Spiced Mackerel

2 whole mackerel, gutted
1 tsp cayenne chilli pepper
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1/2 tbsp ground coriander
1/2 level tbsp coconut sugar
1/2 tsp english mustard
a few drops of pro-heat chipotle sauce
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
salt and pepper

Mix the spices,  mustard, chilli sauce and wine vinegar to form a paste
Take the mackerel, and make 5-6 cuts in one side of the flesh as far as the bone, then rub in the paste onto that side.
Place onto a grill pan, with a sheet of foil underneath, shiny side up, and grill on a high heat until the paste is crispy and the flesh cooked.
Serve.

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ricotta fritta

250g ricotta
1 tbsp grated Parmesan
1/2 tbsp flour
egg
sea salt and cracked black pepper

Fresh basil
Cherry tomatoes
balsamic vinegar

Frylight

Mix the ricotta, parmesan, flour, egg, and seasoning. Set aside for 30 minutes.

Chop the cherry tomatoes, and mix with the basil and vinegar, and set aside for later.

Heat a frying pan, and spritz with frylight. This is where it gets messy – put dollops of the ricotta mixture in the pan, then fry for a couple of minutes and turn with a pallette knife.  If you get the dollops too big, then they splurge everywhere. They still taste lovely though!

Serve the ricotta fritta warm with the tomato salad.

Moroccan fish balls

520g bag of frozen white fish fillets, defrosted and patted dry with kitchen roll

1 onion cut into chunks

2 garlic cloves

Parsley

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 egg

Lemon wedges

for the sauce

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp cheat chili flakes

1 tsp ground coriander

1 fine chopped onion

200ml boiling water

Bouillon

200ml passata

3 tbsp tomato puree

2 tsp cheat garlic

Preheat the oven to 200°C and line a baking tray with baking parchment.

Blend the fish, onion, garlic, parsley, cumin and egg until smooth. Using a quarter cup measure shape the mixture into balls and place on the baking tray. I made about twelve balls. Bake for twenty minutes.

Make the tomato sauce. Spritz a pan with fry light and add the sauce spices and onion. Cook until the onion is soft. Add the water and passata and garlic, season and simmer until thick. Remove fish balls from the oven, and stir them into the tomato sauce. Cover the pan, simmer on low for twenty minutes.

Leave the balls to rest for ten minutes and serve with lemon🍋

Ossobuco

1 pkt of veal leg steaks
4 garlic cloves – peeled and sliced
1 onion – peeled and finely chopped
2 celery stalks – finely chopped
2 medium carrots – peeled and finely chopped
1 bay leaf – fresh, whole
1 white wine stock pot
200ml passata
600 ml water
salt and pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 160ºC
Sear the meat in frylight on the stove top, then add the garlic, onion, carrot, celery and bay leaves and fry gently on a lower heat for about 10-15 minutes. Add the wine stock pot, water and passata, and put covered in the oven for 2 hours. Remove the covering on the casserole, and leave to cook for another half hour to thicken the sauce. Serve (we had the left over pasta from the Turkey meatballs and it worked beautifully 🙂

Turkey meatballs

500g lean turkey mince
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp cumin
3 cloves of fine chopped garlic

2 stalks celery peeled and chopped
2 carrots peeled and chopped
1 leek, chopped
1 box passata (400g)
400ml boiling water

spaghetti for 4

mix the mince and flavourings in a bowl, and put in the fridge for a couple of hours. When chilled, roll into balls.

make a soffrito of the celery, carrots and leek, and fry in frylight for 10 minutes over a medium heat. Add the passata and water, and cook for 20 or so minutes, till the carrots  and celery are tender.

Put the meatballs in the sauce, and cook for another 20 minutes or so. While the meatballs are doing, cook the spaghetti, and then combine the lot.

Beetroot soup

3 onions – peeled and chopped
4 carrots – peeled and chopped
4 stalks celery – chopped
frylight
1.5 litres water
Bouillon
550g cooked fresh beetroot
Salt and rainbow peppercorns

Spritz a pan with frylight, heat it, and add the onions, carrots and celery. Fry over a gentle heat for 10 minutes or so to soften the vegetables. Stir in the water and bouillon, cover the saucepan, and leave to simmer for 20 minutes. Add the beetroot, cook for five minutes more, then blitz some of the soup in the blender to thicken it a little. Add some fresh herbs (we had southernwood, blackcurrant sage and bay) and then serve – season to taste.

Salmon florentine with roast potatoes

2 portions of Salmon
Baby Spinach
2 eggs
Potatoes for roasting

First, roast your spuds – I used the georgina variety from Tesco, as they roast beautifully when quartered and spritzed with frylight.

I steamed the salmon for about 10 minutes in a steamer pan on the stove.

The spinach I wilted in a pan spritzed with a little frylight, with plenty of cracked pepper, and then placed on warm plates before using the same pan to poach my eggs in metal rings in boiling water.

Serve as a stack – spinach on the bottom, potatoes around it, salmon on the spinach, egg on the salmon.  Great way to use up things I’d had left over.

Garam Masala

Using the Wikipedia page as a resource, I made my own Garam Masala with:

2 or 3 cloves
1/2 tsp mixed peppercorns
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 black cardamom
2 blades of mace
1/4 tsp nutmeg (grated)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp coriander seeds

toast the whole spices in a dry pan on a high heat until they become more fragrant.
Add the powdered spices, and pound in a pestle and mortar until they fragment.
Put in an airtight tub and keep for a wee while. (I deliberately made a small quantity so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it losing potency)

Portuguese Beef

3/4 cup of wine
10 cloves of chopped garlic
a little water
1 tbsp hot chilli sauce
2 beef steaks
0.5 tbsp oil
salt and pepper

mix the wine, water, garlic, chilli sauce, salt and pepper in a bowl, and then marinade the beef in the mixture for a few minutes.
Over a medium heat cook the steaks for 2 minutes each side, then rest them, putting any juices that drain out into the marinade.
Put the oil in the frying pan, heat and then cook the beef again, 2 minutes each side, before pouring the marinade into the pan, and cooking for a further 5 minutes.
Serve with vegetables of choice, pouring over a little of the liquid.

Caldo verde (Green Soup)

1 clove garlic fine chopped
1 onion, fine chopped
3 potatoes, peeled and sliced
1/2 a chorizo sausage, fine sliced
salt
pepper
100g of fine chopped kale
Water
fry light

Fry the garlic and onion in frylight until soft, then add the slices of potato. Fry for a couple of minutes, then add 1 litre of water
Cook for 20 minutes.
In a griddle pan, cook the slices of chorizo until most of the fat has drained off. Pat down with a piece of kitchen roll to mop up any excess fat.
Blend the potato mixture till smooth and add the chorizo. Cook for a further five minutes, then add the kale, cook for 5 minutes and serve.