Ruby Tandoh – Flavour recipes: From carrot and feta bites to rosemary hake

Celebrating the fact food is great, ‘Great British Bake Off’ contestant Ruby Tandoh is putting your appetite first with her second book, ‘Flavour’, suitable for all mealtimes and budgets

Carrot and feta bites (recipe below)

After reaching the final of the BBC's baking programme aged just 20, Ruby Tandoh offers up her second cookbook, following Crumb.

Reflecting the way we cook, the book is separated by ingredients, from lentils and pulses to citrus, spice and sugar, which is designed to help you follow your cravings (or cook with what is in the fridge) and create the best possible flavours while doing so.

Ruby also explains the best way to cook each of her key ingredients, including when they are in season and what to pair it with.

Focusing on flavour and freedom, her recipes include Ghanaian peanut chicken, glazed blueberry fritter doughnuts, and hot and sour lentil soup. Flavour was published on 17 July, and Ruby is currently travelling around Italy.

Carrot and feta bites with lime yoghurt

Makes 16, serving 4

4 large carrots (roughly 600g/21oz total)
½ tsp salt
6 spring onions, thinly sliced
150g (5oz) feta, crumbled into small chunks
Zest of 2 limes
4 tbsp plain flour
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
Small handful of parsley, finely chopped
2 large eggs
Vegetable oil, for frying
 

For the dipping sauce:
150g (5oz) natural yoghurt
Juice of 1 lime
Small handful of parsley, finely chopped
Salt and black pepper, to taste

These are something like vegetarian meatballs: little bites of carrot married with the heat of spring onion, spice and plenty of tasty feta. A lime yoghurt dip does a good job of cooling the saltiness of the cheese and brightening the flavour of the carrot bites with a zesty, sour zing. Take care not to rush or skip the salting and draining of the grated carrot, as it’s this stage that draws out the moisture so that the little veg bites hold together without sogginess.

Coarsely grate the carrots and mix with the salt in a large bowl (it sounds like a lot of salt, but it’s just there to draw the moisture out of the carrots, and most of it will be lost). Let the salted carrot sit for 10 minutes, then squeeze it out – either in your hands or through a muslin cloth or tea towel – removing as much of the liquid as you can.

Stir the onions, feta, lime zest, flour, spices and parsley into the drained carrot. Whisk the eggs lightly together then add them to the mix. If the mixture is too dry to just about hold together in balls when you squeeze it in between your palms, add a drop of milk or water; if it’s too wet, add another tablespoon of flour.

Heat a little oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Divide the carrot mixture into 16 portions, shaping each little mound into a rough rugby ball shape using your hands. Working in batches, fry over a medium heat for around 4 minutes, giving them a quarter turn every minute, until they’re nicely browned and set on all sides.

For the dipping sauce, mix the yoghurt, lime juice and parsley with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Serve with the carrot bites while they’re hot.

Rosemary and Olive Hake with Cherry Tomatoes

Serves 4

75ml (3fl oz) olive oil
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4 sprigs of rosemary
1kg (2lb 2oz) cherry tomatoes
125g (4oz) Kalamata olives, pitted and halved
4 skinless and boneless hake fillets (you can also use cod)
Salt and black pepper, to taste

This dish shows that with a little time and some careful cooking, you can turn just a handful of simple ingredients into a flavourful one-pot meal. Because it’s braised in the sticky tomato mixture, the hake stays perfectly moist and tender, soaking up the rosemary and garlic aromas as it cooks. Serve with ciabatta to absorb the tomato juices.

Heat the olive oil in a large, deep frying pan over a medium heat. A high-sided pan will do if you don’t have a frying pan large enough. Fry the garlic and whole rosemary sprigs for a minute or two, until fragrant but not browning. Add the Cherry tomatoes and cook over a low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the olives, put a lid on the pan, and cook for 15 minutes more until the tomatoes are meltingly soft. Season the tomato mixture to taste then set the hake fillets in the pan, nestling them down among the veg. Put the lid back on and cook for 6-8 minutes, until the fish is cook through and flakes under a fork.

Flavour: Eat What You Love, by Ruby Tandor. Published by Chatto and Windus, £20