Panko Fish with Katsu Curry Sauce

 

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

 

When I was in the Chinese supermarket with my brother and we walked past the Panko breadcrumbs I told him that’s what is used to make Chicken Katsu Curry like in Wagamamas. So he asked how do I make the curry sauce and I told him I use the Golden Curry sauce mix (Medium Hot). So he bought some, but I’m not sure if he’s used it yet. So this recipe is for you Greg!

 

 

In the packet there are 2 foil-sealed blocks of the sauce mix and each block has 4 squares. The instructions say a whole packet will make enough sauce to serve 5, but I use just 1 square to make enough sauce for myself and Steve. I calculated the amount of water is 175ml to create a nice thick sauce.

 

 

Chicken Katsu is traditionally deep fried, but I don’t really like deep frying so I always shallow fry for about 5-10 minutes until crispy and golden brown and cooked through. Fish cooks a lot quicker and only needs a few minutes each side. After I learned my new trick to breadcrumb chicken using only oil (instead of using flour and egg first - see Creamy Chicken Kiev) I used the same method for the fish and it worked really well.

 

Steve likes his curry with brown rice, but I decided to have some roasted squash and sweet potatoes with mine.

 

• Serves: 2

 

Ingredients:

• 2 fillets of white fish (I used tilapia), cut into smaller pieces if very large
• Olive oil
• 2 handfuls of Panko breadcrumbs
• Vegetable oil
• 1 square of Golden Curry sauce
• 175ml hot water

 

Directions:

1. Coat the fish (or chicken) with the olive oil, then coat well with the breadcrumbs.
2. Heat a few Tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large frying pan and then add the fish when the oil is hot (test the temperature by dropping a few breadcrumbs in and if they sizzle then it’s ready). Fry the fish for 4-5 minutes on each side until golden brown and crispy.
3. Meanwhile, make the curry sauce by putting the hot water in a small saucepan, then add the square of curry sauce and whisk constantly over a medium heat until the square has dissolved and you have a nice thick sauce.

Grilled Mackerel with couscous salad

 

MUNCH RATING: 5/5

 

After making the Devilled Mackerel recipe and finding out Steve really didn’t like the bones, I decided to try filleting the whole fish myself and simply grill them. I watched a How To Fillet Mackerel video on the uktv.co.uk site by James Martin, but I found it easier to start at the tail end (instead of the head end) and cut along the backbone and against the spine, all the way down towards the head. Filleting the fish was easy, it was just pulling out all the bones that was time consuming!

 

Mackerel is so cheap - two whole fish cost just £1.67 from Tesco and this was the reduced price! We’re trying to eat more of it because it’s good for you and we need to eat more oily fish. I have developed eczema as I’ve grown older and I take Omega 3 fish oil supplements (when I remember!) to help my skin, but I prefer to get the nutrients from my food.

 

Luckily I’d kept an article from my Delicious magazine about how to cook fish and it said grilling was the best method for fish like mackerel and sardines. I just slashed the skin to stop the fillets from curling up, drizzled both sides with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. I loved the simplicity as it allowed the flavour of the fish to shine.

 

The couscous salad is something that Steve and I make quite a lot in the Summer. It’s just plain couscous with chopped up bits of whatever veg we can lay our hands on (like carrot, cucumber, tomato, sweetcorn) and then we mix in a dollop of Salad Cream and chilli ketchup. I’d never thought of adding Salad Cream to couscous, but Steve puts it on everything and it really works with the couscous by giving it a nice zing!

 

During my cooking course at Tante Marie I learned a new way to prepare couscous from one of the teachers called John. He said to add the olive oil to the dry couscous, then to add the hot water. The oil coats the grains so they become more fluffy and separated. Today I saw a chef on Saturday Kitchen toast the couscous first in a pan with oil and butter to give it a nutty flavour, so I might try that next time.

 

TASTE TEST:

I was worried Steve wouldn’t like this meal as I thought he wouldn’t like the amount of olive oil I’d used in the couscous and on the fish. But he loved it! He said it was absolutely perfect and it made him feel like he was eating dinner on holiday in a sunny country like Greece. So I was really pleased and it made all the effort of removing the bones worth it!

 

• Serves: 2

 

Ingredients:

• 2 whole mackerel, filleted or 4 mackerel fillets
• olive oil
• 90g couscous
• hot water
• ½ spring onion, finely sliced
• ½ carrot, diced
• 4 cherry tomatoes, diced
• some cucumber, diced
• Tablespoon Salad Cream
• teaspoon Chilli Ketchup (we like the Heinz fiery hot one, but the mild one is good too)
• salt and pepper

 

Directions:

1. Slash the skin on the mackerel 4-5 times to stop it from curling. Drizzle with olive oil on both sides, then season with salt and pepper. Place under a hot grill for 5 minutes with the skin side up. Turn off the grill and leave the fish under the grill to rest for 2 minutes.
2. Meanwhile make the couscous: place the dry couscous in a large bowl and drizzle with about a Tablespoon of olive oil to coat all the grains, mixing well. Add just enough hot water to cover all the grains, then add the spring onions and quickly cover the bowl (with a large plate is fine). Leave the couscous to absorb the water and soften for about 5 minutes.
3. When the couscous is soft, fluff up the grains with a spoon and then mix in the chopped vegetables, the Salad Cream and the chilli ketchup (don’t add too much of the sauces otherwise the couscous will be soggy, add just enough for flavour). Season with salt and pepper then serve immediately with the fish.

Devilled Mackerel with potatoes and spinach

 

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

 

We got two whole mackerels in the weekly shop so I searched for a recipe on the BBC Good Food website and found this one.

 

CHANGES TO THE RECIPE:

I halved the recipe as I was only cooking for myself and Steve. I stuck to the majority of the recipe, except I fried the potatoes on their own for about 10 minutes to get them nice and brown, then I added the chopped onion. I also used an ovenproof pan instead of using a roasting tray.

 

TASTE TEST:

We really liked the dish except Steve wasn’t too keen on the bones in the mackerel! He would have much preferred fillets of fish as it took him so long to pick out the bones that his fish went cold. I would definitely make the potatoes and spinach again as it made a quick and easy side dish.

 

I had to gut the fish myself and Steve’s Mum asked if they had any roe inside. I said one had soft roe and the other one had hard roe. She was a bit gutted (no pun intended!) that I’d thrown them away as she loves eating the hard roe! So I must remember to save them for her next time!

 

• Serves: 2
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 7/425°F/220°C

 

Ingredients:

• 2 mackerel, cleaned, gutted and heads chopped off
• 2 tbsp curry paste (I used Patak’s Rogan Josh)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 400g potatoes, cubed
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3 large handfuls of spinach

 

Directions:

1. Heat oven to Gas mark 7/425°F/220°C. Make a couple of slashes in both sides of the fish and rub with half the curry paste. Heat the oil in an ovenproof frying pan/roasting tray, then fry the potatoes for about 10 mins until starting to brown, then add the onion and cook for a further 5 minutes.
2. Stir the remaining curry paste into the potatoes, then sit the fish on top and roast for 20-25 mins (I cooked mine for 20 mins as they were quite small) until the fish and potatoes are cooked.
3. Lift the fish onto plates, then place the potatoes back over a high heat. Add the spinach to the pan and cook for 1-2 mins until completely wilted. Scoop out and serve with the fish.

 

COOK’S NOTES:

• If using fillets of fish, roast the potatoes for 15 mins before adding the fish, then roast for 10 mins more.

Tempura batter (for pork, chicken and squid)

MUNCH RATING: 3/5

 

For some reason the original pork/chicken ball batter that I’d previously used and really liked has not produced good results on all the subsequent occasions that I’ve made it. So I decided to try using John Torode’s batter, which is basically a Japanese tempura batter as it contains cold (sparkling) water.

 

CHANGES TO THE RECIPE:

I decided to batter a selection of things: 1 pork chop, 1 chicken breast and 3 pieces of squid. We didn’t cook the squid for as long, so they are the smaller, paler balls in the photo. The pork and chicken were cooked for about 5-6 minutes, turning occasionally.

 

The amount of batter was sufficient for this amount of meat and seafood. However, I ran out of cornflour for dusting the pork, so I just used plain flour instead and it was fine.

 

I got Steve to make the Sweet and Sour sauce from the original recipe we like, as we know it’s a winner! I’ve rewritten the sauce recipe below.

 

TASTE TEST:

Well the pork and chicken balls were lovely as the meat was moist and succulent. I never normally use chicken breast as I find it dry and lacking flavour. So Steve was very surprised when I told him it was breast and not thigh. Unfortunately the squid tasted very fishy, so I suspect that the frozen squid I used has spoiled, either before or after I bought it.

 

The batter was nice and crispy, but it was a little bit greasy. It might be because we didn’t drain them well enough. Or we perhaps didn’t have the oil hot enough when we dropped the battered meat/squid in, so the batter didn’t create a barrier against absorbing more oil. I still thought the batter was really nice, but Steve said it just wasn’t the same as the take-away ones! So as a batter it is very nice, but it doesn’t get as high a Munch Rating as it’s just not spongy enough in the middle for Steve’s liking.

 

So we’re still looking for the perfect recipe. I’m going to look into why the original recipe we liked hasn’t worked since the first time I made it. I think I might have converted the quantities incorrectly when I downsized the recipe.

 

I have also asked my Dad to ask his friends who own a Chinese take-away for their recipe. Hopefully I will learn some insider secrets!

 

I now have almost a whole bottle of soda water to use up. I could make up a nice drink with it, but I’ve found a recipe for pancakes which uses soda water as it apparently makes them really fluffy. So hopefully I’ll get around to experimenting with that recipe before the water goes flat!

 

• Makes: 6-8 pork balls, 6-8 chicken balls, 12-15 squid rings

 

Ingredients:

FOR THE BATTER

• 100ml soda water, chilled
• 100ml cold water
• 140g self-raising flour
• pinch of salt

 

• selection of skinless, boneless meat/seafood, cut into chunks
• 25g cornflour
• sunflower or vegetable oil, for frying

 

Directions:

1. Line a baking tray with kitchen paper and turn on the oven to low.
2. Fill a large pan 1cm deep with oil and heat until shimmering.
3. Mix the soda water and cold water into the self-raising flour with a little salt (but don’t overmix as it’s OK to have lumps in tempura batter to keep it light)
4. Tip the cornflour onto a plate and dust the chicken/pork/squid with cornflour shaking off the excess, then dip into the batter. One at a time, lower into the hot oil (about 5-6 every batch). Turn up the heat to keep the meat frying, if needed, and cook for 5-6 mins, turning once.
5. When cooked, drain on the tray, and keep warm in the oven. Repeat with the remaining meat. Stack onto a plate with the warm sauce on the side.

 

FOR THE sweet and sour SAUCE:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup (4 Tablespoons) tomato ketchup
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1/4 cup (60ml) white vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)
• 1/4 cup (60ml) water
• 1/2 cup (100g) white sugar
• 1/4 cup (45g) brown sugar, packed
• 1 Tablespoon corn flour
• 1/8 cup (2 Tablespoons) cold water

 

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan combine the first 6 ingredients and bring to a boil whisking constantly.
2. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to simmer stirring for 2 minutes.
3. In a small cup dissolve the corn flour in the cold water until smooth, then add to the simmering sauce stirring constantly.
4. Cook for another 3 minutes stirring until bubbly and thickened.
5. I served this at room temperature. You can store it in an airtight container in the fridge for probably about a week or you could freeze it.

Tuna in Tamarind Sauce (Pla Rad Prik)

 

MUNCH RATING: 2/5

 

A few months ago Steve and I went to a brilliant Thai restaurant near Richmond Park called Ayudhya. We had Monkfish in a tamarind sauce and it was called Pla Rad Prik. It was really tasty and the fish was beautifully cooked, but it was really spicy! I think traditionally the Thai fry a whole fish, but in the restaurant they fried pieces of monkfish.

 

Steve’s Mum bought us some tuna whilst in Tesco’s this week and I had to think of a good way to use it up. I’m not a big fan of tuna, so I thought this spicy tamarind sauce would be a good way to mask the tuna taste!

 

Well the sauce was good, but the tuna wasn’t. It just tasted so fishy and it put me off from eating it, so I left most of it. I will definitely make the sauce again, but I will use less chilli as it was a little bit too hot for us, even though I used only 1 chilli instead of the 3 that the recipe suggested!

 

Ingredients:

• Any meaty fish, cut into chunks
• Cornflour to coat the fish
• 1 shallot, coarsely chopped (I used ½ red onion sliced as that’s what I had in the fridge!)
• 2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1 Tablespoon tamarind
• 3 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 Tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 Tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 red or yellow chilli, sliced

 

Directions for the sauce:

1. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a small saucepan over a medium heat.
2. Add the garlic, onion and chilli and fry until the onion is soft.
3. Then add tamarind, sugar, fish sauce and soy sauce and about 100ml of water.
4. Mix well and let boil to reduce down to a thick syrup.

 

Directions for the fish:

1. In a dish, coat the chunks of fish in the cornflour.
2. Heat 2 Tablespoons of oil in a wok or large frying pan, then fry the fish for about 5 minutes until golden brown.
3. When cooked, pour the sauce on top of the fish and garnish with spring onion brushes.
4. Serve immediately with steamed rice.

 

COOK’S NOTES:

• To make the spring onion brushes: take a spring onion and cut off most of the green part and discard, leaving about a finger length of the white part. Carefully trim off the root. From the greenest end of the spring onion, cut about halfway along the length a few times to make strips. Place the spring onions into a bowl of cold water and place in the fridge for about 10 minutes to make the strips curl. Lift from water and drain before using as a garnish.

Trout Kiev and Pilaf Rice

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

I saw Simon Rimmer make a Salmon Kiev on Something for the Weekend last Saturday and I thought it looked quite good. We had a huge trout fillet in the freezer, so I thought that would be a good substitute. It did work quite well, however the trout was quite soft and flaky, so it was a bit difficult to cut pockets to stuff with the garlic butter. But it tasted really good, even though I didn’t follow Simon’s recipe at all and just did my own thing! Steve ate his with Salad Cream (which he puts on everything!) and I tried it and it was actually really nice. It gave the fried fish that acidity to cut through the grease, a bit like tartare sauce.

I served it with Pilaf Rice, using Alton Brown’s fool-proof method (I have tried Paul Merrett’s recipe for Emergency Biryani which uses a similar method and it was a disaster!) but I added some mushrooms, red pepper and roasted squash before adding the rice to the pan. The vegetables did release some moisture, so next time I would add a bit less stock, probably 25ml less.

I made the rice first, then whilst it was in the oven I prepared the trout. Then when the rice came out of the oven to rest, I cranked up the oven to Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C and put the trout in for about 5 minutes.

• Serves: 2

Rice Pilaf Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp oil
• 1/2 medium onion, finely diced
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 red pepper, chopped into 1cm pieces
• handful of mushrooms, sliced
• handful of roasted butternut squash chunks
• 1 cup rice (I used long grain jasmine rice)
• 1 1/2 cups (350-375ml) stock (use the lower amount if using watery vegetables like mushrooms)

Rice Pilaf Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/350°F/180°C.
2. Heat the oil and sweat the onion and garlic until softened over a low heat, don't allow to brown.
3. Add the mushrooms, peppers and squash and fry until softened.
4. Add the rice and gently fry until it smells 'nutty', about 2-3 minutes.
5. Add the stock, stir once and bring to a boil.
6. Cover the saucepan with the damp tea-towel (it must be damp otherwise you might set it on fire!) and clamp on the lid. Fold up the corners of the tea-towel over the lid so that it's not hanging loose. You can also use greaseproof paper.
7. Put the saucepan in the preheated oven and cook for 15 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and leave for 10-15 minutes with the lid still on, as during this time the rice is still cooking and absorbing the liquid.

Trout Kiev Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 Tbsp fresh thyme, leaves picked (I used lemon thyme)
• 2 large thick trout fillets
• 2 Tbsps plain flour
• 1 free-range egg, beaten
• 4 big handfuls of panko breadcrumbs
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3-4 Tbsp vegetable oil

Trout Kiev Directions:

1. Put the butter, garlic, thyme leaves and some black pepper in a small bowl and mash together with a fork until well combined.
2. Turn out the mixture onto a sheet of cling film and roll it into a cylinder. Chill in the freezer for five minutes.
3. Using a sharp knife, make a deep slit into the side of each trout fillet to form a pocket (or lots of little pockets if one large pocket is not possible).
4. When the butter mixture has chilled, slice it into 3mm discs and insert them into each of the pockets in the trout.
5. Sprinkle the flour onto a plate and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Beat the egg in a shallow dish. Mix together the breadcrumbs on a separate plate. Dredge each stuffed fish fillet first in the flour, then dip it in the beaten egg, then roll it in the breadcrumbs mixture until completely coated.
6. Heat the oil in an ovenproof frying pan over a medium to high heat. Add the coated trout fillets and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until the breadcrumb coating is crisp and golden-brown.
7. Transfer the trout to the oven now turned up to Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C and cook for a further 5 minutes, or until cooked through. (NB: The fish is cooked through when the flesh is opaque.)

Roasted Trout with Thyme

MUNCH RATING: 5/5

I took the flavouring idea of the thyme from a Jamie Oliver recipe, but I cooked the fish at a lower temperature and for twice the amount of time than he suggested. The fish was cooked perfectly, the skin and bones were easy to remove, leaving lovely big chunks of fish to pop into your mouth.
I did use Lemon Thyme as Jamie’s recipe suggested. I thought it was an incredibly subtle flavour, but Steve said he thought I’d put lemon on the fish when I hadn’t! He must have much more perceptive taste buds than me!

When I was younger I used to go fishing at a trout farm with my Dad, so I have fond memories of eating trout. This was the first time Steve had tried trout and he liked it, even though it had bones! But trout is one of those fish that is quite meaty and the bones are easy to remove once it’s cooked.

• Serves: 2
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 7/425°F/220°C
• You will need: a roasting tray

Ingredients:

• 2 whole trout, scaled and gutted (brought to room temperature)
• 1 good handful of fresh thyme
• Maldon salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Couple of Tablespoons of olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 7/425°F/220°C.
2. Wash the trout inside and out and pat dry with kitchen paper.
3. Strip the leaves from half the thyme and using a pestle and mortar (or a Jamie Flavour Shaker!), smash up the thyme leaves with a generous pinch of Maldon salt, a good grinding of black pepper and the olive oil (or very finely chop). Rub this mixture into the trout; smear the flavour into the belly cavity and onto the skin. Place the other sprigs of thyme into the cavity.
4. Place the trout onto a roasting tray and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. To check that the trout is cooked properly, go to the thickest part of the trout fillet and try to pull the meat away from the bone. If it pulls away easily then it is cooked. Also look at the eye; if it is white and opaque then this is a good sign the fish is cooked.

Haddock and Chorizo Gnocchi

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

This is my interpretation of a Gregg Wallace recipe from BBC Good Food Magazine. He used potatoes in his dish instead of the gnocchi, but I like the way the gnocchi absorbs some of the sauce, plus it’s quicker to cook!

I added some Parmesan to the dish as I’d just bought some from the Farmer’s Market in Epsom (read more about it here) and it worked well.
This is a really quick and easy recipe and the chorizo gives so much flavour. It’s quick garlicky, so there was no need to add any extra garlic!

• Serves: 2
• You will need: a frying pan with a tight fitting lid

Ingredients:

• 250g potato gnocchi (I used ½ 500g pack of Trattoria Verdi from Tescos)
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small chorizo sausage, thinly sliced (I used Cooking Chorizo from the Tesco Ingredients range)
• good handful cherry tomatoes, halved (home-grown of course!)
• 1 teaspoon Knorr Chicken Stock Granules
• 2 skinless thick haddock fillets (or other white fish)*
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Cook the gnocchi as per pack instructions, drain but reserve a couple of Tablespoons of the cooking water and then set aside.
2. Heat a large lidded frying, then add the oil. Add the chorizo and fry for 2 minutes until it starts to release its oil, then add the tomatoes, the reserved cooking water and the chicken stock. Cook until the tomatoes burst, then add the gnocchi and mix in well.
3. Season the fish with salt and pepper. Lay the fish on top of the gnocchi, put the lid on and leave to cook for 5 minutes, or until the fish has turned white and is flaky when prodded in the middle.
4. Sprinkle with a small handle of parmesan cheese.

*Take the fish out of the fridge and allow to come up to room temperature before cooking.

Spicy Fish with Rice

MUNCH RATING: 3/5
Steve’s Mum bought some swordfish as it was half price, so I adapted a recipe that used cod and it worked really well as the swordfish held it’s shape and had a good flavour.

• Serves 3-4
• You will need: large wok or deep frying pan 

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon plain flour
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon hot chilli powder (adapt to suit taste)
• salt and pepper
• 3 large pieces of thick cut swordfish, skinned and cut into large chunks
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 3 spring onions, sliced at an angle
• 2 small orange sweet peppers, cut into small pieces
• 1 carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks
• A big handful of frozen peas
• 450g cooked long-grain rice (that’s 2 cups uncooked)
• A pinch of cayenne (optional, but I like it hot!)
• 4 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce (I used Blue Dragon)
• 4 tablespoons ketchup manis*
• 2 tablespoons tomato ketchup** (optional)
• big handful of roasted, salted cashews (I used Tesco Value ones!) 

Directions:

1. Mix the flour, curry powder, chilli powder, salt and pepper in a wide shallow dish and add the fish. Gently mix until the fish is coated in the spice mixture. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
2. Heat your wok or pan, then add the oil and heat until almost smoking. Add the fish and fry for about 5 minutes, until brown and crispy on all sides. Remove from the pan, place on a warm plate, cover and keep warm.
3. Put the spring onions, peppers and carrots into the pan and stir fry for 2-3 minutes, then add the peas, rice and cayenne and fry until they’re heated through.
4. Then add the sweet chilli sauce, ketchup manis, tomato ketchup and cashews and stir fry for 3 more minutes.
5. Return the fish to the pan, heat for a few minutes then serve immediately.

COOK'S NOTES:
* The original recipe uses soy sauce, but I prefer Ketchup manis which is Indonesian soy sauce and it’s thicker, sweeter and less salty than normal soy sauce. The only place I’ve managed to find it is Marks and Spencers. If you can’t get it, just use ordinary soy sauce instead, but use about half the amount, and add some sugar to the dish.
** If you don’t add the tomato ketchup to the dish whilst it’s cooking, it’s still nice to serve it with the rice, as a small squirt of tomato ketchup adds a nice sweet zingy flavour!

Chinese Steamed Salmon & Rice

MUNCH RATING: 4/5
This is something I’ve been meaning to cook in my Tefal 4-in-1 for quite some time and tonight I finally got around to doing it. In the recipe book there are separate recipes for rice using the Rice Cooker function and recipes for cooking fish using the Steaming function, but no instructions on how to cook them both at once.

The rice usually takes about 20 minutes to cook, so I made an educated guess that the salmon would steam in this amount of time. So this was my little experiment and it worked out perfectly! The salmon was perfectly moist and the rice was fluffy and the grains separated.

I served this with some Pak Choi, which I cooked separately in a wok once the salmon and rice were cooked. I didn’t cook it in the steaming basket for a couple of reasons: 1) there wasn’t much room left in the steaming basket, 2) I wanted a slightly different flavour for the vegetables from the salmon.

• Serves 2
• Marinade time: up to 30 minutes (optional)
• Tefal 4-in-1 Rice Cook: 20 minutes 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of uncooked long grain/jasmine rice
• 2 pieces of salmon (I used fairly thin fillets, about 1 inch thick x 1 inch wide)
• 1 Tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 Tablespoon of ketchup manis (or just use soy sauce)
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• About 1 cm of root ginger, grated (I store this in the freezer so it’s easy to grate)
• 2 spring onions, chopped at an angle 

Directions:

1. Rinse the rice, then place it in Rice Cooker bowl. Fill the bowl so that it is just over line number 2 (because you’re also steaming fish, I am a little bit more generous with the water).
2. Line the steaming basket with foil so that all the holes are covered and none of the sauce can drip into the rice bowl.
3. In the steaming basket mix together the sesame oil, ketchup manis (or soy sauce), honey, garlic, ginger and spring onions. Place the salmon in the sauce and make sure both pieces are well covered in the sauce (if you like you can leave the fish to marinate for up to 30 minutes in the fridge).
4. Place the steaming basket in the rice bowl over the rice. Shut the lid and then press the Rice Cooking button. It will take about 20 minutes to cook. 

For the Pak Choi:
Wash 2 Pak Choi bulbs, then slice each one in half so it is easier to separate the leaves. Heat 1 Tablespoon of oil in a wok or large frying pan, then add a pinch of chilli flakes and fry for about 30 seconds. Add the thicker stem parts of the Pak Choi and fry for about 1 minute before adding a 2 Tablespoons of water and clamping on a lid. After 2 minutes, add the leafier parts of the Pak Choi and add 1 Tablespoon of Oyster Sauce, a teaspoon of sugar and some of the sauce from the cooked salmon, then cook for another minute. Serve immediately with the rice and salmon.

Fish Pie

MUNCH RATING: 2/5

All the recipes I had for fish pie were for 6 to 8 people, so I've made a recipe to serve 2 which is easy to double/triple. I made individual pies using little tapas dishes.

They are an ideal dish to prepare in advance, as you make them and then refrigerate overnight. If you do this then I would let them come to room temperature before baking in the oven.

I used salmon and white fish, but some nice smoked haddock would be great in this too. If we'd had some small cooked prawns I would have added those too, but times are hard so we can't afford that luxury!

I served the pies with Creamy Cheesy Leeks which uses some of the white sauce for the pies and they're really delicious.

• Serves: 2
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 5/375°F/190°C moderate/hot
• You will need: 2 oven proof dishes that can each hold 1/2 pint (250ml) 

Ingredients:
FOR THE FILLING 

• 250ml (1 cup) milk
• 25g (1 oz) butter
• 25g (1 oz) flour
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 spring onions, finely chopped - green and white parts separated
• 250g (9 oz) fish (I used 2 salmon portions with skins removed and 1 portion thin white fish)
• Salt and pepper

FOR THE POTATO TOPPING

• 500g (17 oz) potatoes, peeled and cut into 1cm dice
• 25g (1 oz) butter
• 2 Tablespoons milk
• Salt and pepper 25g (1 oz) grated cheddar cheese (optional) 

Directions:

1. First make the potato topping: Boil the potatoes in water until soft and tender. Drain then mash with the butter and milk over a low heat. Stir in the green parts of the spring onions. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Now poach the fish: Pour the milk into a pan and bring to the boil. Add the fish and gently simmer for about 5 minutes, until just cooked. Lift the fish onto a plate to cool slightly and reserve the hot milk. Break the fish into large chunks, putting them into your dishes.
3. Next make the white sauce: Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the flour. Cook for about 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add the reserved hot milk a little at a time, constantly stirring and simmer for about 5 minutes until you have a smooth, thick sauce. Add the white part of the spring onion. Allow the sauce to cool for a few minutes before mixing in the egg yolk. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Pour the sauce over the fish, reserving about 4 Tablespoons for the leeks. (If you're using prawns then you would add then at this stage).
5. Assemble your pies: spread the mashed potato on top of the pies and sprinkle the cheese over the top. Put the pies onto a baking sheet and bake them for 15-20 minutes until the piping hot and they are nice and golden brown.

CREAMY CHEESY LEEKS:

1. Wash 2 medium leeks, cut in half lengthways and then slice thinly into half-moons.
2. Melt a knob of butter in a pan and add the leeks. Gently fry until coated in the butter and then add a splash of water. Fry the leeks until nicely softened.
3. Add the reserved white sauce and a handful of grated cheese and mix well. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

PHOTOGRAPHY UPDATE: I used my new Photo Tent to take this photo and used 2 bedside lamps. I'm quite pleased with the result, but I am going to buy some angled desk lamps with trumpet bulbs as they produce white light (5000k daylight balanced neutral colour). Credit goes to Steve for a little Photoshop airbrushing!

Fish gratin

We had some half-fat creme fraiche to use up so I found this recipe from a magazine and tweaked it to make it healthier (omitted some of the butter and used semi-skimmed milk instead of full-cream) and use up what we had in the fridge/freezer.

Serves 2

Ingredients
White Sauce:

• 30g butter
• 30g plain flour
• 300ml semi-skimmed milk heated for 1 min in the microwave
• Handful of mature cheddar cheese
• 3 tbsp half-fat creme fraiche
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• Salt and pepper to taste

Main:

• Some cauliflower and broccoli florets cut into bitesize pieces (original recipe used spinach)
• Knob of butter
• Some indiscriminate frozen white fish, thawed (original recipe used thick pieces of haddock fillet)

Directions

1. Make a white sauce by melting the butter in a small saucepan, then add the flour and cook over a medium heat for 1 minute until the flour and butter have combined to make a roux.
2. Gradually pour in the warm milk, little by little, and beat until smooth after each addition.
3. Bring to the boil, stirring, and simmer very gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Meanwhile, blanch the vegetables in boiling water, drain, set aside and keep warm.
   
5. Heat the grill to high. Put the small knob of butter in a gratin dish and melt under the grill.
6. Add the fish pieces and coat them in the melted butter, then season.
7. Cook the fish under the grill for 2-4 minutes until half cooked (this will depend on how thick your fish is).
8. Lift the fish onto a plate and keep the grill on.
9. Spoon the cooked vegetables over the base of the gratin dish and put the fish on top.
10. Stir half of the cheese and all of the creme fraiche into the sauce and season to taste with cayenne and/or mustard, salt and pepper.
    
11. Pour the sauce over the fish and sprinkle with the remaining cheese and more cayenne.
12. Slide the dish back under the grill for a further 4-5 mins until the gratin is golden brown and bubbling.