Serves 2
- 1 large courgette sliced lengthways,
- 1 small shallot,
- ¼ teaspoon chilli powder,
- 20g cooked
- white beans,
- 1 large red pepper,
- 1 clove garlic finely diced,
- 80g fresh spinach washed with the heavy stem’s removed,
- groundnut oil
- 80g sliced baby new potatoes,
- 1 very large fennel sliced,
- 1 tbsp fennel seeds,
- 1 tbsp caster sugar,
- 4 tbsp’s fresh orange juice.
- 1 clove garlic,
- peeled and finely diced,
- 30g capers chopped,
- 3 small pickled gherkins chopped,
- 2 anchovy fillets,
- diced,
- 1 handful flat-leaf parsley finely chopped,
- 1 handful basil sliced,
- 1 handful fresh mint chopped,
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard,
- red wine vinegar to taste,
- 6 tablespoons olive oil.
Mix all the salsa verde ingredients together and set aside.
Place the potatoes in a pan of cold water and bring to the boil. Pass the potatoes through a sieve, heat a frying pan, add rapeseed oil and then the potatoes colouring on both sides; remove when cooked all the way through; season and then set aside.
Place the fennel seeds in a pan, heat through and when smoking add 2 table spoons of rapeseed oil followed by the sliced fennel; turn and when evenly coated season and sprinkle sugar on both sides. Add the orange juice to the pan and gently fry for 2 minutes on each side. Finish off in a pre-heated oven at 180oC for a further 8 minutes, or until caramelised.
Rub a little olive oil around the pepper and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180oC for approx. 30 minutes. When blackened all over, place in a bowl, cover with cling film and after five minutes take out and skin; discard the seeds and cut the flesh into strips.
Place the courgette slices on a very hot griddle; cook for about 30 seconds, turn 90o cook for another 30 seconds and repeat the process on the other side; leave to cool on a bakery rack.
Fry off the shallot in a hot pan with a tablespoon of rapeseed oil, add the chilli powder and after about a minute add the beans. Cook for two minutes then set aside to cool.
For the spinach first fry off the garlic with a little rapeseed oil and then add the spinach; fry until wilted. Press out the moisture, season with salt and pepper and set aside.
Lay a sheet of cling film on a work surface and on top of this lay the courgette slices to form a rectangle; lightly season with salt and pepper. At the top of the bottom third of the rectangle, lay a horizontal strip of the spinach, beans and red pepper. Using the cling film closest to you, fold over the beans/pepper, spinach to form a long tube. Now tighten by twisting the cling film at both ends so it resembles a Christmas cracker. Just before serving steam for about 5 minutes. The best way of steaming if you don’t have a steamer, is to lay a roasting rack into a roasting tin add enough boiling water so the water level is no higher then the underside of the roasting rack. Cover with tin foil and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180oC for five minutes. Unwrap the cling film and slice.
Lay the courgette slices on top of the cooked fennel/potatoes, and garnish with the salsa verde.
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