Cook the natural way
I love cooking simple, rustic food that is full of flavour, vibrant and healthy. All good meals start with the ingredients so, before I start cooking, I seek out the very best I can. You’ll find me hunting the market for the crispest, boldest, most stunning vegetables, the best-marbled cheaper cuts of meat and glassyfresh fish. Only then will I pick up my recipe book for inspiration on how to cook them well. My new book is written with this way of planning meals in mind, putting vegetables first.
I like to feel good about the food I eat, and so I cook with ingredients that have been ethically sourced. It’s a big driving force for me to buy food in as conscious a way as possible. But how do we decide for ourselves what’s ethical and what’s not? At my restaurant, Poco, we’ve drawn up a manifesto so that we and, im-portantly, our customers, know where we stand.
I like to have a connection to where my food comes from, even if it’s just talking to a market stallholder or chatting to a fishmonger to find out how the fish was caught.
It’s a no-brainer that cooking with natural foods means a healthier body and a healthier planet. Farming naturally, without the use of pesticides and fertilisers, helps our ecosystem become more diverse, more fertile and more healthy.
Fortunately, it is these seasonal, local, whole and organic foods that taste the best, too. The best chefs cook with them and for good reason. If we buy and value these ingredients and use them economically, then good food doesn’t have to cost the earth.
Love and cook with wild abandon.
The Natural Cook: Eating The Seasons From Root To Fruit, by Tom Hunt, with photography by Laura Edwards (Quadrille, £20).
Ingredients
Method
Wash the radishes, then cut them into halves, or quarters if they are really big. Put the butter in a heavy-based frying pan and place over a medium heat. Add the radishes and cook slowly for three minutes, until their colour dulls slightly and bleeds into the flesh. Be careful that the pan doesn’t get too hot, otherwise the butter will burn.
Add the radish leaves (if you have them), the caraway and a sprinkle of salt and pepper and cook for a further 30 seconds to allow the aromas to come to life. Chop the parsley and toss into the pan to serve.
Radish leaf soup with caraway
Serves 4
Ingredients
Method
Sauté the onion, courgette, leek, reserved mint stalks, bay leaf, celery and garlic in the light olive oil for 10 mins over a low heat. Add 700ml water, the radishes and the rice. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 25 minutes, or until the rice is soft.
Remove the mint stalks, add the radish and mint leaves, then blend until smooth and a vibrant green. Serve as soon as possible to keep the colour, and be careful not to reboil the soup, or it will fade. Serve each bowl topped with grated radish and a knob of butter.
Storage The soup will lose some of its green vibrancy, but will keep fine for three days in a sealed container in the fridge. Reheat to just below boiling point to serve. The buttered radishes with caraway are best eaten immediately.
Ingredients
Method
Light the barbecue and allow the coals to turn white hot and then to cool a little, or heat a griddle pan over a high heat. Chop off the bottom 2cm-3cm or so of the woody ends of the asparagus spears and save them to add to a stock or a soup.
Roll the spears in the light olive oil, salt and pepper, then place on the heat. Allow to blacken just slightly, then turn to char the other sides. Serve immediately.
Socca pizza with char-grilled asparagus, olives and ricotta
Serves 2 as a starter
Ingredients
Method
To oven-dry the tomatoes, preheat the oven to 110C/225F/ gas mark ¼. Halve as many tomatoes as you have available and scoop out and compost the seeds. Place the tomatoes, cut-sides down, on a wire cooling rack, with a baking sheet underneath to catch the drips. Cook in the oven for three to five hours.
If you are using the oven to dry tomatoes, then make the most of it and fill it up with other fruits or vegetables that are good dried. Try halved apricots, slices of apple, or mango.
To make the socca base, mix the chickpea flour, extra virgin oil, dried herbs and salt and pepper together with 200ml of water, whisking until you have a smooth batter.
Preheat a grill on its highest setting. Heat a large ovenproof frying pan with a little light olive oil. Pour in the batter and swivel the pan to spread it out like a thin pancake. Cook over a medium heat until golden brown, then flip carefully with a spatula and cook until golden brown and a little crispy.
Place on the toppings (except the basil) and put under the hot grill for 5 mins, until it’s hot and bubbling. Season, tear over the basil and serve.
Storage Char-grilled asparagus will keep in a sealed container in the fridge for up to three days. Return it to room temperature to serve as a cold side dish or part of a salad. The pizza keeps in the fridge for four days and is great as a cold snack, but is best fresh and hot. Ovendried tomatoes will keep under a layer of olive oil in a sterilised jar for six months.
I like to feel good about the food I eat, and so I cook with ingredients that have been ethically sourced. It’s a big driving force for me to buy food in as conscious a way as possible. But how do we decide for ourselves what’s ethical and what’s not? At my restaurant, Poco, we’ve drawn up a manifesto so that we and, im-portantly, our customers, know where we stand.
I like to have a connection to where my food comes from, even if it’s just talking to a market stallholder or chatting to a fishmonger to find out how the fish was caught.
It’s a no-brainer that cooking with natural foods means a healthier body and a healthier planet. Farming naturally, without the use of pesticides and fertilisers, helps our ecosystem become more diverse, more fertile and more healthy.
Fortunately, it is these seasonal, local, whole and organic foods that taste the best, too. The best chefs cook with them and for good reason. If we buy and value these ingredients and use them economically, then good food doesn’t have to cost the earth.
Love and cook with wild abandon.
The Natural Cook: Eating The Seasons From Root To Fruit, by Tom Hunt, with photography by Laura Edwards (Quadrille, £20).
Buttered radishes with caraway
Serves 1-2 as a side dishIngredients
- 100g radishes and leaves (optional)
- knob of butter
- pinch of caraway seeds
- flat-leaf parsley
Method
Wash the radishes, then cut them into halves, or quarters if they are really big. Put the butter in a heavy-based frying pan and place over a medium heat. Add the radishes and cook slowly for three minutes, until their colour dulls slightly and bleeds into the flesh. Be careful that the pan doesn’t get too hot, otherwise the butter will burn.
Add the radish leaves (if you have them), the caraway and a sprinkle of salt and pepper and cook for a further 30 seconds to allow the aromas to come to life. Chop the parsley and toss into the pan to serve.
Radish leaf soup with caraway
Serves 4 Ingredients
- 1 quantity buttered radishes with caraway (see above), plus 4 radishes, grated, to serve
- 1 onion, finely sliced
- 1 small courgette, roughly chopped
- green top of 1 leek, roughly sliced
- 6 mint leaves, stalk(s) reserved
- 1 bay leaf u 1 celery stick, roughly sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- good glug of light olive oil
- 700ml water
- 50g risotto rice or shortgrain brown rice (from health food shops)
- 150g radish leaves
- knob of butter
Method
Sauté the onion, courgette, leek, reserved mint stalks, bay leaf, celery and garlic in the light olive oil for 10 mins over a low heat. Add 700ml water, the radishes and the rice. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 25 minutes, or until the rice is soft.
Remove the mint stalks, add the radish and mint leaves, then blend until smooth and a vibrant green. Serve as soon as possible to keep the colour, and be careful not to reboil the soup, or it will fade. Serve each bowl topped with grated radish and a knob of butter.
Storage The soup will lose some of its green vibrancy, but will keep fine for three days in a sealed container in the fridge. Reheat to just below boiling point to serve. The buttered radishes with caraway are best eaten immediately.
Char-grilled asparagus
Serves 1 as a side dishIngredients
- 6 asparagus spears
- light olive oil
Method
Light the barbecue and allow the coals to turn white hot and then to cool a little, or heat a griddle pan over a high heat. Chop off the bottom 2cm-3cm or so of the woody ends of the asparagus spears and save them to add to a stock or a soup.
Roll the spears in the light olive oil, salt and pepper, then place on the heat. Allow to blacken just slightly, then turn to char the other sides. Serve immediately.
Socca pizza with char-grilled asparagus, olives and ricotta
Serves 2 as a starter Ingredients
- 1 quantity of char-grilled asparagus (see above), with the bases of the stalks finely chopped
- 6-8 halves of oven-dried tomatoes (see recipe method, right), or sun-dried tomatoes
- 6 Greek olives, pitted
- 100g ricotta
- handful of basil leaves
- 200g chickpea (gram) flour
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp dried oregano or herbes de Provence
- 200ml water
- glug of light olive oil, plus more for the tomatoes
Method
To oven-dry the tomatoes, preheat the oven to 110C/225F/ gas mark ¼. Halve as many tomatoes as you have available and scoop out and compost the seeds. Place the tomatoes, cut-sides down, on a wire cooling rack, with a baking sheet underneath to catch the drips. Cook in the oven for three to five hours.
If you are using the oven to dry tomatoes, then make the most of it and fill it up with other fruits or vegetables that are good dried. Try halved apricots, slices of apple, or mango.
To make the socca base, mix the chickpea flour, extra virgin oil, dried herbs and salt and pepper together with 200ml of water, whisking until you have a smooth batter.
Preheat a grill on its highest setting. Heat a large ovenproof frying pan with a little light olive oil. Pour in the batter and swivel the pan to spread it out like a thin pancake. Cook over a medium heat until golden brown, then flip carefully with a spatula and cook until golden brown and a little crispy.
Place on the toppings (except the basil) and put under the hot grill for 5 mins, until it’s hot and bubbling. Season, tear over the basil and serve.
Storage Char-grilled asparagus will keep in a sealed container in the fridge for up to three days. Return it to room temperature to serve as a cold side dish or part of a salad. The pizza keeps in the fridge for four days and is great as a cold snack, but is best fresh and hot. Ovendried tomatoes will keep under a layer of olive oil in a sterilised jar for six months.