Across Friday and Saturday I was lucky enough to be asked to cook with my friend Andrea at the British Roots festival at Porobello Road Market… 
Here is a selection of the recipes we made… more to follow! They’re quite approximate but we were cooking adhoc. Nothing was planned, we cooked with what we bought from the market on the day! It also means no pics! I have to rely on others to send pics
Parsnip pakoras and beetroot pakoras
These were incredibly popular! Pilllowy little fritters, perfect little nibbles with some minted yoghurt.
Slowly heat some vegetable oil in a deep pan – about 4 inches oil deep. Heat until a piece of bread thrown in sizzles as soon as it is added.
Mix about a mugful of gram flour with a tsp of baking powder and about 1/2 tsp salt. Add 2 tbsp of a garam masala mix and about 1 tsp of cumin seeds and some black pepper. Now make a well and add 2 eggs, slowly incorporate the flour and spice mix into the eggs before adding enough cold water to make a thick batter that would coat the back of a wooden spoon. If you want bright purple beetroot pakoras, replace the water with beetroot juice. Now grate about 3 peeled parsnips (you could use carrots, beetroot, celeriac…). Finely slice 2 spring onions, 1/2 fresh chilli and some onion if you like and some coriander – essentially the veg mix is up to you. You need enough grated veg so that when it is added to the batter, it forms thick spoonfuls of mixture that will hold their shape upoon impact with the hot oil. If you taste the batter before you add the vegetables, you will be able to tell if you have added enough spice and salt. Add more if you think it needs it.
When the oil is hot, gently drop heaped teaspoons of batter and veg mix into the oil and cook, turning regularly for about 5 minutes until golden brown. Using a slotted spoon, remove the pakoras to a sheet lined with kitchen paper. Serve immediately!
Beetroot, fennel, orange and smoked mackarel salad
Finely slice about 3 spray and golden beetroots (you can use the purple ones but they will dye your salad purple). Segment 2 oranges and add to the beetroot with the juice. Next finely slice 1/3 fennel bulb. Add a handful of flatleaf parsley leaves. Now glug in a fair amount of extra virgin olive oil, a sprinkling of salt and pepper and some lemon juice. Then add your smoked mackarel (you can buy ready smoked or make it yourself of course).
Celeriac remoulade – a delicious classic French salad.
Chop off the peel of the celeriac route. Finely slice celeriac into matchsticks and then plunge into boiling water. After about 2 minutes, remove and put in iced water – drain. Make a mayonnaise or buy a good quality one. Add some dijon mustard to your mayo, finely chopped cornichions and capers, salt pepper and lemon juice. Mix in to your celeriac.
Thick Celeriac and parmesan soup – This is great for a soup shot as it’s very rich!
Sweat 1 roughly chopped onion in about 40g butter with a bruised garlic clove and 2 bay leaves. Cook it very slowly so the onion is v soft. Next add 1 peeled and diced celeriac. Sweat with the lid on for around 15 minutes until quite soft. Next cover with full cream milk and a little double cream, Season with salt and black pepper. Cook until the celeriac is soft. Remove the bay leaves and then blitz using a hand blender (or go to the market stall next door and use their electricity to do it, as we did!). Add about 100g grated parmesan – taste and season.
Oca roots with lemon sauce vierge, cherry tomatoes and dill
Oca roots are native of the Incas. They can now be bought from a farmer in the UK and I was lucky enough to have the use of some over the past few days. Oca roots are best eaten raw or lightly warmed in my opinion. The following recipe works with oca roots as well as cooked potatoes or finely sliced carrots.
In a heavy based pan, add about 75ml extra virgin olive oil. Add 1/2 finely sliced onion and a bashed garlic clove, some lemon zest, a few peppercorns, and 2 bayleaves. Cook very slowly for about 20 minutes until the onion is very soft. Remove from the heat, squeeze in some lemon juice, a few quartered cherry tomatoes and a sprinlking of dill as well as some salt. Taste. Then toss over sliced oca roots or finely sliced carrots.
Warm beetroot with cumin, lemon and feta
Melt butter with olive oil in a pan with 1 tsp cumin seeds. Allow to froth. Stir in about 3 peeled and grated beetroot. Warm through before adding the juice of a lemon, salt and black pepper. Stir in crumbled feta.
Heritage Carrots with butter, caraway and lemon.
Heritage carrots are beautiful – you get some really unusual colours and this makes for a beautiful salad! Melt butter and olive oil in a pan and add caraway seed, black pepper and salt. Allow to froth before poring over finely shredded carrots (use one of thise clever peelers that also cuts each ribbon into strips.
Salsify sauteed in butter and garlic – Salsify tastes oystery… it’s like sea food! Very unusual but delicious!
Salsify is a root that many people would not have tried. Firstly peel the roots and straight away put them into acidulated water (water with lemon juice – which will stop it going brown). Slice the salsify into 1cm slices. Steam over a pan of boiling water for 10 mins till tender. Then fry in butter until tehy turn golden. Add crushed garlic, salt and pepper.
Turnip and carrot Vietnamese salad – If you can’t find green papaya, turnip works fantastically well.
Simply grate a load of turnip along with some celeriac if you like, some carrots and some beeteoot. In another bowl, mix fish sauce, lime juice, crushed garlic and grated ginger. Add some chopped mint and coriander, a little sugar and some finely chopped chili. Taste the dressing – it should be salty, sour, and sweet… mix through the grated veg and serve!
Beetroot risotto – make a risotto as you would normally – sweat onions in olive oil and butter with a bit of thyme… when soft add some crushed garlic before adding risotto rice. Cook for a minute or 2. Now add about 1 glassful of white wine. Boil to reduce and then add beetroot juice in place of stock along with 1/2 chicken stock cube. You will need to add some water as beetroot juice is absorbed less readily by the rice. However, it gives the risotto an amazing colour! After about 20 minutes, the rice should be tender. Take off the heat, season and add anout 40g butter cut into small squares and about 50g grated parmesan. Beat to incoporate. Serve!
There you go! First installment… I am sure I will think of some more!
