Oh yeah! Giving it to you Fergus Henderson style! This dish comes to you straight from the kitchens of one of the saviours of British cuisine. This is a dish that Anthony Bourdain considers his ultimate comfort food. This is a dish so warming, unctuous and decadent that it'll brighten up those idle Autumn evenings. This is a dish...that my mum really likes! Yeah! Oh.



















So, anyway, I went to the Ginger Pig and bought some really nice looking veal marrow bones and followed one of the simplest recipes ever for one of the most delicious things ever. This is so rich and filling that I wouldn't recommend eating too much of it but it's a great autumnal treat. The only change I'd include (for personal taste) is the addition of sumac to the parsley salad to give it an even bigger zing and cutting through more of the fat. Oh and I used sel gris! Good salt is a must.





















To make this dish follow the recipe here. :-)

I've been thinking about my blog a lot recently. I had a sudden sense of urgency in the last few days after realising that I'd been neglecting the classics of Lebanese cuisine. Whilst my aim is to be a bit more creative there is a use to having solid tried-and-tested recipes populating this blog. Tabbouleh is one of those things that is so simple that it allows for wide and varied interpretation. It might not be any stretch of the imagination to presume every family in Lebanon has their own tweaked version and I bet every person thinks their mum's version is the best! I'm going to avoid modesty and go all and out and suggest my mum's version is up there.



















Ingredients
3-4 small bunches of parsley
2 beef tomatoes
8 fresh mint leaves
2 spring onions
2 tablespoons fine bulgur wheat
2 medium lemons
2-3 tablespoons good quality olive oil
salt and pepper



















Method
Finely chop parsley and spring onions. Dice the beef tomatos and add to the parsley and onions. Rip the mint into small pieces, add the bulgur wheat, the juice of the two lemons, the seasoning and the olive oil. Mix and let sit for at least an hour. Serve as part of a mezze or with lamb cutlets.

Sometimes words only exist to complicate something so simple. Out of Monday blues and summer-lust comes this recipe combining three simple ingredients: ripe Pakistani mangoes, a traditional sheep and goat's milk halloumi and freshly picked mint. Not a hint of Lebanese to it. Oh well.

























 Ingredients
200g diced ripe mango
200g sliced halloumi
5-6 leaves of freshly picked mint


















Method
Heat up a griddle pan and and sear the halloumi for 30 seconds on each side. You need the pan to be smoking hot to get good grill marks. Dice the mango and pick the mint leaves before combining the three ingredients. Make yourself a drink, grab some crusty bread and make your way to the garden to enjoy this delicious salad.

Watermelons are a big thing in my family. Actually, I think they might be a big thing in everyone's family. I think my family's obsession stems from my father; whose love of watermelon sometimes brings into question whether the love between man and fruit should really reach such heights. For him, a watermelon is a delicate thing, every stage has an intricate process. When we go to the market to pick out a watermelon he'll spend 15 to 20 minutes in ritual carefully choosing which watermelon we'd take back home with us. I don't know if this is a family thing (I mean we've never been great athletes or scholars but we may have the watermelon game down to a tee) but my dad seems to have an inner understanding of the complexities of the humble watermelon. He knows the significance of each shade of green on the outer skin and what each bump signifies (like a watermelon phrenologist) which helps him to consistently pick the most ripe, the most beautiful watermelons. So you can gather that this time of year our house is full of wonderful watermelons that are asking to be used up in creative ways and I think I have a really easy summery recipe to do just that.

















Watermelon and feta is not a new combination to most Lebanese people. It's a flavour pairing that has been around since my parents were in their youth (in the 60's) and it's a favourite summer snack around our household. It's rarely ever made into a salad but I think it works with a few added twists. I've used Greek feta in this recipe but my parents prefer using a Bulgarian cheese which is not too dissimilar to the Hellenic variety but has a more complex flavour. I've also included a few chopped almonds for a bit of a different texture but you can exclude them if you so wish. Here it is:

















Ingredients
500g watermelon - diced
115g feta cheese or similar - diced
handful of fresh mint - chopped
handful of fresh basil - torn
small handful of roasted almonds - finely chopped
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
a little black pepper
2-3 shallots - really finely diced


















Method
This may just be the simplest recipe yet. Brace yourselves...


















Mix all the ingredients together. Let it sit for a few minutes. Try not to break up the cubes of cheese. Garnish with mint and serve with a side of olives.

After a succession of posts that ventured away from the traditional ideals of Lebanese cuisine I've decided to dip my toes back into the tried and tested. But words are cheap and I didn't actually abide by any classic notion of what a fattoush salad is. But that's part of the fun of making a salad, it's an open invitation to be creative and I've altered and/or exchanged some of the ingredients and I've included some alternative techniques to give this classic a new lease of life. I began this blog to experiment with what New Lebanese cuisine could be and I believe this recipe to be a marker of what simple creative changes can produce. My variation of this salad is best described as the illegitimate love child of an exotic Lebanese fattoush and a sultry Tuscan panzanella. Hungry yet?

















Ingredients
* radishes
* tomatoes
* stale bread
* cucumber
* spring onion
* courgette
* lemon
* good quality extra virgin olive oil
* sea salt and pepper
* cumin (optional)

* denotes that you should put whatever quantity of each ingredient you fancy, it's more fun to tailor this salad to your tastes.

















Method
Cut the stale bread into bite size pieces (you may need to put the bread in the oven for a few minutes so you can cut it without it crumbling everywhere). Chop the tomatoes, radishes, cucumber and spring onions roughly and place in a bowl. Drizzle with quite a bit of olive oil and lemon (the bread will soak the liquid up so over dress the vegetables) and sprinkle on the salt and pepper. Mix in the bread and let it sit at room temperature for the flavours to infuse.

















Marinate sliced courgettes and radishes in olive oil, lemon and a little cumin and char grill for a few seconds. Spoon the salad into a bowl and place the grilled vegetables on top. Drizzle with more olive oil to finish. Fattoush. Done.