Tunisian Cod in Tomato, Olive and Caper Sauce

I have a great fish recipe to share with you today.  The original inspiration and photo came from I'm Counting UFOS. 

Here is my adapted version of the recipe:

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 large onion, diced

1 400 gram can of diced tomatoes (just the normal size can in US sizes)

2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

black olives to taste, quartered, I used about 10 olives

capers to taste, I used about 3 heaping tablespoons

2 Tablespoons Harissa paste

500 grams (1 pound) frozen cod fillets

In a large non-stick frying pan, sauté the onion in the olive oil until lightly browned and then add the tomatoes, vinegar, olives, capers and Harissa paste.  Simmer until the sauce is reduced by about half.  Add the frozen cod, cover, and continue simmering until the fish is cooked through, about 10 minutes or so.  The added water from the ice glaze on the fish will thin the sauce out so if you want it thicker you can remove the fish and reduce again.  We liked it thinner and I served it over bow tie pasta with a salad on the side.  Larry and I absolutely loved it!  This amount made two dinner and two lunch sized portions.  If you are having this on a fast day, skip the pasta and serve the fish over steamed cabbage or cauliflower.

You can buy Harissa paste in any Asian/Halal/African market.  You can also buy it on line.  If you don't like spicy foods, or can't find it, you can easily replace the Harissa with  chilli flakes, garlic, salt and black pepper to taste.

Harissa is a Tunisian spicy paste made from
red chilis, garlic, coriander and  caraway.

Friday Fish

Friday is usually beans on toast night but tonight we will be having something a little different.  Larry and I have a friend, Jackie, who will be 90 this September.  He is a wonderful man and treats Larry like a son.  The other day he came up to me and asked if I had anything planned for tea tonight (Friday) because if not, the fish man will be stopping so he is going to get some golden cutlets for us.  Golden cutlets are fillets of smoked haddock and they are Larry's absolute favourite fish.  Jackie knows this and every so often surprises him with some.  Usually I just put it under the grill and we have it on buttered toast but tonight I have decided to try something different.  I found this recipe and photo at Delia Online.  It looks quick, easy, yummy and not too unhealthy.  The only change I will make is to substitute finely chopped spring/green onion tops for the chives as that is what I have in the fridge today.  We will have it with a nice Greek Salad and some fresh bread.

Smoked Haddock with Creme Fraiche, Chive and Butter Sauce

For the salad, we will use mixed greens (from a bag), black olives, pickled yellow peppers, red onion and feta cheese.  I make my own salad dressing which we absolutely love on pretty much anything and everything!  You can easily switch out ingredients to change the flavour or to use what you have on hand.  If you want a nice emulsified dressing you need to use a blender, food processor or stick blender, if  you don't care if you have to shake the dressing before using you can just finely mince the garlic and shallot and then mix it up in a cruet.  Make this up at least a few hours before serving to allow the dried herbs to soften and the fresh garlic to mellow.  You could use all fresh garlic instead of half powder but you might find you need to add a bit of sugar if you do, to cut the sharpness of the garlic.

Greek Salad Dressing

In a blender combine until smooth(ish):

1 Teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 Teaspoon sea salt (adjust to taste)

Juice of one lemon plus enough balsamic vinegar to make 3 ounces

3 ounces red wine vinegar

2 cloves of garlic, peeled

1 shallot, peeled and cut in half

1 Teaspoon onion powder

1 Teaspoon garlic powder

1 Tablespoon dijon mustard

With the blender still running, slowly add 6 ounces of olive oil so the mixture emulsifies.  Turn the blender off and add 2 Teaspoons each of dried basil and oregano and just pulse to combine, you don't want to make them invisible.  Pour into your cruet or bottle and store in the fridge.  This dressing tastes best served at room temperature so remove from the fridge about an hour before you want to eat. This is also delicious used to marinate meat for grilling.

Thursday, Fast 10

Today is fast day 10 which should go by pretty quickly as I have a busy day planned.  Tonight we are just having a chicken stir fry for tea, with the non-dieters having Chinese noodles and me having extra veg instead. 

Yesterday's tea was a great recipe I got from my Mom.  We had chilli on Monday and the usual "planned-overs" are chilli dogs but this time I made Chilli Dog Casserole.  The recipe is here on my Mom's blog.  The recipe calls for 30 ounces of canned chilli but, like my Mom, we don't eat a lot of processed food.  So, I took the leftover chilli from Monday and, because I make it really thick, added water and tomato paste (double concentrated puree) to make it up to the right amount and to make it saucier.  My hot dogs come in a pack of ten but the wraps I used (I used a package of Indian Chapatis because they are much less expensive than tortillas here in Scotland) come in a pack of eight so I just threw the extra two hot dogs in the dish as is and then sent them with Larry for his lunch today.  I have to say this was a fabulous meal!  All four of us loved it and the boys wanted to know why I hadn't made this heaven in a dish for them before yesterday.  All I can say in my defence is, I forgot about the recipe and just recently remembered it.

Chilli Dog Casserole (photo courtesy of WeFarm)

A bit of advice for my friends who are struggling to convert recipes from Imperial to Metric or vice versa . . . invest in a good kitchen scale.  They really aren't expensive and make all the difference.  Make sure it can be switched from one form of measurement to the other and then you won't have to try and convert a recipe.  I also use this On line Conversion site.  It is difficult to work out the difference/equivalences between US and UK cups/pints/etcetera when you are as maths impaired as me so this page takes the stress off.

Walking in Sunshine

It was a beautiful day today so not only did I hang out two loads of washing but I went for a walk on the Perth Road.  It was wonderful to be out in the sun, although the wind made it a little less nice than it would have been without it.  I got some nice pictures of the River Tay. 

The Tay Rail Bridge.

If you would like to read about the Tay Bridge Disaster of 1879, go here where you can read the famous poem by William McGonagall.

The view of Fife across the river.

Tonight's tea was Salmon and Spinach Rosti from Delicious magazine with fresh French bread  Layered with spinach, onions, salmon, cream, lemon, dill and shredded potatoes, it was really nice but very rich.  

Salmon and Spinach Rosti Bake

Fast day nine

Today is fast day nine and weigh in number five.  I'm down another pound so can't complain.  I've got chilli in the crock pot for dinner tonight and I'm making corn bread to go with it.  Corn bread is one of those comfort foods that brings back  fond childhood memories of family dinner.  This week's dessert is Peanut Butter Fudge Oatmeal Bars.  I won't have any today but am looking forward to having one tomorrow!  

Yesterday I made Chocolate Muffins, using all the ingredients this time, and the boys had them this morning for breakfast.  They were declared a success.  The photo and recipe are from Channel 4 Food.  Just FYI, the recipe says it makes 10 but I got 12 muffins and I had to fill the cups to the top.

Chocolate Chunk Muffins

I also made a loaf of Cinnamon bread for the boys to have for breakfast this week.  I used this recipe from a Whisk and a Prayer.  They will have it tomorrow so I'll let you know what they think.

Photo from A Whisk and A Prayer

Corn Bread  (Makes 8 pieces at 180 calories per piece)

Preheat oven to 400F/200C

2/3 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup corn meal

3 Tablespoons sugar

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1/3 cup semi-skimmed milk

2 Tablespoons oil or melted butter

2 Tablespoons softened butter

2 Tablespoons honey

In a medium bowl combine first five ingredients and set aside.  In a small bowl combine the egg, milk and 2 Tablespoons of oil or melted butter.  Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and stir just until combined, batter will be very thick, do not over mix!  Spread into a lightly greased 8x8 baking pan. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.  While the corn bread is baking, combine the remaining 2 Tablespoons butter with the honey. After you take the pan out of the oven, use your toothpick to poke holes all over the cornbread.  Spread the combined honey and butter mixture evenly over the top of the corn bread and let it soak in.  Cut into 8 pieces and serve.

Corn bread with honey butter glaze

Peanut Butter Fudge Oatmeal Bars

Preheat oven to 350F/170C  

Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish

Crust Ingredients:

3 cups quick cooking oatmeal

2 1/2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 Tablespoon vanilla

Filling Ingredients:

14 ounce (standard size) can of sweetened condensed milk

5 ounces milk chocolate

5 ounces dark (plain) chocolate

1/3 cup peanut butter

1/2 Tablespoon vanilla

Combine first four ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and set aside.  In a large mixing bowl cream butter and brown sugar.  Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until totally combined.  Mix in the dry ingredients.  Press 2/3 of this into the baking dish.  In a small saucepan, combine the milk, the chocolate, peanut butter and the vanilla over medium heat.  Stir until the smooth.  Pour over the oatmeal layer.  Dot the chocolate layer with the remaining oatmeal mixture.  Bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until the top is golden brown.  Cool completely before cutting into bars.

Peanut Butter Fudge Oatmeal Bars

An addendum to the Peanut Butter Fudge Oatmeal Bar recipe, Connor has suggested it needs more peanut butter so next time I will use 1/2 cup and see how he likes that.

Fast day 8 and catch up from yesterday

Sunday was, by special request, meat loaf night.  So that made yesterday spaghetti bolognese night.  My sister is married to an Italian and that is a tradition she  has given to me, making spaghetti bolognese with chopped up leftover meat loaf.  I make my sauce in the crock pot/slow cooker and I let it go all day so the flat smelled delicious!  I also made some meat balls to go in the sauce and some French bread that I turned into garlic bread.  Of course, since life is never easy I had to make a white Alfredo type sauce for the boy who eats nothing that looks like it grew from the ground.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to put up, sorry about that.

Italian Style Meat Loaf

500 grams of bulk Italian sausage, hot or sweet, your choice, we use hot
500 grams lean ground beef mince
2 eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 Tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1 Tablespoon basil
1 Tablespoon oregano
2 Tablespoons dried minced onion or 1 small chopped onion
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon chilli flakes
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
salt to taste

Combine all ingredients and press into loaf pan.  Bake at 350/170 until internal temperature reaches 165f.  I almost always use a digital meat thermometer rather than time when cooking meat, but you can expect it to take about an hour.  I usually bake potatoes at the same time to go with this and we had corn, which is one of the few "vegetables" picky boy will eat.  I made peach cobbler for dessert and that made enough for the boys to have dessert every night they eat with us this week.

I can't find Italian sausage here so I make my own.  We really like it and I use it to make patties for sandwiches as well.

500 grams or 1 pound ground/minced pork
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground fennel seed
1/2 teaspoon whole fennel seed
1 1/4 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/4 teaspoon hot paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
14 - 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar

I put all the seasoning ingredients in a resealable plastic bag and mix them together well.  Then I put the pork in and seal it up and squeeze the bag around until the seasonings are evenly distributed through the meat.  I usually make this up a couple of days before needing it to make sure the flavours are well blended.  If pork is on sale you can make this in any quantity you want and freeze it in appropriate sized portions. 

I don't know if any one actually needs a recipe for meat balls but just in case . . . here is a basic recipe you can tweak to suit your family.

Italian style Meat Balls (six large meatballs at 184 calories each)

1.5 pounds/750 grams extra lean minced beef

1 egg

1/4 cup bread crumbs

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 1/2 teaspoon basil

1 1/2 teaspoon oregano

Mix gently, not too much, and then form into six large meatballs, fry in a little bit of olive oil to brown and finish cooking them off in your sauce.  I put them in the crock pot/slow cooker with my meat loaf bolognese sauce to cook all day.  

"Alfredo Sauce"  is in quotes because it tastes like Alfredo but uses much less butter and has a lot less calories.  We really like it and you can use low fat/calorie ingredients to suit your taste/diet.  Since serving size is so individual, I just use a couple of tablespoons but my son probably uses 1/2 cup I have figured the calorie count for the whole recipe.

Alfredo style sauce (1031 calories for the recipe)

3 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons plain flour
1 1/2 cups (350 ml) semi skimmed (2%) milk, more as needed
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup (50 grams) grated parmesan cheese (or more to taste)
100 grams Philadelphia cream cheese (about 3.5 ounces or so)
freshly grated black pepper to taste
a pinch of nutmeg

In a sauce pan, melt butter and add flour to make a roux.   Slowly add the milk, whisking the entire time, stir until thick.  Remove from heat and add the rest of the ingredients.  Stir until cheese is melted and sauce is smooth.  Add more milk if you decide it is too thick for your tastes.

The French Bread recipe, and the photo, came from here.  I haven't had time to search this blog properly but it looks like there are lots of great recipes.  The bread turned out wonderful and, after I cut the end off so I could make sure it wasn't poisonous  I made it into garlic bread to go with the spaghetti last night.  Every one loved it.

This post is already full of recipes so I won't post my bolognese sauce recipe.  I figure every body probably already has one they love to make or buy.  If you do want a recipe that is full of fresh veg and made in the slow cooker, let me know in the comments and I will do a later post on it.

Today is fasting day eight, and I am making a classic British dish called Toad in the Hole.  Don't ask me why it's called that, I have absolutely no idea, maybe one of my readers can enlighten us.  My recipe makes six servings, one each for Larry and I and two for each of the boys.  I will serve it up with green beans for all and left over peach cobbler for the boys.

Toad in the Hole  (six servings at 283 calories per serving)

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

6 sausages, I used Morrison's Best Pork, Smoked Bacon and Cheddar

170 grams/6 ounces plain flour

3 eggs

185 ml/6 ounces semi-skimmed (2%) milk

Brown sausages under the grill or on top of the stove.  Place oil in a (9x13) baking dish and put into a cold oven.  Turn oven on to 400f/200c.  While the oven and dish is pre-heating, make the batter.  Either use a blender or a stick blender to mix flour, milk and egg until smooth.  Remove the hot pan from the oven, put the sausages in the bottom and pour the batter over them.  Bake about 35 minutes or until the centre is puffy and browned.  Don't be worried if the batter falls a bit after you take it out of the oven, it is supposed to do that.

Toad in the Hole

Smoked Haddock Wellington

My original plan for dinner was to make a recipe for Hot Smoked Salmon Wellington but smoked haddock was on sale so I decided to use that and make my own recipe.  I've used frozen spinach, leeks, garlic and onions for the filling and I found some light puff pastry at Tesco.  I'm, going to come right out and admit this is not a very low calorie meal.  However, served with a fresh salad it is a nice treat.  We really did enjoy it.  Next time, however, I will make the salads smaller because we were both uncomfortably full after eating.  It never looks like much until you start eating!

Smoked Haddock Wellington  makes 2 servings at 475 calories per serving

200 grams frozen chopped spinach leaves, thawed, squeeze as much water out as possible

1 small white onion diced

1 small leek, cleaned and chopped fine

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 Tablespoons olive oil

Salt and Pepper to taste, we don't use salt and I also added some chilli pepper flakes, about 1/8 teaspoon, which gave it a nice kick.

2 pieces of smoked haddock, my package equalled 222 grams

1/3 package light, ready rolled puff pastry, cut into two.  You can package and freeze the rest for later use.

1 egg, lightly beaten (the calorie count includes half the egg as it is only used as a wash)

Heat the olive oil in a non-stick pan, sauté the onion and leek until soft, add the spinach and garlic and continue cooking until the spinach is dry, adding salt and pepper to taste.  Remove from heat and let cool. Use parchment/greaseproof paper to line a baking tray, spray or brush with a little oil to prevent sticking. Put the two pieces of puff pastry on the prepared paper.  Using a sharp knife slice the fish pieces in two as in the picture below. Place the fish on the pastry, as shown.   Put the spinach on the bottom piece of fish and place the top back on.  Bring the puff pastry up around it to make a nice case.  I left a vent in the middle but you could could cut a design into it or lattice it, whatever you prefer.  You can make prettier parcels by using bigger pieces of puff pastry but as there are millions of calories in puff pastry I used the smallest amount that would cover the fish.  At this point I put the parcels into a plastic bag and then into the fridge because we don't eat until 8:00.  

Slice the fish in half like bread.

Divide the spinach mix evenly between the two pieces of fish, put the tops back on.

Bring the pastry up around the fish to make parcels.  Leave or cut vents to let the steam escape.

Brush with the beaten egg before placing into a preheated (200/400/gas mark 7) oven. Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until nicely browned and fish is done.  

Served with a tomato and fresh mozzarella salad.