Poppy's Recipe Hacks

Poppy O’Toole is a chef who started out cooking in a nursing home and she knows all the kitchen hacks to make for easy January suppers.

Poppy O’Toole has all the shortcuts. Whether it’s how to slice a plant’s worth of cherry tomatoes in half simultaneously (this involves a Tupperware lid and a steady hand) or how to peel garlic bulbs without getting garlicky hands.

“I’m obsessed with garlic,” she practically shrieks down the phone. “I’ll eat like three bulbs of garlic a week.”

You can understand why she’s so excited to explain that if you put lots of garlic cloves in a jar and shake it vigorously for a minute or two, the cloves will miraculously be denuded of their papery skins. It’s like magic, and you can hear the awe and joy of it in her voice.

It’s this sense of happy astonishment – that something could be so easy, so satisfying, so swiftly delicious – that makes O’Toole’s debut cookbook so infectious and come-at-able.

Were it not for the pandemic though, things likely wouldn’t have turned out the way they have for the Londoner. O’Toole, 27, has worked in restaurant kitchens since she was 18, but lost her job due to Covid.

She applied for work at Iceland, but that didn’t come off. What did though were the videos she began posting on TikTok @poppycooks.

Her page is both a clever, witty recipe vault – from her go-to tomato sauce to her perfect roast chicken – and an unapologetic ode to the humble potato. “They’ve been everything for me,” she says, quite seriously. “I find them very versatile. They can go in nearly everything.” They are, in fact, a cheap meal in a skin. Now, a “crazy” 18 months and 1.8 million Followers on, her potato related antics and all-encompassing enthusiasm for home cooking has landed her this book deal. O’Toole hopes her cookbook will “build confidence” and teach simple skills.

“People get embarrassed a little bit to ask these questions, because they should know how to chop an onion apparently,” she says, “but you don’t, no one really always knows this sort of thing.”

O’Toole’s interest in food can be traced to her Nanny Vicky, “the heart of the family” who died when O’Toole was around 10. She recalls with a laugh the “cremated” lamb chops they’d all eat and enjoy for Sunday lunch, and the “massive impact” her grandmother had on her. “It was like having a hug every time she cooked for me,” says O’Toole. “She just showed me that food is love. And you can really show somebody how much you care about them through making them a meal.”

The practical side of things, like learning how to clean down and sterilise a kitchen thoroughly, “well that was handy as well. She’s hoping to crack the perfect “façade” around fine dining.

“I’m not a perfect chef. Even though I’m professional, I’m not polished. Don't be afraid to make mistakes.”

Easy Flat Breads

(SERVES 2)

INGREDIENTS:

◆ 250g (9oz) plain flour, plus extra for dusting

◆ 250g (9oz) Greek yogurt (or 125ml warm water + 2 tbsp vegetable oil, if you’re vegan)

◆ 1tsp onion seeds, poppy or sesame seeds

◆ 1tsp baking powder

◆ Salt and black pepper

METHOD:

➊ This is literally so easy… in a bowl mix all the ingredients – flour, yogurt, seeds, baking powder and seasoning – into a dough. Knead for about three minutes, to a soft but not sticky ball.

Cover with a clean tea towel and leave for 10 minutes to rest.

➋ Cut the ball into four equal pieces and use a rolling pin to roll each one out to a thin round. You’re aiming for them to be about 12cm (5in) in diameter – but don’t worry if they look rustic in shape.

Set aside the rolled-flat flat breads on a lightly floured surface.

➌ Place a large, dry frying pan over a high heat. Leave it to get hot, then throw in the first flat bread – no oil, no butter, nothing… just dry, hot heat.

➍ Once bubbles start to form in the dough (about 30 seconds) and you’ve got a little bit of char on the underside, flip over the flat bread and cook the other side for about 30 seconds, to get a little bit of char there, too. Keep warm while you do the same with the remaining three flat breads. That’s it, remove from the pan and serve (or cool and tightly wrap to store).

Tikka Salmon

(SERVES 4)

INGREDIENTS:

FOR THE SALMON

◆ 400g (14oz) boneless salmon fillet, skin on

◆ 3tbsp tandoori masala powder

◆ 2tbsp Greek or coconut-milk yogurt

◆ Juice of 1 lemon

◆ 1tbsp olive oil

◆ Salt and black pepper

FOR THE CUCUMBER SALAD

◆ Juice of 1 lime

◆ ½ cucumber, sliced into ribbons

◆ A small bunch of coriander, leaves picked and chopped

◆ A small bunch of mint, leaves picked and chopped

◆ A pinch of flaky salt

FOR THE MANGO CHUTNEY, TO SERVE

◆ 1 red chilli, sliced into rounds (optional; deseeded for less heat)

◆ Bombay mix (optional)

METHOD:

➊ Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan (Gas mark 6). Line a baking tray with baking paper.

➋ Make the flat breads (see previous recipe).

➌ Pat the fish dry with kitchen paper, then place it onto the lined tray.

➍ Mix all the remaining salmon ingredients in a bowl to create a marinade, then use this for smothering your salmon. You want a nice, thick layer.

➎ Leave the salmon to marinate at room temperature for 10 minutes, then put the tray in the oven and bake the salmon for 20 minutes, until opaque and cooked through.

➏ Meanwhile, make the cucumber salad.

Mix together the lime juice, the cucumber ribbons and both the herbs. Season with the salt and set aside.

➐ Heat a dry frying pan over a high heat until it’s smoking hot. Place the fl at breads in the pan and warm through. (Or reheat them in a microwave.) Set aside and keep them warm until you’re ready to use.

➑ Once the salmon is ready, smother the flat breads in mango chutney, top with gorgeous flakes of pink salmon and cover with your cucumber salad. I like to add an extra kick with some slices of chilli, and texture with extra-crunchy Bombay mix. That’s it. Fold and eat.

Slow-roasted Harissa Lamb Shoulder

(SERVES 4-6)

FOR THE LAMB

◆ 2tbsp rose harissa paste

◆ 3tbsp ras el hanout

◆ Zest and juice of 1 lemon

◆ 5 garlic cloves, peeled

◆ 1tbsp light brown so sugar

◆ 6 thyme sprigs, leaves picked

◆ 6 rosemary sprigs, leaves picked

◆ 2tbsp almond butter

◆ 2tbsp olive oil

◆ 1.4-1.5kg (3-3¼lb) lamb shoulder on the bone

FOR THE COUSCOUS

◆ 200g (7oz) couscous

◆ Seeds of 1 pomegranate

◆ A small bunch of mint, leaves picked and chopped

◆ A small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and chopped

◆ 5–6 black or green olives, pitted and sliced

◆ 1 tbsp dried oregano

◆ Juice of 1 lemon

◆ Salt and black pepper

METHOD:

➊ Start this the night before you want to cook. Place all of the lamb ingredients apart from the meat itself into a blender and blitz to a smooth paste to make a marinade.

➋ With a knife, make some little incisions into the lamb shoulder to help the marinade get right into the meat. Rub and massage the marinade into the shoulder like it’s date night, until it’s completely covered.

➌ Transfer the lamb to a roasting tin, cover with foil and place it in the fridge overnight (or for a minimum of six hours).

➍ Make the flat breads (see first recipe).

➎ Put the couscous into a container big enough To allow it to double in size and pour in 400ml/about one-and-a-half cups of cold water. Cover the bowl and transfer it to the fridge. Leave this overnight, too.

➏ Remove the meat from the fridge 30 minutes before you intend to start cooking so that it can come up to room temperature, and preheat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan (Gas mark 5).

➐ When you’re ready to cook, roast the lamb, still covered with the foil, for four hours, until it is charred a little on the outside and the meat is tender and pulls apart. Drain the couscous through a fine sieve, so you don’t lose any of it. Mix all of the other couscous ingredients into it. Season with salt and pepper to taste and leave on the side to come up to room temperature.

➑ Towards the end of the lamb cooking time, heat a dry frying pan over a high heat until it’s smoking hot. Place the flat breads in the pan and warm through. (Or reheat them in a microwave.)

➒ Either serve your massive hunk of delicious lamb in the tin as it comes, or transfer it to a wooden board and pour all of the sauce that is left in the bottom of the roasting tin into a little jug.

➓ Just let people dig and tear into this huge, sharing-lamb deliciousness, with the warmed flat breads, the couscous and the sauce served alongside.

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