Deanna’s Recipe of the Week #6 Rustic Fish Soup
Rustic Fish Soup
People are always curious about what I cook at home for dinner. This is really popular in my house because it's tasty and low fat. I always make it when we go away on holiday too(self catering of course!) with what we've found at the local fish market. Chrolton locals are well advised to visit Out of the Blue on Wilbraham Road - how lucky we are to have such a fantastic fishmonger on our doorstep!
Once you've put the white fish in, you can use any seafood you like, even frozen packs of mussels, prawns and squid. Below is just what I used the other day but it varies.
This should serve 4
2 tbsp olive oil
2 red onions, sliced
1 bulb fennel, chopped
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
4 cloves garlic, squashed then chopped
1 red chilli, chopped
1 red pepper
tin chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 glass red wine
1pt fish stock
Handful fresh basil leaves
250g large prawns
500g any flaky white fish (I sometimes use those frozen blocks of cod and pop them in straight from the freezer)
1 jar/tin of mussels or clams
Handful flat leaf parsley, chopped
Cut the red pepper into quarters, remove the seeds and place on a tray under a hot grill, skin side up until blackened. Place in a bowl and cover with cling film or a plate. leave to go cool and then remove the skin. Roughly chop the peppers.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a soup pan and add the red onions.
Cook for 5 minutes then add the thyme, chilli, garlic and fennel.
Cook for another 5 minutes stirring occasionally.
Add the roasted and skinned pepper, wine, the tin of tomatoes, tomato puree and fish stock. Cook for about 20 minutes.
Add the fresh basil and blend (you can leave it a little chunky if you prefer)
Add the fish (from fresh or frozen it doesn't matter) and cook until the white fish disintegrates, about 20 mins.
Season with plenty of freshly ground black pepper and finish with the chopped parsley.
Serve with bread. It's nice to have toasted baguette slices topped with freshly made basil pesto.
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Deanna’s Recipe of The Week #5 Nana’s Ginger Cake
Ginger Cake
Sticking to the theme of Nanas recipes (see my second Recipe of the Week), I thought I'd share another one with you. It's her absolutely fantastic ginger cake, a family tradition and one that deserves a wider audience. I had to do a bit of conversion as I found the recipe scrawled on the back of an old bill and it was all in vague measurements (eg "a glass of oil" &etc.)
This is a true classic. It makes 3 cakes which will freeze beautifully. I also like it because you can just throw everything together - there's no equipment needed apart from bowls, jugs and mixing spoons.
You could eat these as they are or sandwich two together with lemon or stem ginger buttercream.
Ingredients
450g self raising flour
450g golden syrup
225g caster sugar
300ml Boiling water
4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp each of mixed spice, cinnamon and Bicarbonate of soda
3 eggs
250ml vegetable or sunflower oil
Beat the eggs and the sugar. Add the dry ingredients (except bicarb). Add the oil and then the syrup and mix. Mix in the boiling water leaving a small amount. Mix this remaining water with the bicarbonate of soda and add to the mixture.
Pour into 3 x 8 inch cake tins which have been lined with baking paper or paper cases - NOTE - is essential that you line the tins. These cakes will be very soft and moist - they'll never come out of unlined tins!
Bake for 1 hour at 300f/150c/Gas 2
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Deanna’s Recipe of the Week #4 - Quick & Easy Pasta Sauce
Quick & Easy Pasta Sauce
Here’s a simple and delicious pasta sauce using some wonderful products available at North Star Delicatessen. This recipe has been written by Adam, who I must admit, makes a mean pasta sauce - and curries too, but we'll save that for a later recipe blog. I'm not sure what to call it but it's somewhere between an Amatriciana and a Puttanesca (if you substitute the chorizo for anchovies and capers)
You can adapt this for smaller or larger quantities but the following method will serve two
2 tbsp good olive oil
1 or 2 cloves garlic, crushed
Dried Chilli flakes to taste
1 jar or tin peeled plum tomatoes with basil
1 tbsp Tomato puree
a few pitted green olives
200g Chorizo Picante, sliced (or chopped anchovies and a few rinsed capers)
Freshly ground salt & black pepper to taste
a pinch of sugar
175g Penne pasta
Put a large pan of salted water on to boil & cook the pasta following the instructions on the packet.
Meanwhile, place a deep frying pan on a medium heat and add the olive oil.
Add the chopped garlic and ground chilli flakes, fry for a minute.
Add the chopped tomatoes & stir well, then add the tomato puree.
Simmer the sauce on a low heat, for a few minutes, add the olives to the sauce, and then the chorizo (or anchovies/capers)
Finally, add salt, ground black pepper and sugar to taste.
When the pasta is ready, drain it, and then stir into the sauce.
Comments
What’s Cooking Grandma?
Now this site - What's Cooking Grandma? - is a stroke of genius.
Following on from Deanna's recipe of the week number #2 "Nana's Lentil & Lovage Soup", What's Cooking Grandma? is a wonderful resource of traditional home cooking where family recipes are shared online. I think this is absoutely delightful - a chance to capture for posterity recipes that have really stood the test of time and perhaps been handed down the generations and here they are demonstrated for us by the people who really do know best. It's sad that our own Nana - who was one heck of cook in her day - is now too frail to be able to demonstrate some of her special dishes, but I have very, very fond food-filled memories of ginger cakes, chopped herring, meat pies, scotch pancakes and goodness knows what other delicious treats she used to rustle up.
Do please use the comments section to share any memories of your own Grandma's recipes.
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Deanna’s Recipe of the Week #2 - Nana’s Lentil & Lovage Soup
Our herb garden has started to come to life again and one of the most enthusiastic perrenials is our lovage.
Lentil & Lovage Soup
This recipe is one from our nana's repertoire. I asked her once why her lentil soup tasted so much better than other peoples. She said it was because of the love she put into it. I subsequently found out that it was in fact lovage that she used - though I think the love helped too!
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 leek, chopped
1 carrot, chopped, 1 stick celery, chopped
1 red chilli, chopped (leave seeds in if you like it spicy)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 inch ginger, chopped
3 ripe tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp tomato puree
splash of worcester sauce (leave out to keep vegetarian)
250g red lentils
1 1/2 litres vegetable stock
pinch of sugar
squeeze lemon
freshly ground black pepper
a good handful (20g) fresh lovage, shredded
Heat the oil in the pan.
Add the onions and cook on a low heat, stirring from time to time.
Add ginger, chilli and garlic and continue to cook for a couple of minutes.
Add celery, leek and carrot, cook for five more minutes.
Add tomatoes, stir and cook for a few minutes more until the tomatoes begin to break down. Add the tomato puree and the red lentils.
Add the stock and the worcester sauce. Stir and leave to simmer for about 20 minutes. Season with pepper, sugar and lemon juice.
Add the lovage, cook for about 5 minutes more and blend.
This recipe serves 4.
As with all soup recipes, it's up to you whether you add more or less of particular ingredients, or be thicker or thinner. It should be to your taste.
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