Read on for three lunchtime dishes perfect for al fresco dining and hosting family and friends. From a tarragon and tomato olive oil tart to a fresh and herby mango salad and a hearty prawn pasta paella.
We have loved spotting our Rebecca Udall pieces dotted throughout the book and feel our Zita crockery makes a great foundation for Ella's colourful dishes – whether for everyday dining or hosting friends throughout the summer season and beyond.
All three recipes are extracted from The Kitchen Book by Ella Risbridger (published 21st May, £26 hbk). Photo credit to Yuki Sugiura.
Tarragon & Tomato Olive Oil Tart
SERVES 6
For the pastry:
- 60g really nice olive oil 160g plain flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar 1 egg
OR
- 1 sheet best puff pastry
For the strained yoghurt:
- 1 garlic clove
- 10g chives
- 400g goat's yoghurt (or plain Greek yoghurt)
- Zest of lemon (save the juice, squeeze over green salad to serve alongside)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons really good olive oil
For the topping:
- 200g tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons really nice olive oil
- 100g kalamata olives (to blitz)
- 50g kalamata olives (keep whole)
- 2 tablespoons olive brine from the jar
- 2 big garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar 20g tarragon
- 20g basil
Method:
Start with the pastry, if making it yourself. At least an hour before you want to start, put the oil and 50ml water in the fridge.
Stir together the oil, salt and vinegar. Slowly add the ice cold water to make a supple and not-too-sticky pastry. Shape into a block and roll out to about the thickness of a pound coin: I do this between two sheets of greaseproof paper. Lift onto a baking sheet and freeze flat.
Brush the frozen pastry with beaten egg, and – once frozen, and ready to prepare the tart – bake at 180°c for 20 minutes. Let cool completely on the baking sheet.
While the pastry is chilling (either time), make the strained yoghurt. Crush the garlic, finely chop the chives and mix through the yoghurt, along with the lemon zest and salt. Set a fine-mesh sieve over a bowl. If you have it, line the sieve with muslin. If not, it’s ok! Either way, spoon the yoghurt into the sieve, and let strain for as long as possible. Ripple through the olive il just before serving – don’t stir it in completely.
Also while the pastry is chilling, blitz together the tomatoes, olive oil, olive brine, olives, garlic and red wine vinegar to make a chunky and delicious sauce.
De-stem and lightly tear soft herbs, tear the reserved olives into pieces.
Assemble the tart, on baking sheet: spread soft dollops of olive-oil rippled goat’s yoghurt across the pastry. Tomato topping. Herbs everywhere. Olives everywhere.
Serve with green salad, dressed only with the leftover juice of the lemon. Maybe – maybe – a little more olive oil.
Prawn Pasta Paella
SERVES 4-6
Ingredients:
- 500g shell-on, head-on, king prawns
- 40ml olive oil
- 8 garlic cloves
- 4 shallots
- 4 big tomatoes on the vine
- 3 teaspoons sweet smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon saffron strands
- 2 bay leaves
- 500ml fish stock
- 2 celery stalks
- 250g monkfish tail, chopped into chunks
- 50-100ml white vermouth, in splashes
- 150g mussels (or clams!), scrubbed and de-bearded if necessary
- 250g vermicelli or angel-hair pasta, broken into short lengths
Method:
Peel the prawns.
Warm 20ml of the oil in a big pan over a medium heat. Fry the prawn shells and heads and tails for 5 minutes. The shells will go from slate grey to neon-vibrant orange.
Smash 4 of the garlic cloves with the flat of your knife; peel off the papery skin and toss the garlic into the prawn-y oil. Turn down the heat. Fry gently while you're doing everything else.
Peel and roughly chop two of the shallots and toss them in. Stir. Using the coarse side of the box grater, shred the tomatoes into a big bowl; set the bowl aside for later and toss the tomato skins into the shallot-prawn-garlic pan. You can also add the stalk from your tomatoes: it acts kind of like a bay leaf, but more tomato-y.
Add the sweet smoked paprika. Bloom the saffron in an egg cup - a tablespoon of warm water, plus the strands (stamens?), swirled until it's golden yellow - and tip that in too. Also, two bay leaves.
Add 500ml fish stock to the prawn pan. Stir, and bring up to a simmer for 30 minutes. (If you were given the monkfish bone with your monkfish, add this too.)
(This is a good time to clean the kitchen, and do some chopping: finely chop the remaining 2 shallots, the remaining 4 garlic cloves and the celery stalks. Now chop them even finer. While the chopping board is out, finely chop the parsley and set that to one side for garnish.)
Remove the tomato stalk, if used, and decant the prawn stock - what an extraordinary colour* - with everything in it, including shells and heads, into the blender. I use the Nutribullet here: if you do too, be careful to let it cool before blitzing. Blend prawn broth until very smooth - then blend again. Pour through a fine-mesh sieve, letting it drip slowly down while leaving the shells behind. (If you need to be speedy, push it through with a silicone spatula, but it won't have the clarity.) It should come to about 700ml, so add water to thin if necessary. Set aside.
Wipe out the pan with kitchen paper, and return to the heat.
Add in the remaining olive oil, and when gently shimmering, fry the prawns and the monkfish for about 3 minutes, until golden and a little crispy. Lift out, and set aside.
Scrape any nice bits off the bottom, deglaze with a splash of vermouth, and toss in the shallots, garlic, and celery stalks. Add the tomato insides. Cook for 15 minutes. Deglaze again with a big splash of vermouth.
Check the mussels here: I just scrub mine under the tap, and discard any that won't close when I tap them on the side. (Then I put them in a bowl with a wet paper towel on top, and stick them back in the fridge.) This is a great place to stop, if you want to get ready. The house will smell fantastic, and from here it's kind of just an assembly job.
Pasta goes into the pan. Stir. Broth goes over pasta. Stir. Another big splash of vermouth. Bring up to a simmer. Season generously with salt and pepper.
Cook for 15 minutes without stirring, to let it form a crispy golden bottom. Add in the cooked prawns; the cooked monkfish; and stir. Heat up. All the rest of the vermouth; all the mussels.
Lid on. Five minutes, or until the mussels open up completely. Plenty of black pepper. Serve from the cooking dish. Maybe you don't even need plates?
Herby Mango Salad
SERVES 4
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon caster sugar
- 1 red chilli
- 2 medium carrots
- 3 baby cucumbers (or ½ big cucumber)
- 50g green beans
- 1 long red pepper
- 300g chopped mango
- 10g mint
- 10g Thai basil
- 10g coriander
- 1 Romaine lettuce
- 150g cooked prawns or fried tofu
- 30g chopped roasted peanuts
- 1 lime
- Sriracha, if liked
Method:
In a much-too-big bowl (it will hold everything!), whisk together the fish sauce, vinegar, and caster sugar until the sugar dissolves. Thinly slice the red chilli and add it too. (Easy to omit if you’re not a big spice house.)
Peel the carrots and use a julienne peeler to turn them into thin, pretty little strips. Toss the carrot strips into the bowl and let marinate for a minute. Halve and thinly slice the cucumbers; if you’re using half a big boy, split it in half, and use a teaspoon to drag out the seeds. Discard the seeds, and thinly slice. Toss the cucumbers in with the carrots and stir.
Chop the raw green beans. If you can do this on the diagonal, so much the better. (Do not forget to take off and discard the stringy ends.) Add them to the bowl too. De-seed and finely slice the pepper, and stir the chopped pepper in as well.
(This is a good point to stop this part, if you’re making in advance.)
Finally chop the mango into little dice.
De-stem and finely shred the herbs then shred the lettuce (wash the leaves; stack the leaves; slightly roll the leaves in a bundle; slice the bundle across).
Mix the leaves, the mango, the prawns into the pickled vegetables.
Roughly chop the peanuts; quarter the lime. Divide salad into bowls; drizzle with sriracha, if liked; scatter with peanuts; set the lime quarter at a jaunty angle for individual jaunty squeezes.
