Found this at my local Tesco.
It’s a packet of unwashed wild rocket.
Certainly felt a lot fresher than the stuff in bags (and I hope a lot less chemicals too).
Of course the obvious thing to do is not buy the stuff, but grow my own rocket.
Merguez aux Lentilles de Puy
Though I always have reservations about Café Rouge there is one item on the menu that I do like that always tempts me to try the place again, and that is Merguez aux Lentilles de Puy or grilled spicy Merguez sausage on a bed of puy lentils in a ceramy sauce and topped with a rocket salad.
They do a very good merguez sausage and it is always very well done, well cooked and nice and spicy. The lentils were quite good too.
However the dish was let down by something as simple as rocket leaves. They were not fresh, old and somewhat manky! A disappointment using not just old rocket leaves, but ones that looked as if they were verging on going off.
Once more Café Rouge disappoints, I need to learn from this.
Lemon and Rocket Risotto
I am going through a risotto phase at the moment.
This is my original lemon risotto recipe.
In a large frying pan, place some olive oil and butter. Then add some finely chopped onion and the zest of two lemons.
Soften the onions.
Bring up the heat.
Add the risotto rice and ensure that the rice is coated in the oil and butter.
Add a splash of white wine.
Now add some chicken stock.
Keep topping up with stock to ensure that the rice doesn’t dry out.
Once the rice is virtually cooked, add the juice of the lemons, a large handful of grated parmesan, some roughly chopped rocket and some freshly ground black pepper.
Serve, garnish with a few slices of lemon.
Pancetta Salad
This is a variation on a salad I blogged about a month ago or so.
Take some mixed leaves, I like the peppery flavour of rocket in my salads so I used that alongside some sliced Romaine lettuce.
Place them on a plate.
Add some sun dried tomatoes, I use SunBlush as they are not as chewy as “proper” sun dried tomatoes.
Add some chopped cucumber, depending on how thick or tough the skin is, you can either leave or peel. I peeled as the skin on my organic cucumber was quite tough.
Dress with some extra virgin olive oil, white wine vinegar and black pepper.
Top the salad off with some pan fried (until crispy) pancetta bacon.
Serve with fresh bread.
BLT Salad
A salad variation on the classic BLT sandwich.
Take some mixed leaves, I like the peppery flavour of rocket in my salads. Place them on a plate.
Add some sun dried tomatoes, I use SunBlush as they are not as chewy as “proper” sun dried tomatoes.
Dress with some extra virgin olive oil, white wine vinegar and black pepper.
Top the salad off with some pan fried (until crispy) pancetta bacon.
Serve with fresh bread.