Colder than an Eskimo’s cold bits...

This weekend was mine and Rachel’s first surf trip of the year.  The thought of this got me through my first week back to reality in the office.  I (as I would imagine most people probably would) felt somewhat underwhelmed getting back to over 750 emails, all of which claiming to need URGENT attention!

Thankfully we’d planned for any post winter blues and decided to disappear off surfing at the earliest possible opportunity...

Rachel (bless her) has many and varied amazing talents - she's the consummate music guru to most of South-West London, a better surfer than me (not that that's hard!) and a hotty to boot...  But, apparently recognising red traffic lights or deciding which exit to take from any of the many, MANY roundabouts between London and Barnstaple doesn’t appear to be high on the list of her accomplishments. 

Becoming the neurotically nervous passenger in Rachel’s new “surfmobile” (named Coral or perhaps Jeff depending on who you’re talking to) wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for my weekend fun.  

In hindsight, it's arguable that I had a fair point... As far as I can tell, running a red light because “there’s so much else to look at” just doesn’t cut the mustard when you’re pulled over by the police... I ended up repetitively yelling colour coded instructions in the run up to every... single... traffic light in the vicinity... Which made Rachel don this terrifying face of concentration - It's like something you'd normally expect to find in one of the Terminator films!

Hunching up in the middle of a hail storm as we strapped our boards onto Coral/Jeff – should have been our first clue that we weren’t on course for a particularly warm and cosy experience. 

Clue number two should probably have been when everyone else in the car park was changing into winter wetsuits, gloves, boots and hoods: my peddle-pusher, ill-fitted, summer suit seemed like such a good idea at the time!

SOOOOO... COLLLLLDDDDDD... as in serious, ice-cream headache BRRRRRRRRRRRRR...

It is without doubt the coldest I have ever, EVER been (even if it did only last an hour)!  But SO much fun!!  We had to call it a day when I achieved an all new level of coldness and my arms refused to paddle any more...

Trying to get wetsuits off without being able to feel/move your fingers lent a whole new level of hilarity to the already farcical tradition of "the car park disrobe"...

Levi Roots’ Caribbean fish pie served up with his avocado and mango salad from this book was the taste of the tropical which we needed as a post-(baltically cold)-surf warm up!  Predictably we had to condense his recipe slightly as we were in need of some serious eats, but it still tasted AH-MAISON...

Preheat the oven to 180˚C.

Warm the milk and the thyme leaves over a gentle heat until boiling point.  Add the fish and turn off the heat, after five minutes remove the fish.

Melt 25g butter, add the flour and stir over a low heat.  Gradually stir in the warmed milk (from poaching the fish).  Stir in the creamed coconut until it dissolves into the white sauce.  Season with salt, pepper, coriander and lime juice to taste.   Stir in the spinach until it just begins to wilt. Gently stir in the fish so that it stays in bite-sized chunks.

Simmer the sweet potatoes for 8-10 minutes until soft enough to mash.  Mash with 40g butter, and season with the nutmeg, allspice, and salt and pepper.

Place mixture in an oven proof dish, top with the mashed sweet potato and dot with the remaining butter.  Cook for about 20 minutes until bubbling hot.

We served our fish pie with an avocado and mango salad.

Caribbean Fish Pie (serves 4-5)

600ml milk

1 sprig of thyme, leaves only

600g skinned haddock, cod or coley

100g butter

2tbsp flour

50g creamed coconut

lime juice (to taste)

bunch of coriander, chopped

250g spinach

900g sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

Ground nutmeg (to taste)

1 pinch ground allspice

Avocado and mango salad (serves 4)

2 avocados, sliced

1 ripe mango, diced

2 little gem lettuces, separated into leaves

1/2 red chilli, deseeded and thinly sliced

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced and blanched in boiling water

2 sprigs thyme, leaves only

Juice of 1 lime

Olive oil

(garnish with coriander leaves - optional)

Remember, remember the 5th of November: Jambalaya, fireworks and surf...

Ok, so it might not be the “official” version but it epitamized my 5^th of November this year and you have to admit, it sounds a lot more fun than gunpowder, treason and plot! 

I was in the deepest, darkest, depths of Cornwall with a couple of friends for what was going to be a weekend of surfing.  Sadly, due to only owning a puny summer wetsuit and the weather turning Balticly cold I ended up wussing out! 

 Instead I filled my time with walks, watching others more brave than me surfing, a great seaside pub called the Five Pilchards...

fireworks, tea-cosy hats, sparklers and Jambalaya...

I travelled down with three chorizo links  from my River Cottage day and a Gumbo Shop recipe book which my parents brought back from a trip around “the deep south” stashed in my bag.  If I'm honest - I have no idea how authentic this recipe is, all I know is: it was TASTY!  (on a side note, another lesson learned is don't wrap incredibly garlicy chorizo in clothes you want to wear in the upcoming days... stinky!) 

Cover the raw chicken with cold water and set over a medium heat.  Bring to the boil and simmer for 45 minutes.  Remove the chicken from the poaching liquid and set aside to cool.  Reserve the poaching liquid.  Once cooled, remove the skin and bones and cut the chicken into bite sized peices.

Saute the chorizo in olive oil until lightly browned. 

Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside with the chicken.  In the chorizo oiled pan add the onion, pepper and celery and sweat til tender. 

Add the tinned tomatoes, garlic, salt and peppers and cook for a further 10 minutes, contantly stirring. 

Stir in the rice, mix well then add the reserved poaching liquid.  Bring back to the boil then reduce to a simmer.  Add chicken and prawns, and cook uncovered until the rice and prawns are cooked - approx 20 minutes.  You may need to add more poaching liquid as the rice absorbs it.

Serve with a side order of fireworks!   

Jambalaya:

500g chicken thighs and breasts, bones and skin included

cold water to cover

olive oil

3 chorizo links, sliced

3 small onions, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

4 stalks celery, chopped

6 cloves garlic, crushed

1x400g tin tomatoes

1/2tsp white pepper

1/2tsp black pepper

1/4tsp cayenne pepper

1tsp salt

1 cup long grain rice

1 1/2 cups (minimum) stock from poaching the chicken

500g raw king prawns, peeled

 

Pea, Scallop and Prosciutto Risotto

I live with a flatmate who doesn't eat cheese.  I know, impossible to believe but a majority of the time I don't use any cheese or even related products (mascarpone - as if that's REALLY cheese?!) in our cooking.  Don't ask me how I survive this... Somehow (supplementing my diet with many a cheese and chutney sandwich) life goes on. 

Last night she requested a fish oriented risotto.  Obviously no Parmesan could be added.  But I'm finding new ways of working around this cheesephobia... usually I just grate it over the top of mine after dishing up.  This time I added Creme Fraiche (apparently this is sufficiently un-cheesy!)...

serves 2:

Fill a litre measuring jug half way with frozen peas.  Top up with hot stock until at the 1 litre mark.  Use a stick blender to blend until smooth.

Fry a diced onion in olive oil until soft and golden.  Add a crushed clove of garlic and three generous handfuls of risotto rice.  Continue stirring and frying until the grains of rice are coated and the garlic has started to colour.

Add the stock mixture slowly.  Incorporate more as it gets absorbed, stirring until the rice is tender.  Add a large handful of frozen peas, and some finely chopped mint, and stir them in for a couple of minutes until cooked through.

Meanwhile dry fry 6 slices of prosciutto until golden.

At the last minute heat some olive oil in a frying pan over a high heat.  Once reasonably hot add the scallops and fry a couple of minutes each side. 

Ingredients:
Hot Stock
Frozen Peas
1 Onion
1 Clove of Garlic
8 Scallops
6 Slices of Prosciutto
2(generous)tbsp Creme Fraiche
sprigs of mint (to taste)

Mexican Wave...

I spent last weekend down on the coast of North Devon with three friends attempting to hone my woeful surfing skills.  Having only just begun we must burn up to (at least) four thousand times more energy than competent surfers, and so need something substantial to bolster us after a day spent flailing through the waves.  With this in mind, I decided to try out Bill Granger’s Fish Burrito recipe.  Fish Burritos, like surfing was something I've always loved the concept of but had never got around to trying (for shame!), I'm now just as hooked on both.

After a very long and reasonably tedious journey down the ghastly M4/M5 combo on Friday evening, (accompanied by an aggressive game of car trivial pursuit which I didn’t win) Saturday morning dawned blissfully warm and sunny.  We popped into Barnstaple town centre to get supplies for the gargantuan evening feast that was planned and discovered a fantastic little terrace of tiny

grocery shops (Butcher’s Row next to the town’s Saturday pannier market).  All in a tidy queue; butchers, bakers (all that was missing was the candlestick makers), green grocers, cheesemongers and my favourite – a great fishmongers -  stood side by side. 

 The recipe called for Snapper which wasn’t available but any firm fish would work in its stead.  Lengthy deliberation led to us deciding to puchase monkfish which was pricey but absolutely delicious, and turned out to be a great substitute well worth the extra pennies.

 After visiting the fish mongers, the cheesemongers,  the green grocers and a local convenience store to buy the tortillas, we were finally ready to start working up an appetite for dinner. 

Several debates about which beach to head to, and one emergency stop when (due to insufficient knowledge of fastening tie-on roof-racks) we almost lost the surfboard from the roof of the car later; we settled on Croyde.  It was low tide and a long walk from car park to water - the talk turned from grumbling how puny the waves looked to mounting dismay as it dawned on us just how huge they were up close... Despite small, learner-friendly two foot waves having been promised, these waves were four foot, powerful and way out of our comfort zone.  After hours of being continuously chewed up and spat out, we’d had a great time but the waves were getting bigger and we were utterly exhausted. 

Bruised, battered, and with at least half of the gulf-stream firmly wedged in my right ear, we called it a day and headed back to base for feeding time at the zoo.  Burritos have in hindsight been added to the list (along with good old spaghetti bolognaise), of meals not to eat on a first date.  No matter how strategic the stacking of the contents, there seems to be no getting away from overfilling.  In greed/hunger, I always end up covered from head to toe, somewhat like an over-excited two year old.  Obviously larger wraps are needed...

First cut the fish into strips and leave to marinade for 15 minutes with the coriander, paprika, cumin, chilli, salt, pepper, lime zest and olive oil.  The recipe suggests using a blender or food processor to process until the marinade ingredients form a paste, but not having a food processor, I just hand chopped them which worked fine.

Next wrap the tortillas in foil and pop them in the oven to warm (at 180˚C they will take approximately 10-15 minutes to warm – make sure the foil is tightly sealed or the tortillas will dry out and become brittle).  Shred a baby gem lettuce, then add the lime zest and juice to the sour cream (Bill’s recipe was for lime mayonnaise which I’d be interested to try next time), stir and keep chilled until needed.

Meanwhile make the cucumber salad (which was delightfully refreshing and a great addition for those who weren’t so keen on the spicy warmth of the chillies).  Chop the cucumber into small dice and toss with the cherry tomatoes, spring onions, coriander, lime juice, chilli, salt and sugar. 

Then make the salsa by mixing the cherry tomatoes, coriander, red onion, lime juice, salt and pepper, ground coriander, ground cumin and a dash of white wine vinegar.

Just before you’re ready to cook the fish (last minute!) make the guacamole, to prevent it turning brown from being left out for too long.  Mash the avocado and stir together with coriander, red onion, salt, tomatoes, lime juice and zest.

Finally cook the fish, by laying it in a single layer in a frying pan and cooking on a high heat a couple of minutes each side.

And then the best bit... the eating!  Predictably, in typical style a competition about who could make the prettiest burrito was suggested.  Unfortunately it transpired that none of us were particularly proficient at aesthetic tortilla stuffing but thankfully they tasted amazing none-the-less.  Post-dinner, the evening quickly progressed (or perhaps degenerated would be a more appropriate expression) to margarita hour... we used a ratio of two parts tequila to one part lime juice and one part cointreau, covering the rim of the glasses with fine milled salt.  Yikes!  Messy proportions methinks.  Add to that the fact that we made the error of trying this without crushed ice and it’s easy to see how the evening got away from us before we’d even left the house.  Next time, I would like to try a salt/sugar mix round the rim (as the pure salt was pretty overpowering), and mixing the ingredients in equal parts.  After just one (large) margarita we were on our way out with many a tequila shot to follow...

Luckily the best cure for tequila induced headaches is wedging yourself into a cold, sodden, wetsuit, and concentrating hard on not falling over, so our Sunday morning surf (in thankfully very forgiving waves this time) was much appreciated.  This unfortunately had to be followed by the LONG drive home in the rain, with Sunday traffic hindering us at every opportunity.

I’ve still got water in my ear now almost a week later and something definitely went wrong with the camera - having looked back on the photos, the waves look disappointingly tame and somehow we don’t look anywhere near as cool as we thought -but still there’s no denying it, I’m utterly addicted! 

Quantities to feed 4...

Lime Sour Cream:

1x 284ml tub of sour cream

1  lime, zest and juice

Salt and Pepper

The Fish:

50g finely chopped coriander

2 tsp paprika

1tsp cumin

1 red chilli finely chopped

1tsp salt

Pepper

1 lime, zest

80ml olive oil

750g firm white fish

Cucumber Salad:

1 cucumber, peeled and deseeded

250g cherry tomatoes, halved

4 spring onions, sliced

A handful of coriander, roughly chopped

1 lime, juice

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced

1tsp salt

1tsp caster sugar

Guacamole:

2 ripe avocados

5-6 cherry tomatoes, finely chopped

¼ red onion finely chopped

1 lime, zest and juice

A handful of coriander, roughly chopped

Salt

Salsa:

250g cherry tomatoes

A handful of coriander, roughly chopped

½ red onion finely chopped

1 lime, juice

Salt and Pepper

½tsp ground coriander

½tsp ground cumin

Dash of white wine vinegar

I’ll let you decide who won the “prettiest” burrito competition, a hopeless effort all round I’m afraid (and this is with the “unsightly” ones edited out!).