Cocoa Pasta with Smoked Salmon

I know, cocoa pasta and salmon does not sound right, but don’t judge too soon.  I wouldn’t have tried it either, except that I was given a packet of Hotel Chocolat cocoa pasta for Christmas.   Never having had chocolate flavoured pasta before, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.   As the recipe on the packet was for a savoury dish, salmon and mascarpone cocoa pasta, and the packet said, ‘made with pure unsweetened cocoa’, I assumed the pasta would not be sweet and that maybe the cocoa would just give the pasta a slight bitter flavour.   Taking the easy route, I decided to make the recipe on the pack.  After all, I reasoned, Hotel Chocolat must know what they are talking about.  The pasta must be suitable for savoury dishes.

As the pasta was cooking, a lovely chocolaty smell wafted up from the pan.  Is this really going to work with salmon? I wondered.  Luckily, the chocolate smell is stronger than the chocolate taste, but there is still a definite chocolate taste to the pasta.  Chocolate rather than cocoa.  Milk chocolate rather than dark chocolate.   I checked the ingredients.  Sugar.  The pasta contained sugar!

It was a little odd to eat slightly sweet pasta with a creamy salmon sauce.  A little odd but not unpleasant.  I would even eat it again if it was given to me.  However, I won’t be making it myself again as my husband claimed it made him feel a little sick.

There is still some pasta left in the packet and I’m sure it’ll end up in a delicious dessert soon.

Ingredients – serves 2

150g Cocoa Pasta

100g smoked salmon, sliced into strips

2 tbsp mascarpone

Handful grated parmesan

1 Lemon, quartered, to serve with the pasta

How to Make Cocoa Salmon Pasta

1. Put the pasta on to boil.

2. When the pasta is al dente, drain it and return it to the pan along with a little of the cooking water.

3. Mix the mascarpone and parmesan into the pasta until it forms a smooth sauce and has heated through. Stir in the smoked salmon.

4. Serve with the lemon wedges.

 

Finnish Salmon Soup

I have never been to Finland and don’t know much about Finnish food, except that it is probably quite similar to other Scandinavian food, which I also know very little about.    Actually, when I think about it, the first thing that springs to mind is Jacques Chirac’s 2005 comment about British food, “After Finland, it is the country with the worst food.”  Understandably, this comment did not go down well in the UK, but at least we are aware of the stereotype of plain British food, whereas it was probably more of a shock to the Finns.   So, I set about researching Finnish food, and came across some wonderful ideas for cooking with reindeer and elk – but possibly not so easy to get hold of here.  Luckily, salmon is very popular in Finland and I soon decided to make a salmon soup which I found on Scandi Foodie.

I changed the recipe only slightly.   I couldn’t find any celeriac so had to miss it out.    I had ground all spice berries, not whole berries.   I used vegetable stock instead of water.   I could possibly have used fish stock but I didn’t want it to be too fishy, I just wanted to add a little extra flavour.  I also used milk instead of cream as I was making this for lunch and tend to avoid cream except for desserts or sauces that really need it.   I am ashamed to admit that I did worry slightly that it might be a little plain, with just the all spice berries really for flavouring.    In fact, the potato, parsnip and salmon soaked up the flavour of the all spice and were delicious.   I don’t often use all spice but it was a flavour I could happily enjoy without needing other herbs or spices.   So, it was definitely a success, and a recipe I wouldn’t hesitate to make again.   Unlike some soups which are not filling enough for a whole meal, it makes a great one-pot meal, not needing any bread to go with it, although of course you could have some if you wanted.

I am linking this to My Kitchen My World.   The March destination is of course Finland.   I am also sending it to Kahakai Kitchen for Souper Sundays.

Ingredients – serves 2

About 5 new potatoes, diced

1/2 tsp ground all spice berries

1/2 onion, finely diced

1/2 a parsnip, diced

300g piece of salmon

Vegetable stock or water

200ml Milk (or a little cream and a bit more stock)

How to Make Finnish Salmon Soup

1. Add the potatoes, parsnip, onion and all spice to enough hot stock to just cover the vegetables.   Simmer for about 10 minutes.

2. Add the milk or cream along with the salmon.    Simmer for another 5 minutes.   Taste and add salt and black pepper to taste.

 

 

Inspired by Masterchef: Thai Fish Cakes

For my honeymoon 3 and a half years ago we went to Thailand, to Bangkok and Koh Samui.  I loved it – the atmosphere, the scenery, the weather, and the food of course.  So, last week on Masterchef I was delighted when the contestants were flown to Thailand to cook in a market and then for a royal banquet.   Some of the best food we ate was also in a market, so I was especially interested in the street food.   Like with lot of Thai food, the paste is the base of the dish and so the contestants spent a long time pounding away with pestle and mortars.   I was a little lazier.   I used my pestle and mortar to crush the galangal, as it’s quite tough but then put it in the blender with all the other ingredients to make the paste.    I then just added the fish to the blender once the paste was made.   So, really easy fish cakes, much easier than making them in a Thai market.   Nevertheless, I’m fairly confident that I’ve managed to make quite good ones.    I didn’t use any flour, which leads to a denser, heavier fishcake so they stayed really light and juicy, but held together well and were bursting with flavour.  Definitely one to make again.

I just served these with a little squeeze of lime juice but they would normally be served with sweet chilli sauce.  However, I’m not keen on sweet and savoury together so didn’t bother to make any.   But, after this week’s show focusing on pastry, I will now be making something sweet and next week is the last week so there’ll only be two more Inspired by Masterchef posts to go.   For now anyway.

Ingredients – Makes 6 fish cakes

4 largish red chillies, most of the seeds removed

2 tsp lemongrass paste or a fresh lemongrass stalk

4 shallots

2 cloves of garlic

Small knob of galangal

Handful of coriander leaves

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp cumin

3 kaffir lime leaves

1 tsp fish sauce

200g white fish

1 lime (to serve)

How to make Thai Fish Cakes

1. In a pestle and mortar, crush the galangal then put in a food processor.   If using fresh lemongrass, also pound first in the pestle and mortar.  Add all the other ingredients to the food processor except the fish.   Blend to a paste.  Taste and made any adjustments if necessary.

2. Roughly chop the fish and add it to the food processor.

3. Take the mixture out of the food processor, using a tablespoon.   Place spoonfuls on a plate and flatten slightly.    Put in the fridge for half an hour.

4. Heat some oil in a frying pan and then fry the fish cakes for about 3-4 minutes on each side.    Serve with lime wedges or sweet chilli sauce.

 

Inspired by Masterchef: Fennel Salad with Sea Bass

I really couldn’t decide what to make at first for my Inspired by Masterchef post after last week’s show.   I considered making a pearl barley risotto with fish, but I’ve already made a potato risotto with fish this series.   Also, the contestant who made it rather spoiled it by adding whiskey, so it’s probably not the ideal recipe they’d prefer to be remembered for.   Another option was beef with braised red cabbage, carrot puree, walnuts and rosemary.   I have to admit that this option came very close to winning out, but in the end, I opted for the fish with fennel salad, which has probably turned out quite differently to the recipe on the show.   It certainly looks very different.  On Masterchef dainty pieces of red mullet were arranged among fennel and tomatoes.   There certainly wasn’t a big pile of salad as on my plate.  There were also scallops with the dish on Masterchef, but as I’m allergic to them, they stayed well away from my plate.   So, as you can see, not really a winner for presentation, but it tasted delicious and made a relatively easy but very healthy midweek meal.

Ingredients – serves 2

1/2 bulb of fennel

2 tomatoes

4cm piece of cucumber

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp mind

1/2 tsp parsley

Salt

Black pepper

Extra virgin olive oil

2 sea bass fillets or other white fish

How to Make Fennel Salad with Sea Bass

1. Sliced the fennel very thinly.    Cut the cucumber in half and also slice thinly lengthways. Slice the tomatoes too and put all the vegetables in a bowl.   Add the dried herbs, salt and pepper.   Finally add lemon juice and olive oil.   Mix well and leave for an hour before serving.

2. Panfry the fish and serve alongside the salad with extra lemon wedges.

 

Inspired by Masterchef: Salmon en Croute

This week my Inspired by Masterchef  challenge involved not only making salmon en croute for the first time, but making my own puff pastry for the first time too.   And I have to say, I am seriously impressed with myself.  The pastry actually had little layers in it – just like in real puff pastry!   I’d always heard that puff pastry was too much effort and that there was almost no point making it, it would be nowhere near as good as shop-bought, and you’d have wasted lots of time over it.  Well, it turns out I was wrong, conned, deceived because it is possible to do it yourself.   It might take a couple of hours but the smug self-satisfied, I did it feeling is definitely worth the effort.   Not that I’m saying you should never buy a block of ready-made puff pastry again, just that for special occasions and to feel that sense of achievement, it is something you should try at least once.    Now, I hope that has convinced you.

I did of course consider just using ready-made puff pastry, but the rest of this recipe is so simple that it would have felt like a cheat to do that.   To be honest, I don’t know if my salmon en croute is similar to the Masterchef one at all.   They were cooking canteen style for lots of people and served it with a fennel and orange salad (I think), but if I hadn’t watched Masterchef, I certainly wouldn’t have made this.  I adapted the recipe for the puff pastry from a Gordon Ramsey recipe.   I was shocked at the equal quantities of butter and flour so I did cut the butter down a little and it still made a very rich buttery pastry so the amount could be reduced even further still if you wanted to.  In fact, that is possibly the only problem with making certain things yourself.   When they are unhealthy, you know just how unhealthy!

Ingredients – Serves 2

For the Puff Pastry

120g strong white flour

100g butter

1/2 tsp salt

Approx 50ml cold water

For Filling

2 salmon fillets

2 tbsp cream cheese

Handful watercress

Black pepper

How to make Salmon en Croute

1. Make the puff pastry.  Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl.  Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the bowl.   Rub the butter into the flour but not as much as with normal pastry.   Leave relatively large lumps of butter.

2. Add the water a little at a time and mix with a knife so it binds together and forms a dough.    You probably won’t need all the water. cover the dough in cling film and put in the fridge for 20 minutes.

3. Flour the work surface, your hands and the rolling pin.  Give the dough a quick knead and then roll it out.   Roll in one direction only so you get a long thin piece of pastry in which you can see streaks of butter.  Fold the top half down by one third and then fold the bottom half up.

4. Turn the dough around by 90 degrees then roll out again and repeat the process twice more.

5. Put the folded up dough back in the fridge for about half an hour.

6. Roll out the dough.  This time I did roll it in both directions as it would have been the wrong shape if I hadn’t.

7. If necessary remove the skin and any bones from the salmon. Season.   Place the salmon on the pastry.

8. Using a fork, mash the chives into the cream cheese.   Season with black pepper.   Then, spread the top of the salmon with the cheese mixture.    Fold the pastry around the salmon and seal the edges of the parcel well.   Use a fork to fold slightly and press the edges together.  Cut away any excess pastry.  Make slits on top of the pastry so excess steam can escape.

9.  Bake the parcels in the oven at about 200c for 35 minutes.

10. Serve the salmon with salad or vegetables.

 

Inspired by Masterchef: Chorizo Potato Risotto with Sea Bass

My favourite food programme is back on: Masterchef!   Last year when watching it I started a series of posts called Inspired by Masterchef and so this year I’m hoping to do the same.   Each week, after watching Masterchef, I will try to make something inspired by the show, to post by the end of the following week.   As each year gets harder and the processes and ingredients used get more complex for just an ordinary cook at home, I know that this is going to be a real challenge for me, especially as I have only just over a week to get the right ingredients and make each recipe.  Some of the recipes used on the show do get posted on the BBC food website, but that would be just too easy, I want to be a bit more creative.   Therefore, some of the recipes I post will attempt to recreate the recipe exactly, but based on my memory, whereas others will be a looser interpretation.

Well now, on to my first recipe.  I’d heard of potato risottos before and loved the idea of making a risotto with finely diced potato rather than rice.  So of course, when one of the contestants decided to make a potato, chive, chorizo and orange risotto with sea bream, I liked the sound of it.   Well, except for the orange juice, and neither did John and Greg.  Of course, for my recipe, out went the orange juice, and in came some lemon juice as a replacement, which I’m sure would have been much more popular among the Masterchef judges, if only the contestant hadn’t tried to be so ‘interesting’.

It’s important to use waxy rather than floury potatoes for this, as floury ones will disintegrate in the stock as they are in such small pieces.  I know when you look at my picture, the pieces of potato don’t look that small, but they did look small to me when I was chopping them up!    Maybe next time I will attempt a bit more refinement and dice the potato more finely.   That’s the only change I’ll make.   The chorizo and pimenton give the dish a lovely slightly smoky flavour and the taste really soaks into the pieces of potato.   The lemon juice is very subtle and keeps the whole dish light.    So overall, I’m very pleased with my first dish of the series and looking forward to my next one.  In fact, I’m so pleased I’m planning to cook this for quests, not just me and my husband!

If anyone else is as big a Masterchef fan as me and would like to join me in this challenge, let me know and I’ll provide a link to your recipe as well.

Ingredients – serves 2

2 sea bass fillets

5 small waxy potatoes (depending on size, enough for 2 people)

15g chives

1 clove garlic, crushed

100g fresh chorizo sausage, diced

A little chicken stock (approx 200ml)

1/2 tsp pimenton (sweet smoked paprika)

Black pepper

Juice of 1 lemon

How to make Chorizo Potato Risotto with Sea Bass

1. Dice the potatoes into small rectangles.   Heat a little oil in a saucepan.   Add the chorizo.   Cook for about three minutes, stirring occasionally.  Then add the garlic and cook for another minute.

2. Add the potatoes to the saucepan.   Stir to cover in all the oil from the chorizo.   Sprinkle with the pimenton.

3. Add the stock, so the potatoes are just covered, but not swimming in the liquid.   Bring to the boil then lower to a simmer.    Cover the pan.

4. Check the pan every so often and stir.    If it does start to get too dry, before it is fully cooked, add a tiny dash of water from the kettle.   It will take about 20 minutes for the potato to be fully cooked, soak up the flavours and become a little soft.  During this stage, cook the sea bass.    I like to fry in a little oil so the skin goes crispy, but you could grill or steam it.

5. Just before serving, stir through the chives, season with black pepper and add the lemon juice.

6. Serve the sea bass on top of the risotto.

 

Baked Sea Bass with Lemon and Olives

I know this is not very Christmassy.   What a thing to post on Christmas Eve!    Well, the truth is,  I don’t really do Christmas cooking(except truffles).    I spend all my Christmas visiting family and enjoying what everyone else has cooked.   I love looking at Christmas food, but to be honest, I know I’m not actually going to go out, get the ingredients and make it.    I eat everyone’s mince pies, biscuits, chocolates and puddings, and when I am at home to cook, I feel like I need to eat something a little healthier, something I’m not going to be given at the next meal out.   In fact, this year, I haven’t even bothered watching any  of the usual Christmas celebrity cook/chef cooking shows and I’m looking forward to January when everyone starts blogging about something a little different.   Sorry, please don’t misunderstand that, I’ve loved reading about everyone’s Christmas baking, but, as I know I’m not going to be making those things myself, I’m just getting ready to read about something else.

Anyway, this will be my last post until New Year’s Eve so Happy Christmas everyone.   Hope you all have a fantastic time and enjoy all the lovely Christmas food.  And if you do fancy something a little lighter instead, well…

Ingredients – serves 2

2 sea bass fillets or other fish of your choice

Handful of olives

1 tbsp capers

1 lemon

Salt

Black pepper

Olive oil

How to make Baked Sea Bass with Lemon and Olives

1. Take a large piece of tin foil.  Season the fish and lay skin side down in the middle of the foil.

2. Slice half of the lemon into thin slices.   Lay the slices on top of the fish.

3. If the capers and  olives are in vinegar then rinse them and sprinkle onto the fish.  Drizzle with a little olive oil and lemon juice.

4. Bring the foil up at the sides to make a parcel and scrunch the sides together to seal.

5. Bake the parcel in the oven at about 180C for 15 minutes.

Serve with homemade (don’t feel you have to) chips and salad.

 

Salmon Pasta Bake

Sometimes you want to try and recreate a favourite childhood dish – but with a few twists – and this is exactly what I did here.   The dish in question is my mum’s macaroni fish pie, a dish made with a mixture of fish, pasta and mushrooms, baked in the oven in a cheesy sauce.   Even today I like it when she makes it for me, which unfortunately is not very often as I usually have my husband with me, who doesn’t share my love of cheesy fish pies.   He would say he has more sophisticated tastes.   I would say I have an appreciation of a wider range of foods.   In my mum’s dish, the mushrooms are a more recent addition.   An addition I’m happy with.  When I’m not there, she likes to use smoked haddock too,  but I find it a little strong and so prefer white fish, salmon or a mixture.  This time, I chose to add layer of spinach to the bottom of the dish as the vegetable component, but in retrospect,  I think I prefer mushrooms and would miss out the spinach layer next time, or maybe just have a spinach salad on the side.

So, given the choice, would I choose mine or my mum’s pie?   For now, my mum’s.   But with a few mushrooms instead of spinach, I’d be spoilt for choice.

I used Dreamfields’ rotini pasta which was once again successful.  I am also submitting this to Presto Pasta Nights, this week hosted by HoneyB of The Life & Loves of Grumpy’s Honeybunch.

Ingredients – Serves 1-2 (depending how hungry you are)

1 small piece of salmon

50g pasta

1 tbsp plain flour

250ml milk

2 tbsp Oil

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 tbsp wilted spinach

2 handfuls grated cheese approx (I forgot to measure it, but taste the sauce and add more to get the right level of cheesiness)

Salt

Black Pepper

How to Make Salmon Pasta Bake

1. Cook the pasta for about 5 minutes then drain.

2. Heat the oil in a small saucepan.   Add the flour and keep stirring for at least 2 minutes, being careful that it doesn’t burn.

3. Start adding the milk. Add a little at a time and keep stirring so it makes a smooth sauce.   If you add too much at once it will go lumpy.

4. Add the nutmeg, season and stir in the grated cheese.  Then stir in the pasta.

5. Spread the wilted spinach on the bottom of the dish.   Cut the fish into cubes.   Put on top of the spinach.   Top with the pasta and sauce.

6. Bake in the oven at about 190C for about 25 minutes.   The dish should be piping hot and bubbling when it is ready.

7. Serve with lots of salad.

 

Tuna and Cannellini Bean Salad

At the moment I keep trying to make my packed lunches a little more interesting than just sandwiches.   I’ve been making rice, pasta, quinoa and millet salads, adding whatever vegetables I can find in the fridge, nuts, seeds or cheese, and dressing with a variety of oils, vinegars and citrus juices.    So when I came across this salad on the Bad Girl’s Kitchen, I decided it would be perfect both for lunch, and as this month’s Taste and Create dish.   The salad was originally based on a Giada de Laurentis recipe.  The beans and tuna mean it’s quite filling, and I added extra vegetables for a bit of variety too.  I only wish I had the organisation and motivation to make delicious salads like this for lunch every day.

Taste and Create is an event where food bloggers are paired together and each make a dish from the other’s blog.    To see what everyone else has made, have a look at the Taste and Create website.   It’s one of my favourite events as I love discovering new blogs and pushing myself to try new dishes, I may not have decided to make otherwise.   This month I was lucky enough to be paired with Min, who helps run Taste and Create.   There are hundreds of all types of recipes on her site and as ever I spent a long time browsing before making my decision.    If you like the sound of this then come and join us for the next one!

I am also submitting this to Anamika at Taste Junction for Salad Spread and to Ali at Jam Hands for Summer Cookout Food.

Ingredients – Serves 2

400g tin cannellini beans

120g tin tuna

3 spring onions

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tomato

Handful olives

How to make Tuna and Cannellini Bean Salad

1. Drain a tin of tuna.   Empty it into a bowl and mash a little to break up the chunks.

2. Drain and rinse the beans and add to the tuna.

3. Slice the tomato and chop the spring onion and add to the tuna along with the olives.   Season with salt and black pepper.   Add the vinegar and mix well.

 

Potato, Egg and Anchovy Salad

I’d planned to write about chocolate ice-cream today but unfortunately my camera has not saved the picture I took and the recipe could also do with a little tweaking.    The flavour was perfect – but the texture was a little thick for the machine.   What a shame! Or rather, what a great excuse to make it again!  But not this week.   I promise you I’m going to be healthy from now on.   Well, at least until next weekend.

After this month’s Daring Cooks Challenge I have actually become quite keen on potato salads.   So keen that I now choose to make them whereas before I would have run a mile.   I actually like the taste of new potatoes, still a bit warm with the olive oil, black pepper and lemon soaking in.    I chose to pair them this week with anchovies – another ingredient I would have avoided like the plague a couple of years ago.   I used the ones that are tinned in olive oil so I could use the anchovy flavoured olive oil in the dressing.   Delicious – if you like anchovies.

You could say this is a variation on a salad nicoise.   A seared tuna steak instead of (or in addition to) the anchovies would have been equally delicious.

I am submitting this to Kahakai Kitchen for Souper (soup, salad and sammie) Sunday.

Ingredients – serves 1

5 new potatoes

1 egg

6 tinned anchovies + the oil from the tin

Handful of mangetout

Handful cherry tomatoes, halved

6 asparagus spears

Salt

Black pepper

Lemon juice

How to make Potato, Egg and Anchovy Salad

1. Halve the potatoes and boil them for about 15 minutes or until cooked.

2. Put the egg on to boil for about 10 minutes.

3. Just before the potatoes are ready, add the asparagus.

4. Remove the egg and put it in a bowl of cold water, before removing the shell and quartering.

5. Arrange all the ingredients on a plate.    Season.  Drizzle the oil from the anchovy tin over the salad and finish with a squeeze of lemon.