Earlier in the week we introduced you to Clem Day, aka Some Things I Like To Cook, who is with us this week to share four recipes that, together, make up an epic spring feast! First up was the recipe for her anchovy roast chicken with salsa verde and lemony aioli, and today Clem shares not one but TWO hearty vegetarian dishes that round out the savoury component of our feast – a charred cabbage in brown butter with toasted hazelnuts, and a spring veg salad with burrata and mustard vinaigrette. YUM.
Stay tuned for the final instalment, and RIDICULOUSLY good looking sweet treat, this Friday!
Photo – Jessie Webb.
Long gone are the days where all cabbages are destined for a slaw. Charred like this, cabbage develops the most beautiful, caramelised flavour, and basting it in the brown butter makes it excellently decadent and oozing with comfort. If you don’t have thyme then rosemary, sage or oregano will work nicely to add flavour to your brown butter. You can use other nuts, if you don’t have hazelnuts, but I do find that other nuts don’t quite bring the same nutty flavour as hazelnuts do. If you can’t eat nuts, toasted salty breadcrumbs will add a delicious crunch to this dish too. Most cabbages will work well treated like this, but I do especially love using a savoy cabbage or a sugarloaf cabbage.
1 whole head of savoy cabbage
1 tablespoon of neutral oil
250g unsalted butter
8-10 sprigs of thyme
A small handful (approx 1/3 cup) hazelnuts
A good pinch of flaky salt
Start by preparing your cabbage. I like to remove any really loose outer leaves, and then cut the cabbage in half, and each half into three, to create six even wedges.
Start heating your neutral oil in a cast iron skillet or similar until nice and hot. Try to spread the oil out so it coats the whole bottom of the pan. Once hot, place cabbage cut side down (I only char one cut edge) and leave it to sizzle away and burn a bit. Once almost there (very nearly burnt), add in butter and thyme and shimmy your pan around so that it works its way around. It will brown quickly.
Using a spoon, baste the cabbage in the brown butter, making sure to spoon it over the other cut edge of the cabbage, as well as the rounded outer edge. Sprinkle the whole things with some flaky salt. If your butter is burning too much, add a little bit more cold butter to help slow down the cooking process.
I like to roughly chop my hazelnuts and add to the pan for the last couple of minutes of cooking, so that they can toast. Alternatively, heat another pan and toast hazelnuts until fragrant and lightly darkened.
When serving, make sure to pour all of the brown butter over the top of the cabbage wedges, they will absorb its nutty delicious flavour. Scatter over the hazelnuts and thyme.
This dish is all about celebrating spring produce. It’s a beautiful centrepiece to a meal: hands reaching in from all directions to dip a gorgeous radish in the luscious and creamy stracciatella insides of the burrata. It’s essential that you pick up whatever fresh produce is jumping out at you! Ideally, you’d do this at a farmers’ market, where the veg will be their freshest, most beautiful selves. But if that’s not possible, try your local organic grocer or fresh food market.
1 generous handful of green beans
1 small bunch of Dutch carrots, ideally multicoloured, with their tops intact
1 small bunch of your favourite radishes
2 small bunches of asparagus
1 generous handful of sugar snap peas
1 small handful of mint leaves (fresh chives and basil work nicely here too)
1 or 2 burrata, depending on how many you’re feeding
A good pinch of flaky salt
Mustard Vinaigrette:
2 teaspoons good seeded mustard
1 small handful of chives, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely grated
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar of apple cider vinegar
4-5 tablespoons of olive oil
Bring a large pot of generously salted water to the boil.
I like to leave all my vegetables attached to their tops/stalks/leaves – these are natures handles. Carefully cut your carrots in half longways, remove the woody ends from your asparagus and top and tail your beans.
Throw the beans and asparagus into the salted boiling water for 30 seconds. No longer! Remove them and place straight into an ice bath to stop the cooking. Using the carrot tops as handles, dunk your carrots into the salted boiling water so that the carrots are submerged but the green tops are not. Dangle them here for about 30-45 seconds. Remove and add to the ice bath. The rest of the vegetables I enjoy raw.
Radishes can go on whole or halved, if you prefer. Sugar snap peas can also be whole or halves. Place all your vegetables around a large platter, leaving a little space in the centre (ish) for your burrata. Sprinkle the whole thing with flaky salt.
Now for your vinaigrette, in a small jar (or bowl) add all vinaigrette ingredients and shake (or whisk) well.
Add the burrata to your plate and drizzle the whole thing with the vinaigrette, plus an extra drizzle with olive oil for good measure. It is quite a sight to see the burrata punctured and oozing with delicious curds at the table, so save this to do there.
Click here to download recipe printout!
Follow Clem’s delicious adventures on Instagram here and purchase her debut, self-published cookbook here!
