Sunday 5 August 2012

Crab Rolls

I love Red Mullet, firm sweetish flesh with that shellfish tang. Have not yet come up with the right accompaniment. Getting closer, try these crab rolls. 
Take a large red Karyatis roasted pepper from a jar. Slit along length and open out. Place its length across the top edge of a sheet of cling wrap. Spread a layer of white crab meat along the length leaving 10mm clear of the long edges. Take two kingsized prawns. Lightly cut, no more than halfway through from the inside curl about every15mm so they open out and lay flat. Place along the centre, cut side down. Put two or three stems of chives on either side. Take an anchovy, split in two long lengthways and place alongside the prawn.

Now from the top edge carefully roll the clingwrap, turning the pepper into a roll. Twist off the ends to really tighten up the roll. Place carefully into no more than a soft rolling fish stock, just for a few minutes to warm through. Lift out, set aside to keep warm. When your fish is ready, cut the roll into 20mm discs, slip off the cling wrap and serve.

Aha, remembered to take a photo this time.

crabroll in clingwrap

crabroll with red mullet

Thursday 14 June 2012

Stirfry courgette

On a medium juliet manadolin slice one small carrot, then a medium courgette. Keep separate. In a hot pan over a just off high heat, put in half tablespoon of a mild olive oil. Toss in carrot stir around to soften without colouring. Then add courgette, carry on stirring until it just begins to soften. Then add thin crescents of two ripe sweet tomatoes, stir occasionally in the dying heat, adding 1/8th teaspoon of paprika, a teaspoon of walnut oil and a tablespoon of chopped parsley. Serve immediately. Do not overcook as it will turn mushy, just catch it when the courgette is still slightly al dente. Gave the quantities as I used them. You will need to adjust quantities. The ratio of vegetables to aim at are 1 carrot: 3 courgette: just under 2 tomato.

Remember to take a photo before eating, unlike me. It looks great and has sweet clean flavour.

Monday 2 April 2012

Chick Pea medley

Rather than lose it, thought I would record this one I came up with. Quantities are as I used so you will have to adjust to suit. About 200gm of chick pea soaked over night, washed in fresh water and drained. Cover with water in pan bring to boil, boil for ten minutes they say, drain, rinse and replace in clean pan with water to well cover. Bring back to simmer with garlic, onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf and cook for about 1.5hr depending on age of pea. Should be really soft, no hardness. Set aside, keep back some liquor.


Cut into 6mm dice, onion and stick of celery, sweat off in a little olive oil. Add half red pepper in same dice. Raise temperature, stir around and just as they begin to soften add two tablespoons of reserved liquor, juice of a lemon. Reduce. Add a very little toasted sesame oil, around 1/16th teaspoon, It should only be a background flavour, not standing out distinctly. Fine chop a red chillie, without seeds and add. Add chick peas and stir in. Dry off without colouring.


Take three tomatoes, skin de-seed and coarsely chop, add to pan, turn over. Add a handful of chopped coriander leaf, adjust seasoning and serve. Vegetables should be soft but with just a suggestion of al-dente and dish should have very little liquid.

Damn, forgot to take a photo again, but it looks good and tastes great.

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Slow cook red cabbage

We have a number of hand me down and trusty red cabbage recipes that we love. Tried out this out the other day. Success!  Could be our new favourite. 

Put a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan on medium heat. Chop an onion and clove of garlic fairly fine and throw into pan to sweat off. Finely shred one red cabbage, about 2.5lbs. I used the largest dice on my hand mandolin and that turned out just right. Add to pan, cover, turn from time to time until cabbage glistens and has just soften and compacted a little.


Transfer to slow cook pot. Peel, core and fine slice one large bramley apple. Add. Take zest of one orange, two tablespoons of a dark sugar, a generous scraping of nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste and add. Add roughly half a cup of red wine, a half cup of red wine vinegar and a cup of water to pot. You need a little liquid to get it started but not too much as it will throw of more as it cooks. Stir, cover and leave to cook for upto 2.5 hours, just giving it the odd turn over.


I was surprise at how long it took. The cabbage never loses a slight soft crunch, but the flavours do not really blend and mellow until after about the two hours. It is a taste thing, you decide bearing in mind my comments. Enjoy