Roasted Cod with Fennel, Red Onion and Tomatoes in a Lemony Balsamic Jus

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OK I admit it, I wasn’t telling the whole truth when I put together the grand title for this dish. It only takes a passing glance at the photo above for you to see that there is a sprinkling of fresh chilli in this dish. It’s totally NOT essential, so if your palate prefers the absence of chilli – or if you are feeding it to little ones, then please omit the chilli part as it still tastes really good.

We try and eat fish and seafood a couple of times a week, which reminds me, I must put up another of my squid recipes as squid gets a big thumbs up in our household. My six year old, known as big A in this blog (as she is my eldest daughter) has loved it for as long as I can remember; she is a joy to cook for as she eats and tries everything. She has her sights set on junior Masterchef, way to go girl.

This dish is perfect with white fish and cod works particularly well as it does not flake too readily during cooking. This dish is rustic and juicy and has the definite thumbs up from Mr B. There are a lot of flavours going on in the dish, from the sweetness of the balsamic vinegar, red onions and tomatoes to the subtle aniseed taste of the fennel and the wonderful kick from the chilli. I find they compliment each other so well, I hope you agree.

Roasted Cod with Fennel, Red Onion and Tomatoes in a Lemony Balsamic Jus

Adapted from a recipe by ‘Delicious Magazine’

Serves 2-4

600 g filleted cod

1 red onion, roughly chopped

1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced (set the fronds to one side)

juice of one lemon

2 tbsp olive oil

200g cherry tomatoes, halved

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 large red chilli, sliced (not essential)

seasoning, as required


1. Prepare the fennel, red onion and chilli and place in an oven proof dish with 1 tbsp of olive oil and the juice from one lemon. Place in a preheated oven at 180 degrees if you are using a fan oven and 20 degrees more if you are not or gas mark 6, for 10 minutes

2. Add the tomatoes and roast for a further 5 minutes. Now place the cod fillets, balsamic vinegar and remaining olive oil on the vegetables and roast for 10-12 minutes. Do not overdo the cooking of the fish as it will begin to dry out. It needs less cooking time than you think!

3. Serve immediately with the fennel fronds scattered on top to garnish. I like to eat this with rice, although it would also work equally well with little cubed roast potatoes.

Baked Sweet Potato Paprika Chips with a Creme Fraiche, Chive and Lemon Dip

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It’s been half term and after thinking that we had all managed to get through the winter months with no illnesses, Little Z and Big A both come down with a bug, which is then passed on to my fit and healthy mother. I’m just waiting to be knocked for six myself but am trying not to dwell on the possibility. So instead of being out and about  this week we have been hibernating inside and keeping cosy. With everyone on the mend and appetites returned I made a batch of these delicious morsels to cheer up my loved ones. They were gone in a blink of an eye, so I felt that I must share this simple recipe with you.

Baked sweet potatoes are a delicious addition to any dish, whether it be accompanying, fish, meat or other vegetables. They are also great as pre dinner nibbles if you have guests coming over or if you just simply fancy spoiling yourself or your family. With very little effort you can create these baked paprika chips with a creme fraiche dip and I assure you they are totally addictive.

I am a huge fan of  Santo Domingo Hot Spanish Smoked Paprika which you can buy here, as it has a real kick. As the girls adore them, I bake a batch without paprika or the less hot variety, so they can devour them as well. As an alternative way to serve them as nibbles, I make little paper cones and line each cone with baking parchment, so that the chips do not get stained with newspaper ink. The velvety creme fraiche is a great accompaniment and I like to add chives, as Big A is a big fan, a good splash of lemon juice and a sprinkling of rock salt. Simple and delicious.

Baked Paprika Chips 

Serves 4 -6

900g sweet potatoes, chopped into wedges

1 heaped tsp paprika

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp of rock salt

Creme Fraiche, Chive and Lemon Dip

200g creme fraiche,

1 tbsp of fresh chives, chopped finely

1/4 lemon, juice only

pinch of rock salt

1. Wash the sweet potatoes, but do not bother to peal them as the skins taste great when cooked. Chop them into chip/wedge size chunks and place in a large mixing bowl. Add the olive oil, rock salt and hot paprika and mix thoroughly with your hands so that all the pieces are completely covered.

2. In a preheated oven – 180 degree fan oven – place the sweet potatoes on baking/greaseproof paper on top of a baking tray and bake for 30-40 minutes or until they are soft.

3. When the sweet potatoes are baking prepare the dip by mixing all the ingredients together and taste and add more seasoning if necessary.

4. Serve immediately with the dip on the side.

Middle Eastern Okra and Tomato Stew, with a twist

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I used to live close to the Edgware Road in London, which is the Middle Eastern part of town, well as Middle Eastern as it can be in London. It has a fairly chilled atmosphere with people spilling out of the cafes onto the pavements smoking their apple tobacco from their hookahs, when the weather permit and the sun shines.

There are two things however that I really miss most about the Edgware Road.

1) Mandalay Burmese restaurant, which as the name states is not Middle Eastern but a Burmese restaurant run by the affable and learned Burmese brothers Dwight and Gary. The restaurant serves good, honest, home cooked Burmese food (cooked by Dwight and Gary’s female relatives). It tastes divine and the whole experience is very memorable. They have a little library up at the front with a few Burmese books, which you can peruse at your leisure whilst waiting for your dining companion to arrive. Whilst it won’t win awards for decor, it wins hands down on charm and substance. You need to book as it is often packed to the rafters.

2) Green Valley Lebanese mini market, which Mr B and I always referred to as ‘Valley of the Kings’ for some reason. It has a wonderful deli selling a huge array of salads, hot bread, stews, cheeses and a butcher selling good quality halal meat, as well as cuts you may not see at your typical English butcher – sheeps’ tongues anyone? In addition, it also sells a vast array of fresh produce and the best baklava in town, which they put together on platters for you. Basically they stock every interesting food product imaginable and this place is like a tardis in the amount of food that it holds. We would make weekly weekend trips to stock up on goodies.

I was back there the other day buying some baklava (it’s worth the trip trust me), when I decided to buy a few little savoury edibles from the deli counter to munch in the car on the way home. Whilst making my selection my eyes rested for a while on the delicious looking okra and tomato stew. Whilst it isn’t so easy to transport and eat in the car, I decided to make some of my own when I got home and add my own little twist to the dish – butter beans. I do love my lentils and pulses and couldn’t resist adding them to the dish – for true purists amongst you simply skip the bit about adding butter beans.

The dish tastes great warm or at room temperature with Middle Eastern flat bread. It takes no time to make and am sure can convert even those who are a little reluctant about eating okra (or lady’s fingers as it is also known).

Middle Eastern Okra, Tomato and Butter Bean Stew

2 onions, chopped

3 garlic cloves,  roughly chopped

400 g of frozen okra (or fresh if you have it to hand)

1 tin of tomatoes, blended

splash of olive oil

1 tin of butter beans (they tend to be around 240g)

half a lemon, juice only

2 tsp of ground coriander

1 tbsp tomato puree

salt and pepper, to season

1. Add a splash of olive oil to a deep pan and when it is hot add the chopped onion and garlic and stir a little until they soften and becomes translucent. This should take around 6 minutes.

2. Whilst the onions and garlic are softening, blend a tin of tomatoes with a hand blender until smooth. Before adding the blended tomatoes, add the ground coriander and seasoning and stir into the onions and garlic.

3. Add the blended tomatoes to the pan along with the tomato puree and lemon juice. Stir thoroughly and let simmer for a few minutes.

4.  Add the butter beans and frozen okra and add a little boiling water so that the okra is fully submerged. Leave to gently simmer for 25 30 minutes, stiring gently, occasionally.

5. Taste and add more seasoning as required and serve with warm Middle Eastern flat bread. It could also be served with cous cous or steamed rice.

Crab, fennel, chilli flake and lemon bruschetta – an uplifting lunch for the start of the new school year

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School started again today for big A, so it was a return to the old routine of getting up early – although at the moment we have no problem there as the jet lag hasn’t completely worn off as yet.

After a breakfast treat of crepes with ham, cheese and eggs – for the girls, not me I might add, we did the school run. All morning whilst little Z and I were busying ourselves I was looking forward to trying out a recipe that I recently spotted in the Australian food magazine ‘Gourmet Traveller’. If you have not come across the magazine before I urge you to take a look at their website at the very least. The fusion of food and travel appealed to me and I thought that the articles were well written and interesting and the photographs stunning. Australia is approaching spring and of course we are heading towards autumn, so perhaps their recipes are slightly out of sink with what us Brits would be thinking about cooking. That said this recipe appealed to me greatly and I felt that it could easily bridge the seasons.

It’s an ideal snack, light lunch or starter and would go down nicely with a glass of crisp white wine. The combination of crab, fennel, lemon and chilli flakes is sublime and the fact that it is easy to prepare further adds to its appeal. I think you will agree this one is a winner.


Crab, fennel, chilli flakes and lemon bruschetta

Adapted from ‘Gourmet Traveller’

Serves 4

Sour dough loaf, sliced

120g tin of crab meat. By all means use freshly cooked crab meat if you have it to hand but I find the tinned variety reasonable and hassle free

1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed

juice of 1/2 a lemon

1/2 tsp of chilli flakes

25 ml of olive oil

half a lemon, thinly sliced. Meyer lemon if you can get hold of them. Equally you can substitute the lemons with 2 tsp of lemon juice and 1 tsp of finely grated rind. 

1/2 fennel bulb, thinly sliced

1 handful of flat leaf parsley, coarsely chopped

1 garlic clove, halved

*  Mix the crab meat, lemon juice, fennel seeds and chilli flakes together with your hands and add the olive oil.

* Now gently add the lemon slices (or finely grated rind – see above), fennel bulb and parsley and season to taste.

* Using a griddle pan, or in my case non-stick grill plates from my sandwich and panini maker, place a couple of slices of sour dough bread on the plates for approximately a minute. If you are using a griddle pan, turn the bread only once. Repeat until you have toasted enough bread for your needs.

* Once the bread is toasted sufficiently so that griddle lines appear, rub the cut-side of garlic onto the toast.

* Place the crab mixture on top of the toast and serve immediately.

My mother’s legendary ‘Smokey Barbeque Sauce’ and ‘Tarragon and Lemon Chicken’

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No barbeque is complete without my mother’s legendary smokey barbeque sauce. It’s straightforward to make and always guaranteed to please. There are certain things that you eat as a child that remain in your memory forever and this sauce is definitely one of those happy memory tastes. We were blessed with stunning weather this past weekend – for the Wimbledon finals – so having a barbeque was definitely in order. A glass of Pimms, that ubiquitous English summer tipple, a game of croquet (which is seriously addictive) all in all made for a perfect summer’s day.

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Smokey Barbecue Sauce

Makes approximately 1/2 pint/300ml

25g /1oz butter

1 onion, peeled and finely chopped (although my mother uses leeks as my father has an onion intolerance, which works equally well)

1 garlic clove, crushed

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

150ml/1/4 pint of water or vegetable stock

1 tbsp English mustard

2 tbsp demerara sugar

1 slice of lemon

1 bay leaf

Pinch of cayenne pepper

2 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce

5 tbsp of tomato ketchup

3 tbsp tomato puree

salt

fresh ground pepper

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and fry the onion (or leek for those with an onion intollerance) and garlic until soft and translucent.

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2. Now add the vinegar, water or stock, mustard, sugar, lemon slice, bay leaf and cayenne. Bring slowly to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Stir in the remaining ingredients with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for a futher 10 minutes. I tend to leave the bay leaf in when I serve the sauce as I like the rustic, homemade quality to it.

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As an alternative to simply just barbequing chicken, which is delicious in its own right, my mother’s ‘Tarragon and Lemon Chicken’ is a good alternative. It’s best to marinade the chicken for as long as possible, ideally overnight and to pierce the skin of the chicken so that the flavours can really be absorbed by the chicken. Serve with a crisp green salad and piping hot new potatoes with a dollop of butter and some chopped up fresh parsley and my mother’s legendary smokey barbeque sauce.

Tarragon and Lemon Chicken  serves 4

3.5lb whole chicken cut into pieces

5 fl oz olive oil

6 tbsp lemon juice

1 onion (or leek), finely chopped

1 large handful of fresh tarragon

1 large handful of fresh parsley (flat leaf or curly), finely chopped

few drops of tabasco

salt and pepper

lemon wedges and fresh tarragon sprigs to garnish

1.  Season the chicken with salt and pepper and then make a few knife incisions into the chicken pieces. This is to enable the marinade to really penetrate the chicken so that it is more flavoursome when it is cooked. In a separate bowl mix together the olive oil, lemon juice, onion (or leek), the handful of tarragon and parsley and tabasco. Then add the chicken pieces and with your hands really work the marinade into the chicken pushing some of the onion and herbs into the small incisions that you have made.   Leave the chicken to marinate in the fridge overnight.
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2.  Take the marinated chicken out of the fridge for over an hour before cooking time and leave to stand at room temperature.
3.  When the barbeque is ready brush the grid with olive oil.  Drain the chicken pieces, reserving the marinade, and place chicken on the grid starting with the bony side down. Brush the chicken pieces with the marinade at intervals during cooking, remembering to turn the chicken so that it is cooked sufficiently.
4.  Barbequing the chicken takes 30 minutes. You know that the chicken is cooked when the juices run clear when pierced with a knife through the thickest part of the meat.
5.  Garnish with tarragon sprigs and serve with lemon wedges.
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