Evie of Saffron Strands blog bought “some beautiful small purple artichokes” in Leila’s shop last week and here is what she did with them.

I suggest serving with salad leaves for a light lunch or starter, or as an accompaniment to lamb. They’d probably be good served with
lentils too.

The recipe is based on one in ‘Chez Panisse Vegetables’ by Alice Waters.

(Allow 3-4 purple artichokes per person, depending on size)

Strip off the outer couple of rows of leaves, trim the stalk end if necessary. Slice off the top third of the artichoke and use a teaspoon to remove the choke.

Pop each in a bowl of water with a little lemon juice just while you prepare the filling to stop discolouration.

Chop stoned black olives, a clove of garlic and a few parsley leaves and mix together. Stuff the artichokes.

Put about 2cm of water in a pan, add a splash of white wine, the parsley stalks and a bay leaf and add the stuffed artichokes, standing upright.

Pour a tablespoon or two of olive oil over. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Nettle zing

This is vibrant green, but subtly flavoured — a bit like spinach soup,
but without the tooth-furring sensation. You’ll need a lot of nettle
leaves: at least one carrier-bag full, maybe two. Take only the top sprout and the next couple of leaves, avoiding older nettles and all but the very top of the stalk. Wear gloves for picking and handling.

Serves 4

300g young stinging-nettle leaves (weigh them once they’re destalked)

2 leeks, white part only, finely sliced

½ medium onion, finely sliced

25g butter

Salt and pepper

400ml whole milk

400ml chicken or vegetable stock

2 medium potatoes, peeled and finely chopped

Double cream, to serve

Nutmeg, to serve

Bring a big pan of water to the boil and throw in the nettles (wear
gloves to avoid stings). Return to the boil and cook for 2 minutes. Drain in a colander and run under the cold tap until cool. Keep to one side.

Put the leek and onion in a saucepan with the butter. Add a pinch of
salt, then cover with a lid and sweat gently for about 10 minutes
until soft. Give things the odd stir to stop them browning. Remove the
lid, then add the milk, stock and potatoes and cook for another 10
minutes, or until the potato is disintegrating.

Add the drained nettles, stir together, then tip into a blender and liquidise. Season, glug in a splash of double cream and add a grating of nutmeg.

Broad bean, feta and mint salad

Serves 2

200g podded broad beans

2 spring onions

50g feta

6 mint leaves

1 lemon

olive oil

Blanch your beans in unsalted water for a couple of minutes, until tender. Refresh in icy water, and peel the outer skin from any larger beans.

Thinly slice the white parts of the spring onions. Mix with beans, a few ‚gratings‘ of lemon zest, a nice amount of olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Place salad onto serving plates, crumble over feta and finish with torn mint leaves.

Davo at Leila’s

Green Capsicum (Peperoncini)

These little peppers are such a treat to come across, they seem to sit at the very centre of the ‚sweet to hot‘ scale of the pepper world. They‘re tasty simply fried in olive oil and sprinkled with lots of sea salt, as you would their cousins from Padron.

Or, as the season‘s upon us, throw a few of these little guys on the BBQ. Line them up on skewers to make things easier when grilling, just give them a light coating in olive oil and a good sprinkling of salt first. Once grilled, they‘re perfect with lamb or fish, dressed again with more olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.

You could add a few spring onions to your ‚pepper skewer‘, then, when nicely charred remove the skewer and toss with garlicky yoghurt and lots of roughly chopped parsley, mint and dill.

They also make great pinchos – on a small skewer, thread a slice of pork fillet (marinated in smoked Spanish paprika, garlic and olive oil), followed by a slice of Serrano ham then the pepper. Sear in a very hot pan (you shouldn‘t need to add oil) for a few minutes on each side and serve with an extra sprinkling of paprika.

Otherwise…just chop them up and use them raw through salads.

Davo at Leila’s

Hooray for broad beans!

There‘s so many reasons to love broad beans, and now is the time to enjoy them raw. At the start of the season, when the podded beans are still small and sweet (no bigger than your thumb nail), they can bring great texture and a real ‚spring freshness‘ to your table.

Sardinians serve them simply with a chunk of good pecorino, often still in their pods so all can benefit from the therapy of podding.

In their raw state, broad beans seem well suited to cured things. From cured meats such as bresaola, cecina (Spanish smoked beef), jamon and proscuitto to raw shredded salt cod. Just coat them in your best olive oil, some sea salt and make the most of them while they‘re so so good.

Davo at Leila’s

Chard stuffed with anchovies, pine nuts and raisins

The best type of chard for this recipe is the Italian variety with thick, succulent leaves that is the size of very large bok choy. As this variety can be quite hard to get hold of, you can use the more common larger Swiss chard, you just wont be able to stuff it, just cut the leaves from the stalk, and blanch both separately until tender, dress with olive oil, then sprinkle all the other goodies on top.

2 heads baby chard

1 large onion (peeled and halved)

2 cloves garlic (peeled and squashed)

4 anchovy fillets (roughly chopped)

1 tbsp toasted pine nuts

1/2 tbsp raisins (soaked in warm water for 10 mins)

1 tbsp parsley (roughly chopped)

2 tbsp home made breadcrumbs (fried in olive oil until crispy)

2 wedges lemon

Cut the onion into slices about half a centimetre thick, then slowly cook in olive oil until very soft, sweet and deep golden in colour. Add the raisins and pine nuts, season with pepper and leave to cool. Stir in the anchovies.

Take your chard and remove any damaged outside leaves. Carefully trim the base of the stalk if necessary, remembering you need to keep all the stalks attached to each other. Wash well, making sure you get any dirt from between the leaves.

Spoon the anchovy and onion stuffing into the middle cavity between the leaves, trying to get as much down toward the base as possible, then tie the leaves back together with string.

In a pot just big enough to hold both heads of chard, heat a good amount of olive oil with the garlic cloves and gently cook until well browned, then discard the garlic. Place in your stuffed chards and slowly cook for a couple of minutes carefully turning as you do, add about half a cup of water, a pinch of salt and cover with a piece of damp baking parchment followed by a lid. Cook over a very low heat for about 6-8 minutes or until the chard stalks are tender.

Carefully transfer to serving plates, spoon over some of the cooking juices and sprinkle with the breadcrumbs and parsley. Serve with a wedge of lemon.

Davo at Leila’s

We’re a big fan of Spitalfields Life. The 8am ping of it landing in our inboxes heralds the beginning of the day for some of us late starters. The gentle author has featured Leila’s Shop on several occasions, but we extra love his latest post, the first in a monthly series which features the fabulous oil paintings of Olha Pryymak.

We asked Olha what inspired her to paint Leila’s shop and cafe:

“The reason I started painting Leila’s cafe and shop is because I carry on a one-a-day painting practice (similar in format to The Gentle Author’s work on Spitalfields Life).  So I go about the day, see something beautiful and put it out in oil on a square piece of board, and that image later comes up on my blog www.olechko.org – a visual daily in paintings of sorts.

“I live in the area, so the subjects also revolve around East London and Leila’s shop is one of the most beautiful things here. The stock in the shop changes with the seasons as well, so makes for an endless source of inspiration.”

WE ARE WILD ABOUT GARLIC, HOW ABOUT YOU? SEND US YOUR RECIPES!

I have to admit, i’m also ‘wild about garlic’, one of my favourite things about the start of spring and the arrival of the bluebells is knowing there’ll be some wild garlic not too far away…

The simplest and I think, one of the best ways to enjoy them, is mixed in with creamy scrambled eggs…sweat down a small handful of washed, roughly chopped garlic leaves in a nice amount of butter, when soft, add a couple of lightly beaten eggs, a dash of cream, S & P, and scramble away. (for a nice quick lunch dish add a handful of peeled cooked prawns and serve with crusty bread)

WILD GARLIC AND JAMON SOUP (serves 2)

1 good handful garlic leaves (washed and roughly chopped)

2 banana shallots (thinly sliced)

4 slices Serrano ham (cut into 1 cm strips)

1 dried noras pepper

1/2 tsp smoked Spanish paprika

1/2 lt chicken stock

2 eggs

2 slices grilled sourdough bread

olive oil

salt and pepper

Wash and then soak the pepper in hot water for about 10 mins or until soft, drain and finely chop. Sweat down your shallots in a nice amount of olive oil until soft and slightly golden. Add the ham and gently fry for about 2 mins, then add the chopped noras pepper. Cook for another min and add the garlic leaves and paprika and sweat down until leaves are nice and soft. Add the chicken stock, bring to the boil and gently simmer for 5 mins. Season with salt and pepper. Carefully crack in your eggs trying not to break the yolks and poach in the soup. Place a piece of toast in each bowl, gently lift an egg onto each and ladle the soup over top, serve with an extra drizzle of olive oil if you think it needs it.

Davo at Leila’s

BITTER LEAF SALAD

selection of bitter winter leaves

blood orange

dressing:

olive oil

balsamic vinegar

fresh thyme

salt and pepper

CIMA DI RAPA (turnip tops)

cima di rapa

olive oil

anchovies

garlic

chillie

breadcrumbs

Quickly steam the greens. Fry the garlic and anchovies and breadcrumbs in olive oil.  Add the chillie and mix with the drained Cima di rapa. Delicious on its own or with pasta.