South Indian Mackerel

This dish is an ideal starter if you’re looking for a lighter way to start a curry – it’s got it’s roots in dishes we had when we visited Kerala a couple of years ago, and borrows from that area with the addition of a banana as a flavour – it’s sweet and a little spicy, but not so much that it overwhelms the fish. This recipe is a starter and uses mackerel, but would also work well with meatier fish like monkfish, or even scallops.

Ingredients 
(Serves 4) 
For the fish
4 small fish – mackerel or similar
A little plain flour for dusting, with a touch of turmeric and cumin added
Salt and pepper for seasoning
1/2 tsp cumin, yellow mustard seed, dried red chilli.

For the Sweet potatoes
1 medium sized sweet potato, cubed into 1.5cm cubes
1 Onion finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
2cm root ginger finely sliced
50ml water
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp yellow mustard seed
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 dried red chilli
Pinch of turmeric (for colour only)
200 ml coconut milk (you can sub this with coconut block and increasing the quantity of water)
2 tbsp coriander leaf (for garnish)

For the bananas
2 bananas (the less ripe the better)
1 tsp amchoor (dried mango) powder
1 tsp cumin powder
Pinch of turmeric

Fillet the mackerel, removing the backbone and head completely.  The easiest way to do this (apart from getting your fishmonger to do it…) is to cut behind the gill with a thin filleting knife, then reverse the knife in the cut and slicing back down toward the tail – keep as close as you can to the back bone. Do this on both sides and you should get to nice fillets.  You can either slice our or pick out the rib bones and the small bones that run through the middle of the fillet.

Once boned, lightly season the fish and sprinkle the spice on to the flesh side of the fish, then leave in the fridge for an hour or two.

Fry the onions, garlic and ginger in about half the oil until tender.  Add the spices and sweet potato, tossing it until the sweet potato has picked up a little colour. Add a little water and cook until most if absorbed and a paste has formed, then add the dried chilli and coconut milk and simmer gently until the potato is fully cooked and the sauce has thickened and coated the rest.

Peel the bananas and slice them into 5mm thick slices (looks best if you go slightly diagonally, as this gives a longer slice).  Sprinkle with the spices then fry in a pan or on an oven tray until crispy.

Retrieve the mackerel fillets and dust the skin side with the flour mixture. Place skin-side down in a pan (heated to medium heat) with a little ghee or oil.  Press down the middle of each fillet for a few seconds as you place them so it doesn’t curl.  They should take just a couple of minutes to cook through – don’t turn them over, they should cook through from the skin side.

To serve, use a slated spoon to place some of the potato onto the middle of the place, then place two fillets in an X over the potato.  Serve the bananas round the edge of the potato and garnish with the coriander. You can also serve this with chapati, or for real authenticity, on a banana leaf.

Breakfast review – Tinto Lounge, Bristol

Right then, first bash at a review – met up with a friend for brunch this morning at Tinto Lounge on Gloucester Road.  It’s a nice, friendly little bar/cafe/eatery up in Horfield with quite a wide menu (burgers, steaks, all sorts, and brunch stuff served all day…), teas and coffees and some decent beer on tap – two very good ones today, Bath Ales Dark Hare stout, and nice lighter ale, also from Bath Ales, called Toga Man, which I particularly enjoyed as it was served in an old-fashioned pint pot!  Given that it was breakfast i also bowed to convention and had a coffee.


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On to the food.  Service was a wee bit slow today – it was quite busy with lots of families in, and not a huge amount of space.  The kitchen also seemed to be prepping for a later service, but the waiting and bar staff were friendly and apologetic (our food turned up at about 10 minute intervals…).  Trina and our friend Jason both had eggy bread (£4.50) with bacon and maple syrup – American stylee.  It looked really good and Trina managed to polish hers off pretty much before mine arrived! Reliably informed it tasted good and was great value.

I went for their standard Lounge Breakfast (£6.50).  Good quantity – gives two slices of bacon rather than one (which really annoys me).  But… what i’d assumed was a sliced sausage was a strange sausage patty, the bacon was a bit on the crispy side, and the toast was a bit underdone… they also appear to have left my baked beans under a heat lamp for a few minutes too long, as they had that lovely skin on… On the upside, the patty was actually quite tasty, the black pudding was nice, the egg was perfect (though served with a parsley leaf, which was somewhat redundant…) and the hash browns were… well… hash browns.  In all, it was good and filled a hole – good enough to require a pint of Toga Man to wash it down… – but if we go there again, i think i’ll join the fashionable crowd on the Eggy Bread.

Overall, i like Tinto – the staff are friendly and while it’s a little crowded (it could lose a table or two)it has a good buzz about it.  I have eaten there once before a few years ago, and the food then was also good quality – simple but nicely done.  Overall, 3.5 our of 5 i think – though the beer and service definitely helped that mark.
Cheers!

Welcome

Hi everyone, this is the blog’s unofficial launch day (official one to come when a few more people know about it i think!) – or rather, a cheeky way to bring it to all my Facebook friend’s attention, just in case they hid my posts for being an opinionated git during the election :-).

Not quite sure what I'm going to cook tonight – I've got some large King Prawns out of the freezer and some granary bread baton left over so i might do some sort of Mediterranean thing i think. Will tell you later…
Anyway, one thing i think it might be helpful to share was a word about rice. Quite a few people struggle to get rice consistently right, and it can be a faff – you have to check it over and over again, and there’s still the inevitable ‘oh crap’ moment when you realise it’s gone slightly over… Well there is a way to get it right consistently – works particularly well on Basmati.

Wash the rice and shake all the water out of it.  Then heat a small amount of oil in the pan you’re going to cook it in (just enough oil to lightly coat the rice, not loads) – you can add any spices at this stage too if you’re doing pilau or other flavoured rice.  Once the oil is hot, add the rice and stir it for a minute or two to coat it all.  Then add the water…

The water should be boiled prior to adding, and then comes the trick.  Add the same amount of water by volume as the amount of rice – you can do this by eye or by measuring if you want too.  Keep the pot on a medium-high heat until the water starts boiling, then put the lid on and take the pot off the heat.  The rice will keep cooking and will absorb all the water in the pan – but won’t overcook. 

Once done, you can either serve straight away, or leave it to cool.  If you cool it, spread it out on large plate or dish so it cools as fast as possible, then refrigerate it (only once cold).  Don’t serve lukewarm rice or leave rice out once it’s cooled – it’s one of easiest foods to get food poisoning from…
Anyway, lecture over, hope that’s helpful to some of you!

Big fat pork pie

Right, this is what I've baked for tonight's dinner.  Not for me your ginsters or pork farm pork pie, oh no.  This is my own special recipe for chunky pork pie, to be served hot or cold.  It uses sausages and pork fillet - you can also chuck in bacon, pancetta and other filling as you want to.  This'll be served with  new potatoes and whatever green stuff Trina buys and makes me eat...

Ingredients
Approx 150g short crust pasty - you can buy it, or this recipe looks pretty good (I'd reduce the water content a little)- i can't put the one i use on as i think it's copyright...

150g pork fillet, chopped into small chunks (no bigger than 2cm cubes)
3 good quality pork sausages
1 golden delicious apple, cubed in 2cm pieces
1 small shallot, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped and crushed
Seasoning to taste (i like mine quite peppery)
1/2 tsp All spice
Pinch of grated nutmeg
1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar (or cider)
1 beaten egg (in addition to what's in the pastry - for brushing)

Combine the  ingredients except the egg (and pastry obviously...) - squeeze out or cut open the sausages. Mix thoroughly - you can check the seasoning by removing a small amount and frying until cooked, it will taste approximately the same.  Refrigerate this for an hour or two.

Roll out about 3/5ths of the pastry until it's about 2mm thick and line a small flan tray with it (no bigger than 20cms).  Line this with baking parchment, cutting it to size but leaving enough to overlap the sides of the tray (add the trimming to the rest of the pastry) and fill the cavity with baking beans or rice.  Bake this 'blind' for about 15 mins. Once the blind lightly baked, remove it and remove the beans and paper, and leave it to cool for about 20 mins or so. 

Roll out the last two fifths of pastry to make the lid of the pie - no more than 2-3mm thick, and large enough to cover the whole of the filling and meet the base of it.  Fill the cavity of the pie with the filling, leaving a small gap round the outside.  Brush the pastry edge with the beaten egg and place the lid over the top, pressing it down firmly slightly into the gap so it joins the base, and using a fork to press down around the edge.  Make a couple of air holes in the middle of the lid and brush the whole of the top with egg.  Bake on about 200 for 20 mins, then for a further 20min on about 120.  If you want to make it darker, brush it with a bit more egg before you turn the oven down.  Serve hot or cold.

A first recipe to keep you going

Right then, here goes nuthin...

Pan fried cod fillet

This one is a homage to Rick Stein, courtesy of his Seafood book, but with a few tweeks - mostly to the sauce and seasoning, which is much richer and sweeter than in the original. A similar dish to this got slated in the semis of Masterchef last year as a fusion too far, but I think it's a great combo - it's about the contrasting flavours, textures, richness and creaminess, really decadent, but simple to do.

(Serves 2)

Two decent sized fillets of cod - about 200g each - pin boned, but skin still on.

1 tbsp of sunflower oil

Flour for dusting

Sprinkling of five spice

4 floury potatoes for mashing

2-3 spring onions

2 tbsp soy sauce

Bunch of fresh coriander

2 tbsp of brown sugar or palm sugar (or about the same of honey)

600ml fish or veg stock

3-4 cherry tomatoes sliced into quarters

Butter and/or milk for the mashed potatoes

Salt and pepper to season

Combine the soy sauce and stock and bring to boil, then add the sugar. Reduce by about two thirds, until it's a thin syrup, then keep hot.

Fry the spring onion lightly in a little butter until just tender - don't brown them as it will taste bitter - then leave to one side.

Peel and boil the potatoes until ready to break apart, drain , then mash well, adding the butter and/or milk (I use butter in this recipe as you don't want the mash to be thin). Then combine the potatoes with the spring onion.

Preheat a heavy frying pan on a medium heat and Season the fish, then turn flesh side down and dust with the flour and tiny pinch of five spice. Place gently in the pan skin-side down and cook until done - you can turn them over if you want to, but be careful when you turn them back or serve them that they don't break up on you...

Add the coriander and tomatoes to the sauce and stir.

Serve with a nice bed of mash in the middle, place the fish on top of the bed and pour the sauce liberally over the lot. then eat.

First ever blog

Hi everybody (or probably nobody...)

this is my first foray in to the realm of blogging, and what better thing to blog about than something we all have to have everyday - food! So the plan is to do a regular (if not daily) blog talking about what i've cooked that day, or meals i've had out and about.

So... here goes... today i found out that i've got through to the heats for a cooking show - the dish i'm preparing is a bit of strange hybrid born out of having things in the cupboard/fridge, a quick trip the supermarket, and a couple of poussin... and potato gnocchi.

I've been making pasta for a year or so - i don't do it all the time but it's nice and relaxing on a sunday afternoon, and tastes great. But i'd never had a go at making gnocchi before - for uninitiated (which included me until a few weeks ago) it's made with potato and flour rather than eggs, flour and olive oil, and there's a definite knack to it - my first attempt came out grey (interestingly it often seems to have a little turmeric on to give it the same colour as egg pasta... check next time you're in the supermarket) and a bit stodgy, so attempt number two is tonight, and i have to have it cracked in three weeks. So the next few weeks may well be an update on progress towards perfick gnocchi (or moaning cos nothing seems to work...).

I don't think i can post the recipe i'm cooking for the show at this point - will need to check - but will do as soon as i can - it's simple and with one exception, you can get everything from your local supermarket. In the meantime, this is what it looks like.