timesofmalta.com

At fresco

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:01:00 +0200

The classic salad niçoise Serves 4-6 You need• 4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered • 450gr string beans • 1 fresh lettuce • 420gr canned tuna • 4 firm tomatoes cut into wedges • 1 small red onion, peeled • 8 anchovy fillets, halved lengthwise • 4 large eggs • 16 whole black olives For the dressing5 tbsps olive oil • 2 tbsps red wine vinegar • 1 garlic clove, crushed • 1 tsp Dijon mustard • Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste Method Wash the vegetables and drain. Boil the potatoes in salted water for eight minutes. Drain and set aside to cool. Trim the end bits from the beans. Boil in salted water for 12 minutes (four minutes for frozen beans). Drain and set aside to cool. Shred the lettuce leaves coarsely with your fingers and arrange the leaves on a large serving dish. Drain the tuna, place it on a plate and break it up into chunks with a fork. Slice the onion thinly and break the slices into rings. Place the eggs in a small saucepan, cover with water and slowly bring to the boil. Let the eggs boil for 10 minutes, drain and leave to cool before peeling them and quartering them with a sharp knife. Place all the ingredients for the dressing in a screw-top jar, close the jar...

Licence to grill

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:02:00 +0200

The evening breeze, sizzling meat and a cold beer – barbecues are the perfect summer combination. Just don’t turn them into a baptism of fire and burnt fingers. Life is a number of firsts. The first time you drove a car on your own, your initiation trip abroad, your first job, and the first time you grilled meat on an open fire – these experiences all stay with you. In the case of your first barbecue, literally so, because you probably still stink of hot fat and smoke. Barbecues are dirty and tiring. You end up arguing with your loved ones over the right way to grill a sausage and your fingers will be so badly burnt that you will not be able to use your keyboard for a whole week. And yet, it’s not summer without them. What makes barbecues so attractive is their primitive appeal – sizzling a hunk of meat over a naked flame is as old as civilisation itself. Then there’s the deceptive simplicity of the whole process. You might think barbecues are a matter of throwing some food over a fire – wrong. There is a method, from deciding what type of wood to use and what spice rubs to grind to the endless temperature checks. So before you put on a funny apron and start calling yourself...