Grilled Sea Bass with Pancetta, Asian Asparagus and Mango Sweet Potato Mash

Tags

dinner, food, seabass, seafood, sweet potato

Saw this on Jamies 30 Minute Meals and loved the idea of using chutney in the sweet potato mash so gave it a go! The mash was definitely the highlight of the meal and made a nice wee snack cold the next day too 🙂

Ingredients:

• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 red chillis
• Bunch of asparagus
• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1 lime
• 2 fillets of sea bass
• Pancetta
• Jar of mango chutney
• Bunch of coriander
• Soy sauce

Method:

• Finely dice your garlic and one chilli and add to a bowl with a good splash of soy sauce. Set the bowl aside.

• Bring a pot of water to the boil and add the asparagus.

• Put the sweet potatoes in a bowl with half the lime, cover with cling film and heat in the microwave on high for 10 minutes.
• While the sweet potato is cooking, put 3 spoonfuls of mango chutney on a plate and add 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, the chopped coriander and the second chilli finely sliced.

• Score the sea bass to help it cook through.

• Heat a frying pan with a little olive oil and place the sea bass skin down on it. Season the underside with a little salt and pepper.

• The fish will cook for 90% of the time skin side down so don’t flip it!
• Add the pancetta to the pan with the fish.
• When the sweet potatoes are done place them on the plate on top of the chutney mixture and squeeze the remainder of the lime juice over. Use a knife and fork to slice and mash them, mixing the chutney, soy sauce, coriander and chilli through.

• Check the asparagus. If it’s done drain it, add to the bowl of soy sauce, garlic and chilli and mix through.

• When the fish is cooked through remove from the heat and flip it. Leave for 10-20 seconds to finish cooking.

• Plate up and serve 🙂

Seafood Linguine with Pancetta, Squid, Prawns and Mussels

Tags

chilli, dinner, food, garlic, linguine, mussels, pasta, prawns, seafood, squid, wine

If seafood pasta’s on a menu, I’ll order it. However I prefer the sauce to be more of a glistening coating on the pasta, as opposed to thick and creamy, so that the flavour of the seafood can really shine. I came up with this recipe while trying to recreate one I had in Carluccios on Nasseau Street, and while I strayed a bit it still turned out incredible, and perfect for a warm evening…if you can find one. Serve it with white wine and crusty bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping 🙂

Ingredients: (serves 2)

• Olive oil
• 2 tbsp butter
• 4 cloves of garlic. (yes 4)
• 1 red jalapeno
• 1 large white onion (or 2 medium)
• 1 packet pancetta
• 12 cherry tomatoes
• Fresh oregano
• 2 cups grated parmesan
• 1 glass white wine
• 12 large prawns
• 2 squid bodies cut into rings
• 12 fresh Mussels in shells
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• Grate your parmesan and set aside in a bowl.

• Heat a good glug of olive oil and your butter in a frying pan.

• When it’s still not melting after 5 minutes, switch on the power.

• Finely dice your garlic, jalapeno and onion and add to pan.

• While that’s sauteing, bring a kettle of water to the boil and add to a saucepan with your pasta and some salt. Set to simmer.

• Next, prepare your prawns. I deshelled 10 and left 2 whole solely for presentation. If you’ve never deshelled them before here’s how:

1. Hold the body in one hand and the head in the other.

2. Pull off the head.

3. Peel the shell and all the wee legs off the body of the prawn and pull off the very end of the tail, taking care not to pull off any of the tail meat.

4. This is what you should be left with.

5. Score along the underside with a knife, along the intestinal tract.

6. Pull out the intestinal tract and discard.

• Set your prawns aside in a bowl.

• Add your pancetta to the pan with a little black pepper and fry until golden.

•  Halve your cherry tomatoes and add to the pan along with a glass of white wine and 3/4s of your grated parmesan.

• Dice the oregano and add to the frying pan along with the prawns and squid.

• Cook until the prawns turn nice and pink and the squid is cooked but not rubbery! Taste, and season as necessary.

• Now give the mussels a quick scrub, removing the beard, and add to the pan. Make sure they are all tightly closed as any open ones have gone bad. Cover the pan with a lid and let the mussels steam for 3-4 minutes, until they all open.

(I had to transfer it to a saucepan for this as I didn’t have a lid big enough to cover the frying pan)

• Drain your pasta, add to the sauce and mix it all well together before plating up.

• Top both plates with your remaining parmesan and serve with your crusty bread, olive oil, balsamic and chilled white wine 🙂

(sorry about the weird lighting…and the weird black dining table)

• Dont forget a wee bowl for mussel shells!

Griddle Pan Steak with Asian Stir Fry Vegetables (No Carbs)

Tags

asian, chilli, dinner, food, garlic, ginger, low carb, steak, vegetables

I was looking for a recipe for something high in protein, low in carbohydrates but filling for a late night dinner after the gym and this was perfect. Be aware the steak needs a few hours marinating. If you wanted to add carbohydrates it’d be lovely with wee sea salt roast potatoes or some sweet potato mash! I went for rib eye steaks but any would do – striploin, sirloin, fillet…yeah you probably know the different types of steak. Oh and invest in a griddle pan, I’m pretty sure it was Einstein who said it was the greatest invention of all time. Penicillin came a close second.

Ingredients: (serves 2)

• 2 good quality steaks, nicely marbled
• 1 small red chilli (seeds removed if you’re not a fan of heat, but be aware, I judge you for that)
• 1 small green chilli
• Piece of ginger root the size of your thumb
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Light Soy sauce
• Thai fish sauce (ignore the smell, it adds incredible flavour)
• 1 head of broccoli
• 2 medium carrots
• 1 large onion
• 1 red pepper
• Small pack of mushrooms
• Bok Choy
• Black pepper

Method:

• Finely dice your chilli, ginger and garlic.
• Put your steaks in a bowl and cover with the diced mixture and a splash of soy sauce. Cover with clingfilm and set aside for 2-3 hours.

• Once the steak is ready, preheat the oven to 200°.
• Break up the broccoli into wee trees, arrange on a baking tray, cover liberally with olive oil and put in the oven. Set timer for 30 minutes.
• Slice your onion and carrot into thin strips, and roughly chop your mushrooms and pepper.

I used a weirdly shaped sweet pepper cos I’m cray cray like that

• Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan, and add 2 tablespoons of the diced chilli, garlic and ginger from the steak marinade.
• Saute the strips of carrot and onion until the onion is softened.

• Then add the mushrooms, pepper and bok choy, along with 3 tablespoons of fish sauce and 4 tablespoons of light soy sauce.
• Saute until the bok choy is wilted and vegetables are almost cooked, then add the broccoli and turn the heat to low. (Baking the broccoli first adds a nice crispy crunchy texture to the dish). Taste and add cracked black pepper/more soy sauce as needed.

• Heat your griddle pan and fry your steaks. we like them medium-rare, so I cooked them for 4 minutes on each side then rested for 3-4 minutes. Cooking times vary according to the cut of meat and how you like it – The following list is fairly reliable http://www.steakhousefinder.com/cooking-time

• Once rested, slice on the diagonal into strips.

• Plate up your veg and arrange strips of steak on top.

Falafel Pittas with Homemade Sticky Tomato Salsa

Tags

falafel, food, healthy, lunch, pitta, salsa, sandwich, sauce

Not sure if it should be called a salsa or sort of a jam but this sticky tomato sauce is unbelievably versatile – it can be used as the base for an incredible tomato soup, just add chicken/vegetable stock and blend, as a pasta sauce stirred through spaghetti with seafood, as a salsa with tortilla chips etc etc. This time I used it as a condiment in homemade falafel pittas and the flavours worked really well together.

Ingredients: (makes enough for 8 medium sized falafel)

For the falafel:

• 400g can chickpeas
• 1 white onion
• 1 large clove of garlic
• 1tsp ground cumin
• fresh coriander
• 1tsp chilli powder
• Sunflower/vegetable oil
• Pitta pockets
• Salad to taste (I used a wee bit of lettuce and cucumber)

For the tomato salsa:

• 3 large vine tomatoes
• 1 red onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 red chilli
• 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar (I had none so substituted white wine)
• 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• Splash of light soy sauce

Method:

• Preheat your oven to 200°c.
• Dice your garlic and chilli, slice the red onion and quarter the tomatoes.
• Arrange in a baking tray and cover with balsamic vinegar, worcestershire sauce and soy sauce, and a little salt and pepper.

• Put the baking tray in the oven and set the timer for 40 minutes.
• Next, dice the white onion, drain the chickpeas and put them in the blender with the cumin, chilli powder, coriander, salt and pepper. Add a tiny splash of olive oil and blend into a paste. If you’re left with a few larger pieces of chickpea it’s no problem – you can leave them whole or just mash them with the back of a fork.

• Scoop the paste out with a spoon and roll into wee balls with the palms of your hands.

• Set to the side.
• Remove the tomato mixture from the oven – it should be going mushy by now, and use a knife and fork to chop the tomatoes and onions into smaller pieces.

• Return to the oven for the remainder of the cooking time.
• When the tomato sauce has around 5 minutes to go, heat a small amount of oil in a wok or frying pan.
• When the oil is hot, fry the falafel for app. 3 minutes on each side. Take care flipping them to avoid them breaking apart.

The wee one on the left was a casualty of war

• When ready set aside in a bowl and remove the tomato mixture from the oven.

• Plate up, throw everything into a pitta and enjoy 🙂

White Chocolate and Cranberry Biscotti

Tags

biscotti, coffee, food, snack, tea

I made this recipe up out of a few different ones, and omitted the traditional almond extract because neither of us are particularly mad on it. I wanted to put pistachios in these but they were like €6 for what amounted to a handful, more than all my other ingredients combined! Hannah don’t play that game, so I used white chocolate and dried cranberries instead and they’re amazing. Variations I’d like to try are dark chocolate and dried cherry, or maybe half dunking the biscotti in melted chocolate and leaving to harden. Just to mention, I use cups, which are an american form of measurement but a quick google can convert it into other measurements. 🙂

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Method:

• Preheat oven to 150°C (300 °F)
• In a large bowl, mix together the olive oil and the sugar until well blended.

• Next mix in the vanilla extract and the eggs.
• In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.

• Stir the flour mixture into the egg mixture bit by bit, and then add the dried cranberries and white chocolate.

• Line a baking tray with parchment paper and form 2 logs on it with the mixture. (Tip: Learn from my mistakes and space them further apart than the ones below…)

• Bake for 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until the logs are light brown.
• Remove from the oven, and leave aside to cool for 10 minutes. Don’t skip this or they’ll just break apart, and don’t turn the oven off yet.

Why they should be spaced further apart…

• Once they’re cooled, carefully slice them on the diagonal. I found it easiest to turn them upside down and then cut, as the underside is a lot softer, but be extremely careful flipping them if you do it this way.
• Lay the individual slices on their sides on a fresh piece of parchment paper and return to the oven for around 8-10 minutes.

(The black bits are the cranberries, swear!)

Pop them in a biscuit jar or container or give as wee gifts 🙂