Salads can be limp, boring and vinegary if the wrong chef made the dressing but, according to New Zealand-born Peter Gordon, there’s more to salad than sad leaves of iceberg lettuce.
The “godfather” of fusion cuisine, Peter has a restaurant in London, The Providores & Tapa Room. In his early 50s, of Scottish and Maori descent, he has no qualms about voicing how proud he is of Savour, a tome dedicated entirely to salads.
When he was seven, he and his family were prepping for a barbecue when disaster struck. He was trying to get up high enough to look into a pot on the stove, when he slipped, grabbing hold of it on the way down, knocking the vat of boiling fat onto himself as he fell. He still bears the burn scars on the right side of his neck and arm.
“It didn’t put me off cooking,” he explains matter-of-factly. “I never even liked the taste of beef fat, and I love deep-fat frying! When my parents divorced, my mum started deep-frying everything in sunflower oil and I was like, ‘Yes! That’s so much better’.”
Although there are moments of deep-fat frying in Savour – yes, even in a book about salad – if there’s one thing Peter wants people to take from the new book, aside from the fact that salads are suitable whatever the season, it’s “not to pour boiling water on couscous.”
“It’ll never stick together again if you use tepid water,” he promises in garrulous fashion.
Perhaps the most controversial of the recipes in his new book is a very strange list of ingredients for mayonnaise that Peter learnt to make as a child. This acclaimed chef and restaurateur makes mayonnaise with condensed milk… but don’t let it put you off, the salads really are delicious.
Why not try a few yourself? Here are three to get you started…
CHILLI-ROAST SWEET POTATO, COURGETTE, ROAST GARLIC, HAZELNUTS AND PEARS
SERVES 8 AS A SIDE DISH
1 head garlic, broken into separate (unpeeled) cloves
1kg sweet potatoes, skins scrubbed, cut lengthways into wedges
2 large pears, halved, core removed, cut into thin wedges
1 or 2 red chillies, thinly sliced
1tbsp rosemary leaves
2tbsp olive oil
2tbsp sesame oil
3 courgettes, quartered lengthways
100g hazelnuts, skins off, roughly chopped
100g baby spinach (or use large-leaf spinach and coarsely shred it)
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas mark 4.
Put the garlic in a pan, cover with 3cm water and add half a teaspoon of fine salt. Bring to the boil, then cook over a medium heat until the water has almost evaporated. Drain.
Put the garlic, sweet potatoes, pears, chillies, rosemary, olive oil and half the sesame oil into a roasting dish. Sprinkle on one teaspoon of salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Roast in the oven for 45 minutes, tossing twice.
Add the courgettes, hazelnuts and remaining sesame oil and toss together, then cook until the pears and sweet potato are cooked through, about 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven and stir in the spinach.
ROAST CHICKEN, KUMQUATS, BLACK GARLIC, KALE AND AVOCADO
SERVES 6 AS A MAIN DISH
8 boneless chicken thighs
8 black garlic cloves, sliced
8 kumquats, unpeeled, thinly sliced
2tsp fresh rosemary (or fresh thyme or oregano or a mixture)
4tbsp sunflower seeds
2tbsp avocado oil
1 small red onion, thinly sliced into rings
200g kale, thick stem removed and discarded
2 avocados
2tbsp lemon juice
1 cucumber, ends discarded, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas mark 4.
Place the chicken thighs, garlic, kumquats, rosemary and sunflower seeds in a roasting dish. Pour on the avocado oil and two tablespoons of water and season with salt and pepper. Toss everything together.
Roast, turning the chicken several times while cooking, until the chicken is cooked through and the skin is golden and crispy, about 30-40 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave until cool enough to handle, then cut each thigh into four or five slices.
While the chicken is cooking, soak the onion in cold water for 10 minutes, then drain.
Meanwhile, blanch or steam the kale for three minutes. Tip it into a colander and, when it is cool enough to handle, squeeze out as much water as you can, then coarsely shred it.
Remove the flesh from the avocados and cut into chunks. Mix with the lemon juice to prevent it going brown.
To serve, toss the kale, onion, cucumber and avocado together and lay it on the bottom of a serving dish. Lay the chicken on top then spoon over the contents of the roasting dish.
TUNA WITH COCONUT, CHILLI, MANGO, APPLE AND LIME
SERVES 2 AS A MAIN, OR 4 AS A STARTER
350g very fresh tuna loin, skin and bones removed
3tbsp lime (or lemon) juice
1 small red onion, halved and very thinly sliced
1/2tsp finely grated lime zest
1/2 medium-heat red chilli, finely chopped (use more or less to taste)
1tsp light brown sugar
1 ripe, sweet mango
100ml coconut milk
8 stalks coriander, leaves picked
1 spring onion, thinly sliced
1 crisp, sweet apple
2tbsp desiccated coconut, toasted
Flaky salt
Cut the fish into cubes about 1.5-2cm square. Mix with half the lime juice and a quarter of a teaspoon of flaky salt, then cover and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Briefly rinse the sliced onion under cold water, then mix with the lime zest, chilli, sugar and remaining lime juice. Cover and place in the fridge until the fish is ready.
Peel the skin from one half of the mango and cut off the cheek (you’ll need only one cheek). Thinly slice the flesh.
Drain the juices from the fish. Toss gently with the onion mixture, coconut milk, mango, coriander and spring onion. Cover and leave for five minutes in the fridge.
Cut the apple (unpeeled) into juliennes and toss with the toasted coconut.
To serve, give the fish another gentle mix and taste for seasoning, adding extra salt if needed. Divide among your bowls or plates and sprinkle the apple and coconut on top.