Here's a salad that punches above its weight and a bean casserole with some satisfying cheffy flourishes, writes DOMINI KEMP

IT’S DURING THESE last few weeks of summer that I start dreaming about winter food. A bit like the darker clothes that you see adorning shop windows, taking the place of pastel shades of flimsier cloth. When I see these chunky knits, warm gloves, cool hues of gray and black, I breathe a sigh of relief as it means we can eat food that is better suited to our climate. No more pathetic attempts at barbecuing and having to eat salads in the rain.

But it’s the in-between stuff, which is what I was after this week, that is always hard to get right. But I think I’ve found two good recipes. This chicken salad is based on a Simon Hopkinson one, but I ended up taking a lot more inspiration from some of the chefs I work with instead. The cucumber salad that goes with the fried chicken is one we do when catering parties and is something we serve with poached salmon. The combination of English mustard, white wine vinegar and lots of dill, along with some sugar, makes a light dressing that is a great contrast to the cool cucumber and hot chicken. It seems to work when it’s bonkers weather outside.

The Moroccan bean casserole recipe is from our head chef in itsa4 in Sandymount, Paul Kavanagh. In the restaurant it is served with some pan-fried hake, but the beans are so tasty that we’ve had a few vegetarians requesting the casserole on its own. I had to bribe him to part with his trade secret and even though his recipe is very simple, in true restaurant fashion, there are a few stages you might not feel like doing at home. However, for very dedicated cooks – and just to make sure I don’t get grief forever more from Paul for altering his recipe – I have given you both options.

Paul uses ground spices in this recipe but was keen to stress the importance of cooking them out – a bit like cooking out the flour when making a roux. If you don’t, you’ll have a very flat taste to the end dish, so it’s important to cook out the spices once they’ve been added to the sweated onions. For those of you who have a real hotchpotch of ingredients and spices at home, use a combination of whole and ground spices. I personally prefer to use whole spices, roasting them off in some oil first and then adding the onions to the spices, instead of adding ground spices to sweated onions. But either way, you want to cook the spices out, without burning them, to really accentuate their flavours.

Chicken with cucumber and dill salad

Serves 4, as a light supper

Splash of olive oil

4 chicken legs, boned

Big knob of butter

Salt and pepper

4 handfuls of mixed leaves

2 cucumbers, peeled and sliced very thinly

1 tbsp English mustard

3 tbsp finely chopped dill

1 good tsp sugar

Splash white wine vinegar

Few shakes Tabasco sauce

50ml olive oil

Bunch of chives, finely chopped

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and when it is hot and nearly smoking, add the chicken legs and season them very well. When the chicken has crisped on one side (after four minutes or so), it will release itself from the pan rather than sticking to it, so don’t go hacking at it. When you can turn it over, do so.

Season the other side, and then add the knob of butter. Continue to fry and baste the chicken every time you turn it, so that it cooks completely (this will take 10-15 minutes). If you are worried that it’s not cooked through and starting to burn, then put it in the oven for another five to seven minutes at 180 degrees/gas mark four. Set it aside till it is cool enough to slice.

Meanwhile, or even before you cook the chicken, you can make the dressing. Whisk the mustard, dill, sugar, white wine vinegar and Tabasco sauce together. Then slowly add a few drops of olive oil. Keep adding drops and when you can see that the mixture has emulsified, add a bit more, until you have a good dressing consistency. Check the seasoning, then mix it with the cucumbers.

Adjust the seasoning and pile some salad and cucumbers on to each plate. Top with slices of the warm chicken and serve immediately.

Paul’s Moroccan bean casserole

This makes plenty – I would say it would feed eight people quite easily. Three of us ate it for dinner for three nights in a row

200ml sunflower or rapeseed oil

3 large white onions, peeled and thinly sliced

Salt and pepper

1 large whole piece of ginger

2 heads of garlic, peeled

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp ground coriander

2 tbsp ground cumin

3 tbsp mild curry powder

1 tsp chilli flakes

4 tins chopped tomatoes

4 tbsp honey

1 orange, peeled and roughly chopped

3 bay leaves

1 tin chick peas

1 tin kidney beans

1 tin cannellini beans

Squeeze of lemon juice

Splash of Tabasco sauce

To serve: natural yoghurt, preserved lemons and chopped coriander

Heat up the sunflower oil in a heavy-based saucepan and sweat the onions until they are very soft and translucent. This should be done slowly, and with a lid on the pot if you think the onions are going to take on any colour. Season well.

Paul’s next step is to peel and roughly chop the ginger and put it in a blender along with the peeled garlic and 100ml of water. But because I am a lazy wench, I just roughly, but very finely chop the garlic and ginger and add them to the onions. This makes my dish a bit more rustic and gives his dish a much nicer texture. But the flavour is the same.

Once the ginger and garlic are in, keep cooking them out for another few minutes before adding all the spices. Ideally, you need to cook this slowly for about 10-15 minutes, which is hard to do without burning the spices. So if you need to add a bit more sunflower oil, do so. Keep the heat low, put a lid on every now and then to help keep in the moisture, and keep stirring. The most important thing is not to let the spices burn.

When it’s ready, add the chopped tomatoes. This will immediately deglaze the pan, so stir well and get everything well combined. Add the honey, orange and bay leaves.

Rinse all the beans under cold water, drain and set aside. Leave the tomato mixture to cook and simmer gently for about an hour, before adding the beans. Cook for about 10 minutes and check the seasoning. You can sharpen up the flavours with some lemon juice and Tabasco sauce.

Paul makes a preserved lemon puree, which he adds to some natural yoghurt, by roughly chopping a jar of preserved lemons into quarters, removing the pips and putting them in a saucepan with 200g caster sugar and 500ml of water.

Cook gently for an hour, then whizz the lemons with about 50ml of the cooking liquid. Slowly add in about 100ml of olive oil to make a really strong lemon emulsion. He stirs a spoonful of this into some natural yoghurt and adds it to the beans at the end.

Again, the easy and cheat’s way is to add a spoon of Greek yoghurt, loads of chopped coriander and a preserved lemon on the side. This is a great dish for re-heating.

See also www.itsa.ie

Domini recommends:

Butler’s Pantry has 36-month-old aged Parmesan. It is very good. Sheridans’ Parmesan is 24 months old, and is also delicious. But the older one is even nuttier with more umami and crystals of flavour Raw milk debate, September 6th. Hear both sides of the argument in the Sugar Club, Dublin 2. See rawmilkireland.com for more details