So, what exactly does one do with a load of Turkish pepper?

I’ve been wondering about that for past few weeks, ever since my brother, who’d been travelling in the Turkish neck of the woods, brought me a collection of randomly chosen local spices, most of which turned out to be pepper of some kind. There were small, maroon-coloured chilli flakes called isot biber or urfa biber (and not one, but two packets thereof), bright red chilli flakes labelled pul kirmizi biber, and karabiber, which I took to be ground white pepper but which I now suspect is more black peppery.

Part of my newly-acquired Turkish pepper stash

Whatever the nature of the individual peppers, though, the key point was that I now had rather a large quantity of them languishing in my cupboards. They might have continued that way for some time if not for the spotting, last week, of a potato recipe in the Guardian from Yotam Ottolenghi which called for Turkish chilli flakes or pul biber. Described in the piece as a classic Lebanese and Syrian take on roast potatoes, the recipe for batata harra had my name, and (I hoped) my pepper, written all over it.

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Middle Eastern Roasted Potatoes

The recipe below is an adaptation of Yotam Ottolenghi’s aforementioned formula for batata harra. The original calls for sweet red peppers to be roasted with the potatoes, whilst I have used cherry tomatoes instead – mostly because they were growing right outside my kitchen window. Also, while the recipe features the classic Lebanese trinity of lemon, garlic and olive oil, I’ve included a few other Middle Eastern regulars, in the shape of mint and sesame seeds, along with a helping of spring onions.

The other thing to say, of course, is that you don’t have to use Turkish chilli flakes in this recipe – you can always use other chilli flakes which will bring their own particular heat and flavour. The pul kirmizi biber which I used was like a hot paprika, but Syrian aleppo pepper, for example, would be fruitier and milder. Remember also that chilli flakes will vary in strength, as do people’s tolerances for heat, so adjust according to your taste and the chilli you’re using.

You’ll need:

• 1kg waxy salad potatoes, such as Charlotte, peeled or not as you prefer and chopped into approx. 2cm chunks
• 2 tblsp olive oil
• 2 tblsp sunflower or peanut oil
• coarse salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 500g cherry tomatoes, halved
• 6-8 cloves of garlic, crushed
• approx. 30g fresh coriander (leaves and stems), finely minced
• 1 tsp Turkish or other chilli flakes, or to taste
• 1 tsp sumac or more to taste (optional)
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1 tblsp lemon juice or to taste
• 4-6 spring onions, finely chopped
• 2 tblsp sesame seeds, toasted (optional)
• 1 tbslp chopped mint

You’ll also need:

• A large-ish roasting tray, big enough to accommodate the potato chunks in a single layer, or use 2 smaller trays; plus tin foil for lining

The Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 220C and line your roasting tray with foil
• Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil (approx 1.5l water and 2 tsp salt). Add the potato chunks, return to the boil and boil gently for about 3 minutes. Drain well and then either let them sit, covered by a tea-towel, for about 5 minutes or place the saucepan over a low heat and stir the potatoes gently for a minute or so while they dry out.
• Toss the potatoes with the olive and sunflower oils and about 2 tsp coarse salt plus some black pepper.
• Spread the potatoes onto your roasting tray and place in the oven for about 10 minutes, then stir in the tomatoes and garlic, along with half of the coriander, the chilli flakes and the sumac (if using). Roast for another 20-30 minutes or until the potatoes are browned and tender.
• Tip the contents of the roasting tray into a large bowl and add the lemon zest, lemon juice, spring onions, toasted sesame seeds (if using) and more salt and pepper if need be. Serve warm or at room temperature on its own or perhaps with some fried fish, such as sea bass, and stir in the remaining coriander, as well as the mint just before serving.

The Variations:

• Of course you can give Ottolenghi’s original version a whirl, using red peppers in place of the cherry tomatoes.

The Results:

• Serves around 4 people as a warm salad or side dish.

I don’t know about you, but I probably ate as many childhood summer picnics sitting inside while it rained as sitting outside in the sunshine. Still, soon-to-be-soggy tomato sandwiches, tayto crisps, club orange and mikado biscuits were as much of a summer treat inside our holiday caravan as out. Eating in also meant you avoided the inevitable gobful of sand that accompanied a meal on the beach, which was a not unimportant consideration.

Fast forward an unspecified number of years and my picnics, when they happen, are more likely to consist of crusty bread, a nice block of cheese, ballymaloe relish and a more adult beverage. Throw in some potato salad, coleslaw and maybe a tossed salad or sorts and I’m more than happy. It’s simple food to which the warmth of the sun (when it’s there) always adds its own particular seasoning.

That’s not to say, however, that you can’t mix it up a little every now and then.

This month’s 5 star makeover asked us to do exactly that: take some classic picnic fare and give it a shiny new look. Armed with a stash of ingredients from my recent Lebanese travels, I thought that I would take the simple tossed salad of tomato, lettuce and onion on a journey to the Middle East. The result is a salad packed with Lebanese flavours. The preparation, though, is simple, which is a must for picnics in Ireland. Too much time spent getting ready and you might have to enjoy your picnic inside, again.

hosted by 5 Star Foodie & Lazaro Cooks!

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Chickpea Salad With Lebanese Flavours

As Bethany, our guide for Taste Lebanon explained, you can make almost anything taste Lebanese by adding olive oil, lemon juice and garlic, some or all of which you’re likely to find in almost any dish you eat there. The dressing here combines those three with pomegranate molasses, another classic ingredient from the region, with its thick, syrupy tang.

As for chickpeas, you’ll find them in all sorts of places in Lebanese cuisine, from the ubiquitous hummus – which is actually just the Arabic word for chickpea – to warm dishes like Lebanese moussaka, which features chickpeas, aubergines and tomato. This salad includes both plain cooked chickpeas and roasted chickpeas for added crunch, along with spring onions, tomatoes, fresh coriander and parsley, all of which abound in the foods from that part of the world. If you can get your hands on some good labneh, the strained yoghurt that is very commonly eaten in Lebanon, then by all means add that to the salad, otherwise some soft fresh goat’s cheese makes a good substitute.

For the dressing:

• 3 tblsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tblsp lemon juice
• 1 tblsp pomegranate molasses
• 1.5 tsp honey
• 1 small clove garlic, crushed
• coarse salt to taste

For the salad:

• 8 large spring onions, finely sliced
• squeeze of lemon juice
• 250g cherry tomatoes, quartered (or halved if very small)
• 250g cooked chickpeas (either soak and cook approx. 100g dried chickpeas or drain and rinse a 400g tin of chickpeas)
• 100g roasted chickpeas with sumac and allspice (see recipe below)
• 100g soft, fresh goat’s cheese or labneh
• 6 tblsp chopped fresh coriander
• 3 tblsp chopped flat leaf parsley
• coarse salt to taste
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• leaves of baby gem, romaine or other crunchy lettuce to serve

The Steps:

• Prepare the dressing by whisking together the olive oil, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, honey, crushed garlic and salt to taste.
• Add the spring onions to a salad bowl and sprinkle with a good squeeze of lemon juice.
• Add the tomatoes, chickpeas (both plain and roasted), goat’s cheese, coriander, parsley and dressing to the salad bowl. Toss to mix. Add coarse salt and black pepper to taste.
• To serve, scoop spoonfuls of salad onto crunchy lettuce leaves and dig in.

The Variations:

• You could replace the goat’s cheese here with feta cheese and (if so) reduce the amount of salt you add.

The Results:

• Serves around 6-8, along with other salad dishes & breads

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Roasted Chickpeas

Chickpea fiend that I am, I find it surprising, and not a little shocking, that it took me this long to get around to making roasted chickpeas. Still, better late than never and I can guarantee that it won’t take me anything like as long to get around to making these a second (and third and forth …) time.

The flavourings I’ve used – sumac, with its lemony tartness and warm, aromatic allspice – are classically Lebanese but you can adjust to suit your own tastes, while the method is adapted from a recipe I found over here.

You’ll need:

• 250g cooked chickpeas (either soak and cook approx. 100g dried chickpeas or drain and rinse a 400g tin of chickpeas)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1.5 tsp sumac
• 1 tsp gnd allspice
• 0.25 tsp coarse salt

You’ll also need:

• A shallow baking tray to accommodate the chickpeas in a single layer – one that’s around 20cm x 30cm should do the trick

The Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 200C
• Spread the cooked chickpeas in a single layer on your baking tray and roast for about 20 minutes, giving the tray a good shake about midway through.
• Remove the tray from the oven and toss the chickpeas with the oil, sumac, allspice and salt. Spread them out onto the tray again and return to the oven for another 5 to 15 minutes, until browned and crunchy. Enjoy warm or at room temperature as a snack or use in the salad above.

The Variations:

• You can vary the spices as suits your mood. The recipe linked above, for example, uses cumin and cayenne pepper, which sounds like a good combination to me.

The Results:

• Makes around 100g roasted chickpeas

If it was your mission to design a new signature dish for Ireland, suitable for service in the finest restaurants, then just what would that dish be?

That’s the question being asked of chefs and cooks, professional and amateur alike, in a competition being run as part of the Só Sligo Food Festival. The festival, one of an increasing number of food-centric events to be found gracing the Irish calendar, will see that particular corner of the north west awash with edible possibilities from the 16th to the 20th of this month.

As to the question of the signature dish, well, I don’t suppose a bowl of coleslaw would cut it?

An Irish coleslaw: it's certainly got the national colours going for it

And yet this slaw is, in its own little way, an ode to the possibilities of Irish food; a demonstration of what you can do even if native Irish fruit and vegetables are thin on the ground (as they were on my last trip to the supermarket). On that trip, I did, however, manage to find natively-grown savoy cabbage, carrots and bramley apples and introduced them to some Donegal rapeseed oil and a splash of David Llewellyn’s cider vinegar for what was a satisfyingly Irish (and Paddy’s-Day-worthy) slaw.

For all its merits though, I doubt that the restaurants of Ireland will be falling over themselves in the race to serve up a new national coleslaw. As an emblematic Irish dish, it falls down on one point above all else: there are no spuds. Personal bias aside, there is no other food so closely bound to the Irish psyche, so a national dish must, of necessity, have potatoes. That doesn’t mean that they can’t cut a dash, though – might I suggest some individual potato cups as just one way to spruce up the spud.

There are, of course, many other things that can justifiably compete for a spot on the national plate: our grass-fed beef, award-winning black pudding, bacon, whether with or without the cabbage, smoked salmon, trout and mackerel, world-class farmhouse cheeses and, most especially on the western seaboard, our native seaweeds. It is a truly daunting task to decide how best to distill that abundance into a plated essence of Ireland. So much so, that I think, perhaps, I will leave that job to the competitors and stick to the coleslaw after all.

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An Irish Coleslaw

Not having been organised enough to get my greens elsewhere, I found myself in the supermarket skirting past broccoli from Spain, celery from Holland and Chinese cabbage from Turkey (if that’s not a contradiction in terms). Apart from potatoes, other Irish-grown produce was scarce, so this is what I made with the cabbage, carrot and apples that I managed to find. A coleslaw-like dish seemed inevitable.

I opted for a vinaigrette rather than mayonnaise-based dressing and, while you can obviously use the oil and vinegar that you have to hand, it’s good to know that there are native Irish choices available, like Donegal rapeseed oil and David Llewellyn’s cider vinegar. I also used local honey and a homemade Irish beer mustard as part of the recipe.

For the dressing:

• 1 tblsp rapeseed oil
• 1 tsp cider vinegar plus a bit extra for tossing on the apples
• 0.5 tsp mustard or more to taste
• 0.5 tsp honey or to taste
• coarse salt to taste
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

For the slaw:

• approx. 125g carrot (about 1 med. sized carrot)
• approx. 125g bramley apple (about ½ a large apple)
• approx. 125g savoy cabbage (about ¼ of a small head of cabbage – any dark, tough, outer leaves removed)
• 2 spring onions, finely sliced
• 2-3 tblsp chopped flat leaf parsley
• squeeze of lemon juice (optional)

You’ll also need:

• A grater or food processor for grating the carrot and apple.

The Steps:

• Make the dressing by whisking together the rapeseed oil, cider vinegar, mustard, honey, salt and black pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings if you need to.
• Peel and grate the carrot and apple and sprinkle the apple with a little cider vinegar.
• Shred the cabbage, toss together with the carrot, apple, spring onions, parsley and dressing. Brighten with a squeeze of lemon juice if you like, then eat and enjoy.

The Variations:

• Of course this doesn’t have to be an exclusively Irish affair – you can add whatever else takes your fancy. Personally, I wouldn’t be averse to some added interest from, say, toasted sunflower seeds or chopped walnuts.

The Results:

• Serves 3-4 as a side dish

]]> http://www.thedailyspud.com/2011/03/11/coleslaw-recipe-irish/feed/ 19 http://www.thedailyspud.com/2010/07/04/smoked-salmon-potato-salad/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=smoked-salmon-potato-salad http://www.thedailyspud.com/2010/07/04/smoked-salmon-potato-salad/#comments Sun, 04 Jul 2010 15:46:32 +0000 Daily Spud http://www.thedailyspud.com/?p=20850

It was one of those moments when you try something new and you know what the joy of good food is.

So said resident sis after we had practically inhaled a lunch of mildly sweet and delicate gravad lax from Kinvara Smoked Salmon (proving that you don’t have to be famous to get quoted on this blog, but it does help if you’re related).

She’s in good company as far as her opinion of Kinvara’s smoked salmon goes. Nigel Slater and Jeffrey Steingarten are among the noteworthy food writers who have had kind words to say on that particular subject. Having worked my way through the samples very kindly sent to me, I can’t say that I would object to finding any of them on my plate (though the gravad lax remains a particular favourite).

Pressies from Kinvara Smoked Salmon

And though it is fair to say that you should do very little to good smoked salmon except eat it, I think that there’s nothing wrong with using some classic potato salad to provide a soft, creamy filling around which to wrap a slice of perfectly smoked salmon. But there again, I would say that. You can quote me if you like.

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Smoked Salmon Stuffed with Potato Salad

This part hardly needs a formal recipe – just wrap your slices of salmon around a dollop of potato salad, serve with a wedge of lemon and some dill and you’re done. Apart from eating the end result, that is, but I was taking that part as read.

The amount of filling you can add to a slice of salmon will naturally depend on the size of the slices you have. The slices of Kinvara smoked salmon were around 15cm long and between 5cm and 8cm wide and I filled them with 2 heaped tablespoons of the salad. Adjust according to the size of slices you have.

You could serve a couple of these as a starter, say, or for a lunch serving, have two or three of these with an additional helping of the salad on the side, along with some brown soda bread.

You’ll need:

• Smoked salmon, sliced fairly thinly, with individual slices large enough to be formed into a small filled roll
• Potato and egg salad (see below)
• Lemon wedges to serve
• Chopped dill to garnish

The Steps:

• Scoop around 2 heaped tblsp of potato salad onto the centre of each slice of smoked salmon and form into a roll.
• Garnished with chopped dill and serve with a lemon wedge.

The Results:

• As many filled smoked salmon rolls as you have slices of salmon.

I have doubts on sprouts
But peas they please
And parsnips give me pleasure.
But of all the veg
I give this pledge
Potatoes are my treasure.

Extract from “King Spud” © 2010 Nick Balmforth

Mr. Balmforth, author of those lines, is clearly a man after my own heart – a heart that fairly swells with pride when my little potato treasures start to blossom, signalling to the world that new potatoes are not far behind.

The sign that says new spuds are a comin'

At the head of my new potato posse are a few mavericks – the offspring of stray spuds that have lingered long enough to produce roots and shoots of their own. Having had a head start on the seeds planted this year, the next generation of last year’s Shetland Blacks and Colleens are all ready for me to meet and eat.

First new potatoes of the year, Shetland Black and Colleen

And when presented with a crop of small, firm new potatoes, it is the most natural thing in the world to want to turn them into potato salad.

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Potato Salad with Feta Cheese

When it comes to making potato salad, the possibilities are, of course, endless. If, however, you had just made feta cheese for the first time, then into that potato salad the feta cheese would go. (There will be a full report on the feta cheese making in due course, though I hasten to add that making your own feta cheese is not a requirement for this!)

If you don’t have small, new potatoes, you can really use any waxy potato here – just halve or quarter larger potatoes before boiling so that you end up with roughly even-sized pieces.

The recipe also calls for roasting a head of garlic, with around 6 cloves of roasted garlic used in the dressing – if you roast more than than that, you can always just eat the leftover cloves of roasted garlic as is or spread them on toast.

You’ll need:

• 1 small head garlic
• olive oil for roasting garlic
• 75g walnut halves
• 800g new potatoes
• salt for boiling the potatoes
• 8-10cm sprig of rosemary
• 3 tblsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1.5 tblsp lemon juice
• Zest of half a lemon (about 2 tsp zest)
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 150g feta cheese, crumbled
• 4 spring onions, finely sliced
• 4 tblsp mint, finely chopped
• 4 tblsp flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

The Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 200C
• Separate 2 cloves from the head of garlic and reserve. Remove the outer layer of papery skin from the rest of the head and slice off the top, just to expose the cloves. Wrap the head of garlic in foil and pour a tsp or two of olive oil over the exposed cloves. Roast for around 35 minutes or until the cloves are completely soft. Meanwhile, prepare the walnuts and potatoes:
• Spread the walnuts on a baking tray and place in your hot oven for around 5 minutes or so, until lightly toasted (they will burn easily, so keep an eye on them). Remove, allow to cool a little and chop roughly.
• Scrub the potatoes and peel and lightly crush the 2 reserved cloves of garlic. Bring about 1.5l of water to the boil in a saucepan, add about 2 tsp salt, a sprig of rosemary, the pieces of crushed garlic and the potatoes. Bring back to the boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer gently, covered, for around 15-20 minutes or until just fork-tender.
• When the potatoes are done, drain well and return them to the saucepan. Let them sit, covered by a tea-towel, for 5-10 minutes or until cool enough to handle.
• To make the dressing, whisk together the extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, dijon mustard and black pepper. Mash about 6 cloves of the roasted garlic and mix with the dressing.
• Roughly chop the still-warm potatoes into bite-sized chunks and toss with the dressing. Add the crumbled feta, spring onions, walnuts, mint and parsley and stir to mix. Taste and add more of whatever you think it may need.
• Eat.

The Variations:

• If I’d had kalamata olives, I would have added some. You could also add capers if you like.

The Results:

• Potato salad servings for around 4.

I don’t think I had quite appreciated how big potatoes were in Russia.

And, no, I’m not talking about giant potatoes…

Land of hammer, sickle ...and spuds

…but about the fact that the Russian appetite for all things potato is quite prodigious (yes, potato vodka included). I was enlightened in this regard by Katrina from Around the World in 80 Markets, whom it was my pleasure to meet at Food Blogger Connect last November. A native of Russia, she had lately suggested the idea of a joint potato post. She put it thus: “Ireland and Russia, united by the unique and encompassing passion for the humble potato”. I said bring it on!

First things first. I wanted to know how Russians like to eat their spuds. The short answer was “often”.

Yep, Katrina says they like to eat potatoes three times a day – which makes it sound like I’d be right at home! Mashed potatoes are very popular and one of Katrina’s childhood favourites was meat à la française – thinly sliced potatoes, layered with onions and pork steaks and covered with mayonnaise. Particularly special are new potatoes, lightly boiled with lots of butter and dill, which she remembers looking forward to intensely during the cold, wintery months. The potato dish which is most famous, of course, and which is a feature of meals on special occasions, most especially New Year’s Eve, is Russian Salad.

Part of a Russian New Years Eve Spread (image from Katrina)

The salad has an interesting history, which Katrina describes over here. Here’s a taster from her post:

[Around the 1860's....] a French chef called Lucien Olivier (a seriously flirtatious type, according to some) was re-inventing it [the potato] in The Hermitage, one of Moscow’s most celebrated restaurants. The original salad was rather different from the contemporary version and included amongst other ingredients hazel-grouse, veal tongue, caviar, capers and mayonnaise Provençal – a heady sauce of yolks and olive oil that the young Lucien had brought from his home-land.The legend has it that one of his understudies had stolen the recipe for the sauce and started making a version of the salad in another Moscow restaurant, naming the concoction ‘Stolichnyj salad’, or The Capital Salad’ (the name still widely found in all sorts of Russian eateries). Over time, the salad had gone through the inevitable bourgeoisition (such a word?) process and is now using either chicken or ham or even frankfurter type sausage, tinned peas, boiled carrot and eggs, mayo out of the tub and, of course, boiled potatoes.

She goes on to present her own “trendified” version of the salad (without the mayo from the tub) and you can see my take on her version below.

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Russian Salad

As Katrina notes, you can really put whatever you like into this, as long as there are potatoes, meat and mayonnaise and around twice as much spuds as everything else. She recommends making your own mayonnaise (and I agree), though, nowadays, this may be seen as a little less authentic!

What you’ll find below is slightly adapted from Katrina’s version of the classic Olivier salad. She used chicken, I used fish (and, for a vegetarian version, you can, of course, skip the meat entirely). I also used red onion instead of yellow and couldn’t resist throwing in additional capers and some lemon juice. As I couldn’t lay my hands on salted cucumbers, I used dill pickled cucumbers instead, though Katrina’s preference is for the former and she also uses a little of the cucumber brine in the salad. I’ve had Russian salad in Russia with home salted cucumbers and I know how good that is. Next time, I’ll just salt my own.

This may seem long but it can be summarised as follows: cook the bits that need cooking (spuds, carrots, peas, egg, your choice of meat), let everything cool down, chop everything into little dice, mix with mayonnaise and other seasonings. Done.

You’ll need:

• 175g haddock or other white fish
• about 1 tsp butter
• 500g potatoes, preferably a waxy / salad variety
• 1 large carrot, about 125g
• 50g frozen peas
• 1 egg
• 1 small red or yellow onion, about 100g
• 1 small tart apple, about 100g
• 50g salted or pickled cucumber
• 2 tblsp capers
• 1 tblsp chopped fresh dill
• around 180ml mayonnaise (for homemade, see below)
• 2 tblsp brine or pickling liquid from the cucumbers
• 2 tsp coarse salt or to taste
• several twists of black pepper
• squeeze or two of lemon juice

The Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 180C
• Place the haddock on a piece of foil, enough to surround it completely. Sprinkle with a little salt and black pepper and dot with the butter, close over the foil, place on a baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes or until opaque and just starting to flake.
• Meanwhile, scrub your potatoes and, if some are significantly larger than others, halve the larger ones so that you have roughly even-sized pieces. Peel your carrot and slice into pieces around 0.5cm thick.
• Bring about 1l of water to the boil, add the potatoes and about 1 tsp salt. Bring back to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until starting to become tender but not tender the whole way through (around 15 minutes, depending on size). Add the sliced carrots and simmer for about another 10 minutes or until both the potatoes and carrots are fork tender. Drain and set aside to cool completely. Alternatively, you can steam the potatoes for 20-30 minutes, depending on size, and steam the carrots for around 8-10 minutes.
• Cook the peas briefly (steam for about 2 minutes or in the microwave for a minute or so).
• Add your egg to a small pot of boiling water, bring back to the boil and boil for 7-8 minutes. Rinse under cold water.
• While things are cooling, you can make your mayonnaise (or locate the jar in the fridge).
• When everything is completely cooled, peel the egg and, if you like, peel the potatoes (though I prefer to leave the skins on), then chop the potatoes, carrots, egg and fish, as well as the onion, apple and cucumber into whatever size pieces you prefer and place them all in a large bowl, along with the peas, capers and chopped dill.
• Season with coarse salt and black pepper, then add half the mayonnaise and a tblsp or two from the cucumber brine or pickling liquid, mix and, as Katrina says, taste, taste, taste. Add more mayonnaise, cucumbers, onion, capers etc. as you prefer. I finished it with a squeeze or two of lemon juice.
• Serve preferably with some sweet Russian rye bread and, to quote Katrina, a shot of “lip-numbingly cold vodka – potato or otherwise.” Na zdorovye!

The Variations:

• It’s a flexible recipe – add your own choice of meat, fish or just stick to the veggies. Add more of the bits you like and, hey, if you don’t like carrots, then don’t put them in.

The Results:

• Serves around 4

Some would say that it’s way past time.

And many of you will simply wonder how it happened that I have not presented you with a potato salad before this.

It’s not like I haven’t been eating them – it’s one of the great things to do with new season potatoes. Just boil ‘em, chop ‘em up, add mayonnaise and/or natural yoghurt, maybe a bit of mustard, some chives or spring onions, parsley or dill, possibly a few capers, salt, pepper and away you go. I guess I didn’t think that you really needed me to tell you how to do that. The salad that I have here is a little different to the usual, though, not least because I had to go on a long journey to find it. All the way to Russia, in fact.

To Russia, with onion domes

Ok, I will admit that I didn’t actually travel to Russia to find a potato salad, but that’s where I first sampled Georgian food. And by that I mean food from Georgia the country, due south of Russia, and not the Georgia that Ray Charles and others had on their minds.

Potato Salad, Georgian style

Now, whereas it can sometimes feel that Russian dining is all about vodka and pickles, Georgian cuisine has more of a middle eastern feel and, without question, the nicest meals that I had in Russia were Georgian. So enamoured of the food was I that I secured a copy of The Georgian Feast, Darra Goldstein’s wonderful exploration of Georgian food culture, so that I could find out more. More, in this case, included potato salad.

Jack swaps a cow for some magic beans. Jack plants beans. Enormous beanstalk develops that stretches all the way to the clouds. Jack climbs the beanstalk (several times, in fact) and does a spot of breaking-and-entering at the home of a local giant (identifiable as such by both general size and the fact that he says fee-fi-fo-fum a lot). Jack gets himself into much trouble as a result. In the end, the beanstalk gets it.

Now, my theory is that Jack wasn’t so much in possession of magic beans but, rather, had applied too much manure to his vegetable patch. I base this on the fact that my garden is now home to several rather enthusiastic beanstalks which, I suspect, would extend all the way to the clouds if only I could find bamboo poles tall enough to support them. Instead, my french bean plants have chosen to wrap themselves around each other, weaving quite a tangled web in the process (which is probably just as well, because I would rather they didn’t head skyward and become a point of entry for visiting giants).

On the edge of the french bean tangle

Fortunately, while the plants have become increasingly entwined with each other, I’m happy to report that they haven’t lost sight of their raison d’être (them being french ‘n’ all) and have also begun to do what they do best at this time of year, producing edible leguminous wares (yeah, beans in other words). Even if the tangle of plants means that harvesting requires a bit of breaking-and-entering, the spoils are well worth it. Just don’t tell the giant I’ve bean and gone.

French bean, see

A bean salad with a cider vinaigrette to be precise. Just because.

Well, no, not really just because. There is method in my saladness.

I was contacted the other day by the Temple Bar Cultural Trust to let me (and others in the Dublin area) know about their upcoming Midsummer celebration on June 20th and 21st.

There’s a full low-down on the festivities here but it will include a Midsummer fair on the 21st with food stalls, crafts, maypole dancing and more, with Meeting House Square being carpeted with grass for the occasion. All sounds rather lovely. I’ll be going armed with an appetite and a picnic blanket and hoping that the sun continues to shine.

The other thing that the festival organisers did was to offer one lucky Spud reader a case of goodies, which includes apple juice, cider, cider vinegar and balsamic vinegar, from Llewellyn’s Orchard Produce, and which can be collected by the lucky person from the organisers during the festival (or afterwards if you can’t attend). I, of course, get to pick who that lucky person is. (Ah such power, I hope that it doesn’t go, cider-like, to my head…)

So here’s the deal.

Leave me a comment letting me know if you want in. And with a valid email address please, so that I can contact you if you win. I’ll leave this open until midnight, Irish time, on Thursday June 18th and then pick a winner at random from the entries and notify them on the 19th, so that they can pick up their loot during the festival (if attending) or arrange to do so later on. I know this geographically limits the competition to folks in a position to pick up the goods from Temple Bar (unfortunately, they weren’t throwing in delivery too) – on the other hand, for those of you in the area, you’re in with a pretty good shot of winning, so, go on, de-lurk and let me know if you’re interested. Meanwhile, here is something that you can make using just some of that cidery loot.

Update: And the winner of those very tasty apple-y goodies is… Aidan O’Kelly. Congratulations Aidan & enjoy!

In amongst the plethora of food blog posts that showed up in my browser today, something quite simple stopped me in my tracks, namely this post for mock tuna salad on Nomadic Gourmet. What grabbed me wasn’t the recipe per se but the idea of it, which was simply this: make a salad from lightly mashed chickpeas and then dress it as you would a tuna salad. Just that.

Now, I have cooked and eaten veritable truckloads of chickpeas in my time, but this was actually an entirely new one on me. I should also explain that it’s a long time since I’ve eaten tuna. Not only that, but tuna salad sandwiches were one of the things that I imagined I would really miss when I took up a vegetarian diet. I was going to have to give this a whirl and soon.

So, as lunchtime beckoned, I got me some chickpeas into the pressure cooker post haste. I mashed and dressed the results and thought fishy thoughts. Some lemon juice and parsley were added to the chickpeas, along with mayo, yoghurt, celery, and lots of black pepper and sea salt. A bit of chopped tomato went in there too for good measure. It was simple and yum and a reminder of the old tuna salad sandwich days. On this day of St. Valentine, I both found an old love and turned it into a new flame. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Nothing fishy about this salad