Smoked mackerel, capers & tomato spaghetti with pesto

I'm really quite proud of this little recipe, as it came about during one of our "staff meetings" when we were having a brainstorm about what we would actually like to eat as opposed to what we thought we should have to eat.  I can remember thinking, as we were contemplating complimentary flavours for it, that less is more and this was definitely one of those pasta dishes.

Now I know that smoked mackerel isn't to everyone's liking, but for this recipe I've used some honey smoked mackerel which is a lot milder in flavour than the peppered or just straight smoked versions.  I heartily recommend that you go for a sweeter type of smoked mackerel, as not doing so will affect the sweet/savoury balance.  If you just can't find any, don't despair, just add a half a teaspoonful of honey along with the tomatoes and you'll be fine.

Speaking of tomatoes, I recommend raspberry tomatoes if you can get them. They are really big, quite fleshy tomatoes with a gorgeously rich tomato flavour - and perfect for something like this.  I get mine from my local Polish delicatessen, so if all else fails, try your closest Polish shop or even an Ethnic shop if you have one.

The recipe doesn't have a sauce as such, as quite simply the extra virgin olive oil and tomatoes (devoid of seeds, but still full of juice) combine with the shallots, pepper and capers to make this dish anything but dry.  The oiliness of the smoked mackerel is tempered by the tomatoes but the secret weapon of the dish are the capers.  Every now and then your tongue trips over one and the intense flavour just wakes up your palate, all ready to again be soothed and comforted by the spaghetti and green pesto.

I hesitate to draw your attention to the fact, but this dish is also extraordinarily good for you. Nutritionally, I reckon it's probably one of the best I've come up with in some time.  But let's skip lightly over that and concentrate on how good it tastes, eh?  After all, I don't want to put anyone off it by shouting too loudly about how good it is for you.

As for the Cook's Tips, the recipe is so simple I don't have many.  Just to say to make sure that you have the spaghetti water boiling before you put the shallots on to cook, or you'll be waiting for the pasta while your tomatoes are cooking instead of heating up, which will spoil the texture if not the flavour.

Oh - and don't forget to rinse the capers.

So, onwards to the recipe!

SMOKED MACKEREL, CAPERS & TOMATO SPAGHETTI WITH PESTO   (serves 3)

Ingredients :

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 shallot, finely chopped
250g dried spaghetti
2 large full flavoured tomatoes, pips removed, diced
6 cherry tomatoes, pips removed, quartered
2 tbsp capers, rinsed of salt or brine
half a tsp ground black pepper
a good pinch of sea salt
4 honey smoked mackerel fillets, skinned, boned and flaked into small chunks
2 tbsp fresh basil leaves
3 heaped tsp green pesto, to serve
1 tbsp chopped parsley, to serve.

Method :

Begin by putting a large pan of water on to boil.

Next, heat the extra virgin olive oil over a low heat in a frying pan.  Add the chopped shallot and fry very gently until softened.

When the water comes to a boil, add the dried spaghetti and cook to manufacturer's instructions (usually around 10-12 minutes).

In the meantime, add all the tomatoes, capers, black pepper and sea salt to the shallots and just warm them through, without really cooking them.  They should be distinctly warm to the touch before the next stage.

Once the spaghetti is cooked to your preference, drain and return to the hot pan.

Add the tomato mixture, the flaked mackerel and tear the basil leaves into the pan.  Stir through gently and serve immediately with an extra splash of extra virgin olive oil.

Garnish with a good heaped teaspoonful of green pesto and a light sprinkle of chopped parsley.

Printable version

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.
  
. 

Birthday lunch (there's going to be a "birthday dinner" later, you're right)

Ciabatta-style bread, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, char-grilled.

Then rubbed with garlic and grilled again.

Then the vine ripened tomatoes were char-grilled, while the basil went onto the rolls, followed by the tomato when it was done.

Balsamic vinegar was then drizzled over the tomatoes and salt & pepper added, before a final flourish of Feta cheese.

Absolutely divine.

.

Springtime Prawn Pasta

I have said how I want to move us along from eating heavy stews and cream-laden this that and the others - which is okay during the winter (to a certain extent), but doesn't do for spring or summer.

As such, I found a recipe on Yummly that got my brain ticking over as regards a pasta dish.  I was looking for a lighter pasta dish anyway and although the one in question (Creamy Shrimp & Mushroom Pasta) didn't really fit the bill owing to its use of linguine (which hubby has requested we steer clear of for a while) and mushrooms (which Son & heir can't abide), it only needed a change in ingredients to make it a viable proposition.

The trouble was, I then had a bit of brain-fade about what to use instead of mushrooms, that would make it "spring like".  Owing to said brain-fade, I wound up using baby corn and sugar snap peas.  Which were fine - but it required something else to give it another dimension.  As I was cooking it, I was wishing I had a bunch of spring onions in the fridge.  I'm sure they would have done the trick. 

I was also aware that a whole pack of cream cheese wasn't exactly following the "steer clear of creamy stuff" brief, but having changed the recipe to include a low fat cream cheese, figured that was enough of a compromise.

The end result was nice, but requires some work.  When I do it again (and I will, because I am convinced there's a nice dish in here somewhere), I'll change the low fat cream cheese to low fat creme fraiche, lose the garlic (as it didn't sit very well with the "spring" theme) and add spring onions and maybe some dill or tarragon along with a good scrunge or four of freshly ground black pepper.  (A "scrunge", for those not in the know, is a turn of the peppermill.  "Scrunge" is our description of the sound it makes!).

So, unusually, the recipe you have here is the untried and untested, mark II version.  Do let me know what it's like, if you try it before I do!

SPRINGTIME PRAWN PASTA  (feeds 3-4)

Ingredients :

Enough Fusilli pasta for the assembled throng.  I usually use around 4-500g for 3 of us.
a knob of butter
a bunch of spring onions, trimmed and chopped quite fine
300ml pot of creme fraiche
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped dill or tarragon (not both!)
1 tbsp chopped basil
300g prawns (I used frozen cooked peeled prawns, defrosted)
100g baby corn, broken into quarters
100g sugar snap peas
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper.

METHOD :

1.  Put a large pan of salted water on to boil.  Once boiling, add the pasta to it and cook as it says on the packet.  However, seven minutes before it is ready, add the baby corn and four minutes before it is ready, add the sugar snap peas.  It is best if they are at room temperature before adding, so as not to cool the water too much.

2.  In a frying pan, melt the knob of butter and add the spring onions.  Cook them gently until they are beginning to soften.

3.  Then, add the creme fraiche and warm through gently, stirring all the time.

4.  Add the herbs and stir through, along with a good quantity of the black pepper.

5.  Making sure that the creamy mixture is quite thick (reduce it a little further, if not), add the prawns and stir them through.  Allow the mixture to come to a simmer, then check for seasoning and adjust if needs be.

6.  When the pasta is done, drain in a colander and replace into the pan.

7.  Add the prawns to the pasta and stir through, then serve immediately.

.

Chicken & Bacon Cacciatore

Well, this recipe had mixed results in our family in that I loved it, son liked it, hubby liked it, but wouldn't go out of his way to have it again.

I thought I'd post it up, on the reckoning that there's a nasty cold bug travelling through the household (which started with son) and there's every chance that hubby's taste buds could have been affected.

We had tried a recipe for Chicken Cacciatore previously, which had turned out to be pale pink in the extreme.  So I'd been looking for another recipe which looked likely to turn out something flavoured rather more robustly.  Inevitably, I've tinkered around with the recipe so that it suits our requirements (breast of chicken instead of pieces, plus additional herbs) but the net result was a very creditable meal.

I served it with mashed potato, carrots and stringless beans, however it would be just as nice with anything from chip shop chips to plain white rice.  (Mmmmn .. did someone mention chip shop chips, just then? lol).

CHICKEN & BACON CACCIATORE (Serves 3, but is easily adjustable)

Ingredients :  

2 tbsp olive oil
3 skinless chicken breasts
6-9 rashers streaky bacon, chopped
2 onions, sliced
2 rosemary sprigs
1 x 400g can plum tomatoes
2 tbsp red or white wine vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
500ml chicken stock
small bunch of parsley, chopped
5-10 leaves of basil, (depending on their size) chopped.


Method :

1.  Heat the oil in a deep frying pan.  Brown the chicken until golden, then reserve and keep warm.


2.  Add the bacon and cook until the fat has rendered and the bacon is crisping.  Then reserve with the chicken.


3.  Add the onions and rosemary (leave the rosemary as a sprig, don't remove the leaves from the stick) to the pan and fry for 5-10 minutes or until the onions have softened and are beginning to brown.


4.  Add the tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, stock and seasoning.  Taste to check the seasoning.


5.  Add the bacon, then the chicken and bring to a simmer.


6.  Cover and cook for 25-30 mins until the chicken is tender.  If the sauce is still quite thin, add a teaspoon of cornflour slaked with a little water and stir until the sauce thickens.


7.  Add the parsley and basil, stir to combine and serve.


.

Parmigiana di melanzane - or Aubergines with Mozzarella and Parmesan

I first made this dish to accompany a roast chicken - which it did very well.  It occurred to me at the time, that it would be good with a lot of other types of meat and especially greasy types like pork or gammon, or types that tend towards dryness, as with chicken.

However, this time, it was nobody's second fiddle but the star of the show, accompanied by some salad and garlic bread.  The meat eaters in the family would have preferred more carbs with their Parmigiana, but nobody announced that they missed the meat.

If you make use of one of those olive oil sprays when cooking the aubergine, you are able to keep the oil to a minimum.  Although the dish is heaving with cheese, neither of them are very greasy cheeses and so it stays really light.  I think the juiciness of the tomato & basil sauce helps to balance the rich cheese and the aubergine becomes deliciously soft and gently flavoursome.  I really must make this one more often!

PARMIGIANA DI MELANZANE (serves 4 as a main course)

Ingredients :

2 aubergines, topped, tailed and sliced thinly
olive oil spray
sea salt & ground black pepper
300g mozzarella, sliced
115g parmesan (or Grana Padano), grated
3 tbsp panko or crispy breadcrumbs
1 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces.
  

For the tomato & basil sauce :

1 tbsp olive oil

3 banana shallots, chopped finely

2 garlic cloves, chopped finely

400g can chopped tomatoes
1 large vine ripened tomato, chopped
2 tsp tomato puree

1 tbsp tomato ketchup

1 tsp of Worcestershire Sauce

3-4 fresh basil sprigs, torn
1 tsp sugar or honey

sea salt & black pepper to taste.

Arrange the aubergine slices in a single layer on 1-2 baking sheets.  Spray with olive oil and season, then bake in a preheated oven at 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6, for 10-15 minutes, until tender, but not collapsing.

Over a high heat and using a large frying pan, add the olive oil and when up to temperature add the shallots and garlic.  Cook, stirring regularly, for 5 minutes or so until softened.   Add the tomatoes, stir in the tomato puree, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, fresh torn basil and season with salt and pepper to taste, adding the sugar or honey if it requires a bit more sweetness.  Bring to a lively simmer then lower the heat and gently simmer for about 10 minutes, until thickened.  

Spray an ovenproof dish with olive oil and arrange half the aubergine slices in the base.  Cover with half the mozzarella, spoon over half the tomato sauce and sprinkle with half the Parmesan.  Mix the remaining Parmesan with the breadcrumbs.  Make more layers, ending with the Parmesan mixture.

Dot the top with butter and bake for 25 minutes, until the topping is golden brown.

Remove from the oven and leave to stand for 5 minutes, before slicing and serving.

Printable version