Simon Stallard set up The Hidden Hut, an outdoor restaurant in Cornwall, to huge critical acclaim in 2011. He cooks up huge atmospheric open-air feasts for diners throughout the year, where you’d be lucky to get a table. Last year over 22,000 people applied for just 600 covers in the summer season, with tickets selling out within minutes. Beat the queues with The Hidden Hut cookbook, and learn how to create magical and memorable feasts, indoors and outdoors – starting with this recipe for samphire frittata with warm lemony courgette salad.
INGREDIENTS
For the frittata:
250g new potatoes, sliced
2 tbsp sunflower oil, for frying
6 large eggs, beaten
50g samphire
A handful of tarragon, leaves finely shredded
100g soft goat’s cheese
For the courgette salad:
150g runner beans, thinly sliced on the diagonal
3 tbsp olive oil
2 shallots, sliced
3 yellow courgettes (or green if you can’t find them), halved and cut into chunky slices
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
6 small vine-ripened tomatoes, halved or quartered if large
2 rounded tbsp chopped oregano leaves
Juice of ½ lemon
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
METHOD
To make the courgette salad, steam the runner beans for 5 minutes or until tender. Refresh the beans under cold running water and put to one side.
Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and cook the shallots for 5 minutes until softened. Add the courgettes and garlic, and fry for 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, half the oregano and the lemon juice, then reduce the heat slightly and cook for 5 minutes or until the courgettes are just tender but retain a little bite and the tomatoes have started to break down.
Stir in the runner beans, add the remaining olive oil, and season with salt and pepper, then warm through. Keep the salad warm while you make the frittata.
Put the potatoes in a pan of cold salted water and bring to the boil. Cook for 15 minutes or until tender, then drain in a colander.
Heat the oil in an ovenproof frying pan. Add the drained potatoes, and the beaten eggs, most of the samphire and the tarragon. Lay the remaining samphire elegantly on the top. Crumble over the goat’s cheese and season with salt and pepper (remembering the salty flavour of the samphire, so you won’t need much salt).
Preheat your grill. Cook the frittata for 7–10 minutes on the hob over a medium heat, enough to set the bottom, then finish under the grill until just set all the way through. A
Add the remaining oregano leaves to the salad and serve it warm with the frittata.
Recipe above (image by Susan Bell) extracted from The Hidden Hut by Simon Stallard (HarperCollins), £20.
