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...

Blackberry and Limoncello Trifle

Oh my god. This is seriously my favourite dessert in the whole world. I cannot begin to describe the joy of eating this. My friend Jamie gave me a bottle of limoncello, a key ingredient in this recipe a few weeks ago and since then I've been dreaming of this trifle.

This is of course, based on a Nigella recipe and naturally Jamie introduced me to it, but now I can't remember who decided to change the trifle sponges for brioche, but either way, this only adds to amazingness.

This time I also decided to change the recipe further and use half double cream, half mascarpone. The only real disadvantage with this recipe is that the ingredients are pretty pricey. Seen as though I bought most of the ingredients in Waitrose, I couldn't bring myself to spend all that money on mascarpone. Plus, I think the double cream adds a lightness to the rich intense mascarpone.

As with most Nigella recipes, this makes a loooot, but it actually improves with age, so I wouldn't worry about making the whole batch, the leftovers can often be the best part. the picture is of an individual trifle that i made, mostly because I found these dinky dessert glasses. Otherwise I've been dreaming of this trifle dish

Ingredients

1 loaf brioche
200g blackcurrant jam
750g blackberries
1 200g packet amaretti biscuits, blended to a rubble
250ml limoncello
juice ½ lemon
100g sugar
2 x 250g mascarpone
½ pint double cream

Using half the jam, make sandwiches with the brioche, cut in half and squish into the bottom of your trifle dish. Sprinkle over half the amaretti biscuits and drizzle over 150ml of the limoncello.

Add the lemon juice, remaining jam and blackberries to a pan, simmer gently until for a minute or so until the juices start running. Now pour this over the liquer drenched brioche.

Whisk the double cream until its in stiff peaks and set aside. Now whisk the mascarpone with the sugar until smooth, slowly whisk in the remaining 100ml limoncello, then fold in the double cream. Dollop this delightful mixture on top of the berries. Now cover with clingfilm and allow to chill for at least 4 hours or overnight so that the flavours can mingle. Take the dish out of the fridge about 30mins before you want to eat and sprinkle over the remaining amaretti biscuits.

Try not to eat it all 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...

Custard Tarts

So I finally got round to recreating the amazing custard tarts I had a few weeks ago, having spent the interim time thinking about them a lot. Turns out they're pretty easy to make especially if you buy the pastry. Using cornflour in the custard, not only thickens the custard but stabilises the mixture so its much less likely to split. I baked these in a cupcake tray and then transferred them to the paper cases afterwards mostly because they looked pretty...

These are pretty standard portugese tarts, in looking for a recipe, the flavourings varied a little, I went for vanilla and nutmeg but some use orange zest and cinnamon which I wasn't so convinced about.

Ingredients

Makes 16 tarts

3 egg yolks
115g caster sugar
2 tbsp cornflour
250ml single cream
150ml milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch grated nutmeg
300g puff pastry

Whisk the egg yolks, cornflour and sugar in a pan until smooth, slowly add the milk and cream. Heat over a low heat, stirring fairly continuously until the mixture has come to the boil and thickened. Take off the heat and stir in the vanilla and nutmeg. Cover with clingfilm, making sure the clingfilm touches the surface of the custard to prevent a skin forming and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile roll the puff pastry out to a rectangle about 1cm thick, roll up along the short side into a sausage and cut into 16 1cm rounds. Take each round and roll out flat to about 10cm diameter. Press the pastry rounds into the cupcake tin. Spoon the cooled custard into the pastry cases and grate a little nutmeg on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the pastry and custard are golden. Read more...