ONE, TWO, THREE .... (FOUR, FIVE ONCE I CAUGHT A FISH....)

So yet again we are fighting the weather but I think we have finally seen the back of those awful chilly mornings and evenings and although there is a bit of a dearth of prolonged sunshine we are now getting some of the rain we needed too.  (that has been a hindrance in other respects!)    We are slowly beginning to plant in the hope that the crazy deer doesn't pop out of his hiding place and decimate everything as he has done on previous occasions!

I wrote these blogs a while ago but the timing hasn't been right to publish them so they are a little unseasonal ... there is however still some long stemmed broccoli  in the shops.  I also have a little stash of chillis I froze down at the end of last year and the chives are going great guns just outside the back door so I'm not quite breaking my rules of only blogging using produce we are currently harvesting but hopefully the recipes  might tempt you enough to pop them in a folder  for later.

  We are back to a bit of a health kick.    So consequently lots of fish recipes for you to enjoy.... if you don’t count the salty soy sauce in the first one! It showcases a meaty piece of tuna enhanced with chilli, lime and ginger infused noodles and  crunchy celery and pak choi. I used my less fiery chills rather than the cayennes this time so they didn’t make our eyes water and made us catch our breath less! 

I adapt this from a Waitrose recipe. 

.First make up some coriander butter.

.Add to a pan  and fry your tuna steaks to your liking ( the Aldi's frozen ones are very good value) adding a little soy sauce when you turn the fish.  Keep warm.

.Soak some rice noodles.

.Add some more soy sauce and the zest and juice of a lime to the pan and when it bubbles add 235g of pak choi, stalks sliced and leaves whole, two sliced celery stalks, a good handful of chopped chilli, some chopped ginger and some coriander.

.Cook for a couple of minutes till soft and coated in  the glaze .

.Toss with the noodles and a little more coriander and serve with the fish.

Unfortunately dipped into my birthday chocolate raisins after making this so slightly negated any healthy benefits!

                                 

The second one might be a meal my lovely nephew would  enjoy as one of my recipes using orzo has become one of his staples. It says to use cod  but I used haddock  as I sometimes feel cod falls apart and disintegrates during cooking.  

  

Chipotle and smoked paprika give the orzo its smokiness and  aromats dill and parsley  add a further depth of flavour.  Verdant long stemmed broccoli and peas introduce  colour and more veg and fibre into the dish.  

I didn't make the herby yoghurt as I didn't figure that it would necessarily enhance the dish any further.  It was absolutely delicious and I enjoyed it so much I cant wait to make it again, with cod next time I think though.  The picture definitely doesn't do it justice!

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/smoky-cod-broccoli-orzo-bake

Then completely different flavours again.  This time using up my courgettes and home made gloriously rich passata from the freezer.  You make a ratatouille base and then top salmon with Boursin and breadcrumbs and pine nuts.  Another one that comes highly recommended! ( Took dreadful pictures though so am just posting the one of the ratatouille!)

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/creamy-salmon-chunky-ratatouille

Last but not least herby pollock wrapped in bacon.  Another recipe all cooked in one pan which can only be a bonus from a washing up point of view:)  I used basa fillets instead as I knew it might be hard to source pollock and they seemed to work just as well and they are also pretty cheap and cheerful.

I can't find a link to this one so here is the recipe

.Heat oven to 160 degrees (fan)

 

.Lay 8-10 baby carrots and a thinly sliced leek on a baking tray .

.Drizzle with oil, cover with foil and bake for half an hour till just tender.

.Mix 75g of butter (I use Olivio) ,a squeeze of lemon juice and a handful of chives, oregano and sage.

.Spread over the fish and wrap into a spiral and wrap tightly in bacon. 

.Bake for 25 minutes.

.Boil enough new potatoes for two, crush and mix in chives, one tablespoon of creme fraiche and a knob of butter.

.Serve the fish on top of the potato and scatter the vegetables around.

I think lots of people find it hard to get inspired by fish but there are so many good recipes I'd say it's definitely worth adding some to your repertoire (might not be quite the right word there but think you'll get the gist!)

WINTER WARMERS

It's been hard to motivate myself to blog these past few weeks.  I've still been cooking and taking pics but like everyone I've just not been 'in the swing of things'.  However after a restorative session of yoga this afternoon I  now feel able to present you with a couple of ideas to provide sustenance, warmth and succour ... a basic need for most of us at the moment. 

The first  calls itself a broth, but overflowing with flavour from hot chillis, spicy chorizo and a good dose of coriander and just over four ounces of  orzo, my favourite little pasta of the moment, it can transform into  a meal in itself. The chillis  I'd tucked away in the freezer were a little hotter than I'd envisaged though so we got an extra hot flush and warmth we weren't expecting when we took our first few mouthfuls! And trust me the addition of al dente cabbage works a treat.  As you can see the recipe from  an old 'You' magazine uses spelt but I just decided to tweak it using items from my store cupboard.  Tinned tomatoes work just as well as fresh and the pasta still cooks perfectly if you halve the stock.  Just have a play like I did.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2417505/Food-Savoy-cabbage-spelt-sausage-soup.html

I'm always getting accused of not making chilli con carne enough by 'him indoors'. He still says the second recipe - the exotic sounding cornbread tamale pie,  from the kitchen of Diana Henry who writes so lyrically, (in essence a chilli with a cornbread topping)  didn't count.   However we both loved it and I can't wait to cook it again - a  bowl of  pure hearty comfort!  Mind you I'm sure he will still ask me for chilli every week!

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/cornbread-tamale-pie

A BIG HUG FROM ME :)

The current news is enough to drive anyone in search of sugary comfort food and the recipes suggested in this blog may help to ease that craving. 

 I rustled up one of my retro recipes at the weekend,  one of our favourite oaty crumbles, laced with grated cinnamon for an  autumnal feel.  From an an old Tesco microwave cookbook circa 1984 it calls itself an apple amber but I always throw in a large bag of frozen summer fruits instead and this time I  combined my tayberries with some blueberries. 

I never use the nuts or walnuts and the combination of oats and breadcrumbs is the tastiest.  I  don't cook in the microwave ... I just pop in the oven at 180 degrees for about half an hour.

  Great with good ice cream or hot custard it's one that wraps its arms around you and gives you a great big hug .... something we all need at the moment! 

A quick pannacotta with a sharp tayberry coulis can also do the trick! 

 

ALL VEGGED OUT

 

So many green veg in this fish recipe one can’t help but feel incredibly virtuous when you are consuming it!

Broccoli, spring onions, asparagus,  choi sum and mange tout from my freezer topped up with a hit of omega three from the sea bass -  even feasting your eyes on the nutrient laden combination gives you plenty of healthy vibes.

I used ordinary noodles but would recommend sticking with the rice noodles as the recipe suggests and just turning up the heat a little more by adding a touch more wasabi.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sticky-soy-sea-bass-greens-traybake

 

NAUGHTY BUT NICE!

 

Naughty but incredibly nice, this Waitrose recipe is a good way to use up some of the berries in the freezer. Ripple the berries through a mascarpone cream sweetened with honey, add crushed digestive biscuits and you have a perfect late summer sweet treat :)

 

 

And as an extra a little  bit of a quiz thrown in for you.  Name  the well known comedienne who starred in the eighties adverts for cream cakes and coined the phrase in my blog title today?  No prizes I'm afraid just a good old bit of reminiscence!

TRULY SCRUMPTIOUS

 

Another nod to the old films ... and this time the heiress in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang who captured the heart of the inventor Caractacus Potts! ( who remembers Toot Sweets?!) Sorry I digress,   back to the job in hand! 

 

 So these muffins were' truly scrumptious' indeed! Sweet muffins are not something I’d normally put on the list of things I enjoy ... savoury with soup, yes I agree they work well but I’ve always found their opposite number a bit underwhelming and tasteless.  However by adding the tart sharpness of tangy blackcurrants it’s a different story.  Adding yoghurt to the mix as well as marg takes away the dryness you might usually associate with a muffin - the rosy pink  batter looked beautiful swirled with the fruit. 

 

Good  just on their own to munch or great warmed as a pud as well! And they got the seal of approval from my little grandson too! 

 

 Grateful thanks to my fellow allotmenteer for giving me an overflowing box of blackcurrants in exchange for a marrow :)

 

The recipe is from the September issue of Kitchen Garden but I can't  find a link so here it is ...

 

 

 

 

MAKE IT NOW!

I have a long spiel of a blog about everything I’ve been growing this season not quite finished but in the meantime I just have to share this! 

If there’s one thing you must do before the summer ends get out there and buy yourself a marrow or see if I’ve got one spare and make this tasty dish!

  Salty feta, crunchy pine nuts, onion and my all-time favourite spicy chorizo, paired with  red peppers adding depth and richness,  turn a humble vegetable into something really special.

 As usual I gave things a few tweaks I used diced chorizo instead of sliced as it needed using up and the whole 200 gram pack instead of 150.  I added about 185 grams of feta and just a sprinkling of breadcrumbs and a few less pine nuts as that was all that was left in the bag.  However I was was heavy handed with the frozen coriander as it’s one of our favourite aromatics. 

We scraped all the filling onto just two of the pieces of marrow and froze the others to fill another time.  Mind you I was stuffed to the brim by the time I’d finished eating so maybe I was a little greedy so might tweak again in different ways another time.  (I’m sure the stuffing would work beautifully in courgettes too:) ) I’ve another marrow recipe to try using minced pork ... will let you know if it’s equally delicious . I seem to be acquiring quite a few now  ..... probably just as well as there are five more currently growing and plenty of flowers heralding the possibility of a record harvest this year! 

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/aug/10/stuffed-marrow