Quick Dinner : Parmesan Crusted Cod with Tomatoes

For a super fast and healthy dinner, try this crusted cod. You can use any white fish but I love the meatiness of cod. Of course I can’t get it fresh but it’s still a nice texture.

Finely dice half a yellow onion and slice a couple garlic cloves. Sauté on low heat with olive oil in large frying pan. Meanwhile chop a box of cherry tomatoes and add to the onions with a dash of cumin, coriander and black pepper. Let cook a minute or so and add a splash of white wine. Let simmer for a few minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning. Pour into pasta bowls. While tomatoes are cooking, blitz some old bread if you want fresh breadcrumbs. Or mix store bought with a little Parmesan, black pepper and bit of garlic salt.

In the pan add a drizzle of olive oil and toss a couple large handfuls of spinach, pinch salt and black pepper. Cook until wilted and spoon into center of tomatoes.

Sprinkle fish with garlic salt and pepper. Heat oil in same pan and cook the fish 1-2 minutes on medium heat. If you have a lemon, zest and squeeze juice. Flip the fish over and cook another 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon place fish onto tomato spinach. Let remaining juice reduce slightly and spoon on top of fish.

For the final touch, drizzle a couple tbsp of olive oil and add bread crumbs. Stir on low heat until golden and toasty. Spoon directly onto fish and enjoy!

Ps. If you need a starch, add some angel hair pasta to the tomato sauce.

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My Husband The Budding Chef!

So despite my love of food and cooking, there are times when I am delighted to sit back and let my hubby do all the hard work. Although I don’t let him into the kitchen often, when he does cook he does a darn good job! He’s a master at rack of lamb and toad in the hole, but not long ago he was so sweet and made his American wife a British Thanksgiving dinner. It was all last minute and he managed to find a turkey crown from a local butcher that morning. Now I must say my apologies to my Dad, my Mom and my aunts because I have to admit that Chris’s turkey was THE best turkey I have ever had! It was the most flavorful and moist turkey and that was without a brine.

Roast Turkey Crown

After very thorough research he tried a new (and very successful) method of cooking the turkey. He rubbed it all with a seasoned butter (just salt and pepper) and then painted olive oil on top to seal the butter in. He also used little pigs in a blanket (British versions are cocktail sausages wrapped in bacon) and tucked them into the edges with toothpicks/cocktail sticks. Simple and straightforward but with great results. After cooking it at 160C for awhile, he checked the temperature and it was about 140F (it should be 165F). So he removed the cocktail sausages and raised the temperature to 200C/400F for another 20 minutes or so until it reached 165F. While it rested under a foil tent, he got on with all the trimmings : duck fat roast potatoes, sauteed green beans, sage and onion stuffing, carrot and parsnip puree and super crispy Yorkshire pudding! I do have to note that the carrot and parsnip puree was sooooo yummy. He used one part carrot, two parts parsnip and just added a splash of milk and butter.

It was all so good and helped me miss home a little less. The only thing missing was a Honey Baked Ham which is a tradition with my family. And I haven’t seen any ham in the UK come close to the succulent juicy ham from the Honey Baked Ham store with a crispy sweet crust… Mmm.. But I can’t complain really as for the first time my Thanksgiving dinner was made all by my hubby 🙂

Thanksgiving - British Style!

So you might be thinking – okay – roast meat and trimmings.. Sure that’s nice.. But he really impressed me this past weekend when he made us Thai Fish Cakes! Not only did he make it all by himself but he used a couple different recipes to make his own version! Here are two recipes that he referenced – one from the BBC and another from Good Food.

Thai fish cakes is one of my favorite Thai dishes and something that always felt very daunting. We had some leftover frozen fish that we wanted to use and this turned out to be a great use for it! You just add the fish, egg, lemongrass, garlic, spring onion, chilli, coriander/cilantro, ginger (if you have it), some oil, fish sauce and lime zest into a food processor and blitz. Add it to a bowl and mix in some chopped green beans. The mixture was a little wet, so he added a couple tsp of plain flour to help bind it.

Heat about half an inch of plain oil (vegetable or sunflower) in a large frying pan. Don’t put it on your highest heat but just below it. Make a small patty at first to test the seasoning and oil temperature.

While Chris made the patties, I was flipping and frying them. My method here was to use a large round metal spatula with holes in it and a fork. The oil temperature was hot but not so much so that the oil was splashing out. Basically it was safe and I could stand close to it. After forming the patty, place it onto the spatula and slide it gently into the oil. If it won’t slide, flip it into the oil but use the fork to catch it with your other hand. Let it fry until you can see it browning up on the sides. Then turn it over. You will need to cook these until just before they look burnt. They’ll be a nice dark brown. Keep flipping them if you need to even the coloring. Let cool on kitchen towel before eating with sweet chilli sauce and some salad greens. Enjoy!!

Thai Fish Cakes

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Exploring Surf and Turf

A couple of weeks ago I watched an episode of Nigel Slater’s Simple Cooking focused on the theme of surf and turf. He visited local fisherman who cooked fresh scallops with chorizo. It was a super fast and extremely basic cooking process – using the oil from the chorizo to cook the just-caught scallops. Despite its simplicity, it looked full of flavor and steaming with freshness. The show is still up on the site for another month or so. Take a look and it’ll make your mouth water!

It got me thinking about this very well known combination of surf and turf. Most people automatically think of steak as the turf and usually lobster or fish as the surf. I liked that the chorizo and scallop provided a somewhat surprising combination, yet so obvious upon closer inspection. If you think about where chorizo comes from, you’ll remember or learn that its origins lie in Spain. It’s often seen in traditional dishes such as Paella (a rice dish known for its yellow color from the saffron in it). Paella can be made with a variety of ingredients, but the most popular (internationally) is a mixed ‘surf and turf’ version. Very often it will have large prawns, squid, mussels, chicken and/or chorizo. The paprika and peppers add so much flavor to this sausage and allows it to complement the sweetness often found in seafood such as scallops or shrimp. I like the indulgence of surf and turf as well.. If you pair it with fish, you’re getting your omega’s and being ‘healthy’.. But you offset it with the deep flavor of the crispy chorizo.. Mmm..

Hence, I decided to make a Chorizo and Fish Surf and Turf. In thinking about paella, I initially wanted to put my surf and turf over rice. But I didn’t want the dish to be too heavy. So a light alternative is often couscous which is conveniently a whole lot easier to make. I also happened to have some homemade chicken stock in the freezer to add more flavor to the couscous. I had wanted to use a meaty fish like monkfish or cod that could be cut into chunks and still hold its shape. Sadly the fish monger didn’t have any, so I settled for Haddock which was still a good thick alternative. Really this dish is SO simple and very fast. You don’t have to have a salsa on the side, but I thought it was a good way to add some freshness and bring more vegetables to the dish. The citrus was a nice way to cut through the flavors as well. I hope you’ll try this!

Surf & Turf No.1 - Haddock and Chorizo over Courgette Couscous with Corn Salsa

For the next surf and turf idea, I caved and went back to the original paella/rice-dish idea. Except I had been craving risotto and had homemade chicken stock that needed using, so I thought why not replace the paella. Traditional risotto is pretty straight forward. Your main ingredients are onion, garlic, butter, risotto rice, white wine, chicken stock and cheese. The main techniques to get here are first to coat the rice in butter (with the onion and garlic) and second to go low and slow with adding one ladle of stock at at time. I didn’t really follow a recipe to make the risotto, but here’s a simple, classic one if you need one – Pea and Pecorino Risotto. To spice up this basic risotto dish, I added another surf and turf combo – click here for Chorizo and Roasted Prawn Risotto. I used a technique that I’ve seen on Ina Garten‘s show Barefoot Contessa. She swears by this method, and I am a firm supporter of it! Simply cover a baking tray with foil, toss some raw prawns with olive oil and salt and pepper, arrange on the tray and bake at 400F for 5-6 minutes. Just be sure to take it out just as it turns pink. It’s easy to overcook it, but if you don’t your shrimp will be super juicy! Because I wanted to minimize the work for this dish, I first tossed the raw prawns with a bit of chilli olive oil, salt and pepper. I arranged them on the tray and then scattered thinly sliced chorizo all around it. I turned the temperature down a bit – about 170C and made sure to keep an eye on them. Such a great midweek meal! Hope you enjoy.

Classic Pea & Parmesan Risotto Topped with Chorizo and Roasted Prawns

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I’ve been avoiding good food

It’s so sad for me to say but the past few months I’ve put aside my love for food to focus on the wedding. In my attempt to shape up for the big day I’ve had to put all my favorites to the side and just try to forget them all together.. I’ve done well and have managed to find healthy dishes to eat. But I’m so busy working full time, planning my wedding and helping with my sister’s wedding too! So busy in fact I’m getting quite bored of the ‘healthy’ dishes I’ve been consuming..

Some of my healthy favorites lately have been:

• My go-to-snack that is perfect for taking the edge off : avocado on wheat toast with a drizzle of olive oil and habanero garlic pepper
• Orzo with spinach, sundried tomatoes, ricotta, black olives and feta
• Rotisserie chicken with anything
• Turkey wraps with Laughing Cow Cheese Lite and sprouts and maybe Dijon mustard
• Cous cous with raisins, grilled chicken, chickpeas, grilled veggies and curry powder
• And of course fish tacos!

My mom got very creative last weekend and made up a whole new method/recipe – fish taco ‘cups’. She’ll probably be mad at me for sharing this secret but it’s pretty darn cool. I’m bummed I didn’t get a photo of the cooking process. Of course I was trying to eat these while I was getting my wedding hair trial done at home!

Fish Taco Cups!

 

To make these she bought square won ton wrappers. She lightly brushed a muffin tray with oil and gently pushed a wrapper into each hole. She baked until lightly golden and just let cool on a baking tray. I can’t remember which fish she used but she loves tilapia for fish tacos. Cod would be great too. Underneath is a spicy mango and avocado salsa (with cilantro and red onion of course) and lettuce. It’s topped with her ‘super secret sauce’! 🙂 I have a feeling it contains some sour cream, some cumin, salt, pepper, lemon juice and maybe some Cajun spice. It was so light and delicious! A great way to re-invent one of our favorites and perfect for a party too.

The wedding is nearly here and then I’ll have some free time – so hopefully lots of blogging to come soon!

xoxo

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A Bit Of MY Soul Food

As the weather begins to turn here in England, I find myself craving for really hearty, comforting, food for the soul. The kind of food you smile at or smile thinking of. The kind of food your fork lingers over. Most importantly the kind of food you finish then curl up onto the couch and sleep a blissful sleep… 

For now I’d like to share three examples of the kind of food that makes me just simply happy… 

• Chorizo Fried Eggs on Ciabatta
• Classic Fish & Chips with Mushy Peas
• Steak Au Poivre with Pommes Darphin

Let’s get right to it, shall we? As I’ve mentioned before, one of my favorite weekend pastimes is to cuddle up with Chris and watch BBC’s Saturday Morning Kitchen. Just a couple weeks ago, we watched the well known British chef Sat Bains (who runs Nottingham’s only Michelin-starred restaurant “Restaurant Sat Bains”) whip up one of his family’s favorite brunch dishes – Chorizo Eggs with Scallops and Coriander Salt. As neither of us had had breakfast yet, Chris got inspired to run out to the store and make us breakfast. He came back and did a wonderful job of whipping up this incredibly satisfying breakfast below. It’s incredibly simple but made even better with high quality sausage and high quality bread. Any spicy sausage would really do. For the bread, Chris nipped to our local Italian delicatessen (Filippettos) for some ciabatta. Believe it or not this little delicatessen is perfect. The owner is actually Italian and many of his products are imported directly from Italy (with the packaging written in Italian only!). If you’re ever around, you must have some of their ice cream… But more importantly they have a wide variety of cured/smoked meats and fresh bread. 

Chorizo Fried Eggs with Sauteed Mushrooms on Ciabatta

As you can see Chris added his own little addition of mushrooms sautéed in butter… I think any egg-lover will agree with me when I say there’s something SO satisfying about breaking a perfectly runny yolk. The gooey liquid spills out everywhere and drips off your bite of egg, spicy/smoky chorizo, buttery mushroom and crispy but light toasted ciabatta. And that’s when I look over at Chris and remember why I love him 🙂 Because he knows exactly how to make me happy! 

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