Fish soup-stew

Now is the time that many varieties of fish and shellfish are at their best. You can choose whatever you like here. Experiment with ingredients & try things you’ve not had or haven’t cooked before.

You can adapt this easy fish stew to suit your guests - use whatever seafood you want to put into the pot.

Ingredients

• 1kg/4lb 8oz mixed fresh fish fillets and shellfish, such as red mullet, small sole, gurnard, monkfish, sea bass, cuttlefish, baby octopus, prawns, mussels, squid or scallops
• 4 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• 1 onion, finely sliced
• 1 garlic cloves, finely chopped, plus an extra clove for the toast
• 1x400g/14oz tins of chopped tomatoes
• 60ml/4fl oz red wine
• chopped fresh chilli, to taste (1/2-1)
• 1 tbsp finely chopped flatleaf parsley
• ¼  tsp fennel seeds
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• good bread, slightly stale or toasted (to serve)

Preparation method

1.  If your fishmonger hasn’t already done so, clean and prepare your chosen fish and shellfish. Cut fish fillets into large chunks and seafood into manageable pieces.

2.  Put the oil, onion and garlic into a large pan and fry briefly.

3.  Add the tomatoes, wine, chilli, parsley and fennel seeds and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 15 minutes.

4.  Start to add large pieces of fish to the sauce first and those that will take the longest to cook such as monkfish, then add the more tender fish such as red mullet or sole and the shellfish, ending up with the mussels if using. Cook for five or so minutes, or until the fish is cooked and the mussels have opened. (Discard any mussels that haven't opened.)

5.  Rub the bread with garlic, drizzle with olive oil, and put each slice in the bottom of a deep soup bowl. Pour over the soup and serve.

 

Note: I like to pan fry some fish like seabass and serve on top of the stew. This gives a nice crispy skin and an interesting texture to the dish.

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Flapjacks

Flapjacks are a chewy biscuits made from oats. You can add other ingredients too, like, coconut, dried fruit, chocolate, nuts and seeds. Above all they are chewy and gooey and great to make.

 

 

Ingredients

• 200g unsalted butter
• 200g demerara sugar
• 200g honey
• 400g porridge oats
• (Optional) 50g nuts, dried fruits desiccated coconut, seeds, chocolate…
• You will also need a 20cm x 30cm (8in x 12in) cake tin, greased

Preparation method

1.   Put the butter, sugar and honey in a saucepan and heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Add the oats (and nuts, fruit, coconut etc. if using), and mix well.

2.   Transfer the oat mixture to the prepared cake tin and spread to about 2cm (¾in) thick. Smooth the surface with the back of a spoon. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C/350F/Gas 4 for 15-20 minutes, until lightly golden around the edges, but still slightly soft in the middle. Let cool in the tin, then turn out and cut into squares.

 

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Burns Night Friday 25th January

 

Whether you are Scottish or not there is no reason why you can’t join in the festivities for Burns Night. A celebration, a tribute to the poetry of the legendary Robbie Burns, the haggis is the beast which is slain and eaten as part of the meal. If you’ve not tried it before, give it a go, you might be surprised. The taste is savoury, peppery and meaty. I suppose similar to the flavours of a sausage. Traditionally served with buttery neeps and creamy tatties, I like this with a whisky, pepper sauce. If you’re not inclined to make your own a very fine ready made alternative is The Sauce Queen’s ‘Peppered Private Reserve’, order online http://www.thesaucequeen.co.uk/shop/meat-sauces/  You will not be disappointed!

Of course you need a tipple to wash it down with. The number one choice of course is a fine single malt. For those of you who like earthy, peaty whiskys then Ardbeg is a delicious choice. An easier, softer flavour can be found with Aberlour. An oily, subtly orange flavour can be found here. There are many whiskys though, some far more expensive, so if you have a favourite, now is the time to crack it open.

The cooking of the haggis is another topic of interest. Some prefer boiling (low and slow) and others prefer to wrap in foil and roast in the oven. If boiling the guidelines are around 35-40 minutes per 450g/1lb. There are some varieties which can be microwaved. However you choose to cook your beastie, remember to be careful with the casing. This should not be broken until you are ready to serve and stab your beastie whilst addressing it correctly using the words of Robbie Burns. This, I am reliably informed should be done humorously and not seriously! However if I have offended anyone’s seriousness of the occasion, I apologise.

Your haggis CANNOT be hunted as often suggested but must be bought from a good butcher. Only a good butcher will ensure, like their sausages that it is made correctly, from quality ingredients and flavoured to perfection. Contact http://pimlotts.co.uk/ without delay!

 

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Chicken and leek soup

We woke up today to a good covering of snow. With much excitement we all got ready for the school run, excitedly putting on snow boots, gloves, hats and coats and marched off into the white stuff. Brilliant fun.

I then proceeded with my morning tasks; butchers (sausages, bacon, an amzing single rib of beef), posting cards, plumbers merchants (don't ask...third trip this week, due to faulty heating system, ugh), and by the time I got back was pretty cold. A hearty soup would be required.

In my fridge was the leftovers from monday's roast chicken. A good stock made from it, and lots of meat. With other vegetables and a few herbs, the soup was made in no time, and was just the ticket. Perefct for a day like today.

Ingredients

1 onion cut in half and sliced thinly

1 large leek, washed and sliced

3 sticks of celery, sliced

3 carrots, cut into smallish chunks

1.5 litres of chicken stock

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 bay leaf

leftover chicken

Sweat the onion in a little olive oil with salt and pepper until softened. Add the other vegetables and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add the stock and herbs and simmer for about 20 minutes with a lid on. Add the chicken and cook for a further 5 minutes. Check the seasoning and serve. This is a soup that 'warms your bones.'

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Dukan bread

I have read many posts about this bread. Some negative some positive. Carbs are a no-no on the Dukan diet, and one of the issues people can't get their heads around is, missing bread. What NO sandwiches???!!
I first excitedly made this bread when I came across a recipe for it. Although it was lovely to have stuff on toast or in-between something again, the bread tasted pretty horrid. Just quite salty and dense. Eventually through trial and error I have developed this recipe. I like it. It satisfies my 'every now and again' carb cravings. So that works for me. This recipe is enough for 5 days worth of oat bran allowance. I eat the first 5th that day, warm from the oven. I top it with roast ham, cottage cheese, or mackerel pate. It's also really good with fresh crab. I slice it into batches of 3 and freeze. Toast from frozen.


Ingredients
10 tablespoons of oat bran
6 tablespoons of wheat bran
4 tablespoons of wheat germ
10 tablespoons of skimmed milk powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
Large pinch of sea salt
1 tablespoon low fat yoghurt
3 tablespoons low fat from age frais
3 eggs
2 packets of yeast
5 tablespoons of warm water

Line a loaf tin with baking paper and preheat the oven to 200 °C.

The correct way to blend theses ingredients is to mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another bowl and then mix the 2 together. More often than not though I start with the wet ones then add in the dry. So do what works for you.

Once the ingredients are fully mixed (I whisk them together), I pour the bread mixture into the prepared loaf tin, put a clean tea towl over the top, and leave somewhere warm for the mixture to rise a little. This makes for a much lighter loaf.

Place the loaf tin in the preheated oven for 10 minutes at 200 °C. Then turn the oven down to 180 °C and cook for another 20 minutes.

Turn the loaf out onto a cooling rack. Slice into 15 slices (just under 1cm thick).

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Chicken soup

This is my recipe for a basic chicken soup. Currently I am doing the Dukan diet so I have added the optional ingredients later. So for those of you following Dukan, the basic soup is fine for 'P' days and I add greens on'PV' days. Needless to say, peas noodles and sugar are all no-no's still. However, the basic soup recipe is delicious and so wholesome. You can simply add to it it depending on your mood or needs.

Ingredients
1 quantity of chicken stock. Home made or shop bought. I usually have about 1.5 litres, but you can have more or less.
1 stalk of lemon grass (I keep mine in the freezer)
1 red chilli chopped
Dash of soy
Dash of fish sauce
Leftover chicken

Optional ingredients
Noodles
Spring onion chopped
Greens (spinach, cabbage, pak choi, mangetout, sugar snaps...)
Sugar
Lime juice

This soup is so easy and comforting. Heat stock. Add the lemon grass and allow the stock to be infused by it. Add chopped chilli. I leave this to simmer gently for at least 10 minutes but it can be left for however long you need it to be.
Just before you are ready to eat, add the chopped chicken and fish sauce and soy sauce to taste.
If you are using the optional ingredients, just precook the noodles and poor over the soup. The vegetables can be added to the soup earlier to cook through.
Once the chicken is heated through, serve.

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The Dukan Diet

The summer holidays were brilliant for us (despite the weather). Lots of time spent together as a family, trips to the zoo, beach, etc and lots and lots of socialising. Happily we have great friends who enjoy doing it with us, so like many, lots of fun equals copious amounts to eat and drink. I, like the majority of the people I know ended the summer needing a full detox, weight reduction, exercise programme to commence ASAP, (as soon as the bank holiday weekend finished though).I had read about the Dukan Diet and liked the sound of it. I hate diets. I hate calorie counting, points, red & green days yadder yadder. I hate people who talk about weight, losing weight, gaining weight. Boring. However I found the Dukan Diet interesting. More because there were scientific explanations as to the effects of the diet on the body. As you have to include oat bran daily. There are also new recipes to try, the 'Dukan pancake' or 'galette' for exmple and no limits on how much you eat, just what you eat. Heavy on protein, and being a fan of meat and fish in pretty much any variety, it looked like a good option.
I commenced my diet on the Tuesday immediately after the bank holiday weekend. I had my mind ready for it. My research was complete, and my fridge was full of Dukan friendly foods. Similar to smoking, I was ready to quite my unDukan friendly foods.
The Dukan Diet begins with an Attack phase. You can stay in this phase for up to 10 days. This is where you see an initial dramatic weightloss. I decided I would do 5 days. During this time you eat low fat protein only, adding 1 and a half spoons of oatbran to a yoghurt or pancake, walk for 20 minutes a day and drink at least 1 and a half litres of water. At first it is quite bizarre to just eat protein at a meal. It is something, like most things though, that we do out of habit. A meat and 2 veg attitude. Sandwiches for lunch. Bread to dip in soup. Potatoes or rice or pasta as part of nearly every meal. To actually sit and just eat piri-piri chicken with yoghurt or burgers with chilli and cottage cheese, sounded weird but was actually delicious. Weirdly I found that afterwards, I honestly wasn't hungry. What was even more strange was that after a couple of days my appetite became really low. My understanding is that this is a part ketosis. Ketosis happens when your body is not getting enough carbohydrates for fuel so it turns on its deposits of fat, for energy. What also happened at this stage (about day 3) was that I had terrible headaches and felt quite lethargic. Exercise, a snack, and lots of water helped here and these nasty side affects also happily disappeared.
I reached the end of the Attack phase and excitedly began the Cruise phase. I'd lost 8 pounds during this first 5 days so was spurred on to achieve more.
It was brilliant to include vegetables every other day now. Celery really does becoming exciting if you've not been allowed it! In the 3 weeks following I have lost a further 7 pounds. You are warned that the weight loss slows down in the Cruise phase. However its still happening so all is well.

I'll post some recipes later, but my favourite meals have been things we would normally eat, with a tweak. Tonight we are looking forward to theses lovely steaks, with mushrooms, garlic and spinach. Just missing the red wine to wash it down with...

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