Smoked haddock and parsnip fishcakes

I managed to get a bag of parsnips at a reduced rate from our local supermarket, as they weren’t beautiful. It was a good bargain, I got about 500g of parsnips. I made this recipe from Ottolenghi’s book, Simple. I halved the quantities, and substituted dried dill, on account of not being able to get fresh dill. I had enough for six large fishcakes. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 300g peeled parsnips
  • Olive oil
  • 250g smoked haddock fillets, skinned
  • 2 tsp dried dill
  • 10g chopped chives
  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed
  • zest of one lemon, cut the lemon into wedges for serving. 
  • a large egg, beaten
  • salt and pepper 
  • butter

METHOD:

  • Preheat the oven to 190C fan
  • Chop the peeled parsnips into chunks, toss with 3 tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt. Roast in the oven for 30 to 45 minutes, until soft and browned. Sit to cool slightly. 
  • Put the cooked and cooled parsnips into a food processor and blitz to a coarse mash. I had some extra parsnip, so I put this into a container for the freezer for use later. Put the parsnip in a large bowl
  • Put the fish into the same processor, and blitz again intil roughly chopped.
  • Add the fish to the parsnip mash along with the egg, garlic, chopped herbs, 1/2 tsp salt, ground black pepper, and the lemon zest. Mix well, and shape the mixture into fishcakes. Mine were about the size of a crumpet or small burger. You can also put the mixture in the fridge for use the next day. 
  • Put a bit of butter in a frying pan along with a bit of olive oil in a frying pan and heat to medium, with the butter melting and foaming. Add the fishcakes and fry them, around 4 minutes on each side. Two fishcakes is plenty for one person. Serve with a wedge of lemon. 

Salmon in Chraimeh sauce

I’m still cooking my way through a supply of salmon which needs to be finished, so for the last filled, I cooked this recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s book, Jerusalem. The sauce was delicious, and because I was only cooking for myself, I poached each portion of fish in a serving of the sauce as I needed it. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • Vegetable oil
  • 3 tbsp plain flour
  • 4 portions of salmon, preferably salmon steaks
  • 6 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 2 tsp sweet paprika
  • 1 tbsp caraway seeds, dry-toasted and then ground
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/3 tsp cayenne 
  • 1/3 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 green chilli, chopped
  • 150ml water
  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • 1 to 2 tsp caster sugar, to taste
  • 1 lemon, cut into wedges, and 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp chopped coriander leaf
  • Salt and pepper

METHOD:

  • Put the flour in a dish and season with salt and pepper. Coat the fish steaks or fillets in the seasoned flour
  • Heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in a large frying pan for which you have a lid. Sear the seasoned fish on each side for a couple of minutes, so that the coating is gold. Once the fish is fried, cool the pan and wipe it clean. 
  • Put the garlic, spices, chilli, and a couple of spoonfuls in a processor or pestle and mortar, and grind to a thick paste. You may need to add a little more oil.
  • In a small jug, mix the tomato puree and water, and have this ready by the hob.
  • Into the freshly cleaned pan, heat another couple of tbsp oil, and when it is hot, add the spice paste, stir and spread this out so it cooks for around 30 seconds. 
  • Add the water and tomato puree. This will spit a bit and it will stop the spices burning. Bring to a simmer, and add 3/4 tsp sugar, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. That is the sauce made. At this point, you could store it for cooking later. 
  • Put the fish into the sauce, bring to a simmer and cook for around 10 minutes, or maybe less. The fish should be hot and tender when it is done. Take the fish off the heat and leave it to cool slightly, before serving warm, garnished with coriander and a wedge of lemon.

I served this with super-quick couscous and some steamed green beans. I put 50g of couscous in a wee jug with a pinch of marigold stock powder, and then poured in 75g boiling water, covered and let it sit for 3 minutes. 

Meatballs and beans in a lemon sauce.

This is a delicious recipe from Ottolenghi’s ‘Jerusalem’ which is one of my favourite recipe books. It has a sense of Persia about it, and for a while I was trying to find it in another book. I used up a couple of reduced lamb steaks and some beef mince, as well as some broad beans from the freezer to make this. It is easiest to make if you have a mincer; mine is electric and very efficient. 

INGREDIENTS: 

For the meatballs:

  • 300g beef mince
  • 200g lamb mince (or mince some lamb)
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 120g breadcrumbs (I put three large slices of stale wholemeal bread in a blender)
  • 2tbsp each of chopped mint, coriander and parsley
  • 1 tsp dried dill (or 2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped if it is available)
  • 2 large cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 1 tbsp baharat spice mix (I got mine from Seasoned Pioneers
  • 1 tbsp ground cumin
  • 2 tsp capers, chopped
  • 1 large egg, beaten

For the Sauce:

  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 300 to 400g broad beans, fresh or frozen
  • 1 tsp dried thyme, or the leaves from 4 fresh sprigs
  • 6 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • a bunch of spring onions, in 2cm segments, or a chopped shallot
  • juice of half a lemon (around 2 tbsp, or to taste)
  • 500ml chicken stock
  • salt and pepper

METHOD:

  • In a large bowl, mix the meatball ingredients together. If you have a mincer, feed the mixture through the mincer after mixing, to ensure the ingredients are chopped and mixed together. 
  • Divide the mixture into 24 meatballs, about the size of a pingpong ball. Put them on an oiled baking tray, and leave them in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. 
  • Heat the oven up to high, and then put the chilled meatballs in for 5 minutes, until they are browned. 
  • Meanwhile, if you are feeling keen, poach the broad beans and remove the skins. Personally I like the skins and generally leave them on. The original recipe suggests half and half. 
  • In a large casserole pan, heat the olive oil. When it is hot, fry the spring onion, thyme and garlic over a medium heat for 3 minutes or so. 
  • Add the unpeeled broad beans, 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice, 80ml stock, 1/4 tsp salt and lots of black pepper. Poach the beans in the stock for 10 minutes.
  • Add the meatballs with the remaining stock, bring to a simmer and cook for 25 minutes over a low heat. At this juncture, you could turn the heat off and do something else, and come back to reheat. 
  • Just before serving, check to see if there is enough sauce. Stir in mixed chopped fresh herbs (mint, coriander, parsley, dill) and the peeled beans.

I served this with plain rice, my daugher got a wee take-away from me, and served hers with orzo pasta and pinenuts. Both delicious. 

Cannellini bean, lamb, celeriac soup

This is a rich, chunky soup with lots of flavour and it uses lots of ingredients that I can get locally. It is another Ottolenghi recipe. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 1 onion, finely chopped 
  • 170g celeriac, in bits about the size of a cannellini bean
  • 2 heads of garlic, peeled
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 500g lamb, in 2cm cubes
  • 1.75 litres of water
  • 1 can of cannellini beans OR 100g dried beans, soaked overnight and drained. 
  • 7 cardamom pods, lightly squashed
  • (you could add a stick of cinnamon as well)
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • 1 tsp caster sugar or date syrup
  • 4 firm potatoes such as Charlotte or Jersey Royal, 2cm cubes
  • salt and black pepper
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • Chopped coriander and green chillies (depending on your taste)

METHOD:

  • Heat the oil in a large frying pan, and fry the onion and celeriac over a medium heat until starting to brown. This takes around 5 minutes
  • Add the garlic cloves and cumin and cook for another two minutes before turning off the heat. 
  • Put the meat and water in a large pan and bring to the boil. Simmer for around 10 minutes, and skim the surface to get a clear broth. 
  • Add the onion and celeriac, the soaked cannellini beans, (if using tinned beans, wait until later) along with the turmeric, cardamom, sugar and tomato puree. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1 hour so that the lamb and beans are tender. 
  • Add the potatoes, 1 level tsp salt, pepper, canned beans, and bring back to the simmer. Cook for a further 20 minutes, with the lid off the pan, to thicken the soup. 
  • When the soup is cooked, add the lemon juice and check the seasoning. Serve garnished with chopped coriander. You could add chopped parsley and hot green chillies. Ottolenghi gives a recipe for Zhoug which can be used as a garnish. 

Serve with bread. 

Yoghurt and barley soup

This recipe is based on one in Ottlenghi’s book, ‘Jerusalem’, but there are many versions, in my soup book, in my two books of Turkish recipes, and in a book by Madhur Jaffrey. The key ingredients are yoghurt, eggs, dried mint, and some sort of grain. Some of the recipes use bulghur wheat, others use rice. One recipe has a handful of green lentils, another has some chickpeas. This recipe has herbs and spring onions stirred in. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1.8 litres dilute lamb stock or vegetable stock
  • 200g pearl barley
  • 2 medium onions, halved and sliced
  • 1 1/2 tsp dried mint
  • 60g butter
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 450g Greek yoghurt
  • salt and pepper
  • chopped herbs, try mint, parsley, spring onion, to garnish

METHOD:

  • In a large pan, bring the stock to a simmer, and add the barley and 1 level tsp salt. Cover and simmer for around 20 minutes, until the barley is cooked. 
  • In the meantime, melt the butter in a medium pan, low heat, and fry the onion and dried mint until the onion is soft, around 10 to 15 minutes. Add this to the barley pan. 
  • Whisk the eggs and the yoghurt together in a large bowl. Add a scoop of the hot stock from the barley pan, and keep whisking, and adding scoops of hot stock, until the mixture is warm. 
  • Add the warmed yoghurt mixture to the barley pan, and season with salt and pepper. Heat gently until the soup is almost at a simmer. 
  • Season with salt and pepper to taste, and garnish with chopped herbs. 

Lamb (or mutton) siniyah

We are working our way through the winter mutton that we got from a crofter in West Gerinish. Two nights ago, we defrosted the best end of neck, which I boned out to get some tasty meat for this stew, and I made stock with the bones. I tried this recipe from Ottolenghi’s book ‘Simple’ – but found that I needed to cook the meat for longer to get it tender. Best end of neck is full of flavour, but it does require a longer cooking time. I also used slight variations in quantity, to fit what we could buy locally or online. 

INGREDIENTS: 

  • Olive oil – about 60ml
  • 2 small onions, peeled and chopped
  • 4 celery sticks, chopped
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tbsp baharat spice mix from ‘Seasoned Pioneers’
  • 1 kg lamb, cut into 2cm chunks
  • 1 can of chopped tomatos, or around 500g fresh tomatos, peeled and chopped, if available
  • 1 tsp sweet paprika
  • 60g pinenuts, toasted
  • 40g parsley, finely chopped
  • salt and pepper 
  • 200g light tahini paste – stir well before weighing this out
  • Juice from 1/2 a small lemon
  • 1 clove of garlic

METHOD:

  • Add a splash of oil to a large casserole pan with a lid, and heat to low/medium. Cook the onions and celery for ten minutes, until soft. 
  • Add the tomato paste and the baharat spice mix, and cook for a futher two minutes. Put the mixture into a large bowl. 
  • Meanwhile, season the lamb with a good pinch of salt and black pepper. 
  • In the same pan, add a little more oil, turn up the heat a little to medium, and add the lamb to brown it. Make sure you only put in a single layer, cooking the lamb in three or four batches. Add the lamb to the bowl with the onions, before browning the next batch. If you need to, add a little oil before each batch. I found that I didn’t really need to do this. 
  • Once all of the lamb is cooked, return the lamb and onions to the pan, and stir in the tomatoes and paprika and bring to a simmer. Check for seasoning, and add more salt and pepper if required.
  • Cover and simmer for around two hours for mutton best end of neck, could be less for shoulder of lamb. The meat should be tender. If the sauce is not thick enough at the end of cooking, take of the lid and simmer so that it thickens up. This is important; if the sauce is runny, the topping doesn’t stay on the top.  
  • While the lamb is cooking, blend together the tahini, lemon juice, garlic, a generous pinch of salt and around 150 to 200ml water. The consistency you are aiming for is like double cream. 
  • Heat the oven to fan 180C or 190C if you don’t have a fan oven. 
  • When the stew is ready, stir in the toasted pine nuts and the parsley, and even over the surface of the stew so it is quite level. 
  • Pour over the tahini topping, replace the lid and bake in the oven for 20 minutes to set the tahini sauce. 
  • Remove the lid and bake for another 20 minutes to brown the top of the tahini sauce to a delicious crust. 
  • Remove from the oven and rest for around five minutes. 

I served this with a pilau of bulgar wheat and broad beans. 

 
 

Shoulder of lamb with mint and cumin

I made this for a large weekend meal, and it was delicious. It takes a bit of prep the day before, and is a long time cooking. It is not a weeknight event. It was delicious and I would make it again. It helped that I had the main ingredients in the garden, or in the freezer. The recipe comes from Ottolenghi ‘Simple’. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 lemon – grated rind and juice
  • 3 cloves of garlic for the marinade
  • 1 tbsp paprika
  • 1/4 tsp fenugreek
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 15g mint leaves
  • 15g coriander leaves
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 boned shoulder of lamb weighing around 1kg
  • 1 celeriac (about 400g) cut into 2cm chunks
  • 3 carrots (about 300g) cut into 2cm chunks
  • 1 head of garlic, separated into unpeeled cloves. 
  • Salt and pepper

METHOD:

  • Put the lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, 3 cloves of garlic, 2/4 tsp salt, black pepper spices and herbs in a small spice grinder or small blender, and blitz into a paste. 
  • Put the lamb into a large bowl and stab it at least 20 times. Rub in the spice mixture, wrap in a plastic bag or similar, and refrigerate overnight. 
  • Start cooking after lunch. Heat the oven to 170C. Put the marinaded lamb into a casserole dish, cover and put it in the oven for an hour. 
  • Reduce the temperature to 160C, add all of the vegetables including all of the unpeeled garlic cloves. Return to the oven. I found that I needed to add small amounts of water to keep everything moist during cooking, checking every hour or so. I cooked this way for four hours. 
  • Add another small splash of water, remove the lid and return to the oven for another hour. Prepare anything else you need, such as mashed potatoes, greens, etcetera. 

I had a boned shoulder of lamb, but you could use bone-in lamb, and keep the joint in the oven until the meat is falling off the bone. 

Spiced Apple Cake

I made this a while back and forgot to post it here – I used apples from Dr Johnson’s garden. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 130g butter, cubed
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 3 eggs. lightly beaten
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 300g self-raising flour
  • a good pinch of salt
  • 200g sour cream
  • 2 large cooking apples (Bramley) peeled cored and cut into wedges
  • 1 crisp eating apple (Granny Smith) peeled cored and cut into wedges
  • 130g demerara sugar
  • 1 tbsp mixed spice

METHOD:

  • Preheat the oven to 160C, and grease and line a 23cm round tin
  • Beat the butter into the caster sugar until light and fluffy
  • Slowly add the eggs and vanilla, beating in as you go
  • Add the flour and salt in batches, alternating with the soured cream. Beat just enough to mix all the ingredients, and then spoon the batter into the cake tin. 
  • Put all of the apple slices into a bowl and coat with demerara sugar and mixed spice. Spoon them onto the top of the cake mixture. 
  • Bake for 60 to 65 minutes until the cake mixture is cooked through. 
  • Cool in the tin for around 30 minutes before removing it. This cake is best served still warm, or at room temperature. It is not that easy to cut, so use a serrated knife. 

Beetroot, caraway and goat’s cheese soda-bread

This is a delicious Ottolenghi recipe from SIMPLE. It is so rich and full of flavour, you don’t need to add anything much. It is great sliced and spread with butter, or with a thin slice of smoked salmon. I made it as part of a mega cooking session so that I had lots of food that was good with salad, as this certainly is. I had to adapt a bit to fit with locally available ingredients. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 50g rolled oats
  • 2 tsp dried thyme leaves
  • 50g pumpkin seeds
  • 2 tsp caraway seeds
  • 2 tsp nigella seeds
  • 100g plain flour
  • 100g wholemeal flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 200g grated raw beetroot
  • 2 large eggs
  • 80ml sunflower oil
  • 80g soured cream
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 20g grated parmesan
  • 120g goat’s cheese
  • Salt

METHOD:

  • Preheat the oven to 180C fan. Grease and line a loaf tin. 
  • Mix the oats, thyme, pumpkin, caraway, and nigella seeds in a small bowl. 
  • In a medium bowl, mix the flours and the baking powder and baking soda, along with 1/2 tsp salt. Whisk together to aerate, then add the grated beetroot and all but one tbsp of the oat mixture
  • In another bowl, lightly whisk the eggs together and beat in the oil, soured cream, honey and parmesan. 
  • Mix the egg mixture into the dry ingredients, and fold in the crumbled goat’s cheese. 
  • Pour the mixture into the tin, and add the remaining oat mixture to the top. 
  • Bake for 40 minutes, then cover with foil and bake for another 40 minutes. 
  • Remove from the oven, and set to cool for around 5 minutes before removing from the tin and cooling on a rack. It needs to be cooled for at least 20 minutes before slicing. 

 

 

Bulgar wheat with mushrooms and feta cheese.

From SIMPLE. The book says it serves 2, but it fed two of us for two nights. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 150g bulgar wheat
  • 250ml boiling water or light stock
  • olive oil
  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 2 punnets of mushrooms, preferably mixed, around 500g – sliced to about 5mm thick. 
  • 2 tsp dried thyme, or 2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
  • 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tsp dill seeds
  • around 100g feta (half a block)
  • 1 tsp mild chilli flakes 
  • salt and pepper

METHOD:

  • Rinse the bulgar wheat, add a pinch of salt and a good grind of black pepper, and add the boiling water or stock. Cover the bowl and set aside while everything else is sorted out. 
  • Put 2 tbsp oil in a large frying or saute pan, heat to medium, and add the onion. Cook for 7 minutes, until the onion is soft and beginning to brown. Add 1/2 tsp cumin seeds and 1/2 tsp dill seeds, and continue to fry for another couple of minutes. Keep stirring to ensure that nothing sticks or burns. Remove the onions from the pan and set aside. 
  • Add another 2 tbsp of oil to the pan. raise the heat, and then add the mushrooms, 1/2 tsp salt, and fry for 7 minutes, stirring until the mushrooms are browned and soft.
  • Add the rest of the cumin seeds, and the thyme and continue to cook for another minute
  • Add the balsamic vinegar, and cook until the liquid has almost disappeared. 
  • Mix in the bulgar wheat, onions, feta cheese and chilli flakes and heat through. 

Serve garnished with fresh herbs and a drizzle of olive oil.