If you’re feeling a little guilty about the over indulgence enjoyed by all the family over the festive period, then this recipe is for you. It’s positively virtuous.
Oat baked salmon fish fingers
If you’re feeling a little guilty about the over indulgence enjoyed by all the family over the festive period, then this recipe is for you. It’s positively virtuous.
Canapes are so often disappointing; too small, sadly an afterthought. These are anything but.
The ultimate in surf and turf; perfectly marinated large garlicky maple scallops wrapped in salty smoked bacon and baked on toothpicks for decadent pop in your mouth canapes. You might be advised to make double.
There’s nothing wrong with a retro prawn cocktail starter, but if you really want to impress, lobster’s the way to do it. Lobster tails are easy to prepare and have bags of flavour that marries perfectly with dill, the herby best friend of seafood.
The school routine is well and truly back. The house is a little quieter in the day, but in a credit/debit style the noise seems amplified come home time. The excitement of the day; the rush to get the detail out. Sometimes it’s just so much more important to tell Mummy about how someone jumped in a puddle and got their trousers and shirt wet rather than comment on what part of the curriculum was covered off that day. Come to think of it, pretty much the only things I remember from primary school are the contents of my lunchbox, skipping and making Christingle’s out of wrinkly oranges. Oxbow lakes and Tudor kings? Not so much.
Well, it’s still National Picnic week. Have you had a picnic yet? I think we can extend the deadline to include this weekend if you’re pushed for time.
A good picnic must have food that is both fun and delicious in my humble opinion. You can’t just pack up a standard cheese sandwich and expect everyone to get in the picnic mood. That won’t do at all. People expect excellent and imaginative sandwich fillings, some form of crisps and of course a scotch egg, a slice of pork pie, fresh berries (ie/’fun’ fruit) and a cake or flapjack of sorts. (I have never knowingly under-catered).
Did you know it’s National Picnic Week? Now let’s not be all British and moan about the weather. I personally don’t give two hoots about how sunny it is when it comes to eating al fresco; I have been known to pack up warm soupy picnics for snowy sledging trips after all.
If the kids are crying that it really is too rainy then a carpet picnic is a perfect British alternative. Here are my ‘rules’ for a successful indoor picnic:
Tasty ideas for dinner time that are quick, easy and don’t cost the earth are always welcome in our house. Here’s a speedy, tasty recipe for flour crumbed fish happily using things already in your cupboard. Kids can certainly help with the preparation and if you want to freestyle the flavouring then just add whatever takes your fancy. Dill might be nice… There’s a video too!
One year ago: Choc dipped ice-cream cones and Sweetie covered ice-cream wafers and Razzamatazz ribs
Two years ago: Banana and custard melts and Thomas fairy cakes
Flour crumbed fish
Ingredients:
Mix the flour, dried herbs, hot paprika and a little black pepper in a dish. Dip the coley fillets in the flour mixture, make sure every bit of the fish gets really well coated. Brush off any excess flour then take 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil, pop this into a large frying pan and get it onto a medium heat. You know when it’s ready because you just take a little bit of the flour mixture and just drop that in and if it sizzles straight away that means its ready.Fry for 3 – 4 minutes then flip the fish over and fry again until cooked through – another few minutes. Once it’s ready take it off the heat and pop it onto a bed of watercress.
After ‘how do you ice the perfect cupcake?’ the next most popular question I get asked is ‘how do you stay so slim?’ which always makes me laugh as I am no skinny girl at all. I’m a very curvy size 14 in fact. I love food and hate having to restrict myself but every so often when I’ve been reaching for the biscuit tin that little too often or finishing off the boys tea before eating my own (such a bad habit.) I spend some time watching what I eat. I measure oil rather than flamboyantly drizzling it in the pan, I bake rather than fry and I try not to have that glass of wine when offered. This recipe is one that’s very useful to have up your sleeve for when the jeans feel a little too tight but you don’t want to compromise on flavour.
Comments gratefully received. And there’s a video too!
One year ago: Octonauts cupcakes and Walnut, fudge and Fleur de Sel cookies
Two years ago: Mutter paneer and Hot cross biscotti
Healthier fish & chips
Ingredients:
Preheat the oven to 200ºC, 180ºC fan, gas 6. Pour the oil into a large roasting tray and place in the oven for 5 minutes to heat. Carefully place the carrots and parsnips into the hot roasting tray with the crushed garlic, and mix together with a spoon until all are coated. Cook for 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix together the parsley and breadcrumbs. Then place the flour, egg, and the breadcrumb mix in separate dishes. Firstly dip the fish fillets in the flour, then the egg and finally the breadcrumb mix. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper. Place the breaded fish fillets on the tray.
Remove the carrots and parsnips from the oven, turn with a spatula, then place the courgette batons on top. Return the vegetables to the oven with tray of fish, and cook together for 20 minutes. The veg and fish will be ready at the same time. Serve the fish fillets with roasted vegetable chips and tartare sauce.
There is nothing but nothing more quintessentially English than a dainty sandwich with all the crusts removed. This filling is a great way to make expensive ingredients like smoked salmon go that little bit further. It’s also hugely refreshing. That’ll be the cucumber.
All comments gratefully received. Here are some Eastery recipes you might like too:
Last week: Cadbury creme egg mess and White chocolate and cranberry hot cross buns
One year ago: Mini Simnel cupcakes and Chocolate orange easter spiced fudge and Eastery two tone cupcakes and Easter apostles scone loaf
Two years ago: Mini chocolate birds nests and Hot cross biscotti
Cream cheese, smoked salmon and cucumber sandwich filling
Ingredients:
For Kitchen Aid users: Mix everything together using the flat beater until really light and creamy. Then spread onto white bread and remove the crusts for afternoon tea sandwiches. (For non KA users: beat the cream cheese until light and creamy using a mixer/wooden spoon, then add the other ingredients and beat until well combined.)
I left London 5 years ago and still I find it hard to go back. Like seeing an old flame who still slightly tugs at your heart strings, when I visit it hurts a bit. It was my choice to leave, but the love affair wasn’t really over when I did. I still need closure. Maybe we need to have a big argument?
Worst of all I feel like an imposter. I am slower and fatter now, my clothes are from big out of town supermarkets and my internal London A to Z is sketchy through the mists of time. I still stand on the right, but I don’t run up the escalator stairs in an inpatient rush to save time and get fit. I was the poster girl for Busy.
One habit I have lost since the big move Up North is scanning every food item before I throw it in my basket. (Basket? Who am I trying to kid? It’s trolley world up here with two small boys who hoover up a packet of cereal a week between them.) I used to religiously check for fat content, calories and carbs; I’m not sure what eating plan I thought I was following. The paranoid one perhaps? Here is a delicious dish that would have suited me right down to my busy London ground when I lived there, for it is ready in 20 minutes flat. I would never have eaten it though, too many carbs, too much butter, probably too many calories…
One year ago: Obviously good flapjack and Joyful banana, butterscotch and fig traybake
Two years ago: Light and sweet carrot cake and Rhubarb and ginger chutney
Lemony salmon, courgette and pea pasta
Enough for 2 or just increase pasta and veggie content to make enough for 4
Ingredients:
Right, before anyone forgets their manners and comments on this post that they need exact quantities and this is a waste of time of a recipe, my advice is… live a little on the wild side and use your hands to measure things. It’s liberating. Plus this was an experimental supper that went very well so I didn’t weigh stuff out. Sometimes I like to live my cooking life by the seat of my pants.
Call this Holly’s 2o minute meal pasta if you like… time yourself, it’s easy and moreish. Boil the kettle then pop the pasta on to boil in a large pan of just boiled water with a pinch of salt. Meanwhile melt the butter in a frying pan and add the courgette, peas and the zest and juice of the lemon. Fry on a lowish heat until the courgettes have sucked up all that buttery lemony goodness and the peas look soft and cooked through. About 5 minutes. Then add the salmon, stir and take off the heat. When the pasta has boiled drain it and throw into the frying pan of lemony goodness. Then stir well to coat the pasta and to let the residual heat cook through the smoked salmon. Pop in serving dishes, add the parmesan and black pepper and enjoy. DON’T think about the carbs or the butter. This way madness lies.
Holly Bell 