My first two meals at the new digs (recipes included)

I'm still too embarrassed to show you pics of my new kitchen, cluttered as it is. You'll have to wait for those. But I will divulge my first two Clapton creations in the meantime, and perhaps you can look forward to a kitchen pic at the end of the weekend. Perhaps.

Things didn't quite go as I'd planned them for dinner, but close. As I said in my last post, I was planning a herby pea soup for dinner one night and salmon w/ Ottolenghi's asparagus and salsa (sans crumbly cheese) for the other.

That might have gone to plan, but a mixture of forgetfulness and Tesco let me down. First, I left frozen peas off my shopping list - KINDA important for pea soup. Second, no English asparagus to be had in the horrors of Hackney Central's Tesco, despite its bang-on seasonality at the moment.

It's okay, don't worry, I regrouped. For Monday, I went with green bean soup with parsley, mint, dill and basil, using green beans out of the freezer, with some rather yummy freshly-baked (but not by me) cheese rolls.

Here's that recipe:

Green bean soup with herbs
(serves 2)

400 g frozen green beans
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large handful of parsley, chopped
1 small handful of mint, chopped
1 small handful of dill, chopped
5-10 basil leaves, chopped OR a spoonful of pesto
1 tbsp bouillon powder + 1.5 litres of freshly boiled water
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in the pot, and add the green beans and garlic. Saute for about 6-8 minutes. Add the bouillon/water, bring to the boil, then allow to simmer for about 15 minutes.

Add half the chopped herbs before blitzing with a hand blender. Then stir through the other half of the herbs before serving. I put a dollop of low-fat Greek yogurt on top and served with those cheese rolls.

It was really yummy and no doubt less than 250 cals (minus the cheese rolls). Very filling too.

Moving on. Lack of asparagus threw a spanner in the works for my idea of baked salmon with Ottolenghi's asparagus and salsa recipe. I still had all the ingredients for the salsa, though, so decided instead to have baked salmon with tomato-mint-dill-cucumber-onion relish (salsa, though technically correct, is misleading here) and yogurt, served with boiled baby new potatoes and a baby gem salad. It was damn tasty too.

Here's that recipe:

Salmon with tomato-dill-onion-cucumber-mint relish and yogurt, served with potatoes and salad
(serves 2)

2 fillets of skinless salmon (140 g each)
1 tsp olive oil to coat

4 medium tomatoes, chopped well
75 g cucumber, chopped fine (about an 1 inch portion)
1/2 medium red onion, chopped fine
2 tsp red wine vinegar
small handful of parsley, chopped fine
3 sprigs of dill, chopped fine
3 sprigs of mint, chopped fine
salt and pepper

2 tbsp low-fat Greek yogurt (optional)

400 g baby new potatoes
1/2 head of baby gem lettuce or round lettuce

Bake the salmon in a preheated oven for 25 minutes. While that's cooking, prep the relish - keep everything as finely chopped as possible. When the salmon's done, spoon a generous portion on one side, and drizzle the yogurt over. Serve with freshly boiled new potatoes and a handful of baby gem lettuce on the side (the generous amount of relish will go well with the lettuce).

This was again really easy to make (done in under 30 minutes) and very tasty. Don't know the cals on it, but you could easily cut them down by swapping the potatoes for asparagus, if you're lucky enough to have a bleeping grocery store that stocks seasonal produce. (Grrr.)

I'd recommend both to a friend, and will happily make it again (especially that salsa, which reminded me of my favourite dish in the world, tabbouleh). I was a little worried about how the dill would go down (especially two nights in a row, considering that Pete's often not crazy about my liberal use of the herb), but he was very happy with both - I think the other herbs tone it down, especially in the salmon recipe, where the red onion all but knocks it out.

Moving food

No, not food that gets you exercising... I'm talking about food that you eat when you're moving house. This past weekend we moved about a mile up the road from London Fields to Clapton. My diet consisted of pastries and (decaf) coffee from a local deli, packaged sarnies and fish and chips from the pub. And although I'm as yet unpacked and will be for at least the next few days, I vow to do a bit better than that.

First stop - sort out an online delivery. Ocado's been tempting me with 20% vouchers for the past few weeks, so I've taken them up on their offer and have a delivery arranged for Thursday. I stuck mostly to ordering meat, fish, dairy and frozen stuff and plan on packing the freezer VERY full and doing the fruit and vegetable shopping more locally.

Second stop - figuring out what to eat until Thursday night. I'm in the mood for light springtime food, even though in May it still feels a bit like March. Asparagus would be good, and I really like the sound of Ottolenghi's recent recipe for asparagus with salsa and cheese . The addition of mint and dill to that salsa sounds TO. DIE. FOR.

For tonight (Tuesday), I'm thinking a soup - perhaps a nice light pea soup with the mint and dill I was just drooling over. With ridiculously hearty portions, of course.

And tomorrow night (Wednesday), I need something full of asparagusto - perhaps I will try out that recipe. (I will have the mint and the dill already). Though I'm not quite in the mood for cheese, so will probably drop the cheese and serve with salmon - with perhaps a drizzle of yogurt to make up for the lost cheese.

And I'll eat it all in my garden.

Experimenting with Moroccan fish and vegetable stew

Awhile ago a recipe posted by @foodista caught my eye on Twitter - twas a recipe for African vegetarian stew. Just the sound of the title enticed me - a quick look of ingredients revealed a tasty sounding stew filled with root vegetables like kohlrabi and sweet potatoes as well as chickpeas, tomato and lots of lovely north African spices.

Two things were missing for me: first, harissa, potentially the single-best condiment ever put on this Earth. It's fab as a marinade, in a sauce, or as a dip. (I like it on oat biscuits too with a bit of cheddar.) It's spicy, but deeply spicy, and just the thing in North African cooking. Secondly, I fancied a bit more protein, in the form of some haddock.

But you know what it's like - one tweak begets another.  Out goes the kolhrabi, in comes the swede. Out goes the couscous, in comes the pearl barley. Out goes the raisins, in come the figs. But all in all, I think I've kept the same essence of the dish, just made it a bit more accessible (and tasty, I like to think...)

And on the upside, it's really healthy (very low fat, as no oil was needed), super quick to make (bung in all in a pot and let it simmer), and most importantly, quite filling indeed. The recipe below makes four sizable servings - we had two of them last night and will have two more tonight. Just the thing for a crisp autumn evening.

Moroccan fish and vegetable stew

(serves 4)

1 small swede, peeled and diced
1 large onion, diced
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 courgette, sliced thickly
1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 tin tomato puree
1 tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
100 g pearl barley, rinsed (or bulgur wheat or couscous, if you prefer)

50 g dried figs (or raisins, if you prefer)
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
2 tbsp cumin
3 tins water

salt/pepper
200 g white fish (haddock works well)

2 tbsp harissa

freshly chopped coriander

I shall keep this simple: all you do is chuck everything except the fish/harissa into a pot, bring to a boil, and simmer for 45 min. Meanwhile, cut the fish into chunks and marinate with the harissa. About 5 min before serving, drop the fish and the freshly chopped coriander in and allow it to poach.

Calories per serving: 366. That is proper good value for money for such a tasty, filling dish. I was worried the figs might put my husband off, but he loved them. It's a good thing too, since we're eating it again tonight...

Smackerel fishcakes, a great recipe for summer

Is smoked mackerel an acquired taste? I suppose it is – it’s such a strong flavour, a wonderful flavour in my opinion, but it must put some people off.

But it’s worth extolling the virtues of smoked mackerel (which I’ll lovingly shorten to ‘Smackerel’ in the grand tradition of celebrity couple nicknames a la Brangelina or TomKat). It’s cheap – you can get a good 250 g of it for less than £2.

And a little goes a long way both flavour and calorie wise. It’s not to be denied that it’s quite high in calories/fat – but it’s the “good” fat, a phrase so many nutritionists love to spout. It’s full of those lovely fish oils that assist in brain function (and at the moment, I need all the help I can get.

But the fact that 50g of mackerel brings in about 150 calories (compare to 38 cals per 50 g in plaice) means that it’s a blessing that a little goes a long way. And to be honest, that’s all you need for a fairly hearty fishcake in this recipe. One fishcake for me was plenty, though my husband was happier with two.

Smoked mackerel fishcakes with runner beans and sweetcorn

(serves 2)

150 g smoked mackerel

200 g potatoes, peeled and ready to boil or 300 g potatoes already boiled

2 spring onions, sliced

salt and pepper

a drop of milk or cream – anything to hand really

spray olive oil to lightly coat the foil

400 g runner beans, sliced

2 cobs of sweetcorn

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Boil the potatoes for about 15 minutes (or until you can pierce easily with a fork) and allow to cool slightly. Mash, adding a drop of cream or milk. Season with salt and pepper.

Next, break up the strips of mackerel with your fingers and drop into the mash, along with the sliced spring onions.

Here’s where you get your hands dirty: using your fingers, mix all the ingredients together, ensuring you get a good consistency. Roll the mixture into three balls and place on a foil-lined baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes, turning halfway through.

While they’re cooking, prepare your veg – because it’s summer I’ve gone with sweetcorn and runner beans, which I steamed.

Serve immediately – because mackerel is such a strong flavour, I didn’t need an extra sauce, though my husband did enjoy the extra dollop of mayo I gave him.

Calories: 300 for a fishcake, a generous helping of runner beans and a cob of sweetcorn.

I recommended this to a friend as well and it's gone down a treat.

Wow, it's been awhile... what I've been eating in June

The second half of spring has not been a prolific one for me on this blog, as you may well have noticed. Maybe it’s the improving weather keeping me far from my laptop. I have been trying to enjoy every last drop of outdoor sunshine, and getting into running more and more has meant when I do get home that the computer isn’t my first port of call. The bathtub beckons far louder, I’m afraid.

But that hasn’t meant I haven’t been eating! Far from it, of course. Here are some highlights of the past month:

Split pea and ham soup - I can’t claim this recipe for my own, I’m afraid, as it was borrowed from my husband’s boss. But it is ever so hearty and very tasty – you just need 750g smoked gammon, 500 g dried split peas, a leek, a chilli and a clove of garlic. It makes 10 first-course servings and freezes beautifully. I’m going to have another round out of the freezer later this week.

Asparagus and herb risotto – a la Rose Gray of River Café. Featured on Guardian’s Food for a Fiver week. Upped the mint and parsley quantities by three, dropped the butter, and used feta instead of parmesan for a lighter, more sprightly springy kick.

Leek and herb stuffed jackets – found this little one in the BBC Good Food magazine in May. Effortlessly simple – potatoes, cream cheese, leeks, parsley. Lovely.

Prawn linguine with yellow pepper sauce – now this I love. Faced with a glut of yellow peppers, I roasted these, peeled them and pureed the flesh and juice, which formed a sweet, smoky sauce with an utterly fabulous consistency. Raw prawns + linguine + flat leaf parsley + roasted cherry tomatoes and garlic = amazing! Will be making this again.

Grilled sausages with mustard and courgette cakes – love this combination. I didn’t even work very hard on the cakes, I’ll admit (I’d had a glass of wine…) Grated courgettes, sweated with salt, mixed with chopped spring onions, a tablespoon of flour, sautéed with some olive oil. My husband had three sausages, one courgette cake; I had one sausage, three courgette cakes. And we were both blissfully happy with that arrangement.

Steak and portobello mushroom sandwiches – well, steak for him, portobello mushroom for me. Mushrooms are supposed to be meat for vegetarians, aren’t they? (Not that I’m a vegetarian by any means, but still – goes to show how filling they can be). Grilled these in tandem, topped them with Leerdammer Light swiss cheese and a bun.

Smoked haddock with wilted spinach and pea puree – savoury, simple and strong. I was craving that earthy taste of wilted spinach and this hit the spot, mixed with sweet peas and smoky haddock. Very low calorie, but delicious. Added a poached egg for the husband, though I didn’t fancy it (I overegged myself earlier this year…)

Grilled lamb steaks with cumin-spiced broad bean puree and pitta – a healthy kebab really. The lamb was marinated in lemon juice, oregano and garlic and grilled for less than 10 minutes, while the broad beans took only minutes to steam and process. Warming the pitta bread for the last few minutes that the lamb is on makes for a lovely treat.

Tagliatelle with roasted red and yellow peppers, capers, garlic and anchovies – this may well be my combination of the summer. These peppers go so soft, and mixed with the other ingredients and a tablespoon of olive oil (and the leftover pasta water), they make any pasta absolutely to die for.

What do you think? Good/bad/ugly? Yummy/fun? What did you eat this month? I looooove a good bit of inspiration!

a more appealing work lunch idea

I've been quite budget conscious lately, and my lunch has often borne the brunt of it. And last week I think I hit my limit with the boiled egg + carbohydrate + salad combo.

Something a bit nicer was in order - something that would taste lovely, be healthy, and hold me over until dinner time (or at least until late afternoon snack time).

Cue frozen salmon. Added to the potato salad with a lovely, tartar-sauce inspired dressing, and you're good to go. To be safe, I've cooked the salmon in two batches - I'm not sure exactly how long it will keep for in the fridge. (If anyone knows, do tell!)

Salmon with tartar-sauced potato salad
(makes 5 lunch-sized portions)

500 g frozen salmon
500 g baby new potatoes
50 g light mayonnaise
75 g gherkins, chopped
25 g capers, chopped
juice of one lemon
handful of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

Prepare the salmon according to the instructions on the package (generally about 30 minutes at 190 C) and allow to cool.

Boil the potatoes for about 15 minutes, and then submerge into ice water to stop them cooking. Remove and allow to cool.

While the potatoes are cooling, make the dressing - add the gherkins, capers, mayonnaise, parsley and lemon. When the potatoes are ready, add to the dressing and make sure they are combined well.

Each morning, spoon out 1/5 of the potato salad mixture and 100 g of the salmon. Enjoy - it won't be a huge portion, but the salmon is so filling that it will last you through the afternoon without a problem.

Calories per serving: about 290

(By the way, I've not used many veggies here - like baby spinach - this week. I think baby spinach, like egg, is on my "tired-of" list at the moment.)

So yes, salmon isn't cheap. But I think if you can keep your eye out for salmon that's close to its sell-by date, and freeze it, you're laughing. Or look for deals - this week, Tesco was offering 3 packs of fresh salmon for £10.

Young's frozen salmon (500 g) was about £4.49, the potatoes cost about £1.29, and I keep capers, gherkins, lemon and mayo as a norm in my cupboard. Divide that by £5, and lunch cost about £1.16/day. How's that for classy?

another work lunch idea

Call me crazy, but I'm mixing it up this week. I've been riffing on potatoes for awhile now, but something new is in order. And maybe it's springtime hunger kicking in, but I think I need to bulk the salad up a little more to last me through the day.

I'm experimenting with tuna and white beans this week, since it's a short week. I'm unsure as to whether tuna will hold up well for five days, so I'm going to make it in two-day batches.

So, for two days, I needed:

2 small tins of tuna in spring water, drained
1 tin of haricot beans, drained
3 stalks of celery, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
juice of a lemon
leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme
pepper
2 boiled eggs
8 pieces of round lettuce

Calories per day: 370. Packed with plenty of protein to keep me running until, oh, about 4pm when my mind starts to wander and fruit and yogurt is absolutely necessary.

easter monday and a fish and tapenade recipe

Just recuperating after a lovely food-filled Easter. First, leeks vinaigrette and smoked salmon canapes. Next, my mother-in-law and I had a gorgeous bit of halibut poached in lemon and olive oil (everyone else went for lamb) alongside too many different veggies to count. Finally - a gorgeous chocolate mousse, made from scratch.

I woke up this morning with a pained stomach. To be clear, I enjoyed every minute of it - but my stomach was straining under the sheer magnitude of food.

Today, something light and fresh was needed for dinner. And something easy, if you're still a bit sluggish from all the chocolate.

Baked haddock with homemade green olive tapenade and purple sprouting broccoli
(serves 2)

2 large fillets of haddock, skin-on (between 175-200 g each)
1 small carrot
5-6 sprigs of thyme, leaves removed
1 tin of anchovies in olive oil, drained
10 green olives in brine, drained
zest of 1 small lemon
200 g purple sprouting broccoli

Preheat the oven to 190 C. Combine the carrot, thyme, anchovies, green olives and lemon zest in a food processor and pulse until you have an even consistency. Use a pallet knife to spread evenly atop each fillet of fish.

Bake the fish on a foil-lined baking tray for 20 minutes. With 10 minutes left, steam the broccoli.

Serve immediately with a lemon wedge.

Calories: 300. A filling, satisfying and very clean 300 calories. Plenty for me for the rest of the night (though Pete is heading back to the Mars egg even as I type.)

garbure is good for you

Sounds a bit like garbage, non? Well it kind of is - if your garbage consists of cabbage, bacon, flageolet beans, carrot, celery and onion. That's my kind of garbage.

The French came up with this thick potage and served with any old thing - fish, duck, chicken, you name it, they served it with it. Evidently it's been around for 3000 years or so, but it was traditionally a peasant dish. Only now has it become la di da.

I happened upon it in the March issue of Good Food - this time served with lightly sauteed white fish. They rather anglicised the name, in my opinion - calling it 'one-pot cabbage and beans.'

No matter what it's called, though, it's really good - wholesome, pleasant and filling. The bacon gives it a savoury depth, while the flageolet beans are oh so creamy - and all without a lick of dairy.

I've tweaked the recipe slightly (as you do).

Haddock with garbure (adapted from BBC Good Food)
(serves 2)

1 head of savoy cabbage, sliced/shredded
1 small onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 stalk of celery, chopped
3/4 stalks of thyme
200 ml stock (homemade preferably, but made up with bouillon is fine)
20 sprays of olive oil
2 rashers of back bacon, dry cure, chopped
salt and pepper

for the fish:
2 pieces of skinless, boneless haddock (about 200 g total)
1 tbsp/7 g plain flour
1 tsp rapeseed oil

Heat the olive oil spray in a large sauté pan. Cook the bacon in the pan for a few minutes, before adding the onion, celery and carrots. Saute over a low heat until the veggies are soft and translucent - make sure it doesn't brown, covering if necessary.

Add the thyme and the cabbage, turning the heat up to medium and stirring freqently to make the mixture homogenous. (If the mixture seems really dry, sprinkle a bit of water). Cook for about 4 minutes, until the cabbage starts to wilt.

Add a splash or two of the stock and simmer until it evaporates. Add the rest of the stock, as well as the flageolet beans. Season (with more pepper than salt), cover and simmer for 10 mins.

Now on to the fish. Season the fish on both sides with pepper, then coat the flesh lightly with the flour. Bring the rapeseed oil to a high heat, and fry the fillets - first for about 5 minutes on one side, then about 2 on the other.

Split the cabbage mixture evenly between two shallow bowls or plates and top with the fish. Serve immediately.

Calories per serving: 373, amazing value for money. Well-enjoyed by both members of the Staves household.

20 fish recipes, 20 minutes or less

Cooking Light has put together a collection of quick, easy fish recipes here. Have a look and see which ones you like - but these are my favourite of the lot:

Fish tacos with cabbage slaw
This sounds great. They've gone really easy on the oil, which is nice to see - and although they've used tilapia (aka red snapper), I'm sure it would work with any white fish.
Calories: 305 per serving.

Flounder Piccata with spinach
Piccata-style generally implies a sauce of lemon, capers and white wine - a pretty fool-proof combination that's often used in the States with chicken and veal. But on flounder (aka plaice), I think capers would work a treat (think tartar sauce). Again, they've gone easy on the olive oil, though you probably could cut it even more. Calories: 332 per serving.

Coriander-crusted tuna with black bean salsa
I don't eat tuna that often, but when I do, I often just sear it and keep it simple. But I like the idea of giving it the Mexican treatment. Again, really healthy: 356 calories per serving.

What do you think?

Salmon frittata with roasted parsnips

A very contemporary egg and chips, this one. If you haven't been reading the blog, check out this post first to get up to speed.

I was a bit nervous about it - not sure if the result would end up really claggy and horrid. But luckily, it came out just as I wanted it - fresh, sweet and herby. I think this would make a lovely Saturday lunch with friends.

Salmon frittata with roasted parsnips
(serves 2: either 2 medium sized portions or 1 large and 1 small portion)

300 g fresh salmon, peeled and chopped into 1-2 cm cubes
450 g parsnips, peeled and chopped into largeish matchsticks
3 eggs
juice of one lime
1 large handful of parsley, chopped
3 spring onions, chopped finely
1 tbsp olive oil
20 sprays of olive oil
100 ml skimmed milk
salt and pepper
2 tbsp half-fat creme fraiche

Preheat the oven to 230 C. Roast the matchstick-sized parsnips with 1 tbsp olive oil and salt to taste in a foil-lined baking tray for 35 minutes.

Set salmon cubes to marinate in lime juice.

With 15 minutes left to roast, start the frittata: Heat 10 sprays of olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat and add the spring onions. After about 3-4 minutes, add the salmon cubes, ensuring that they are evenly distributed around the pan.

Combine the eggs, milk and chopped parsley into a jug and whisk with a fork. Season with salt and pepper.

Over medium heat, pour the egg mixture over the salmon and spring onions, ensuring that it is also evenly distributed around the pan. Allow to cook over medium/medium-low heat for about five minutes. The top of the eggs shouldn't yet have set.

With five minutes left to go, put the saute pan under the grill (it's fine if your grill/oven are combined and your parsnips are at the bottom). AFter five minutes, the eggs should have puffed up slightly and the frittata should have cooked through.

Serve the frittata (half and half for two equal servings, or 2/3 for a large serving and 1/3 for a small serving) and the roasted parsnips (1/2 each, either way) with a tablespoon of creme fraiche.

Calories: for a small serving of the frittata with half of the parsnips - 640.

I can see myself eating this recipe on a lovely late-spring afternoon on the balcony with a glass of white wine. I shall be revisiting it again - the sweet salmon, tangy lime, fresh egg, herby parsley, and perfumed parsnips make for an excellent meal.

Parsnip, salmon, frittata and lime

The forgotten alternative lyrics to Paul Simon’s infamous song Scarborough Fair? Or a fabulous combination for dinner?

You might think “ugh, neither”. But I'm thinking otherwise...

On Tuesday night, I was making a parsnip soup (this recipe, but with skimmed milk) to freeze and eat later, and I smelled the loveliest, sweetest aroma coming from the parsnips as I peeled them. I was also drinking a diet coke, in which there was a sliced lime. The smell of the lime mingling with the parsnip was amazing – and I was really surprised!

How often have you heard of parsnips and limes? Short answer for me: never.
But I imagine that the zing of the lime with the sweetness of the parsnips would pair up quite well…

Anyway, was on the case anyway for a way of using parsnips with salmon in an exciting way. I’ve cooked fish and parsnips together before in a quite straightforward way ). But I wanted something new.

A few Google searches later and I found an idea for a salmon omelette with roasted parsnips. Potentially lovely, right?

But I’m thinking here – why not roast the parsnips with lime juice, and then add them to the diced salmon in a frittata? It’s a bit lighter, a bit easier to cook, and would taste fab with a simple side salad of watercress and a dollop of yogurt.]

Thoughts? No? In any case, I'm cooking it on Friday, and will let you know how it goes.

Sea bass!

I spied some lovely sea bass fillets in Tesco this afternoon, and simply had to have them. I don't usually get sea bass these days - because it's more than I'd like to pay - but this was a really reasonable price, so I snatched them up.

Sea bass has such an amazingly delicate flavour that it doesn't need much. It's not like cod or haddock - it doesn't need a sauce, a crumb or a strong herb. It speaks for itself.

I've also been craving some really fresh flavours - mint and parsley, namely. So a tabbouleh (minus the bulgur) went on the plate, which was finished off by some steamed broccoli. Some rather beautiful strawberries (Moroccan, I admit) made a fantastic dessert.

Calories for 90 g sea bass, griddled; a generous portion of tabbouleh; steamed broccoli, and 150 g strawberries: about 360 calories. Bargain!

spicy sardine pasta

I've blogged about a recipe similar to this (sans sardines) before, but I love this recipe because it's the ultimate storecupboard one. The initial idea came from Delia, though I've twisted it a bit.

It's a bit more filling than my normal pasta recipes because I've been trying to eat a bit more on the nights before my run-days (Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays). Hope you like it...

Spicy sardine pasta
(serves 2)

1 tin skinless and boneless sardines in olive oil, broken into pieces, oil reserved
1 chilli, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
30 g capers
100 g black olives in brine, halved
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
200 g pappardelle pasta
salt and pepper

Put the pasta on to boil.

Then heat the oil from the sardines in a frying pan. Add the chilli and garlic and cook for a few minutes, making sure not to burn it. Then add the capers, olives and sardines and stir until coated. Pour in the chopped tomatoes and stir. Allow to simmer for 4-5 minutes.

When the pasta's ready, drain it immediately and return to the pot. Pour the sauce over and add the tbsp of tomato puree. Stir through and serve immediately.

Calories: 700 per serving. (As I said, this is more than I normally have for dinner. But given that I'm exercising the following day, I'll need every one of those 700...)

the PERFECT kedgeree

I’ll admit up front – this wasn’t my idea, so I can’t take credit. When we were dreaming up recipes this week, my husband suggested a smoked haddock kedgeree, and I jumped on it. Smoked flavours, exotic spices and sweet peas sounded right up my alley.

I reworked this Waitrose version of the recipe for our own purposes, and I say, it was bloody lovely.

Smoked haddock kedgeree
(serves 2)

150g wholegrain brown rice
1 tbsp olive oil
300g smoked haddock fillet
3 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
200 ml skimmed milk mixed with 150 ml water
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 cardamom pods
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp hot chilli powder
25 g flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
50g frozen peas
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 egg, beaten
1 lemon, halved

Boil the rice for 35 minutes.

After about 15 minutes of the rice cooking, place the haddock in a saucepan with the peppercorns and one bay leaf. Cover with the milk and water mixture and bring the heat to medium. Bring up to a gentle simmer, then cook for about 8 more minutes.

Remove the haddock fillets out of the milk and allow to cool. Peel off the skin and break the fish into large flakes.

Wipe out the pan you were using, and heat the olive oil over med-high heat. Add the finely chopped onion and cook for a couple of minutes; then add the second bay leaf with the cardamom pods, turmeric, cumin and chilli powder. Fry for three more minutes.

Mix in the hot rice and ensure it gets really coated with the spices. Then add the frozen peas and salt and pepper to taste. Cook for a few minutes, then add the fish. After a few more minutes, stir in the beaten egg and the parsley. Keep stirring, so that the egg doesn’t stick to the bottom. Serve topped with more pepper and a lemon half.

Calories: for ½ of the entire amount cooked, it’s 570 cals. But of course, I had one portion while Pete had 2 portions, so my meal was about 380, while his was 760.

salmon summer salad

As part of my “cook what you have” drive in the kitchen, I’m bound and determined to use and enjoy every last morsel of what’s in the kitchen. So a lone salmon fillet in the freezer was fair game. Obviously, a single fillet won’t go very far in your average “fish and two veg” scenario unless you’re just cooking for one. But alas, I’m cooking for two.

So what to do? Since I’ve only got one fillet, salmon needs to be a team player rather than the star of any dish I make. Since it’s summer, I thought a salad might do the trick. Not your conventional salad, necessarily, but one that combines the best of the early English summer. By that I mean baby new potatoes, fresh spinach, cucumber and, of course, salmon. With a twist of lemon and a dollop of mayonnaise (or tartar sauce) at the end, the dish is delicate yet filling.

Salad with poached salmon and steamed potatoes
(serves 2)

1 large salmon fillet (at least 150g)
500g baby new potatoes, scrubbed (and halved if necessary)
200 grams of cucumbers, sliced into sticks
1 lemon, cut into wedges
150g spinach or baby spinach, washed, with stems removed
a couple of peppercorns
a bay leaf
2 tbsp of mayonnaise or tartar sauce
salt and freshly ground black pepper

First, set the potatoes to steam. They’ll need about 15 minutes.

Bring a pan of water (with the bay leaf, juice of half the lemon and the peppercorns) to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and add the salmon fillet (ensuring there’s just enough water to cover the fish. Simmer for about 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the plates with the spinach and cucumber. Add a wedge of lemon to each plate as well as the mayo (or tartar sauce).

When the fish is done, remove from the water and allow to sit for a minute or two. Flake the fish and divide it evenly between the two plates. Season with black pepper to taste.

When the potatoes are ready, add them to the plates too, dividing them in whatever ratio you like (I took 2/5, leaving 3/5 for the heartier eater between us).

Serve immediately.

Calories per serving: with 200g potatoes – 385 calories, which is excellent, considering all the protein, carbs and healthy fat you’re consuming. (For the record, that’s about 23g of protein, 39g of carbohydrates and 16.5g of fat)

a late spring classic

I cooked for three on Sunday evening. A friend, visiting from Canada, was popping over for an early evening meal. Normally, I roast a chicken, but it almost seemed too heavy. Something lighter – maybe salmon – I thought.

What I love most about salmon is the way it fills you up. It’s pretty high on the satiety index. And when you get a good cut, it just needs straightforward treatment and high-quality vegetables. I added Hollandaise Sauce in as a special treat – and did it without using butter. The results are tasty, and not nearly as heavy as when made with butter. The result was light and foamy. A perfect accompaniment to the produce.

Foil-baked salmon with Jersey royals, asparagus and Hollandaise sauce
(serves 3)

3 good-quality salmon fillets, between 100-150 g each
3 lemon wedges
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 splashes of white wine
fresh thyme
3 foil sheets
6 sprays of olive oil

500 g Jersey royals, cleaned and scrubbed
500 g asparagus, cleaned, with any chunky ends peeled off

6 tablespoons of olive oil spread
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp hot water
a dash of Tabasco
2 medium egg yolks

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Prepare the salmon packets by spraying the foil, placing the salmon in the centre, and seasoning with salt and pepper. Squeeze a lemon wedge over top of the salmon, and leave the wedge on top. Sprinkle fresh thyme leaves over the top, and add a splash of white wine. Fold up the foil packets, ensuring that there’s enough space for the salmon to steam within, while no gaps will allow the air out.

Place the salmon on a baking tray – or even on the rack. Then, place the cleaned Jersey Royals over a steamer filled with boiling water over medium heat. Both the salmon and the potatoes will need 20 minutes to cook.

With about 6 minutes left to go, add the asparagus to a second tier of the steamer.

Now make the hollandaise sauce. Melt the olive oil spread to a shimmering foam, though don’t let it brown. Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolks, lemon juice, hot water, and Tabasco. Add the butter little by little, whisking furiously. Pour the mixture back into the pan you melted the butter with, and place over the slightest of heats. Continue whisking – and if it appears to separate, use a hand blender to bring to a foam (you may want to do this anyway.) Serve immediately in a boat alongside the salmon (removed from the foil), the potatoes and the asparagus.

Calories (for 150g salmon, 150g potatoes, 7 spears of asparagus, and ¼ of the Hollandaise): 490

For hungry eaters, making more potatoes is always a filling option. And a glass of white wine wouldn’t go unappreciated here! Fresh strawberries for dessert, perhaps? Or the first of the Kentish raspberries? You decide.

give your pollack a little re-speck

A rather unpopular fish until recently, pollack is a low-fat white fish comparable to cod in its fleshiness. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall insists that we use it more, especially since cod is in such trouble these days. I myself have no qualms with eating more pollack – if only it were more readily available.

Now it appears pollack is beginning to line our shelves with more consistency. At Sainsbury’s this weekend I picked up some fresh pollack for a reasonable price.

The only problem now? How to make the bloody fish interesting! Let’s face it, cod’s not the most exciting fish on the block. It’s a wonder that it became overfished at all, in my opinion.

Luckily, the Moroccans and the Italians come to the rescue, with their harissa and their lovely prosciutto, also called speck, respectively. You know harissa. But speck’s a dry cured thinly-sliced bacon that can be eaten on its own as part of an antipasti, or wrapped around a number of lovely things. One often sees chicken or monkfish wrapped in parma ham or speck, and then pan-fried. The bacon then takes on a lovely crispy savoury consistency but protects its charge from drying out.

So spread a teaspoon of harissa on the pollack and wrap it up in a couple slices of speck (adding only 75 calories to the dish), but don’t pan fry it, grill it. You still get the benefits of the protection, you still get the crispy speck, but the excess fat drips off. The harissa gives the fish some depth, but without overpowering it.

Excellent Saturday night dish: pollack with harissa and speck, tabbouleh, steamed purple sprouting broccoli, glass of rose. The meal (excluding wine) is only about 525 calories (about 150 g pollack, 2 slices of speck, tsp of harissa, a generous portion of tabbouleh, and 150 g broccoli). For dessert, Spanish strawberries. Not at their best but nonetheless a true treat.

Go ahead, indulge yourself. And play that Erasure classic in the background while you cook. It will be in your head for days, weeks after.

dinner in five

I hope it's not a case of too little, too late, but I wanted to tell you about the dinner I made on Saturday night. It took 20 minutes start to finish, and I only needed four ingredients (if you discount salt and pepper):

trout fillets
baby swede
frozen green beans
Colman's mustard
olive oil spray

Twas a lovely dinner too. Here's how I did it:

Peel and chop the swede into bize-size chunks and steam for about 12 minutes.

While the swede steams, pre-heat the grill/broiler to medium. Spray the trout with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

When the swede has only a few minutes to go, place the trout under the grill and cook for about 8 minutes.

Remove the swede and transfer to a bowl. Add the green beans to the steamer and steam for about five minutes.

While the green beans are steaming, puree the swede with a hand blender (or mash if you don't have a blender). Keep warm.

When the trout is finished, remove from under the grill. Split the swede evenly on the two plates and gently place the trout over the swede. Add the green beans to the plate, as well as a dollop of Colman's mustard.

It sounds almost boring, I know - but it's not. The mustard brings out the excellent flavours of the sweet swede and the soft, savoury trout. And if you don't like it, you've only wasted 20 minutes of your life. You can't say that about the latest Delia episode.

don't try this at home

In honour of St. Patrick’s Day yesterday, instead of boozing it up, I decided instead to whip up an Irish recipe. But I didn’t fancy stew and I didn’t fancy colcannon.

Luckily, I found what seemed like a good recipe on Epicurious for Smoked mackerel, turnip and potato gratin. I have to say, though, that I was confused from the start – though the recipe called for ‘turnips’ in the title, later, in the discussion and ingredient list, it referred to rutabaga, which is the American word for swede. As the recipe called it a ‘sweet starchy root vegetable’, I opted for swede.

That obviously didn’t bode well for me. Next on the ingredient list was heavy cream (aka double cream) and whole milk. Well, I wasn’t about to use those, what with the smoked mackerel also in the dish, so I substituted single cream and skimmed milk. It’s worked before in bakes and sauces, so why not?

Well, perhaps not, as the sauce broke after the good 55 minutes the gratin spent in the oven, making something between a milky watery mess and a creamy goo.

Finally, as I didn’t have a mandolin to slice the potatoes and Swedes thinly enough, the Swedes were undercooked whereas the potatoes were fine. I’m thinking, should I ever try this monstrosity again, that I may parboil the swede.

As the dish came out of the oven, my first thoughts were to run for the hills (or the mezze joint just around the corner). But it felt like such a waste, and, after all, Delia was about to come on. Actually, the potato and smoked mackerel tasted just fine, as long as you avoid looking at it as you eat it. Blindfolds perhaps should be on the ingredient list for my version.

What’s really interesting is that my ‘cutting corners’ with lower-calorie ingredients still didn’t make it a low-calorie dish! The entire gratin had over 2,100 calories alone – so imagine what double cream and whole milk would have done to it! Next time I think smoked mackerel and mash may be the way forward.