Calamari fritti with cucumber salad

Ingredients (Makes four starter portions)

80g self-raising flour
80g cornflour, plus a little extra
210ml soda water
2 tsp rapeseed oil
½ tsp dried chilli flakes
Coarse sea salt350g cleaned squid rings
Vegetable oil, for frying (grape-seed or sunflower are good)
For the cucumber salad
4 mini cucumbers (200g in total)
¼ medium red onion, peeled and very thinly sliced
2 tbsp groundnut oil
2½ tbsp lime juice
¾ tsp palm sugar
Coarse sea salt
½ fresh chilli, finely chopped
2 tbsp roughly chopped mint
2 tbsp roughly chopped coriander

Start with the salad, because the flavours will intensify if it's left to sit for a little while. Use a vegetable peeler or mandolin to shave the unpeeled cucumbers into long, thin strips, and place these in a mixing bowl. Add the sliced onion. Whisk together the oil, lime juice, palm sugar and salt. Pour over the cucumber and onion, then add the chilli and herbs. Toss gently with your hands, taste and adjust the seasoning - this salad needs quite a lot of salt. Pile up in a nice serving bowl, ready for the hot squid.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cornflour, soda water, rapeseed oil, chilli and a pinch of salt - the batter should be smooth and thinner than a pancake mix, but not watery.

Scatter some more cornflour over a plate, to 'dry' the squid. In a medium saucepan, heat up enough frying oil to come at least 4cm up the pan. When the oil is piping hot, take a few pieces of squid, toss them lightly in the cornflour plate, and shake off any excess. Dip them in the batter, shake off any excess and carefully drop them into the hot oil. Take care not to fill the pan too much, or the squid pieces will stick to each other and stew rather than deep-fry, and turn them over in the bubbling oil with a slotted spoon. Once they have taken on a little bit of colour - after around one to two minutes' cooking - carefully lift the calamari on to a colander and sprinkle with salt. Remove any loose bits of batter from the oil, then repeat with another batch of squid.

Assuming you haven't eaten all of the cooked squid while you've been cooking the rest, pile the warm calamari on a serving plate or bowl, and serve with the cucumber salad.

Salad of green beans with caper berries and parmesan

Ingredients (serves 4)

300g fine green beans, stalk ends trimmed
200g mangetouts, stalk ends trimmed
4 medium eggs
4 purple (or green) spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced diagonally
6 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
sea salt, black pepper
75g caper berries, stalks removed
50g finely shaved parmesan

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, add the green beans and cook for 4 minutes, adding the mangetouts after 2 minutes.

Drain the vegetables into a colander, briefly run cold water through them to halt the cooking process, and set aside to cool.

Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the eggs for 6 minutes. Drain, run cold water into the pan and leave to cool completely.

Toss the beans, mangetouts and spring onions with the olive oil in a bowl. (You can prepare the salad to this point in advance.) Shortly before serving, season and toss in the caper berries.

Divide the salad among four plates. Shell and halve the eggs, then scatter over the parmesan.

Broad bean and feta salad

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

500g frozen baby broad beans
extra-virgin olive oil
juice of ½ lemon
sea salt and black pepper
3 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced diagonally
6 tbs coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
200g feta, crumbled
50g rocket leaves (optional)

Bring a large pan of water to the boil and cook the broad beans according to the packet instructions. Drain into a colander and leave for a few minutes for the water to evaporate. Toss the hot beans in a bowl with the 6 tbs of olive oil, the lemon juice and some seasoning and leave to cool.

Toss in the spring onions and two-thirds of the parsley. Scatter the feta and remaining parsley over the top and splash over a little more oil. The salad is good to eat for some time, but it will absorb the dressing after several hours, so you may want to add a little more oil just before serving.

You can also toss a few rocket leaves into the salad or serve it scattered over a few dressed leaves.