Beautiful Bream

You wouldn’t think that cooking Bream could cause such confusion as it did on Friday night. Trying to organise people to come and help us eat it was a nightmare! People could come, then they couldn’t, then they might be coming, and then other people turned up instead. It isn’t normally that hard to give away free food.

But when we finally got round to eating it, mmmm it was good. I’ve never eaten Bream before so it was good to try something new. It was more meaty than fish such as Sea Bass but still flaked off the bone and melted in the mouth.

 

I boiled 800g of small potatoes and then cut them into slices and mixed it with 2 handfuls of black olives, some olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and half a bunch of chopped parsley, and put it in the base of two medium dishes.

 

I then placed the parsley stalks in the cavity of the fish, seasoned it and placed one in each dish before drizzling it with oil.

 I put it in a hot oven (gas mark eight) for 15 minutes and then added a small glass of white wine to each dish before roasting it for another 15 minutes.

We served it with crusty bread, goats cheese, salad and dressing.

This a really, really easy way of cooking fish but it looks impressive when you bring the whole fish to the table to serve from the dish. We certainly got the thumbs up from our guests.

Frugal Meal #2 Oaty Top

This recipe originally came from my good friend Beth. She was the first person I met at university and we lived with each other for two years.

When she came to university Beth was a vegetarian, but only because she had been brought up one and she thought she didn’t like meat. In true first-year-of-university style we undertook the task of curing her of her vegetarianism…and how did we do that? We stole her life sized stuffed dog called Cheriton and sent her a ransom note saying she must eat meat or the dog got it. Bless her, she loves that dog so much the next Friday she was down at McDonalds chowing down on a BigMac with the boys. 

Frugal Meals #1 The easiest tomato soup you’ll ever make

Now I’ve managed to pull myself out of my winter stupor enough to be interested in cooking decent meals again I’m determined not to break the bank with organic food. Therefore, as always I’m on a mission to buy and cook good, wholesome, healthy, organic meals each day on a budget.
It’s not going to be easy as food prices have gone up noticeably in our local shops (I paid £2.69 for one organic red pepper the other day!) so that means I have been busy rummaging through my emergency ‘frugal meals’ recipes, and thought I would let you in on the best over the next few weeks.

Guided Tour

I suddenly thought the other day that I’m always posting pictures of places we visit, but I’ve never really posted pictures of where we live and where I work. I like to be able to imagine people’s surroundings when I hear them describe their lives (because I’m a bit of a stalker like that), so here we are…have a quick visual tour of my life…

Non-Vegetarian Sausage, Onion and Tomato Pie

We have a man who comes into our bookshop to plant vegetarian propaganda. It drives me crazy. Don’t get me wrong, I respect the choices of vegetarians and vegans and I even agree with some of the points they make about meat production. However, what I don’t appreciate or respect is this guy hiding propaganda in my books which says things like ‘Why Jesus would be a vegetarian’. It just makes us look like some type of cult church, we believe no such thing! GRR.

Anyway the other day I found a Viva! ‘Reasons to go Veggie, Vegetarian Recipes’ booklet in our literature rack and instead of throwing it into the recycling muttering darkly I thought I would try some of the recipes. Last night I cooked a Sausage, Onion and Tomato Pie (using normal sausages instead of veggie) and it was delicious! 

Recipes

Recipe Exchange

I have recently taken part in an email ‘recipe exchange’. I received this email:

 

1. xyg@yahoo.co.uk
2. abc@hotmail.com

You’ve been invited to be part of a recipe exchange. Here’s what you need to do to participate:

1) Please send a recipe to the person whose name is listed in the #1 position above (even if you do not know her). It should be preferably quick, easy and without rare ingredients. Actually, the best is one you know in your head and can type out and send right now.

2) Then copy this letter into a new e-mail, move my name to the #1 position and put your name in the #2 position. Only your name and mine should appear in this list when you send out your e-mail. Send this to 20 people. If you cannot do this within 5 days, please let me know so it will be fair to those participating. You should receive 36 recipes. It is fun to see where these recipes come from. Seldom does anyone drop out because we can all use some new recipes. The turn around is fast because only 2 names are on the list.

Have a great day and enjoy your new recipes!

————————————————–

By the way, I’de really love it if someone with a maths orientated brain could confirm to me that if you send 20 emails out you will not get 36 back…!?

 

Anyway I sent off my Salmon and Watercress Sauce recipe. I didn’t get 36, (or even 400 emails) in return, I got 4! I haven’t tried them yet so if they don’t work, don’t blame me!

 

Banana Loaf - good one for using up old bananas!!

 

225g self raising flour

100g butter

150g castor sugar

3 bananas (mashed)

2 eggs

175g mixed dried fruit

 

Mix all ingredients together – then stir in mixed dried fruit.

Put in a loaf tin with greaseproof paper

Bake for approx 1.5 hours (sometimes this can be a bit too long!)  on 180* or Gas 4

 

Chocolate brownies (makes 2 trays)

 

6oz margarine

1.5 lb soft light brown sugar

4 eggs

11oz SR flour

5oz cocoa

2tsp vanilla essence

 

1. Melt the margarine then mix in the sugar

2. Beat eggs and add

3. Add flour, cocoa and vanilla essence, the mixture should be quite thick and gloopy, not at all runny.

4. Bake for 30mins at gas mark 5 in the middle of the oven, think that’s about 170C but I’m not sure.

 

Broccoli and Cheddar Soup

 

I onion

175g of potatoes, peeled

450g broccoli

1 tablespoon sunflower oil

salt and pepper

1 1/2 pints water or chicken stock

1/2 teaspoon sugar

175g mature cheddar

 

1. chop onion and potato and gently fry in sunflower oil

2. trim broccoli and cut stem into half inch slices. Add stems to onion mix – fry for 5 mins and season

3.Keep back half the broccoli florets and add remainder to pot with water/stock. Simmer for 20 mins until the veg is soft.

4. Add rest of broccoli and suger. Cook for one minute.

5. Blend. (Not for too long! This soup should have a nice chunky consistency, and not all the broccoli should completely disappear – this is why you have cooked the brocolli for different lengths of time)

6. Pour into tureen and sprinkle with the cheese., stirring and turning with a ladle until melted.

 

Serve with some nice crusty bread. You can make the soup up till the post-blender stage and it will keep in the fridge for a day or so but don’t add the cheese until just before you are going to eat it.

 

Grape Cloud

Put 3 tablespoons of red or white grape juice in a bowl
Add 5ozs of Greek Yogurt
Add 4 tablespoons of soft brown sugar and stir well until sugar is dissolved
Beat half pint of double cream and fold into mixtures
Cut 1/2lb of black and 1/2lb of green grapes into quarters and fold into the mixture
Chill 1 hour before serving.

Salmon Parcels with Watercress Sauce

I have been putting off posting for a while now. It’s crazy how time flies past – the weeks are just slipping away.

 

I am happy because it is autumn and I can stop feeling annoyed that it’s meant to be summer but it’s constantly raining. Now I can enjoy the rain because it’s nearly winter and I can snuggle inside…hmm, it makes sense in my head anyway!

 

The students are back and we are very busy, in both our work and play – hence the lack in posts, but I have dredged the bottom of my mind to come up with something to write (just to prove I haven’t fallen off the end of the earth) and offer you one of my favourite recipes.

 

Salmon Parcels with Watercress Sauce (serves 4)

 

I think this was originally off a Sainsbury’s recipe Card, but I have been making it since my early teens because it’s a sophisticated looking meal, but is relatively simple and quick to make.

The chill of the watercress sauce is just lovely with the warm flakiness of the salmon. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it!

 

• Knob of butter, melted
• 2 onions, sliced
• sprigs of fresh dill (I never use this as I never have dill around!!!)
• 4 salmon steaks
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon
• 40g butter
• 175g fromage frais
• 75g pack of fresh watercress, finely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, 350°;F, Gas Mark 4.

2. Brush 4 sheets of foil with melted butter.

3. Divide the onion between each piece of foil, and place a sprig of dill on the onion.

4. Place one salmon steak on top of the onion and dill and squeeze over the lemon juice.

5. Add seasoning to taste and a knob of butter.

6. Wrap the foil around the fish to form a parcel and place on a baking tray in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.

7. Meanwhile, pour the fromage frais in a bowl and stir in the chopped watercress with seasoning to taste.

8. Remove the salmon from the foil and serve with the sauce and new potatoes.