FOR YOUR FIVE A DAY

We did quite a bit of entertaining over the Easter holidays, and the most challenging aspect of choosing a menu for me, was choosing what vegetables to serve.  I want veggies that complement the main dish, and that are a little bit different - side dishes that look and taste as though you have gone to some effort.

We invited my husband's family over for Saturday evening, and there were 16 of us eating - I love having a large number for dinner as it gives me a chance to try out new recipes and allows for some experimenting too (my theory being that if there are enough people present, someone will like every dish!!).  On this occasion the recipe I tried was Nigella's Roast Red Onions with Basil (from Nigellissima) and I threw together this Asparagus, Peas and Sugar Snaps with Pesto and both went down really well.  The onions were a useful addition to the repertoire as they can wait out of the oven happily for at least an hour - which is wonderful when there is pressure for space in the oven.  They were delicious, the basil being an unexpected flavour combination (I would usually go with thyme or sage with onion dishes) that worked very well - and another bonus, they were lovely reheated the next day.

The pea dish was also a great choice for entertaining, as the asparagus stem can be cooked ahead of time, along with the peas - and then a final few minutes on a high flame will reheat them and cook the asparagus tips and the sugar snaps - easy peasy (please forgive me for the awful pun - sometimes I just can't help myself, it's an affliction!!). 

The two side dishes worked well together as the mellow round flavours of the onions contrasted well with the fresh crispness of the greens.  I also served Piedmont Peppers and Butternut Squash with Blue Cheese, and they all worked really nicely.


Asparagus, Peas and Sugar Snaps with Pesto

All I did was, break off the woody part of the asparagus stem and discard (you could of course save them for soup).
I then cut off the tips and put them aside. 
I chopped up the stems and allowed them to cook in a tiny amount of water for a few minutes, then I added a small packet of frozen peas and cooked until defrosted.
 At this stage you can put aside to cool down and then reheat later. 
When ready to serve add the sugar snaps and asparagus tips and steam for a minute or two.
Remove from the heat and add a tablespoon of pesto.
This is nice served with some Parmesan shavings (if I hadn't forgotten them!!!)

Roast Onions with Basil
based on Nigella Lawson's recipe

1 kg        Onions (I used pink - they were so pretty)
100ml     Olive oil
Pinch       Caraway seeds
1 tsp        Maldon Salt (or your favourite)
2 tsp        Good balsamic vinegar
1 pkt        basil leaves (fresh)


Preheat oven to 180 C

Quarter the onions and then peel them.
Place them in a roasting tin, and cover with the olive oil.
Scatter with the caraway seeds (Nigella uses fennel, but I'm not a fan)
Roast for about 1 hour, or until totally cooked through.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.
Season with the salt and vinegar.
You can allow to stand for up to an hour in a warm kitchen.
When you are ready to serve scatter the torn basil leaves over the onions.
Enjoy.

LOVELY AND LIGHT LUNCH

As you know I am one of the millions who start every new year with the intention of ending it weighing alot less - some years it happens, more years not!  This year is no exception, and I felt it was a sign that this might be "the year" when the people at Low Low challenged me to give a Come Dine With Me meal to some friends and ask them to score the experience. (Although there is a flaw in their plan - who's friends wouldn't score them 10!!).

I invited some of my reducing friends (they'll be delighted with that title!) to lunch and set out to plan my menu. I wanted to try out the Low Low products, as I have been a fan of their packets of grated cheddar cheese for ages and have been known to devour a tub of the Cracked Black Pepper Cheddar Spread with a packet of crisps (but those days are gone - I promise!!!).  They had sent me some recipe ideas and I opted to try out their Carrot, Courgette, Pecan and Cheese muffins to go with a starter of  Carrot, Cardamon and Cumin Soup (I made these carrots (using less butter) and then added stock and blitzed).  The muffins were great with the soup, although next time I make them I'll omit the nuts and add some grilled (or fried depending on the will power) bacon or ham.

For the main course I served monkfish baked with some home made sunblushed tomatoes and preserved lemons and served that with Stuffed Tomatoes with Rice, I got this recipe from a Slimming World leaflet, toyed with it a bit and it is excellent - the highlight of the meal in my opinion.  The fact that you soak the rice in the tomato juices for such a long time gives you a lovely soft textured result. This will be a regular visitor to our dinner table from now on - maybe with some olive oil drizzled over (when I'm skinny and can do such things!!).

The other vegetable I served was a Low Low recipe for Cheesy Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms - now if this had been the real deal and I were serving them to strangers who would rate my meal, I might have left these out, they weren't a huge success, they tasted fine but laked severely in the looks department.

For dessert I served these cupcakes which were popular, and I think it was O.K. that after such a virtuous meal we indulged in some Baileys in our coffee.

Stuffed Tomatoes With Rice

adapted from a Slimming World Recipe

4            large firm tomatoes (I used beef tomatoes)

2            garlic cloves - grated

50g/2oz  risotto rice (uncooked)

6 tbsp     finely chopped basil (keep some to decorate)

3 tbsp     grated cheddar cheese (I used Low Low)

salt and black pepper

Cut the top off the tomatoes and set aside to use as lids.

Scoop out the pulp from the tomatoes and chop finely, put in a bowl.

Stir the rice, garlic, basil into the tomato pulp and leave aside at room temperature for one hour.

Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Add the basil and cheese to the rice mixture and stuff the tomatoes.

Transfer to a baking dish and top with the lids.

Bake for 35 - 40 minutes, or until the tomatoes are soft and the rice is cooked through.

P.S.  They scored me 10 (surprise, surprise) but refused a chance of international stardom citing bad hair days when I wanted to take their picture for the blog! 

HAGGIS?? REALLY?? HAGGIS??

This month's Random Recipe Challenge was "I'll show you mine, if you show me yours", whereby Dom paired us up and another blogger gets to choose the recipe we'll cook (have a look at Dom's instructions, it's too difficult to explain!!!).

I was incredibly lucky to be allocated Lou, from Please Do Not Feed the Animals, a seriously wonderful blog.  Lou is the sort of person that I think I shouldn't like (she has a highly satisfying career, is an outstanding baker, has a husband who cooks up a storm, her kids could grace any add campaign, they are beyond gorgeous) but jealousy aside, she is a pure pet!  On top of all those wonderful attributes Lou is also Physic - well how else do you explain a woman from Scotland choosing what I'm sure is the only haggis recipe in my whole collection - yes you read correctly - Haggis!!!!!

Lou did offer to post me over some haggis (see what I mean, such a nice person) but I thought I'd seen some in M&S and reckoned I'd have no problem - ha, it's impossible to source haggis in Ireland.  I decided to go ahead with the recipe anyway and  I reckoned that black pudding would make a good substitute (with deepest apologies to all the haggis fans out there!!), so I went ahead and cooked "Haggis, potato, bacon and apple fry-up" without the haggis.

I should have mentioned before now that my chosen book was The Really Helpful Cookbook by Ruth Watson, this is actually an excellent book - but this recipe is obviously a filler - I'd guess that she made a dinner from left-overs the night before she submitted the book and had to throw an extra recipe in there, and in it went!  If some evening you have some left over haggis (or black pudding) and potatoes in the fridge, with some bacon in there too and some apples in the fruit bowl - you could try this, otherwise I wouldn't bother.

There is no point in giving you the recipe - you just fry up some onions, garlic, potatoes (black pudding if using) in some olive oil and add some crisp apple for the last two minutes - serve with some haggis (if you have some) - easy as that. 

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.

VEGETARIANS - LOOK AWAY!

I was away on my annual "Girls Weekend" recently - it's just the best thing.  We spend a weekend eating good food (and plenty of it!!) and drinking fizzy wine, but most importantly chatting.  Actually it has been called the "you're great ... no you're great .... no you're great ... we're all great" weekend.  The cheapest, and funnest (!) therapy of all time.

When we were taking a break from telling each other how great we are (seriously!) the conversation turned to food, and special occasion food to be exact.  I was telling the girls about my favourite special occasion meal, and they asked me why it wasn't on the blog - good question.  This to rectify my glaring omission!

I first saw this recipe on T.V. and I'm pretty sure it is a Jamie Oliver dish, although it has probably evolved a fair bit over the years.  It's definitely a special occasion dish as the fillet (tenderloin) of beef is so expensive - but it is always popular, it's easy to carve and the left-overs are just heavenly.  Another advantage is that if you are cooking for a large number of people the meat will have different levels of "doneness", the thin end will be well done whereas the Chateaubriand will be rare, with medium meat in the middle.  If you are cooking for a smaller number of people you can use a smaller fillet (or perhaps two pieces of fillet one that you cook to well done and the other to rare), the herbs, mushrooms and parma ham, impart a wonderful subtle flavour the the tender moist meat - it's the business!

Special Roast Fillet of Beef

This is the recipe for 6 people - but it's easily increased/decreased

1          Fillet (tenderloin) of beef - about 3lbs/1.2kg *

20        Slices of Parma Ham (more if you are cooking a large joint)

2           large garlic cloves
15g       dried porcini mushrooms
200g     mushrooms
3 tbsp   butter
1/2       lemon - juiced
2 tbsp   chopped rosemary and thyme (amount when chopped nice and small)
2 tbsp     olive oil
2           glasses of red wine

Preheat oven to 200 C

Soak the porcini mushrooms in boiling water (for at least 1/2 hour)
Heat a large frying pan and add 1 tbsp oil - sear the meat on all sides and leave aside.
Add the rest of the oil to the pan and add the sliced  fresh mushrooms and the chopped garlic - cook until tender and add the soaked procini mushrooms which you have also chopped up finely.
Add about 200ml of the soaking water and simmer until it has reduced by half.
Add the lemon juice.
Lay the parma ham out on some greaseproof paper - you want a large sheet of ham (without holes) big enough to wrap the meat.
Spread the mushroom mixture over the ham.
Pat the herbs into the meat and then place on the sheet of ham and mushrooms.
Wrap the beef with the parma ham and tie with strings.
Place the beef in a roasting tray and roast for about 40 - 50 minutes.
Halfway through the cooking time add the wine to the baking tray.
When the meat is done remove it to a serving plate and allow to rest for at least 15 minutes.
Simmer the pan juices and serve as gravy.

Enjoy.

POTATOES - THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF DINNER!

When I wrote the review of the new Leon Cookbook, I was asked to give more details of the POTATOES  LEON-AISE, and of course I am more than happy to oblige.  This dish was very well received at Sunday lunch, with a lovely crispy top layer covering a soft, delicious center - although I nearly gave them to my vegetarian brother in law!!!  When I was putting the vegetable dishes on the center of the table, I wondered why I had made so many roasties, then realized just before he served himself ... phew!!

I loved the fact that the potatoes were not peeled, so much more healthy, and speaking of healthy the original recipe calls for 80ml of olive oil, I think that this is too much, particularly if you are using home made chicken stock (which I recommend if you have some in the freezer).

I was afraid that the lemon might jar with the bland (in a good way) potatoes, but this didn't happen - they seemed to just melt into the dish, adding a pleasant background flavour, rather than pockets of bitterness, but you do need to slice them as thinly as possible.


Potatoes Leon-Aise

1.3 kg              potatoes (I used red skinned Roosters)
2                      large onions
1                      bulb garlic
1/2                   lemon
5                      fresh bay leaves
80ml                olive oil (I would use 30ml if using fresh stock, 50ml if using bullion)
650ml              chicken stock
                       salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F

Wash potatoes well and slice thinly - no need to peel.
Slice the garlic thinly.
Slice the lemon as finely as possible.
Drizzle with the oil.
Toss everything except the stock into a baking tray and season.
Arrange as snugly as possible and flatten as well as you can.
Pour in the stock - it should come halfway up the potatoes.
Bake in the oven for about 1 hour, or until soft and yielding to a sharp knife.

Enjoy.

P.S.  The leftovers (when added to leftover veggies) made a delicious soup.

THANKSGIVING BURGER OF SORTS!

The super-talented Kim over at Stirring the Pot, issued a challenge - to create a Thanksgiving Dinner in a burger.  Well I must be the least qualified person to participate.  My only experience of Thanksgiving comes from watching cheesy movies and T.V. programmes set at this most fraught of times (at least it is always fraught on the screen) - from this extensive research I reckon that a Thanksgiving burger should contain ... 1. Turkey   2. Cranberries  3. Sweet Potatoes/Yams  4. Marshmallows  5. A side order of American Football on the T..V.

Well I put my foot down at adding marshmallows to a burger - a step too far I think!!!  I have taken the easy way out with this one - I bought some Ceddar with cranberries (actually should have bought the Wensleydale with cranberries - much nicer), moulded the minced turkey breast around it and fried them up (in a tiny amount of oil), I served this with a cranberry mayonnaise and some crispy roasted sweet potato wedges.  We ate the burgers while watching Rugby on the telly (well sameish shaped ball!!).

The burgers were really tasty, the cheese kept the turkey from drying up too much and added that kick of flavour that they needed.  The cranberry mayonnaise (just some cranberries and a tiny amount of redcurrant jelly added to shop bought mayo) was yummy, adding a pleasant astringent element to the meal (no need for vinegar).  The sweet potato wedges were much nicer than the usual potato wedges, the sweetness allowing them to get more crispy.

Thanks Kim, I enjoyed getting my thinking cap on - not that I came up with any great ideas - but I had fun!

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.

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.

ROAST SPUDS

Dominic over on Belleau Kitchen (a wonderful, entertaining blog) has issued a challenge to find the perfect roastie.  Now I know that mine are not perfection but after many years of working on them, I think they are pretty good!!

My great discovery on the roast potato front is time .... they need to be roasted for far longer than any cookery book instructs, I find that the best roast potatoes I make are on days when someone turns up late for dinner!!  So my "secret" is to roast the spuds for at least 1 1/2 hours, then you get the desired crispy outside and soft, yielding center.

I use Rooster (red skinned) potatoes, peel and boil them, until nearly cooked.  Mine are usually too cooked to do the tossing about bit after they are drained (!) but if possible I give them a gentle toss.  Next I pour them carefully onto the roasting tray, pour over extra virgin olive oil* and bung in the oven at 180 C.

Cook for as long as you can stand, then enjoy your very low effort roasties.

*A spout like this is a great addition to the kitchen, and makes drizzling olive oil over the potatoes very exact, and less wasteful. (My inner Suzie Homemaker coming out again!)

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!)

SUMMER DINING

The weather has been really fantastic recently - a very unusual occurrence in these parts.  The past two years, summer consisted of a good week in May, when we all dashed out and bought wardrobes full of summer gear -  followed by wintry weather spent looking longingly at our lovely (and totally unsuitable) clothes, while dressing in warm tops and jeans!!!

Well I have been making hay while the sun shines (so to speak) and doing lots of cooking on the barbecue.  These are some burgers I threw together using just lamb, chopped mint and a nugget of feta cheese in the center of each one - yumm, and as easy as you can get.

 

I served these aubergines with the burgers, they come from Nigella Summer (I've been referring to it alot recently) and were a great match with the lamb.  I sprayed my sliced aubergine with olive oil* and then barbecued them - they came out just perfect (aubergine can be very oily if you're not careful).  They are stuffed with a mixture of feta, chili, mint, lemon juice and zest - I am using zest every time I use lemon or lime juice since I heard that the zest prevents skin cancer, double win (flavour and health)! 

I mirrored these flavours in the salad dressing, mashing up some feta in lemon juice, grated in some garlic and added this mixture to a low fat plain yogurt with a very small amount of olive oil.  All in all a pretty healthy meal.

* I have a plastic bottle with a spray top (bought it in Boots Chemist, in the travel section) which I  fill with equal amounts of extra virgin olive oil and water.  Far cheaper than the "light" oil sprays in the supermarket  and zero nasty additives.

SIMPLE SAUCE

As you are all well aware by now, I am an enthusiastic subscriber to the "maximum taste, minimum effort" school of cooking - and this sauce could be the school's emblem!!!

This is a redcurrant jelly, mint and orange sauce and it goes beautifully with roast lamb, wonderfully with lamb cutlets and is simply heavenly in a lamb sandwich!!!!!!

I use it to glaze  lamb chops (cutlets) before I cook them on the barbecue or ridged pan, and then add some more just before I serve them.  I use it instead of butter in a sandwich - virtuous deliciousness.  It is just sooo much nicer than mint sauce to serve with roast lamb, particularly if your lamb has been studded with garlic, rosemary and lemon.

The one stipulation is that you use a good quality redcurrant jelly, with as high a fruit content as possible - it really makes a difference, I have made the mistake of using an own brand jar (they had run out of the good stuff) and would never do it again!!  This recipe is a "Delia"!



Redcurrant, Orange and Mint Sauce

4 tbsp           redcurrant jelly
Finely grated zest from 1 medium orange
2 tbsp           finely chopped mint

Place these ingredients in a bowl and stir well , making sure that there are no lumps.
Decant to a serving bowl.
Wait for the ohhhs and ahhhs!!

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!!

LOVELY LAMB

I wondered why there were no photos of this dish in Tamasin Day-Lewis's "Simply the Best" - and now I know!!!  Although not the prettiest meal you will ever serve up - it could well be the tastiest (certainly if you take work/taste ratio into account!!!)

TDL calls this Estouffade d'Agneau, but it is called the "nice lamb" here!!!  It is so simple that you will find it hard to imagine how good it tastes - no wine, no garlic, no herbs - just a really good quality olive tapenade (TDL specifies Carluccio's crema do olive nere - this is what I usually use, but I have used my local delicatessen's home made tapenade and it was really good too).

She also specifies lamb shoulder - but I have such fat averse people in this house that I always use a leg of lamb, and it works perfectly. 

Lamb with olive

1kg/2 1/2 lb         cubed shoulder (or leg) of lamb
200g/7oz              Carluccio's crema di olive nere
                                               or
                             Excellent quality black olive tapenade with 1 tsp capers and pinch oregano.

Preheat oven to 150 C

Put the cubed lamb in the bottom of a heavy casserole
Empty the jar of tapenade over the meat.
Cover with a greaseproof paper lid and then the casserole lid.
Leave in the oven for 2 hours.
That's it !!!!!!!

I served it with mashed potato (to get maximum soakage!) and these veggies:

I fried a punnet of mushrooms in olive oil and a small amount of butter, then added asparagus, spinach and some left over cabbage - delicious (and worked really well with the lamb).

P.S. The photo of the lamb was taken after a couple of servings - you get more than that from 1kg meat!!!