Last Night's Dinner

1. Roast Cabbage, Egg and Bacon Salad

Yes, I know this sounds like quite a wintery salad, but it isn’t as cold cuisine as it seems. I really love raw cabbage. I shred it, lightly salt it and leave it to stand so it collapses down a bit but still retains a good bite. My kids, however, precious, sensitive darlings that they are, have been known to complain about salads which are too crunchy, because of all the extra chewing they have to do. Raw crunchy salads do give the jaw a work out, that is true. I don’t often indulge their peccadilloes, but as Shariq’s favourite thing is pressure roasted cabbage, I sometimes use this as a basis for a salad instead of using raw with the added bonus that it means everyone is happy.

Which is what I did last night. It ended up being a bit like a chopped salad - roast cabbage, potatoes, bacon, lots of other raw vegetables and eggs cooked then given a bit of a mimosa treatment. And a buttermilk dressing. Buttermilk is one of my favourite ingredients. It does wonderful things to bakes - if ever I want a more tender crumb, buttermilk seems to sort it out. It adds a very pleasing tang to all kinds of dairy based dishes - ever since I read Jenny Linford’s recipe using buttermilk as a base for panna cotta, all my panna cotta recipes have followed suit. And it is my first choice if I want a creamy, dairy based dressing.

All of these ingredients sound as though they are going to create quite a heavy dish, but honestly, it was refreshing yet substantial enough for a summer’s evening meal, when you want to keep the cooking to a minimum. And you can reduce the carb element if you wish, or perhaps replace with cooked beetroot or a grain. Endless possibilities as usual.

You might just be able to make out the slices of black pudding in the pan behind the salad. You could crumble that in to the salad if you wished. If we were in autumn/winter I would add some crisp apple too.

Potato, Cabbage and Egg Salad

For the cabbage:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 green cabbage, trimmed and cut into wedges

For the salad:

250g new/baby/salad potatoes

3 eggs, at room temperature

1 tbsp olive oil

75g bacon, sliced

1/2 cucumber, halved lengthways and cut into crescents

200g cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped

A few radishes, sliced

1 stick celery, sliced

1 small red onion, finely chopped and soaked in salted water for 10 mins

Herbs, lots of - parsley, dill, tarragon, mint, whatever you have or fancy

For the dressing:

100ml buttermilk

1 tbsp wholegrain mustard

A few tarragon leaves, finely chopped

1 tbsp cider vinegar

A pinch of caraway seeds (optional)