Mellow Fruitfulness

Autumn is well and truly here- damp and dreary, wild and wet.

Luckily there is still plenty of colour in the Autumn fruit and veg bowl to brighten spirits and plates over the coming month.

Pears, squashes, pumpkins, marrows, tomatoes. parsnips-plenty to feel good about there.






First of all, I wanted to use up the last of the pears from my crop this year. Of course the trouble with pears is getting them just right- not too hard and unripe and not past their best ( which happens all too quickly). Eddie Izzard summed it up in his famous fruit bowl sketch- ( apologies for the over-fruity language)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVTDwq2q3Ak

Well, I find the best way to treat these 'gorgeous little beasts' is to poach them- in 400ml red or white wine, or sugar syrup, or Earl Grey tea or even ginger beer ( according to your preference). Just make sure the poaching liquid is sweetened to your liking and I would always recommend the addition of 2-3 star anise to the liquid too. You can poach them for as long as it takes- but they are ready when a knife slides easily into them.

Pears poached in wine and star anise

Poached pears are lovely on their own- but even better when added to a trifle like my Sugar and Spice Trifle:

Sugar and Spice Trifle
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/apr/23/trifle-recipes-swap-speculoos-biscuits-breakfast-dale-berning-sawa

Click on the link for the full recipe.

I use Speculoos biscuits for this easy pud- but ginger biscuits do just as well.

The soft pears also go well in a Tarte Tatin- laid in a caramel sauce in the base of an ovenproof dish or pan and topped with puff pastry then baked at 180 degrees until the pastry is golden and the caramel sauce bubbling. Turn out on a plate when warm.

Pear Tarte Tatin

Keen to try out the first of my butternut squash crop, I used half in a soup with parsnips and half in a Baked Risotto.

Mirror Mirror on the wall...who is the fairest of them all?

Peel and chop your veg into even sized pieces, add a handful of red lentils and then cook until tender in a litre of good vegetable stock. Blitz once the veg is tender and serve with cream or yoghurt swirled in.

Parsnip and Butternut Soup

The remaining squash is going into a baked risotto- but you could just as easily serve it roasted and stuffed ( like these marrows stuffed with leftover Bolognaise sauce and baked with cheese )

Bolognaise Stuffed Marrow

or as a traybake with sausages,  potatoes, onions,  coarse grain mustard, olive oil and a handful of peas thrown in at the end. (Or just use up whatever you have in the fridge!)

Use-it-up Traybake

                  

And so to the other half of the squash- made into a Baked Risotto.

This recipe is good if you are serving it at a dinner party and prefer to spend more time with your guests, rather than constantly stirring the risotto.

You will need: 1/2 butternut squash or potimarron roasted for 20 minutes or so in a hot oven, 1 leek ( chopped and softened in a little oil), 100g of risotto rice per person, 1 cup of cider, 1 litre of vegetable stock, 1 tbsp of Boursin cheese with garlic and herbs, some chopped fresh herbs, olive oil and Parmesan to dress the dish.

Begin in the usual way, coating the risotto rice and leeks with oil in a deep pan.

Coat the rice and leeks with oil in the pan

Add the cider and stir until the liquid has been absorbed.

Cook in the cider until absorbed

Carry on adding veg stock ladle by ladle, stirring as you go, until about half has been absorbed.

Add the squash, some fresh herbs and salt and pepper as necessary. 

Add the herbs, squash and rest of the liquid

Transfer to an ovenproof dish with a lid, add the rest of the stock and place to cook covered in a moderate oven (170 degrees) for 20 minutes or so until all the liquid has been absorbed.

Stir in the Boursin and serve with extra Parmesan and olive oil to dress it.

Baked Squash and Leek Risotto

Finally, if you have lots of leftover risotto- make Arancini (little risotto rice balls- usually deep fried but equally good baked in the oven).

Wet your hands and make golf ball sized patties from the cold risotto rice. Roll each one first in beaten egg

then in chapelure ( toasted breadcrumbs)

(I make mine from leftover biscottes blitzed up with a few Pringles  but it's also a good way of using up leftover toast if you've made too many slices.)

Place on a lightly greased oven tray ( or fry in hot oil) and bake until golden in a hot oven (180 degrees). They don't take long.

Serve with a spicy dipping sauce.

                               

                                                                                 Arancini

Time to put away the wellies. The garden can look after itself  until the Spring.The weather can do what it likes out there- I am cosy with soups, risotto and puds to keep me going.

                                                            Bon appétit!

Spring has Sprung!

and the grass has riz...*

Time for a celebration 'printanière'- a selection of spring time recipes for you.

The first is a Spring Risotto - and four ways with the leftovers.

And I finish it off with some  leftover Hot Cross Bun ideas. Yum!





First, for the Spring Risotto. Use whatever spring veg you have left in your garden or is seasonal in the shops. I had spring onions, leeks, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes ( and frozen peas).

For two people, you need 1 large mug of risotto rice, some olive oil for frying, 1 litre of hot chicken or vegetable stock, 1 glass of white wine, 1 tbsp Boursin or cream cheese with herbs and garlic and a knob of butter. Begin by stir-frying your veg (except the peas) and risotto rice in the olive oil. Add the white wine.

Stir fry your risotto rice and veg until coated

Then add the stock, a ladleful at a time, stirring as it absorbs.

Stir in the stock a ladleful at a time

When the rice is nearly tender, and all the stock more or less used up, add the peas ( they will keep their green colour if you add them last).

Add the peas

Finally, mix in the Boursin and a knob of butter to make the risotto extra creamy.

Stir in the Boursin and butter

Serve hot in bowls.

Creamy Spring Risotto

The leftovers lend themselves to all kinds of dishes- hot or cold.

You can form the rice into little balls, coat in egg and breadcrumbs and fry in hot oil ( or bake for a healthier version) to make Arancini. 

Arancini with spicy chilli sauce

Or mix with a little curried mayonnaise and some chopped tomato or sweetcorn for a risotto salad.

Risotto salad

Or use to make Stuffed Beef Tomatoes. Just hollow out some large beef tomatoes with a teaspoon and mix the chopped flesh with the leftover risotto before spooning it back into the tomatoes and baking in a hot oven, topped with grated cheese.

(Suggestive olive decoration not compulsory!)

Stuffed Beef Tomatoes with Cheese ( and humorous olives)

And do something similar with Bell peppers- stuff with risotto mixed with some cubed feta or halloumi cheese and lardons and bake in a hot oven.

Risotto Stuffed Peppers

And now for those Hot Cross Buns. Who doesn't love them? Toasted with butter and jam or honey, they can't be beaten.

One a penny, two a penny...hot cross buns

Or can they?

You might like to try digging out your old sandwich toastie machine to try these next two ideas.

Try spreading the bun with caramel or fudge sauce and chopped banana, 

Spread the bun with caramel and sliced banana

Then toast until the outside is crispy in a toastie machine ( or fry on both sides in  pan) to make a Banoffanini:

Banoffanini- yum!

Or use the same method but spread the bun with Nutella or chocolate sauce and sprnkle with raspberries or fruits of the forest and toast to make a Chock Berry Toastie.

Chock Berry Toastie and ice cream

Finally- how about a Hot Cross Bun Baked Alaska?

Beaten egg whites at the stiff peak stage

Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees. Whip up two egg whites with some caster sugar until at the stiff peak stage. (The egg yolks go into scrambled eggs for tomorrow's lunch).

Split and lightly toast the buns. Allow to cool completely before topping each with a scoop of ice cream of your choice. Then quickly spread the egg whites all over using a palette knife ( or piping bag if you are flash) making sure that the ice cream is completely covered right down to the base of the bun as the tiniest hole can allow the ice cream to melt and leak out.

Bake in the hot oven for 4 minutes until golden all over. (You can add some finishing touches with a cook's blow torch if you have one.)

Hot Cross Bun Baked Alaska

* Poem often attributed to Ogden Nash 'Spring is sprung and the grass is riz- I wonder where dem flowers is?'

Simple Fish

Fish should be easy to prepare and enjoy.


I know that catching it, scaling it and filleting it are not that simple- I watched this poor little fella being landed on the port, then prepared for sale with brutal efficiency- but once you have your fillets, then the rest doesn't need a lot of messing about.
I've put together a few ideas this week that use prepared fish and other fishy things (and their leftovers) in easy recipes which I hope you will like.







I'm starting with whiting fillets en chapelure.
Chapelure is the fancy name for toasted breadcrumbs. I make mine by blitzing biscotte toasts into crumbs, but that's easy in France. If you don't have biscottes where you are, then toast stale bread or bake it until crispy when you have the oven on for something else and then blitz it and store it in an airtight container.

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees and lightly oil a baking tray.
Lay out three plates- one with seasoned flour, one with milk and one with the chapelure.

Dip your fillets first in the flour, then the milk and then the breadcrumbs. Coat both sides.

Lay the fillets on the baking tray and bake for 15 minutes until just cooked through.

Whiting Fillets en Chapelure

You can make this fancier by adding Parmesan to the crumbs - as here, atop salmon fillets.

Parmesan Crusted Salmon

Salmon of course, is one of the easiest and nowadays most reasonably priced fish to use. You can flake a cooked fillet into a quiche:

Salmon and Leek Quiche

Or make it into fishcakes- like these Salmon-Broccoli Galettes:

Slice 250g of salmon into small cubes

Finely slice 1 leek and 200g broccoli and soften in a pan with some crushed garlic

Mix the fish and the veg in a bowl with 2 beaten eggs, 1 tbsp flour, 1 tbsp chopped parsley, 1 tsp curry powder, a squeeze of lemon and plenty of salt and pepper

Place spoonfuls of the mixture into a pan with some hot oil and fry gently on one side for 4-5 minutes

The galettes will be easy to turn and cook on the other side.

Salmon-Broccoli Galettes

Every Friday in this part of Provence, cafes and bistros have Aioli as their Plat du Jour- a dish of poached white fish and prawns with veg with a pungent garlic mayonnaise which makes the simple ingredients sing.

The table laid with Aioli

I am grateful to blog follower laBarbe for both the recipe and the demonstration of how to prepare it:
First make your Aioli sauce.
Crush as many garlic cloves as you dare into a bowl. I suggest 3, but if you really like garlic and live alone then you can go up to 6.

Crush as many garlic cloves as you dare!

Beat in two egg yolks, a tablespoon of mustard and a thin stream of olive oil until the mixture becomes creamy. Add a squeeze of lemon.

Poach your white fish in water or milk until just starting to flake.

Boil your veg- potatoes, carrots, courgettes, cauliflower etc

Serve all the plain poached ingredients warm with the sauce.

Aioli

There were leftovers of course- and I put them into a Gratin Terre-Mer (Fish Pie to you and me):

Make a sauce from white wine, cream, a cooked leek and parsley gently heated and reduced slightly.
Mix in your leftover fish and shellfish
Top with mashed potatoes and some grated flavoursome cheese.
Bake in the oven at 170 degrees until brown and bubbling.

Gratin Terre-Mer

Finally, and I know my in-house Biologist takes issue with me as to the fishy nature of this- I'm making some mussel dishes.

My all-time favourite food- and desert island dish of preference- is Moules Marinieres- made simply with white wine, lemon, onion, garlic and parsley. Definitely no cream.
I like to clean, debeard and rinse the mussels then cook some onion and garlic in a deep pan until soft. Tip the mussels into the hot pan and add 1-2 glasses of white wine, a good handful of chopped parsley and a squeeze of lemon.
Cover and cook for 7-8 minutes or so, or until all the mussels have opened.

Moules Marinieres

Leftover mussels can be kept for up to 3 days in the fridge- so I used them up in a Seafood Risotto.
If you prefer, you can make this dish with pasta ( little rice-shaped stuff called orzo is good). The same methods apply. Cook it from dry like rice and add the liquid bit by bit until it is tender.

For the risotto you need 200g of risotto rice, 1 litre of hot fish stock - either fish bouillon enriched with a tbsp of tomato puree and a pinch of saffron, or (as I prefer) left over fish soup and hot water- 1 shallot and 1 clove of garlic, leftover seafood and some creamy cheese (I used Boursin).
Soften the shallot and the garlic in olive oil and then add the risotto rice and coat.
Ladle in the stock, bit by bit, stirring all the time and adding it as it becomes absorbed by the rice.
When the stock has all been absorbed, test to see if the rice is tender. If not, add more hot water or stock and keep stirring. Adjust seasoning to your taste.
Take the mussels out of their shells ( keeping a few for decoration) and mix into the rice. Finally stir in some creamy cheese and serve.

Seafood Risotto/Pastotto

And so here ends my fishy tale. I hope you like the sound of some of the recipes and make tonight Fish Night.

Here's looking at you!