Roast salmon, with dill and mustard sauce, garlicky beans and a kind of pilau - for Moulin Rouge!

Many Saturday's we have movie night, and I try to theme dinner with the movie.  This week it was Moulin Rouge! so I took a French take on dinner.  It's not restaurant quality presentation, but though I say it myself I was very, very tasty.

Double peeling the broad beans is tedious, but the resulting beans are worth it, as you don't have to chew the rubbery green coatings.






Broad beans
Green beans
Tomatoes
Garlic
Olive oil

Salmon fillets
Olive oil

Butter
Shallot
Dill
Dijon mustard
Juice of half a lemon
Flour
Natural yogurt

Olive oil
Shallot
Rice
Stock

1.  Prep the broad beans by podding and peeling grey layer.  Chop green beans and finely chop tomatoes.  Sautee gently in olive oil, with A LOT of crushed garlic.  Add a little water/stock and simmer, with a lid on for about 30 minutes.
2.  Drizzle salmon fillets with olive oil, cover with foil and roast for about 20 minutes.
3.  Melt a good bit of butter, and add very finely chopped shallot.
4.  Start the pilau, sautee finely chopped shallot in olive oil.  Add rice, turn in the oil until every grain is coated with a film of oil, then fry a little longer until the rice starts to cook slightly.  Now add flavourful stock, stir in, turn the heat right down and put the lid on.  Should be ready in 15 minutes.  Turn the heat off and let it just sit there and keep warm in the steam.
5.  Finish the sauce by adding dill, a teaspoon of dijon mustard and a spoonful of flour.  Whisk in lemon juice.  It might look a bit split but just keeping whisking.  Just before you are ready to serve stir in natural yoghurt, keep it on a very low heat.
6.  Serve, scoff ... it was delicious.

Salmon salad wraps

 The hottest June day in 40 years!  Well!  Actually, it wasn't that hot in Tod in comparison with the rest of the country - but it was a lovely summer's day - so what better than a light salady (is that even a word) dinner (the veg dodger was not home, so that made it easier).   We had some broad beans in the fridge too, so a garlicky bean medley joined the steamed salmon and salad in the wraps - delicious.

Broad beans
Green beans
Olive oil
Garlic
Salmon
Lettuce
Cucumber
Red pepper
Baby plum tomatoes
Spring onion
Avocado oil
Balsamic vinegar
Tortilla wraps
Garlic mayonnaise

1.  Double peel the broad beans, and steam with green beans.
2.  At the same time steam the salmon - put it on some greaseproof paper in a second layer of the steamer.
3.  Crush a big clove of garlic and heat gently in olive oil.
4.  Splash wraps with a tiny splash of water - just to create a little steam - wrap tightly in foil, and put in a medium oven for a few minutes to heat through.
5.  Make the salad - shred the lettuce, chop the other bits and toss.  Dress lightly with avocado oil and balsamic vinegar.
6.  Serve, build wraps ... like this ....

7.  Roll the wrap over, and scoff .... with lots of filling most of it falls out, so this can end up being a delicious messy event!

Cod and smoked salmon fishcakes

 Lots of inspiration for tonight's tea - some home grown triumphs ... broad beans and courgette ... some donated glut yellow tomatoes, an irresistible find in a punnet of heirloom tomatoes, podded peas in the organic box, and some cod fillets also from the organic delivery.  So, adding some smoked salmon from the fridge this was a delicious summery treat.

Potatoes
Butter
Cod fillets
Bay leaf
Onion
Egg
Italian breadcrumbs
Courgette
Olive oil
Broad beans
Peas
Heirloom tomatoes
Spring onion
Basil

1.  Peel and dice potatoes, boil to make the mash.
2.  Mash potatoes with butter and seasoning.  Leave to cool.
3.  Poach the cod in water, with a bay leaf and half an onion.  Don't over cook it, a few minutes simmering, then turn off the heat and let it cook gently for 10 minutes.  Remove from the water and leave to cool.
4.  Dice the courgette, put in a pan with crushed garlic and olive oil.
5.  Pod the beans and peas and put in a steamer ready for steaming.
6.  Slice the tomatoes, sprinkle with salt, finely diced spring onion and shredded basil.  Drizzle on a little good olive oil.
7.  Now assemble to fish cakes, break the smoked salmon into pieces, skin the cod and gently flake into the potato.  Mix together gently, so that the fish stays mostly in individual pieces.
8.  Chill the fish cakes for a few minutes.
9.  Whisk an egg in one bowl, put breadcrumbs in another.  Coat the fishcakes - fist in egg, then in breadcrumbs.  For a lovely crispy finish I did this twice ... egg, breadcrumbs, 5 minutes to dry, egg, breadcrumbs.
10.  Finally - turn the heat on under the courgettes and the peas and beans and fry the fishcakes in olive oil ... about 4 minutes each side - in batches, keeping them warm in the oven as you finish.
11.  Serve, scoff, smile.

Roast lamb dinner

Beautiful leg of lamb from Bracewell's in Todmorden market hall - really good garlic and olive oil from The Mediterranean Pantry - and this is an exceptional Sunday roast dinner.

Home grown broad beans were the star of the vegetable medley, matching the cavolo nero in vegetably gorgeousness.  I LOVE cavolo nero.

Lamb
Garlic
Olive oil
Potatoes
Polenta
Cornflour
Stock
Carrots
Broad beans
Cavolo nero
White cabbage

Cooking takes under 2 hours, start to finish, but much of that time it's quietly getting on with it by itself.

1.  Stab the lamb all over, inserted sliced garlic into each of the holes.  You can go really quite bonkers with the garlic, I keep the slices quite chunky, so that you can see them when you carve the lamb.
2.  Roast the lamb on quite a high heat for the first 20 minutes, then turn it down a bit, or move it to the lower shelf of the oven.
3.  Put olive oil in a roasting tray for the potatoes, put it in the oven to heat up.
4.  Peel the potatoes, and par boil.  Drain well, add a couple of tablespoons of dry polenta and toss about a bit - put into the hot oil, and roast for an hour or so.
5.  Now make a cup of tea and read the paper or do the crossword :)  you are not needed for 40 minutes.
6.  Peel and chop carrot, pod broad beans, slice cabbage.  Steam the lot together (carrots on the bottom, then beans, then cabbage)
7.  Have a look at the roast, it may need basting, or turning.  Drain pan juices to start the gravy.
8.  Make a simple gravy using meat juices and stock, or wine, thickened with cornflour (slaked in water).
9.  Bring the lamb out of the oven to rest for at least 10 minutes.
10.  Serve, scoff, smile.

Chicken and chorizo, spicy wedges, griddled courgette, mixed veg and allotment salad

Summer seems to have abandoned us for now - and given the state of politics, who can blame it? The recent downpours have played havoc with the lettuces in the allotment, so it's salad with everything at the moment.  I'm not complaining about that, they're delicious.

Start with the potatoes, then the veg, then the chorizo and chicken and while that's doing wash and dress the salad.

Potatoes
Olive oil
Cajun seasoning

Onion
Garlic
Broad beans
Carrot
White wine

Courgette
Polenta
Mixed herbs

Chorizo
Chicken breast

Lettuce
Balsamic vinegar

1.  Cut potatoes into wedges, put in a baking dish with olive oil and cajun seasoning, mix until evey wedge is coated - roast for about an hour.
2.  Pod and skin the broad beans, be patiient, this is the faffiest bit.
3.  About 20 minutes to serving.  Finely chop onion, sautee gently with crushed garlic, add broad beans and chopped carrot.
4.  Slice courgettes, put polenta and mixed herbs in a bag - add the courgette slices and shake until all slices are coated.
5.  Add a glass of white wine to the beans and carrots, simmer gently - add water or stock if it gets dry.
6.  Griddle the courgette slices in olive oil, in batches, keep them warm in the oven when done.
7.  10 minutes to serving, chop chorizo and fry, chop chicken breast into bite sized pieces and add to the chorizo.  Keep it moving now and again in the pan until it's cooked.
8.  Dress washed and dried salad leaves - I used garlic oil and balsamic vinegar.
9.  Serve - scoff.

Actually, there was also a veggie, so I fried some haloumi for them too!  Delicious.  There were seconds, and thirds, and possibly even fourths - but no left overs!

All ingredients (except for the wine) available from Todmorden market.  The Mediterranean Pantry, 3 fantastic butchers inside and veg outside.

Broad bean risotto

Olive oil
Red onion
Celery
Arborio rice
Garlic
White wine
Vegetable stock
Courgette
Broad beans, double skinned,
Salt and pepper
Grated parmesan
Parsley oil

1. Sautee onion and celery in olive oil.
2.  Add rice and turn over in the oil.
3.  Add a splash of white wine.
4.  Add chopped courgette and broad beans.
5.  Add hot stock a ladle at a time and simmer until absorbed.
 6.  When rice is ready turn off the heat and add a handful of grated parmesan.
7.  sit for 5 minutes, and serve with extra parmesan and a drizzle of parsley oil.

Broad bean, courgette and petit pois risotto, with a green salad

Broad beans - what a labour of love! Fortunately, I had someone here handy who enjoys the peace of double shelling them - so I exploit it :).

So, recipe ...

Olive oil
2 spring onions, chopped
Crushed garlic
risotto rice
large bag of broad beans, double peeled to a small handful of green gems
1 courgette, diced
Italian herbs
white wine
vegetable stock
frozen petit pois
grated fontina and parmesan
lemon zest, juice of lemon
seasonning, specially black pepper

Salad

olive oil
garlic
lemon juice
salt and pepper
spring onion, sliced thinly
radish, sliced
cucumber (small amount, diced)
cos lettuce, sliced to about 1 inch pieces

1.  Put the salad dressing ingredients in the bottom of big bowl, whisk together.  Chuck on onion, radish and cucumber.
2.  Sautee onion briefly in olive oil.  Add diced courgette, crushed garlic, and toss in oil for a few seconds.
3.  Add risotto rice, and stir until each grain is finely coated in oil.  Shake in herbs.
4.  Add a glass of white wine and simmer.
5.  Add vegetable stock, simmer.  Keep adding stock and simmering for about 5 minutes - then add broad beans.
6.  Carry on adding vegetable stock and simmering until nearly dry until rice is nearly done.
7.  Add a handful of frozen peas and another ladle of stock.
8.  After 2 minutes, turn off the heat, stir in cheeses and let the rice suck up the final juices for 5 minutes.
9.  Sprinkle on lemon zest and squeeze in lemon juice.
10.  Serve, with a good grinding of black pepper.
11.  Chuck shredded lettuce onto salad and toss - serve with risotto.

Summery and delicious.  Made me feel better after a few days of grim viral bleaugh-ness.

it's raining outside, but it's summer in the kitchen

I have had a lovely afternoon looking around open gardens in a community nearby - the weather was pants (again) but at least it wasn't raining all afternoon.  So, tonight we came home to some indoor sunshine.

Potato and broad bean salad with feta and olives, coleslaw and salad leaves.

Recipes:  ... well lettuce - cut, separate leaves wash and dry.

Potato salad:

potatoes - diced
red onion - very thinly sliced
broad beans (double peeled - thank you patient partner - this takes ages and you did a great job)
green beans
feta
black olives
olive oil
herbs

1.  Boil potatoes - chopped into even sized mouthfulls.
2. Steam green vegetables.
3.  Mix onions, warm potatoes and greens with cold olives, cheese and herbs and olive oil.

meanwhile

Grate carrots, shred white cabbage and finely slice spring onion - sprinkle in chili flakes, salt - splash in sherry (or other vinegar) and olive oil - mix.

SCOFF

Cajun chargrilled chicken, rice and spring vegetables

The request was for ricey stuff - but, again, I didn't quite fancy that - but took what was in the fridge to make something a bit more ... well, .... thingy.  So we ended up with steamed rice (thai jasmine in this case - but could have been basmati, white, brown... mix etc)  infact lime infused rice would have been really nice.  Chopped spring onions, garlic, courgette and sauteed for 5-10 mins until just catching at the edges - added splosh of white wine and simmered - then added chopped green beans, added water when it looked like it was getting dry.  Meanwhile podded broad beans and poured on some boiling water. Tossed bite sized chicken pieces in cajun seasoning and some black pepper.  Then started on the mammoth task of individually taking the skin off the individual broad beans - a faff, but they are much sweeter and glisten like green jewels in the mix if you can be bothered.  Then put some roughly chopped curly kale in pan with small amount of water to wilt and then steam.  So, after about 20 mins - rice is steaming, spring veg casserole is ticking over, curly kale is steaming gently, chicken is "marinading" in cajun mix.  Stir juice of half a lime into 3 tbsps creme fraiche (to taste) and season.  Heat olive oil in  frying pan and quick fry seasonned chicken pieces - chuck broad beans into spring veg casserole and mix in, keep on mendium heat until all heated through.  Plate up - as prettily as possible when the chicken is cooked (should be about 6 mins, turning half way through).

Victimed moaned about curly kale (predictable) but it was my favourite bit, which is why I keep trying.  All in all, uses more pans than I can usually be bothered with for just a tea - but I thought the dinner was worth it.  Victim scoffed all of the courgette etc mix, so that's a result of sorts!  Creme fraiche (or yogurt) dressing means you can be a bit more ruthless with the cajun flavouring on the chicken.