Rukmini Iyer’s mother’s cashew nut pulao rice

A bowl of cashew nut rice is my favourite dinner for one. What I particularly like about this recipe is the flexibility – you can substitute the cashews for whole or flaked almonds, replace the spices with a teaspoon of Sichuan peppercorns (Sichuan peppercorns plus lemon verbena leaves is my left-field favourite), and vegans can make it with olive oil. I think a bowl of rice constitutes dinner in itself, but you can top it with a fried egg and some greens, quickly wilted with garlic and chilli. If you’re very hungry, use 100g rice and 200ml water in the recipe below.

basmati rice 60g, rinsed well and drained

boiling water 120ml

butter 1 scant tbsp

bay leaf 1

cardamom pods 3, bashed

cinnamon stick a fragment

cloves 3

cashew nuts a handful

ground ginger ½ tsp

ground cumin ½ tsp

salt to taste

Find a lidded dish that will fit in your microwave, or use a small Pyrex bowl on which a plate will sit snugly as a lid. Tip the rice and boiling water into the bowl, stir, cover, and microwave on medium for 9 minutes (if your microwave has power settings from 100% downwards, go for 80%). Leave it to stand for 10 minutes.

Spread the rice out on a plate to cool while you get on with the rest of the recipe.

Heat the butter on a low heat in a large saucepan and when it starts foaming, add the bay leaf, cardamom pods, cinnamon, cloves and cashew nuts. Stir-fry for 5-6 minutes, until the cashew nuts are golden brown.

Spoon the cooled rice into the pan and gently stir on a low heat until it is coated in the spiced butter. Add the ground ginger, ground cumin and a big pinch of salt, then stir-fry for a further 2-3 minutes. Taste and adjust the salt as needed.

Serve hot, either by itself, or topped with a softly cooked egg and spiced greens.

Note: If you don’t have a microwave, you can do this the traditional way. Take a saucepan, fry the whole spices and cashew nuts in the butter as above, then add the raw rice and stir-fry it with the ground spices and a pinch of salt for 2-3 minutes. Add one and a half times as much water as rice by volume (so for 60g rice, 180ml water; for 100g rice, 250ml water) and bring it to the boil, then lower the heat to the minimum and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Let it cook for 13 minutes and do not take the lid off while cooking. Turn the heat off and let it stand (still covered) for 5 minutes. Then spread the cooked rice out on a plate to dry out for 5 minutes or so before eating.

Rukmini Iyer is a food stylist and author of The Roasting Tin and The Green Roasting Tin

Dan Lepard’s salmon, greens and sweet potato ‘en papillote’

Dan Lepard’s salmon, greens and sweet potato ‘en papillote’. Photograph: Romas Foord/The Observer

A simple, delicious way to steam fish and vegetables in a lemon and butter sauce, effectively a hot vinaigrette, that can be tweaked to suit your imagination and budget.

sweet potato ½ (130g), peeled if you like

greens 2-3 leaves (60g), washed

spring onions 3 (50g), trimmed and washed

butter 40g

mild fresh red chilli 1 small, sliced

garlic 2 cloves, peeled and sliced

ground turmeric 1 tsp

dijon mustard 2-3 tsp

lemon juice of 1 small

salmon fillet 1 or 2 small pieces

salt and pepper to taste

Slice the sweet potato, trim the greens and cut the spring onions into 5cm pieces. Put the sweet potato in a large saucepan, cover with salted water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 6-7 minutes until almost tender, then add the greens, spring onions and more boiling water if needed, and simmer for a few more minutes until just softened, then drain. You can do this the day before and keep it in the fridge.

Melt half the butter in the saucepan, and fry the chilli and garlic until they start to colour. Remove from the heat, stir in the turmeric, mustard, lemon juice and remaining butter. Beat well until the sauce comes together. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7. Cover a baking tray loosely with a sheet of baking paper or foil. Place the greens, sweet potato and spring onions in the middle of the paper, pour over half the sauce and mix. Place the salmon on top, then pour over the remaining sauce. Pull the paper up around the vegetables and fish, and scrunch it closed at the top and sides.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until a peek inside shows the fish is cooked. Serve straightaway.

Dan Lepard is a baker and food writer

Simon Hopkinson’s chicken, garlic and parsley broth

Simon Hopkinson’s chicken, garlic and parsley broth. Photograph: Romas Foord/The Observer

A visit to my local farmer’s market in west London is my favourite start to the weekend. For what seems like an endless season, the vegetable stall offers huge heads of fresh garlic: pale green with long stems and a strong aroma. The French girl, who forever charms, also sells parsley, both curly (rare these days) and flat-leaf, as well as other noteworthy vegetables and fruit. Four heads of garlic and a huge parsley bunch cost me £4. I then take two steps to the adjacent chicken and egg purveyor, pick up three or four chicken carcasses and some giblets, and spend even less. A broth of these simple ingredients is already simmering in my happy head.

Enough for several servings

chicken carcasses 3-4 (or 8 wings), roughly chopped (if you have some giblets, add these, too)

garlic 2 heads of fresh or purple-skinned Provence, cut in half horizontally

parsley 1 large bunch, leaves picked, stalks roughly chopped

salt 2 tsp

bay leaves 2

lemon zest 3-4 strips

chilli flakes ½ tsp

white wine 2 glasses

water 2 litres, or enough to cover the ingredients by about 5cm

olive oil 3 tbsp

Put the carcasses (or wings) in a large pot that has a lid and add the garlic, parsley stalks, salt, bay leaves, lemon zest, chilli flakes, white wine and water. Bring up to a simmer and skim off any scum from the surface. Allow to blip and murmur over a very low heat, covered, for about an hour and a half; you can also do this in a low oven. After about 40 minutes of cooking, carefully lift out the garlic on to a plate using a slotted spoon, and cool. Continue to simmer the broth for the remaining time.

Remove the lid and strain the broth using a colander into a large bowl, discarding the solids. Allow the broth to settle for about 10 minutes, then remove any surface fat using 3-4 sheets of kitchen paper. Now strain the broth again through a fine sieve back into the (wiped clean) original pan.

Take the cooled heads of garlic and ease out the soft cloves from their sodden skins. Tip these into a small food processor, add the olive oil, parsley leaves and a spoonful or two of the broth. Process until smooth. Return to the broth, stir and reheat without boiling, then decant into a warmed soup bowl.

Serve with some large baked sourdough croutons, which will soften and swell in the broth while retaining a pleasing texture until the final spoonful. This recipe makes more than one serving; there isn’t much point in making a smaller quantity. But I can live on this for days – it keeps well in the fridge for at least five days.

Simon Hopkinson is a chef and author of The Vegetarian Option (Quadrille, £12.99)

Rosie Sykes’s coddled egg Ivanhoe

Rosie Sykes’s coddled egg Ivanhoe. Photograph: Patricia Niven

We ate a lot of coddled eggs on Sunday nights in my childhood, maybe because they are such an easy thing to do and yet so deeply comforting to eat.

Egg coddlers have a delightful air of nostalgia about them: one I remember fondly was a small china pot with a metal lid that had been my father’s since his childhood. They can still be hunted down, but if you have no luck, a ramekin or small jam jar makes a good stand-in, especially if it has a lid (a covering of foil will also work). The coddled egg is aided by a steamy environment, resulting in a texture similar to that of a poached egg, with a set white and a runny yolk, in contrast to the firmer texture of baked eggs.

“Ivanhoe” is a garnish I came across in Robin McDouall’s wonderful Clubland Cooking. It involves cream and smoked haddock, which I cook as instructed by Polly Russell, my dearest friend and co-conspirator on The Kitchen Revolution.

Any other smoked fish would work here: my favourite is smoked eel, which needs a touch less butter and probably horseradish instead of the mustard.

smoked haddock or other smoked fish 75g

double cream 20ml

dijon mustard 1 tsp

flat-leaf parsley a small handful, finely chopped

butter 20g, melted

egg 1 large (a duck egg is splendid)

salt and black pepper

toast 1 thick slice, to serve

Start by cooking the smoked haddock. (If using another smoked fish, it may not need cooking – just flake the flesh and skip to the next step.) Put the haddock in a shallow heatproof dish with a lid, season with salt and pepper, and cover with freshly boiled water.

Put the lid on and leave to stand: by the time the fish is cool enough to handle, it will be cooked. Flake the fish, removing any skin and bones. The fish-cooking liquor has excellent flavour and is worth keeping for anything you might need fish stock for – just bring it to the boil before chilling and freezing in ice-cube trays.

Meanwhile, mix the cream, mustard and parsley together. Grease the egg coddler, jar or ramekin with a little of the melted butter, then stir the rest of the butter into the parsley and cream mixture, along with the flaked fish. Put two-thirds of the fish mixture in the coddler, crack an egg on top and scatter the rest of the fish mixture on top, without breaking the yolk. Put the lid on the coddler or cover the ramekin tightly with foil; if using a jam jar, screw the lid on, but don’t tighten it too much.

Half-fill a saucepan with water and bring to a simmer, then lower the coddler into the pan – the water should come two-thirds of the way up the sides of the coddler. Cook for 5-6 minutes or until the egg white is just set. Serve immediately with buttered toast.

From The Sunday Night Book by Rosie Sykes (Quadrille, £12.99)

Peter Gordon’s baked potato with avocado, lime, chilli, feta and smoked bacon

Peter Gordon’s baked potato with avocado, lime, chilli, feta and smoked bacon. Photograph: Romas Foord/The Observer

I love a jacket potato – who doesn’t? It’s the textural contrasts of crispy bacon, the soft potato flesh (and chewy skin), smooth tangy chilli-ed avocado and salty feta that make this a special meal. Serve with salad greens, sliced blood orange and toasted pumpkin seeds for a simple lunch or dinner.

For one jacket potato, sit the scrubbed (but not peeled) potato in a small baking dish on a square of baking parchment.

Bake at 220C/gas mark 7 for 25 minutes, then lower the temperature to 190C/gas mark 5 for another 35-45 minutes until it’s almost fully cooked – you should just be able to poke a skewer through the centre from one side to another.

While it’s baking, fry 20g diced bacon or lardons till crisp in ½ tsp olive oil. If you have smoked paprika, add a few pinches to the sizzling bacon at the end.

When the potato is ready, remove it from the oven and cut the top quarter off. The best way is to lay it on a chopping board on one side and use a pair of tongs to steady it, or a carving fork poked through the middle.

Scoop a few teaspoons of potato out from the bottom section and discard (or throw into a soup or frittata) and dig into the flesh with the spoon to rough it up so the bacon fat will seep in. Sprinkle on some salt, then spoon the bacon and fat from the pan back into the cavity. Sit the top back on and bake for another 12 minutes.

Put the flesh of ⅓ avocado into a bowl with the zest and juice of ½ lime, chopped green chilli to taste, 2 stalks coriander (leaves and stem) roughly chopped and salt, and mash into a coarse guacamole. Season. Take the top off the potato and pack this in on top of the bacon. Roughly crumble 30g feta and sprinkle it on as well.

Sit the top back on and drizzle the whole potato with extra virgin olive oil, a splash of lime juice, and some smoked salt (or regular salt).

Peter Gordon is chef-patron of The Providores and Tapa Room, London W1

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