Whopping Potato Salad

Lovely tasty potato salad with a variety of flavours. It used up the last of the potatoes I brought back from the States, lovely red, white and blue mini potatoes. I used salami instead of pastrami. the origainl recipe suggest that you could also swap in peas, ham, toasted pumpkin seeds, diced red onion and chives. It would also be nice over a green salad. 

Whopping Potato Salad (from A Salad for All Seasons - Harry Eastman)
(Serves 4)

500g new potatoes
2 large eggs
30g wholegrain mustard
50g mayonnaise
1/2 tsp malt vinegar
salt and pepper
4 spring onions, finely chopped
150g thinly sliced pastrami, ham or salami
70g gherkins, finely chopped
small bunch dill, chopped

Boil the potatoes until just tender. Add the eggs to the pan around 8 mins before the end of the potatoes cooking time.

Drain the potatoes and eggs, then run the eggs under cold water to cool. Peel the eggs and set them aside.

Mix the mustard with the mayonnaise and vinegar. Taste and season.

Cut the cooked potatoes into halves or quarters depending on how big they are, then toos in the mayonnaise mixture.

Roughly chop the eggs and add to the mixture, along with the spring onions, pastrami, pickled gherkins and dill. Refrigerate until needed and serve at room temperature.

Salami and Sesame Potato Salad

I made a few changes to the original recipe mostly because I knew I wanted to eat it cold rather than warm. My potatoes melted rather quickly but the salad was tasty, kind of bog standard for what I make normally with the lemon mayonnaise but the salami was a bit different and I had really good garlicy salami.

Salami and Sesame Potato Salad (froim The Good Food Channel)

(Serves 4)

800g waxy new potatoes, cut into even sized pieces

4 tbsp mayonnaise

juice 1 lemon

150g salami, thinly sliced

small bunch of dill, chopped

salad leaves

2 tbsp seeds

Put the potatoes in a large saucepan, cover with cold water, bring to the boil, then cook until tender. Drain and set aside.

Heat a frying pan to medium heat, add the sesame seeds and toast for about 6–8 mins, until golden. Set aside.

Mix together the lemon, mayonnaise and dill together and season.

Arrange the salad leaves in a serving bowl, toss the potatoes and salami with half of the lemon mayonnaise and pile on top of the lettuce. Scatter with the sesame seeds serve.

Summer Storecupboard Salad

This is a really very tasty salad. It's a lovely combination of summery ingredients and the salami that I bought is incredibly delicious.

Summer Storecupboard Salad (from A Salad for All Seasons)

(Serves 4)

1 tin artichoke hearts

1 tin cannellini beans

4 tbsp pesto

2 tbsp olive oil

100g salami, roughly torn

200g sun blush tomatoes, drained and chopped

100g pitted black olives 

Slice the artichokes into halves or quarters, depending on the size. Toss the beans with the pesto and olive oil. Next add the salami, tomatoes and olives.

Finally add the artichoke hearts and pack into a lunchbox or serve.

Raclette Tart

I love raclette cheese! I was hurrying to find things to do with the cheese after heating it up on top of boiled potatoes and cold meats before the cheese went bad and I came across this recipe from Nigel Slater in The Guardian. It was really good, lovely and tasty and the cheese was fantastic and melty in the bottom of the tart.

Raclette Tart (from The Guardian)

(Serves 6)

200g plain flour
100g butter
1 egg yolk
milk

For the filling:
350g raclette, thinly sliced
50g salami, thinly sliced or shredded
2 tsp peppercorns
12 cornichons, halved
2 eggs
150ml creme fraiche
good pinch thyme leaves, chopped

Put the flour in a large mixing bowl with a pinch of salt. Cut the butter, rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk, mix a little more then add enough milk – a couple of tablespoons – to bring the dough to a soft, rollable consistency.

Flour a board, roll the pastry out and use it to line a 22cm shallow-sided tart tin – preferably one with a removable base. Line with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans. Set aside for 20 mins in the fridge to rest. This will stop it shrinking during baking. Set the oven to 200C and place a metal baking sheet in the oven.

When the pastry case has rested, bake on the hot baking sheet for 20 mins. Remove the case from the oven, carefully lift out the paper and baking beans, then return to the oven for 5 mins, until dry to the touch. Remove from the oven and lower the heat to 180C.

Put the eggs in a mixing bowl, then stir in the crème fraîche and a little salt and black pepper.

Place the slices of cheese neatly in the base of the tart case. Scatter over the shredded salami, green peppercorns and cornichons, then pour over the crème fraîche and egg mixture. Place on the heated tray in the oven and bake for 25-30 mins until the filling is lightly set and pale gold. Leave to cool a little before serving.

Tortellini Caesar Salad

Although this was a really simple salad to put together I thought people might like to see other things that can be done with a bottle of Caesar salad dressing. I know I was trying to come up with things! This was a very tasty salad, not a typical Caesar Salad and in fact you could throw anything in it, but the combination of the slightly spicy dressing and the pasta was really good. Could also be eaten hot or cold.

Tortellini Caesar Salad

(Serves 1)

handful tortellini

salad leaves, ripped up

small chunk salami, sliced

6 cherry tomatoes, halved

small chunk mozzarella, cubed

1 tbsp Caesar salad dressing

Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the tortellini according to packet instructions.

Whilst the pasta is cooking, put the salad leaves in a bowl and top with the salami, tomatoes and mozzarella. When the tortellini is done, drain and then put on top of the salad. Drizzle with the dressing and serve.

Storcupboard Pasta Salad

This is dead simple but wonderful for using up those ends of jars. It's very versatile you could pretty much put what you want in it. I used aubergine pesto on this occasion as I had it open but any sort of pesto would do.

Storecupboard Pasta Salad
(Serves 1)

60g dried pasta
chunk cucumber, chopped
handful cherry tomatoes, halved/quartered
half a roasted pepper, chopped
1-2 sundried tomatoes, cut into strips
3 artichoke hearts, quartered
chunk cheese, cut into cubes
chunk salami, cut into cubes
1-2 stems of wild garlic, chopped
1 large tsp pesto

Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook according to packet instructions. Drain,run under the cold tap and then drain again well.

Put all the ingredients into a bowl, add in the pesto and stir to combine. Serve.

Orzo with Lemon, Asparagus and Salami Salad

This was a very simple dinner I made to eat on a tube on the way to the theatre. I am definitely exploiting the English asparagus season, as short as it is this year. Asparagus tastes so much better now than the rest of the year when it's flown in from far flung places. I picked up two bunches for £3 on Walthamstow Market and my Mum got some at her local village shop. It tastes fantastic. You could also use leftover ham instead of salami and green beans instead of asparagus when it's not in season.

I had this dish cold but it would be really good, possibly even better hot in which case don't cool the orzo when you drain it and add it into the salami and asparagus mixture in the frying pan before adding the lemon.

Orzo with Lemon, Asparagus and Salami Salad
(Serves 4)

3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
300g asparagus, cut into inch pieces
salt and pepper
200g salami
300g dried orzo
zest and juice of 1 lemon
Parmesan, grated

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and cook the orzo according to packet instructions. Drain and then run under the cold tap until cool.

Heat 2 tbsp of the olive oil in a large  frying pan over medium low heat. Add the onion and cook until it is soft and transparent, about 4-5 minutes. Add the asparagus to the onion and season with a tiny pinch of salt and some pepper. Cook for 4 more minutes.

Add the salami to the asparagus and onion mixture, continue to cook until the asparagus is crisp but tender, and the salami is lightly browned.

When the salami is lightly brown add the asparagus and salami mixture to the orzo, then add the zest and the lemon juice, and season. Stir to combine, pack into your lunchbox and sprinkle over a little Parmesan cheese.