Beurre Blanc Sauce

A French classic - perfect with fish. It's really easy to prepare. It's similar in flavour to a hollandaise, but thinner and not quite as deliciously rich because it doesn't have eggs. This makes it less temperamental than a hollandaise, which will turn to scrambled egg with a Gallic pout and shrug if you are not very careful with the heat. You can whip it up really quickly if you need a classy sauce to lift a meal.

Yesterday I served it with salmon pie and it was great. I added a bit of tarragon; you could add other herbs according to your fancy.

2 shallots, finely chopped (I ended up using half a small onion because the shallots I thought were left in the fridge had disappeared)
60ml white wine vinegar
60ml white wine
60ml water
125g butter, cubed

Put the shallots, vinegar, wine and water in a small pan and heat until reduced by about half or two thirds. Sieve to remove shallots and return the vinegar reduction to the pan. Over a low heat, gradually whisk in the cubes of butter to form an emulsion.

Bobotie

This is an old favourite from our days in South Africa back in the nineties. Bobotie is a South African dish from the Cape Malay community, said to have originated in Indonesia. It's a baked layered dish of minced meat cooked with spices and topped with a layer of savoury egg custard. It also includes a sweet element from dried fruits, apricot jam and chutney. It is usually served with rice - traditionally yellow rice with turmeric in South Africa, although I cooked coconut rice last time, which complemented it very well.

Ingredients (serves 4 - 6):

sunflower oil

600g minced meat (a mixture of pork and beef is good)

1 large onion finely chopped

large clove garlic, minced

1cm piece of fresh ginger, minced

2 - 3 tsp curry paste (I used Patak's Madras) or more to taste

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp coriander

1 tbsp chutney ( I used a mixture of onion chutney and some apple, sage and chili jelly)

(if you don't have chutney, use a bit more jam and add a tablespoon of cider or wine vinegar for the acidity)

1 tbsp apricot or apple jam (I used apple and ginger made by my dad)

2oz dried apricots, chopped

2 slices white bread, soaked in about 200ml milk

bay leaves

2 to 3 large eggs (depends how deep you like your custard layer - I like quite a lot!)

300 ml milk

salt and pepper

handful of cashew and/or almonds, roughly chopped

handful of slivered or flaked almonds to top

1. Roughly tear up and soak the bread in the milk and set aside for about 15 minutes or so for the milk to have time to absorb.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 C
3. Fry the onion, garlic, ginger and spices in sunflower oil gently until the onion is soft and slightly brown.
4.  Add the meat and cook for a couple of minutes before adding the chutney, jam, a bayleaf and apricots.
5. Gently squeeze the bread and tip the excess milk out, reserving it to add to the custard, then mash the bread and stir it into the meat mixture.
6. Continue to cook until the meat is just about done - not too much, as it will be baked in the oven. 
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
8. Tip into an ovenproof dish (I used a 28cm square dish) and spread evenly, pressing it down slightly. The meat layer should be a 3- 4 cm deep.
9. Beat together the eggs and milk with a little seasoning (a bit of turmeric is good too)
10. Pour the egg mixture over the meat and stick a few bay leaves into it (lemon leaves are more authentic, but they don't grow here).
11. Sprinkle some slivered almonds over the top.
12. Bake for around 45 minutes until the custard is set and slightly browned.
13. Serve with rice and steamed veggies.

Sausage Rolls

Warning  -  these are very moreish and you cannot eat just one....

1 pack of sausage meat (about 500g)

1 pack fresh or frozen puff pastry (in sheet form rather than brick form - it's quicker)

1 tsp Pataks madras spice paste 

1 small finely chopped onion

Fry the onion gently in some sunflower oil, adding the Pataks towards the end. The onion should be soft and slightly caramelized. Leave aside to cool.

Put the sausage meat in a bowl and add the cooled onion mixture, giving it a good mix to distribute it evenly through the sausage.

Unroll the sheet of pastry and cut it in half lengthwise to make two rectangles about 25 by 15 cm

Place a roughly log shaped piece of sausage meat all the way along the rectangle, just slightly off centre (it will probably not want to form a nice neat log, but it doesn't really matter). Try to get it as evenly spread as possible.

Brush the pastry edge with  a little water.Fold the pastry over to make a long roll, sealing the long edge by pinching it all along the edge. Crimp with a knife handle to make it look fancier if you want.

Brush the roll with beaten egg, sprinkle with sesame seeds if you like, then cut the roll into 2cm pieces.

Place them well apart on a baking tray and bake them for about 20 minutes in a hot oven (190 - 200C) until golden brown.

Try not to burn your mouth when you can't wait to try the first one as soon as it comes out the oven.

Tom's Pork Belly Fajitas

Tom is back from university for the Easter holidays and offered to cook. He wanted to try to recreate a Mexican dish he'd eaten in Toronto at La Carnita; a pork dish with flavours of chili and some sweetness.  Not ever having eaten in La Carnita (but wishing I had) I can't confirm if it is like its inspiration, but it was utterly delicious and I could have eaten the whole lot by myself.

slices of pork belly (about 150g per person), salted and peppered and seared in a large pan.
Add chopped onions, jalapeno peppers and some garlic to the pan.
Then add dried oregano, cumin, smoked paprika and a bay leaf and pour Corona beer over the top until the pork is submerged. Add a dollop of honey and a splash of cider vinegar.
Cover and simmer for two hours by which time the pork will be tender and falling apart. Uncover towards the end of cooking to reduce the sauce.
Remove the pork from the sauce and pull/chop the pork into pieces. spoon the fat off the sauce and boil to reduce it to a thick consistency then pour over the pork.
Serve with warmed soft tortillas or crispy tacos, salsa, guacamole, sour cream, lettuce, fried green and red peppers, grated cheese, refried beans and fresh coriander - diners assemble their own according to taste.

Carnabara Pie (baked spaghetti, cheese and bacon)

450g spaghetti 

1 small onion, finely chopped 

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp dried oregano 

150g cooking bacon, finely cubed

6 medium eggs, beaten 

1 cup full cream milk 

1 cup single cream

Plenty of freshly ground black pepper 

225g grated cheese (mixture of pecorino, cheddar or whatever you have and like)

Part cook the pasta for about 5 minutes in boiling salted water, but make sure it is still quite firm as it will continue to cook in the oven. Drain and leave to cool.

Gently fry the bacon, oregano and onion in a little olive oil until soft and slightly browned. Leave to cool.

Line a deep round glass oven dish with grease proof paper.

Beat the eggs, milk and cream together, then stir in the bacon mixture and season with plenty of black pepper. Stir in about three quarters of the cheese, then stir in the spaghetti and mix well to coat it all with the eggy sauce.

Pile the whole lot into the prepared dish and bake for about half an hour, or until set and golden. If it starts to brown too quickly cover with foil. Leave to rest for a few minutes then serve in large slices with green veg or salad and garlic bread.

Salmon with Thai spiced cashew nut coconut topping

This was a lucky experiment that turned out to be delicious and very easy - not always the case, but this one will definitely join the regular repertoire. I served it with coconut rice and some broccoli and green beans. 

Update: I made this last week, thinking I had cashew nuts in the cupboard. I didn't, s I used a mixture of almonds and pistachios, which was just as good as the original recipe.

For 6 people

6 salmon fillets (about 150g each)

80g cashew nuts (unsalted)

1 thickish slice wholemeal bread 

2 spring onions, trimmed and roughly chopped

1 tsp Thai green curry paste  (I used Mae Ploy brand, which is quite spicy and strong; a little goes a long way and the dish had the perfect level of spice, you may need to use a bit more of other brands).

a good dollop, maybe 1 tbsp,of coconut milk (use a bit from the can you use for the rice)

dash sesame oil

small bunch of fresh coriander, washed

2 tbsp unsweetened desiccated coconut 

Preheat the oven to 190 C (fan).

Blitz all the ingredients apart from the salmon in a food processor until it forms a chunky paste (not too smooth, you still want some texture in the nuts).

Put the salmon fillets in one layer in an ovenproof dish and spread the topping over them evenly.

(As I'd made some summer rolls as a starter, I had a few bits of red and green pepper, carrot and spring onion left over, which I finely chopped and scattered over the salmon before baking it. I'm not sure whether it made much difference, but I didn't want to waste the veggies! Some finely sliced pieces of red pepper laid across the salmon would probably work well, but it would be fine without.)

Bake for about 15 minutes (until you see the juices start to run out of the salmon).

That's it!

Coconut Rice

Serves 6

1 tsp butter
good dash (about 1 tbsp)  sunflower oil
1 small red onion, finely chopped
375g basmati rice
1 can coconut milk
1 bay leaf
salt

Soak the rice for 15 minutes in cold water, then rinse and drain in a sieve. Heat the butter and oil and saute the onion gently until softened but not too browned. Stir in the rice and coconut milk. Fill the coconut milk can with water and tip that into the rice too. Add the bayleaf and a little salt. Give it a good stir, cover and bring to the boil and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooked. If the liquid absorbs too quickly, before the rice has cooked, add a couple of splashes of boiling water as it cooks.

This went really well with the salmon with Thai spiced cashew and coconut topping.