Salmon Salad with Garlic & Horseradish Sauce

One of the easiest and healthiest dinners you could make after work. Fresh salmon simply pan fried or baked in the oven with 1 teaspoon of oil. With peppery rocket, baby potatoes, asparagus tips and broccoli.

And to make the whole dish sing - you have a garlic puree sweetened and softened by poaching in milk, added to creamed horseradish to make a flavour sensation. I could eat this every day, I love it so much.

Ingredients for the sauce:

1 whole bulb garlic
about 100-150ml milk
2 heaped tsp. creamed horseradish

Separate the cloves of garlic and peel. Pop into a sauce pan and use enough milk to just cover the garlic. Cook on a simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the garlic is soft and tender. Blitz with a stick blender and add the horseradish. Cover and chill until needed.


For the salad:

baby potatoes
broccoli florets
asparagus tips
2 x salmon fillets

Halve some baby potatoes and boil for 15 minutes. Steam some broccoli and add the asparagus for the last 5 minutes. Drain all together, cover with a tea towel and leave to one side.

Bake or pan fry the salmon with just a tsp. of oil and some salt & pepper until cooked to your liking.

To plate up, put the rocket on a plate. Top with the warm vegetables and flake over the salmon. Now drop spoonfuls of the garlic and horseradish sauce over the top. Serve at room temperature. Delicious.

Basil Chicken with Caprese Salad

Oh for the simple, fresh, beautiful tastes of Italy - it seems so many years since I visited. When I did go, many years ago, I travelled from Ancona to Rome, on to Florence, Verona and Venice. I ate this Insalata Caprese so many times. Its also called Tricolore Salad and I have noticed avocado being added - I'm not sure how authentic the avocado is - but it does go well.

Here I have kept it simple, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with black pepper. And served with a chicken breast stuffed with cream cheese and basil - to make it a more substantial evening meal.

Ingredients for the chicken:         (serves 2)

2 chicken breasts, skin removed
2 tbsp. cream cheese
6 leaves fresh basil

Chop the basil and add to the cream cheese, seasoning with a little black pepper. Make a pocket in the chicken breast and add the cheese mix. Seal with a cocktail stick and pop into a small baking dish. Cook at 200 C for 30 minutes.

Ingredients for the salad:

2 salad tomatoes, sliced
1 ball fresh mozzarella, sliced
basil leaves
olive oil

Method:

Place the tomatoes, cheese and basil neatly on the plate next to the chicken. Drizzle over a little olive oil onto the salad and season with salt and pepper. That's it. Serve with chips or bread, if liked.

Japanese Crispy Pork Noodle Soup

From the picture, you probably wouldn't see this as a soup. But under all those delicious toppings is a light miso broth, rice noodles, then topped with various crisp fresh vegetables and pork that is crispy on the outside with a soft centre. This Asian soup is part Japanese inspired, and part Vietnamese. A bit like a Pho and topped with Japanese marinated eggs - which taste just soft and work so well in this dish.

I know its a bit of a long process, as I have slow cooked the pork shoulder for 7 hours, before then shredding and crisping up - but its all worth it and tastes so authentic. If you like this sort of dish - give it a go - its so tasty.

Ingredients (for the pork):

575kg pork shoulder steaks
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup sake (Chinese wine)
1/2 cup water
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. Chinese 5 spice powder
2 tbsp. brown sugar

Put all the above ingredients into a slow cooker and stir well. Cook on low for about 7 hours, or until the meat is falling apart. Take the meat out of the cooking liquor and shred (not too finely). To crisp up, add to a hot dry non stick pan and stir fry until crispy. Cover and keep warm.

For the soup:

Make up about 4 cups of miso soup using miso paste. Cook some rice noodles to pack instructions. Ladle some soup into a bowl and add some cooked noodles. Top with shredded carrot, shredded courgette, sliced spring onions (scallions) and fresh coriander.

To make it extra special I added marinated eggs (Ajitsuke Tamago) and a sesame garlic paste (recipes below).

For the eggs:

Soft boil 2 eggs by adding to boiling water and cooking for 5 minutes exactly. Peel (gently) and put into a bowl. Add 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup water,  1/2 cup sake and 2 tbsp. caster sugar. Stir gently and leave to marinade for about 4 hours (can be up to 24). When making the miso, warm the eggs up briefly in the soup and then you can halve the eggs and serve on top of the soup.

For the sesame garlic paste:

Finely chop 7 cloves garlic. Add about 6 of them to a small pan with 1/4 cup olive oil and cook on a very low heat until brown (don't burn). Put into a pot with 1/4 cup sesame oil and use a hand blender to blitz. Put back in the saucepan and add the last clove of garlic along with 1 chopped Thai red chilli. Cook on a low heat for about 1 minute and then take off the heat to cool. Pound 2 tbsp. sesame seeds in a pestle and mortar until a paste. Stir into the garlic oil mixture. Spoon a good tbsp. onto the soup for a burst of flavour!

Enjoy!

Tuna with Roasted Radish & Bean Salad

I normally make this salad with tomatoes, but I had some radishes and was curious as to how they would taste roasted. Turns out they are lovely. Juicy, brightly coloured with a milder flavour than when eaten raw, they make a lovely salad accompaniment.

The tuna was simply marinated in garlic, ginger and lime juice before being pan fried for a couple of minutes each side. Simple, healthy and delicious.

Ingredients:              (Serves 2)

2 x tuna steaks
juice of 1/2 lime
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
small piece ginger, chopped finely

small bag radishes, halved
400g cannellini beans, drained
1 tsp. fennel seeds
75g rocket
juice of 1/2 lime
splash of olive oil

Method:

Set the oven to 200 C. Trim and half the radishes and put into a small roasting tray with a drizzle of olive oil, salt & pepper. Roast for about 20 minutes, or until tender. Remove from oven and set to one side.

Marinate the tuna steaks in the lime juice, garlic and ginger for 1/2 hour and then take out of the marinade. Griddle or pan fry the tuna for about 2 minutes each side. It should be pink in the middle.

Put the drained beans in a bowl with the roasted warm radishes, fennel seeds and season with salt & pepper. Add the juice from the other half a lime and a splash of olive oil. Toss well and serve the salad in the middle of the plate with the rocket and then the tuna on top. Fresh and healthy!

Thai Prawn and Cabbage Stir Fry

The thing I have been trying recently is to avoid using too many ingredients. This is similar to a dish I eat on my lunch break from a Thai Express café, Pad See Ew, which proves that you don't need much to make an amazing flavour. I adore this dish which takes minutes to make and tastes just perfect.

Stir fried dinners tend to get lost if you throw in a bit of everything - this is literally just prawns and cabbage, with very little else. Its all you need.

Ingredients:

200g large peeled shrimp or prawns
2 tbsp. oil
1/4 savoy cabbage
1 clove garlic, sliced
160g egg noodles
1 egg
1 tbsp. soy sauce
few chopped peanuts, to serve

Cook the noodles to the packet directions and drain. Set to one side.

Add the oil to a wok and heat until hot. Add the cabbage and garlic and stir fry for 2-3 minutes until the cabbage browning a little. Add the prawns and stir fry until pink and cooked through (you can use ready cooked, just heat through). Add the egg and mix through quickly so it breaks up into pieces.

Add the noodles to the mix with the soy sauce. Stir well. Serve topped with chopped peanuts. Eat.!

 

Mexican Style Chilli Chicken Lasagne

I was curious to see if I could use flour tortillas instead of a pasta layer in this lasagne dish, as I always seem to have so many of them in the cupboard!. It seems you can. And the great thing is - you can have more layers than pasta as its thinner. And it soufflés up beautifully.

Here is a simple lasagne with flavours of Mexico. You can use any chipotle paste you like, but I make this Chipotle in Adobe (recipe here) and blend it with a stick blender. Its a perfect chilli sauce to keep in the fridge and lasts for ages! I made this Mexican style lasagne last night and served it with jalapeno poppers, sweet potato wedges and a crisp salad. Delicious!

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, diced
2 tbsp. oil
1 white onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 red pepper, diced
400g tin black beans
400g tin chopped tomatoes
chipotle paste (add as much as you want)
2 spring onions, chopped
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried cumin
fresh coriander, to garnish
salt & pepper
pack of flour tortillas
grated cheese (I used cheddar and parmesan - not very Mexican I know!)

For the sauce

300g mascarpone cheese
splash of milk


Method:

Add the oil to a large saucepan and heat. Add the onions and pepper to the pan and cook for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and diced chicken. Cook on a high heat, stirring until the chicken is cooked and beginning to brown. Turn the heat to medium and add the rest of the ingredients apart from the tortillas and garnish. Partially cover and leave to simmer on a low heat for about 30 minutes to thicken.

Find a round casserole dish and use scissors to cut the tortillas to fit inside (if needed). Make up the sauce by heating the mascarpone cheese and adding enough milk to loosen the cheese to make a pouring consistency.

Layer the chicken chilli with the sauce, tortillas and cheese ending with the sauce topped with cheese.

Bake in a 200 C oven for 35 minutes until browned, bubbling and souffled.

Mediterranean Roast Lemon Sole

I can't remember having ever eaten lemon sole before. In fact saying that, I don't think I've had dover sole either.. and not for any good reason either. I saw some whilst food shopping and decided to give them a go and bought two medium sized ones.

This is a simple recipe that lets the fish speak for itself, with a tasty Mediterranean style dressing of olives, peppers and garlic. And its also not fried, so its super healthy.

Ingredients:         (serves 2)

2 whole lemon sole, gutted
handful black pitted olives, sliced
1 red pepper, roasted for about 45 mins
6 spring onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp. olive oil
juice of 1 (small) lemon
salt & pepper


Method:

Trim the lemon sole by removing the head and, using scissors, cut all the fins off. Wash the fish under cold water and pat dry with kitchen paper. Make deep diagonal cuts into the darker skin side and place both fish in a roasting tray, cut side up.

To make the dressing, peel as much skin off the roasted pepper as you can and dice. Put into a bowl and add the spring onions and olives. Then add the oregano, vinegar, lemon juice and olive oil. Mix well and spoon over and around the fish.

With the oven set at 200 C, roast for about 15-20 mins. Serve with crusty bread or new potatoes. Delicious!

Roast Beef Salad with Garlic Horseradish Sauce

So on Sunday, even though it was freezing at it often is at the end of Feb in London, I wanted a change from the normal roast beef dinner. Maybe there was a part of me hoping that if I made it into a salad...the sun would shine. And you know? It did. It was still freezing of course, but at least the sky was blue.

This is a nice different way to serve your Sunday roast beef, with mini roast potatoes and a lovely crisp salad served on a platter for all to enjoy.

My roast beef salad, with a roasted garlic and horseradish sauce.

 

Ingredients:

1-1.5kg beef (sirloin is a nice cut)
2 large onions
3 white potatoes
1 bulb garlic
1 tbsp. horseradish
3/4 cup crème fraiche
large bag mixed salad
few radishes
salad cress

Method:

Firstly, weigh the beef and plan to cook 25 mins per kg, plus 25 minutes at about 190 C. Trim off any fat before you weight it, you don't need it! Then peel and slice one of the onions and lay it in the middle of a roasting tin. Pop the beef on top of the onion, drizzle over a little olive oil and season with salt & pepper. Roast and rest under some foil.

For the mini roast potatoes, peel and cut into about one and a half inch chunks. Peel the other onion and cut into wedges. Drizzle with oil, season and roast under the beef for about 30-35 minutes. Remove from oven and cover to keep warm (not hot!)

For the sauce, Cut the top off the whole bulb of garlic and place on a piece of foil. Drizzle with oil and cover the foil over the top. Roast on a shelf with the beef for about 45 mins. Let cool and then squeeze the garlic into a bowl. Add the horseradish and crème fraiche and stir well. Taste and season as you like.

To serve, slice the beef thinly. Get a large platter and cover with a mix of salad leaves. Rocket and pea shoots work well. Slice the radishes and sprinkle over. Then add the potatoes and onion wedges. Then the beef slices can be draped over the whole thing. Add plenty of blobs of sauce and top with the salad cress.

Serve with crusty baguette, a plate and let people serve themselves. Enjoy!