Seared Scallops with Bean mash, Roasted tomatoes and Crispy Bacon

This is a really old post from my birthday that I forgot to publish!

We decided to forgo a fabulous birthday meal, I got that with my best friend, she took me to Benares - amazing! Instead, we had a wonderful time in Borough Market and bought some beautiful scallops. The recipe below is from Jamie Oliver - The Return of the Naked Chef.

Anyway, this turned out to be an absolute treat, sweet tender scallops, with crispy salty bacon, roasted cherry tomatoes and a bean mash. Perfect indulgence in every mouthful. All washed down with some Moët, naturally...


Ingredients
Serves 4

125g cherry tomatoes
pinch dried oregano
olive oil
4 rasher streaky bacon
1 small clove garlic finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
3 anchovy fillets
1 can flagelot beans, drained (you could substitute cannellini or butter beans)
6-8 scallops
small bunch parsley chopped

Roast the tomatoes in the oven skins side down for 10-15mins.
Place the bacon beside them and roast for 10 more mins.
Meanwhile, fry the garlic, chillis and anchovies in 1 tbsp olive oil.
Add the beans, and a small glass of water.
Bring to the boil and mash, finish off with some oil and seasoning.
When the tomatoes are cooked, season the scallops and sear in a pan for 2mins on each side.
Serve a mound of the bean mash with the scallops balanced atop, scatter the bacon and tomatoes around and drizzle over some olive oil.

Read more...

Amazing Mackerel on Toast

Valentine Warner is a bit of a new celebrity crush of mine - reading all the hype a few months ago, I was unconvinced/jealous. But as soon as you watch a programme, his infectious enthusiasm rubs off on you and I always warm to someone as downright greedy as he is.

So, when he made this on Monday's episode, my friends and I were practically salivating. A cucumber in my vegetable box was a sure sign that it needed to be made. First, peel a cucumber and slice thinly (I used the slicer on the side of my grater, quite an exciting discovery!) , drop them into a colander and salt generously. The idea is draw most of the water out so you're left with lovely crispy slivers.


For the mackerel, all you need to do is season and fry for a few mins on each side in hot pan with a knob of butter and drizzle of oil. Toast a thick slice of sourdough, butter generously, top with a handful of cucumber, a mackerel fillet, some thinly sliced red onion and a wedge of lemon. Perfection.

Now, the icing on the cake (so to speak) was the horseradish sauce he made with it, I loved the idea of punchy sauce to go with the mackerel. needless to say, I couldn't find fresh horseradish in Brixton, so I decided to a really simple lemony yoghurty dressing instead. A few tablespoons of yoghurt, the juice of half a lemon, plenty of seasoning, a little garlic and some capers. Really you just want something moist to go with this and you can't really fault lemon and fish. But next time, I will be steeling myself to try the horseradish (I cry enough over onions, I'm a bit scared of horseradish...)



Here's the recipe should you need it, and here's his fabulous book that I'm stopping myself buying... I'm getting a little too click happy at the moment on Amazon, I just bought this recipe book holder though - very exciting! Read more...

Throw it in Spicy Soup

This is one for using up any vegetables languishing in the bottom of the fridge. Save them from the compost and make soup! Now that the weather is turning, its the perfect time for a warm bowl of comforting soup. Soup is possibly the easiest thing to make with the least output for maximum pleasure. What's better that a steaming bowl of homemade soup?

Now, most soups require time, not that they're difficult, you just need to leave a pan to putter away on a stove top for a while, ideally eating it the next day once the flavours have developed. Don't get me wrong, this is fabulous for cooking in advance so that you can come home to dinner already made, or freeze portions ahead, for that, try these recipes.

This soup is all about knocking up a batch in 20mins flat and having endless variations, when you can't think what to make to make for dinner, but you want to feel like you're eating something 'homemade'.

This is barely a recipe, simply fry a tablespoon or two, depending on how hot you like it of thai curry paste in a large pan until the heady fragrance are released. now throw in your vegetables, whatever you've got, think stir fry, you want everything sliced or finely chopped. Give them a stir until they start to catch. Now add a can of coconut milk, fill the empty can with water and add this too, maybe a little bouillon powder too to boost flavours. Let this simmer happily for 5mins or so. To bulk it out, add a couple of nests of noodles, perhaps adding some extra water, make you stir well and untangle them as they soften.

Try chickpeas, noodles, tofu, shredded roast chicken, sweetcorn, carrot, mushrooms, greens, chunks of salmon, bean sprouts... the list goes on. then you get to garnish, a squeeze of lime, a flutter of coriander leaves, sliced spring onions.... Read more...

Moroccan Mackerel and Citrus Couscous

I'm rather proud of this one. Whilst I was supposed to be working, I naturally began thinking of what I was going to cook for the rest of the week. I've been thinking about the delicious Mackerel superfood salad from Leon for a while- its all Moroccan sweet and spice with dried apricots, hazelnuts and lemon zest. I couldn't glean much from the menu so did a little recipe investigation online and came up with the recipe below.

Happily, it turned out exactly as planned, I used orange zest and juice, which goes perfectly with the oily fish. Some toasted almonds add texture and parsley for freshness along with ground coriander and ginger for spicy depth. I was also unsure about using the broccoli, it seemed such a strange combination to me, but it works perfectly adding some welcome crunch.

Next time, I'm keen to try other variations...Fennel and black olive with dried apricots or cucumber instead of the broccoli, rocket for added punch. Either way, try this and let me know your thoughts/variations.

Ps: yes, more mackerel. This time, we used a mixture of smoked mackerel and tinned, purely because that's what we had. I've never eaten tinned mackerel before, it actually tasted pretty good and works perfectly fine in this recipe. Given the choice, I would use smoked mackerel next time though for extra flavour. In other news...I'm also mourning the addition of anchovies to the fish to avoid list (you can still buy them from sustainable sources though).

Ingredients

Serves 4
350g couscous
2tsp ground ginger
2tsp ground coriander
½tsp salt
350ml vegetable stock
1 head brocolli
75ml orange juice - about ½ large orange
zest 1 orange
4tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
½ red chilli, finely chopped
100g flaked almonds, toasted in a dry pan until golden
1 small red onion
250g smoked mackerel

• Toss the cous cous with the ground ginger, ground coriander and salt. Pour over the stock, cover and allow to steep.
• Cut the broccoli into small chunks, I did mine as small as possible but you might like it chunkier. Either steam or boil for a few mins until cooked but still with a little bite. To maintain the vibrant green of broccoli when boiling, mak sure its tipped into boiling water, not cold.
• Once the couscous has soaked up all the stock, fluff with a fork and add the garlic, chilli,red onion, orange juice and zest and olive oil.
• Once the broccoli is cooked, drain and add to the cous cous with the smoked mackerel, parsley and flaked almonds. Stir well and taste, you may need a little more orange juice or olive oil to lubricate, it should be zinging with flavour.
  
• Pile onto a plate to serve and top with some parsley, flaked almonds and extra orange zest.
  

Read more...

Mackerel with a Lentil and Yoghurt Salad

This is loosley based on a Jamie Oliverrecipe, he does pan-fried salmon with puy lentils dressed with garlic, lemon juice, oil and lots of herbs, some spinach stirred in and wilted; with yoghurt drizzled over the top. I've made this before and its delicious, I could eat a big bowl of the garlicky lentils all on their own, and I tend to put yoghurt on most things so its always a plus.

I had this recipe in mind when I took some mackerel out of the freezer for dinner. However, I decided to do a slightly different lentil salad that I came up with working at Piece of Plenty. This has a slight Arabian influence if you will, lentils dressed with garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, ground corinader and cumin, with lots of red onion, this is left to macerate, allowing the flavours to sink in. Its drizzled with yoghurt, and flecked with chopped parsley and pomegranate seeds to serve.

This is a perfect lunch all by itself, but it went particularly well with the mackerel, the freshness of the yoghurt, parsley and pomegranate really cut through the oiliness of the fish.

I used to make this with thin slices of red onion, but they can get a bit soggy if you leave it for a few days, so I think finely diced onions work better. If you're going to eat it all in one go, then the thin slices are good.

Serves 4

4 mackerels, filleted
150g puy lentils or lentilles vertes
1 lemon
3tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 bunch parsley, chopped
250g yoghurt
pomegranate seeds to serve

• Season the yoghurt, add the juice of ½ lemon, stir and leave until ready to eat.
  
• Cover the lentils with water in a pan, bring to the boil and boil rapidly for 5mins, then turn the heat to low and simmer for 20-30mins until soft, don't add salt to the water, otherwise they'll turn into hard little bullets.
  
• Drain, return to the pan and whilst still hot dress with the olive oil, the juice of the remaining ½ lemon, ground coriander, cumin, garlic and salt and pepper.
• Then, stir in the red onions.

(This can all be done in advance, just re-heat the lentils before serving. They are still exquisite eaten at room temperature also)

• Drizzle olive oil over the mackerel with some seasoning and rub into the flesh.
• Heat a pan until smoking hot, and fry the mackerel for 3mins on each side.
• To serve sprinkle the pomegranate seeds and chopped parsley over with a dollop of the yoghurt dressing and enjoy!

Read more...

Another Crab Spaghetti

This version is slightly different to the previous one as it has asian leanings, admittedly a bit strange with pasta, if you feel that weird about it, you could always have noodles...

The point is, this is a perfect way to eat crab, with chilli, garlic, coriander and lime. Add to that that this was lovely crab from a day boat in Dorset and you've true indulgence.

Ingredients

Serves 4

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 chilli, finely chopped
4-6 spring onions, finely chopped
1 bunch coriander, chopped
1 lime, zested
1 dressed crab
1 bunch parsley, chopped
250ml white wine
400g linguine

Cook the linguine in plenty of salted boiling water. Meanwhile, soften the spring onions, garlic, chilli and ½ the coriander in a little oil, add the brown crab meat and white wine and cook for about 10mins until the crab has melded with the wine into a thick sauce. Drain the pasta (reserving a mugful of the water) and add to the pan along with the white crab meat, the rest of the coriander, the parsley and a squeeze of lime juice. Stir to coat thoroughly and season. Add a little of the pasta water if necessary to loosen the sauce. Read more...

Big Mack Cakes

I've become mildly obsessed with reading other people's blogs (a list of my favourites to go up soon) and fantasising about 1. taking pictures as good as theirs and 2. being given my own book deal. I soon realised that I need to get a much flashier camera in order to take those kind of pictures, in the meantime, I'm getting increasingly frustrated with my own. So whilst I don't like this picture (bad lighting), I had to post it as these were the BEST THING EVER when we had them for tea last night.

These are not your run of the mill fishcakes. Firstly we used smoked mackerel, fast becoming my favourite omega 3/protein/fishy source, these add much more smoky flavour than the traditional smoked haddock and are obviously the sustainable choice. We also used organic potatoes from the veg box, I'm not always convinced that organic tastes better per se, but with potatoes you can really taste the difference, even against all these strong flavours. After a little research, I also decided to add some capers, chopped boiled egg and chives (mostly because we had them and no parsley). And there you have it, the ultimate fishcakes.

We just coated them in flour, but there's a nigella recipe where she coats them in flour, then egg, then crumbled ritz biscuits for crunchy coating. The joy with these is that you can then bake them in the oven. A bit labour intensive for me and the flour and fry method worked out just fine for us.

The other key component was a lemony creme fraiche sauce that we had alongside and worked really well. All I did was add some seasoning, lemon zest and the juice of ½ lemon to a pot of creme fraiche and set aside.

We had ours with salad, a particularly good one is pea, spinach and avocado or an astringent salad of baby gem lettuce, capers and chopped gherkin, both with a mustardy dressing.

Ingredients
250g smoked mackerel, flaked into large pieces
250g potatoes
2 free range eggs
50g butter
milk (for mashing)
2tbsp capers

Chop the potatoes and cook in plenty of boiling salted water until tender. Add the eggs to the pan for 8mins and remove. One the potatoes are cooked, drain and mash with the butter, adding a little milk to loosen if necessary. Peel and chop the boiled eggs and add to the mash along with the capers, ½ the lemon zest, chives and smoked mackerel. Stir together and taste, you may or may not want to add some lemon juice at this stage. Now divide the mixture into roughly 8 and shapes into cakes, roll in flour and set aside in the fridge for 30mins to firm up.

Meanwhile add the juice and zest of ½ lemon to the creme fraiche along with slat and pepper.

Heat some oil in a pan and fry the fish cakes on each side on a medium heat for 4-5 mins until warmed through and crispy on the outside.

Eat with salad and the creme fraiche sauce. Happy food dance optional. Read more...

Smoked Mackerel Kedgeree

I always entertained ideas of making kedgeree, it fits with my penchant for decadent brunches. In the end we ended up making this for dinner, but there was enough left for a suitably indulgent breakfast the next day. Using smoked mackerel slightly more sustainable take on the classic smoked haddock variety. I also thought it might be fun/nicer to have a fried egg on top instead of chopped boiled egg in the rice. I also added some broad beans from my veg box to up the vegetable content.

Ingredients

Serves 2

1 onion
50g butter
1 red chilli, finely chopped
2tsp curry powder
1tsp cumin seeds
1 mugful rice
2 mugfuls vegetable stock
2-3 fillets smoked mackerel
2 eggs
½ bunch parsley, chopped

Fry the onion in the butter and a little oil until soft, add the spices and chilli and fry for a few minutes more. Add the rice and stir to coat in all the aromatic juices. add the juices, bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 10mins until all the liquid is absorbed. Then turn off the heat and allow to stand for 5mins, fork through, add the smoked mackerel and parsley and season to taste. You could soft boil the eggs, poach them or fry to add to each plate. Read more...

Scallops with Lentils and Roasted Tomato

Mmmm, yes more decadent eating. This was a mesh of lots of recipes that I saw, mostly including bacon, so I adjusted them a little bit. In fact, the sweetness of the roasted tomatoes goes really sweet scallops. If you're not feeling so flash, I think this would go really well with haloumi instead.

Another method of roasting tomatoes that I'm considering trying too, is to preheat the oven to 170°C, prepare the tomatoes as below, put them in the oven, immediately turn it off and leave them overnight so they end up like those sunblush tomatoes you can get. you could make loads this way and then keep them in jar covered in oil until needed.

Serves 4

250g cheery tomatoes, halved
150g puy lentils
12 scallops
½ lemon
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp thyme (dried or fresh)
1 pinch brown sugar
100g rocket

Put the cherry tomatoes in a roasting tray with enough space to be slightly spread out. Add seasoning, a sprinkle of brown sugar, ½ the garlic, thyme and a drizzle of olive oil. Mix well and place in an oven at 150°C for 1hour.

Meanwhile cover the lentils in water, bring to the boil and boil rapidly for 10mins, now simmer for 35mins until soft. Drain and dress with plenty of seasoning, the garlic, olive oil and spritz of lemon juice.

To cook the scallops, season and drizzle with a little oil. Get a pan really hot and sear the scallops on either side for a few mins.

To assemble, add a large spoon of lentils to the plate, add a handful of roasted tomatoes and some rocket leaves, now place four scallops on top drizzle with oil and feel proud of yourself. Read more...

Crab and Chilli Linguine

I've been wanting to make this for ages, and last weekend we decided to indulge in a bit of yuppie food buying with the rest of the YPs on Lorsdship Lane...it was all local fishmongers and organic greengrocers. Anyway it was definitely worth it, this is absolutely delicious, some lemon, garlic and chili go really well with the crab and lots of parsley makes this a lovely fresh dish. A fennel and rocket salad goes perfectly with this.



serves 4

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
2 dressed crabs
125ml olive oil
1 lemon, juice and zest
500g linguine
1 bunch parsley, chopped

Mix the garlic, chilli, lemon juice and zest with the olive oil. Add the crab and some seasoning, mix well and set aside. Meanwhile cook the pasta in plenty of boiling water. Once cooked, mix well with the crab and add the parsley. Add more lmeon juice or seasoning as necessary. Read more...

Chai Spiced Prawns

I love my job, I got to cook this to include in the monthly newsletter I've been making for Hampstead Tea. The idea was to marinade prawns in Chai tea, and its actually really good, the chai tea really adds a deep and spicy flavour. Obviously you should only use Hampstead Biochai tea, it really is superior to anything else I've tried, but then again, I'm probably a bit biased.... Either way I ended up eating A LOT of this once I'd taken this picture!

Click here for the recipe Read more...

Mackerel and Beetroot Salad

Faced with the mountain of beetroot building up I made this salad. I love beetroot, it goes really well with sharp salty cheeses like feta or goats cheese, but the sweet, earthy beetroot goes surprisingly well with the oily mackerel. I was lucky in that I had all the lovely organic vegetables from my veg box, having said that this would still be pretty tasty with the pre-cooked beetroot you can get.

When handling beetroot, the thing to remember is to wash your hands and any utensils straight away otherwise they will stain.

Mackerel and Beetroot Salad

4 fillets mackerel
1tsp dried or fresh thyme
½ lemon
125g cherry tomatoes, quartered
2 handfuls spinach, sliced
2 medium sized beetroot
1 clove garlic, finely chopped

Boil the whole beetroot for 40-45mins until soft. Drain, allow to cool and cut into thin wedges. Season and drizzle with some olive oil and lemon juice. Drizzle the mackerel fillets with olive oil, season well and sprinkle over the dried thyme. Get a frying pan really hot, fry the mackerel for a couple of mins on each side, when cooked, remove and squeeze over some lemon juice. To assemble the salad, mix the vegetables and place the fish on top.

Read more...

Fish Pie

Loosely based on a recipe by Gordon Ramsey, this is seriously the best fish pie I've ever tasted. He makes it topped with puff pastry, but why miss a chance to use mashed potato? Use any combination of fish you like (see fish online), prawns or scallops would be a particularly decadent addition. some kind of salad with a mustardy dressing and maybe some capers goes well with this.

Fish Pie

Serves 6

1.5kg floury potatoes
100ml milk
50g butter
2 onions, finely chopped
250ml dry vermouth
375ml stock
½tsp english mustard
½ lemon, juiced
200g creme fraiche
400g trout fillet, cut into small pieces
600g white fish fillet (such as pollack, coley), cut into small pieces
1 samll bunch parsley chopped
handful basi leaves, shredded

Peel the potatoes and cook in boiling water until very soft. Mash the potatoes with the milk and butter and season well. Meanwhile, fry the onions in a little oil until softened. Add the vermouth and boil until reduced by half, add the stock and boil until reduced by half again. Add the creme fraiche, mustard and lemon juice, cook gently until thickened and season. Add the fish and herbs to the sauce, mix well and transfer to an ovenproof dish. Top with the mashed potato and cook at 180°C for 30mins until golden brown on top. Allow to stand for 5mins before serving.


Read more...

Smoky Baked Sardines and Potatoes

The inspiration for this came from this month's Observer Food Monthly, I'm not sure whether it was pleasant or not reading all those summer recipes in the rain, but they were delicious and I've cooked one already, so they must be good!

I set out to use mackerel, but the fishmonger only had sardines, so I thought I'd give them a go. Sardines are even higher on the sustainability scale than mackerel and another of your omega-3 rich oily fish.. (see Fish online). So, sardines in hand, I merged several recipes and came up with this fiery little dish, I have that amazing Spanish smoked paprika which added a lovely sweet depth and you can't go wrong with crsipy potatoes and slow cooked onions, a meal in itself. We had it with salad, but in retrospect this would probably also go really well with some good quality (homemade?) mayonnaise.

Smoky Baked Sardines and Potatoes

Ingredients
500g new potatoes, sliced into thick coins
3-4 sardine fillets, depending on the size
2 onions, sliced into rings
1tbsp paprika
olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch pasley, finely chopped
1tbsp white wine vinegar
½ lemon

Add the potatoes to a large roasting tray so that they're in one layer, drizzle over oil, sprinkle with salt and half the paprika. Roast in a hot oven for about 20mins until the potatoes are pretty much cooked through.

Meanwhile cook the onions sloowly in oil until very soft, add the rest of the paprika, garlic, vinegar and parsley along with a little extra oil and take off the heat. Lay the sardines over the potatoes, add the onion mixture and bake for a further 8-10mins until the fish is completely cooked through. When cooked, squeeze over a little lemon juice. Read more...

Fish Stew

I've only just started eating fish, I gave up after reading one too many depressing articles on over-fishing. I'm dipping my toe in the water again, as it were, as I realised I could eat fish every so often as a treat as long as it is well sourced. Rules that I work by are I don't buy tuna or cod, I avoid farmed fish, I try to buy fish caught in the UK and preferably line caught. Fish online have a fantastic website with a really useful guide on the fish to eat and the fish to avoid.

Preaching over, we made this stew as a bit of fishy treat. Its based on a wonderful recipe by Nigel Slater and is sort of a cheats bouillabaisse. The idea is to start by making a fragrant tomato broth, that I've actually eaten on its own as a sauce for pasta, then gently cook your fish in the liquor, sprinkle with parsley and enjoy. Its good to have a mixture of white meaty fish and mussels, clams and prawns. Buy whatever is sustainable and looks good, most combinations work well. Oh yes and serve with plenty of bread and butter to mop up the juices, we had Wholemeal soda bread.

Quick Fish Stew

Serves 4

Ingredients
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
6 anchovy cloves, sliced
2 red chillis, finely chopped
2 bay leaves
A couple strips of orange peel
2 bay leaves
1 glass white wine
2 cans chopped tomatoes
500ml vegetable stock
1.5kg assorted fish (plus some mussels or clams a handful per person)
1 bunch chopped parsley

Cook the anchovies, chilli and garlic slowly in a generous slug of olive oil until soft, add the bay and orange and cook for a few mins to release the aromatic orange oil. Add the white wine and let the alcohol bubble off for a few mins. Now add the chopped tomatoes. (If i were going to eat this sauce with pasta, I'd stop here and simmer for about 20mins and maybe throw in a few capers before serving). Add the stock and simmer for about 30mins until all the flavours have melded, carefully drop your fish in and simmer until the fish turns opaque, add the clams and mussels, cover and cook until they open. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Read more...