Fish Fish Fish

I told you all that we bought a great deal of fish at the local supermarket last week, this was the result: a delicious livornese fish stew. My kitchen looked like a murder scene with all sorts of fish all over the place, but the end product was clean, crisp and packed full of flavour.
I don’t normally cook with fish as I often find filleting and boing them very tedious and one of my pet hates is finding a fish bone!
The base of this sauce consisted of chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, celery, green pepper, white wine vinegar, chillies, sultanas and a great big bunch of herbs; dill and parsley. I just love combining all these ingredients together in the same pot over a few hours and adding the fish. I used Monkfish, salmon, whitebait and tilapia (a firm textured, white fleshed fish). These are a little bit different than the typical fish used in stews, but they were delicious and the different aromas given off from the different fish really combined well. Fish marries so well with both dill and parsley, and with a little kick from the chilli and sweetness from the sultanas this was dish bursting with flavour.
Overall, the stew was cooking for 2 hours before being served with polenta and some crunchy white bread. If only I could have enjoyed this looking out into the ocean. Some day soon perhaps?

As always I cannot wait to try this dish using different fish, a different base and different vegetables, so is the awesomeness of home cooking.

Have you cooked with different types of seafood recently? Would love to hear from you!

Happy Eating everyone

J

The Cold Conquerer

Well, if Emily’s cold has not been conquered by tonights dinner, nothing will. I took a classic Italian stew, Garmugia and added my own spin on it. Garmugia is typically made in spring time, taking full advantage of the abundance of gorgeous seasonal vegetables. A traditional Garmugia includes pancetta, beef mince, artichokes, asparagus, broad beans, peas, onions and garlic. So some changes…

Is there anything to help beat a cold than the spice of some chillies? I added 2 chillies and some potatoes to some of the above ingredients.

1. Bring some vegetable stock to the boil. Chop all of your veg: onions, garlic, potatoes, asparagus, cavolo nero, artichoke and chillies.

2. Add all of your veg to the stock and cover with a lid. Meanwhile, fry the pork mince in a frying pan until brown.

3. Add the mince to the veg and leave to simmer for 20 minutes.

And thats it; sit down, pour a glass of wine, break a piece of bread and enjoy. Cooking all of the ingredients in the same pot allows all the flavours to join together and this truly is divine.
Next time you, or a loved one, have a cold, get this cold conquerer cooked and allow all the goodness and heat soothe you.

Bon appetito everyone and happy eating!

Warm the Coggles

The snow is falling and we have our winter wonderland. A pity it didn’t come in time for Christmas but I will enjoy it nonetheless. Who knows, I may even manage to get a day off work!
Such weather calls for one thing, comfort food and a perfect opportunity to attempt a stand out dish from a Tuscan cook book I got for Christmas, poposo. This is chopped beef cooked in a tomato based sauce with some red wine and a very generous amount of freshly ground pepper.
Traditionally, workers operating the large furnaces used to make terracotta would cook poposo for several hours using the heat from their furnace. It is, however, extremely comforting when made as a quick meal.

Coat the diced beef in flour, shaking off any excess. This is a technique i have only started using and it ives the meat a little crunch when you fry it.

Heat 2 tbsps of olive oil in a pan and once hot add your beef and 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic. When the beef starts to brown, add a few ladel fulls of beef stock.

Cook for several minutes and then add 1 glass of red wine, 1 tbsp of tomato purée and a heaped tbsp of freshly grounded black pepper. Leave to simmer for a few minutes, adding a little more stock if it looks like it is drying out.

I had this dish with polenta. It is basically the pasta of the north and is very nutritious and low in calories.

Add a good amount of polenta (I never measure rice/pasta/polenta) t boiling water and boil for a few minutes until it thickens.
Once most of the water has evaporated, add a good knob of butter and take of the heat.

Polenta is so versatile. It can be served hot and runny or it can be left to harden and cool. Once cooled, it can be grilled or fried; the variant ions are endless.

Once your polenta is cooked, place at the bottom of your serving dish and top with your beef mixture.

I served this with crunchy bread, excellent for mopping u any excess sauce. A lovely comforting dinner to warm the coggles in under 20 minutes, wonderful!