Warm salad of saffron pickled jersey royals, broad beans, black garlic & smoked ricotta

Photo: Anna Hansen

Serves 4

Ingredients

Saffron pickled jersey royals  

1 ¼ kg jersey royals  
150 ml E.V.O oil
50 g peeled ginger, julienne  
3 garlic cloves, minced  
10 g fresh turmeric, minced  
5 g curry leaves  
250 ml water  
150 ml cider vinegar  
½ tbsp saffron, gently toasted and crumbled into the vinegar
1 tbsp coriander seeds  
¾ tbsp fennel seeds  
¾ tbsp Urfa chilli flakes  
A decent sprinkling of salt
200 g butter 

Method

In a large pot cook the garlic, ginger, curry leaves, turmeric, coriander & fennel seeds in the oil till aromatic, add the potatoes & cook for 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients except for the butter, bring to the boil and then divide between two gastro trays. Add the butter, foil and cook at 180’c for 15 mins, remove foil and then cook till tender.  

Black garlic dressing

Strain off 200 ml of the potato pickling liquid and blend with 80 g black garlic until smooth. Season if required although you may well not need too as the pickling liquid is salted.

To assemble the salad
200 g smoked ricotta. If you cannot get smoked ricotta, fresh ricotta or a good quality goat cheese is equally delicious with this dish.
1 k broad beans in the pod, shelled, blanched and peeled
2 or 3 endive depending on size
Lemon balm or verbena

On either a large platter or individual plates layer the endive with the warm potatoes, broad beans a ricotta. Dress generously with the black garlic dressing and scatter with the lemon balm or lemon verbena leaves.

Serve immediately