Mark Hix recipes: Our chef puts his knife skills to the test with four sharp spring recipes

Well-cut vegetables are the bedrock of many a good dish

Friday 08 May 2015 19:50 BST
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Comfort food: Chopped prawn salad
Comfort food: Chopped prawn salad

Knife skills are often only taken seriously by trained chefs. But whenever I do a demo or a kitchen-table session, I make a point of demonstrating a few basic knife skills and people always seem to find this useful.

I often tell the story of my first job in London, having to finely chop three bags of shallots (not the large ones that we see today, but tiny ones the size of a pickled onion). If we didn't peel and then chop them finely enough, they would go in the stockpot and three fresh three sacks would land on the bench. We soon learnt.

Getting vegetable cutting right can be therapeutic and rewarding.

Chopped prawn salad

Serves 4-6

American-style chopped salads seem to be filtering on to quite a few London menus. These are comfort food in salad form and can be made with just vegetables, or with added meat, fish or shellfish.

Hotels I worked in used to serve something called a "chef's salad", which was basically a fridge-clearing exercise. Thankfully, things have moved on and these days a good chopped salad with the right amount of dressing and good ingredients can be a beautiful thing.

Cutting your vegetables to the right size to fit easily on the fork or spoon is crucial.

20 or so medium, cooked, good-quality prawns, cut into 1cm pieces
1 red pepper, halved, seeded and cut into 1cm dice
60-70g green beans, cooked and cut into 1cm lengths
4-5 spring onions, sliced
1 avocado, peeled, stoned and cut into rough 1cm dice
5-6cm piece of white radish, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes
A small cucumber, halved, seeded and cut into rough 1cm cubes
1 large beef tomato, cut into 1cm dice
50-60g cooked peas and/or broad beans if in season (or use frozen)
1 small or half an iceberg or cos/ romaine lettuce, washed, dried and cut into 1cm dice
1 small head of radicchio, washed, dried and cut into 1cm dice
2tbsp chopped chervil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the dressing

2tbsp cider or white-wine vinegar
1tbsp Dijon mustard
3tbsp olive oil
3tbsp vegetable or corn oil
1 clove of garlic, halved
A few sprigs of tarragon

First make the dressing. Whisk all the ingredients together, season and leave to infuse for a couple of hours, then strain through a sieve.

To serve, toss all the ingredients together, season and transfer to individual or large serving bowls.

Peperonata

Serves 4-6

This is a great universal sauce-cum-stew and can be served on its own, as a fish or meat sauce or incorporated into scrambled eggs to make a piperade or Moroccan shakshuka. It also makes a great starter served at room temperature with the addition of a soft goat's cheese.

Make a bulk batch of this and store it in preserving jars to use later.

1 medium red onion, peeled and cut into rough 1 cm dice
1 small clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
2 large red peppers, cut into 1½cm dice
1 small can of chopped tomatoes
1tsp fresh thyme or oregano leaves
3tbsp olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Universal: Mark serves his peperonata sauce with squid (Jason Lowe)

Gently cook the onions and garlic in half of the olive oil with a lid on, without colouring, until they begin to soften. Add the red peppers and thyme leaves with the rest of the remaining olive oil.

Season, and reduce the heat and continue cooking gently with a lid on for about 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally until the peppers and onions are both soft and well cooked. Serve alone or with meat or fish.

Kohlrabi salad

Serves 4

I recently had this at the Japanese restaurant Koya in London's Soho. They were a touch coy about the dressing but I kind of think they use vegetable stock or konbu from seaweed.

You could, I suppose, vary the ingredients, using, say, white radish or turnip, but this was a perfect, fresh side dish that was so nice that I actually ate it before my mains arrived.

Perfect: Kohlrabi on the chopping block

2 medium-sized kohlrabi, peeled, thinly sliced and shredded
2-3g dried mixed Japanese seaweed, soaked in cold water for about an hour then drained

For the dressing

150ml strong vegetable stock
2tbsp rice wine vinegar
The rind of 1 lemon, cut into very fine shreds
Salt and freshly ground white pepper

Soak the kohlrabi in icy cold water for an hour, then drain. Meanwhile, mix all the ingredients together for the dressing and leave to infuse for an hour.

To serve, mix all the ingredients together and serve in bowls.

Fresh side dish: Kohlrabi salad

Japanese dressing

This is a great Asian-inspired dressing that works well with lobster or shellfish salads or duck dishes.

It's important to make it the day before so that the flavours infuse.

This is the ultimate knife-skill test if you really want to get the effect.

1 shallot, peeled, halved and finely chopped
1 small carrot, peeled and finely chopped
A small piece of root ginger (around 30g), scraped and finely chopped
1 small clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
4-5cm piece of celery, peeled if necessary and finely chopped
½ small red chilli, trimmed, seeded and finely chopped
½tbsp finely chopped ends of flowering Chinese chives (optional)
1tbsp tomato ketchup
½tbsp ketjap manis soy sauce
1tsp balsamic vinegar
50-60ml vegetable or corn oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
½tbsp chopped coriander

Whisk all the ingredients together, season lightly and leave to infuse in the fridge overnight.

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