I just realised that it has been quite a while since I last published a food related post. Today, I am gonna share a really simple but scrumptious recipe. I love eating seafood since I was really young. However, I only started to eat mussels when I was in Australia that offers abundance of fresh seafood.

 

Mussels are quick and ridiculously easy to prepare. The best mussels that I have had so far was in Brussels. Oh well, they are famous for Moules Frites, so I think they are still the top so far.

 

This time, I opted for herby tomato sauce that goes really well with mussels. One important note to make this dish is to get really fresh, juicy and ripe plum tomatoes. Also, fresh mussels.

 

Ingredients:

500g fresh mussels

1 onion (chopped)

1 clove of garlic (chopped)

some olive oil

3 plum tomatoes (skinned, deseeded and roughly chopped)

handful of flat leaf parsley (chopped)

fresh ground black pepper to taste

lemon wedges

 

Method:

1. Fill the sink with cold water and one by one scrub the mussels, removing barnacles and tugging off the “beard”.

2. Discard any open mussels as they are dead.

3. Rinse thoroughly several times and set aside.

4. To peel the skin off tomatoes, simply cut a shallow big cross at the bottom of the tomatoes. Put the tomatoes into a boiling water for about 30 seconds. Remove the tomatoes and place them into a bowl of ice water for about 5 minutes.

5. Remove the tomatoes from the ice water. The tomatoes should still be very firm, with the skin wrinkled and hanging off of it slightly. Peel them off.

6. Cut the tomatoes into wedges. Then, cut under the seeds, close to the flesh. Remove and discard seeds.

7. Heat up a pan and drizzle some olive oil. Put in chopped garlic and onion and gently cook until fragrant and soft. Then, put in the chopped and deseeded tomatoes and cook until they are soft.

8. Heat up a saucepan with some water. Once it’s boiling, put in the mussels in the saucepan with lid on. Give it a stir after about 2-3 minutes and put on the lid again and give them just a minute more. Then, discard any mussels that have failed to open.

9. Drain off the mussels, reserving some of the cooking liquid. Set both aside.

10. Once the tomatoes are soft enough, pour in the reserved cooking liquid. Cook until the sauce get slightly thicken. Put in the chopped parsley. Then, season with freshly ground pepper.

11. Put in the mussels. Stir well to let all the mussels coated with the sauce. Cook for just another 2 minutes just to heat up the mussels.

12. Dish the mussels in a bowl and serve with a wedge of lemon.

2008 MasterChef on the BBC has finally come to an end. I didn’t follow all the episodes but I thought the last two episodes were worth watching. Since they were worth watching, there shouldn’t be any excuse to miss it.

 

Sadly, I did miss both episodes. However, with today’s technology, I am able to catch up any missed BBC TV programmes on BBC iPlayer. You can just play back any of your missed TV programmes on your finger tips with your laptop or PC.

 

The last 2 episodes were really inspiring. The 3 finalists are so talented. They have so much of talents that I was amazed by their creative culinary skills. It makes me ponder if I could take up this kind of challenge.

 

I really think that working in our home kitchens is totally different from working in a competition kitchens and restaurant kitchens. I like to take my time in the kitchen especially during the weekends. But, in a professional kitchen, every second counts!

 

The last episode of MasterChef was too overwhelming. I got so motivated after watching on the iPlayer. Then, I stood up, clapped my hands and said, ‘Right, I am gonna be a MasterChef at home.’

 

I went to my kitchen and put my apron on and started to search for ingredients. I got some baby salad leaves, lemon, lime and asparagus in the fridge. There I found a Sea Bream in the freezer. In the fruits basket, I got some pomegranates. As in the vegetables basket, I took some potatoes and ginger. Ok, that’s all I need.

 

So, what am I gonna make? A dish that is nice to see,…something new and tastes good. Some thinking and planning made within minutes, I decided to make a Pan seared Sea Bream fillets, Potatoes 2 Ways, served with baby salad leaves and Pomegranates in reduced Lemon & Lime Jus.

When I cook, I seldom measure. So, the following recipe is not provided with specific measurement. However, just make sure to taste the food frequently to adjust the seasoning. Let’s see how I made this dish.

 

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 sea bream fillets (each cut into halves, optional)

some butter

2-3 new potatoes

some curry powder

salt and pepper

some baby salad leaves

some pomegranates to garnish

8 spears of asparagus

some freshly grated ginger

some lime juice

some lemon juice

some sugar

Method:

1. Take one of the potatoes, leave the skin on and wash. Then, cut into thin slices. About 10-12 slices should be enough. Place them on a baking tray drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle some salt. Put the tray into a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celcius. Bake the potato slices until grown brown and crispy. Place aside and keep warm.

 

2. For the rest of the potatoes, peel and boil them.

 

3. Trim and cut the asparagus into 5-6 cm length. Blanch and set aside.

 

4. Heat a pan with butter. Turn to medium heat. Put the fillets in the pan. Skin sides down if left the skins on. Sprinkle some freshly grated ginger. Constantly bathe the fillets with melted butter. It takes no more than 15 minutes to cook fillets (depending on the thickness).

 

5. While cooking the fillets, the potatoes should be cooked now. Mash the potatoes. Add some milk and give a good whisk to produce a smooth purée. Season with some salt and pinch of curry powder. Set aside but keep warm.

 

6. Use another saucepan, put in the the lime, lemon juice and sugar. Stir well. Put on low heat to let the juice reduce. Adjust the sweetness if needed.

 

7. At this point, you may want to start working on the plate. The fish should also be cooked by now, remove from heat.

 

8. Place some baby salad leaves around the plate. Then, put some potato crisps between the leaves. Re-heat the asparagus in the microwave to be warm enough to serve. Arrange the asparagus in the centre of the plate. Arrange the fillets on top of the asparagus.

 

9. Squeeze the potato purée onto the plate using a piping bag.

 

10. Drizzle reduced lime and lemon juice on the fish and salad leaves. Garnish with some pomegranates to serve.

It was dark. The sky was lit up with the stars. As the wind blew, it sent chill down my spine. Brrrr! The thought of enjoying a warm meal made my long and lazy footsteps became quick and short. I maintained quick and steady walking space as the thought of food was unbearable. I was craving for some boiled rice.. a warm bowl of boiled rice with a quick dish.

 

Finally, I reached. I quickly unlocked the door, put away my bag and coat. Dashed into the kitchen and opened the fridge, searching for ingredients. I knew I wanted a curry dish to go with the boiled rice. I got some beans and prawns, brilliant!

 

Not wasting time no more, I grabbed all the raw ingredients that I needed - 1 clove of garlic, 2cm of ginger, 2 red chili, 1 shallot. Then, ground them into a paste using a food processor. I used exactly the same raw ingredients like the dish that I made last time - Spicy Okra with Prawns. The only difference is instead of lime juice, I added about 50ml tamarind water (soak the tamarind in hot water and push the pulp through a sieve to make tamarind water). As I wanted to make this dish with a bit of sauce so, I added about 200ml coconut milk. So, looks really easy if you have already tried making Spicy Okra with Prawns.

 

I heated the wok with medium flame and drizzled some olive oil. Once it was hot enough, I put in the chili paste, stirred and cooked until it was fragrant. I then put in about 250g of raw prawns, mixed and coated them with the chili paste. Then, I cooked the prawns for about 10 minutes before I put in the beans that I had trimmed and cut into about 5cm in length. I was getting excited as I knew the dish was almost done. I stirred, added the coconut milk, put a pinch of salt to season, and let it simmer for a further 10-15 minutes.

 

While the curry was simmering away, I heard the beeping of the rice cooker indicating that the rice was cooked. Finally, I thought, the long craving for rice was almost over. What could be better if not to serve the rice with the Prawns & Beans Creamy Curry?

I love using citrus fruits in marinates. Also to use them in preparing salads. Today, I am gonna share this simple and delicious recipe. It’s Baked Cod with Orange & Lime. You can substitute cod with other white fish, like Haddock. I cooked some pasta (Tagliatelle) to go with this dish with some toasted pine nuts to make the dish more interesting.

To make this dish, you don’t need a lot of ingredients. All you need are the following to make a meal for 2:

2 cod fillets
4 slices of lime
2 slices of orange (halves or quartered)
1 medium red onion (thinly sliced)
a handful of pine nuts
some olive oil
some dill

1 tbsp orange juice
1 tsp lime juice
ground sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method:
1. Rub the Cod fillets with salt and black pepper.
2. Place them on a baking dish and drizzle some olive oil on the fillets.
3. Drizzle the orange & lime juice over the fillets. Arrange the orange and lime slices on the fillets.
4. Sprinkle some dill over the fillets. Rest them while pre-heating the oven at 180 celcius.
5. Shove the baking dish into the oven and bake the fillet for about 15 - 20 minutes depending on the size of the fillets. (The fillets are cooked once the flesh look completely white and not translucent.)
6. While the fillets are being cooked, on a pan, toast the pine nuts until golden brown then set aside.
7. On the same pan, drizzle some olive oil to cook the onions until caramelised. Add some of the caramelised onions on top of the fillets when they are almost cooked.
8. Meanwhile, cook tagliatelle according to the instruction on the packet in a pot.
9. Cook the tagliatelle until al dente. Empty the entire pot of pasta into a colander. Shake out the excess water and then pour back into the pot.
10. Drizzle some olive oil, add in the pine nuts and the rest of the caramalised onions. Give them a good toss to mix well. Then, placed the baked cod on top of the tagliatelle to serve.

Voila, cette recette est tres facile a preparer! Bon Appetit!