If this was the Great British Menu this easy salad recipe would be described as a witty take on corned beef hash, there is always a witty take on something on the Great British Menu. I, however am lacking in wit so this is my reworking of the classic british dish, corned beef hash.

There are many recipes for corned beef hash, but as a rule it is a hot stew type dish, made with corned beef, potatoes, onion and carrots. It is often served with picked beetroot or cabbage on the side.

My recipe for a salad version of corned beef hash is easy to prepare and just as delicious as the original hot version.

To begin with boil some chopped salad potatoes in salted water, leaving the skin on, until tender. Drain and leave to cool. Around 3 potatoes per person is sufficient While the potatoes are cooling take a couple of cooked beetroots and a couple of carrots and grate or chop them, then put to one side, keeping them seperate.

Take a small red onion and finely chop, add the onion to the beetroot and mix well, pour over a little red wine vinegar, around two tablespoons, a teaspoon of sugar, mix well and season with salt and pepper.

Once the potatoes are cooled toss in a bowl containing a handful of chopped fresh parlsey and a little olive oil, just enough to coat the potatoes.

In a serving bowl arrange the beetroot and onion in a ring around the outer edge, then form a ring of grated carrot, then in the centre place the salad potatoes. On top of the potatoes place thin slices of corned beef and dress with a little cress or chopped parlsey. I used tinned corned beef as I would do for traditional corned beef hash.

And that’s it, my reworking of a classic british dish, corned beef hash salad! Enjoy

You will need one large chicken breast fillet, cut into bitesize pieces, around half a baguette, again cut into bitesize pieces, and a large tomato, you guessed it, cut into bitesize pieces.

Place the chicken, baguette and tomato on a baking tray or roasting dish, cover with a generous amount of olive oil, and season with black pepper and sea salt. Place in the oven at 180C for around 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked properly.

Leave to cool for a few minutes, in the mean time make a bed for the salad with some wild rocket. Place the chicken, baguette and tomato on top and add some cubes of cheese. I used a mature cheddar, but you could use feta or any cheese you prefer.

Enjoy!

To start you will need to boil some eggs, one per person is enough, boil for around 7-10 minutes, depending on how you prefer your eggs. You can cool the eggs quickly by leaving them under cold running water. Once cool peel and cut into two.

Wash and shred some lettuce, I used iceberg lettuce. Place the shredded lettuce on a plate and top with some chopped spring (green) onions. You can add some chopped cucumber at this point if you like. The tomato can either be whole cherry tomatoes or chopped salad tomatoes, I prefer the sweetness of the cherry tomatoes. At this point I drizzle a little olive oil over the lettuce, onion and tomatoes, but this is optional.

Now all you need to do is add some ham, I used Lancashire cured ham, which is delicious, and the egg. Also add some mayo or salad cream either on the plate or in a side dish. Serve with crusty bread.

Enjoy!

• 1 bag fresh spinach

• ¼ lb bacon (raw kind that needs cooking in a frying pan)

• ½ Red Spanish onion

• ¼ cup red wine vinegar

Slice onion into thin rings and put into large pot with vinegar, dump the bag of spinach into pan, let set.

Fry the bacon in a heavy skillet (I use a 10 iron frying pan) when the bacon is crispy remove it, crush into small pieces spread over spinach mixture.

*Just before serving* Heat the bacon grease until it starts to smoke, remove from stove and pour over the spinach mixture, toss. Add salt & pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Bone-app-E-tit!

This recipe is so easy, you’re gonna slap yourself for not having tried it before. First of all, get 3 different types of melon. Best if they have different colours of course. The yellow Honeydew – for example — has green meat, the elongated Santa Claus has white meat and Canteloupe or Charentais melons have orange meat.

You can use half or even a quarter of each and cover the remaining bits with clingfilm, for later. Keep in the fridge in a closed bag or container. Anyway, cut the melons into bite-sized chunks and gently toss em into a nice bowl.

Next, shred a handful of thinly sliced smoked ham and carefully mix with the melon. Finally, add freshly ground black pepper to taste. That’s it. Nothing more to it but digging in.

Tip: make it half an hour before you’re gonna eat it, and chill the salad in the fridge. Have a glass of wine with it if you will.

The first thing to do is put some water on to boil for the poached egg, if you cover the pan the water will come to the boil quicker, but as you want to time the egg to be ready with the rest of the salad it’s best to leave the lid off.

Next, heat some butter and olive oil in a frying pan, cut some bacon into strips and fry until crispy. Remove the bacon from the pan, (retaining the butter, oil and juices from the bacon in the pan) and leave to drain on some kitchen towel. In the same pan put some pea shoots and toss gently for about 30 seconds, just enough to wilt the pea shoots. Remove from the pan and again drain on some kitchen paper. Finally add the asparagus tips to the pan and fry for a minute or so, just until they begin to change colour, then drain on kitchen paper.

Now, while you have been preparing the asparagus, pea shoots and bacon the pan of water will have come to the boil. Once it begins to boil gently add a fresh egg to the water, it’s best to crack the egg into a shallow dish and lower the dish into water. Cover the pan and turn the heat down to a simmer. About two minutes later you should have a perfect poached egg.

Place the pea shoots, bacon and asparagus into a bowl and top with the poached egg, then simply dig in to your delicious lazy brunch.

Sometimes you can get awkward eggs, eggs where the white and the yolk seem to have had a falling out in the shell, and as soon as you crack them and add them to water they part company as fast as they can. There is a way around this problem, just crack the egg onto a piece of cling film, tie it up and poach the egg in the cling film. This will ensure the white and the yolk stay together.

Enjoy!

So, with this in mind my Haiku Salad had to consist of 3 parts, two of which had to contain 5 ingredients each, and one part containing 7 ingredients. I also took into consideration that Haiku poems originated in Japan, and felt the Haiku Salad needed an Japanese twist, this I found with Sushi rice, which is a sticky rice, used for making sushi rolls.

The amounts listed will serve 4, adjust as necessary.

Part 1 – 5 ingredients: Sushi rice with spring (green) onion.

1. 1 cup of medium grained Japanese rice, once cooked this will increase to around 2 cups. Cook according to instructions on the packet or, if you use one, your steamer.
2. 3-4 tablespoons of Japanese Rice Vinegar.
3. 2 tablespoons of Sugar, use white sugar.
4. Salt to taste, approx. 1 teaspoon.
5. Spring (green) Onion, finely chopped.

While the rice is cooking, put the Japanese Rice Vinegar, sugar and salt into a pan and heat slowly so that the sugar and salt dissolve into the vinegar, but do not allow it to boil. Then leave away from the heat until needed. Once the rice is cooked, place in a bowl and add the vinegar seasoning, mix thoroughly as the rice is cooling, making sure all the grains are covered. Add a good handful of finely chopped spring (green) onions and mix well. Once the rice has cooled it is ready to use. Place the seasoned rice into a small round mould, I used a cookie cutter. Pack the rice quite firmly to make sure the mould is filled properly. It doesn’t need to be too deep, 2cm deep is adequate. Once the mould is packed with rice, remove it and you should be left with a perfect round of rice. Some rice or onion might fall away, but don’t worry, just remove these. Now you are ready for part 2.

Part 2 – 7 ingredients: Salad leaves and vegetables
This part is flexible, use a selection of whatever salad greens and vegetables you prefer, but remember to only use 7, and slice or chop them finely. It is also to best to use a selection of colours and textures, make it look nice and well as tasting nice I also like the contrast of crunchy vegetables with the soft sticky rice, here is what I used;
1. Red Pepper.
2. Grated carrot
3. Endive
4. White cabbage
5. Red Onion
6. Iceberg Lettuce
7. Red Cabbage

Arrange your selection of salad greens and vegetables on top of the rice, you don’t need too much just enough to make a good base for part 3.

Part 3 – 5 ingredients: Stir-fry beef

1. Frying steak, cut into thin, short strips
2. Half a cup of Soy Sauce
3. 1 tablespoon of honey
4. 1 clove of garlic, crushed
5. 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, crushed

Mix together the soy sauce, honey, garlic and ginger, pour over the strips of beef and leave to marinade for around one hour. Fry the beef in a hot wok for a minute or two, depending on how you like your beef, rare, medium, properly cooked etc. Place some strips of beef over the salad greens and vegetables, I used 5 pieces, per serving.

Hint: You may want to do part 3 first, and let the beef marinade do its job whilst the rice is cooking.

So there you have it
A perfect haiku salad
Try one for yourself!

Enjoy!

You will need 1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut milk, place this in a blender, along with 1/2 a stalk of lemongrass, a pinch of shredded (unwaxed) lemon peel, 2 tablespoons each of fish or soy sauce and red curry paste, 3 tablespoons of lime juice and 2 teaspoons of sugar.

Blend the ingredients together until smooth and the Thai marinade is now ready to use.

To get the best results from your marinade read How do marinades work?

Not being one to miss out on the latest fad, I decided to use some streaky bacon to make a cup to hold the other salad ingredients. Bacon cups are not the easiest thing to make but they are not too difficult either, and if I can make them, so can you.

First you need a suitable mold, I used an oven proof ceramic terrine dish. Cover the outside of the dish with tin foil, and stand upside down, like this….

Cover the mold with streaky bacon, tucking the edges underneath the terrine, this will help keep the shape, like so…

Place these in a hot oven, about 200 degrees centigrade, for around 10 – 15 minutes, until the bacon is cooked and crisp. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Once cooled, carefully, and I do mean carefully, remove the bacon cups from the mold. Any edges that are tucked under can be carefully pulled away so that the bacon will slide off the tin foil.

You should be left with something like this….

Now all you need to do is fill the bacon cups with whatever you want. On this occasion I chose to use, cooked chicken, chopped cucumber, chopped tomato, a little spring (green) onion, one clove of garlic finely chopped and a good dollop of mayonnaise. I mixed these all together and filled the bacon cups.

To add a final touch I used the bits of crispy bacon that had come away from the cups, (the edges that were tucked under) and sprinkled them over the top and added a sprig of parsley.

I served the filled bacon cups with a simple side salad of Romaine lettuce, sliced tomato, a few croûtons and Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 600 grams of whale meat in strimmels
• 1 red onion
• 1 red paprika
• 1 Valerianella (corn salad)
• a little lollo and crispie salad
• A small amount of bean sprout
• Salt
• Pepper
• Taco spice mix
• 6 tortilla wraps
• 1 dl thick soured cream
• A little chilli sauce

What you do:

Fry the whale meat strimmels in butter and add taco spice, salt and peper. Mix everything with cultured sour cream and chili sauce. Heat the taco wraps as described on the package. Mix the vegetables. Mix the whale with the salad and divide it equally onto the wraps. Add bean sprout and close the wraps as described on the package.

Disclaimer: Whale meat is only available in stores in Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Japan.