Pot-roasted Asparagus

Skate with Ham, Radicchio, Capers and Lemon
Jersey Royals with Mint
Marinated Grilled Vegetables

Years ago, I cooked skate fairly often – I enjoyed the meaty taste and the way it could take such a diversity of other flavours. But then, more than a decade ago, I left a skate wing in the fridge for too long and it went rancid. The smell was awful. I remember taking it down four flights of stairs from my then apartment to the bin, not wanting to stink out the lift. I have eaten skate since, but I haven’t been able to face handling it.

11 years on, Sussex Fish at Borough Market always has fabulous-looking skate and I knew the time had come. I found several Middle Eastern/North African treatments but really wanted something Mediterranean – it’s the region I associate with skate – and so chose an old Jamie Oliver recipe. Before that some asparagus. Again. It’s spring.

 

Pot-roasted Asparagus
This Pot-roasted Asparagus recipe is from the long-gone days (2002) of Heston Blumenthal’s weekly column in The Guardian. We have asparagus this way at least once, often several times, during the season. In his intro to the recipe, Blumenthal makes the point that when you boil or even steam asparagus the water turns green and tastes of asparagus, which means the asparagus gives less goodness and flavour than it should. It’s obvious really. I don’t think I have boiled asparagus since I read this. I still steam it – I think that’s the best way in a delicate dish – but more often I griddle it or go for this form of post-roasting. Incidentally, this also means that it’s worth throwing asparagus ends into vegetable stock to add more flavour.

The recipe link gives more detail, but this is pretty simple. I sautéed some chopped shallot (for two of us, I used one banana shallot) in a good amount butter (although less than the 50-75g suggested in the recipe) using the widest pan I have with a lid – covering the pan allows the shallot and later the asparagus to sweat and roast rather than fry. Once the shallot had started to soften, I added the asparagus. Ideally, the asparagus should be in a single layer but when cooking for more than two, this really isn’t feasible and so I move it around from time to time to cook evenly. It takes about five minutes for the asparagus to become tender.

When the asparagus was cooked, I threw in a handful of chopped chervil (I use parsley when I cannot find chervil) and some salt and pepper and let the pan stand off the heat, covered, for another five minutes or so. To serve, I topped the asparagus with some very finely-sliced button mushrooms and shaved parmesan and drizzled over some balsamic vinegar. The vinegar combines beautifully with the buttery sauce of the asparagus.

We think this is one of the best ways to taste asparagus at its finest.
Skate with Ham, Radicchio, Capers and Lemon
Skate Wings with Prosciutto, Radicchio, Capers and Lemon is from Jamie Oliver’s very first (1999) book, The Naked Chef; we were inadvertently having a retro evening. There was a twist because I used some outstanding smoked Black Forest Ham from Freiburg instead of a Southern European cured ham (the link is well worth a look for detail of the curing and smoking process). I wasn’t sure how this would work, but the sweet-smokiness matched brilliantly with the skate. It obviously wasn’t the intended flavour, but I’d definitely do it this way again.

I rinsed, dried, seasoned and dusted the the skate wings with flour and fried them in some butter for 2-3 minutes on each side. Even though I was only cooking two wings (in fact, one big wing cut in two) I still needed to cook them separately. Once browned, I transferred the skate to the oven at 230ºC/210ºC fan/Gas 8 for 5-6 minutes (the recipe said 4-5 mins, but our fish was pretty thick-boned).

Next came the topping: I more-or-less halved the recipe quantities for two of us. I fried the finely-chopped smoked ham – about four or five slices worth – until nicely coloured; the smell was fabulous. I added a small clove of garlic, finely-chopped, half-a-head of radicchio, shredded, and a tablespoon or so of rinsed capers. I lowered the heat, added a knob of butter and as the radicchio wilted stirred in the juice of a lemon.

The smoky-Mediterranean topping blended beautifully with the skate. The red radicchio juice bled down the fish and it was lovely to pull down some topping as we pulled away the firm but tender strips of fish.

 

Jersey Royals with Mint
We love Jerseys when they are in season, and as the Jerseys start to decline, in come the equally-good Cornish. They seem a world apart from other potatoes. It was a recipe from Shane Osborne’s Starters that put me on to this way to prepare them.

Rather than boiling the scrubbed potatoes in water, I simmered them in vegetable stock (a cube does the trick – just enough stock to cover) with a bouquet garni of parsley, bay and thyme. Don’t ask me why, but this seems to tease out even more nutty, potato-ness. By July, I don’t bother, but in the first couple of months of the season it really is worth this effort.

 

Marinated Grilled Vegetables
This became a wholly retro night with these Grilled Marinated Vegetables from 1995’s The River Cafe Cook Book by Ruth Rogers and Rose Grey. The River Cafe Book was Tuula’s before it was ours, if that makes sense, and I often don’t remember we have it, but I wanted a Mediterranean-type veg dish to accompany the skate and this dish turned out superbly. In fact, we probably didn’t need the potatoes.

I cannot find an online recipe; my quantities were more than enough for an accompaniment for two, with plenty of leftovers. The recipe suggests 450g of each of the four vegetables (aubergine, courgette, red pepper, yellow pepper).

I sliced a small aubergine lengthways and cut two courgettes into thick, wedge-like batons. I salted both veg and left them to drain in a colander for half-an-hour. Since I wanted the aubergine to retain its shape, this was on occasion when salting seemed necessary.

While the courgette and aubergine were draining, I grilled a small red and a small yellow pepper until charred all over. I usually cheat slightly when prepping peppers for peeling by first quartering them: you get an even charring, the peppers are easier to peel and they are just as juicy. Once charred, I put the peppers in a carrier bag, tied it tight and left to cool (with carrier bags mercifully in shorter supply, the alternative is to leave the peppers in a bowl covered with cling film). Once cool, I peeled the peppers and cut them into thin strips.

After half-an-hour, I rinsed and dried the courgette and aubergine, and cooked them in batches on an oiled griddle, seasoning as they cooked. I wanted them tender and with attractive griddle markings.

For the dressing, I mixed about 100ml of olive oil with the juice of a lemon and a crushed garlic clove, plus salt and pepper (the River Cafe recipe calls for twice these quantities). Once the vegetables had cooled a little, I tossed them in a bowl with the dressing and gently stirred through a handful of torn basil leaves (the recipe suggests basil or marjoram).

This is a really lovely and pretty easy vegetable dish. It’s also fabulously colourful – for once the photo conveys this. It keeps well in its dressing for at least another day without becoming soggy.
An evening when all the dishes seemed to work together – for certain a combination I would try again.