Claudia Roden’s Pan-Grilled Fish with Garlic, Vinegar and Chilli

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 2

This Spanish dish is fabulous.

Read through the ingredients and you’ll immediately get a sense of the simplicity coming.

The lightly golden garlic with sherry vinegar. A beautifully pan-fried piece of fish. And the side of the cannellini beans.

Together with this salad of roasted carrots, it is ironically yet unironically a 1-hat meal.

An absolute joy.

I doubled the recipe and so baked the fish. The sauce doubled perfectly.

Ingredients

2 hake, bream or sea bas fillets, skin on
4 tbs extra virgin olive oil
5 large garlic cloves, sliced
Good pinch of chilli pepper
2 – 3 tsp sherry vinegar or white wine vinegar
1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
Salt

White Cannellini Beans

1 onion, chopped
3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
400gm tin cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
A few fresh thyme leaves
Salt and pepper

Method

  1. For the cannellini beans, fry the onion in 1 tbs of oil over a low heat, stirring until softened and beginning to colour. Add the cannellini beans. Season, add the thyme, add 100ml water and cook covered for 5 minutes. Set aside and serve with a drizzle of 1 – 2 tbs oil.
  2. Season the fish with salt. Heat 1 tbs of the oil in a heavy non-stick frying pan. Put the fillets in, skin-side down and press them down with a spatula to flatten them as the skin curls. Cook over a medium-heat until the skin is crisp and lightly browned. They will gradually cook through almost to the top. When ready, turn and cook the flesh side for a few seconds more.
  3. For the dressing, in a small pan, gently heat the remaining 3 tbs of oil with the garlic and chilli until the garlic is only just lightly golden and crunchy (do no let it get brown). Take off the heat and add the vinegar, to taste.
  4. Serve the fish very hot, with the dressing poured over, sprinkled with parsley.

Claudia Roden’s Spicy Roasted Carrot Salad

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 6 – 8

This Moroccan starter is particularly delicious.

I served it as a side and wow, you could do a whole lot worse.

I only did half the carrots asked for in the recipe and so of course the spicy cooking sauce was doubled. Absolutely no regrets.

Serve it with some labneh and this would literally pair with anything.

Ingredients

1kg medium carrots, peeled
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 – 3 tbs olive oil
1 tbs honey
Juice of 1/2 – 1 lemon, to taste
Chilli pepper, to taste (optional)
Salt and black pepper
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil, to serve
3 tbs roughly chopped coriander

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180c.
  2. Cut the carrots in half, then cut them in half so that you have wide sticks.* Put them in a baking dish.
  3. In a bowl, put the cumin, coriander, cinnamon, ginger, garlic, olive oil, honey, lemon juice and chilli (if using). Season, mix very well and pour over the carrots, turning with your hands until they are coated all over.
  4. Bake for about 1 hour until the carrots are tender, turning them over once. Leave to cool.
  5. Serve at room temperature with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of coriander.

* I used baby carrots and so did not cut.

Claudia Roden’s Stuffed Peppers with Breadcrumbs, Anchovies, Olives and Capers

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 6

What a simple, elegant way to kick off a meal.

A lightly stuffed Romano pepper, with a fragrant, Mediterranean stuffing of anchovies, olives, capers, parsley, breadcrumbs and olive oil.

This was the first recipe I cooked from Claudia Roden’s new book Med and I am in love. As I type, I am eight recipes in and each has been such a great, simple example of how a few ingredients and flavours can bring so much joy.

This dish could very easily be prepared in advance, mixing the breadcrumbs and parsley with the balance of the stuffing at the last minute.

Lovely.

Ingredients

3 Romano peppers, cut in half lengthways and seeded
6 anchovy fillets in oil, drained and chopped
6 good quality black olives, such as Kalamata, pitted and chopped
1 tbs tiny capers in brine, drained and squeezed
Small bunch of flat-leaf parsley leaves chopped
40gm fresh breadcrumbs
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 150c. Line a roasting tin with foil and arrange the peppers cut-side up on the foil. Roast for about 30 minutes until they are soft. Leave to cool.
  2. Mix all the remaining ingredients together to make a stuffing. When the peppers are cool enough to handle, put a little stuffing into each and serve at room temperature.

Claudia Roden’s Egyptian Red Lentil Soup with Caramelised Onions

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 6-8

This soup originated from a woman who lived in a little village on the Nile; it is in Claudia Roden’s latest book Med and it is wonderful. The cooked down lentils bring a creaminess to the soup, the spices bring a warmth and it’s finished off with the sharp sweetness of the caramelised onions.

I thought the lentils would take ages to cook down but they don’t. It can be an easy, healthy, delicious weeknight meal.

Ingredients

1 large onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cup of dried red lentils
2 litres vegetable stock
2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
Pinch of chilli
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and Pepper to taste

Ingredients- caramelised onions

3 large onions, sliced
Splash of balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar

Method

  1. Soften the onions, carrots and garlic in olive oil in a large pan on low heat for about 10 mins.
  2. Add the lentils and stock and bring to the boil and then simmer for 40mins, until the lentils have disintegrated. As foam appears on the top skim it off.
  3. Meanwhile cooked the caramelised onions in a pan on low heat with a bit of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and brown sugar until dark and soft, about 30-40mins.
  4. Stir in the cumin, coriander, chilli and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  5. If the soup needs thinning add a bit of water, it shouldn’t be too thick.
  6. Ladle the soup into bowls and top with caramelised onions.

Dan Toombs’ Malabar Fish Curry

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

I wasn’t sure about this curry at first glance.

Though anyone doubting Dan Toombs when it comes to Indian is brave. And so on I went.

What threw me was that the ingredients are boiled in water. No oil except for the fried shallots which are a garnish.

Conclusion. Brilliant. Aromatic and a delicious sauce.

I simmered the coconut mixture for longer though not intentionally. Perhaps it added to it, perhaps not.

Check your salt though get this right and you have a wonderful, entirely unique fish curry on your hands. Absolutely top notch.

Ingredients

1 1/2 c fresh or frozen coconut*
1/2 ground turmeric
1 tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder
2 tbsp minced ginger
1 green chilli, finely chopped
3 kokum peels or 2 tsp tamarind concentrate
500gm cod or other meaty fish like halibut or ling, cut into medium chunks
1 tbsp rapeseed (canola) oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
10 curry leaves
3 shallots, thinly sliced
Salt, to taste

Method

  1. Blend the coconut and turmeric into a fine paste or powder and set aside. **
  2. Bring 500ml of water to the boil in a pot (preferably a clay pot). Add the coconut mixture, chilli powder, ginger, green chilli and korum (or tamarind concentrate) and simmer for about 15 minutes.
  3. Add the fish and simmer with the pan covered for a further 7 minutes or until the fish is just cooked through.
  4. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a small pan over a medium-high heat, When visibly hot, add the mustard seeds and when they begin to pop (30 seconds), reduce the heat to medium and stir in the curry leaves and shallots and fry until the shallots are soft and slightly browned.
  5. Pour over the curry; leave as a garnish and/or stir the oil into the curry. Check for season and salt as needed.

* Easily sourced in the freezer of an Indian grocer.

** I didn’t process and left the grated coconut combined with the turmeric. We loved the texture though the smoothness of the curry processed would be an equally lovely experience.

Aun Koh’s Char Siu using Sous-vide

.Reading time 4 minutes.

Serves: 4 – 8 depending on serving size

Nat and I cooked this 6 years ago and neither of us has forgotten it.

It’s by a blogger Aun Koh who clearly loves his food and travel. Great photography and attention to detail.

He is a total sous-vide snob and whilst he loves pork belly, pork neck is his go-to for being a leaner cut.

Essentially, marinate for 36 hours and then sous-vide for 24 hours. Glaze and cook in the oven on a temperature high enough that the door falls off.

And that’s it. Just add rice.

And OMG. After that sous-vide, this is a meal you’re going to remember.

A few years back, Nat and I did a bonkers 5-star trip to Hong Kong sans kids. We ate like kings and a meal that we often reference was at Tin Lung Heen. Two Michelin stars, 102nd floor of The Ritz Carlton.

Excellent.
Nat: even more excellent.
The char-siu was very good.

Very unassuming as I am sure you can imagine.

Anyway, they have a char siu that must be preordered; which of course I did, having reviewed the menu weeks out.

And look, the whole experience was pretty amazing. The walk through the black and golden wine cellar on the way to the bathroom is dazzling just in-and-of itself.

And sure, the char siu was excellent. Amazing. Though not as good as this recipe.

Ingredients

1kg Berkshire or Kurobuta pork neck
Rice to serve

Marinade

6 spring onions, sliced into 4cm lengths and smashed
8 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
3 tbsp regular soy sauce
2 tbsp Chinese rice wine
3 tbsp sugar
2.5 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp rich chicken stock
1 tsp sesame oil

Finishing sauce (enough for 2 strips)

1 tsp salt
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tsp honey

Method

  1. Mix all the marinade ingredients together.
  2. Cut the pork lengthways into strips around 5 – 6cm wide and 1 – 2cm thick. Cut strips crosswise if needed into pieces 12 inches long. (Photo below to illustrate.) Place into a large baking dish that can accommodate all the pork in one layer. Pout the marinade over the pork. Seal with dish with cling wrap overnight, at least 12 hours and up to 36 hours. Turn the pork a few times during the marinating process. Keep in the fridge.
  3. Prepare your sous-vide and bring the water to 58c.
  4. Place each piece of pork, with some marinade, into a vacuum-sealable bag and seal at high pressure.
  5. Drop the bags into the water bath and cook for 24 hours. Once done, prepare an ice water bath and plunge the bags of pork directly into the ice water. Once cool, dry off the bags and liberate (love this word!) your pork, and move to the final stage of finishing off the pork.
  6. Mix the finishing sauce. (From experience, you cannot have too much.) Taste, it should be salty-sweet.
  7. Preheat your oven to the highest temperature it can go. Pour some water into a roasting pan. Over the pan, place a large wire rack that fits over the top of the pan.
  8. Brush as much of the finishing sauce onto the strips of pork. You want it thick. Lay the pork on the wire rack (and over the water in the roasting pan). Pop this in the oven for 10 minutes or until the surface of the char siu is nicely charred.

    (Use a blow torch instead.)
Here you go. Achieve this and you’ve won.

Lauren Allen’s Homemade Eggnog

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 6

I found this recipe on the blog of Lauren Allen – Tastes Better from Scratch – and it is as good as it is dense in calories.

Eggnog being a family tradition for both Christmas and Christmas in July, eggnog isn’t a thing in Australian supermarkets in July. (I’m sure many would argue that eggnog is not a thing full stop in Australia, though I conceded a long-time ago and we now celebrate Halloween.)

Availability not withstanding, store-bought eggnog is also pretty average, no matter how much Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum and nutmeg you add.

And so enter stage left Lauren Allen with this 307 calorie-per-serve cream bomb (and that’s before rum!). (I have slightly adjusted the method of the recipe.)

Firstly, it is amazing. It’s like comparing proper Italian pizza to Dominos.

Which means the calories are worth it.

Especially as it is only once (or maybe twice) a year.

I am mainly putting this recipe here as a reference for myself, though you could do a whole lot worse than to add it to your annual repertoire.

It is after all, the best day of the year and this is celebrating!

Ingredients

6 large egg yolks
1/2 c caster sugar
1 c heavy whipping cream
2 c milk
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
Pinch of salt
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Ground cinnamon, for topping
Enough spiced rum to take of the edge of Christmas morning!

Method

  1. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a medium bowl until light and creamy.
  2. In a saucepan over a medium-high heat, combine the cream, milk, nutmeg and salt. Stir often until mixture reaches a bare minimum.
  3. Add a big spoonful of the hot milk to the egg mixture, whisking vigorously. Repeat, adding a big spoonful at a time, to temper the eggs.
  4. Once most of the hot milk has been added to the eggs, pour the mixture back into the saucepan on the stove.
  5. Whisk constantly for just a few minutes, until the mixture is just slightly thickened (or until it reaches 70c). It will thicken more as it cools.
  6. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and rum. Pour the eggnog through a fine mesh strainer into a jug and cover with plastic wrap.
  7. Refrigerate until chilled. It will will thicken as it cools. Serve with a sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg. (Will last a week in the fridge, though trust me, it wont last until Boxing Day.)

Florence Fabricant’s Greek Fisherman’s Stew

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 4 – 6

Florence Fabricant is a NY Times food writer.

I subscribe to the NY Times Food app (a very worthy $50/annum) and the pro trick is to navigate primarily to those recipes that have hundreds, often thousands and thousands of 5-star ratings.

This is one of them.

Rustic. Easy to prepare. Absolutely moorish, especially as the sriracha mayonnaise breaks up in the juices.

This is definitely the way to kick off the week. Rude not to have a glass of white alongside.

Nat reckons her cheats Bouillabaisse is better. I’m on the fence.

You could cook this for me every week and I’d never be bored of it.

Yum.

Ingredients

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 small head fennel, diced
1/4 tsp red chilli flakes, or to taste
2 large beefsteak tomatoes, cored and chopped with their juices
1 tsp sea salt, or to taste
1 cup dry white wine (or whatever it is you have opened to have whilst you cook!)
500gm potatoes, peeled and diced*
Ground black pepper
1 tbsp lemon juice
1kg bass fillets or similar, cut into 12 pieces
6 basil leaves torn
1 c mayonnaise seasoned with 1 1/2 tsp sriracha or other hot sauce

Method

  1. Warm the oil in a heavy saucepan or casserole over a medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic until soft but not brown. Add fennel and cook a few minutes, until softened. Stir in chilli flakes. Add tomatoes and salt, cover and cook on medium for about 10 minutes.
  2. Stir in the wine and 2 1/2 c water, bring to a simmer, add the potatoes and cook for another 6 minutes or so, or until potatoes are tender. Season and add the lemon juice.
  3. Season the fish pieces with salt and pepper, place them in the stew and simmer on low, covered, until the fish is just cooked through; about 5 minutes. Warm 6 generous soup plates.
  4. When the fish is done, remove to your it to the warm soup plates. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the basil to wilt it. Divide soup among the 6 plates and serve with a good dollop of the spiced mayonnaise.

* The recipe asks for Yukon Gold potatoes of which I don’t know if I have seen in Australia. For me, there are white and red potatoes and then there are kipflers.

It seems the recipe is asking for the white or red varieties, though I did kipflers. Always so good.

I can see either working and for different reasons.

Enough potato talk.

Gordon Ramsay’s Home-made Gnocchi with Peas

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 4

Nat cooked this one for a simple lunch a little while back and the gnocchi is probably the best I have had.

Entirely incomparable to something you would get in a pack, dry or otherwise. We have previously used Anne Burrell’s gnocchi recipe as our go to, though the addition of ricotta here means that when pan fried, the creaminess against the golden, crunchy exterior is just melt-good mad.

The pea sauce is subtle and just a lovely pairing.

A few years ago, this is the sort of thing a hatted restaurant might put up. A real nod to simplicity.

Open a bottle of white, serve with a salad (we served it with this Gordon Ramsay salad) and you have a home lunch you’ll be grinning at.

Ingredients

2 large floury potatoes
50gm ricotta cheese
90gm plain flour
1 large egg, beaten
1 thyme sprig, leaves only
Sea salt and freshly ground white pepper
Grated Parmesan cheese to serve

For the sauce

Olive oil, for frying
Freshly ground black pepper
150gm peas, podded if fresh, defrosted if frozen
Butter
1 thyme sprig, leaves only
Zest of 1 lemon

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200c. Bake the potatoes in their skins for 1 – 1 1/4 hours until tender the whole way through. Remove the flesh from the skins (while still warm) and mash until spoon – use a potato ricer if you can. Mix in the ricotta, a pinch of salt and white pepper and the flour. Make a well in the middle, add the beaten egg and begin to combine the mixture with floured hands. Work in the thyme leaves and continue until a smooth dough has formed. (Be careful not to overwork the dough or it will end up too dense and won’t expand when it goes into the water.)
  2. Cut the dough in half and shape each piece into a long cigar shape about 1.5cm thick. Using the back of a floured table knife, cut each length into 2cm pieces to make ‘pillows’ of individual gnocchi. Gently press each one in the centre using your floured finger. The dent will hold more sauce and allow the gnocchi to take on more flavour.
  3. Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Add the gnocchi, tilting the pan from side to side briefly to stop them sticking together, then simmer for 1 1/2 – 2 minutes until they start to float. Drain the gnocchi and leave them to steam-dry for 1 – 2 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, start to make the sauce. Heat a frying over a medium-high heat and add a little olive oil. Add the gnocchi to the hot pan with a pinch of salt and black pepper and sauté for 1 – 2 minutes on each side until nicely coloured.
  5. Add the peas to the pan with a knob of butter and the thyme leaves. Toss to heat through, then add the lemon zest. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

Ocean Trout with Harissa & Yoghurt

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 6

I absolutely love harissa and together with salmon or ocean trout, you’ve got me.

This recipe from Gourmet Traveller is just weekday genius. Like, excuse to open a bottle of Riesling genuine.

I served it with some sautéed baby potatoes, though for the weekend, it would be mad to skip cous cous.

And of course labne.!

Just genius.

Ingredients

6 ocean trout fillets, skin on
1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
Juice of 1 lemon, plus extra to serve

Harissa

1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp caraway seeds
6 dried long red chillies, soaked in hot water for 15 minutes
8 red birds eye chillies
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 c olive oil

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200c. Place trout skin-side up on a lightly oiled oven tray. Drizzle with oil and a little lemon juice, then roast until cooked to your liking (5 – 6 minutes for medium rare).
  2. For harissa, dry-roast spices until fragrant then finely crush with a mortar and pestle. Combine chillies and garlic in a jug and blend with a hand blender, until finely chopped. Add spice mixture and a large pinch of salt, then blend, gradually, adding oil, until a coarse purée. Season to taste.
  3. Toss herbs and pea tendrils in a little oil and extra lemon juice. Spread labne on serving plates, top with fish and a spoonful of harissa and serve with the salad.