Prawn Fridge Buster

This is one of the yummiest things I've cooked in a while. I had frozen prawns in the freezer. Everything else was from my store or left overs.

I first tried Afghan rice with carrot and raisins years ago and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to use up the last carrot and get some extra vegetables. I am also a huge fan of Vietnamese food. This is an incredibly irreverent take on those influences!!!

This recipe makes enough for two.

For the rice

• one carrot, grated
• one cup of rice
• garlic glove, diced or crushed
• a fish stock cube

For the prawns

• olive oil
• quarter teaspoon dill
• quarter teaspoon chilli flakes
• quarter cup of grated/ creamed/ ground coconut
• two small onions, diced
• teaspoon dijon mustard/ rice wine vinegar
• 200g  prawns

Method

1. Put the rice, carrot, half the garlic and half the fish stock cube in a pan with enough water for the rice (about 2 cups of water) and cook until done
2. Whilst the rice is cooking saute the onions with the coconut, herbs, remaining garlic, and chili. When the onions are soft add the prawns, mustatd and remaining fish stock cube dissolved in half a cup of boiling water.
3. Once the prawns are cooked/ warmed through, serve hot!

This was crazily good reheated as egg fried rice with a couple of eggs beaten into it (I greedily ate most of the prawns in the first serving!)

Fishcakes, but not as we not them

Simple, quick, cheap and using my favourite freezer/ store cupboard ingredients- I haven't had much time for grocery shopping recently, so have been getting creative with my trusty old faithfuls- frozen spinach, sustainably caught frozen pollack, eggs and gram flour.

This took only minutes, most of which I spent catching up on emails and complying with various requests for information!

Serves two
1) defrost frozen pollack fillets and spinach in the microwave. Allow a maximum of 1 fillet per person and about 100-200g of frozen spinach each.
2) dice about 2 spring onions per person (or a small onion)
3) mash/ chop the defrosted fish and spinach into small pieces. Add the onion and spices to taste- I added a thumb sized piece of diced ginger, five spice, fresh black pepper and chilli flakes, but you could try fennel and garlic, or cumin, mustard seeds, turmeric and curry powder for a curried take.
4) Add half a cup of gram/ chick pea flour, slowly, stirring well. Continue adding until the water is absorbed and the mixture can be formed by hand into patties.
5) Pan fry 1cm/ 1/2 inch deep patties/ 7-10 cm diameter patties in a hot pan, until done (about 5 minutes each side).

n.b. you could also use left over fish of any sort in this recipe, and you could use less fish- just increase the amount of spinach and spring onion/ onion.

these are great cold so leftovers/ make extra for packed lunches.

make them smaller for an unusual canape or snack

Easy. Simple. Delicious

Pea Wees

My love affair with peas continues. I was looking for pea recipes online and they seem to be rather thin on the ground. There are lots of recipes and meals that include peas, but not so many where they take centre stage. Pea wees can be served with salad, as a canape, a delicious picnic food and would be wonderful with the pea puree.

Someone else seems to like peas! For your amusement:

Make them!

Makes 8 meatball sized pea wees.

One cup of peas
chili flakes to taste
1/3 cup chick pea/ gram flour
4 spring onions
couple of mint leaves
one shallot
black pepper
level teaspoon baking powder
oil for frying

1. Finely chop the spring onion and shallot and add the other ingredients.
2. Heat up your oil- a couple of centimetres
3. Add an eggcup full of water and stir well. BLITZ IT!
4. Form them into balls an inch or so diameter.
5. When the fat is hot, drop them in until they are brown and put them on kitchen roll

o

Pea Green Potatoes

The sun is suddenly shining in London and I felt like spring time. This salad is a culmination of two of my "nevers" no longer being true.

Frozen veg is a lifesaver. However, I hated peas as a child and my frozen green of choice has long been spinach. I bought peas recently which I used in my delicious lentil kedgeree, which I will post another day. I don't think I have ever bought them before.

Secondly, after a childhood of spuds, I rarely buy them either. My mum was always keen on new potatoes and this weekend I think I finally grew up. They may even rate with mash as my spud of choice!

I ate pea puree with chicken and new spuds yesterday, and have combined it today with the leftover cold spuds. It is such a glorious zingy vibrant green, and the taste of the peas with mint seems to be the English spring in a mouthful. As I said to a friend- it's so good it could almost be served as a diabetic ice cream!


To make:
Everyone goes on about fresh peas, but I used frozen petits pois, 2 cups
Cream cheese (I used a value variety)- two heaped tablespoonfuls
Mild olive oil
Pinch of salt.
Spring of mint


You will need a blender of some variety- I used a stick blender in a bowl.



Put your peas and cream cheese in a deep bowl. The more de-frosted your peas are the easier this will be, and the fewer peas will jump out of the bowl- a real possibility if you're not careful! Add tiny drizzles of oil if blending is difficult as this will help  it come into a smooth paste. Add mint to taste- mine ended up obviously but not overwhelmingly minty and I used 4 or 5 large mint leaves. Add the salt to taste. Blitz until you are happy with the texture (this is like hummus- you can have lumps or you can have it super-smooth).

My peas were semi-frozen when I made it, so it did end up ice-cream like and quite moreish, and melted delightfully on my hot new potatoes.

With my quartered tiny new spuds mixed into my tupperwear this was delicious.

Moreover, this can be used as a dip for crudites, a spread (much in the way of hummus)- delicious with a bit of ham or bacon, or on canapes.

Winter Nutmeg Chicken

I was reading about the spice trade recently in the brilliant "Nathaniel's Nutmeg" and cooking with these spices, once so prevalent, has been on my mind- I can't wait to find a way to use mace, cloves and cinnamon in savoury dishes.

I am also feeling very tired at the moment (too much gallivanting)- but not yet reduced to beans on toast, just to avoiding shopping and carrying shopping and everything that distracts me from the path home!

This dish used the contents of my fridge and freezer and turned out very tasty. I always keep spinach in the freezer- it is so versatile. The chicken was frozen (special offer frozen from fresh) and the other ingredients were from my store, except the cream, which was left over from an ice cream making obsession!

I used:
150ml double cream (could be replaced by single or milk)
Three chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
one cup gram flour
salt and pepper
heaped teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
one medium sized onion, diced
300g  frozen spinach (you could use more)
Olive oil

Heat the olive oil, add the spices.
Coat the chicken and onion well in the gram flour, which you have seasoned with LOTS of black pepper and the salt.
Stir in the pan. Add more gram flour as you stir, until the chicken is very well coated. This will make it delightfully tender.
When it is all browned, add the spinach and cream, turn down the heat and simmer.
Delicious : )

Baked Sweet Potato Falafels

This is another canape that I made at the weekend, and I have been asked for the recipe since : ) much healthier than usual falafels (which I love), I got it from 101 cookbooks. I hadn't cooked with ground coriander for a while and it brought back memories of a wonderful Greek fish recipe I came across a few years ago... another time : )

Read the full recipe here

Salmon, Beetroot and Orange Pate

I love making canapes- they can look beautiful and be a talking point at a party. This particular party at the weekend had a circus theme (we also watched the film "Butterfly Circus") and I wanted food that was colourful and witty.

One of the canapes I made was smoked salmon based- a lovely pink tinged pate  on a  bagel slice  topped with a piece of smoked  salmon and a dab of pistachio-green wasabi.

To make the pate:
240 g smoked salmon trimmings
one box cream cheese
one small beetroot + beetroot juice (you can also get a food colouring made entirely from concentrate beetroot juice)
zest of 1/8 orange (a tiny bit)
black pepper (freshly ground and to taste).

I marinaded the smoked salmon trimming overnight with the beetroot juice and the crushed beetroot, before blending it with all of the other ingredients. This would also be great without the wasabi but mixed with fresh dill and plenty of lemon zest.

To make the canape:
I cut multi seed bagels into 1/3 cm slices- this is more economic than crackers as, after all, it is just a mount for the yummy stuff! Slather the slice generously with pate, top with a piece of smoked salmon, half the size of the slice of bagel and add a dab of wasabi which will counteract the sweetness of the pate.

YUM YUM : )

Quick and tasty sausage penne

This is so simple- other than the sausages it used things in my store cupboard or that needed using up : )

This feeds four

I used:
400g Penne (any shaped pasta would be good)
6 normal sized sausages
2 onions
grated cheese
Fresh tomatos and/ or tinned tomatos (one or two tins)
pinch of sage
pinch of pimenton
1/4 chicken stock cube
two cloves garlic, crushed
Good handful of spinach or rocket
Glass of red wine.

To make:
Dice and saute the onion. Add the sage and pimenton. Chop the sausage into bite sized pieces (this meal should be able to be eaten with a fork) and brown with the onions.

Boil the water for the pasta.

When the sausage is browned, add any fresh, chopped tomatoes, the tinned tomatoes, garlic, red wine (I had a half bottle left over from another evening) and the stock cube. Obviously, you can use all fresh or all tinned tomatoes, the wine and stock cube are optional extras. If you are not using the stock cube, add some salt. If you don't have any wine, just add a glass of water. Stir in the spinach/ rocket.

Simmer until your sauce until nicely thickened and whilst your pasta is cooking (about ten minutes). Drain the pasta, mix into your sauce and serve immediately. Sprinkle cheese to taste!

Clonakilty Black Pudding & Spinach

Irish Black Pudding is something I discovered whilst in Cork and a favourite of mine. Just to note, this is not like Bury Black Pudding- it has an amazing texture (it's full of oats) and is incredibly flavoursome- no lumps of fat here!
Luckily, there is a shop near here that sells it. But how to eat it? As part of an Irish "fry" it is hardly healthy, and I would wonder if it is shown in all its glory.
 
Like this you reap the flavour, but there is no need for guilt : )
 
You need:
 
Onions (two medium for 280g black pudding)
Black Pudding
Baby spinach (as much as you like!)
Tomato (one finely chopped)
 
Saute the onions and chop the black pudding into bite sized pieces. When it is half cooked, add the spinach and tomato on top. When it starts to wilt, stir the mixture, until it is all cooked.
 
Serve with freshly baked bread, mashed potato or stirred into pasta

Red Pork Casserole

This casserole was a lifesaver! My eyes were bigger than my brain when I went into the supermarket after Christmas- I bought lots of pork on special offer, and lots of peppers. We had also had a party, and ended up with three bottles of red wine. For some reason, a glass full had gone from each, and there was a limit to how much wine we could reasonably drink during the week!

I used:
Pork- I used 6 loin chops (chicken would also work- 6 thighs)
Peppers (4- red and yellow)
Pimenton (smoke paprika)
Garlic (4 cloves)
Wine (I used 3/4 bottle)
one stock cube (chicken)
Two medium onions
Couple of bay leaves

Would also be great : )
Tomatoes (tinned or fresh, chopped)
Chick Peas
Potatoes

To make:
Saute onions and peppers with a generous heaped teaspoon of pimenton. Add pork when they are transparent, and brown. de-glaze pan with the wine. Add stock to cover everything. Add garlic. At this stage, you could also add chick peas and/ or potato, and any tomatoes. Adding chick peas would mean that you could feed more people with less meat!

To serve:

I've been eating this from a bowl- could with some fresh bread, or re-heated in the microwave with a generous handful of baby spinach which can be stirred in. It would also be great with rice.