Smoked Mackerel Pate

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I'm a huge fan of Felicity Cloake regular column in the Guardian. 'How to cook the perfect...." I've used several of her recipes and they've all worked out very well. She cooks and reviews several chefs recipes for well known dishes. Then she creates her own 'perfect' recipe based on her results. I can only imagine what her home life is like "Hi family, this week we're eating only salad nicoise" in her attempt to test a range of different recipes and create her own.

I made this great smoked mackerel pate over the weekend. I'm in the process of a long move - so my kitchen things are in storage. I think the pate works quite well in these nice tea cups I got in the second hand shop!

Her recipe is over here. 
I followed it pretty closely - except I didn't use a blender as I prefer a coarser pate. The horseradish and dill off set the oily fish beautifully. A great dish that comes together very quickly. A great starter for a dinner party you can prepare the night before. Serve with homemade brown bread.

Cauliflower & Bacon Fritters

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Easy Weekday dinner

Ingredients

Makes lots for 2 - enough as side for 4

1/2 head of cauliflower steamed or boiled

1 large free range egg

3 rashers of bacon grilled until crispy

2 tablespoons of plain yogurt (cause I didn't have enough milk)

a dash of milk

1 teaspoon of cumin seeds

1 clove of garlic crushed

1 heaped table spoon of gram flour / or regular flour

mustard seeds

salt and pepper

Method

1. Once your cauliflower is cool mash it with a fork or masher
2. Cut your bacon into small pieces
3. Mix all the ingredients together in a big bowl
4. Heat a frying pan with some oil over medium to high heat
5. When it's nice and hot spoon in one tablespoon of mixture per patty
6. Cook one one side for 2-3 mins or until nicely golden
7. Flip carefully over
8. Press down with the spatula to firm up the fritter
9. Remove from pan and place on kitchen towel
10. Repeat with rest of mixture

I served these along side some salad and homemade baked beans

Salmon with Fennel and Sesame Bulgur Wheat

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A Store Cupboard Supper

So just back from my holidays it's time to get back to some good simple eating and balance out some of the boldness from my time away. This is a store cupboard meal as I had some salmon and peas in the freezer. It's super fast to prepare and delivers a good bunch of flavours from a limited amount of ingredients.

Ingredients (Serves 1)
1 small piece of salmon
1/2 cup of bulgur wheat
1/2 cup of frozen peas
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon of vegetable bouillon
Fresh coriander or flat leaf parsley

Place the salmon on a greased baking tray and pop under the grill. Grill for about 5 minutes each side until cooked through. Make the bulgur by boiling twice the quantity of water as bulgur in a pan. Add the bouillon and bulgur and cook for 10 minutes until tender. Add the peas for the last two minutes of cooking, I just popped them in straight from the freezer.

In another pan dry fry the fennel and mustard seeds. When they begin to release their fragrance pop them into a pestle and mortar and give them a quick grind. Return them to the hot pan along with the two oils, allow them to infuse a little over a medium heat being careful not to burn them.

When the bulgur is ready stir through the oil and spices. Serve the salmon over the bulgur with some freshly chopped coriander or parsley.

Home-cured Bacon Carbonara

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My favourite pasta dish of all time

So yes Carbonara is my favourite pasta dish of all time. I've been making it for years. Every so often will get a craving for it that won't go away until I've made myself an enormous bowl of creamy spaghetti. I'm pretty sure it has to be spaghetti - tagliatelle at a push.


Now the most important ingredient in this dish is indeed the bacon. Just to say the pig wasn't a saddleback but a rarebreed Tamworth from the Wishing Well Farm. The University of Bristol carried out a taste test of all breeds of pigs in 1999 and the Tamworth came out on top. They are now in the process of getting a sow to start breeding. Most special about this particular pig is that, it was their first pig. 


We saw Ed Hick butcher a side of the animal at Inishfood in Donegal. Then we all got down to curing our own bit of bacon. I chose a cure that had some bay and juniper in it. The meat was pierced to allow the cure to get deep into the meat. Then you rub the cure well into the meat with your hands. Seal the meat in an airtight container and store in a cool dry place for two weeks for the curing to take effect. The meat needs a turn everyday to ensure both sides as evenly cured. I stored mine in the fridge.

The resulting piece of meat was just some of the finest bacon I've ever eaten. It's nice to have a large piece of bacon to cut from as you can choose how to cut it - ie rashers or lardons. I got 3 breakfasts and a carbonara for two from my piece. Sadly I forgot to weigh it at any point of the process - whoops. The cure brought lovely notes of bay to the meat. Also the fat when fried or grilled turned a lovely dark rich brown - whether that's down to the meat or the cure I'm not sure. There was dark brown sugar in the cure so that might well be it.


I will def be looking into curing my own bacon again providing I can find the same quality of meat to do it with. That might be some tall order though, given the tender love and care this pig received I'm sure.


Now onto the recipe which I took from Donal Skehans new book - Kitchen Hero. Like him I've experimented with many versions before often involving ingredients such as wine, cream, cheddar. The pared back version is more true to the genuine Italian version, and just as tasty.


Ingredients - Serves Two
3 egg yolks - broken up
5 rashers sliced / or pancetta / or my amazing bacon!
Spaghetti for 2 cooked al dente
Parmesan cheese


Method
Cook your spaghetti in plenty of well salted water. While the pasta is cooking fry up your bacon till it's nice and crispy.


Drain the spaghetti and reserve about a cup full of the cooking liquid. Return the pasta to the hot pan - but don't return the pan to the heat. Stir through the bacon and a little of the cooking water. Then quickly stir through the egg yolks. The heat from the pasta cooks the egg yolks and makes a nice sauce that coats well. Stir quickly though to ensure you don't scramble the egg.


Serve with a good healthy amount of freshly grated Parmesan and a good crowd of black pepper.


This dish is full of flavour that belies it's simple ingredients, it will be a while before I go back to my more extensive ingredient list.

Pea and mint soup

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Absolutely minted.

I have blogged before about my early childhood experience of brightly coloured soups before. So suffice to say that this version of pea soup is so quick its almost instant. Fresh, bright green and delicious. I served it with the aforementioned homemade sourdough bread on a gorgeous spring afternoon. Its a winner all round.

1 small onion chopped

1 clove garlic chopped

1 500g pack frozen peas

500ml good vegetable stock

a handful fresh mint leaves, chopped

Saute the onion and garlic in a small glug of olive oil in a roomy pot until they are soft and transluscent. Add the peas to the pot and the hot stock. Bring back up to the boil. At this point the peas will be cooked. Add half the mint and blitz the whole lot in a blender or with a stick blender. Season to taste. To serve add the rest of the mint. Thats it!

Some chopped grilled bacon added in to this would be really good too.

Baked Eggs with Herb and Parmesan Crust

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15 minute miracle

For shame out lack of blogging of late, due largely to the good weather and gardening

I have 5 minutes in which to recount this recipe so I'll make it snappy. It's after work, I've cooked dinner, done some gardening and I'm running out the door to rehearsal now. This is a quick and easy recipe which can provide a satisfying meal in less than 15 minutes.

Ingredients

2 eggs

splash of milk

5 chives - chopped

small handful of parsley

1/4 teaspoon of Dijon mustard

A handful of freshly grated Parmesan

Seasoning

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 8. Grease a ramekin dish. In small bowl combine all the ingredients except the cheese, mix gently to ensure that the yolks remain intact. Place mixture into ramekin dish and top with the grated cheese. Bake on the top shelf of the oven for 8 minutes, until golden and brown and puffy.

I served this with a slice of toasted sourdough (of Lolas making - recipe to follow) rubbed with garlic and drizzled with good olive oil as well as side salad of sugar snap eaps olive oil and sesame seeds.

and I'm off .... into the lovely bright evening

Lemon, Parmesan & Rocket Pasta

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Parmesan & Rocket up a tree....

I’ve seen several recipes over the last month of so for lemon pasta, it sounded like a combination that I normally wouldn’t try out. But creamy spaghetti with a fresh bite of lemon sounds beautifully summery, don’t ya think? Especially summery when you can take such a nice light filled photo on your kitchen table. I was very happy with how it turned out – so much so that I’d make it again today…..

I think it would work great with some chicken added in, or some fish, maybe not salmon, but a nice white fish, or maybe a little smoked mackerel. Would also be great with some fresh peas - or sugar snaps, warm or cold

Ingredients
I lemon – zest and juice
4 oz spaghetti
Some olive oil
Some freshly grated parmesan
A big handful of rocket
Salt & Pepper
I also added in cheddar – cause hey – it’s cheese

Cook your spaghetti, in lightly salted water – al dente if you’ve got company – or squishy when I’m by myself, mmm squashy. While cooking the past I often use my bowl as a lid so it’s nicely warm when you pop the cooked pasta in it later.

Drain pasta, and return to pan – add a glug of olive oil and the lemon zest, stir over a low heat for 30 secs or so – then add in the lemon juice and cheese, stir to combine – taste and season. Remove from the heat – gently fold in the rocket.

Transfer to your bowl top with parmesan and freshly grated black pepper – yum! Why oh why did I not make enough for lunch today.

I've been growing rocket in the garden - it's going to seed at the moment, any tips on how to stop this would be greatly appreciated? - I love having rocket outside the back door, pure handy. You'd be amazed at how many bugs can live on one leaf though - the mind boggles.

Carrot & Corriander Salad

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Not one to blog the odd lunches I cook myself sometimes, but this one turned out so well that I really wanted to write it down. So in the morning as I have my coffee and breakfast sometimes I knock together my lunch for that day. This is a good and filling lunch that you can make in ten minutes or so, Bulgar wheat is a tasty and fast way to bulk up some light dishes.

I large carrot grated -grated
A handful of fresh coriander
1 clove of garlic - crushed
¾ cup of Bulgar wheat
Olive Oil
Mustard Seeds
White Wine Vinegar
A handful of cashew nuts
Some toasted almond flakes
A small handful of raisins

Cook the Bulgar in twice it’s volume of water – cooks in about 5 mins or so.

Put a layer of chopped coriander at the bottom of your lunch container (I use an old soup pot – the cylindrical plastic ones – with the pop top lids – so no leaking in my handbag) Then add the almonds and then the chopped carrot.

When the Bulgar is cooked stir in the olive oil, salt, pepper, mustard seeds, cashew nuts, raisins and vinegar, mix well and allow to cool for as long as you have till you leave the house.

When it was time for lunch I mixed it all together, and popped it in the microwave – it was thoroughly delicious, a little squeeze of an orange would have made it divine, I’m sure it would be equally as good cold.