Salmon with Mustard and Gruyere Herb Crust

I love salmon and often when I'm planning my week's meals, I put down salmon for one night - it tastes so good I don't really need to do anything, and can quickly cook a piece of salmon and some vegetables for a delicious dinner.

Sometimes though it's nice to do something a bit different. I found this recipe in my BBC Saturday Kitchen Cookbook; it's also available on the BBC website.

You make a crust from breadcrumbs, cheese and herb, and press it on top of the salmon. I didn't bother with the part where you chill it in the fridge and instead mixed it and pressed it straight onto the fish.

The fish is baked in a mixture of fish stock and wine which keeps it light and gives it a lovely flavour. I didn't bother roasting the tomatoes as I don't like them, but didn't think the dish lacked anything for it.

Chicken en Papilotte with Orange Veg

Chicken breasts are a great stand-by for dinners during the week; both my fiancé and I like them, they are quick to cook, pretty healthy and you can do a lot of different things with them. I found this recipe for spiced baked chicken parcels – chicken en papilotte – on Serious Eats, and decided to make my own variation on it.

 

I already had za’atar, a Middle Eastern spice, I’d bought when we had the letter Z for Alphabakes, but I don’t like to eat peppers or tomatoes so instead decided to use a little bit of pepper and a portion of spiralized butternut squash. A squash is really easy to spiralize if you have a robust enough machine (mine is the Lurch one from Lakeland that you can buy on Amazon here:

 

 

I tossed the chicken breast, which I had butterflied out, with the spices, oil and herbs and then placed it on a square of foil with the peppers, onion, spring onion and butternut squash on top. I wrapped up the parcel and baked it in the oven; it only took 20 minutes as I had sliced the chicken relatively thin. When you unwrap the parcel you have a very tasty meal, which can be served with extra veg or perhaps with new or mashed potatoes for a more substantial dinner.

 

Slimming World Creamy Coriander and Minted Chicken

This recipe comes from the Slimming World All In One cookbook. To me it tasted a lot like a curry, but perhaps a little bit different; I really liked the addition of fresh mint but my fiancé said afterwards it was nice but would have been better without the mint!

The recipe is Free on Extra Easy or Original and 9.5 syns on Green.

It does look like you need a lot of ingredients but a lot of them are store cupboard staples - if you like to cook from scratch you probably already have, or will easily use up, things like coriander, cumin, turmeric and chilli powder.

To serve 4, you need:
low calorie cooking spray, eg Fry Light
2 onions, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
2 cloves (I left these out)
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed (I used garlic puree)
2 cardamom pods
2cm piece root ginger, peeled and grated (I used ground ginger for convenience)
1 cinnamon stick (I snapped mine into two pieces)
1 bay leaf
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chilli powder
700g skinless and boneless chicken breasts, cut into 2cm pieces
salt, pepper
4 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped (neither of us eats whole tomatoes and I didn't think it was worth opening a tin of tomatoes so I left this out, which I'm sure did change the flavour of the finished dish but I preferred it this way)
200ml chicken stock
large handful of fresh coriander, chopped
small handful of fresh mint, chopped
100g fat free natural fromage frais

Spray a wok or large frying pan with the oil and add the onion, cloves, garlic and cardamom to the pan, stir-frying for a few minutes. Then add the other spices including the cinnamon stick and bay leaf and cook for a few minutes.

Add the chicken and cook for about 10 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes stock and simmer for 5-7 mins until the chicken is cooked through.

To serve, stir in the fromage frais, fresh coriander and mint.

Salmon with Linguine and Leek Pesto

I was looking for a springtime pasta recipe and came across this recipe for salmon with linguine and ramp pesto. I'd never heard of ramp but according to Wikipedia the allium tricoccum is known as many things, including ramp, spring onion and wild leek. I don't think it's actually the American word for spring onion though as that's scallion. I had some leeks in my fridge and decided that would be close enough and I would give it a go!

I didn't have Asiago cheese (whatever that is) but did have parmesan in my fridge, and a packet of sliced almonds that needed using up. So I decided to throw the whole lot together and make my own springtime pasta!

To serve 3-4, you need:
1 leek, sliced
2 tbsp. oil
30g grated parmesan
30g flaked almonds
handful of fresh parsley
approx. 4-6 tbsp. oil
to serve: linguine
salmon fillet

Cook the pasta according to pack instructions and cook the salmon fillet in whichever manner you prefer - pan fry, poach, oven roast or even microwave. This is really just the recipe for the pesto...

Slice the leek and add to a large pan with 2 tbsp. oil. Heat until the leeks are softened but not browned.

Transfer to a food processor along with the parmesan, almonds and parsley, and pulse for a few seconds. With the motor running, slowly add the oil until it reaches your preferred consistency.





Toss through the cooked pasta and top with the salmon. Enjoy!

This had a different flavour (obviously) to pesto I'd had before but thanks to the parmesan and nuts it was still definitely a pesto, and I really enjoyed it.

I'm sending this to Credit Crunch Munch, hosted this month by Jo's Kitchen on behalf of Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla at Fab Food 4 All. Parmesan isn't cheap but I'm sure a lot of people like me have half a packet hanging around to be used up, and as this recipe only used things I already had open in my fridge, hopefully it counts!

This recipe is a good way to sneak in some veg so I am sending this to the Extra Veg challenge, hosted by Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. The challenge was started by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Michelle at Utterly Scrummy.

Leeks are in season so I am sending this to Simple and In Season, hosted by Ren Behan.

The recipe uses fresh parsley so I am sending it to Cooking with Herbs, hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage.

 

Finally I am sending this to Pasta Please, hosted by Family Friends Food on behalf of Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes as the challenge this month is for springtime pasta recipes.

Za'atar Bread Rolls

 I bookmarked this recipe for za'atar bread rolls- spellings also include zaa'tar and zatar- as I thought it would be a good entry for Alphabakes when z came up, which it finally did this month. Za'atar is a Middle Eastern spice blend made of oregano, thyme and sumac - sumac is something I've never been able to get hold of in the supermarket so I didn't hold out much hope of finding za'atar, so I ordered some over the internet.

The recipe comes from a blog called Cutchi Kitchen; I halved the quantities and rolled them up rather than twisted them, and left out the milk powder as I didn't have any, but other than that followed the recipe exactly.

Mixing the ingredients in a bowl:

 

Here's the spice blend

Sprinkling over half the dough

After placing the other piece of dough on top, I cut strips using a pizza wheel and rolled them up.

After baking in the oven:

I ate the bread rolls with some homemade soup. The spice blend didn't have a particularly strong flavour but it was distinctive and went well with the soup.

I'm sending these to Alphabakes, the blog challenge that I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker; I am hosting this month and you have until the 25th to send in your z recipes to alphabakes@gmail.com!

I'm also sending this to Bookmarked Recipes, hosted by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes.

Chicken Provencale in a Heart-Shaped Le Creuset Dish

This is a great recipe to make for Valentine's day and it looks even better in a Le Creuset heart-shaped dish!

The recipe is adapted from one in a free calendar that came with Slimming World magazine at the end of last year. I bought this casserole dish from the Le Creuset shop at Bicester Village, the designer outlet shopping village, when I went in January. I came home with quite a few shopping bags that day! I'd had my eye on this casserole for a while and when I saw it was reduced from £45 to £27, I couldn't resist. Now all I need to do is find space for it in my kitchen cupboard....

My Le Creuset heart-shaped dish is made of stoneware and usually retails at £49; Le Creuset also has a beautiful cast-iron heart-shaped casserole dish, which costs £115. That might have to go on my wish list!

For this Provencale chicken casserole, to serve two you need:
2 chicken legs (here I've actually used one leg and two small breast portions)
400g tin tomatoes
1 courgette, thinly sliced - though as neither of us likes courgette, I pureed it so I could stir it in without it being noticed
1/2 red onion, sliced
1/2 red pepper, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tsp dried herbes de Provence
salt, pepper
2 tbsp tomato puree
100ml chicken stock

Preheat oven to 180C. Spray a frying pan with Fry Light, season the chicken and fry the chicken for a couple of minutes on each side. Then transfer to the casserole dish.

Scatter the pepper, courgette and onions over the chicken.

Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, chicken stock and garlic. Sprinkle the herbes de Provence over the top.

Put the lid on the casserole dish and bake in the oven for about an hour until the chicken is cooked.

The cooked dish....

Serve with a few spoonfuls of the liquid and the slow-cooked vegetables on top. And if your other half really loves you, they will do the washing up!

I'm sending this to Cooking with Herbs, hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage; she has a dual theme this month of Chinese new year and romantic recipes for Valentine's day.

 

I'm also sharing this with Four Seasons Food, hosted by Anneli at Delicieux and Louisa at Eat Your Veg. The theme this month is "food from the heart".

Crispy pork medallions

I'm always trying to find ways to make pork more interesting- I don't like it as much as any other meat but it's inexpensive and I do like to vary what I eat. I came across this recipe for crispy pork medallions, which you could also use with a pork chop or pork steak.

To serve two, you need:

2 pork chops or 4 pork medallions (as they are quite small)

2 tbsp Dijon honey mustard

1 cup breadcrumbs

1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme

1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

oil or Fry Light for frying

Preheat oven to 180C. Mix the breadcrumbs and herbs in a bowl and season.

You can use any mustard for this recipe - wholegrain would also work well - but I really love this Dijon mustard with honey.

Spread mustard over one side of the pork medallions

Coat with the breadcrumb mixture and repeat on the other side. Place on a baking tray lined with tin foil and cook for 15-20 minutes depending on the size and thickness of the pork.

Serve when the pork is cooked through and the breadcrumbs are crispy.

I'm sending this to Cooking with Herbs, hosted by Karen of Lavender and Lovage.

 

A romantic new year's eve dinner for two

My boyfriend and I decided to stay in on new year's eve and I wanted to cook us a romantic dinner. The menu I chose was: herbed bacon and egg souffle; steak in a stilton sauce with boulangere potato stack; tiramisu. I thought I'd combine all the recipes into one blog post: enjoy!

Herbed cheese and bacon souffles

This recipe is adapted from the Slimming World recipe book Extra Easy Entertaining

Serves 2

You need:
Fry Light spray oil or similar
two rashers lean bacon, chopped
1 spring onion, chopped
pinch of chilli flakes
2 eggs, separated
chopped fresh parsley
dried dill
40g grated parmesan
pinch of mustard powder
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 180C or 160 C fan. Place a roasting pan one third full of hot water in the oven.

Fry the bacon and spring onion and add a pinch of dried chilli flakes.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff

In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with the bacon and spring onion mixture and the herbs, along with three quarters of the parmesan. Add the mustard powder and season.

Fold the mixture into the egg whites, using a metal spoon.

Spray the insides of two ramekin dishes with oil and spoon the mixture into the ramekins. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top.

Bake for around 20 minutes until risen. These can be made the day before and heated up on the day.

We had these as a starter on new year's eve; I think they would work really well for breakfast or brunch as well.

I am sending these to Herbs on Saturday, hosted by Bangers and Mash and started by Karen of Lavender and Lovage.

I am also sending this to Jen at Blue Kitchen Bakes for her Classic French cooking challenge, as the recipe she has chosen this month is the souffle.

Steak in Stilton Sauce

This was our main course on new year's eve. I didn't follow a recipe, and just fried some rump steak; helpfully, when I went to buy some that day they were reduced from £4 each to £1.79 in Tesco. I added some double cream to the meat juices in the pan (also in the reduced price section - I love going shopping after Christmas!) and then added some Stilton - left over from Christmas. The stilton melted and made a lovely creamy sauce.

As this meal used reduced-price steak and cream, and leftover cheese, I am sending it to Frugal Food Fridays, hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours.

Boulangere potato stacks

We had this as a side dish to accompany the steak (I also cooked some broccoli); I took the recipe from my new book Slimming World Extra Easy Entertaining. It was absolutely delicious and I will definitely make this again!

Serves 2
You need:
500g potatoes
1 litre vegetable stock
Fry Light or similar spray oil
tbsp chopped fresh parsley
4 tbsp Quark
2 garlic cloves, crushed or half a tablespoon garlic puree
salt and pepper
25g reduced fat grated cheddar

Peel the potatoes and slice with a mandolin or the wide edge on a grater

Bring the stock to the boil in a saucepan, add the potatoes and bring back to the boil

Drain the potatoes and reserve the stock. Put the potatoes into a bowl.

Mix in the quark, herbs and garlic with 6 tbsp of the reserved stock and season. Toss gently with the potatoes.

Spray a muffin tin with oil and press spoonfulls of the potato mixture down into each muffin cup.

Sprinkle the grated cheese over the top- I used more than the recipe suggested but my boyfriend definitely wasn't complaining! Bake for 25-30 mins. I didn't take a picture of these on the plate but if you remove them carefully you have neat little stacks of potato slices. And they taste fantastic!

Tiramisu

I got Nigella's new book Nigellissima for Christmas and adapted this recipe from the book as our new year's eve dessert.

Serves 2
You need:
50ml coffee (eg made up from instant)
1 tbsp coffee or chocolate liqueur
2 sponge fingers
1 egg white
200g mascarpone cheese
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp marsala
1 tsp cocoa powder

Make up the coffee, add the liqueur - I used a chocolate liqueur I bought in Italy last year -  and leave to cool.

Break each sponge finger into four pieces and place in a martini glass.

Pour the coffee mixture over the sponge fingers.

Beat the egg white with an electric whisk. In a separate bowl, beat the mascarpone and honey, then add the marsala if using and beat again.

Fold in the egg whites then spoon into the martini glasses.

Sprinkle with cocoa powder or grated chocolate

And serve!

I am sending this to the blog challenge Forever Nigella, hosted this month by Recipe Junkie. Forever Nigella is organised by Sarah at Maison Cupcake. The theme in January is "food to cherish your loved ones", and what better way to spoil my boyfriend than to make him this lovely dessert for our romantic dinner together? (Incidentally, we followed our romantic dinner by spending a romantic evening... playing Xbox. It was actually a lot of fun!)