August

THE SOLITARY
COOK
A little extract from the poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter” by Lewis Carroll. It’s well worth
reading the whole thing. Just Google it! But I’m just thinking of bread today and some things I
do with it. I often have some leftover beard and, if it’s the bog standard stuff, I just make breadcrumbs
with it and freeze them.
treatment, such as:
PANAZANELLA
(Tuscan tomato and bread salad)
Stale bread (you need a good loaf with texture, definitely not sliced bread!)
You will need about 6 nice big tomatoes or more.
A small cucumber, or half a big one.
1 small red onion
2 very finely chopped cloves of garlic
Red Wine Vinegar and Olive Oil
Fresh Basil
“A loaf of bread, the Walrus said,
Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed...”
If it’s a really nice sourdough or ciabatta it deserves different
Peel the cucumber and remove the seeds. Cut into small chunks (not dice).
Put these in a large bowl and sprinkle with a little sea salt. Slice the red onion very thinly and
scatter over the cucumber with plenty of pepper. Now add a couple of tablespoons of red
wine vinegar and toss together. Set aside while you prepare the tomatoes. I like to take the
skins off by popping them into boiling water for a few seconds, them refreshing them in cold
water and the skins should peel off easily.
Cut them into slightly larger pieces than the cucumber.
Add these to the bowl with the finely chopped garlic.
Add a little more salt and mix everything gently together.
Now add about 6 or 7 tablespoons of fruity olive oil
and leave to macerate for about 30 minutes. This will
produce quite a lot of liquid and the onion will loose it’s
nasty raw taste and be much improved. You can tell
that I loathe the fashion for throwing raw red onions into
every green salad!
Meantime, deal with the bread. It should be broken up
into chunks of random size. You’ll need about 4 or 5
handfuls. Thoroughly mix into the salad with a good lot
of fresh torn basil leaves. Leave for no longer than 10
minutes before serving .
This recipe is inspired by one of my favourite chefs, Simon
Hopkinson. He keeps it simple, as do I, but some
people add peppers, anchovies and all manner of things
to the salad. If you are bringing this to a picnic, you
could put the basic salad in a plastic tub, but don’t add
the bread or the basil leaves until you’re ready to serve.
AVOCADO CEASAR SALAD
One or two ripe avocados
Some nice crisp salad leaves, such as Hearts of
Romaine, or Cos
Parmesan Cheese
Home made croutons and a salad dressing.
For the croutons, cut the bread into cubes - not
too small! Pour a good glug of olive oil and a little
sunflower oil into a bowl. Now roll this around in the
bowl, letting it come up the sides before throwing in
the cubes of bread. Toss them gently around in the
oil until they get nicely covered. Then spread
on an oven sheet and roast at 180º until they
become golden and crispy. You’ll need tot
keep an eye on them so they don’t burn and
turn them around now and again for even
cooking.
Take them out when done to your liking and
finely grate some Parmesan over them while
they’re still warm.
Now make the dressing by blending together:
2 chopped cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 generous teaspoon of Dijon Mustard
1 teaspoon of Worcestershire Sauce
1 Cup of Hellmans (or similar) Mayonnaise
When blended, stir in 1 cup of finely grated Parmesan
Cheese
You can add some anchovy paste if you like and, if
you think the dressing is a bit thick, taste it and thin it
down with just a little more lemon juice or water. But
be careful, you do want it to cling to the leaves.
Slice the avocado and sprinkle with a little lemon
juice and salt.
Now, compose you salad. Toss the leaves with as
much of the dressing as you fancy (you will have
some left over fo another day). Arrange in your
serving bowl, artfully add the avocado and the croutons.
After I made this, I felt it might be enhanced by the
addition of some bacon lardons.
And of course, you can add chicken if you like to
make more of a meal of it.
Enjoy with a nicely chilled glass of White!
Maura Dillon-Malone