michelle picker cooks

Two tasty side dishes to liven up any meal. This cauliflower dish is from a recipe by Angela Boggiano for Sainsbury’s Magazine – instead of steaks I made wedges.

Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F). Cut half a cauliflower into wedges, including the leaves (which are just as delicious as the cauliflower), and arrange them in a baking dish. Whisk the zest and juice from ½ a small lemon with 1 small minced clove of garlic, 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika, salt and pepper to taste and some olive oil. Spoon over each wedge of cauliflower. Bake for 15 minutes then add 60g (2 oz) of finely diced chorizo to the cauliflower. Cook for another 15-20 minutes until tender and lightly charred. Meanwhile toast 1 tablespoon of pumpkin seeds in a dry frying pan over medium heat. When the cauliflower is ready, top with the pumpkin seeds and serve.

Who doesn’t love sweet potato fries? These ones, from Mark Bittman for NYT Cooking, are particularly good. I served mine with a garlic aioli.

Preheat your oven to 205ºC (400ºF). Cut 900g (2 lbs) of sweet potatoes into narrow batons about 7-8cm (3″) long and toss them with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Mix together 1 teaspoon of salt, ½ a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon of paprika and 1 teaspoon of garlic powder and toss the mix through the sweet potatoes. Spread onto 2 baking sheets and bake until brown and crisp on the bottom (about 15 minutes) then flip and cook until the other side is crisp (about 10 minutes). If you want aioli but don’t want to make it from scratch, here’s an excellent cheat’s aioli from this Serious Eats recipe. Just whisk together ½ a cup of good mayonnaise and 1 – 2 cloves of finely minced garlic. Slowly drizzle in 3 tablespoons or good quality olive oil followed by 2 teaspoons of water. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Serve with the hot fries.