As my children grow, I increasingly find that I want to spend time with them in the kitchen, trying to infect them with my love for cooking. I particularly love baking with them, because it is so tactile and often involves kneading and getting messy with dough and pastry (though I think it’s important to use savoury ingredients as well as sweet ones). The more the children are involved, the more they enjoy eating – and it is amazing what they will try if they’ve had a hand in making it.
In today’s healthy and hearty salad, the sweetness of the beets and pomegranate molasses lures them into eating the oily fish, healthy greens and nutty grains. Follow that with homemade cookies as a treat, rich with rye flour and macadamia nuts, and studded with lots of dark chocolate chunks.
Mackerel, beetroot and kale freekeh salad
The nutty grains offset the richness of the fish and the dressing. Cracked freekeh is much faster to cook than whole, so do try to get hold of some; bulgur wheat or brown rice would be delicious alternatives. Serves six.
4 beetroot, peeled and thinly sliced (use a mandoline, if you have one), plus the stems from 1 beetroot, finely sliced lengthways
1 red onion, peeled, cut in half and finely sliced
1 tsp red-wine vinegar
2 tsp pomegranate molasses
30ml olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
200g kale, stems removed, leaves washed and chopped
250g cracked freekeh, soaked in cold water for five minutes
4 fillets smoked mackerel, skinned
For the dressing
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp red-wine vinegar
¼ tsp orange zest and 1 tbsp orange juice, plus extra to serve
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tiny clove garlic, peeled and crushed
Heat the oven to 200C/390F/gas mark 6. Toss the beetroot and onion in the vinegar, molasses and olive oil, season generously, then roast for 30 minutes, until the beetroot is tender.
Meanwhile, bring a large pan of lightly salted water to a boil and blanch the kale for two minutes, until just softened but still retaining its bright green colour. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a colander, run under cold water to refresh and cool, then leave to drain.
Bring the pan of water back to a boil and add the drained freekeh. Simmer for 10-15 minutes (longer if the freekeh is whole and uncracked), until the grains are tender.
Mix the ingredients for the dressing and season with salt and pepper: it should be sharp, to put a zing into the freekeh, but if you prefer it a little sweeter, add more orange juice to taste. Put the kale and freekeh in a large serving bowl or platter, pour over the dressing, toss and season to taste.
Flake the smoked fish, then scatter over the salad with the slices of roast beetroot. Grate over a little extra orange zest and scatter with the reserved slices of beetroot stem. Serve with tzatziki and flatbreads.
Chocolate chip cookies with macadamia nuts
These are squidgy, nutty and intensely chocolatey. Makes about 24.
150g unsalted butter, softened
75g light brown soft sugar
100g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large egg yolks (freeze the whites for another day)
200g plain flour
50g rye flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp flaked sea salt, plus extra to garnish
1 tbsp cocoa powder
100g dark chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate
65g macadamia nuts, half chopped, the rest halved (or blanched almonds)
Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Line one or two large baking sheets with parchment.
Beat the butter and sugars until smooth and creamy, then beat in the vanilla extract and egg yolks. Sift in the flours, baking powder, salt and cocoa. Fold in until well combined, then fold in the chocolate and chopped nuts until evenly dispersed.
If you don’t want to bake straight away, transfer to a sealable freezer bag and store in the fridge or freezer – take out of the fridge 15 minutes before you want to bake; if frozen, defrost until soft enough to mould.
To make the cookies, using your hands, break the dough into roughly 30g pieces, roll each into a ball and place on the lined baking sheets, leaving plenty of space between them: the dough will be a little dry but easily mouldable. With the palm of your hand, flatten the balls slightly, then press one half-nut gently into the centre. Sprinkle with a little sea salt, then bake for about 10 minutes, until spread out and cooked.
Leave to cool for a minute, then transfer the cookies, still on their parchment, to a cooling rack. Serve warm, if you can; they’re also great in ice-cream sandwiches with vanilla ice-cream.
And for the rest of the week…
I always like to cook extra freekeh, because it’s such a great asset to have a bowlful in the fridge, ready to spoon into other salads or to have warm with eggs. If you omit the garlic from the dressing, try quadrupling the recipe and storing it in a clean glass jar. Then, next time you make a salad, you’ll already have a dressing ready to go; just add crushed garlic to taste. It’s worth making extra batches of cookie dough, too, because it can be made in a flash and it freezes beautifully. Roll into rough logs, wrap tightly with clingfilm and freeze. Then, next time you’re going to visit friends, whip one out of the freezer and it should take only about 20 minutes from freezer to fully baked; very little beats a box of homemade biscuits, still warm from the oven, after all.
