared of tarragon! It’s a potent herb, but used aggressively and strongly like it is here it really works well. With the sweetness of the grapes and the saltiness of the goat’s cheese, it’s fantastic. If you can’t get hold of enough tarragon, feel free to bulk the salad out with some rocket. This will be fine – but tarragon on its own is so amazing, you must try it some time.
SERVES 4
2 banana or 6 regular shallots, peeled and very finely sliced
quality vinegar such as champagne, white wine, sherry
4 bunches of fresh tarragon, leaves picked
1 small bunch of seedless red grapes, halved
1 small bunch of seedless green grapes, halved
extra virgin olive oil
200g goat’s cheese or hard salted ricotta
The first job is to put the finely sliced shallots and vinegar together in a dish, making sure that the shallots are all covered by the vinegar. If the shallot slices are nice and thin they will need only about 10 to 15 minutes in the vinegar for the desired effect — they will be just like crunchy pickled onions when they’re done.
Keep all the ingredients in the fridge until your guests are around the table. Crack open a bottle of crisp white wine for them, then get started. Throw the tarragon leaves into a bowl, add the grapes, the shallots with only 5 tablespoons of their vinegar, and the 6 tablespoons of oil. Toss this all together, taste it and add a little sea salt and black pepper if needed. Go easy on the salt though, as the cheese will be quite salty. Use some tongs to pick up the salad and divide it between 4 plates. Grate or crumble the goat’s cheese on top of each salad and drizzle over any leftover dressing. You’ll love it!
‘when you’re shopping keep your eyes peeled. get stuck in, pick stuff up, grope it, smell it. trust your instincts … if it’s good, buy it!’
broad bean & crispy pancetta salad with a pea, pecorino & mint dressing
Even though this salad’s really simple and really tasty, it’s also quite a brave dish because it hasn’t got lots of leaves everywhere — just some beautiful ingredients put together with a little common sense. It’s one of those combos that makes the back of your mouth juice up when you think about it. Ideally use young peas and broad beans when they’re in season. If they’re a little older then take the skins off the beans, and if the peas are large it doesn’t really matter as you’ll be mushing them up anyway.
SERVES 4
1 clove of garlic, peeled
300g podded broad beans
8 slices of pancetta or smoked streaky bacon
1 handful of whole blanched almonds
150g podded fresh peas
70g pecorino or Parmesan cheese, or a mixture of both, freshly grated
½ a bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked
extra virgin olive oil
1—2 lemons
Preheat the oven to full whack (250°C/475°F/gas 9). Bring a pan of water to the boil, but avoid adding salt as this will make the broad beans and peas toughen up. Add the garlic clove and allow the water to boil for a couple of minutes before adding the broad beans. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, depending on how young the beans are. Simply taste one to check. If you feel the skins are a little tough, which they can be sometimes, let them cool a little, then peel them very quickly by pinching and squeezing the bean out. Throw the skins away, and keep the garlic clove to one side. Place the pancetta on a baking tray, with the almonds spread out next to it. Place in the oven, keeping an eye on the almonds to make sure they don’t colour too much. You should be able to crisp up the pancetta at the same time as toasting the almonds, but simply remove one or the other if it is getting too far ahead.
To make the dressing, put the raw podded peas and the soft, boiled garlic clove into a pestle and mortar or a food processor and bash or blitz until smooth. Add the cheese and most of the mint and stir or pulse to a paste. You want to turn this into a thick dressing, so add 8 tablespoons of oil and 4 to 5 tablespoons of lemon juice, to your preference. Season to taste with sea salt and black pepper — it should have an amazing flavour of sweet peas, twangy lemon, fragrant mint and a softness and roundness from the cheese. I generally like mine to be a bit more lemony, to cut through the smokiness of the pancetta.
Mix the dressing with the broad beans and sprinkle this over 4 plates. Crumble over the pancetta, followed by a sprinkling of the almonds, which can be crushed or bashed up a little. Tear a little mint over the top with a little shaved Parmesan, if you like.
Try this: Fry the pancetta and just as it starts to get crispy add some sliced garlic to the pan, along with a handful of small shrimps or prawns, then the almonds. Carry on as before.
And this: Mush everything up and spread over some bruschetta or crostini or even some melba toast for a lovely snack.
Or this: Simply spoon over some steamed fish.
moorish crunch sa
lad
This is a lovely little Moorish salad which gets the old taste buds going — but more to the point, it’s refreshingly crunchy and is right at home as a nice side salad or with a barbecue. You know, sometimes you haven’t got salad leaves in your fridge, but you will probably have a couple of carrots and apples, and by getting on the Moorish vibe and using mint and tahini (a paste made out of sesame seeds which you can find in most supermarkets), I’ve pulled together this little combo. The reason I’ve stated that you should slice some ingredients and have matchsticks for others is because this really adds to the crunch. You can always use the coarse side of a grater for speed (see page 30).
SERVES 4
300g carrots, peeled
150g radishes
2 eating apples
1 small handful of raisins or sultanas
1 bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped
1 bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked and roughly chopped
4 tablespoons sherry or red wine vinegar
8 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon tahini
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
First of all, finely slice the carrots into matchsticks (see page 266). Finely slice the radishes — you can leave a little of the tops on, if you like. Quarter the apples, remove the cores and finely slice. Add all these to a bowl with the rest of the ingredients, apart from the sesame seeds. Toss together, carefully checking the seasoning, and serve with the sesame seeds sprinkled over the top. Eat straight away.
Try this: Turn it into a warm salad by adding some pan-seared chicken, prawns or scallops which have been dusted with a little paprika.
And this: Make it more substantial by frying some halloumi until golden with some chopped fresh chilli and tearing this over the top.
Or this: Grill some pitta bread and serve stuffed with the crunch salad. Crumble in some feta cheese, too. Lovely.
GRATING & PEELING
It sounds really basic, but graters and peelers can be used for so much more than just peeling carrots or potatoes and grating cheese. Here are a few ways that I use them to save time when preparing stuff.
Grating potatoes for potato cakes or stovies (see page 220).
Slicing potatoes and loads of other things really quickly.
Grated ginger is much tastier than sliced or chopped.
Grating chocolate is a superb way to finish off desserts.
Thin slivers of cucumber, or any vegetable, are really crunchy and great for salads and veg dishes.
A simple way to do Parmesan shavings, to finish off dishes at the table.
Peelers are fast, efficient and can give you slices which are almost translucent and really fresh and crunchy — great for salads, stir-frying and loads more.
Shaving chocolate for desserts.
ribbon celeriac salad
Inspiration for this came from me being bored with traditional celeriac rémoulade, which is an old-fashioned French salad kind of similar to this but using grated celeriac, mustard and mayo. It’s handy to have a good speed-peeler for this recipe (see page 31). I tend to use capers in vinegar, and it works really well.
SERVES 4
1 celeriac
1 bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 anchovy fillets, in oil, finely chopped
2 heaped tablespoons baby capers, finely chopped
2 heaped tablespoons small gherkins, finely chopped
5 tablespoons crème fraîche
1 heaped tablespoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2—3 tablespoons sherry, red or white wine vinegar
Peel the celeriac, chuck away the skin, then carry on peeling around it, giving you long ribbons. If they break every now and again it doesn’t matter. Continue until you reach the fluffy tasteless inner core, which you should throw away. Remove and discard the chunky parsley stalks, then finely slice the thinner stalks and roughly chop the leaves.
Put the celeriac and parsley into a large bowl and mix with all the other ingredients. Season to taste with sea salt and black pepper, adding a little more vinegar if needed, then serve straight away.
Try this: Put some of this salad on a plate, then cover it completely with some smoked salmon and plenty of black pepper.
Or this: Roast a nice chicken, allow it to cool and serve with this salad.
lamb’s lettuce & lychee salad with lucky squid & chilli jam
As you know, I love the use of fruit in salads, and I’ve always wanted to do something with lychees as they are so fresh and fragrant. I thought that, coming from Asia, they’d be fantastic incorporated into a salad with my mate John Torode’s Lucky Squid and Chilli Jam. Thanks for the inspiration, mate. If you haven’t got time to make the chilli jam, then you can always wok-fry the squid with just the lime zest and a bit of fresh chilli. My mum’s a bit of a pleb and uses tinned lychees, but they seem to work for her.
SERVES 4
4 medium squid, gutted, cleaned
2 limes
olive oil
extra virgin olive oil
4 handfuls of lamb’s lettuce
450g lychees, peeled and deseeded
2 fresh red chillies, finely chopped
SWEET CHILLI JAM
4 fresh red chillies, trimmed
1 red onion, peeled and halved
10 cloves of garlic, peeled
100g ginger, peeled
1 bunch of fresh coriander
2 sticks of lemongrass, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon dried shrimps
150ml sunflower oil
40g palm sugar
fish sauce
First you need to make the chilli jam, so blitz up all the jam ingredients roughly in a food processor, apart from the sugar and the fish sauce. Put the mixture in a wok or a pan and cook gently, stirring regularly, for about 20 minutes on a slow simmer. Put back into the food processor and blitz again until very, very smooth. Return the mixture to the pan, add the sugar, and simmer slowly again for 30 minutes, stirring regularly to make sure it doesn’t catch. Season to taste with fish sauce. Allow to cool, and keep in the fridge until you need it. It will keep for up to 2 weeks. It’s fantastic used in any stir-frying or salads.
Lightly score the inside of the squid in a criss-cross fashion. Get a wok or pan really hot and add a lug of olive oil. Season the squid with sea salt and black pepper and lay it in the wok, then finely grate in the lime zest and give it a good shake about. It normally only takes about 2 minutes to cook, and should curl up at the edges. Remove from the heat, slice the squid, add back to the pan with the chilli jam and stir to coat. Squeeze over the lime juice and add 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Lightly dress the lamb’s lettuce and lychees with a little extra virgin olive oil. Scatter the squid over the leaves and sprinkle everything with chilli. Spoon over a little of the juice from the wok.
stir-fried warm salad of prawns & baby courgettes
I love the crunch of the raw baby courgettes you can easily get hold of these days. The zing of lime and ginger and the sweetness of the charred prawns are amazing.
SERVES 4
20 medium-large raw prawns, peeled
10 baby courgettes
6 tablespoons sunflower or groundnut oil
6cm piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated
2 limes
2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
½ a bunch each of fresh coriander and mint
2 tablespoons low-salt soy sauce
Run a sharp knife down the back of the prawns and pull out the vein, meaning they will butterfly as they cook and will take on more flavour. Get a wok or pan very hot while you very finely slice the baby courgettes at an angle. Place these in a bowl and have all the ingredients ready to go, which is really important when you’re stir-frying. To the hot pan, add the oil, prawns and ginger, then finely grate in the lime zest. Stir-fry for 2 minutes, or until the prawns are light
ly golden. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 30 seconds before adding the courgettes, lime juice, chilli and herbs. You can increase or decrease the quantity of chilli to taste. I prefer to use lots! Season with soy sauce and toss well, then serve up. Eat straight away, while the courgettes are still nice and crunchy.
