MidWeek Coconut Fish Curry

I love prawns, and think they work really well with pasta or curry, so when I came across this recipe for a coconut fish curry on the BBC Good Food website, where the prawns took centre stage, I knew I had to make it. The flavours are inspired by both India and Thailand and doesn't take that long to cook -the part that took longest was probably finding all the ingredients in the cupboard! So it makes a great mid-week meal.

The shrimp paste in the recipe is not the kind that you may have had n your sandwiches as a child; it is an essential ingredient in Thai cooking. These days it is easy to find in supermarkets like Tesco though, in the speciality ingredients aisle.

To serve 4, you need:
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely grated
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp shrimp paste
1 small red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
2 lemongrass stalks, split and bruised with a rolling pin
1 heaped tbsp. medium curry powder
1 heaped tbsp. light muscovado sugar
small bunch of coriander, stems finely chopped
400g can coconut milk
450g skinless hake or other white fish fillets, cut into large chunks
220g prawns
1 lime, halved
cooked rice to serve
I also served mine with some broccoli

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the onion for 5 minutes until softened. Stir in the ginger, garlic, shrimp paste, chilli and lemongrass and cook for 2 minutes.

Add the curry powder and sugar and stir until the sugar starts to melt, then add the coriander stems, coconut milk and 2 tbsp. water. Bring to a simmer.

 

Add the fish and prawns and squeeze in half the lime. Simmer for 5 minutes until the fish is cooked, scatter over the coriander leaves and serve.

Fish and Chip Pie - a Homage to Marks & Spencer

There's been a big move towards fusion foods of late- surely most people by now have heard of the cronut and duffin? A little while ago I treated myself to a townie from Bea's of Bloomsbury - half chocolate brownie, half tart. The combination of brownie and pastry case worked surprisingly well, though I do wonder if there's any need for these combined recipes - aren't we better off just having a brownie and a tart, and if you really can't choose between the two, have both?

The phenomenon until now seemed confined to cakes and desserts but Marks & Spencer has gone one better - or worse, depending on your point of view - and developed the fish and chip pie. If it weren't for the date I would have wondered if this was an April fool. In fact though, it may actually be ingenious - fish and chips, and pies, are two of the nations favourite dishes. It sounds like an unhealthy, stogy combination, but by creating it under its Gastropub range, M&S actually makes this creation sound quite upmarket. It boasts shortcrust pastry, cod chunks, minted pea puree and a bechamel tartar sauce, with the top of the pie made not from pastry but from chips. You'll just have to see for yourself here.

Now, I'm a big fan of fish and chips, and don't tend to eat pies due to the calorie and fat content of pastry, but was intrigued and really wanted to try this dish. Unfortunately I'm also a very fussy eater and there's no way I'd go near something containing peas, pureed or otherwise. So what did I do? Made my own, of course!

This is entirely my own recipe and it is inspired by the M&S fish and chip pie, which I urge you to purchase and try - and let me know how it tastes. For my non-pea version, you need:

An individual pie or casserole or otherwise oven-proof dish. I wouldn't use a ramekin as it's too small. I used one that had belonged to my late grandparents.

·         100g shortcrust pastry

·         A little butter or Cake Release to grease your dish

·         2 tbsp plain flour

·         30g butter

·         100ml milk

·         Dash of white wine vinegar

·         1 tbsp capers from a jar

·         1 white fish fillet such as cod

·         Small portion of chips, already cooked (I cooked some oven chips while preparing the rest of the dish).

Cook the oven chips according to packet instructions. Meanwhile prepare the rest of the dish.

Grease your individual casserole dish, roll out the pastry and use to line the dish, trimming off any excess. Bake blind in a preheaten oven at 180C (or whatever temperature you are cooking your chips at - it makes sense to do this at the same time).

Poach the fish in a saucepan of milk, or cook in the microwave or oven - basically, whatever is your preferred method of cooking fish. I haven't given timings as it will depend what kind of fish and how much you are using. The cheap white fish fillets you get from supermarket freezer sections work well for this, as the other flavourings of the dish liven up the relatively plain fish, and it is a way of keeping the cost down if you are on a tight budget.

Meanwhile make your sauce. Melt the butter in a small pan over a medium heat and stir in the flour, then a little of the milk to make a roux. (If you have poached the fish in milk, use this milk for the sauce). Gradually add the rest of the milk and stir until the sauce thickens. Remove from the heat and add a dash of vinegar and the capers to give the tartare sauce flavour. Allow the sauce to cool a little.

Break the fish into large chunks and spread in the pastry case then pour over the sauce. Top with chips - it's up to you whether you arrange them haphazardly or neatly in rows. Return the dish to the oven for five minutes to brown.

Serve with green veg or extra chips if desired - or those dreadful mushy peas. In fact if you do like peas, you could add them to the pie as M&S has done, but I wouldn't have the first clue how to cook peas as I've never done so.

This recipe got me thinking - since fish and chips and pies are some of the nation's favourite food, could I make the number one British dish into a pie? Watch this space.....

Coca-Cola Bayou Gumbo

 

As I've mentioned before, I bought a recipe book called "Cooking with Coca-Cola" when I was on holiday in America last year. I've already made this "Perfect Brisket" and wanted to try another savoury recipe, and this time went for fish.

 

Bayou gumbo is traditionally a Cajan dish; a bayou, for those who don't know, is a body of water in a low-lying area and are common to the area around the Mississippi and Louisiana in particular. A gumbo is a kind of stew, that can be meat but is often shellfish; it originated in Louisiana. This recipe uses Coca-Cola to flavour the broth; I adapted the recipe however to use the fish that I had available - it asks for 'fish fillets' and crabmeat, so I used tinned crab, a white fish fillet from the freezer and a piece of salmon. The recipe also needed a cup of clam broth - I have no idea if you can get hold of that in the UK - and okra, which I've never eaten and didn't fancy trying on this particular occasion! So here's my version of the recipe:

 

To serve two:

1 white fish fillet

1 salmon fillet

1 small tin crabmeat

1 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup Coca-Cola

tin of chopped tomatoes

3 cups cooked rice- or one pouch of microwaveable rice!

1/2 onion, chopped

 

 

Cut the fish into pieces



 

Put the fish and all the other ingredients in a deep pan, apart from the rice.

Bring to the boil and simmer for 10-20 minutes.  Season.

Serve with rice - and that's it!

This was a tasty and easy dinner; I couldn't particularly taste the cola but I guess that's the idea!