Steak tartare with passion fruit

Finely slice 30g shallot, softly saute in 6 ml white wine till soft and cool. Hack 15 capers and 20g sun-dried tomatoes. 

Slice 200g bavette in strips and then in 5 mm cubes.

Mix everything, season with salt and pepper and add 15g grated Parmesan.

Slice 2 sweet potatoes into thick French fries. First boil them 5 mins in salted water, dry and then deep fry in 180°C archaide oil 

At the last moment add 20g ketchup, 20g passion juice, 5g soy sauce, 5g hacked chives and 2,5g cream to the meat and mix well

Serve as shown, finish with a spoonful of the sun-dried tomatoes oil.

(A Bernard Bach recipe)

PS Next time I'll make the fries with normal potatoes

Sambal tofu with cashews and ginger pickle

Pat dry 300g extra firm tofu with a clean tea towel, cut the block into four widthways, then into three lengthways, so you end up with 12 pieces. Cut each of these in half to give you 24 cubes.

In a shallow dish, whisk 2 peeled and crushed garlic cloves, 2 tbsp soy sauce and 1 tbsp lime juice, add the tofu, toss gently to coat and leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes, stirring twice in that time.

For the ginger pickle, put 100 ml rice vinegar, 1 tbsp sugar and a quarter-teaspoon of salt in a small pan and bring to a simmer on a medium-high heat. Off the heat, stir in 30g ginger, peeled and cut into matchsticks and leave to cool and pickle gently.

Now for the sambal. Put 60 ml olive oil in a large saute pan on a medium-high heat, add 300g peeled and finely chopped shallots, 6 peeled and finely chopped cloves of garlic, 30g mild fresh finely chopped chillies, the finely chopped stalks of 20g coriander, 3 lime leaves, finely chopped and 2 whole star anise, and cook, stirring often, for 20 minutes, until deeply golden and crisp. Add 2 hot dried chillies, 1,5 tsp caraway seeds, 1 tsp ground turmeric, 3 tbsp tomato paste, 1,5 tbsp maple syrup and a teaspoon of salt, and cook, still stirring often, for five minutes more. Add 150ml water and keep warm on a low heat.

Meanwhile, put 300 ml sunflower oil in a medium saucepan on a medium-high heat, and lift the tofu from its marinade, reserving any left in the bowl. Working in two or three batches, fry the tofu for two minutes, until golden with slightly dark edges, then transfer to a baking tray lined with kitchen paper while you cook the rest of the tofu. 

Put the fried tofu back in the reserved marinade and toss to coat. Lift the tofu into the pan of warm sambal (discard any excess marinade at this point), bring to a simmer and heat through for a couple of minutes.

Stir the leaves of coriander leaves into the ginger pickle. Transfer the tofu to a platter, top with 50g salted roasted cashews and ginger pickle, and serve another 50g cashews in two bowls alongside.

(Here Ottolenghi's original recipe and more)

Radicchio, Gorgonzola, roasted fig and hot honey piadina

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6

Place 4 quartered figs in a baking tray and dot with butter. Mix 1 tbsp runny honey and 1 tablespoon lemon juice together and pour it over the figs, then transfer to the oven and roast for 15 minutes

Tear washed and dried radicchio leaves into smaller pieces if large, then toss with a tablespoon of lemon juice and a dash of olive oil. 

Season with salt and pepper

Heat a frying pan over a medium heat and add a piadina to the dry pan. Cook for 1 minute, then flip and cook for a minute more. Repeat with the second piadina

Lay each piadina flat and top with some radicchio, then top with roasted figs and 70g crumbled Gorgonzola. 

Warm 1 tbsp honey and a pinch of chilli flakes in a small saucepan until runny, then drizzle on top

(Here the original GBCK recipe)

Peppered chicken and pickled watermelon salad

This dish delivers on multiple fronts: salt and spice from the peppered chicken and sweet and sharp from the pickled watermelon. Store any excess pickle in a sterilised jar in the fridge for up to two weeks, and use to spoon on salads or grilled meat.

Put 800g diced watermelon, 1 sliced jalapeño and 170g caster sugar in a large, sterilised jar, give it a gentle shake to coat, then leave to macerate for 20 minutes. Add 125ml vinegar, 2 camomile tea bags, 2 tbsp mint leaves, a teaspoon of salt and 175ml water and cover with a piece of greaseproof paper. Seal the jar and refrigerate overnight.

Now for the chicken. Combine 2 tsp mixed ground peppercorns in a medium bowl, and set aside a quarter-teaspoon of the mix. Add 2 tbsp flour and a half-teaspoon of salt to the remaining ground peppercorns.

Put 1 tbsp oil in a medium frying pan on a high heat. Sandwich 3 boneless and skinless chicken thighs between two sheets of greaseproof paper and use a rolling pin to bash it out to ½cm thick. 

Coat the chicken in the pepper-flour mixture, then lay them one by one in the hot pan and fry for three minutes on each side. Transfer the chicken to a board, sprinkle an eighth of a teaspoon of salt over them all, and leave to rest.

Drain the pickle solids and set aside. Return the frying pan to a medium-high heat and add 200ml of the watermelon pickling liquid; Cook down the pickling liquid for five minutes, until it turns orange and syrupy and has reduced by four-fifths, then take off the heat.

Meanwhile, mix very thin rings of banana shallot, 45g watercress and the drained watermelon pickle, then transfer to a large plate with a lip. Cut each chicken thigh at an angle into three or four slices and arrange on top. 

Spoon over the reduced syrup, sprinkle on the reserved quarter-teaspoon of ground peppercorns and serve with lime halves for squeezing over

(Here Ottolenghi's original recipe and more)

Ezme salad, spicy yoghurt and aubergine dip

Cut 300g aubergines into 2,5cm cubes and heavily salt them, then leave them to sit for at least 20 minutes to draw out any excess moisture.

Heat 750ml vegetable oil in a heavy-based, cast-iron pan or saucepan (you can also do this in a deep fryer; just make sure the oil is clean). You want the oil to be about 180°C. Pat the aubergines dry, so they won’t spit at you when frying. Fry the aubergines, in batches if need be, for eight to 10 minutes, until brown on all sides, then leave to drain on a rack or on top of some kitchen paper. Although you’ve already used salt to draw out the moisture, you need to season them again now, while they’re still hot.

Fry 100g long green peppers in the same oil for five to seven minutes, until they’re soft and the skin is blistered, then drain. Again, season them while they’re hot.

Peel and slice 150g potatoes into 2,5cm cubes and put in a pan filled with heavily salted water, bring to a boil and cook until they’re just done – don’t overcook them, or they’ll break down when you mix everything together later, and make the mixture thick and floury. Leave everything to cool.

Now make a tomato sauce. In a wide frying pan, fry 2 cloves of garlic gently in 30ml olive oil (a wide pan just means it will cook more quickly); you don’t want it to take on any colour, so give it only a couple minutes. Add 1 tsp aci biber salçasi and 1/2 tsp pul biber, and fry for a couple of minutes more – you just want to bring the spices up to temperature and cook the rawness out them. Add 250g grated tomatoes, turn up the heat, bring to a boil, then simmer for about 15 minutes, until you’re left with a smooth sauce. Add the 1/2 tsp caster sugar and season with salt.

Leave the sauce to cool, then mix in all the vegetables, trying not to break up the potatoes. Tip into a bowl and leave to sit in the fridge overnight – the longer it chills, the better it gets; however, you have three days maximum to eat it.

<Then make the labneh, a strained yoghurt that’s served as a cold starter around Turkey and the Middle East. I find this works best with a clean pair of tights, but if you happen to have something more appropriate knocking about, such as cheesecloth or muslin, then go with that.

Spoon 325ml thick yoghurt into a bowl, add 1/2 tsp sea salt, 1,5 tsp caster sugar, 1 peeled and grated clove of garlic and the juice of 1/2 lemon, and give everything a good stir. Scrape the yoghurt mix into your fabric of choice, hang up and leave gravity to work its magic – I hang mine in the garden for at least two hours. The longer the yoghurt is left to hang, the stiffer it becomes; you want it to be a cream-cheese consistency.

Melt 30g unsalted butter in a saucepan on a medium heat and, just as the kitchen starts to fill with butterscotch smells and the butter has a slight golden colour, go in with 1 tsp pul biber. It’s important to catch the butter just at the beginning of the browning process; if it’s too hot, it will fry off the deep flavours from the pul biber. Give the pan a little swirl, take it off the heat and leave the pul biber to infuse and bleed out its colour and flavour.

When the yoghurt is ready to serve, whack it on to a plate, create a little well in the middle that the hot butter can sit in and serve immediately.

<Ezme is another kebab-shop classic. 

Finely chop a sweet pointed red pepper, 1/2 cucumber, a peeled medium tomato and 2 spring onions individually, then run the knife over them again until they are super fine and put in a bowl. Add 2g sea salt, 1/2 tsp sumac and 1/4 tsp smoked sweet paprika. Chop 10g parsley leaves and 2,5g mint leaves herbs as finely as you can, then add them, too, before stirring in 25ml good olive oil, 5ml balsamic vinegar and 10ml pomegranate molasses. 

Serve with flat bread

(Here Big Has' original recipe)

 

Butternut, spelt, pomegranate and feta

Preheat the oven at 200°C

Mix 30 ml olive oil, 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses, 1/2 tbsp pimentos,  1/2 tsp chili flakes in a bowl, add 600g butternut squash slices and 2 red onions cut into wedges. Season with salt and pepper and stir well.

Put in a single layer on a paper covered baking tray and in the hot oven for 30 mins.

Boil 100g spelt for 10 mins, drain and cool.

Make a dressing from 30g olive oil, 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses, 1 minced clove of garlic and salt and pepper.

Put the spelt, a handful of mint leaves, 1/2 handful of parsley leaves and 50g pomegranate seeds in a bowl, add the dressing and mix well before dividing over 2 plates.

Add the hot butternut and onions.

Finish with 100g feta and 50g pomegranate seeds.

(A Donna Hay recipe)

Crispy Tofu With Cashews and Blistered Sugarsnaps

Clean and trim 200g sugar snaps. Mince 2 spring onions and 10g minced mint leaves. In your favourite large sauté pan, add 1 tablespoon olive oil and heat to high. Add the sugar snaps and sauté, stirring occasionally, until blistered and just tender, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and move to a bowl. Toss the peas with 1 tbsp rice vinegar, spring onions, mint and 1/24 tsp chili flakes. Set aside.

Slice a 200g block of  tofu in half horizontally, and place on paper towels to dry any excess liquid. Pat the top with paper towels as well. You'll want the tofu to be a dry as possible. Season with salt and pepper.

Returning to the same sauté pan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil to hot. Cut the drained tofu into 1 cm pieces and sear until tofu is browned and golden on all sides, about 8 minutes. Move the tofu to a plate.

Next, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and add 1 tbsp grated ginger and 1 minced clove of garlic. Cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Pour in 200g coconut milk, 2 tbsp soy sauce and 1 tbsp brown sugar. Simmer, stirring frequently until the sauce reduces and its color deepens to a dark brown, about 6 to 8 minutes. 

Serve as shown with the sauce at the bottom and 30g toasted cashews on top.

Recipe by Yewande Komolafe

Blue cheese on pear

Bring 50 ml water to the boil with 50ml vinegar and 50g caster sugar. Sofly boil till all the sugar has been dissolved. Cool and reserve.

Finely slice 2,5 cm ginger, 10g chives and 1/2 green chili (seeds removed).

Add to the vinaigrette.

Halve a Conference pear and lengthwise cut into  4 mm slices. Use a 3cm cutter to remove the seedy part. 

Fill it with with crumbled blue cheese (Roquefort type)

Finish with the sweet&sour dressing.

(Here Bart Desmidt's original recipe in Flemish)

Puff pastry, blue cheese, honey and walnut

Pre-heat the oven at 180°C

Use a serving ring to cut 9 cm discs from puff pastry. 

Cover the middle 6cm with slices of blue cheese. Brush the rest of the pastry with beaten egg yolk.

Sprinkle with hacked walnuts and thyme. 

Finish with a few teaspoons of runny honey and bake in the hot oven for 15 mins

(Here Stephanie Bex' original recipe in Flemish)

Melon and tomato shot

Cut 200g melon and 200g tomato and liquidise with a stick blender. 

Sieve and add the juice of 1/2 lime. Season with pepper and salt.

Finely slice 1/2 shallot and 10 basil leaves

Whip 30g soft goat's cheese with 10g double cream.

Serve in small glasses, topped with the cheese cream, black pepper and a basil leaf.

(Here the original Njam recipe in Flemish)

Butternut squash, mushrooms, beet and parsnip

Mix 1/2 tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp sunflower oil and the juice of 1/4 lime. Season with pepper and salt

Cut 4 slices (3 mm thick) from the thin top of a butternut squash and then use a cutter to make 4 cm discs. Put in boiling water for 3 mins. Take out and reserve.

Peel a parsnip and cut into small cubes. Boil them in milk and water till soft. Use a stickblender and milk to create a smooth thick cream. Transfer to a piping bag.

Slice 1/2 pre-cooked beetroot into a julienne.

Clean 4 mushrooms and saute them briefly in olive oil with garlic. Drain on kitchen paper.

Start plating with the discs of squash and the mushrooms. Decorate with dots of parsnip and finish with the dressing and spring onion.

(Here the original recipe from Njam in Flemish)

Salad of red mullet with lime and ginger

Check 4 red mullet fillets for bones or stray scales. Pour 25 ml white wine vinegar and the juice of 1 lime into a stainless steel saucepan. Add 2 lime leaves, scrunching them slightly to release their fragrance as you go. 

Scrub 1/2 small carrot and slice it as finely as paper – you should almost be able to see through it – then peel 1/2 onion and slice that similarly. Drop them into the pan together with a small clove of garlic, peeled and squashed flat (you just want the merest whiff), 1/2 red chilli, a teaspoon of palm sugar (though you may need to add some more later) and a star anise, 1/2 tsp coriander seeds and 4 white peppercorns.

Bring the lot to the boil, add a good pinch of salt, 4 whole black peppercorns then pour in 40 ml olive oil and let the mixture simmer for a minute or two. You want the onion to have softened slightly. heat off, lid on, and leave to settle.

Warm a little olive oil in a non-stick pan. season the red mullet fillets with salt and black pepper and lay them in the hot olive oil. Let them colour on the skin side, then carefully turn them over and allow to colour on the other side. lift the fillets from the pan with a fish slice or palette knife and place on a shallow dish.

Grate 1 cm ginger into the marinade and stir in some chopped parsley (which I forgot). Taste it, adding a little more palm sugar if you think it needs it. The juices should have a little kick to them. Spoon over the fish and leave to cool.

Lift the red mullet on to plates and spoon over the vegetables.

(Here Nigel Slater's original recipe)