Stuffed Sardines with Red Pepper Stew

Yet another simple but incredibly tasty fish recipe from me. I am often drawn to vegan cooking and love to cook with vegetables, whole grains etc however I just can't keep away from fish. Nutritious, versatile and delicious, fish is our common ground between my vegetarian preferences and the boy's full on carnivore cravings. The original recipe was taken from this month's Observer Food Monthly and is an Angela Hartnett Italian creation.

Stuffed Sardines with Red Pepper Stew

Sardine fillets - 4 per person

2 sweet romero peppers

garlic cloves

olive oil

thyme

water

fresh basil

flat leaf parsley

anchovies

bread crumbs

zest of 1 lemon

Slice the romero peppers lengthways and thinly. Saute them in olive oil with 2 garlic cloves. Once starting to cook, add water and thyme and simmer until soft, but not brown.

Meanwhile, mix 4 anchovies, 1 garlic clove, 2 tbsp breadcrumbs, the lemon zest and a good handful of flat leaf parsley in a food processor or with a hand blender. Stuff the sardine fillets with the mixture and bake in a lightly greased dish for 10 minutes or until cooked through. Serve atop the red pepper stew.

Smoked Trout, Beetroot and Horseradish Salad

Another very simple yet flavoursome fish recipe, this was ideal for tonight's hot and sticky temperatures. This was partly a combination of a Daily Green recipe and a UKTV Food recipe made using some beautiful smoked trout purchased at the weekend in the new Chegworth Valley farm shop on Kensington Church Street. There is just something about beetroot and horseradish which make them one of my favourite flavour pairings. Beetroot also works well with wasabi.

Smoked Trout, Beetroot and Horseradish Salad

2 beetroot (slow roasted in tin foil for an hour or more until soft)

2 smoked trout fillets

handful salad leaves

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tbsp horseradish sauce

garlic clove

1 heaped tbsp goat's milk yoghurt

Slice the whole roast beetroot and put two thick slices in to blend along with a garlic clove, the goat's milk yoghurt, the olive oil, the white wine vinegar and the horseradish sauce. Blend until smooth and creamy, using a hand blender.

Scatter a good handful of salad leaves on a plate, top with the remaining slices of beetroot and some chunks of smoked trout before decorating with dollops of the hot pink beetroot dressing.

Sumac Salmon

I bought some sumac in The Spice Shop, which just happens to be across the road from our flat. I originally bought it for an Ottolenghi recipe but was curious to find some more ways to use it. A brief internet search sourced this simple find - there is something immensely satisfying about recipes which use very few ingredients yet whose flavours are intense and strong. I am constantly looking for new and exciting ways to cook fish, so this one pleased me on a number of fronts. I found the original recipe here:

Sumac Salmon

2 salmon fillets

sumac

balsamic vinegar

lemon juice

Rinse salmon fillets and pat dry. Put in a dish and dust liberally with sumac, probably around 1/2 teaspoon per fillet. Top with a good glug of balsamic vinegar and leave in the fridge to marinate for at least 30 mins to 1 hour.

Once marinated, steam in bamboo steamers wrapped in greaseproof paper for 10 minutes or until cooked through.

Serve with steamed vegetables. Once plated, drizzle freshly squeezed lemon juice on top and season with salt and pepper.

Smoked Paprika Baked Mackerel

This is possibly my favourite way to cook mackerel ever. Not only is smoked paprika another 'it' ingredient, but the recipe is simple, flavourful and healthy. See here for Nigel Slater's original recipe.

Smoked Paprika Backed Mackerel
2 mackerel fillets
1 red onion
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons organic wholewheat breadcrumbs
olive oil
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
handful of flatleaf parsley

Thinly slice the red onion into rings and fry in the olive oil for around ten minutes or until translucent. Add the peeled crushed garlic, breadcrumbs, chopped parsley and smoked paprika and fry around 5 minutes more. You will also need to add more olive oil as the breadcrumbs really soak it up.

Spoon the mixture over the rinsed and patted dry mackerel fillets and bake in a preheated oven for around 20 minutes or until the fish is cooked through. Serve with lemon wedges and drizzle them over the fish before serving.

Roast Cod with Muhummra Sauce

The idea behind this recipe came from the second Moro cookbook, I made a big batch of the sauce and will keep the rest in the fridge for a great standby meal. I think it would also work well with chicken. Pomegranate molasses is another 'it' ingredient for me and I got a lovely bottle recently at Whole Foods from The Equitable Gourmet. The original recipe calls for 'acili biber', a sort of spicy red pepper equivalent of tomato paste. I couldn't find this in my local Lebanese shop and the only near thing I could find was full of preservatives, salt and other rubbish things so I decided to improvise.

Roast Cod with Muhummra Sauce
2 cod fillets
1 roasted red pepper
2 roasted red chili peppers
olive oil
handful of walnuts
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp chili flakes
1/2 tsp allspice
3-4 tbsps water
salt and pepper to taste

Puree all of the sauce ingredients using a hand blender, adding more or less water until you have the right consistency. You are aiming for a feel similar to pesto. Spoon liberally over the fish fillets and marinate for 1-2 hours. Roast the fish in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through. Serve on a bed of baby salad leaves with handfuls of sliced cherry tomatoes, olives, walnuts and dressed with a splash of pomegranate molasses.

Spice Blackened Halibut with Daikon and Pea Puree

Along with preserved lemons, I have had a bit of a fetish about cooking with daikon for a while now. Also referred to as Chinese radish or mooli, the long white and fairly scary vegetable has been on my wishlist at the market for a while. We do love to eat fish regularly and I particularly liked this spice rub as it features another "it" ingredient, cayenne pepper. The original recipe is here.

Spice Blackened Halibut
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cumin
2 halibut fillets

Mix the spices together on a plate and coat the fish on either side. Place on a very hot frying pan (it will make your entire house smoky so be prepared) and fry each side for 3 minutes until blackened but not totally burnt. Place the fish in an oven proof dish and finish off in the oven, being careful not to overcook.

Daikon and Pea Puree
1 cup of peas (fresh or frozen)
1 daikon radish julienned
1 handful of alfalfa sprouts
olive oil

Boil the peas in water for 3-4 minutes. Drain, refresh and place in a mixing bowl. Puree with the hand blender and add olive oil. If the mixture is too thick, you can add a splash of water.

Fry the julienned daikon strips for 3-4 minutes in olive oil until starting to brown.

Place the pea puree in the centre of the plate, top with a pile of daikon and then the fish fillets themselves. Place a small handful of alfalfa sprouts on top for garnish. Season with a grind of black pepper.

Spring Salad

It's always such a joy to cook with spring ingredients when they start to make a re-appearance after the hungry gap. All that green just seems so fresh and healthy after the more stodgy winter veg. I was inspired to create this salad partly by 101 Cookbooks and also partly by the Daylesford Organic cooking class which I attended as part of the Edible Window Box evening seminar at Clifton Nurseries recently. We had the fabulous Anjana and Nic over for dinner and I decided to serve something very simple which would suit the hot weather.

Spring Salad

Mixed baby salad leaves

1 head of red chicory

purple radish sprouts

spring onions

broad beans

French beans

asparagus

quails eggs

Jersey Royal new potatoes

fennel

olive oil

white balsamic vinegar

juice of half a lemon

Pre-heat the oven. Scrub the new potatoes but do not peel them. Place them in boiling water and cook for around 10 mins until they are partially cooked but not completely. Place them in the oven with a generous splash of olive oil and roast for 30 mins or until becoming brown and crispy on the outside.

Thinly slice the fennel and marinate for a while in some of the white balsamic vinegar to soften.

Poach the quails eggs in boiling water for a couple of minutes until done. Boil the shelled broad beans, whilst these are cooking in boiling water, steam the asparagus and French beans in bamboo steamers on top of the saucepan for a couple of minutes. When both are steamed to al dente, remove from the steamers and run under cold water to stop the cooking process. When the broad beans are cooked, remove the rough outer casing leaving only the bright green bean inside.

Prepare the salad by placing the mixed salad leaves, chicory, radish sprouts and spring onions in a bowl. Mix well and scatter the cooked new potatoes, fennel, beans and asparagus on top. Place the poached quails eggs on top of this and serve dressed in a simple vinaigrette of olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, lemon juice and black pepper.

I served this with a simple cod fillet in a pumpkin seed crust. This recipe is a great way to do cod and was taken from my Abel & Cole cookbook - mix a handful of pumpkin seeds, some wholegrain breadcrumbs and some lemon zest in your food processor or dry mill. Add some finely chopped flat leaf parsley and pulse some more. Add a tiny splash of olive oil until the mixture 'catches' but is not too soggy and then spread evenly over cod fillets. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Moroccan Stuffed Tomatoes

Another recipe using one of my current 'obsession' ingredients, preserved lemons. I took the original recipe from Epicurious which is an absolutely fantastic resource.

Moroccan Stuffed Tomatoes
2 large beef tomatoes
2 white fish fillets
preserved lemons
coriander
olives
juice of one lemon

Place the fish fillets in an oven proof dish, spray with olive oil and baked for 10-15 mins or until cooked through. Flake the fish fillets, mix in a bowl with chopped preserved lemons, chopped pitted black olives, chopped fresh coriander and the lemon juice.

Cut the top off the tomato and scrape out the seeds carefully, taking care not to cut the skin. Once the tomatoes are hollow, stuff with the fish mixture. I served mine with kamut couscous on a bed of baby spinach leaves. This is a simple but tasty lunch.

Mackerel and Horseradish Fishcakes

I took this recipe straight from Hippolyra at Fuss Free Flavours. I love the idea of fishcakes which don't include the usual potatoes, egg, breadcrumbs etc. There is a certain simplicity in a recipe which has only 5 ingredients which is very appealing. However the lack of a complex ingredients list in no way undermines the bursts of flavour these fishcakes deliver.

Mackerel and Horseradish Fishcakes

1 tin chickpeas

1 packet of smoked mackerel

1 tablespoon capers

juice and rind of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons horseradish

Drain and rinse the chickpeas and place in the blender or foodprocessor. I used my hand blender and added about 3/4 of the juice of one lemon. You definitely do not want to add too much liquid as it will make it too moist for keeping the fishcakes together when frying. Once the chickpeas are mashed, add the capers, flaked smoked mackerel, lemon rind and horseradish.

Form into patties and fry for around 3-4 minutes on each side or until lightly browned. I served mine on a bed of baby spinach and watercress salad. Some chunky herbed sweet potato wedges would also accompany it well.

Prawn and Pomelo Salad

We seem to be eating a lot of prawns at the moment, but I do absolutely adore their versatile goodness. Pomelos are often hard to come by (unless you are willing to pay the inflated prices of speciality Thai supermarkets) so when we saw them on offer in Portobello, we leapt at the chance to recreate one of our favourite salads. This is another Asian salad, popular in Thailand where it is known as yam som-o, whose alternately sweet and sharp flavours intermingle to create a light touch which is refreshing on the palate. The original recipe is here. Mark got white rice noodles with his to bulk it up a little.

Prawn and Pomelo Salad

1 packet of cooked prawns

1 head of chicory

1 handful spinach leaves

1 pomelo

juice of one lime

garlic flakes

1 red chili

fresh coriander and mint

Firstly, peel the pomelo. Removing the tough outer rind can be hard work as it is often a centimetre or two thick. Once done, you are then left with the fruit which still has a thinner pith on it like an orange. The easiest way in my mind to get to the actual juicy flesh is to take a sharp knife and literally cut the top and bottom off and then slice as thinly as possible the flesh from all around the sides of the pomelo. It should then be easy to separate each segment and peel the flesh away from the two sides of its casing. I then like to flake mine, rather than leaving it in segments.

Place the pomelo in a bowl with the chicory leaves and the spinach or rocket leaves. Mix the cooked prawns on top. Scatter freshly chopped mint and coriander leaves and garlic flakes (pre-fried garlic available from Asian supermarkets). De-seed the red chili and finely chop it. Mix it in and add the lime juice and a splash of oil such as cold pressed sesame oil.

Steamed Haddock on a bed of samphire and sweet potato mash

Having spotted some samphire at the wonderful Golborne Fisheries shop, I'd been keen on cooking with it. It is so unusual yet so flavourful that you really don't need a fancy dish to accompany it. Instead, I kept the fish simple and steamed it in lemon and black pepper, letting the flavours of this sea vegetable do all the talking.

Steamed haddock on a bed of samphire and sweet potato mash

2 haddock fillets

1-2 sweet potatoes

lemon juice

black pepper

olive oil

handful of samphire

Peel and chop the sweet potato and boil it in water for around 15 minutes or until soft. Whilst the potatoes are cooking, place the bamboo steamers over the pan of boiling water. Wrap the haddock in baking parchment with a splash of freshly squeezed lemon juice and a twist of black pepper. Steam for around 10 minutes. Rinse the samphire and steam for around 5-8 minutes. You don't want them too soft. When the potatoes are cooked, mash with a little olive oil for flavour, then place on a plate, pile the samphire on top, add a little more lemon juice and black pepper to the samphire for extra flavour and sit the steamed fish fillet on top.

Prawn and Avocado Salad with a Spicy Mango Salsa

Bizarrely enough, I found this recipe on the side of the box from a newly purchased bottle of Tabasco. It sounded pretty good so I gave it a whirl in the hand blender of course. It had a real kick to it but we both thought it was very tasty.

Prawn and Avocado Salad

1 packet cooked and peeled king prawns

1 avocado peeled and sliced

Handful of sliced cherry tomatoes

Handful of alfalfa sprouts

Handful of baby spinach leaves

Handful of pumpkin seeds

Spicy Mango Salsa

Half a mango peeled and chopped

A half inch or so of ginger peeled and chopped

Two tablespoons of brown rice vinegar

Freshly squeezed juice of half an orange

A splash of water for a runnier consistency

1 peeled clove of garlic

1 teaspoon yellow curry powder

1 tablespoon of Tabasco hot sauce

Mix all the salsa ingredients together in the hand blender and whizz until creamy. Pour over the salad ingredients and enjoy the Caribbean flavours!

Sesame Crusted Tuna in a Tamari-Wasabi Marinade

On our usual tour of the market this weekend, we walked up to Golborne Fisheries on Golborne Road. This is a true gem of a fish shop with a fanatastic selection. Apparently they stock some of the big department store foodhalls as well, so the quality is excellent. We bought two beautiful thick slices of tuna and paired it with steamed fresh vegetables which were of course also bought from the market that day. Mark had his with King Soba 100% buckwheat noodles to complete the Japanese feel. Tuna is not a fish we eat regularly (for environmental as well as health eg mercury level reasons) but decided to treat ourselves and it was truly a delicious meal.

Sesame Crusted Tuna in a Tamari-Wasabi Marinade

Two tuna steaks
One tablespoon of sesame oil
One teaspoon of powdered wasabi
Two tablespoons of tamari
Handful of mixed black and unhulled cream sesame seeds

Mix the sesame oil, powdered wasabi and tamari together in a glass and pour over the tuna in a shallow dish, making sure that the tuna steaks are well covered in the marinade on both sides. Leave to marinate in the fridge for 1 to 2 hours. Heat a griddle pan on the hob with a spray of olive oil until hot, then sear the tuna for 2 minutes each side, leaving the middle pinkish.

Coriander and Cashew Nut Pesto

I wanted to try making an Asian style pesto sauce - thought it would be great over salads. It also turned out to be raw, but this wasn't really deliberate.

Coriander and Cashew Nut Pesto

One bunch coriander

Two tablespoons cashew nut butter

Small knob of peeled ginger

One garlic clove

One tablespoon of sesame oil

One deseeded red chili

Juice of one lime

One stalk lemongrass chopped

I put all of the ingredients in a my handheld food blender and whizzed it up. If the consistency is too thick, just add a little water until it reaches the right consistency for pouring.

Here, I have served it in a salad of steamed cabbage, steamed broccoli, bean sprouts, sliced mushrooms and prawns.

Tamarind Coconut Prawns with Steamed Cabbage and Shiitake Mushrooms

After having spent so many years living and working in Asia, I do have a strong tendency to cook Asian inspired food. The prawn recipe was one the lovely and heavily pregnant Kim cooked for us when we went back to Vietnam in January and it remained one of Mark's best meals in a trip full of amazing meals. She didn't give me the recipe but I kind of made it up and it tasted fine.

Tamarind Coconut Prawns

1 packet cooked peeled tiger prawns

tablespoon of freshly grated ginger

2 cloves garlic crushed

1 red chili

teaspoon of tamarind paste

half block of coconut cream in a cup of water

coconut oil

I like to cook with coconut oil as it is one of the most stable oils you can cook with, as well as being a more nutritious option. It is quite high in fat however so I only use a dessert spoon's worth.

Melt the coconut oil in a frying pan, fry the ginger, garlic and chopped fresh chili. Add the coconut cream or coconut milk. Stir in the tamarind paste. Bring the liquid to the boil and lower the heat, so that the liquid simmers and reduces in consistency. Simmer for 15 mins or so or until the liquid is creamy and full of flavour. Add the prawns in at the last minute just to heat through and serve.

I served this with another Asian style cabbage dish which I was inspired to create after reading this post which I found via the absolutely wonderful and inspirational Tastespotting.

Steamed Cabbage with Shiitake Mushrooms

Half white cabbage

Handful of dried shiitake mushrooms

Sliced red chili

Thinly sliced spring onion

Fried garlic flakes

I simply sliced a half white cabbage in my bamboo steamers and steamed it for about 3-5 mins. I soaked some dried shiitake mushrooms in a cup of hot water for 5 mins, thinly sliced them then combined them with the cabbage in a saucepan along with some more fresh chopped chili, spring onion and a sprinkle of Thai style fried garlic flakes (my new favourite authentic Asian ingredient - although clearly covered in bad oils!). I stirred it all through and served alongside the prawns for a tasty accompaniment.