Meat and three veg

I love a small piece of lean meat with a selection of vegetables. There are lots of cuts of lamb you can treat this way. Leg steaks, backstrap, fillet or rack all work well. I like to rub my piece of lamb with salt, pepper & cumin & leave to sit before cooking. Or with a bit more effort make a paste of garlic, olive oil, rosemary, cumin, cinnamon & lemon zest. Another favourite is a paste of anchovies, lemon zest, Dijon mustard, capers, red wine vinegar, olive oil & garlic. Serve the lamb with couscous - I usually toss a spring onion in a hot saucepan with olive oil, add the couscous, cover with the same quantity of boiling water, clamp on the lid & leave it to do it's thing. When you're ready to use, fluff up with a fork, stir through some olive oil, toasted pinenuts & parsley. Try roasting some asparagus. This is really popular at our house. In a dish lightly toss asparagus spears, very fine slices of garlic, a sprinkling of chilli flakes, some colourful cherry tomatoes, olives, olive oil & a good handful of fresh basil. Season with salt & pepper & put in a hot roasting tray, in a hot oven (225), and roast for about 12 minutes. Turn a couple of times during cooking if you remember. Steam seasonal vegetables and before serving toss in a little olive oil & season. Experiment to see what tastes good to you. I like lemon infused garlic oil with asparagus, or orange infused with carrots. I cooked asparagus in the tinfoil parcels with baby carrots & added slices of lemon. That worked. This is the time of year for ratatouille. I'm sure you'll have a recipe somewhere. And add potatoes if you need them - sauteed, crushed & roasted, or hasselback work well with all these dishes.

Or cook a beautiful fillet of pork - rubbed with a paste of juniper berries, flat leaf parsley & black pepper. Sear the pork fillets first in a pan then roll in the juniper mixture & roast at 175 about 8-10 minutes. Don't forget to leave your meat to rest before serving. This gives you time to finish off the veg or make a sauce. Put the roasting pan on a hot element, add a little wine & beef stock (maybe 1/2 cup of each) & reduce by 1/3. Pork is good with mash - try adding celeriac or kumara - and cabbage or chinese greens such as bok choy.

Salad Days

Caesar salad with chicken is a quick after-work meal. It's everywhere now but, like most food trends, I first discovered it in Sydney. The dressing was perfect and when I came home I looked for a recipe but I couldn't find anything that felt right. I came up with this. Let me know if you have any ideas for improvement. First heat the oven to 180. Use about 100g chicken per person & first brine in 2 cups cold water with 1 tbsp each salt & sugar dissolved, for about 1/2 hour. This keeps the chicken moist when you grill. Meanwhile make your croutons. Cut as much bread as you want -use a French stick or something similar - into chunky cubes. Toss in 3 tbsp garlic infused olive oil. Spread on a baking tray & bake 12-15 mins until golden, stirring occasionally. (If you make too many don't worry, they keep for ages in an airtight container.) Make the dressing. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil & carefully lower 2 eggs into the pan. Cook 45 seconds & remove. Cool just enough to handle & crack yolks into a small bowl discarding the whites. Add 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, pinch of salt, ground pepper & whisk until smooth. Add olive oil whisking until the thickness you want. Up to 1/3 cup. It's is very much based on judgement and I end up with a yellow creamy dressing not as thick as mayonnaise. You can add anchovies to the dressing or separately on the salad. Now back to the chicken. Pat dry & place on a lightly oiled grill tray. Grill chicken about 8 minutes on each side. Test that it's cooked through at the thickest part but that timing works for me. Maybe a little more on the first side. Set the chicken aside to cool & put the water on to poach the eggs. Begin to assemble the salad. Mix torn up leaves of cos lettuce in a bowl first with the dressing, then lay in individual plates. Add croutons, anchovies for those who like them, then slices of the chicken. Pour over any leftover dressing. Poach the eggs & put one on the top of each dish & finish with very thin slices of Parmesan. I use the potato peeler. This salad is not only delicious, it's not nearly as fiddly as it sounds and works for the fussy family. Everyone in our family bar Peter & I have this without something.

For a green salad with a bit of a difference try beans, broccolini & asparagus. Cut the veg how you like them. Steam lightly - to al dente & toss in your best olive oil. Leave to cool slightly then season & toss in a bowl with toasted almonds, diced radishes & a dash of lemon juice.

I love eggs - I may have already mentioned this? Eggs & chicken are perfect in a salad as we have seen above. Try slicing a chicken breast in half horizontally, then saute both pieces in a little olive oil until cooked through. Set aside & add 1/2 cup verjuice to the pan & boil until reduced & syrupy. Return the chicken to the pan & coat with the glaze. Set aside to cool in the pan. Cut an iceberg (or similar crunchy) lettuce into wedges and arrange on a plate. You want chunks of crunchy lettuce. I have a lettuce knife I bought a few years ago & it cuts lettuce without bruising it. Great for shredding. I actually bought it because I was hoping one day to find a recipe for Cobb Salad and many years later I did but that is another story. Slice the chicken thinly against the grain & toss with pan juices then lay on the lettuce with the eggs cut into neat little wedges with your multipurpose egg slicer. Drizzle with aioli - you could make your aioli using verjuice instead of vinegar if you like. Scatter over capers, anchovies, olives, flat leaf parsley and then anything else you find in the fridge that seems suitable. You know I like scattering.

This time of year I usually start making Salad Nicoise too. Well it might not be Nicoise in the true sense, so just call it tuna potato salad. Boil some Red Desiree potatoes in their skins - you can use any waxy potatoes but I like the red skins in this salad - and cut into largish chunks. Leave to cool a little. Line a serving bowl with bite size pieces of cos lettuce then build up the rest of the ingredients in an order that pleases you. Include tinned tuna, boiled eggs (in neat wedges), steamed french beans and/or asparagus, halved cherry tomatoes (I like to use a couple of varieties), anchovies, capers, olives, the cooled potatoes. Drizzle over some vinaigrette - I sometimes use lemon instead of vinegar for this salad.

I have to tell you about the lunch I ate today. Nikau is open again and Peter & I had a relaxing lunch there today. I had scallops on creamed spinach with an amazing lemon salsa. I'm going to play around & see if I can recreate it. If I do I will share with you. It would be delicious with any fish & probably chicken as well. Maybe haloumi. It had chunks of lemon zest & was so sharp that it was only just on the right side of tart which was perfect with the richness of the scallops. It's been a little cool and wet in Wellington so Peter had a warming parsnip and fennel soup - delicious!

For fish lovers

A nage is a reduced stock/sauce which is delicious served with summer vegetables or fish or both. You need to leave the nage to sit for the flavours to develop so start preparing well in advance. Roughly chop a fennel bulb, 1 large onion, 4 celery sticks, a handful button mushrooms and add to a pan with zest of a lemon, salt, peppercorns, 2 bay leaves, thyme, 1/2 tsp fennel seeds & enough water to cover. Simmer 20 minutes, take off the heat, add 300ml white wine & leave to cool 2 hours. Strain & pour about 1 litre into a wide based pan. You can freeze the rest for another time. Add a few threads of saffron, bring to the boil & boil rapidly until it has reduced to 120ml. Transfer to a small pan & set aside. This will now be a really intensely flavoured sauce.

Blanch some fresh vegetables - beans, baby carrots, broad beans, broccoli cut very small -to set the colour & put aside. Steam the fish & shellfish - mussels, scallops, prawns, a delicate fish like John Dory. We usually steam the mussels open first then just heat through on the half shell. Add the veg to finish off/heat through and keep warm while you finish the sauce. Drain any fish juice/mussel licquor you have into the reduced stock, bring to the boil and gradually whisk in 100g butter in small pieces. This makes the sauce thick & shiny. Plate the fish & veg and pour over the nage. Here is another version.

I like to eat lots of scallops while they're in season. Try this for a quick weekend lunch. Allow 6-10 scallops per person. Warm about 2tbsp grated ginger, 1 clove minced garlic, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp very finely chopped capsicum, 2tbsp olive oil. Cook the scallops - 30 seconds each side - in a very hot pan with a little oil & remove to the warmed sauce. In the scallop pan, wilt down a handful of baby spinach leaves mixed with lemon juice. Put on a warm plate, top with scallops, drizzle over marinade & left over pan juices.

During the season, eat whitebait at every opportunity. Make a light batter with 2 eggs, a scant tbsp flour, salt & pepper. Mix through 200g whitebait & fry in spoonfuls about 2 minutes each side. Serve with black pepper & lemon juice. These are a real taste of childhood.

While on seasons, I tasted a Te Matuku Bay oyster at the market this morning. I'd buy them again, however the season is nearly over. What a great start to a Sunday. Strolling along the waterfront slurping an oyster off a shell!

While we're on fish I should mention salmon risotto. This is the perfect spring risotto. Cut 300-400g boned skinned salmon into 2 cm cubes and mix with lemon rind & pepper then set aside. Make a basic risotto with a leek & add saffron with the stock. Blanch some asparagus or green beans. When the risotto is done stir through salmon, vegetables & lemon juice, cover pot & cook 2 minutes, then leave to stand another 2. Serve with lemon wedges.

And don't forget homemade fish & chips.