Sarah Venning’s recipes

3tbsp olive oil
3 small onions, peeled and chopped
2 red peppers, chopped
3 courgettes, grated
3 carrots, grated
1 butternut squash, peeled and grated
1 large pinch dried oregano
2 bay leaves
6 x 400g tins plum tomatoes

Makes approximately three litres. Heat enough oil to cover the bottom of a large saucepan and fry onion, pepper, courgette, carrot and butternut squash for 5-10 minutes. Add oregano, bay leaves and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for around 30 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, before blitzing until smooth in the blender.

Serves 6
1kg mixed fish fillets (e.g. hoki, swordfish, cod, snapper, orange roughy)
Pinch saffron
1 red onion. chopped
2 celery sticks, thinly sliced or a red pepper
4tbsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves
1tbsp coriander seeds
1tsp cumin seeds (or 0.5tsp ground)
2 bay leaves
1 fresh thyme sprig
2 tins chopped tomatoes
2 heaped tbsp tomato or sun-dried tomato purée
1 glass red wine
300ml fish stock or water
1-2 tbsp sugar
salt and pepper

Season fish and set aside. Infuse saffron with tbsp hot water in a small bowl. Fry onion and celery in olive oil. When almost done, add garlic, cumin, coriander, bay and thyme. Cook for two minutes. Add tomatoes and tomato purée and lemon zest. Boil for 10 minutes until thick. Add wine. Cook for minute or so, then add stock or water. Season. Simmer for five minutes. If it tastes sharp, add sugar to soften. Simmer for another five to 10 minutes. Add fish and saffron, stir, then simmer gently for five minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 190°C.

Nut loaf ingredients

1oz butter
4oz mushrooms
1 peeled finely chopped onion
2 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped
0.25 pt water
1 rounded tsp marmite
1tbsp wholemeal flour
1tsp mixed herbs
3oz ground cashewnuts
3oz ground almonds
6oz breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
2 small eggs
1lb loaf tin, lined with greaseproof paper and foil

Melt butter, fry onions and mushrooms until tender. Add tomatoes and cooked until they pulp. Add water to veg with marmite. Simmer for two minutes. Sprinkle flour. Mix crumbs and nuts and herbs. Add everything together. Add eggs, mix again and season. Put into tin, level off and press down well and cover with foil. Cook until risen at 190°C for 35-40 minutes.

Mushroom sauce
0.5oz margarine
Tbsp oil
Small onion
6oz mushroom finely chopped
Garlic
0.66tbsp sherry
1oz flour
0.75 pt stock
1tbsp soy sauce
salt and pepper

Fry onion, garlic and mushroom. Add sherry and cook. Sprinkle flour. Add stock and return to boil. Add soy sauce. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Add marjoram

6 garlic cloves
1tsp salt
Small bunch basil
100g ground almonds
50g roughly chopped almonds (for texture)
4 ripe tomatoes, skinned and chopped
125ml olive oil
Pepper

Whiz it all up in a food processor, pour onto hot pasta, serve. Delicious and quick. Amazingly garlicky

For 4. Heat oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 5
4 lamb shanks (season with salt and pepper)
1tsp coriander seeds
1 small dried red chilli
1tbsp fresh rosemary
1tsp dried marjoram/oregano
1tbsp flour
1tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 large carrot, quartered and finely sliced
2 medium onions, finely chopped
6 sticks celery, quartered and finely chopped
2tbsp balsamic vinegar
170ml/6fl oz dry white wine
6 anchovy fillets
2×400g tins plum tomatoes
1 handful fresh basil or marjoram or parsley, chopped

1 Crush coriander seeds and chilli and mix with chopped rosemary and dried marjoram

2 Roll lamb in spice mixture, pressing in well. Dust lamb with flour

3 Heat oil in heavy oven proof pan and brown meat, then remove
4 Add garlic, carrot, celery, onions and pinch salt, and sweat until soft

5 Add balsamic vinegar and reduce to syrup

6 Add wine and simmer for two minutes
7 Add anchovies and tinned tomatoes, keep whole. Shake pan and add lamb
8 Bring to boil, put on a lid or foil seal and simmer in oven at 180°C/350°F/Gas 5 for 1.5 hours. Remove lid. Cook for further 0.5 hour.
9 Skim off any fat. Check seasoning. Stir in herbs. Serve

Goes well with mash, esp if part parsnip mash, and touch of parmasan.
Or couscous

250g dried Pardina lentils
1 litre chicken or veg stock
1 tin of chick peas
6 shallots sliced
1 red pepper, cut into chunks
2 garlic cloves sliced
3/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp chilli
3/4 tsp ground cumin
olive oil
sea salt and black pepper
15 slices of chorizo
handful of fresh coriander, chopped
handful of fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

Bring stock to the boil and add the Pardina lentils and simmer for c.20 minutes.

Fry the shallots, red pepper, garlic, paprika, chilli and cumin in a little olive oil until nicely brown.

Drain the lentils, add a splash of olive oil and the drained, rinsed chick peas, return to the heat and warm through, stirring continuously so they don’t stick.

 Carefully mix everything together, check the seasoning and serve - NB it’s also really delicious cold the next day for lunch.

Thomas in Morocco via Paris and Clerkenwell:

“You need a chicken, one or two pickled lemons (Waitrose do sell them), half a jar of black olives, powdered ginger, saffron, plenty of parsley and fresh coriander. You sweat an onion in your tagine, then add a teaspoon of powdered ginger, a bit more of saffron, some garlic and salt and pepper, and half a pint of water or more. You salt and pepper the chicken, and then turn it well in the mixture, and leave it to simmer for an hour (as very often with north African recipes, you don’t brown it), turning it a few times. You do a strange manœuvre with the olives in which you blanche them three times in boiling water for thirty seconds (running under the cold tap each time): this seems to soften the taste a bit. Scoop out and discard the insides of the pickled lemons, and cut the skins into strips, and chop up the parsley and coriander. Add all this fifteen minutes before the end. You want to end up with lots of juice to be soaked up by the couscous. The recipe I had said to cook the whole thing in a casserole and transfer to the tagine once it was all cooked, but this seemed like cheating, and I couldn’t really see the point.”

Thomas emailed this so I shall quote him verbatim:

“Our main course was dictated to me in a series of rather confusing answerphone messages, but I liked it as a chic alternative to the rough, Nigel Slater-ish ways of cooking quails that I normally like. For this one, you brown the quails, flambé them in brandy (this step doesn’t appear in the recipes, but, as Grand’mere said, it can’t do any harm), then braise them for 20 minutes or so in grape juice and a glass or two of white wine, adding a good number of real grapes for the last ten minutes. The proportions I had involved two pounds of grapes (half juiced, half for the pot) for six quails. I overcooked it (we had drunk quite a lot of champagne), which did the quails no harm, and meant I had a nice brown reduced sauce.”

This is surprisingly good despite being v quick and basic.

http://www.waitrose.com/recipe/Beef_and_Black_Bean_Chilli_with_Toasted_Corn_Tortilla_Strips.aspx

750ml water
375g frozen peas
2 spring onions, trimmed but whole
Salt
1/2 teasp lime juice
4×15ml tablespoons pesto from tub not jar

Boil the kettle. Measure the amount of water you need into a pan and put it onto the hob to come back to the boil.

 Add the frozen peas, spring onions, salt and lime juice and let everything bubble for 7 minutes. Discard the spring onions and blitz the peas and their liquid in the blender with with pesto.