Baked salmon with tomatoes and capers, braised leeks and celeriac with little roasties.

The veg box presented leeks and celeriac, and we had some great salmon.  So, pulled this little number together.

Potatoes
Olive oil
Cherry tomatoes
Capers
Lemon
Salmon
Leeks
Celeriac
Fennel seeds
White wine
Black pepper

1.  Parboil the chunks of potatoes, drain and roast in olive oil.
2.  Halves tomatoes, add drained, rinsed capers, zest of half a lemon, and its juice.  Put into roasting tin with olive oil.  Plonk salmon on top, cover with foil, and roast for about 25-30 minutes.
3.  Gently sautee chopped leeks and peeled and strips of celeriac, add crushed garlic, a sprinkle of fennel seeds and some white win.  Simmer until celeriac is soft.
Grind of black pepper, and scoff.

Leek, fennel and smoked mackerel spaghetti

Interesting veg box experience today.  No onion, no potato - and with smoked mackerel to use up.

So, I came up with this, which also had the advantage of being quite quick ... which was useful, as the van has to go to the garage tomorrow, so I had to empty it ... it's amazing how much you can cram into a small camper van!

So, put the water on for the pasta (gluten free spaghetti in our case), then start the sauce,  when the water is boiling, and the leek and fennel have started softening ... all done inside 20 minutes.

Olive oil
1 leek, chopped into rings
1 bulb of fennel, finely chopped
1 glass of dry white wine
smoked mackerel, flaked
1 big tbsp capers in salt, rinsed and roughly chopped
black pepper

Spaghetti - or other pasta

1.  Sautee leek in olive oil for a few minutes (as previously suggested, get your pasta water on first, for the speediest serve), until the crunch lightens.
2.  Add chopped fennel, and continue to sautee.  The two vegetables will soften and go a bit translucent - now chuck in the white wine and simmer - gently - for a few minutes.
3.  Chuck in flaked fish and roughly chopped capers.
4.  When the pasta is done, drain.
5.  Drain pasta.
6.  Toss sauce into pasta, serve and grind on black pepper.  ( a glug of olive oil if it looks a little dry)

Could have added lemon - but the wine was dry, so no real need.  Could have added a spoonful of creme fraiche for silkiness - but trying to keep it lactose free.

Pasta puttanesco

It's not authentic, but it is quick and very tasty.  Tonight we had a nightmare with trains so didn't get in through the front door until 9:20.  We were sitting down to eat this at 9:40.  I decided to pep it up with anchovies and miss out the chili this time.

Olive oil
Gluten free pasta
leek, chopped and washed
2 plum tomatoes, diced
handful of olives, roughly chopped
small handful of capers, roughly chopped
crushed garlic
About 6 anchovy fillets, chopped.
Parmesan, freshly ground

1.  Put the pasta on, cook according to packet instructions.
2.  Sautee leek in lots of good olive oil.
3.  Add diced tomatoes.  Stir in and chuck in olives and capers.
4.  About 2 minutes before serving, stir through anchovies - they don't need to cook, just warm through.  I like them to retain little punchy pockets of flavour rather than it be evened out over the whole dish, in this recipe.
5.  Drain pasta,  stir into the sauce.
6.  Serve with big grinding of black pepper ad freshly grated parmesan.

Pollock fillet, garlicky vegetables and instant tartar sauce

Tasted better than it looked - and was super easy.  Steam pollock with knob of butter, salt and pepper. Soften chopped leek, chopped mushrooms and green beans in tablespoon of olive oil.  Add splash of water, 1 clove crushed garlic, and simmer for 10 minutes or so.  Chop chives, capers and gherkins, stir into creme fraiche, season.

Done!

Spaghetti puttanesca

It's quick and it's tasty.  Sautee finely chopped onion and red pepper in a goodly puddle of olive oil. Put a big pan of salted water on to boil.  When it boils chuck in spaghetti, following packet instructions, usually about 8 minutes. To the sauteeing vegetables add chopped garlic, chili, black olives and capers, and some salt. (You can add anchovies, but victim isn't keen, so I left them out). Chuck in a tin of chopped tomatoes and simmer for a bit.  Add to cooked spaghetti, grind of black pepper, scoff.  Yum - for something so quick - adjust flavourings to suit yourself, I like it quite hot so added quite a lot of chili.

Baked cod and capers, with fennel and potatoes

Trying to get fish into primary victim is a losing battle.  This was eaten - but with a face like a slapped kipper.  I thought it was refreshing, light and tasty.  So, roast par-boiled potatoes in olive oil, with wedges of fennel - for about 50 minutes.  Bake cod on lemon slices, drizzle of olive oil, tablespoon each of capers and black olives - cracked black pepper - with a good squeeze of lemon juice.  Cod takes about 20 minutes - cooked frozen peas.  Easy peasy then lemon squeezy.  As I said victim ate and grimaced, me and second victim enjoyed it.  Primary victim grinned when I declared we couldn't have it again for at least 3 weeks.