Microgreens or micro leaves are vegetable seedlings harvested between 6 and 21 days old for their intense taste. Think back to when you were a child and grew cress in dampened cotton wool inside an empty egg shell, or was that just me? Anyhow, growing micro greens is essentially the same - easy and quick. So that is exactly what I am going to do, grow some micro greens.

The excellent flavour of microgreens is not the only reason I want to grow them. Seedlings of many vegetables have wonderfully coloured stems, for example the Swiss chard has red, yellow, orange and purple stems. How good will they look garnishing a salad?

Microgreens can be grown all year round, all you need is a windowsill. Obviously during the winter months when there is not as much light as in the summer months, growing times may be a little longer, but not much longer. With some planning and a ready supply of seeds, there is no reason why you cannot have micro greens growing on your windowsill all year round.

I’ve decided to grow my microgreens in small containers, this way I won’t ever harvest more than I need for my family at one time, and will have the space on my kitchen windowsill to have trays of greens at different stages of growth, giving me a continual year round crop.

This time I am going to grow, Basil, Rocket, Radish and Broccoli.

I started by making a mix of 2 parts potting compost and 1 part Perlite, Perlite is great for retaining moisture, which will help prevent the compost from drying out.

The next thing I did was put a shallow layer of the compost/perlite mix into empty plastic fruit punnets, the type with holes in the base, which will be used for watering and drainage. I then stood the containers in a some water and let the compost and perlite take up the water until the surface was clearly damp.

Once the compost was thoroughly wet I liberally sprinkled some seeds over the top, and then placed the containers on the windowsill.

Now, I just need to wait for the seeds to germinate and begin to grow, and also make sure the compost doesn’t dry out, and if it does begin to, stand the container in water again.

I will be posting again about the progress of my micro greens, hopefully in a few days when the seeds should have started to grow. Once this happens I will start some more off, this will make sure I get a continuous supply. Check back soon to see how it’s going.

For the Crayfish and pea shoot salad, simply place equal amounts of crayfish tails and pea shoots into a bowl and lightly toss with some lemon olive oil. That’s it! Ridiculously easy but tasty and satisfying.

Pea shoots are the tender vine tips of green or garden peas and are eaten as a vegetable. They can be eaten fresh or cooked and make a good alternative to spinach. They have a delicate pea flavour, and are becoming more popular. You should be able to find them in any large supermarket.

To make the pesto, boil 250g of garden peas, for a few minutes, drain and allow to cool. Once cooled place in a bowl and blend with 50g of pine nuts, 50g of grated Parmesan cheese, a handful of chopped chives, 1 clove of garlic, crushed and enough olive oil to make a smooth paste. I used a hand blender for this, but you can also place all the ingredients in a regular blender, just remember to add the oil slowly until you get the right consistency. The pesto is now ready to eat.

Now, although the crayfish and pea shoot salad looks very pretty, the pesto looks like, well, a pesto, which in my opinion is a bit boring, I like a bit more colour. So I decided to follow instructions, from a magazine article, I had seen years ago and cut out to keep, to make a flower from a red pepper for decoration - an edible decoration of course

To make the edible pepper flower, cut a red pepper into 4, remove the seeds, cover in foil and roast for about 20 minutes. Once cooled remove the skin, and lay the pieces out flat. From them cut 5 circular shapes, I made mine about an inch or so in diameter. Then simply place them in a flower shape, slightly overlapping each other. I used a small dot of course grain mustard to make the centre of the flower, and used chives to give the impression of a stem and leaves.

To one side of the flower I place some of the pesto, topped with some chopped chives, and to the other side the crayfish and pea shoot salad.

You could also make some Melba toast to go with this if you wanted. I find it a bit dry, but I know others like it with pesto.

Enjoy

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Lemon olive oil is useful in so many ways, it can used as is, as a dressing for salad, or as an ingredient in a more elaborate salad dressing. It is excellent for cooking, especially fish. It is probably something you should make on a regular basis so that you always have some to use when needed. And there really is no point buying those expensive infused olive oils, when you can make your own easily and for a fraction of the cost.

For Lemon Olive Oil, you will need 1 bottle of olive oil, or rapeseed oil, or any other type of oil, the choice is yours. Add to this bottle some lemon zest, about 2 - 3 tablespoons. Leave the bottle of oil with the lemon zest to stand for about 2 weeks at room temperature. Shake it occasionally.

After two weeks or thereabouts, strain the oil through some muslin or any other fine strainer. You want to remove the zest from the oil. Discard the zest and pour the Lemon Olive Oil back into the bottle, and it is ready to use.

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!

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I made mine in tall sundae glasses, but if you don’t have these, use regular dessert bowls, the result will still be delicious.

I used banana, seedless grapes, strawberries and raspberries, chop them into small pieces and layer them in the glass. For the topping I used Greek yogurt, mixed with a spoonful of clear honey and a spoonful of chopped walnuts. On top of this I placed a little more of the chopped fruit. Serve straight away or leave to chill in the fridge for later.

Enjoy!

PS. Simon Rimmer, my favourite TV chef, would most probably add a sprig of mint to the top of this fruit salad, but I am from the ‘No Mint on Desserts’ school of thought. But add one if you wish

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First, you will need to marinade the prawns in the sweet chili sauce, about 20 minutes in the fridge will be sufficient. To cook the prawns I used my George Foreman lean mean grilling machine, wait for the grill to get hot and then place the prawns on the grill and close the lid. The prawns take a couple of minutes to cook, but check they have fully changed colour before you remove them.

Remember to use the drip tray, as some of the sweet chili sauce will run off. If you don’t have one of these grills, you can grill them under a regular grill, the result will be the same, but remember to turn them after a minute, so that both sides brown.

while the prawns were cooking I quickly washed and chopped some iceberg lettuce, cucumber, spring or green onions and a couple of cherry tomatoes, mixed them and placed on a serving plate. I also added the remaining sweet chili sauce in a little dish, to the serving plate.

Once my prawns were cooked, I used a set of tongs to hold the prawns whilst I put a skewer through them to make prawn kebabs. Now you can skewer them before cooking, but I like to be able to pick up kebabs, hot wood is not fun to hold, so I skewer them afterwards.

Then place the prawn kebabs on top of the salad bed and dig in

Enjoy!

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Of course we all have our favourite herbs and spices, and at the same time we have those that we are not so fond of, after all taste is a personal thing. There are also those times when we are following a recipe and find we do not have a particular herb or spice to hand, and in those situations we need an alternative, just as we would want to find an alternative to herb or spice we are not keen on.

With that in mind, here is a list of common herbs and spices and suitable alternatives for each, which will give a similar flavour or aroma;

Herbs and their alternatives

Basil - oregano or thyme
Chervil - tarragon or parsley
Chive - spring onion, green onion, onion, or leek
coriander - parsley
Marjoram - basil or thyme
Mint - basil, marjoram or rosemary
Oregano - thyme or basil
Parsley - chervil or coriander
Rosemary - thyme or tarragon
Sage - marjoram or rosemary
Savory - thyme, marjoram or sage
Tarrogan - chervil, fennel seed or aniseed
Thyme - basil, marjoram or oregano

Spices and their alternatives

Allspice - a blend of cinnamon, cassia, nutmeg, mace, cloves
Aniseed - fennel seed or a few drop of anise extract
Cardamom - Ginger
Chili Powder - hot pepper sauce plus a combination of oregano and cumin
Cinnamon - Nutmeg
Cloves - cinnamon or nutmeg
Cumin - Chili powder
Ginger - cinnamon, mace or nutmeg
Mace - Cinnamon, ginger or nutmeg
Nutmeg - cinnamon, ginger or mace
Saffron - for colour use a dash of turmeric

Yesterday, on their return from Calais, Mrs Neighbour surprised me with a new acquisition. She still had her cheese mountain, but on this trip she had also purchased 48 bottles of Olive Oil. After showing me her bounty of Olive Oil she posed a question, Does Olive Oil go bad? Now, I won’t lie to you, my first thought was to return her question with a question of my own, wouldn’t it have been a good idea to find that out before buying 48 bottles of the stuff? I didn’t ask that question though, instead I told her what I knew about Olive Oil, and as Olive Oil is a vital ingredient in salad dressings, I’m going to tell you too.

Yes, Olive Oil can go bad, rancid even. Olive Oil goes bad because of a process called oxidation, this process happens when air reacts with chemicals in the oil and produces peroxides. Now, while these peroxides can do wonders turning a brunette into a blonde, they do nothing to enhance the taste of a killer salad. The oxidation process speeds up when the Olive oil is exposed to air, heat and light. So you need to keep Olive oil in a cool, dark place, and in an airtight container. A cupboard is fine, and if you can keep you oil in a coloured container, not clear glass, it will be even better.

Now, even if Mrs neighbour takes my advice and keeps her Olive oil in suitable conditions, if she doesn’t get through her 48 bottles in under 3 years or so, it will eventually turn rancid anyway, due to auto-oxidation. Even in a cool dry place, in an airtight container, the antioxidants in the oil can only keep the auto-oxidation process at bay for so long.

So, my top tips for top quality salad dressings is to buy Olive oil as you need it, keep it in a coloured, airtight container, and keep it in a cool, dark place when you are not using it.

You will find in any marinade, an acidic ingredient such as vinegar, yogurt, wine, or lemon juice. This acidity softens the proteins in the meat, denatures it, makes the protein strands unwind so that the marinade can seep in and flavour the meat.

This unwinding process is relatively slow, but times vary for different meats. For instance poultry and fish rarely need more than half an hour. Other meats can take around 2 - 4 hours. But don’t make the mistake of adding too much marinade thinking it will give more flavour or work more quickly, you will just end up with a woolly coating and no extra flavour in the meat itself. A nice even, thin, layer of marinade will suffice, and give an excellent result.

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?