Parsley and lemon crusted fish, with chips and green vegetables

Traditional Friday night dinner - small ringing of the changes.

"Chips" ... boiled and roasted in olive oil.  Boil - 5ish minutes - into hot fat, in hot oven, for about an hour.

The fish is Alaskan pollock in a batter made from 1 whisked egg, a splash of soya milk, a half cup of polenta and a fistful of chopped parsley, with salt and pepper and the grated zest of a lemon.  The fish was coated in the batter, and then fried, a couple of minutes on each side just before serving everything else.  Drain on kitchen paper.

The vegetables - leeks, softenned in olice oil, then added crushed garlic, some mushrooms and a knob of butter.  Sautee gently, then season and add a splosh of white wine.  Simmer briefly, transfer to oven dish - tip on handful of frozen peas, and some baby spinach.  Cover with foil and stick in the bottom of the oven.

Fnatastic batter, really fresh tasting.  And the veg ... oooo ... lovely, buttery and garlicky and fresh.

Hot spicy prawns, vegetable stir fry ... more Chinese New Year deliciousness

 Gung Hay Fat Choi ... more Happy Chinese New Year.  Loving it!

I am not practised in chinese cooking, but I do give it a go now and again.  I was proud of tonight's dishes.  The spring rolls were from a chinese supermarket - they should be fried (deep fried or shallow fried is less important) and not baked for good tasty crispiness.

Dip in sweet chili sauce.

Jasmine rice - cooked according to packet instructions.

Spicy prawns

Spring onions
Garlic
Chili Flakes
Peanut oil

Stir fry spring onions in peanut oil.
Add prawns and spices, toss about for a couple of minutes.

Vegetable stir fry

Peanut oil
Spring onion
Celery
Red pepper
Carrots
Courgette
Mushrooms
Garlic
Ginger
Chili flakes
Chinese 5 spice
Chinese rice wine
Rice vinegar
Tomato ketchup
Light soy sauce
Pak choi
Beansprouts
Toasted sesame oil

1.  Prepare all veg and cut into bite sized pieces.
2.  Heat peanut oil in wok.
3.  Add spring onions, then hard veg, then spices, tossing all the time.
4.  Splosh in wine and vinegar - then tomato ketchup and soy sauce to taste.
5.  Just before serving toss in pak choi leaves, beans sprouts and a tiny hint of sesame oil.

I preferred this to the noodles earlier in the week, but both were delicious.

Chili and garlic squid, black bean vegetable, noodle, stir fry

Chinese New Year - and into the year of the sheep we go.

So, tonight we had garlic chili squid and a black bean, vegetable and noodle stir fry.

Noodles are traditional for a long life, I believe.  Rice noodles, in our case, to keep it all gluten free.




Chili and garlic squid

Peanut oil
Squid tubes - cut into rings
chili flakes
Crushed garlic
spring onion
salt
cornflour
water

1.  Cut squid tubes into rings, mix with chili, garlic and chopped spring onion.
2.  Make a batter (quite liquid) from cornflour and water.
3.  Dip squid into batter and fry in hot oil.

Scoff!

Black bean and vegetable noodle stir fry

Peanut oil
Black bean paste
Garlic paste
Fennel
Spring onions
Pak choi
Radish
Japanese mushrooms
bean sprouts
soy sauce
Chinese rice wine
Tomato ketchup
Water
Rice noodles

1.  Prepare all the vegetables, chopping into bite sized pieces.
2.  Heat oil in the wok, add spring onion and black bean paste.
3.  Stir fry, add veg ... from harder to softer, so they cook in time.
4.  Meanwhile cook noodles according to packet instructions.
5.  Taste veg and add soy sauce, rice wine and ketchup to taste.
6.  Add a little water if it's looking dry.
7.  When noodles are ready, drain and add to veg.
8.  Sprinkle chopped spring onions over the top.

Dipping sauce

Soy sauce
peanut oil
sweet chili sauce

Mixed to taste

Oh ... I am so full ... roll on the year of the sheep.

Leek and fennel risotto

Quite late home.  Cold again, but mostly salady things in the veg box - but you can do all sorts of things with a risotto.

Olive oil
Leek
1/2 fennel
Celery
Garlic
White rice
White wine
Stock
Frozen peas
Grated parmesan
Salt and black pepper
Roccolo

1.  Sautee chopped leek, fennel and celery in olive oil.
2.  After a couple of minutes add crushed garlic, and continue to sautee gently.
3.  Add a mugful of white rice, and turn over in the oil.
4.  Chuck in white wine and some stock.  Simmer, add more until the risotto is nearly done.
5.  Add frozen peas and cheese.  Simmer gently.

Season and top with roccolo.

Leek and mushroom savoury pancakes

 Pancake day!  But neither of us like sweet stuff much, so, I picked some tasty stuff from the veg box and some halloumi .. and these were the best pancake day pancakes ever.

Gluten free pancakes

Gluten free flour
Egg
Natural yogurt
Soya milk
Peanut oil




Leek and garlic mushrooms

Olive oil
1 leek
Mushrooms, sliced
Crushed garlic
Butter

Salad

Baby salad leaves
Baby rocket
Radish
Spring onions

Roasted beetroot
Roasted cherry tomatoes

Fried halloumi

1.  Start with the pancakes - make the batter.
2.  Then gently with the veg sweated down in oil and butter.
3.  Make the pancakes, keep warm.
4.  Fry the halloumi.
5.  Put everything on the table, and let people assemble their own.

Delicious.

Cauliflower and butter bean casserole, with rice

Rich, flavoursome and tasty - and healthy too.

Olive oil
1 leek
Garlic
Celery
Carrots
Cauliflower
Mushrooms
Mixed herbs
Passata
Butter beans
Black olives
Frozen peas

Rice

Grated cheddar

1.  Sautee chopped leek, chopped celery and peeled and chopped carrots with the garlic in olive oil.
2.  When a bit soft, add florets of cauliflower and chopped mushrooms.
3.  Add a sprinkling of mixed herbs, passata and water.
4.  Put the lid on, and cook through for about 20 minutes.
5.  Add butter beans, peas and sliced olives.  Continues to cook.  Season.

When it's done, serve with rice and grated cheese.

Delicious - and healthy, and a veg box victory.

Chicory, celery and kholrabi pasta bake

Interesting selection of veg in the veg box this week - but they don't lend themselves immediately to hearty winter warmers.  I could've made several delicious salads ... but, what with snow and everything ... just didn't fancy that.  So, a bit of a think, a few staples and condiments from the cupboard - and dah-dah

It would have been lasagne, but I had no gluten free lasagna, so I used what I had which was gf fusilli - mixed it with the veg sauce - topped with tomatoes and grated cheese.

Olive oil
Onion, diced
Celery, about a cupful, diced
Kholrabi,  (half) peeled and diced
Mushrooms, diced
Chicory (endive), chopped
Garlic
Oregano
Mustard
stock
soya milk

Pasta shapes (GF fusilli today... but you knwo, whatever... )

Tomatoes, sliced

Cheddar, grated

1.  Gently sautee diced onion and celery in olive oil.
2.  When a bit soft add kholrabi and mushrooms, keep softening for a bit, add garlic and oregano.
3.  Cook pasta in boiling water.
4.  When veg are softenning a bit, add some stock (and/or white wine) and a teaspoon of mustard, simmer for a bit.
5.  Add chopped chicory, simmer.  I let the sauce down with a little soya milk because it was looking a bit dry, and I thought it would add a little "creaminess" - it worked.
6.  When the pasta is nearly done, drain it and mix it with the veg mix and put into an oven dish.
7.  Top the pasta mix with sliced tomatoes, and a drizzle of olive oil.  Bung in the oven at 180 C.
8.  Grate cheese and sprinkle on top of bake after 10 minutes.  Bake for a further 20 minutes until bubbling and lovely.

Serve, scoff.

It's an eclectic mix, but it was quite alright

Rice & lentils
Carrot and swede
cabbage
Garlic yogurt sauce

"Crab cake" bake

Crab cakes are delicious, right?  But they don't always have to be re-fried... so why not make the mix, and then stick it in a hot oven to heat through and crisp up on the top - that's what I did - and it was DE-LI-CIOUS.

So, crab cake bake....

Potatoes
1 small onion, finely diced
Celery, finely diced
Red pepper, finely diced
Olive oil
Red chili, very finely diced
Crab (white and brown meat)
Seasoning

Serve with... well, whatever you want, we had fried tomatoes and frozen peas...

1.  Peel and chop potatoes, boil and mash ... meanwhile get on with 2. ...
2.  Sweat onion in olive oil.
3.  Add finely diced celery and red pepper, garlic and chili soften a bit.
4. When veg is soft -add to mashed potato, mix through well.
5.  Put into oven proof dish and bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes, or so, until you get nice browned crispy bits on top.

Scoff, scoff, .... fan-bloody-tastic

Roast trout ... yum ...

Got a really good deal on some fish this week, so bought some trout.  Simple treatment - but so, so, so delicious.

The timing for this dinner is ... start with the potatoes, chop and put on to boil - then put oiled tray in oven for oil to heat  - then prepare the fish, with slices of lemon in the cavity.

When the potato pieces have boiled for 5 minutes, drain and transfer to hot oil.  Turn, so that they have every surface coated in oil - put back in a hot oven.

After 20 minutes - put the fish, in an oven dish  - with oil and lemon into the bottom of the oven

- there are about 20 minutes to go now

Sautee finely diced celery in oliev oil.
Add crushed garlic and a splosh of white wine.
After 5 (ish) minutes add shredded cabbage to softenned celery.
Add a cup of frozen peas. Simmer, until all cooked.

Serve
Receive praise .