Moroccan-spiced carrots

Today I am updating a post from November last year to make use of these glorious heritage carrots from Natoora. Of course, you can just use normal ones or baby carrots as I did originally. The introduction that follows remains the same, but I have edited the recipe.

As a budding young food anthropologist I feel very ambivalent about the name I have just given this recipe. I just spent my summer writing a dissertation querying the very notion that any dish or cuisine can be assigned a nationality. However, the alternative is a bit of a mouthful: “Carrots with preserved lemon, cumin, caraway and coriander seeds”. I could keep things vague, e.g. “Middle-Eastern spiced carrots”, but that only extends the problem, anthropologically speaking. Anyway, the point here is these carrots are bloody delicious and I really ought to leave such musings to my anthropology pages.

This is such a simple recipe. I threw it together for the first time a few weeks back when all I had in the fridge was a bunch of carrots from the farmers’ market and some preserved lemons that I made a few months ago. (Any excuse to use the lemons – they are fabulous.)

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Purple cauliflower polonaise

My Dad didn’t often make vegetarian main courses when my sister and I were kids. He knew he was likely to be hurled with abuse. This was one of few of his vegetarian dishes that did not induce a temper tantrum. I think it was probably the crispy, salted breadcrumbs that did it. He was always very liberal with those.

For my cooking demo at the Natoora shop this week I am making my Dad's recipe with purple cauliflower, as well as white. Of course, you can just use white cauliflower on its own, as my Dad does. The purple cauliflower does look fabulous though, doesn't it? It tastes great too. They're grown organically for Natoora by Good Earth Growers in Cornwall.

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Spring bean salad

This is one of my favourite salads. I make it, or a version of it, on a regular basis as a side with fish or chicken dishes or as part of an Ottolenghi-style spread that I like to do for BBQs and big dinner parties. 

Since I started working at Natoora I have played around with the ingredients a bit. I used to always make it with green beans and mange tout, which are great and easy to source. However, Natoora focuses on seasonal ingredients so I have swapped out the mange tout for white and green piattoni (Italian runner beans). They are sweet and tender and they look gorgeous.

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Fennel gratin with leeks and anchovies

Friday fun-day! Today I did my first live cooking demo at the Natoora shop in Turnham Green. And they call this work! Well, sign me up and call me ‘Chef’.

A month ago I started working for Natoora, the UK’s biggest importer and distributor of fine quality produce. Their main clients are restaurants - Ottolenghi, Heston, Gordon Ramsay, Alain Ducasse – you name them, Natoora supply to them. There’s also an online and retail shop where you can buy all manner of delicious things and then some.

In the last 4 weeks I have tried so many new varieties of fruit and vegetables that I am starting to lose count. Oranges? Yes. Tarocco oranges with a blush of pink – new favourite.  Tomatoes? Obviously. Danterini, Marinda and Iberico tomatoes – everyday please. Radicchio? Been there. Radicchio Triestino – just about the most beautiful vegetable I’ve ever seen:

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Fried courgette flowers stuffed with spinach, goat's cheese and feta

I was really excited when I saw these beautiful courgette flowers (that’s zucchini flowers for my Aussie readers) at the farmer’s market near my work on Friday. It was a beautiful spring day so I felt it would be criminal to walk past them. 

In an ideal world I would have lightly battered and deep-fried these beauties, but I don't have a deep-fryer and I was worried about ruining them, so I decided to pan-fry them instead. The result was delicious, but quite different from what you might expect if you have ever ordered them in a restaurant. I managed to get a little crisp on them, but nothing like a batter and they were much more delicate to handle when they came out of the pan. I still highly recommend them though. 

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