Tenderstem & Smoked Haddock Stack - more Tenderstem in 10!

Hubby and I just couldn't think of a suitable name for this one which described all of its attributes in one snappy title.  It is, after all (and from the bottom up) toasted sourdough bread, tenderstem broccoli, smoked haddock, poached egg and hollandaise sauce.  I defy you to think of some sharp-sounding title, we couldn't!

This is another recipe for the Tenderstem in 10 challenge, where bloggers have been asked to dream up a recipe that can be put on the table in 10 minutes, using 10 or less ingredients - one of which is lovely Tenderstem Broccoli.

Now, this Tenderstem in 10 recipe is entirely reliant upon you having some leftover Hollandaise sauce available - although I'm quite sure it would work just as well with a knob of butter on top!

I love poached eggs and since discovering that hubby makes a creditable Hollandaise, we've often got a little pot of it lurking in the fridge.  Poached egg on ham, on toast, with Hollandaise.  Oh yum.  Provided you are very, very careful and heat it through so, so gently and mix well, there's no reason why you can't have a little pot of Hollandaise too.  I generally put my little pot into the water I've just cooked the egg in, just to take the chill off of it.

So, this beautiful stack of loveliness is hubby's creation.  He is a great one for using fish in every which way he can - and my goodness but it worked well here.

Our local supermarket is currently selling perfectly sized portions of smoked haddock, all neatly packaged in a little microwaveable bag with its own pat of butter and quite affordable at the moment at a special offer price of 99p.  Just a couple of minutes in the microwave, slit the top and you've got a perfect piece of fish - which is just the job for this recipe.

So, once you've cut your bread and put it on to grill, chucked the fish into the microwave and got it twirling, the only thing left to do is put the kettle on for some boiling water for the tenderstem and the egg.  Once it boils (and I recommend getting the heat on under the saucepan, so as not to knock all the heat out of the water by pouring it into a cold pan) three to four minutes later your tenderstem is done and you've a lovely poached egg to go on top.  Drop your little bit of Hollandaise in its pot into the hot water and seconds later it's ready to drizzle over the top.  After that, it's just an assembly job!

You don't even need to butter your toast - depending on how much Hollandaise you've got.  Just pop it onto a plate, lay the tenderstem across the toast, then the fish on top of that, the egg crowns the lot and the Hollandaise drizzles beautifully across everything.  Knockout!

Hubby is sensitive to eggs - as you probably remember - so he made one for himself that didn't have the poached egg.  I reckon that it looks every bit as tasty and inviting as the poached egg version - so if you're egg sensitive too, why not go for the egg-free version and pop a knob of butter on top of your fish.  Delicious!

I can see this recipe appearing again at the weekends, for lunch.  Son & heir was distraught that he'd missed it because he was at school.  Ooops!

TENDERSTEM & SMOKED HADDOCK STACK  (feeds 2)

Ingredients :

2 slices of sourdough bread or some other robust bread
butter for spreading
4-6 stems of Tenderstem broccoli
100g of smoked haddock (microwave in the bag is perfect)
a capful of white wine vinegar
1 egg
a small amount of leftover Hollandaise sauce, or a knob of butter.

Method :

1.  Boil a kettle and, while it boils, place two saucepans onto a gentle heat.  (Not if they're non-stick, or you'll damage the non-stick coating).

2.  Put the bread into your toaster to toast, or under the grill - but remember to keep an eye on it!

3.  Place the fish into the microwave for the prescribed time.

4.  Once the water boils in the two saucepans, add the tenderstem to one and the white wine vinegar to the other.  Crack the egg into a ramekin and pour it gently into the water.  Cook for 3-4 minutes (or to taste).


5.  When the toast is done, put it onto the plate and spread a little butter onto it.


6.  When the tenderstem broccoli is done, drain well and lay 2-3 stems across the toast.


7.  When the fish is done, slit the bag carefully (those things are evil for scalds!) and tip the fish onto the tenderstem.


8.  Carefully lay the poached egg on top and drizzle over the Hollandaise.


9.  Season to taste and dig in!


Printable version
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Feeding eggs to egg-phobics : Mediterranean Frittata

I love eggs.  There's no two ways about it.  I can't think of any incarnation of eggyness that I would turn down - and I've always said to Son & heir that you won't go hungry all the time there's an egg in the house.

Hubby, however, is a different story.  He has a valid reason (two, in fact) for his reticence towards embracing the loveliness that is all things egg.  When he was just a little chap, he suffered a collapsed lung following on from eating an egg.  Now he admits that it may not have been the egg that did it, but as there was nothing else to blame at the time, the egg copped it.  He also has a big texture issue.  He can cope with runny egg yolk, but that's it.  No solidity to the egg yolk and certainly not the white of the egg.  These two things bring a quite marked reaction in his ability to keep the food down.  If you understand what I'm not saying, here.

However, he will happily chomp his way through an Impossible Quiche, or any pastry-based Quiche and will even contemplate an omelette on occasion.  Eggs in baking are okay too, as they just become a part of a whole and are indistinguishable in their form.  The same goes for meringue, however that's pretty much off the menu list owing to the sugar content.  Eggs in custard are fine - but not a custard tart, as that switches on the texture alert.

Now I like to include eggs in our diet on a regular basis as they are so good for you.  Low in fat, high in protein, they're the perfect little package.  So, when I saw the recipe for this Mediterranean Frittata on www.food4two.wordpress.com and realised that it didn't contain any potato (which hubby has had more than enough of in his life, already), I was very keen to make it.  Needless to say, I love any kind of frittata and am famous for making one which contained defrosted oven chips as its potato component.  It works, if you're brave enough to try!

This little frittata is really lovely.  We all felt that it lacked a little in substance (which is where the potato comes in) and when I make it again (which I will) I'll include some sweet potato, or maybe butternut squash, together with mushrooms - which would be just fabulous with it.

I opted for Basil as my herb of choice, which naturally went very well with the courgette and sun dried tomato.  One note on the courgette - instead of slicing it into rounds, I cut it into ribbons with a potato peeler.  This was largely to camouflage it from Son & heir, who has declared a hatred of the poor old courgette.  It worked, as he never noticed it and ventured the opinion that he liked it but for the sun dried tomatoes.  Well, I'm quite prepared to admit that one can never win when trying to feed an almost-teenager.

Where the cheese was concerned, again owing to Son & heir's long list of dislikes I steered clear of Feta.  Instead, I used a creamy and crumbly Cheshire cheese which has an almost lemony flavour and which went just beautifully with the remainder of the ingredients.  When I mentioned the cheese to Son & heir he commented "there was cheese on it?" which I consider to be a positive, even though he didn't notice how lovely it was.

Yet another deviation from the original recipe was that instead of using green beans, I pressganged some leftover Tenderstem Broccoli into use.  I honestly think that you can't go wrong with Tenderstem.  Just cut it to the size that would be manageable in the recipe it's intended to work with and it does its job beautifully.  Incidentally, asparagus would do a similar and just as tasty, job.  I cut each piece of tenderstem into three - two pieces of stalk and one fluffy piece is far easier to handle than trying to manhandle a long piece of broccoli into the pan!

So the recipe I'm including here is my version of the original, which you will find if you click on the link to Food4two above.  However, I'm quite sure that like a lot of these frittata recipes, anything along the veggie line that you would like to include would go just as nicely.  The only thing you need to watch is that a) you don't make the mix too wet by putting something pulpy in it and b) that whatever you're including, goes well with its fellows.

MEDITTERANEAN FRITTATA (serves 4)

Ingredients :

1 courgette, cut into ribbons
1 tbsp olive oil
a handful of Tenderstem broccoli, cut into 3 pieces
5 eggs (I used lovely Burford Brown eggs, just to make it a bit more special)
a handful of sliced basil
freshly ground black pepper
six or so halves of sun-dried tomato, chopped
75-100g of Cheshire cheese, crumbled.

Method :

1.  In a deep frying pan, heat the olive oil and add the courgette slices.  Fry gently until the courgette is tender.

2.  At the same time, heat a saucepan of salted water to boiling and blanche the Tenderstem pieces for 3 minutes, then drain and reserve.


3.  In a bowl, whisk the eggs with the basil and pepper.  You can add a teensy pinch of salt, depending on how salty your cheese is.  I opted not to do this, as the Cheshire cheese was quite salty enough.


4.  Once the courgette is cooked, add the tenderstem pieces and the sun-dried tomatoes to the pan and pour over the egg.


5.  Once you're happy that the vegetables are evenly spaced, add the cheese in crumbles over the top.  You can push the bigger pieces down into the egg to secure them a little if you wish.


6.  Cook on a medium heat for a few minutes - or until the bottom and sides have set.  Then slide the pan under a hot grill for another 2-3 minutes until risen, golden and cooked through.  There should be no wet egg visible if you press down in the middle of the frittata.


7.  Serve warm with salad and crispy croutons.
  
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There's nothing plain, about this Quiche Lorraine!

Didja see what I did there?  *chuckle*

I took a sudden fancy for Quiche Lorraine.  Yes, I know, there are a billion different quiches out there that are far more exciting and interesting in their ingredients than plain old Quiche Lorraine, but I was feeling a bit de-tuned in the ingredients line at the time.

I wanted something savoury, that could be accompanied by salad.  I was also fairly keen to use my new quiche dish again.

The plan (which worked to perfection) was to make sure that the ingredients were the best I could achieve, bearing in mind finance and availability.  So that meant shop-bought pastry (because my last attempts at rolling out pastry were a trial, putting it mildly), beautiful Burford Brown eggs (for their unctuous richness and glorious colour), our local butcher's back bacon (because it is by far the best bacon available around here) and some gorgeously strong, salty mature cheddar cheese.

Add to that a pot of cream and some lovely cherry tomatoes and you have all the makings for a superb Quiche Lorraine.

To make extra-sure that the bottom of the pastry was cooked (I have some history with soggy bottoms), I put the pastry back into the oven for five minutes without the baking beans, when I blind baked it.  I'll have to remember to do this more often, as it certainly solved the "soggy bottom" problem.  The bottom of this pastry was as crisp as you could want - even the next day, when I polished off the last slice cold from the fridge.

QUICHE LORRAINE (Serves 4-5)

Ingredients :

1 pack pre-prepared shortcrust pastry, to fit an 8" quiche dish
1 pack back bacon, trimmed of fat
4 eggs
200ml double cream
freshly ground black pepper
a quarter tsp of nutmeg
150g gruyere or mature cheddar cheese
4-5 cherry tomatoes, sliced.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 180deg C/356F/Gas 4.

2.  Roll out the pastry so that it fits neatly into the quiche dish, with sufficient up the sides to hold the mixture in.  Place the pastry gently into the quiche dish and trim any excess.

3.  Scrunch up a piece of baking paper that will fit easily into the pastry dish.  Smooth it out and put on top of the pastry.  Next, fill the pastry case with baking pellets or beans - to prevent the case from bubbling up as it bakes.

4.  Bake for 20 minutes, then remove the paper and baking beans and bake again for another 5 minutes or until the pastry has gained a lovely golden hue.

5.  Remove the pastry case from the oven and set aside to cool whilst you make the filling.

6.  Cut the bacon into small squares and place into a dry frying pan.  Fry until each piece is beginning to caramelise, but before the pieces become crispy.  Set aside to cool slightly.

7.  Crack the eggs into a large bowl and give them a good whisk.  Add the cream, nutmeg and salt & pepper and whisk to combine.

8.  Take the pastry case and add the bacon to it.

9.  Grate the cheese and add three quarters of the mixture on top of the bacon, then give it all a little mix - making sure the bacon is evenly spread.

10.  Pour the egg mixture into the case and give it a very gentle stir around, to make sure it has got under all the cheese.

11.  Next, sprinkle the top with the remaining cheese and lay the slices of tomato over it, in an appealing pattern.

12.  Give the tomatoes a sprinkling of freshly ground pepper and place the quiche into the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until the top is risen and golden.

Allow to cool before serving at room temperature with a side salad.

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Smoked Haddock & Sweetcorn Tart - superb picnic food!

If you don't make anything else over the course of the next two weeks, do try and make this tart - you won't regret it!

I'd reached the point where I had decided on meals for 6 out of the 7 days for the week, when it occurred to me that I was trying to find something for Tuesday - shopping day.  The point here is that shopping day is a perfect choice for something fishy.  I hate having to freeze fresh fish, and would by far prefer to use fresh over pre-frozen, you see.

So I pondered on the recipes I already know that involve fish and nothing filled me with enthusiasm.  So, I looked on the web for "Haddock Recipes" - and turned up HaddockRecipes.co.uk, a simply brilliant choice for all kinds of recipes involving haddock.  Several were skipped over, until I found the tart recipe from Laura Young.

Isn't it funny, how some recipes just say "Yes!", whereas others don't light up your imagination at all?  The minute I saw the name, I thought "oh, now, this one looks likely!" and upon first read-through I could almost taste how it was going to turn out.

Of course, I didn't count on Asda having a superlative piece of smoked haddock that, I am sure, turned this from a nice recipe into a gorgeous recipe.

On the way to do the shopping, it dawned on me that I didn't have a tart tin big enough to accommodate this tart.  As it turned out, neither did Asda - but they did have a glass Quiche dish that was the perfect size and by happy coincidence, made the perfect receptacle.  Serving was something of a delicate exercise, but achievable.

This photograph is so evocative, it makes me hungry!

I give my version of the recipe below, because I've altered four things in it.  Firstly, I've included a lot more fish, as the amount given just wasn't enough to cover what was quite a large tart tin.  Secondly, I've changed the wholegrain mustard to Dijon mustard, as I found the whole grains sank to the bottom of the egg mixture.  When you poured it into the tart tin, the whole grains all fell out in one place instead of being spread across the tart.  I can't help but think that Dijon will stay evenly spread.  Next, is that I recommend poaching the fish via the microwave, rather than on top of the cooker.  I find it a lot quicker and easier.  Lastly, I have dropped the temperature for cooking, from 220deg C to 190deg C.  I found the higher heat too aggressive for the pastry, which was very nearly burned by the time the tart was done.  The tart will need longer cooking, but that's fine so long as the pastry doesn't burn!

Apart from the lovely fish, I also used three Burford Brown eggs.  Burford Browns are just so gorgeously rich and I felt a tart like this could cope with a richer egg.  The ensuing flavour was beautifully savoury, yet light, without being at all sickly - even with 150ml of Double Cream in the mix!

So, do yourself and your family a favour - and make this recipe.  You won't regret it!

SMOKED HADDOCK & SWEETCORN TART  (Feeds 5)

Ingredients:

Pack of shortcrust pastry
500g smoked haddock
100ml milk
3 eggs
150ml cream
150g sweetcorn, drained
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
Handful of parsley
Salt and pepper

Method :

1.  Place the fish into a microwavable dish with the milk and some seasoning. Microwave on high for 3 minutes, to poach the fish until just shy of being done.  Remove it from the microwave and take each piece of fish out onto a plate to be flaked.  Reserve the milk.

2. Roll the pastry out to around 1cm thick and place it into a 23cm (9in) diameter loose-bottomed tart tin without trimming the sides. Line the pastry with baking parchment, and then tip some baking beans onto the paper. Blind bake the pastry for 15-20 minutes at 190deg C and then remove it from the oven and set it to one side.

3. Beat the eggs and mix them with the reserved milk and the cream. Finely chop the parsley and add to the mixture, along with the Dijon mustard. Season well.

4. Remove the baking beans and parchment from the pastry and then sprinkle the bottom of the tart with the sweetcorn and the flaked fish.

5. Pour the egg mixture over the fish and sweetcorn and then place the tart into the oven at 190deg C for 35-45 minutes, or until the surface no longer feels as though there is wet egg underneath it.

6. Once cooked, trim the excess pastry and then allow the tart to cool before cutting it into slices. 


For a main course, serve with new potatoes and a side salad.  Perfect also for picnics.

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