BACK TO BASICS

I have just received a request for a blog post from my eldest baby who is off in Chicago on a J1 visa for the summer - learning to appreciate what a good time he has of things at home!!!!!!

He needs some familiar, easy, everyday type recipes - that use very little in the line of kitchen equipment (and dare I say skill - sorry son!!!).  I would appreciate any links for suitable recipes in the comment section - he'll be able to access them - thanks a million in advance.

Pasta dishes spring to mind - and I suppose the most basic of them all is a cheese sauce/mushroom sauce - here goes:

Cheese Sauce

You use equal amounts of butter and plain flour (say a tablespoon of each), melt the butter in a pan (medium heat) add the flour and stir until smooth (you need to do this for at least a minute to get rid of the raw flour taste).
Now (a whisk is good for this but a spoon will do) stirring all the time add milk - hard to give a quantity - just keep stirring it in until you have the right consistency - slightly thinner that you would think as the cheese will thicken it up again (don't worry you can always add more milk)
For anyone with a stocked kitchen, it is really nice to add some English mustard powder (1/2 tsp) and a few grates of nutmeg before adding the milk.
Add your cheese (plenty), grated or chopped up small, and there you have it.

Mac and cheese

Pasta
Cheese Sauce
Bacon (optional)
Mushrooms (optional)
Broccoli (optional, and because you need your greens!!)

Cook your pasta of choice - I usually use penne.
Drain the pasta and add the cheese sauce to it.
Fry up some rashers of bacon/bacon bits.
Saute mushrooms.
Steam some broccoli (getting the healthy theme here???)
Add all together and place into an ovenproof dish.
Scatter a bit more cheese on top and put in the oven at a medium heat.
Check after about 15/20 minutes - if it's bubbling on top, it's done.

Mind your hands taking it out of the oven - don't burn yourself!!!

Mushroom Sauce

Instead of adding cheese to your (slightly thicker) white sauce, add your slow cooked mushroom - this is good on freshly cooked pasta (no faffing about with ovens!!!)

Fried Fish

Buy some nice flat white fish.
Heat up a frying pan - should be nice and hot before the fish goes in.
Put some flour on a plate and mix in some salt (1/4 tsp to about 2 tbsp flour)
Place the fish on the flour - both sides. Brush off any excess.
Put some oil in the pan (olive is good but don't stress, whatever is there)
Fry the fish - skin side down first, you want this crispy.
Turn down the heat to cook the other side - won't take long, depending on the thickness of the fillet.
You can of course cook some prawns to go with it - or wait for your Mammy to do that when you get home!!!


Our Usual Salmon

Very easy, and very good for you.
Get a darn/fillet of salmon (you could use trout, any pink fish)
Sprinkle some Cajun spice on top and then bake in the oven for about 10/15 minutes.
Simples!

Fish Pie

Buy an assortment of fish - some smoked, and whatever else is cheap (better not to use oily fish here)
Poach in milk - place the fish in a saucepan and cover with milk, heat up gently until the fish is just slightly underdone.
Now take out the fish and place in an oven proof dish.
You can add some frozen peas at this stage (those greens again!!)
Make some white sauce, using the leftover milk.
Pour the sauce over the fish.
You can put mashed potatoes, breadcrumbs even some mashed up crisps on top.
Bake until bubbling.



I hope this is enough to get you going - and not too boring for everyone else!!!

I want to apologise for not being around for the past few months - the enormity of losing my sister just struck me with a hammer blow, and I needed all my energy to just do the day to day stuff ..... but I'm back!!!

GOOD FOR THE SOLE!

Dom over at the wonderful Belleau Kitchen has challenged us to cook a random recipe from our most recent cook book - great idea, how many of us buy/receive a new cookbook, devour the recipes and pictures and then cast it aside for the old reliables (kinda have to put my hand up on that one!) - Thanks Dom.

I was having a really hard time remembering which was my most recent acquisition (cook book wise) - I knew that I hadn't bought anything recently, but was it as far back as Christmas? - couldn't be, but then I couldn't remember anything more recent - it was really bugging me!!  But then the Lovely Louise came to my rescue, and gave me a "cheer you up" present of "The Food of France" (a journey for food lovers) by Maria Villegas and Sarah Randell.  This is a delightful book, brim full of interesting, doable recipes and mouthwatering pictures. (Thanks Lou xxx)

My luck was in when I opened the book, I actually had most of the ingredients (and just left out the ones I didn't have) - I thought I was just opening it to write my shopping list!!  My luck was still in when we tasted the dish - delicious, delicious, delicious!  I was told that it was "better than any restaurant" (what an ego booster!).  This dish would be perfect for a dinner party, it's really impressive and really easy, what more can you ask!

I have to say that the quality of the fish and prawns is really important here - the sauce is light and the fish has to be as fresh as possible.  As always my local fish shop (Connollys) came up trumps, not only was the fish delicious, but Kieran actually peeled the prawns for me!

I served the Sole Normande with samphire, which I tossed in the creamy sauce over a high heat for a couple of minutes - it was just perfect.  Asparagus or green beans would also to good accompaniments, anything green with a bit of crunch, actually.



SOLE  NORMANDE


12             prawns (shrimp) (I used more)
500ml        white wine
12             shucked oysters (I didn't have any, so left them out)
12             small button mushrooms (mine weren't particularly small, so I sliced them)
4              sole fillets (I used small, skinned whole Dover Sole)
250ml       cream (I used much less, about 120 ml)
1               truffle, thinly sliced (another ingredient I left out!)
1 tbsp       chopped parsley (the only ingredient I omitted, that I will add next time)



Put the wine in a deep frying pan (I used a wok) and bring to the boil.
Add the oysters (if using) and poach for 2-3 minutes, remove from the wine with a slotted spoon  and keep warm.
Add the peeled and deveined prawns to the bubbling wine and cook until pink and cooked through, about 3 minutes. Lift out and keep warm.
Poach the mushrooms for 5 minutes or until cooked through, remove and keep warm.
Place the sole carefully into the poaching liquid, and cook for about 5 minutes (depends on the size of your fish) until just cooked through -  remove the fish and put to one side.
Add the cream to the poaching liquid and bring to the boil, boil until reduced by half and thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon (I didn't reduce it by this much, as I was after a lighter texture)
Season with salt and pepper (be careful with the salt if you are serving with samphire, which is very salty)
Put the sole on a serving dish, scatter with the prawns, oysters (if using), mushrooms, and truffle (again, if using) and parsley and serve while it's still hot!

Enjoy.

FAB FISH

I am lucky to have a fantastic fish shop locally, Connollys supply the freshest fish imaginable.  They also make up ready made prawn stir frys and fish pie/chowder mixes, which look really good.  When I was in last week the plaice looked great, and I couldn't resist the fresh prawns sitting in the next tray.

I know that raw fish probably isn't most peoples idea of beauty, but I just thought they looked fantastic.  I have to admit that I don't always make good use of the prawn shells (although I often make a stock from them and then lose it in the freezer!!).  This time when I shelled the prawns I popped them with some water and lemon juice into a pan and simmered them for about 15 minutes, then I strained the liquor and reduced it to about 3 tablespoons full, added a small knob of butter and then drizzled this over the cooked plaice, so easy and yet it tasted as though hours of work had gone into it.

I am (very unsuccessfully) trying to eat healthily on the run up to Christmas, and this fish dish ticks all the boxes - low fat, low calorie and just so good for you.

Plaice and Prawns

1            fillet of plaice per person
3            fresh prawns per person
Dash      white wine
Lemon juice.
1 tsp      olive oil per person
small knob butter per person

Shell and de-vein your prawns (or should that be vein your prawns?)
Put the shells on to simmer in water with a good splash of lemon juice (I use a half a lemon, but we are lemon fiends)

Place the plaice (!) on some tinfoil (large enough piece to make a nice loose parcel)
Drizzle with about 1 tbsp wine and 1 tsp olive oil.
Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes (depending on the thickness of your fish)

Meanwhile allow the shells to simmer for 10/15 minutes, then strain and reduce the liquor until deeply flavoured.
Saute the prawns in a little butter.
Deglaze the pan with the reduced liquor.

Serve the cooked plaice with the prawns and sauce.



Enjoy.

BILL GRANGER'S HOLIDAY

On the now defunct forum  Nigella.com, they had a cookbook review each month, I have to say that none of the books selected really grabbed my attention until Jutta chose Holiday by Bill Granger - it was a book that I had owned for a while but hadn't used, and I will be forever grateful to her as I have found winner after winner in this book, actually out of all the recipes I tried (and there were many!!) there was only one that we weren't mad about - not bad going.  The review has carried onto the replacement forum Through The Oven Door, which is a wonderful alternative set up by Jutta among others. (Although that said I'm having problems with it at the moment - I'm blaming all the new spyware we have installed!).

Place of honour goes to this cherry tart which beside tasting excellent has the easiest pastry of all time - no rolling out needed (yahaa!!!), I'm going to be using this time and time again. (recipe below)

 

 The Green Ratatouille, with some obvious replacements!!!  I'm not a big fan of green peppers, and I happened to have yellow courgettes (zucchini) in the house, it was a lovely vegetable dish pretty and tasty - works for me!!

 Crispy Skinned Salmon with Tamarind Caramel Dressing, the tamarind was a revelation to me, I have had some in the cupboard for some time and hadn't gotten round to trying it - boy am I glad that attempting this recipe introduced me to this wonderful flavour - a subtle bitterness, that doesn't cause the "sour lemon" face (!!) but still has that sour hit - I used the leftover dressing in a bowl of rice the next day (strange but delicious!)

This is the Never-Fail Birthday Chocolate Cake, before I added the Chocolate Icing, without doubt the least successful of all the recipes I attempted, its biggest failing was that there wasn't nearly enough chocolate in it - a "mortler" in my book!!  (A "mortler" being our childhood term for mortal sin, ie. a biggie!!!)

 Sweet Potato with Coriander and Preserved Lemons, an unusual combination I know but it really works.  The left overs were wonderful in soup. 

 A pretty awful picture, but this Leg of Lamb with Indian Flavours was as far from awful as you could get!!  A delicious combination of flavours served with the sweet potatoes (above) and the turmeric potatoes (below).

We're Irish, we eat potatoes by the sackful!!!  Any new ideas for potatoes are always welcome, this one particularly - it tastes great and with turmeric being sooo good for you, they are actually health food!!

 Flourless Chocolate and Hazelnut Cake, this is the cake to give as a gift to someone diagnosed with gluten intolerance - it will make them feel a whole lot better about a life without flour!!  The cake was moist and full of nutty chocolaty flavours, it went down really well when I served it to visiting relatives, worked well with all ages.

 Bills Garlic Mushrooms were probably nothing you wouldn't do anyway (I get really annoyed with cookery books that contain really obvious recipes - ham sandwich anyone? - you know the sort of recipes I mean!!!) he just added some chili to the usual mushrooms, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper.  To give him his due these excessively easy recipes were few and far between.

 The Roast Chicken with Coriander Chili Stuffing and Coconut Gravy, was a real departure from the norm for me, and it was a welcome change - although it in no way replaces my usual roast chicken with lemon and garlic in my affections!!  As you can imagine chicken stuffed (under the skin) with chili, coconut, coriander, ginger, lime and sugar is jam packed with flavour and it really works.  This dish made for wonderful leftovers - I heated up the leftover chicken meat in the coconut gravy, added this to pasta - mighty good I have to say!!!

 Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, it was great to try out my new ice-cream maker with this recipe, although nice it didn't reach the dizzy heights of the Raspberry Yoghurt Ice Cream - that said it was demolished in no time!

How pretty is this dish??  Poached Salmon and Risoni Salad was really tasty (and would be a great way to use up leftover salmon) I used some chard (from the veg box) instead of the specified spinach, and I think that the rougher texture of the chard worked really well, another one on the "make again" list.

Oh man oh man, this stuff is beyond good, and couldn't be easier!!  All you do is whisk 100g of sugar into 500g of greek yoghurt, tip into an ice-cream maker add a punnet of raspberries and  hay presto, fantabulous Yoghurt and Raspberry Ice-Cream.                                                                                  



Cherry Tart

Pastry

125g (4 1/2 oz)        butter, melted and cooled

90g (3 1/2 oz)          caster sugar

175g (6 oz)              plain flour

pinch salt

2 tbsp                      ground almonds

Filling

170 ml (5 1/2 fl oz)     cream

2                                eggs, lightly beaten

2 tsp                           vanilla extract

3 tbsp                         caster sugar

2 tbsp                         plain flour

550g (1lb 4 oz)           cherries, halved and pitted (Bill says fresh are best, I used frozen!!)

Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F

Grease a 24cm (9 1/2 in) round loose-bottomed tart tin.

To make the pastry, stir the butter and sugar in a large bowl.

Add the flour and salt and combine to make a soft dough.

Press this dough into the tin as evenly as possible with your fingers.

Put the tin on a baking tray and bake for 12-15 minutes, until the pastry is slightly puffy.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the ground almonds.

Now for the filling, whisk the cream, eggs, vanilla and sugar together.

Add the flour and mix well.

Strew the cherries, slightly overlapping over the pastry base then pour the cream filling over the cherries.

Return the tart to the oven for 40-50 minutes until the filling is firm.

Remove from the oven, and allow to cool.

Serve with cream of ice-cream.

Enjoy.

FANCY SOME FISH?

Our rosemary plant is running amok, so I decided to use up some on dinner (talk about a drop in the ocean!!).  I had forgotten about using rosemary skewers when baking fish, until K. served it to us recently.  It is a fantastic way to infuse a subtle flavour into the fish, looks great and is really easy to prepare in advance.

I used monkfish and cherry tomatoes with the skewers - monkfish is a wonderful choice for this dish as it is more robust then most other white fish (cod, haddock, hake etc.) but still has the delicate flavour that works so well.  That said I would imagine that prawns or salmon would also be wonderful treated in this way.

I used a picture of the uncooked fish to give a better idea what size to cut the pieces.  Other than that there is no recipe necessary.  You just use one skewer per person, and thread them with alternate pieces of fish and tomatoes.  Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper and a little lemon juice, bung in the oven for about 15/20 minutes (I imagine it would be very good cooked on the barbie too) and serve.

FOREVER SUMMER REVISITED

I have rediscovered "Forever Summer" by Nigella Lawson recently, it was one of those books that I bought, tried one or two recipes and then forgot about - this was a mistake as it is jam packed with wonderful recipes that work beautifully and more importantly are easily changed to suit your taste and what you have in the pantry.

I tried the pineapple salsa with some organic ham and a tomato salsa, it was just perfect and was the ideal dinner on a very warm day (warmth - seems like a distant memory now!).The pineapple combined perfectly with the coriander and mint to lift the ham to sublime!

When I spotted some yellow courgettes in my  vegetable basket, I knew that this was the first recipe they were destined for!

It is a light tasty soup, again perfect summer fodder.  It is based on a Middle Eastern dish, where they believe that "eating yellow foods will result in laughter and happiness" - how could you resist trying that!!

I blitzed a couple of portions (faddy eaters!!) and for some strange reason it tasted much more substantial and warming - go figure!!

This is a version of Nigella's recipe for Sea Bass with Saffron, Sherry and Pine Nuts,  this time I used Plaice in place of the Sea Bass and it was excellent, the light delicate sauce  compliments the fresh flavours of the fish.  Neither the saffron nor sherry dominate, they just compliment.  I have cooked this with Sea Bass before and couldn't recommend one fish above the other - both were just right.  The dish would have looked better if I had used the white half of the plaice, but I think there is more flesh on the dark side.

This is the Old Fashioned Tomato Salad, and although it tastes lovely, it wouldn't be great on the "taste/labour ratio" scale.  There was quite a bit of faffing about making the Salad Cream, and I would prefer a nice garlic mayonnaise.

I loved this Short Pasta with Asparagus, Lemon Garlic and Parsley, but then I love anything with asparagus.  It is a super simple dish where you gently fry some garlic in olive oil add steamed asparagus and lemon juice to taste.  Combine with your pasta of choice and sprinkle over some parsley, yumm!

Finally, The Rainbow Room's Carrot and Peanut Salad was totally addictive.  Amo and I ate the whole bowl in the belief that "it's a salad therefore it's low fat and healthy", obviously this thinking was aided by the glass of wine (or two) we enjoyed with the salad!!!!  Well I suppose it was better than eating a bag of peanuts (not lower fat though :-{{ )  Here's the recipe

Carrot and Peanut Salad

4 medium carrots, peeled

75g    salted peanuts

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp groundnut oil

few drops sesame oil

Grate the carrots coarsely.

Combine with the peanuts, vinegar and oils.

Devour as you choose!

FANTASTIC FISH WITH TAPENADE

This is a great recipe to have under your belt.  It involves more shopping than preparation.  It tastes wonderful - fresh, vibrant and oh so tasty.  It makes a fantastic dinner party dish - totally made in advance.  The tapenade can be made up to a week before you need it.  Just spread it over your fish (cod, haddock, hake, actually any thick white fish) pop it in the oven and wait for deliciousness!!

The recipe comes from Delia's Winter Collection, and I can see why she put in that book, it would bring some much needed sunshine to a cold winter's meal.  It also makes for a wonderfully light, tasty summer meal too!

Other than the fresh basil, the ingredients can all be kept for ages, making this a great meal to have up your sleeve for when the basil is cheap or when you have little time to prepare for visitors.

Sun Dried Tomatoe Tapenade

1              jar sun-dried tomatoes (reserve the oil)
1              tin pitted black olives (175g) drained
30g/1 oz   basil leaves (this is alot of basil!)
1 tsp         (heaped) green peppercorns in brine, rinsed and drained
2               big garlic cloves
1               tin anchovies (50g)
3 tsp        (heaped) capers, drained and dried.
3 tbsp       oil from the tomatoes.*

Place all the ingredients in the food processor and blitz into a coarse paste.

Spread your fish of choice with the tapinade and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes.

I find that the tapenade will be enough to serve about 12 portions, and that it keeps really well in a jar in the fridge for quite some time if you keep it covered with oil.

*The rest of the oil is great in a salad dressing.

SALSA VERDE

My organic vegetable box seems to get better and better every week.  Last week Niamh delivered a fantastic box of loveliness - those strawberries tasted like about ten strawberries concentrated in each one - the sort of strawberries that I imagined farmers wives giving to Enid Blyton's Famous Five for their picnics (along with lashings and lashings of ginger beer!!).

Those are the peas that didn't see the cooking pot despite my having planned to use them in the pea and rice soup I posted on Monday (they were delicious!)*.  In the right hand corner there is a pot of Lemon Balm, which I used in a salsa verde type sauce for some fish.

Lemon Balm Salsa Verde

3 tbsp      lemon balm - chopped
2 tbsp      coriander - chopped
2 tbsp      parsley - chopped
2              anchovies - chopped
2              garlic cloves - grated
2 tbsp       capers - drained
zest and juice from one lime
extra virgin olive oil.


Make a paste from the anchovies, by mashing them with the side of a knife on a chopping board.  Add this paste to the chopped herbs, lime zest and juice.  If your capers are large - chop them up, otherwise just add to the sauce. Add good extra virgin olive oil to taste.  Season with pepper and serve with your fish of choice.

The lemon balm added an extra something to the sauce, it was wonderfully tangy and fresh, a lovely combination with  hake fillets. 

* Pea pods can be used to make a really tasty vegetable stock AND you have the satisfaction of feeling like a Suzie Homemaker (waste not want not!)

DELIGHTFUL DINNER

Super easy, super tasty, we have had a run of really nice dinners (doesn't happen often!!) - I wonder if it is this good weather?  Inspiration or the fact that I feel I shouldn't be in the kitchen (should be out getting some vitamin D into my bones) and therefore am spending all my time in said kitchen!!


One of the recent successes was this baked monkfish, which I served with a sugar snap pea and pea dish, roast potatoes (as always!) and a mouthwatering salad (thanks to my vegetable box scheme).

 

 


Monkfish with Lemon

2           Monkfish tail fillets  
1/4       Preserved lemon or segments of fresh lemon
12        Cherry tomatoes, semi sundries tomatoes would be best.
1 tbsp   Capers - drained
Extra virgin olive oil


Remove the membrane from the monkfish (this is very tough) and cut into large pieces (monkfish shrinks dramatically when cooked).
Chop the preserved lemon finely, or segment a fresh lemon, make sure to remove all pith (from the fresh not the preserved!!)
Chop the tomatoes in half.
Place the fish on a tray covered in tinfoil (makes the clean up much easier) then scatter with the lemon, capers, and tomatoes. 
Drizzle with the olive oil.
Roast for about 15 - 20 minutes.
Cut a piece of fish to ensure it is cooked through.

 

Peas and Pesto

4             Baby onions/6 Scallions
1 pkt       Sugar snap peas
2 cups     Frozen petite pois
1 tbsp     Pesto


In a wok or large frying pan sautee the onion  in some olive oil until tender and starting to brown at the edges.
Add the sugar snap peas and cook for about 2 minutes.
Add the frozen peas and the pesto.

Cook until the peas are warm.

I love Wimbledon, I love the tennis and the memories of watching as a teenager imagining that I was married to the better looking players (McEnroe was a particular favourite!!) and I love the strawberries and cream that I associate with it.  As an homage to Wimbledon I made Eton Mess for dessert.  I chopped up a punnet of strawberries and added a little icing sugar and a teaspoon of good balsamic vinegar then I crushed some M & S meringues into a tub of Genisk Greek yogurt and mixed the whole lot together!!  It was really good, probably better than when made with cream - give it a go!!

ODE TO SUMMER

I love this time of year, my organic vegetable box scheme has resumed for the summer .... I really look forward to each Saturday when Niamh arrives with a basket of goodies, it's like a mini birthday each week!!  (easily satisfied or what?!).  This is my first basket of the year - those potatoes were out of this world, the salad was delicious and beautiful, but the tarragon was another story (not the tarragon, but the abject failure of a Bearnaise sauce I tried to make with it :-{{)  I did take a photo but I'm ashamed to put it up near the beauty of the vegetables!! (It is shown below where it belongs !!)

 




Another highlight of this time of year is samphire, I nearly jumped up and down with delight last week when our (excellent) local fish shop - Connolly's, had it in stock (they are used to me by this stage!).  When they started to stock samphire some years ago, I received a gift of a large bag full, for being the first customer to recognise it and give recipe suggestions. (Proud Day!!).

Yesterday we had prawns wrapped in lemon sole with samphire, mushrooms and roast potatoes for dinner,  I could recommend it as a dinner for any occasion - and am planning to serve it next time we have friends over for dinner.  I think this way of preparing the dish is an improvement on the way I cooked it last week.

 

It is much easier to eat prawns when someone else has done the hard work (somehow when we go to restaurants and someone orders prawns - I'm the one who ends up shelling them!!).  I think that by wrapping the prawns in the sole you get a portion of both in each mouthful, which is a really good thing.  Although it has to be said that shelling and veining (?) prawns is not a fun job!

                     The reason why there was no Hollandaise sauce served with dinner - my confidence took a tumble when I tried to make the Bearnaise!!!

 

Lemon Sole Stuffed With Prawns

1     medium lemon sole per person (skinned)

2     large fresh (uncooked) prawns per person                              

lemon zest                                                                      

lemon juice

extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 180 C

Prepare the prawns being sure to remove the dark thread down the back.

Lay the prawns on the narrow end of the sole.

Scatter lemon zest over the fish (I use the microplane grater) and season.

Squeeze lemon juice over and then drizzle with some olive oil.

Roll up, and roast for about 20 minutes.

I just stir fried/steamed the samphire in lemon juice (white wine is good too).

You can of course use any fish you like.

 

PRESERVED LEMON CEVICHE

The idea of ceviche has been creeping up on me ... Nigella has one in her Express book, there is a lovely recipe in Tessa Kiros's Venezia (my two favourites in one book - cooking and Venice!)... I decided to dip my toe in the ceviche sea (in a manner of speaking), when I came home from the fishmonger with more than enough lemon sole for dinner.

I just wanted to make a small amount (not sure how fish cooked by lime juice would go down with the family) so I  cut up a small sole fillet, and added some monkfish (which I had bought for the following day's dinner) and placed them in the marinade. 

I marinated the fish for 24 hours, testing and tasting after 6 hours and then 12 hours and again after 18 (it still had a raw texture) but 24 hours was probably about 4 too many as although it tasted fantastic, the texture was a bit tough.  The ceviche would make a lovely starter, but I would cut the fish up much smaller and marinade for a shorter time.

The monkfish probably took better to this cooking method (texture wise) but both fish tasted fresh, zingy and pleasantly different.

For one portion I used:


Preserved lemon ceviche


1 small lemon sole
small piece of monkfish
1/4 preserved lemon
1 tbsp juice from preserved lemons
zest and juice of 1 lime
1/4 mild chili grated.
green part from 2 scallions (spring onions)

Mix the marinade ingredients and pour over the fish, store in a sealed container in the fridge until ready.

Serve with your salad of choice, I used rockett, spinich, red peppers and apples, dressed simply with lemon and oil.

 

This is my jar of recently resurrected preserved lemons.  The photo alone makes my mouth water!!!

I turned to Diana Henry's "Crazy Water Pickled Lemons"  (where else?!) when looking for a recipe to make my lemons, and this one is excellent, the cinnamon and coriander giving a nice undertone to the flavour.

Preserved Lemons
(every home should have them!!)

Organic lemons
Coarse sea salt
2 cinnamon sticks
2 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
Olive oil (extra virgin)

Wash and dry the lemons. 
Not cutting the whole way through, cut the lemons length ways in quarters.  It is important to keep the base of the lemon intact, so that the lemon opens out like a flower.
Hold each lemon open and fill with about 2 tsp salt, squeeze it closed and put into a sterilized jar.
Repeat until your jar is jam packed full.
Put a weight on top (I used a stone wrapped in clingfilm)
Put away for 3 days while the juices run out.
Remove the weight and add the cinnamon, pepper, coriander and bay leaves.
Add enough extra lemon juice to cover the lemons.
Then pour a layer of olive oil on top - this prevents the whole jar going mouldy - very important!

Ready to use in about 6 weeks.


 Enjoy!

CRUNCHY CALAMARI

I spotted some beautiful fresh squid at the shops the other day, and Nigella's Quick Calamari with Garlic Mayonnaise sprang to mind.  I had seen her cook this on the Nigella Express programme and it looked wonderfully easy - so I didn't allow the deep frying bit scare me off, and I bought them.

The boning (cartilaging!) bit was easy, actually quite satisfying, but I managed to make an awful mess cutting the head/eye bit off! I broke the ink sack and it squirted all over the place!!!  I can see why Nigella uses frozen squid.

Anyway the boning, skinning chopping was all accomplished without any more mishaps!  It was then simplicity itself to throw the coating together (through necessity I had to play around with the recipe!)
The frying was easy and not too smelly!!  I used this photo to show that there was very little excess oil.

The calamari was hoovered up by the boys, they loved it.  I tried one (or four!) and can concur, they were nicely crispy on the outside and the squid was beautifully tender (no rubber bands in my kitchen!!!!!)

Nigella calls for "best quality mayonnaise" - I used Hellmann's and it was just fine - I grated a whole (medium sized) clove of garlic into approximately 100g of mayo, and it was perfect.

This is what I did:
To serve two plus a greedy "picker"


Quick Calamari


3             small squid - cleaned, and cut into 1cm rings.
2 tbsp      cornflour
4 tbsp      semolina
1 tsp        smoked paprika
1/2 tsp     ground cumin
pinch        chili powder
1/2 tsp      salt


Half fill a small saucepan with a flavorless oil, and heat up.  It is ready when a piece of bread dropped in sizzles fiercely.
Put all the coating ingredients into a plastic bag and mix.
Add the squid rings and tentacles and toss to coat - I did this in batches.
Again in batches, fry the squid in the sizzling oil, until they are golden and crunchy - this takes very little time.
Remove to a paper towel to drain.
Serve with the garlic mayonnaise and some lemon.

Enjoy.

FISHY, FISHY

Oh man, I've had "one of those days" niggles all day, little things going wrong, stubbed toes, forgotten lunch you know those days.

This evening I arrived home, started the dinner and brought the shopping in from the car. I left the first few bags on the kitchen table and went to collect the next lot - I heard a bang - turned around and a bag with two bottles of beer had fallen onto the floor and exploded everywhere!!!!!

Beer was all over the place, floor, walls and cupboards and as for the glass:-{

It was a good job I had started the dinner before the "incident", or we would have had a sandwich!

I am lucky to have a wonderful fishmonger in my local town, and they sell skinned, boned fillets of lemon sole. I served the fish with roasted baby potatoes and asparagus. It was nice to have something good to eat before washing the kitchen floor ... again.

Coriander Lemon Sole

Coriander Oil

Lemon Sole Fillets (also good with plaice, sea bass fillets in fact any white fish)

Garlic

Lemon zest and juice.

I lay the fish on a large piece of tin foil, enough to cover totally, spread with the coriander oil, zest of 1/2 lemon, and about 10ml of lemon juice. I grate a 1/2 clove of garlic over this. Fold the tin foil over the fish and bake in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes (depending on the thickness of the fillets)

Coriander Oil

Large bunch coriander

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper

Blanch the coriander by covering with boiling water for a few minutes. Dry the herb by squeezing in a dry cloth. Place the coriander in a blender and cover with the oil (about 200ml)

blitz well and season.

This oil keeps in the fridge for at least 2 weeks, and is great to serve with fish, chicken and pasta.

It is also great made with basil.

Enjoy.