Quails with burnt miso butterscotch and pomegranate and walnut salsa

As those of you who subscribe to the newsletter know we've been offering a signed copy of Yotam Ottolenghi and Ramael Scully's fabulous new book Nopi this month. Here's one of the recipes as a taster ...

Yotam writes: We went through a miso stage where the sweet, umami-rich white or brown paste found its way into every dish possible. Miso ice cream, miso dressings, miso soup. The inspiration for this particular incarnation was David Chang’s Lucky Peach magazine, which told of how pastry chef Christina Tosi used burnt miso in a banana pie that was so addictive itsoon went by the name Crack pie. The miso is cooked in the oven to the point where it turns almost caramel-like. After a bit of experimenting, we found it worked as well in a savoury dish as it did in its sweet incarnation.

De-boned chicken thighs also work well here, as an alternative to the quail.

Serves 8 as a starter, 4 as a main

150g white miso paste, at room temperature

50ml mirin

30g light brown sugar

2 tsp sherry vinegar

40g unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tbsp sunflower oil

8 whole quails, de-boned with wing tips left on (1.1kg)

coarse sea salt and black pepper

Salsa

150g pomegranate seeds (seeds of 1 medium pomegranate)

70g walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped

35g pickled walnuts, rinsed, skin removed, finely chopped (optional)

2 tsp pomegranate molasses

2 tbsp Valdespino sherry vinegar (or another good-quality sherry vinegar)

1 tbsp olive oil

20g parsley, finely chopped

1 Preheat the oven to 160°C/140°C fan/gas mark 3.

2 Use a rubber spatula to spread the miso paste out thinly and evenly on a parchment-lined baking tray. Place the tray in the oven and roast for 20–25 minutes, until the miso has turned to dark caramel: the sides should look burnt and the middle a dark golden-brown. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Scrape the burnt miso paste off the parchment paper, breaking it as you go, and transfer the pieces to a food processor, along with the mirin, sugar, vinegar, butter and 1 tablespoon of water. Blitz well for 5 minutes to form a smooth aerated paste.

3 Place all the ingredients for the salsa, apart from the parsley, in a medium bowl with 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 3 tablespoons of water. Mix well and set aside until ready to use, stirring the parsley in just before serving.

4 When you are ready to serve, set the oven to its highest grill setting.

5 Place a large sauté pan on a high heat and add the oil. Season the quails with 1 teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper and, once the pan is hot, add them skin-side down in batches. Fry for 5 minutes, turning once, so that both sides get some colour. Transfer the quails to a parchment-lined baking tray and spread 1 tablespoon of miso butterscotch evenly over the skin of each bird. Place the tray under the grill and cook for 1–2 minutes, until the miso starts to bubble and caramelize. Serve at once, with the salsa spooned on top or alongside.

Extracted from NOPI: The Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ramael Scully. (Ebury Press, £28) Photography by Jonathan Lovekin. You can eat the dishes for yourself at their restaurant Nopi just off Piccadilly Circus.

What to drink: Even Yotam Ottolenghi couldn't tell me what he'd drink with this dish and I haven't had a chance to make it yet but I'd personally go for a full, ripe red - probably a GSM (grenache/syrah/mourvèdre) or a graciano-based rioja. I feel sake should work too.

Fridge-raid tortilla sandwiches

You might think that as tortilla generally has carbs of its own it doesn’t need to be stuffed between two slices of bread. Wrong! The Spanish do it so why shouldn’t the rest of us? Particularly if you have leftovers to use up.

This was based on some amazingly fragrant peppers we bought in the market at Arles a couple of days ago (for 99 cents a kilo!). Add some fried onion, a few slices of chorizo and some eggs and you’ve got a great filling to stuff into a baguette or roll. Or even a pitta bread. Perfect student food for those who have just gone up to uni for the first time.

You can vary it endlessly depending on what’s in the fridge although I’d say that onion - and, some would say, potato - was essential. Ham or bacon instead of chorizo, a bit of crumbled up feta, some chopped herbs - feel free. Just make it a bit thinner than you would a normal tortilla.

Serves 2-3 - or 1 if you’re utterly starving (leftovers will keep in the fridge till the next day)

4 tbsp olive oil + extra for drizzling

1 large mild sweet onion, peeled and thinly sliced

2 green peppers - preferably like these small tasty ones on the right - de-seeded and sliced. (You can find them in middle-eastern and Turkish greengrocers)

About 50-75g sliced chorizo

4 large eggs, lightly beaten and seasoned with salt and pepper

a baguette or ciabatta loaf

Heat a medium-to-large frying pan over a moderate heat, add 3 tbsp oil and start frying the onion. As it softens add the sliced peppers and chorizo and fry until the veg start to brown (about 5 minutes).

Add the eggs, cook for a minute then lift the edges of the tortilla to let any uncooked egg run to the bottom of the pan. Leave for 3-4 minutes or so then invert a large plate over the pan and tip the tortilla onto the plate. Add another tbsp of oil, slide the tortilla back into the pan, cook for another minute then turn off the heat. Leave for 8-10 minutes if you can bear it then cut into thick strips and tuck into a split baguette or a couple of rolls. Drizzle over a little extra olive oil or a dollop of aioli. A few fresh basil leaves wouldn't go amiss either.

What to drink: Well probably anything you've got to hand but a glass of Spanish or southern French red would hit the spot nicely

For more recipe inspiration buy my Ultimate Student Cookbook here.

Raspberry and cherry beer jellies

If you're having a late summer barbecue this weekend here is one of the most delicious - and surprising recipes - from my book An Appetite for Ale. I love serving them because no-one has the faintest idea they have beer in them.

Note: the jellies are deliberately left less sweet than most commercial jellies so that the flavour of the beer comes through. I find them really refreshing but you can, of course, add extra sugar if you want.

Raspberry and cherry beer jellies
These jellies are deliberately left less sweet than most commercial jellies so the sour cherry flavour of the beer comes through. I find them really refreshing but you can of course add extra sugar if you want

serves 4

4 small sheets of gelatine (about 6g or 1/4 of a 25g pack)

375ml Kriek or other cherry or raspberry flavoured beer

1 x 470g jar of pitted Morello cherries (Polish ones are best)

2-3 tbsp sugar syrup or caster sugar

125g fresh or frozen raspberries

Place the gelatine in bowl of cold water and leave to soak for 3 minutes until soft. Measure the Kriek into a jug and top up to the 400ml mark with syrup from the cherries. Pour into a saucepan and add the sugar. Put over a very low heat until the sugar has dissolved then heat until lukewarm (it shouldn’t boil). Squeeze the soaked gelatine leaves, add them to the beer mixture and stir to dissolve then set aside to cool.

Drain the remaining cherries and rinse the raspberries. Put an assortment of berries in the bottom of four glasses or glass dishes then pour over enough jelly to cover them. Put the glasses in the fridge to chill. As soon as the jelly in the glasses has set (about an hour) add another layer of fruit and jelly. Repeat until the fruit and jelly are used up, ending with a layer of jelly.

Leave in the fridge to set for another 45 minutes to an hour before serving with lightly whipped cream, sweetened with a little vanilla sugar or with vanilla ice cream

Mango and passionfruit beer jellies
Follow the above recipe substituting passionfruit beer for the Kriek (top up with tropical fruit juice, passionfruit or mango juice to make it up to the 400ml mark), then mix in about 400g of cubed mango and passionfruit pulp. Adjust sweetness to taste (you can always add a squeeze of lemon juice if it’s too sweet)

Blueberry and peach beer jellies
Follow the above recipe substituting peach flavoured beer for the Kriek (top up with white cranberry and grape juice to make it up to the 400ml mark), then mix in about 400g of cubed peach or nectarine and blueberries. Adjust sweetness to taste as above.

Image ©Vanessa Courtier

Spicy chicken salad

We normally think of lunchboxes in terms of kids' packed lunches but James Ramsden has come up with this a brilliant book of imaginative dishes you can take to work. Called - appropriately enough - Love your Lunchbox.

Spicy chicken salad

Serves 2

This is based on a south-east Asian salad, larb gai, which is, like much of the food in them parts, pretty fiery. This is a pared-back version, though you could always ramp up the chilli quotient. Should keep your colleagues off your lunch, if nothing else.

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 7 minutes

Freezable? Yes

2–3 skinless, boneless chicken thighs

1 shallot, peeled and chopped

stalks from a bunch of coriander (cilantro), finely chopped

½ stalk of lemongrass, finely chopped

zest of ½ lime

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

1 tbsp Thai fish sauce

1 tbsp groundnut (peanut) or vegetable oil, plus extra for cooking

4 large-ish Little Gem lettuce leaves (outer leaves, as opposed to inner)

coriander (cilantro) leaves

For the dressing

juice of ½ lime

1 tbsp Thai fish sauce

1 tsp soft brown sugar

bottom half of a Thai chilli, finely chopped

AT HOME

Put the chicken, shallot, coriander stalks, lemongrass, lime zest, chilli, fish sauce and 1 tbsp oil in a blender and pulse until the chicken is well minced. Alternatively, finely and thoroughly chop with a knife.

Heat a splash of oil in a sauté pan or saucepan over a medium–high heat and add the chicken mixture. Cook, stirring regularly, for about 7 minutes, until cooked through and crisp in places. Set aside to cool, then store in the fridge for up to 2 days.

Mix the dressing ingredients together and store in a jar.

IN EACH LUNCHBOX

A portion of chicken (in a microwaveable vessel); lettuce leaves, coriander; dressing.

TO FINISH

Reheat the chicken in a microwave on medium for 3–4 minutes. Serve on lettuce leaves with a few coriander leaves and a spoonful of dressing.

What to drink:

Assuming you're taking this to work I'm taking it for granted you're not going to be drinking alcohol but any sharp, citrussy soft drink would be a good match. Even sparkling water with a slice of lemon or lime. If you're making it at home it would go down very well with a glass of Aussie riesling.

Recipe extracted from Love your Lunchbox: 101 Do-ahead recipes to liven up lunchtime by James Ramsden, published by Pavilion. Photograph © Martin Poole