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

Smoked mackerel & Mediterranean potato salad - Mediterranean week gets under way!

It seems as though we may very well have had our summer - but in the two days of sunshine that came our way just recently, it sparked off a desire for Mediterranean-style eating.

Ever hopeful that we might get a day or so of sun before winter is upon us again, I thought I'd share the best of the recipes.

Now you know how much hubby loves his smoked mackerel - and I do too, but to a slightly lesser degree.  Hubby will eat his smoked mackerel any way he can get it - hot or cold - but I find that a hot mackerel dish will repeat on me for a month of Sundays.  Now for all that repeated burping causes some hilarity amongst the family, it does get a bit much when it's followed by terminal heartburn - or is that too much information?

As a result, the first dish of our Mediterranean week is smoked mackerel, served cold, with an accompanying warm Mediterranean Potato Salad and a tomato & red onion salad.  If you prefer your mackerel hot, then by all means warm it up - it won't make a jot of difference to the dish.

I spotted the Mediterranean Potato Salad in the BBC Good Food Magazine and it ticked all the right boxes for both son & heir and myself.  I wasn't too sure about hubby, though, as we all know his relationship with potatoes isn't great.  Still, I crossed my fingers that the use of Jersey Royal new potatoes, together with the roasted red peppers and black olives in the dish (both of which are particular favourites), paired with mackerel might do the trick.

Well, it almost did.  It was the garlic that did for him - and oddly, it seemed to be the pairing of garlic and tomato.  Still, there's no accounting for taste - and it will be easy to leave the garlic out next time.

Both son & heir and I really liked the warm salad.  It was a lovely departure and a welcome change from using Jersey Royal New Potatoes in a traditional way (i.e. with butter and mint).  I have also taken to using English rapeseed oil instead of olive oil, now that we have found a couple of suppliers that provide affordable rapeseed oil.  This was, pretty much, my first voyage with using the oil in a salad sense - and we like it.  Rapeseed oil has a much nuttier flavour than olive (not surprisingly) and I've found that it blends very easily with Mediterranean style flavours.  Well worth doing, when you consider all the health benefits of rapeseed oil over olive oil.  If you thought olive oil was good for you, have a look at a comparison between the two.  With half the saturated fat of olive oil and a higher flashpoint which means it can be used in roasting and stir frying, it wins my vote!

It did occur to me, that the salad could be made even more Mediterranean style, by using sun dried tomatoes instead of the tin of tomatoes - but I have yet to try this theory out!

The Mediterranean Potato Salad as it stands, is simplicity itself to make and the sauce can be put together as the potatoes cook.  Paired with the simple tomato & red onion salad and an even simpler smoked mackerel, this really is a meal that takes minutes to prepare - and is good for you on all sorts of levels!

MEDITERRANEAN POTATO SALAD   (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp olive oil (I used Rapeseed Oil)
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove (optional, leave it out of you're sensitive to garlic)
1-2 tsp oregano, either fresh or dried
200g tinned cherry tomatoes (I used the other half for breakfast the next day!)
100g roasted red peppers, sliced (I used them from a jar and rinsed off the vinegar)
300g new potatoes, halved if large
25g black olives, sliced
handful of basil leaves, torn.

Method :

1.  In a small saucepan, heat the oil and add the onion.  Cook on a gentle to medium heat for 5-10 minutes until soft.

2.  Add the oregano and continue to cook for another minute.

3.  Add the tomatoes and peppers, season well and simmer gently for 10 minutes.

4.  Meanwhile, cook the potatoes in a pan of boiling salted water for 10-15 minutes or until tender.  Drain well, mix with the sauce and serve warm, sprinkled with olives and basil.

Printable version
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Menu plan? What menu plan?

Well, we DID make a menu plan - then it all went to worms as we shoved all the planned meals to one side and went for takeaway.

Firstly, on Tuesday, son & heir was invited to stay at his friend's for tea so there didn't seem to be a lot of point in making what was a three person meal (I'd bought the fish already, you see) for the two of us.  So hubby had a kebab and I had some chicken.

Canton Restaurant, Poole

Then, on Wednesday, I was driving back from a local shopping trip when I found myself yearning for a Chinese takeaway.  So intense was this yearning (they happen often, but I can ordinarily ignore it) that it wasn't going to be ignored.  I mentioned it to the family and everyone seemed keen - so that was what happened.  I shared some Spare Ribs with son & heir, a Canton Special Fried Rice and a Hot & Spicy Special Chow Mein with hubby and had a Duck with bamboo shoots, water chestnuts & cashews all for myself.  It was totally lush.  I've got the leftovers for lunch today, too.  ~glee~

So, as a result, we'll ignore Tuesday and Wednesday and - where the menu plan is concerned - pretend they never happened.

Here's what's on the plan for the rest of the week :

Thurs : Smoked mackerel, mediterranean potato salad and a tomato salad

Fri : Roast vegetable & bacon pasta

Sat : BBQ Pork chops with roast vegetable giant couscous

Sun : Stromboli and rice salad

Mon : Sausage & mozzarella bake with garlic bread.

The two meals that have been swerved this week were to have been Chilli Dogs with hash browns & coleslaw, plus a Beef Curry.  I'll just move them on to next week as we hadn't shopped for them yet anyway.

The two roast vegetable meals were, initially, separated by a day.  Because of having to swap the meals around a bit, they've come together which isn't the best plan - but hopefully they'll be sufficiently different in character that we don't feel over-roast vegetabled!

Oy! Put that out!

Looking at the way the rain is currently falling semi-horizontally from the sky, I think we might have been able to just reach outside the front door and catch a couple of mackerel!  As it is, we've already bought our mackerel and dinner tonight is a simple matter of putting together the Mediterranean potato salad.  It is a warm salad, involving tinned cherry tomatoes, roasted red peppers, black olives and new potatoes which sounded a pleasant change from the mayonnaise type of potato salad.

We've gone particularly Mediterranean this week.  Maybe it's because we know it's the closest we'll get to the Mediterranean, as there's no chance of affording a holiday there and even if we could, if I could get there (which is unlikely) I wouldn't be able to do anything as I can't walk around.  I don't qualify for a wheelchair from the NHS and can't afford to buy one, so we'll just have to eat holiday-style instead.

The roast vegetable and bacon pasta is really a simple matter of roasting some aubergine, red onion, courgette and tomato with garlic, grilling some bacon and combining the whole lot with some pasta, basil leaves and parmesan.

Son & heir has a friend coming over for the day that day, so it seemed a good dish to put before teenagers - having bacon and cheese - so long as they don't object too strongly to the aubergine and courgette!

I've been aware of giant couscous (Moghrabieh) for a while - since I bought my two Ottolenghi cook books which feature it in a couple of recipes.  I found some in our local Asda (amazingly) some while ago and have had a lttle play with it, but this is really the first  "proper" go with it.

Moghrabieh served with mixed veggies

This instalment of roast vegetables won't include the aubergine, but will include red pepper and will have a dressing of lemon, olive oil and fresh chopped mint.  I think it will be fresh and a lovely pairing with the BBQ (Mic's Chilli "El Loco" BBQ Sauce again!) pork chops.  You never know, if the weather has improved by then we might even be able to cook the chops on our new barbecue!  Not likely, but you can hope!

Hubby is making a Stromboli for Sunday's dinner - after the style of the Hairy Bakers' Stromboli as featured on their recent European Bakeation tour.  It will be along the lines of a pizza filling, with a rich tomato sauce, pepperoni, onion, ham & mozzarella.  We're currently thinking we'll have some rice salad to accompany it.

Photo c/o Vintage Victuals

I thought I'd have a go at an American style Peach Cobbler for dessert on Sunday.  It's a bit like the Strawberry & Rhubarb Pie, in that I hear so many people talking about "their Mom's Peach Cobbler" as being the best, etc. etc. that I just have to find out what's so good about it.  Hooray for t'internet, because without that I'd be lost for a recipe.  As it is, I'm spoiled for choice and will most probably do what I often do and take what seems to be the best points from a number of different recipes and make my own!

Our local Asda has some really gorgeous, intensely flavoured little peaches in at the moment - it's the beginning of the season here - that I can't help but think would be just perfect for a Peach Cobbler.

Monday's Sausage & Mozzarella Bake is a request from son & heir, who has liked this one ever since the first time I made it.  It's a Jamie Oliver recipe and is so easy to make, it is perfect for a Monday.

As for extra bakes and makes, well, I'm expecting all sorts of things to come in over the next few weeks, where various people have asked me to try various products.  I look forward to receiving these challenges, as the devising of new recipes is an opportunity for hubby and I to put our collective mighty brains together in something other than a family matter.  Yes, occasionally we have a difference of opinion and yes, occasionally I'll offend hubby mightily by stamping all over his good ideas because I like my own good idea better - but eventually they all get an airing and the best ones reach the blog.  So, it's all good.

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Smoked Mackerel with Winter Couscous and ... a garlic mushroom?

Yes, the garlic mushroom was perhaps a step too far where this meal was concerned.

Still, although I wouldn't recommend the combination again, the garlic mushroom itself was just divine.  Hubby was the first to mention its being out of place beside the mackerel and couscous - which I couldn't comment upon because I'd eaten mine before I ate anything else.  It's been a while since we had those Portobello mushrooms in any dish, so oven baked with garlic butter meant it was a case of "hello old friend" and once I'd started, I found it impossible to stop.

I did see his point, however.  I suspect that being a mushroom-a-holic, just the idea of making the oven baked garlic mushroom was enough to convince me that it would fit nicely beside the other ingredients.  I had to have been suffering from mushroom blindness.  It's my only excuse, so I'm sticking to it.

Doesn't it look completely and utterly lush, though?  Ooooh yes.  I shall have to get some more and make them again for a weekend lunch, except this time slap them inside a crusty roll and make sure I'm wearing a bib to catch the juice as it drips down my chin.

I'll just be off for a bit of a lie down, I think.  Too much luscious mushroom imagery.

So, if possible, if we can forget about the mushroom involvement in this dish (~weeps~)?  The Winter Couscous, however, was completely brilliant and went beautifully with the rich smoked Mackerel.

Making the Winter Couscous is a breeze, so long as you've got a little bit of time beforehand and a kitchen door.  The door is necessary to be able to shut and so prevent your smoke alarm from going doo-lally as you chargrill the courgettes, peppers and red onion.  Having lots of windows (or another, back door) to open and so allow the smoke out and some air in, is another good idea.

I absolutely adore using my chargrill pan.  I always start off the process being a little bit scared of it, as it is cast iron and so gets utterly blindingly hot - including the handle.  I made the mistake of connecting with that handle once when we first got the thing - and I've been petrified of doing it again.   Making sure you've got an oven glove or tea towel to hand is a necessary I find.

The other thing that's a teensy bit skeery is that things tend to pop and crackle when cooking - particularly the red pepper.  Yes, I'm a big wimp and yes I did jump every time it popped or crackled, but once you get using the pan (and provided you remember to oil the food and not the pan) you find that it's not so scary after all.

I even began to feel quite professional, as I laid on the strips of courgette, then flipped them over and admired the chargrill stripes that appeared.  Almost the best part about the whole process is the smell, but then that's beaten into the proverbial cocked hat by the flavours.  Of course, it is completely necessary for you to taste a piece of each vegetable - after all, Chef Raymond Blanc insists upon it.  (I reckon he uses a chargrill pan a lot, from the sounds of things, then).

I left the veggies to cool on a plate for a couple of hours before cutting them into smaller pieces for inclusion in the couscous.  It's only a wonder there was anything left (particularly of the courgette - yum), after all that rigorous taste testing.

Once you've done that process, it's just a simple matter of slicing the ingredients and mixing up the combination.


I was intending on putting a dressing with the couscous, however, the olive oil I used when chargrilling the vegetables was obviously sufficient when combined with the vinegary salty capers and the juices from the cooked vegetables, so an additional dressing was superfluous.


I thank Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi for my success with couscous.  If it wasn't for their Green Couscous recipe, I wouldn't have twigged to the intensity of flavours that's required to jazz up what is a really quite dreary carbohydrate.  So, I thank you, you two!


WINTER COUSCOUS    (feeds 4)


Ingredients :


A courgette, sliced into thin strips
a red pepper, diced into 1-2cm squares 
a red onion, cut into eight wedges
1-2 tbsp olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
150-200g couscous
1 tsp Marigold reduced salt vegetable stock bouillon powder
150-200ml boiling water
8 or so cherry tomatoes, quartered
half a celery stick, de-ribbed and diced finely
two handfuls of watercress and rocket salad leaves, thick stems removed and chopped into manageable pieces
a tbsp of fresh parsley, chopped roughly
a tsp of fresh mint, chopped roughly
a tbsp of capers, chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Method :

1.  Place the courgette and red pepper into a bowl and add the olive oil and seasoning (to taste).  Toss the vegetables until you are happy that everything is coated with oil.

2.  In the meantime, the chargrill pan can have been heating up.  If you don't have a chargrill pan, I suggest you just plain old grill the veggies.  Lay the first instalment of veggies onto the chargrill pan and leave them there until they are showing discernable stripes, then flip them over and grill the other side.  You are looking for their being softened, but not totally cooked through, i.e. retaining some crunch.

3.  Place the vegetables onto a plate to cool and continue cooking until you've done the lot.

4.  Place the onion into the bowl and, if necessary, add a little more oil.  Toss to coat and repeat the cooking process, adding the onions to the plate when done.

5.  Cover the plate with cling film and leave to cool.

6.  Place the couscous into a bowl and sprinkle the bouillon powder over.

7.  Add the boiling water (which should just appear at the same level as the top of the couscous), make sure the bouillon powder has been accepted by the water and cover the bowl with cling film.  Leave for 10 minutes, then uncover and fork through to loosen the grains.

8.  In the meantime, you can be preparing the remainder of the vegetables and slicing the chargrilled veggies into smaller pieces, for inclusion with the couscous.

9.  Once the couscous has cooled, add the remainder of the ingredients (i.e. all the vegetables) to the bowl, season to taste and fork lightly to distribute evenly.

10.  Serve with smoked mackerel fillets.

Quick lunchtime Smoked Mackerel Pate

Hubby has been trying to increase the amount of oily fish he eats in a week and, like me, he's begun to look at meals other than dinnertime.  After all, there's only so many dinners you can have in a week if they consist of smoked mackerel, nice as it is!

However, unlike me - who has opted for breakfast, he's opted for the lunchtime option.  He's also opted for the smoked mackerel route, whereas I'm alternating between tinned mackerel in tomato sauce and tinned mackerel in brine.


So, he invested in some three fillets of smoked mackerel and enjoyed two lunches from them.

This is one of those lunches - when he created a smoked mackerel pate to eat with some of my soda bread and a salad.  Looks good - and by all accounts, it tasted pretty fantastic.

The pate was a simple matter of flaking the fillets into a bowl, adding a teaspoon of horseradish sauce, enough mayonnaise to lubricate the mix, a squirt of lemon juice and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.

Pile onto a piece of freshly toasted soda bread - and eat with an accompanying salad.  Oh, and two ostentatious olives.  *chuckle*

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Peppered Mackerel with Sweetfire® Beetroot Couscous and horseradish cream

On to my next - and just as successful, but in a very different way - beetroot concoction for the "So you think you know beetroot" challenge.

This time, I wanted to use the Sweetfire® baby beetroot.  These adorable little baby beets have been infused with a chilli marinade and are just the most delectable mouthful.

So I began pondering on what would go with the chilli effect of the beetroot, not to mention the beetroot itself.  Here’s how the thought processes went :

Initially, my thoughts travelled down the “one leaf of Little Gem, filled with chopped beetroot with horseradish cream and with some smoked salmon on top” avenue, only to wonder how that could be translated into a full-size main course dinner.

Financially, smoked salmon for dinner was out, so I went sideways and wound up with peppered smoked mackerel.

In order to make it more of a main course, I jettisoned the lettuce leaves and pondered on carbohydrates.  So many forms of carbohydrate – pasta, potato and bread – just didn’t fit.  Then I remembered couscous.

So, I had couscous, with quartered baby beetroot.  Needs something to cool that chilli – aha!  Cucumber, peeled and de-seeded.  Couscous needs strong flavourings, so what about herbs?  What would go with mackerel and beetroot?  Fish always likes dill, so we’ll have some of that.  What about something else, to balance the earthiness?  Parsley, in this connection, would be a bit dull.  Hmmn .. how about mint?  Yes, mint!  Goes well with fish and cucumber and won’t fight with either the dill or the beetroot.  Maybe some red onion, to provide a sweet savouriness and lemon juice for balance.

One problem – I’ve not included the horseradish.  Hmmn, ponder ponder.  Well, I’ve got smoked fish and couscous but nothing particularly juicy or dressing-like.  Horseradish sauce alone is too strong.  How about if I were to let it down with a little Greek yoghurt?  Yes!  Then it would go not only with the fish, but also as a little dressing for the couscous – but not over the couscous, just by the side with some salad leaves.

Done!

In this way, the Peppered Mackerel with Sweetfire® Couscous and horseradish cream, was born.  We ate it for dinner on Tuesday last and it was utterly scrumptious.  It would work with just ordinary beetroot in natural juice too – just add a pinch of chilli flakes!

Hubby reckons he has never had a nicer accompaniment to Smoked Peppered Mackerel and I think he's got a point, there.

Everything was just perfect.  The oiliness of the mackerel was cut through by the chilli and lemon juice.  The flavours were enhanced by the horseradish.  The herbs provided the depth of flavour and the mint danced across your tongue.  If anything, the cucumber and dill took something of a back seat, however, I'm quite sure that without them the cooling elements of the couscous would be compromised and you'd sure notice that they weren't there - even if you didn't notice particularly, that they were!

Now, I've just got to prepare myself for a visit to Tesco or Waitrose in order to source some more Sweetfire® Beetroot and reproduce the recipe.  Get the blinkers out!

PEPPERED MACKEREL WITH SWEETFIRE® BEETROOT COUSCOUS & HORSERADISH CREAM  (serves 2)

Ingredients :

150g couscous

150ml vegetable stock

3 tbsp low fat greek yoghurt (I used 2% Total)

2 tsp horseradish sauce

210g pack Sweetfire® baby beetroot, cut into quarters or small dice

2 inch piece of cucumber, peeled, de-seeded and diced small

20g fresh dill, chopped

20g fresh mint, sliced gently into small pieces

small red onion, finely chopped

1 lemon, juiced

2 tbsp olive oil

250g pack peppered smoked mackerel fillets.

Method :

1.  Put the couscous into a large bowl, pour over the boiling vegetable stock, give a quick stir and cover with cling film.  Set aside for 10 minutes in a cool place, to encourage it to cool.

2.  Mix the horseradish sauce into the greek yoghurt and taste for seasoning.

3.  When the couscous has absorbed all the stock, uncover, give it a good fluff up with a fork and leave to cool.

4.  Once the couscous is cool, add the cucumber, herbs, onion, lemon juice and oil and toss well to ensure everything is mixed through.

5.  As the last thing, and to prevent the beetroot colouring the entire bowl of couscous, add the chopped beetroot and give a quick stir through.

6.  Serve by placing the couscous onto the plate, followed by the flaked smoked peppered mackerel and a dollop of the horseradish cream.  I also served some salad leaves.

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A Beetroot health fact!

Research has shown that beetroot can help reduce blood pressure as well as its associated risks such as heart attacks and strokes. This is because the high content of nitrates in beetroot produce a gas called nitric oxide in the blood which widens blood vessels and lowers blood pressure. A daily dose of 250ml of beetroot juice or 1 to 2 cooked beetroot (approx. 100g) can help dramatically reduce blood pressure and its associated risks.

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Indonesian fried rice with Mackerel

Well, our week's menu planning went right out of the window as of Wednesday evening.  I had bought ten chicken breasts so that I'd be all ready for two of the dishes booked onto the menu and could put one set of three and a single one into the freezer for next week.

However, hubby needed collecting from town with his newly acquired stereo - it was way too big to juggle all the way home on the bus - which broke into the time I would have been cooking the Paprika Chicken, before putting it in the oven.  So, we had sandwiches and some hastily purchased cake, instead.  A kind of high tea.

The stereo has proven to be a little gem, by the way - and a complete bargain.

Thursday evening, after a hugely busy day at work when I dealt with all the invoices for May (received so far, anyway) in the one day - never done that before! - I was absolutely wiped out when I came home and very definitely not in any fit state to make dinner.  I'll have to remember that when I'm pushing myself to get all the invoices done, in future!  ~slaps own forehead~

So, Thursday became a fish & chips day - and my menu planning was thrown into complete disarray.

However, bearing in mind that when Asda delivered the shopping on Tuesday, they forgot to deliver all of Friday's ingredients (and the pie for Monday!), I moved the Indonesian Fried Rice with Mackerel to Friday and bumped the Chicken Jalfrezi and Paprika Chicken to next week.

When Son & heir realised that it was Smoked Mackerel that we were going to have with the rice, he wasn't impressed.  So, because I'm a kind and thoughtful Mum, I defrosted the one lone chicken breast for him.  ~takes a curtsey~

I marinated it in a little sesame oil, some oyster sauce, soy sauce and honey, then put it in the oven at 200deg for 20-25 minutes.  He ate the lot and declared it yummy, so that was that job done.

This is very definitely one of those dishes that requires you to commit to a mise en place (or getting everything chopped and prepared before you start cooking).  I'd have totally lost the relatively small plot, had I have been trying to chop stuff as I went along.  Once you've got everything chopped and ready, then it's just an easy matter of picking it up, throwing it in and mixing as it cooks.  Of course, it makes a bit more washing up - which dear Hubby did for me.  Bless him!

As ever, I added a few ingredients and did away with one ingredient from the original recipe.  It just made it nicer from our point of view - plus it used up a few leftover veggies, which these fried rice dishes are so good at!

The ingredient I did away with, was some sliced and halved cucumbers which were used as garnish.  In truth, I forgot to slice them and in actuality I'm sure they would have been nice, so I've left them in the recipe as detailed below.  It's up to you whether you would like to include them, if you have a go at this.

I've also just eaten the leftovers for lunch, the day after.  I can confirm that it is even nicer the next day - so if you've got time on your hands and space in the fridge, it is probably worth doing it that way!

INDONESIAN FRIED RICE WITH MACKEREL  (serves 4)
From BBC Good Food website.

Ingredients :

1 tbsp olive oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp Thai red curry paste
pinch of caster sugar
800g cooked basmati rice
bunch spring onions, sliced
4-5 chestnut mushrooms, sliced
140g frozen peas
2 tbsp soy sauce (approx - you may need a little more)
4 smoked mackerel fillets, bones removed and flaked into chunks
half a cucumber, sliced into half moon shapes.


Method :


1.  Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok.  Tip in the eggs (I used each egg individually) and swirl to coat the base of the pan.  Cook for 1 minute, then flip and cook the other side until set.  Remove and roughly chop into ribbons, then place to keep warm.

2.  Add the mackerel to the warm place (under the grill, is good) to gently take on some heat.


3.  Add the curry paste to the pan with the sugar and fry for 1 minute.  Add the onions and mushrooms and stir to coat in the paste.  Cook for 2-3 minutes, before adding the cooked rice and folding gently to mix everything in and heat everything through well.


4.  Add the soy sauce, the omelette ribbons and mackerel.  Fold them through, gently.


5.  Serve, adding the cucumber sprinkled over the top.

The menu plan for 24 - 30 May 2011

Coming along! Our Gooseberry bush.

It suddenly occurred to me to include the date in the title to these menu plan posts.  At least, that way, if I ever want to analyse how I'm doing on the "cooking seasonally" front then I've got half of the information!

I'd been looking at recipes in the low fat and "healthy" range, but it occurred to me that "low GI" is another category of healthy meal that it would be worth investigating.  Not least because of hubby's mild diabetes.  If we can keep it at the "mild" stage, then that'd be fantastic.

The weather doesn't seem to be able to make up it's mind whether we're in summer or still in spring, at the moment.  However, with summer in its infancy, it's a foregone conclusion that we're heading into a time of salads and a lighter style of eating.  Personally, I'd love to eat the Mediterranean way - lots of fish, lamb, lovely vegetables and bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Gorgeous!  However, it's not that easy to do when you're having to balance your meals around everyone's likes and dislikes.

Jonty sunbathing on a warm day

Still, I figure that if I try everything in lots of different orders, eventually I'll hit on a repertoire of styles that suit everyone!

So, this week's menu looks like :

Tuesday : Pasta with Bacon, Goat's Cheese & Savoy Cabbage

Wednesday : Paprika chicken with Jacket Potatoes

Thursday : Indonesian fried rice with smoked Mackerel

Friday : Chicken Jalfrezi with rice

Saturday : Health in a Bowl with Ciabatta

Sunday : Dinner with my parents

Monday : Pie, new potatoes and vegetables.

Beginning with Tuesday, this Pasta dish really is the epitome of simple.  Just fry off the bacon, drain all but a teaspoon of the bacon fat (into the fat cup again) and cook the red onion.  Meanwhile, cook the pasta to which you add shredded cabbage in the last couple of minutes.  Melt a creamy goat's cheese in with the bacon & onions, let it down with a little of the pasta water and combine.  Add loads of parmesan to the plate and tuck in.  Does it get any more simple than that?  I don't think so!

Wednesday was originally meant to be the Paprika Chicken, however as I write this it is Wednesday evening and the chicken dish got bumped owing to the fact that I was needed to drive into town and collect hubby and his new stereo (brilliant bargain!) at exactly the time I would normally have been cooking.  ~gallic shrug~  What can you do, eh?  Couldn't leave the poor chap to juggle it all the way home on the bus!

In the end, we had a sort of mini high tea.  Ham sandwiches and a swiftly purchased box of cakes.  Son & heir definitely approved - that's his sort of dinner!

So tomorrow, Thursday, is the Indonesian fried rice with smoked mackerel.  It is another really simple dish to prepare - I'm pretty sure that the longest thing involved in it is picking the bones out of the middle of the mackerel!  This is one of the low GI meals, so it will be interesting to see how well received it is and whether it manages to keep us full for long.

Friday was to have been another low GI dish - Chicken Jalfrezi.  However, as Asda forgot to send me all the ingredients for it, I'm tempted to make this one into the bumped Paprika chicken - as I've got all the ingredients just waiting to go for that!  It'd save us having to shop for the Jalfrezi until next week, anyway.

Saturday brings about the return of Health in a Bowl.  Unfortunately it got bumped from last week for a very similar reason to the Paprika chicken.  I was supposed to be driving to collect a telescope for Son & heir's use, but unfortunately the chap decided not to sell in the end and we didn't go.  Shame really, because I had intentions of taking a quick spin around the New Forest to see some foals, plus Son & heir would have had fun looking at the stars - and I'd have been able to make the Health in a Bowl.  Hubby thinks I'm stark raving mad to even consider this dish, as he reckons it will contain everything that Son & heir dislikes in a meal.  For me, I reckon that if you combine ingredients in the right way, then you've every chance of a recipe turning out to be delicious.

Now I've seen Anthony Worrall-Thompson making his Health in a Bowl on t.v. and it intrigued me then.  It looked absolutely bursting with flavour and so very good for you, that as a Mum trying to feed her brood (and "brood" includes hubby) healthily, it is just too much of a temptation.  Of course, there's every possibility that the way in which the ingredients are combined for this dish, isn't the way that either hubby or son & heir enjoy having said ingredients presented - but as I said at the beginning, I'll try anything once!

Sunday is easy for me, as we've been invited over to my parents' for the day.  Hey, as they live in the New Forest, I might get that spin around, looking for foals after all!  I'll just lay in some nice sandwich fillings for when we come home.

Monday, even though it is a Bank Holiday, is a work day for me but hubby will be at home for Son & heir, who is on holiday that week.  Hence a nice easy pie with vegetables (as yet undecided) and new potatoes.  Fingers crossed we can get hold of some Jersey Royals still with their dirt on - as they seem to be the ones with the best flavour!  I know the season for Jerseys is almost over, but knowing how the supermarkets delay seasons, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

So there you have it.  Even before I've managed to blog the week's meal plan, it's gone awry - but I'll keep on trying to make the best of what I've got before me!

 

Taking a chance on Peppered Mackerel Fish Cakes

If there's one thing in this life that I really enjoy, it's a fishcake - and preferably not one of those mealy pap type that you get from the freezer section of the supermarket, but a real, honest-to-goodness, coarse as you like, home made fishcake.

Gorgeous!

When we used to live in Kent, I ventured into fishcake making.  After all, I had a young son and knowing fish is extremely good for young growing brains was keen to get as much into him as was humanly possible.  Fish, that is, not brains.  Haven't broached the subject of brawn yet.  ~delicate shudder~  

I began by making tuna fishcakes, purely because tuna was about the only type of fish that was even remotely affordable.  In those days, I was a bit of a scaredy-cat about frying (in fact, these fishcakes were my first "real" foray into shallow frying for aeons) and wouldn't do it.  Hence, my early fishcakes had to be baked in the oven - which is never a good look on a fishcake.  I then began to get a bit random with the ingredients, resulting in a potato cake that had a little bit of fish in it - which was never going to go down well with my potato-hating hubby.

As a consequence, fishcakes have been off the menu roster for a very many years.

Which makes it all the more surprising that one day last week, we had "Peppered Mackerel Fish Cakes" - which weren't greeted with dancing in the aisles, but were eaten and professed to be "your best fishcake yet".  Which I take to mean "blinking gorgeous fishcakes" in any other language.  Well, I thought they were "blinking gorgeous fishcakes", anyway.  In fact, if some were to float past me now, I'd probably cause more tremors to be felt across in Japan in getting to them - and we don't want that - so it's probably better that they aren't likely to.

The worst part of this recipe was the pin-boning of the fillets of fish before flaking them into the potato.  It's incredibly hard to find those leetle bones when they're covered in a coarse covering of pepper!  Oh, but it was worth it.  So very, very, worth it.

PEPPERED MACKEREL FISH CAKES  (makes 6)

Ingredients :

300g cold mashed potatoes

6 spring onions, thinly sliced

1 tbsp horseradish sauce

300g peppered mackerel fillets, skinned, de-boned and flaked

salt & pepper

2 tbsp plain flour

1 egg, beaten

85g dried breadcrumbs

sunflower oil, for frying

salad and lemon wedges, to serve

Method :

1.  In a large bowl, mix together the potato, spring onions, horseradish and mackerel and season to taste.

2.  Shape into 8 even-sized cakes, compressing the mixture together as much as possible.

3.  Roll the fish cakes in the flour, then dip into the egg, then into the breadcrumbs.

4.  Cover and chill until ready to cook.

5.  Gently grill or shallow-fry the fish cakes for 5-6 mins on each side until crunchy, golden brown and hot all the way through.  Place them onto a warm plate under a warm grill, to keep hot until you are ready to serve.

6.  Serve with salad and lemon wedges.

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