The Great Cookery Adventure

Thursday, 18 April 2013

Roasted Sea Bass with sumac and za’atar

Hi everyone sorry I haven’t posted anything in a while. This is a slightly different take on my last whole roasted fish recipe but the basic principles and sentiments about eating whole fish and buying it remain the same.Whole roasted or grilled fish is just about my favourite kind of meal. For me it tastes like summer holidays. Its not that it is difficult to make, in fact it is super easy, but it is still a treat. This can be made with sea bass or bream. Versions of this recipe can be seen in most Middle-Eastern cookbooks, and it really is brilliant. Tahini and pomegranate may seem like odd accompaniments if you haven’t tried it before – but believe me, once you try it you will never want to eat fish any other way again.

Buying fish has become a lot harder lately, but there are some handy websites that you can use to ensure that the fish you are buying has been sustainably sourced. This heightened need for sustainability has led to better labelling of fish and seafood which is a good thing, and most fishmongers should be able to answer all of your questions about where the fish is from – if they can’t, don’t buy from them. Sea bass farmed in the UK is rated ‘1’ according to the Good Fish Guide, associated with the most sustainably produced seafood. Sea bream, which is a good alternative for this dish, can also be bought from sustainable sources.

In my last post I wrote some advice about buying whole fish, and that advice still stands, I just need to add a little specific to sea bass. Sea Bass have a series of very sharp spikes along their dorsal fins. These spikes will contain anaerobic bacteria – bacteria that doesn’t need oxygen to breathe – and will therefore be much more likely to cause a nasty infection if you stab yourself with one of these spikes. This happened to my mum once – her hand pretty much turned green and she had to get antibiotics from the doctor. So when you are buying them, make sure to ask the fishmonger to cut all of the spikes off for you. Even if buying from a wet fish counter in a supermarket from the confused teenager behind the counter – you have to insist on this. This happened to me once and they called their supervisor over who said ‘of course we should do this’ and then taught said confused young person how to properly trim the fish. If buying the fish pre-packaged (ie from Costco) put some rubber gloves on when you take the fish out of the packet and cut them off yourself before you cook it.

This is not a dish for making earlier and keeping warm – you do not want to cook the fish for any longer than it needs, so make sure that everything else you are planning on making for the meal is ready when the fish is done.

Ingredients:

Whole Seas bass – some are small and so 1 per person, others are larger and can feed more. Sometimes I roast a whole load and put them on a platter for a larger group of people. In those kind of situations, people tend to take a little less and so it can stretch further. You can also use Sea Bream.

1 tsp. Sumac

1 tsp. Za’atar

1 tbsp. Olive oil

Pinch salt – Maldon sea salt if you have it.

To serve:

Tahini sauce (made with olive oil and lemon juice, see recipe here)

Fresh parsley, well washed and finely chopped

Pomegranate molasses

Pine nuts, toasted in a dry pan until golden brown and fragrant

Fresh pomegranate seeds (if you have them)

Use an oven tray with risen edges, so that the juices don’t spill out into the oven – I tend to put foil on the tray too.

Preheat the oven to 200 if using smaller fish, 180 is using larger fish.

Give the fish a rinse under the tap and check that the middle section has been properly cleaned through – you may have to pull out a few little veiny things. Using a sharp knife, carefully make 3 -4 slashes on both sides of the fish, being careful not to cut through the bone (or slice off a finger).

In a bowl, mix the olive oil with the sumac and za’atar. Put the fish on the tray, coat generously with the spiced oil and sprinkle with salt. Make sure that a little goes into the cuts you have made in the sides of the fish. When using small fish I tend not to flip them during cooking and so only put the seasonings on the top. If using a bigger fish, put the seasonings on both sides. If using a small fish roast for 15 minutes – bigger ones will need around 25, flipping halfway during cooking. Don’t overcook!

Toast the pine nuts and make up the tahini sauce while the fish is cooking, and mix in the chopped parsley. Pour the parsley tahini sauce into a serving dish and top with a little pomegranate molasses and the pine nuts.

Many recipes recommend dressing the whole fish with the tahini and pomegranate seeds, but this doesn’t really work for me. The tahini sauce can cancel out the crispness of the skin on the fish, and the coverings make it much harder to identify any stray bones. I would recommend serving the tahini sauce on the side, with the pomegranate seeds in another bowl for people to help themselves to. Whatever you do, please don’t cut the head off the fish before serving – its just not right.

Sunday, 17 March 2013

Fried butterbeans with feta, sorrel and sumac

This recipe is adapted from ‘Plenty’, the excellent vegetarian book by Yotam Ottolenghi. Sorrel is a little like lemony spinach, and if you can’t get hold of it, just use spinach and add a little more lemon.

Sorrel is a traditional ingredient in some Eastern Jewish recipes, most notably a soup known as Schav. I thought this recipe was interesting in a fusion kind of way in that respect. I have never really liked butterbeans, but the recipe had sumac in it, and therefore was probably right up my street. And it was delicious - it turns out that I just don’t like butterbeans in cholent.

This salad was filling and fresh tasting. The creaminess of the butterbeans, with the lemon and salty feta was a really fantastic combination.

Serves 2

1 can butterbeans, drained and rinsed

Olive oil

3-4 spring onions, sliced lengthways into strips

1 garlic clove, crushed

100g sorrel, washed and cut into 2cm strips, with some reserved and sliced finely for garnish

1 tbsp lemon juice (add more or less depending on how much sorrel you have, or how lemony you like it)

50-80g feta, cubed/crumbled

2 tsp sumac

Handful chopped fresh parsley

salt and freshly ground black pepper

You will probably need to fry the beans in two batches.

Fry the beans in a little olive oil on a medium-high heat until golden brown and blistered.

When cooking the final batch, when the beans are almost done, add the spring onions, sorrel and garlic, and fry for about a minute.

Take the pan off the heat and mix together the beans from both batches, and season lightly with salt and pepper (remember that the feta you will add later is salty). Cool down to room temperature.

When cooled, drizzle over the lemon juice, and scatter with the feta, extra sorrel, parsley and sumac.

Some of the butterbeans will burst a little, but don't worry about it - its tasty!

Wednesday, 13 March 2013

Humous, my way

Most people have their way of making humous – here is mine.

Humous is one of my staples. I really can’t live without it. During Passover when I can’t have it (because I am of Ashkenazi origin), I really suffer. If I marry a Sephardic Jew (presumably a male one) I will be able to eat chickpeas over Passover – it is problematic because I have always said that I don’t need to marry in order to be happy, but chickpeas might actually be the exception to the rule. Seriously, who needs equality and a strong individual identity when you can have humous for an extra week every year?

I started making my own when I was in university because it was cheaper, and I still do because it is so much tastier. I like it thick and lemony, with a little garlic and spices, with marinated chickpeas on the top for variation of texture, fun, and to make it look super impressive. The only drawback to making your own over shop-bought is that home-made humous only lasts for a few days – although in my mind, by highlighting all of the preservatives in the shop bought varieties, it makes me want to eat them even less.

The quantities given below are enough for a mezze of 10 people. See my new mezze label for more recipes.

For the humous:

2.5 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed (pick through the drained chickpeas and squeeze off as many of their rubbery skins as you can bare. This is time-consuming, but trust me, it makes for a far better humous. I tend to set a time-limit for this, e.g. as many as I can pick off in 15 minutes.)

3 tbsp. runny tahini sauce (made fresh from tahini paste, see method here – I always have some on the go for making humous, baba ganoush, eating with a spoon, and drizzling over roasted fish, aubergines, butternut squash, or whatever else that takes my fancy)
2-3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon, more or less depending on your tastes
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed (depending on tastes or social plans - if the cloves are big I tend to use one and a half)
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
salt to taste

For the marinated chickpeas:

Half a can of chickpeas

1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. smoked paprika (or more according to your preferences)
1 tsp. sumac
1 tsp. za’atar
salt to taste

Make the marinated chickpeas in advance if possible, or at least before you start making the rest of the humous. Just put everything in a bowl and mix well.

After the skins are removed place the chickpeas in a large bowl with the other ingredients and blend with a hand-blender until smooth. Using a hand-blender as opposed to a food processor will give you greater control over the consistency of the humous – you want it to be smooth, but not blended into oblivion. You may want to add a little water to create a smoother dip – I like mine almost cementy. Season with salt and taste, adjusting the lemon and spice levels according to your preferences.

Serve with the marinated chickpeas on top of the humous (make a little well in the centre of the dish) and drizzle with a little extra olive oil and za’atar.

So that's how I make my humous - how do you make yours? Please leave me a comment if you have any recommendations for interesting combinations or additions

*breaking news* see my chocolate hazelnut macaroon recipe for Kosher Kingdom here

Get your early-bird Gefiltefest tickets here

Saturday, 9 March 2013

Tabouleh with Apricots

Tabouleh is one of my favourite salads, and it has been for as long as I can remember. For me, it is magic salad. A friend recently asked on facebook: ‘what food when you eat it today takes you back to your childhood?’ My immediate response was Spaghetti Hoops, but actually, it is tabouleh, known to my childhood self as ‘magic salad.’ When you are little, I guess absorption is a bit hard to comprehend. Even though I now understand that the water covering the bulgur wheat doesn’t magically disappear, the associations of excitement and wonder remain.

As they say in Jerusalem, ‘If you want to find a good husband, you’d better learn how to chop your parsley properly.’

Tabouleh is all about the parsley. I cook with a lot of parsley, obviously I am just trying to perfect the chopping method. Traditionally tabouleh is mostly herbs with a little bulgur wheat, but my recipe is more similar to my mother’s, which uses a higher ratio of bulgur wheat. This makes the salad a little more substantial and a little less time-consuming (the herbs take ages to pick and shred properly). Also like my mother and unlike the Ottolenghi/ Tamimi recipe, I don’t put any spices in the tabouleh. I use spices in most of my cooking, so it is nice to have a side salad that is really fresh-tasting, to balance with the rest of the meal.

Dried apricot and spring onion tabouleh, serves 6 - 8

Ingredients:

150g bulgur wheat

1-2 cloves of garlic (depending on your social plans for the rest of the day), crushed

Big punch of fresh parsley, about 100 - 150g, leaves picked and chopped (a little stalk is fine)

Fresh mint, about half a small pack 15 – 20g, leaves picked and chopped

3-4 spring onions, finely sliced (greens as well as white)

handful of dried apricots, diced (I buy these ready-diced. It costs the same and they are coated in a little rice flour so that they don’t stick to anything)

2 – 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

juice of half a lemon, more if you want

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the bulgur wheat in a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water as if you were making couscous. Leave for about 10 minutes until most of the water is absorbed and the bulgur wheat is cooked but still al dente. Drain off the excess water and while the bulgur wheat is still warm, add the garlic and olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Mix in the other ingredients – adding extra lemon juice and olive oil if you want to. Tabouleh gets better over time, and I normally leave it for a day before digging in.

Variations:

Cucumber and tomato (finely diced)

Pomegranate, red onion and crispy fried shallots

Jerusalem Artichoke Gratin with Thyme

This is another recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s excellent vegetarian cookbook Veg Everyday! 515 five star reviews on Amazon can’t be wrong.

‘Sunday mornings’ are a relatively new concept to me (it used to be that they were slept through), and they are becoming my favourite thing. Every few months or so, I meet up with some friends very early on a Sunday morning and we walk down to Queens Park for an enormous breakfast and a visit to Queens Park Farmers' Market. The market is fantastic, a great source for interesting and excellent quality vegetables, artisan cheese and baked things, fresh fish and meat. Best of all though, is being able to talk to the suppliers about their produce.

The London Farmers’ Market website is great for telling you where you local market is. It handily tells you what is in season too. Currently it is Rhubarb, purple-sprouting broccoli, and Jerusalem artichokes. Have a look at their excellent SayNay campaign, in response to latest foodie scandals – urging people to eat traceable meat from trusted suppliers. While I haven’t bought any of the meat at the farmers' market as it isn’t kosher, the meat stalls always intrigue me – even I, of little experience with cooking meat could see how brilliant it looked.

At my most recent visit to Queens Park Farmers’ Market, I got a little carried away - I bought apple and pear juice, fresh goat’s cheese rolled in a lemon-pepper crumb, sorrel (recipe coming soon), and a big bag of Jerusalem Artichokes. I love Jerusalem artichokes – they can be pretty hard to find but as they are in season now all of the growers at the market seemed to have them. They taste like globe artichoke hearts but look more like a knobbly potato. I have had them before roasted (quite good) and in soups (totally amazing), but this time I wanted to try something different. And who can resist a gratin? This was really delicious, and very straightforward to make. To be honest, the only tricky thing is peeling the artichokes without hacking off too much of the vegetable. Be warned – this dish is incredibly rich, even after I omitted all of the butter. Whatever you do, and however much you want to, don’t have seconds, trust me – you will regret it.

You will need a large frying pan with a lid that can also go under the grill.

Serves 4

1 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, sliced not too thin

500g Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and cut into roughly 3mm slices

About a handful of thyme – leaves only

100ml water

2-4 tbsp crème fraîche (depending on how rich/creamy you want it)

A handful of grated cheddar or other well-flavoured melting cheese, to sprinkle on the top

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat, add the onion and lightly fry for about 10 minutes, until soft and beginning to colour.

Add the artichokes, thyme and the water, season and when it begins to bubble, cover the pan and turn the heat down low. Let the artichokes simmer for about 20 minutes until they are tender, stirring occasionally and adding a little more water if needed. [Pre-heat the grill when there is about five minutes left on this time]. Remove the lid and turn the heat up, simmering for a few minutes more if necessary to reduce the liquid to a thick glaze.

Taste the artichokes and adjust the seasoning if needed. Stir through the crème fraîche, scatter with cheese and grill for a few minutes until the gratin is bubbling. Luxury.

I served this with a filet of salmon, baked in a parcel of foil with some halved cherry tomatoes and few anchovy fillets draped over the top.

Monday, 18 February 2013

Sichuan fried potatoes with ginger and chilli

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! I saw this recipe on ‘Exploring China: a Culinary Adventure’, an excellent and very interesting TV show that was on a few months ago with Ken Hom and Ching-He Huang. The majority of the food we think of as ‘Chinese’ is actually just from one province (Guangdong), and the food from the other provinces is all really different. Sichuan province is in Southwest China, and mainly very damp and cold (sounds familiar). As the weather is so miserable, their cuisine is packed full of chilli and Sichuan pepper, to keep them warm. So of course, Sichuan pepper was something I needed to investigate. And luckily, my superpower of ‘dork’ came to the rescue.

I love organising things. I have always been the kind of person to alphabetise their bookshelf, and my DVDs are organised by genre, and then director. Sometimes, like the guy in ‘High Fidelity’ I re-arrange everything on my bookshelves as an enjoyable way to spend an evening. So when my amazing flatmate Claude said that I could organise her/our spice cupboard, I was over the moon. It was like a treasure trove. When I found Sichuan peppercorns I was so excited, because it meant that I could make this recipe.

The spice cupboard, organised

Sichuan pepper (花椒) also known as ‘flower pepper’ is not closely related to either black pepper or chilli pepper – it is part of the rue or citrus family. It has a unique aroma and flavour that is not hot or pungent like peppercorns or chili peppers. Instead, it has slight lemony overtones and creates a tingly numbness in the mouth (caused by its 3% of hydroxy alpha sanshool). The tingly numbness has been described as being a little like the sensation of drinking a fizzy drink, or licking the top of a battery (I am told that people who grew up with older brothers will know what this feels like). If you aren’t lucky enough to live with a Claudie, you can buy Sichuan flower pepper at The Spice Shop – either online, or at their stores in Notting Hill or Brighton (they also make excellent spice blends).

*update* I just found Sichuan peppercorns in my local suparmarket - Schwartz brand I think.

This is a really interesting recipe – I don’t think I had ever eaten Chinese-style potato before. The pickled ginger gave it a really interesting zing, and the Sichuan pepper was just incredible – making the whole dish really delicious and totally different from anything I had ever eaten before. Although the potatoes were definitely cooked, they were much more ‘al dente’ than I am used to potatoes being. The next day however, I put them back in the wok with a little soy and more pak choi, with a fried egg. And it was completely heavenly.

Serves about 4. It is best served as part of a Chinese feast with many other dishes.

Ingredients

450g/1lb potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced (the recipe doesn’t specify, but I used salad potatoes, thinking that floury spuds would just disintegrate and burn at the bottom of the wok)

1 tbsp groundnut or vegetable oil

3 tbsp coarsely chopped garlic

2 tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger

2 tbsp finely chopped pickled ginger

1 - 2 de-seeded and finely chopped fresh red chillies (to your preference, but the dish is supposed to be spicy)

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine (or dry sherry or sake)

1 tsp chilli oil – use more if you want to be more authentic

1 head of pak choi, stalks and leaves separated (optional)

1½ tsp roasted and ground Sichuan peppercorns

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Stack the potato slices and cut them into matchsticks. Soak them in a bowl of cold water with a teaspoon of salt for five minutes, then drain thoroughly and dry with kitchen paper or a tea towel.

Heat a wok or large frying pan over high heat until it is hot. Add the groundnut/ vegetable oil, and when it is very hot and slightly smoking, add the garlic, gingers and chillies, and stir-fry for about 30 seconds. Season with salt and pepper, then add the potatoes (and pak choi stalks if using) and gently stir-fry for a minute or two until they are well coated with the spices and flavourings.

Add the sugar and rice wine and continue to stir-fry gently over a high heat for five minutes, or until most of the water has evaporated and the potatoes are cooked. Add the pak choi leaves when this is mostly done. When the potatoes are cooked, add the chilli oil, sprinkle on the peppercorns and serve at once.