Salmon en croûte

Salmon en croûte © dan & tuesy

This is a Jamie Oliver recipe from the BBC GoodFood magazine (December 2009). Elisabeth at work loaned me the magazine and it is filled with wonderful recipes including the florentines I made yesterday.

But I won’t talk about the florentines just yet. Maybe next post. So about the salmon en croûte, you’ll need big piece of salmon fillet. I am lucky that I live just a couple of minutes walk to the central market in Cardiff which has a fishmonger. I asked for a piece of fresh salmon fillet and they cut me a lovely piece.

Black olive tapenade on salmon fillet © dan & tuesy

You need:

• 500g all-butter puff pastry
• about 800g salmon fillet
• black olive tapenade paste
• bunch of fresh basil
• 2 ripe tomatoes, sliced
• 150g mozzarella cheese
• 1 large free-range egg
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Tools:

• rolling pin
• 2 large baking tray
• baking sheet
• pre-heated oven at 200˚C

Salmon en croûte © dan & tuesy

What to do:

1. Drizzle olive oil on the salmon fillet and sprinkle some freshly ground pepper and salt.
2. Flour a work surface and then roll out the puff pastry about the size of the large baking tray. Dust the large baking tray with flour then place the puff pastry on the baking tray.
3. Put the seasoned salmon fillet on top of the pastry, skin-side down.
   

   Working the pastry © dan & tuesy

4. Spread black olive tapenade on top of the salmon then the basil and tomatoes. Tear the mozarella into pieces and put it on top, too! Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.
5. Gather the sides of the pastry. Beat an egg and brush the pastry with egg.
6. Put the baking tray at the bottom of the preheated oven. Put a baking tray on the shelf above so that the pastry is not getting too much heat.
7. Cook for about 35-40 minutes and then serve with vegetables. We like roasted baby potatoes, steamed brocolli, and peas.

More photos here.

Salmon en croûte © dan & tuesy

 

Dark chocolate peanut butter cookies

Dark chocolate peanut butter cookies © dan & tuesday

So far I’ve done 3 recipes from the hummingbird bakery cookbook. The Pecan pie, that was first, and then this wonderful peanut butter cookies, second. The third one was the lemon loaf but that will be another post.

If, like me, you enjoy a super chunky peanut butter and dark chocolate, then this is a little piece of heaven on earth! It was even more delish after a day or two as the cookies become a bit chewy.

You need:

• 225g unsalted butter at room temp
• 200g caster sugar
• 200g light brown sugar
• 2 free-range eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 240g chunky peanut butter
• 340g plain flour
• 2 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 75g chopped dark chocolate

Cookie dough © dan & tuesday

Tools:

• baking trays x 4 lined with greaseproof paper
• freestanding or handheld mixer
• mixing bowls
• rubber spatula
• Pre-heated oven at 170˚C

What to do:

1. 

   Dan tries to help © dan & tuesday

   Use the mixer to cream butter, caster sugar and light brown sugar until it’s light and fluffy.

2. Add the eggs one at a time. Make sure that the ingredients are mixed well by scraping the side of the bowl using the rubber spatula.
3. In low speed, beat in the vanilla extract and peanut butter.
4. Add the flour, bicarbonate soda, and salt. Mix until you have a smooth dough. Then add the dark chocolate and mix well. Taking a break from writing his awesome blog, Dan wants to help!
5. Put about 6 cookie dough on each baking tray. Space them apart as they will spread when they are baking.
6. Bake until the cookies are golden brown which is about 10 mins.
7. Cool the cookies onto a cooling wire rack.

Cooling the peanut butter cookies © dan & tuesday

 

Basic pasta dough recipe

The basic pasta dough recipe is really simple but making pasta takes time and best done with company. The more people, the better!Let everyone take turns using the pasta machine or let your friends work for their meal, is another way of putting it.

The recipe below is good enough for a serving for 4 people. Someone (eg Dan) attempted a double recipe and, consequently, messed up my kitchen. Nice one, Dan.

Without a pasta machine, personally, I would not make my own pasta as I will have to roll out the dough using a rolling pin for ages!

You need:

• 2 large free-range eggs
• 200 g pasta or ‘00′ grade flour (if you can’t find this, use strong white bread flour)

Tools:

• pasta machine
• baking sheets or trays lined with tea towel or kitchen towel, dusted lightly with flour
• rolling pin (optional)

What to do:

1. Put the flour on a clean work space. Create a little well in the centre.
   

   creating a well for pasta recipe © danandtuesday

2. Beat the eggs lightly using a fork then gradually start to blend the flour to the eggs. Do this until you have a a crumbly mixture. Ditch the fork and start using your hands.
   

   blending pasta © danandtuesday

3. Work the mixture by kneading the dough. If it starts to stick to the work surface, just sprinkle more flour in. Knead until it feels smooth and elastic.The dough should feel firm, slightly more firm than a bread dough.
4. Wrap the dough in cling wrap and then leave it to stand at room temperature for 20mins. If you don’t want to use all your dough, you can freeze it.
5. Before using the pasta machine, divide the dough into about 6 parts.
   

   rolling the dough © danandtuesday

6. Set the pasta machine setting to its widest setting and then begin rolling out the dough. Change setting to a narrower one and roll the dough again. Do this until you have reached the right thickness for your pasta- depends on how you’ll use your pasta. If the pasta becomes too long, just cut it in half.
   

   Monette helping to make pasta © danandtuesday

7. Put the rolled out pasta on top of the lined trays while rolling out the rest.
8. Once the pasta is rolled, you can do many things with them such as make flavoured pasta or ravioli. The pasta we made here was used to make a “silhouette” pasta (recipe soon!) which has different herbs between thin sheets of pasta.
   

   drying silhouette pasta © danandtuesday

   The rest of the photos are here.

 

Pecan pie

I met Monette when we were in first grade (age 7) in school. Then we became neighbours in 1985. She recently moved to London to study and work, and after 8 months, she found her way on a megabus to visit me in Cardiff. Yay!

So, a special treat was in store for this wonderful visit. Drinks on Friday night with friends from work, Saturday brunch on my balcony and home-made dinner, and Sunday kedgeree brunch (from previous post) and trip to the beach.

I wanted to try a new dessert from one of the cookbooks I got for my birthday– I got 2 cookbooks from Dan and 2 from my brother and his wife. More on the other cookbooks in the next posts. For this pecan pie, I used a recipe from the hummingbird bakery cookbook.

It was a decision between pecan or key lime pie. Pecan won.

basic pie dough on tuesy's hand © dan and tuesy

You need:

• Basic pie crust dough – the recipe I used will be for another post, here are some recipes
• 100g chopped pecan nuts, leave some whole ones to put on top
• 3 eggs
• 60g unsalted butter
• 200g caster sugar
• 250ml golden syrup – if you can find dark corn syrup, use that instead
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Tools

• 23-cm pie dish
• rolling pin
• preheated oven at 170˚C

What to do:

1. Dust a clean work surface in your kitchen with flour. Roll out the dough using the rolling pin. Line the pie dish with the dough and then trim the edges.
2. In a large saucepan, put the sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to boil on medium heat then remove from the heat. Allow it to cool a little but don’t let it cool down completely or it will be very thick!
3. In a bowl, whisk eggs until they are mixed. Pour the warm syrup into the eggs and stir quickly.
4. Add butter and vanilla extract to the mixture until the butter has melted and evenly distributed.
5. Put the chopped pecan nuts into the crust then pour the mixture on top of it. Put the remaining pecan nuts on top of the mixture, close to the edge.
6. Bake for about 50-60 minutes or until it is a caramel colour.
7. Serve warm with vanilla ice-cream!

more about “Pecan pie“, posted with vodpod

 

Smoked fish kedgeree

smoked fish kedgeree © dan and tuesday

Kedgeree is the best thing for breakfast or brunch on a lazy weekend. It doesn’t take long to make and the mixed flavours of the smoked fish and spices are absolutely divine. Dan used kipper when he made it for Chris and Lilly. I used smoked mackerel when Monette was visiting last weekend.

Rica asked me on facebook what kedgeree was. Clinton replied that it is “tinapa wth cream mixed with lugaw =)” Tinapa is a smoked milkfish or bangus; lugaw is a type of congee. Since I don’t put cream on my kedgeree and it doesn’t look like lugaw to me, I looked it up and found out that this is a variety of kedgeree. I also read that kedgeree is a popular breakfast dish during the Victorian time. More on kedgeree here.

This recipe serves 4.

You need

• 4 boiled free-range eggs, quartered lengthwise
• cooked boiled rice* (2 cups uncooked)
• 500g smoked fish (mackerel, kipper, haddock, tinapa), flaked
• 8 cardamom pods
• 2 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 25g butter
• 1 small onion
• salt and pepper
• chopped flat-leaf parsley
• lemon or lime wedges (we prefer lime)

Tools

• mortar and pestle
• frying pan

What to do:

1. Crush fennel seed and cardamom pods using mortar and pestle. Remove the cardamom husks, leaving the seeds.
2. Melt butter in frying pan then fry onion and all the spices in medium heat for about 5 mins.
3. Stir the fish and rice. Make sure that the rice is covered in turmeric so it will have a yellowish colour.
4. Add the eggs and parsley, stirring gently so as not to destroy the eggs.
5. Serve with lime or lemon wedge.

* I cheated here as we used a rice cooker. I got my rice cooker on my birthday from a group of Pinoys living in the UK who probably cannot believe that I do not own one. I used 2 cups of rice for this recipe, about 250g. More picture of making the kedgeree from the slideshow below or from my flickr account here.

more about “smoked fish kedgeree“, posted with vodpod

 

Moroccan fish tagine

Moroccan fish tagine © dan & tuesday

This is another recipe from our favourite recipe book, Hamlyn Cookery School. If you want easy to follow recipes, get yourself a copy here.

We used monkfish for this dish but you can also use seabass or cod or any other firm fish. Serve your tagine with couscous and a slice of lemon.

You need:

• 750g skinned, firm white fish (try seabass, cod, or monkfish) – cut into large chunks, about 2 inches (5 cm) square, then season
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
• 5 pcs of cardamom pods
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 2 small onions, slice thinly
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 40g sultanas
• 25g pine nuts, lightly toasted
• 150 ml fish stock
• finely grated rind of 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp juice
• salt and pepper
• chopped parsley

Cooking tools:

• mortar and pestle
• Dutch oven or ovenproof casserole dish
• Preheated oven at 160˚C

mixing spices © dan & tuesday

What to do:

1. Using a pestle and mortar to crush the cardamom pods and cumin and coriander seeds. Take out the cardamom husks, leaving the seeds.
2. Heat the olive oil in a shallow frying pan and gently fry the onions until golden. Then add the garlic and spices and cook for another 2 mins.
3. Add fish to the pan. Turn gently, making sure that they are coated with oil.
4. Transfer the fish and onions to an ovenproof casserole dish. Scatter the sultanas and pine nuts.
   

   tagine on Dutch oven © dan & tuesday

5. Add the stock, lemon rind, lemon juice to the frying pan and bring to the boil. Then pour the mixture around the fish, cover with a lid, and bake in the oven for 40 mins.

Dan ~ Best thing about this recipe, aside from the undeniable awesomeness of its flavour, is the way it looks. You’re really just throwing a bunch of stuff into a pot, but it looks like “proper” food without too much effort on the presentation front. There’s quite a bit of preparation (or maybe I’m just slow at crushing spices and things like that), but it’s well worth it, and very impressive for your guests…

tagine on couscous © dan & tuesday

 

Sausage Hash Browns

350g medium-sized potatoes

Pork sausages (as many as you like, I’m going to have three)

A large knob of butter

1 small onion

2 small red onions or one big one

200g small vine-ripened tomatoes

Since Tuesy is away on a series of globetrotting work trips (follow her progress in the Flickr photos you’ll find in the right-hand column on the main page of this blog), I have to do all the cooking for myself. And with nobody to cook for and impress, I might just slack off and eat a lot of processed food. But I’ll try to keep up with the home cuisine and learn a few new things, sometimes involving meat, which I don’t cook for Tuesy. I’m starting with something easy – hash browns with sausage. Seems simple, but in my recipe book, there are no pictures, so I’m not sure exactly what it’s supposed to look like. It won’t look like the delicious monolith-shaped frozen potato cakes that normally get sold as “hash browns”, unfortunately. So, let’s get started. I’ll write as I go. I’ve begun by putting about 700g of medium-sized potatoes into a pan of cold salted water and started them heating up. I’ll parboil them for about 10 mins, then drain them and chop them into 2cm cubes. I’m using King Edwards. There’s no need to peel them.

Melt the butter in a heavy-based frying pan, and add the onion, chopped into little bits. Fry for a couple of minutes, then add the potatoes and fry it all up together for about 25 minutes, or until it’s nicely browned. Meanwhile, start grilling the sausages until they’re cooked all the way through.

Chop the red onions into rings, brush them with sunflower oil and add them to the grill pan with the sausages. You can also halve the tomatoes and throw them in, too. One that’s all cooked You can serve the contents of the grill pan on top of the has brown potatoes. Very easy, and a reminder that the best kind of junk food is the stuff you make yourself.

 

Béchamel sauce

Béchamel sauce © dan and tuesy

There are so many version of this sauce out there. Try the most convenient one for you, practice making it until it’s perfect and you can do it with your eyes closed!

The recipe below is from a new cookbook I just bought on discount called Hamlyn Cookery School. It is my new favourite book with easy to do recipes with step-by-step photos. It’s what we would like our recipes here to look like!

This recipe makes enough for 4 servings.

You need:

• 300ml, full-cream milk
• 1/2 small onion
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp peppercorns
• 3-4 flat-leaf parsley stalks
• 15g butter
• 15g flour
• nutmeg, freshly grated
• salt and pepper

What to do:

1. In a saucepan, put the milk, onion, bay leaf, peppercorns and parsley stalk. Bring almost to a boil then remove the pan from the heat and leave it to infuse for 20mins. Strain milk into a jug.
2. Melt butter in saucepan until bubbling. Put flour and cook gently, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon for about 1-2 mins.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk the milk gradually, still stirring until the sauce is completely smooth.
4. Return the pan to medium heat and cook, stirring, until the sauce comes to the boil then reduce heat to low. Cook for another 5 mins, still stirring until the sauce is smooth and glossy and thinly coats the back of the spoon.
5. Season to taste, adding lots of nutmeg.

 

Smoked trout on pappardelle pasta

Smoked trout in pappardelle pasta

This recipe comes from Gordon Ramsay’s Fast Food book. I wouldn’t describe it as “fast”, but probably because I was making it for the first time and it takes me a while to make something fiddly like a sauce. Next time will be quicker. I tried getting into the Ramsay style of cooking, but I had nobody to shout and swear at, so I don’t think it worked. Cooked this for guests, and it went down very well. They could tell by the mess in the kitchen (Tuesy: yes, he messed up my kitchen!) that I’d made an effort.

You need:

• 6 medium vine plum tomatoes
• 85g of sun-dried tomatoes in oil (about 15 pcs)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 banana shallots (or 4 regular ones), roughly choppped
• 175ml olive oil
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 500g fresh pappardelle (or you can use tagliatelle)
• 600g skinless smoked trout fillets, flaked into large chunks
• grated parmesan
• salt and pepper

chopped banana shallots

What to do:

1. Skin tomatoes – this is easy Tuesday did this for the roasted tomato soup recipe. Chop the tomatoes in half and take out the seeds. I found it a bit tricky to squeeze out the seeds, so I left a lot of them in there. Don’t tell Tuesy. I don’t think anyone noticed.
   

   skinning vine-riped tomatoes

2. Put the tomatoes, garlic, shallots, olive oil, and lemon juice in a food processor until you have a smooth sauce. Season to your taste.
   

   ingredients on food processor

3. Pour the sauce into a pan and warm on a medium heat. Be careful not to boil it too quickly.
4. Cook the pasta until al dente then toss with the tomato sauce and flaked trout (don’t flake that trout too much – it looks and tastes great with big chunks of fish in it. Serve with parmesan. Lots of parmesan. And probably some fresh black pepper.

 

February 2009

Daisy the cat © Tuesday

Hello readers – all two of you – oh, wait, that’s just Dan and Tuesy reading this blog.

So, Dan and Tuesy have at least 5 recipes waiting to be posted. It’s all typed but no photos yet. The photos are still waiting to go up on flickr but things do get in the way. Dan is busy with his own blog at Spectacular Attraction plus his own teaching and making Tuesy happy. Tuesy is busy with her work and evening activities- Spanish on Mondays, choir on Tuesdays and intro to photography class on Wednesdays. That leaves Thursdays to catch up on other things like friends and learning web 2.0 stuff.

Weekends are Dan and Tuesy’s time to see their friends and the world. Well, not exactly the world – Devon and Wales really.

The last two weeks involve a trip to Haytor, movie marathon, dinner guests, visiting old friends, and Mad Men and 30 Rock marathon.

The recipes will have to wait until March 2009.