These are a welcome variation on boring fishcakes. Dont' be tempted to use tinned fish, it won't taste the same. The drizzle sauce came about when I ran out of sweet chilli, but I think it tastes just as good. Mandarins remind me of my childhood when mum served them with cold Ambrosia custard. Well I liked it !
Preparation: 15 mins
Cooking: 10 mins
Tip: Let the mash cool before you make the patties and try not to mash the salmon into a pulp or you may as well use tinned which, in my opinion, don’t taste anywhere near as good. You can substitute the Salmon for Salmon Trout which is slightly cheaper.
Serves 4 as a starter or light lunch
Ingredients:
Patties
2 Salmon Fillets - Cooked & Cooled
2 Medium Potatoes - Cooked & Mashed
½ tsp Mixed Spice
½ tsp Turmeric
¼ tsp Crushed Root Ginger
1 Clove Garlic - Crushed
1 tsp Dried Chilli Flakes
½ Red Chilli - Seeds Removed & finely chopped
Juice ½ Lime
1 tbs Soy Sauce
Salt & Pepper
Coating
6oz Fresh Breadcrumbs [Stale bread works best]
1 Free Range Egg
Flour To coat
Oil for frying
Sweet Madarin Drizzle
½ tin Chopped Tomatoes
1 small tin of Mandarins In Syrup
2 tbs Red Wine Vinegar
1 tsp Soy Sauce
1 tsp Mixed Spice
½ tsp Pepper Sauce
Method:
Flake the salmon and remove any remaining bones, through into a bowl with all the other pattie ingredients. Ensuring your hands are damp to avoid stickiness, mould them into patties about the size of a small burger. Dip them first in the flour, then egg and finally the breadcrumbs.
Pre-heat the oil in a pan and gently fry until golden on both sides. Remember the salmon is already cooked so don’t overdo it.
For the sauce, gently bring all the ingredients to the boil in a saucepan and then simmer to reduce until the mandarins break down a little and the sauce thickens.
And Finally..
Well it’s not called drizzle for nothing. Drizzle the sauce over the patties and serve on a bed of rocket and spinach leaves as a starter or light lunch.
ENJOY !
tasteof-mylife.blogspot.com
Sunday, 23 March 2008
Minted Minced Lamb with Cream Cheese Mash
This is a delicious alternative to Shepperd's Pie and the addition of mint really lifts the flavour. My kids loved it.
Preparation: 15 mins
Cooking time: 35 mins
Tip: Actually I'm stealing a tip from Anthony Worral Thompson. Shop bought mince is made from a cheap cut of meat so it needs longer to tenderise so after you've cooked on the hob, put the pan in the oven on a low to medium heat for, say 30 mins, ensuring it doesn't dry out. The mince tastes so much better for it.
Remember: I used butter in my mash but I don’t see why you couldn’t substitute for another low fat cooking spread. Make sure you warm the milk for the mash first.
Ingredients:
250g Lean Lamb Mince (I used Supermarket brand, but if you can afford it, go to the Butcher and get the proper stuff).
1lb of Potatoes
2 Carrots, washed and peeled.
3oz of Butternut Squash, peeled (or the same amount as the carrot once cubed)
3 Baby leeks, washed.
3 Tbsp Soft Cream Cheese
2 Tbsp Worcester Sauce
1 Tbsp of Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp Gravy Granules
1 Tbsp Concentrated Tomato Puree (or double up on regular)
3 tsp of Garden Mint Sauce (I used Tesco’s)
Milk & Butter for the Mash
Salt & Pepper
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 120/gas 4. (low)
Dice the carrot & squash & finely chop the leeks. Peel potatoes and put onto boil.
Heat oil in an ovenproof frying pan, throw in the mince to brown on a medium heat along with the carrot, squash and leeks.
Once mince is browned off, mix in the water and when it’s hot enough, add gravy granules, puree, soy and Worcester. Reduce the heat and continue to cook for another 10 mins. Add more water if necessary.
Put pan of mince in the oven for around 30 mins to tenderise, keep adding water and don’t let it dry out.
Strain potatoes and mash. Add warm milk, butter, cream cheese and salt and pepper to taste.
And Finally..
Take the mince from the oven and serve with the delicious mash and some tender purple sprouting broccoli.
Enjoy !
tasteof-mylife.blogspot.com
Preparation: 15 mins
Cooking time: 35 mins
Tip: Actually I'm stealing a tip from Anthony Worral Thompson. Shop bought mince is made from a cheap cut of meat so it needs longer to tenderise so after you've cooked on the hob, put the pan in the oven on a low to medium heat for, say 30 mins, ensuring it doesn't dry out. The mince tastes so much better for it.
Remember: I used butter in my mash but I don’t see why you couldn’t substitute for another low fat cooking spread. Make sure you warm the milk for the mash first.
Ingredients:
250g Lean Lamb Mince (I used Supermarket brand, but if you can afford it, go to the Butcher and get the proper stuff).
1lb of Potatoes
2 Carrots, washed and peeled.
3oz of Butternut Squash, peeled (or the same amount as the carrot once cubed)
3 Baby leeks, washed.
3 Tbsp Soft Cream Cheese
2 Tbsp Worcester Sauce
1 Tbsp of Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp Gravy Granules
1 Tbsp Concentrated Tomato Puree (or double up on regular)
3 tsp of Garden Mint Sauce (I used Tesco’s)
Milk & Butter for the Mash
Salt & Pepper
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 120/gas 4. (low)
Dice the carrot & squash & finely chop the leeks. Peel potatoes and put onto boil.
Heat oil in an ovenproof frying pan, throw in the mince to brown on a medium heat along with the carrot, squash and leeks.
Once mince is browned off, mix in the water and when it’s hot enough, add gravy granules, puree, soy and Worcester. Reduce the heat and continue to cook for another 10 mins. Add more water if necessary.
Put pan of mince in the oven for around 30 mins to tenderise, keep adding water and don’t let it dry out.
Strain potatoes and mash. Add warm milk, butter, cream cheese and salt and pepper to taste.
And Finally..
Take the mince from the oven and serve with the delicious mash and some tender purple sprouting broccoli.
Enjoy !
tasteof-mylife.blogspot.com
Friday, 21 March 2008
Delia, The Return
Fear not dearest Nigella. Delia will definitely NOT be overtaking you in the express cooking stakes.
I must say that I was sadly disappointed with Delia’s comeback on TV and it seems I’m not alone when I say I feel Delia should probably retire and stick to football, which has obviously overtaken her food obsession since we last saw her in the kitchen.
Gone is the plum in her mouth, and the condescending tone, but both at a price (I was never a great fan of her TV persona). Us busy people should now be cooking with tinned mince, and frozen mash potato, which I never even knew existed until Monday. Even my cat wouldn’t eat it if his young life depended on it (and he eats most things). Peeling a potato, it would seem, has ever been so easy. Our children never need know what that small brown jewel of the soil either looks, or tastes like, thanks to our once great Delia. Never mind, that she used enough of the tiny frozen demons to plaster a wall, there was no mention of how much they would cost the oh-so-busy wannabe fake cook.
My tip: Give up the job, lose the salary and actually prepare it yourself. I bet you’d still have enough money left over for a curry!
Every meal she prepared in the first episode contained her new found friend. Fish bake, shepherd’s pie and, the once ‘queen’ of the cooking world, even managed to bung a couple in a soup, make bread AND a cake out of the gruesome stuff! I think if she’d had more time, she would have even bathed in the stuff advertising its health benefits!
The only thing worse than the mash portions was the unconvincingly, groveling support of Nigel Slater. Was he given shares in NC to appear? I wonder.
I do think our dear 'D' has somewhat lost the plot. We have been exposed to so much over the last few years on sourcing and cooking good food. Most importantly on knowing where our food comes from or how it's made. Once she was an inspiration to us all. She boasted that fresh was best and we believed her. Recently, the likes of Hugh and Jamie have opened up a whole new world. OK, the fact processed meat was full of crap and it's actually killing us has been shoved down our throats until we finally get the point but we can't turn back now. THESE are the chefs that got ME in the kitchen to try and cook a healthier diet for my family and THESE are the mentors who got me trying, and mostly failing, to grow my own.
It happens that I now enjoy being in the kitchen, when once it was a chore. Busy or not, we need to emphasis the importance of what we put in our mouths, not play it down because we're too busy with the rat race. We got back to basics, we can't start cutting corners again.
I thought the days of Mash get smash were dead and buried!
Ask yourself - Are you really too busy to peel a potato?
Fortunately for Delia, and her publishers, she is a top-selling brand and any book by her will fly to the top of the bestseller list. She has a diehard, albeit in my opinion, sight challenged fan base, who as I type are burning my posts and recipes. One loyal member posted, ‘If you don’t want to use tinned mince, use fresh’ and ‘you can always substitute this ingredient for that ingredient’. Err…hello??! What’s the point in buying the book then!
Incidentally, the site was advertising McD’s on its homepage until I eloquently pointed it out to the Editor who replied in its defence by saying the ads are run by an outside agency, over which they have no control. She added ‘no ads, no site. It’s that simple’. Much like Delia’s latest quest to wow us with her, once inspirational recipes, I fear her site, like her has well and truly sold out.
Remarkably though, the MacD's ad later disappeared.
We can but hope that other TV chefs won’t all trade the humble potato for the Pound and jump on the Delia gravy train!
Let’s face it, had anyone else come up with such a farce of a cook book, would we, or I, even be giving it lip service!
Tasteof-mylife.blogspot.com
I must say that I was sadly disappointed with Delia’s comeback on TV and it seems I’m not alone when I say I feel Delia should probably retire and stick to football, which has obviously overtaken her food obsession since we last saw her in the kitchen.
Gone is the plum in her mouth, and the condescending tone, but both at a price (I was never a great fan of her TV persona). Us busy people should now be cooking with tinned mince, and frozen mash potato, which I never even knew existed until Monday. Even my cat wouldn’t eat it if his young life depended on it (and he eats most things). Peeling a potato, it would seem, has ever been so easy. Our children never need know what that small brown jewel of the soil either looks, or tastes like, thanks to our once great Delia. Never mind, that she used enough of the tiny frozen demons to plaster a wall, there was no mention of how much they would cost the oh-so-busy wannabe fake cook.
My tip: Give up the job, lose the salary and actually prepare it yourself. I bet you’d still have enough money left over for a curry!
Every meal she prepared in the first episode contained her new found friend. Fish bake, shepherd’s pie and, the once ‘queen’ of the cooking world, even managed to bung a couple in a soup, make bread AND a cake out of the gruesome stuff! I think if she’d had more time, she would have even bathed in the stuff advertising its health benefits!
The only thing worse than the mash portions was the unconvincingly, groveling support of Nigel Slater. Was he given shares in NC to appear? I wonder.
I do think our dear 'D' has somewhat lost the plot. We have been exposed to so much over the last few years on sourcing and cooking good food. Most importantly on knowing where our food comes from or how it's made. Once she was an inspiration to us all. She boasted that fresh was best and we believed her. Recently, the likes of Hugh and Jamie have opened up a whole new world. OK, the fact processed meat was full of crap and it's actually killing us has been shoved down our throats until we finally get the point but we can't turn back now. THESE are the chefs that got ME in the kitchen to try and cook a healthier diet for my family and THESE are the mentors who got me trying, and mostly failing, to grow my own.
It happens that I now enjoy being in the kitchen, when once it was a chore. Busy or not, we need to emphasis the importance of what we put in our mouths, not play it down because we're too busy with the rat race. We got back to basics, we can't start cutting corners again.
I thought the days of Mash get smash were dead and buried!
Ask yourself - Are you really too busy to peel a potato?
Fortunately for Delia, and her publishers, she is a top-selling brand and any book by her will fly to the top of the bestseller list. She has a diehard, albeit in my opinion, sight challenged fan base, who as I type are burning my posts and recipes. One loyal member posted, ‘If you don’t want to use tinned mince, use fresh’ and ‘you can always substitute this ingredient for that ingredient’. Err…hello??! What’s the point in buying the book then!
Incidentally, the site was advertising McD’s on its homepage until I eloquently pointed it out to the Editor who replied in its defence by saying the ads are run by an outside agency, over which they have no control. She added ‘no ads, no site. It’s that simple’. Much like Delia’s latest quest to wow us with her, once inspirational recipes, I fear her site, like her has well and truly sold out.
Remarkably though, the MacD's ad later disappeared.
We can but hope that other TV chefs won’t all trade the humble potato for the Pound and jump on the Delia gravy train!
Let’s face it, had anyone else come up with such a farce of a cook book, would we, or I, even be giving it lip service!
Tasteof-mylife.blogspot.com
Fishing v Cooking Part I
I have come to the conclusion that my husband and I are obsessive, or should I say we both have an obsession for one thing. Unfortunately his is catching fish and mine cooking them and our paths cross somewhere in the middle. Alas, life would be harmonious if the fish he caught, I COULD actually cook, but sadly not. Aside from the legalities and dare I say, not being from Eastern Europe, the thought of stuffing and baking one of the specimens from the Grand Union doesn’t really appeal as it would probably kill us !
We often fight for space in the kitchen to prepare delicious morsals, me for the kids, and him for his precious fish ! Our passion for ingredients match our enthusiasm in preparing and experimenting with different flavours. HIS latest thing is making his own boilies (for those not in the know, these are little bait balls you stick on the end of a hook)! My cupboards are crammed full of spices which I often find half emptied due to his desire to come up with the next greatest fish-catching flavour of the year. I should thank him really as his need for a blender to grind up the cat biscuits (don’t ask!), peanuts and anything else that will blunt the blade, I gave him my cheap one and bought a new Kenwood ! The fact that he has ribbed me for a month that I haven’t actually used it yet in order to justify 120.00 purchase price is neither here nor there.
I have, however, been able to help him with my almost vast knowledge of ingredients, for his attempts at preparing his homemade bait. He often asks me ‘what can I stick in this to make it sweeter?’ or, ‘If I blend this with this, what will it taste like?’
Fortunately for my children, I don’t need his advice for my own compulsion. ‘Which brand of cat biscuits shall I put in their lunch box today ?’ or, ‘What colour maggots should I stick in the beef stew tonight dear ?’ are not usually questions that pop into my head.
So, today, after returning from a 24 fishorama at a local lake, windswept, cold, wet and hungry, I have to ask him the inevitable question ‘What’s the point? You could have stayed home, eaten salmon and got a decent night’s sleep?’. I guess the answer to that is simple. For the same reason I purchase 3 or 4 cooking magazines a month, record, and watch every single episode of Saturday Kitchen, Something for the weekend, Nigella or Masterchef, and, subsequently scour the shops for my all important ingredients. It’s an obsession, a compulsion, an overwhelming need to prove to oneself (and anyone else who’ll listen) that you could actually be GOOD at something.
My desire to cook, and his desire to fish may be miles apart, but one things for sure, the Garam Massala is ABSOLUTELY, DEFINITELY MINE !!
For those of you who ARE more interested in catching fish than eating them, please check out my husband's blog, yes about fishing at andywhapham.blogspot.com
tasteof-mylife.blogspot.com
We often fight for space in the kitchen to prepare delicious morsals, me for the kids, and him for his precious fish ! Our passion for ingredients match our enthusiasm in preparing and experimenting with different flavours. HIS latest thing is making his own boilies (for those not in the know, these are little bait balls you stick on the end of a hook)! My cupboards are crammed full of spices which I often find half emptied due to his desire to come up with the next greatest fish-catching flavour of the year. I should thank him really as his need for a blender to grind up the cat biscuits (don’t ask!), peanuts and anything else that will blunt the blade, I gave him my cheap one and bought a new Kenwood ! The fact that he has ribbed me for a month that I haven’t actually used it yet in order to justify 120.00 purchase price is neither here nor there.
I have, however, been able to help him with my almost vast knowledge of ingredients, for his attempts at preparing his homemade bait. He often asks me ‘what can I stick in this to make it sweeter?’ or, ‘If I blend this with this, what will it taste like?’
Fortunately for my children, I don’t need his advice for my own compulsion. ‘Which brand of cat biscuits shall I put in their lunch box today ?’ or, ‘What colour maggots should I stick in the beef stew tonight dear ?’ are not usually questions that pop into my head.
So, today, after returning from a 24 fishorama at a local lake, windswept, cold, wet and hungry, I have to ask him the inevitable question ‘What’s the point? You could have stayed home, eaten salmon and got a decent night’s sleep?’. I guess the answer to that is simple. For the same reason I purchase 3 or 4 cooking magazines a month, record, and watch every single episode of Saturday Kitchen, Something for the weekend, Nigella or Masterchef, and, subsequently scour the shops for my all important ingredients. It’s an obsession, a compulsion, an overwhelming need to prove to oneself (and anyone else who’ll listen) that you could actually be GOOD at something.
My desire to cook, and his desire to fish may be miles apart, but one things for sure, the Garam Massala is ABSOLUTELY, DEFINITELY MINE !!
For those of you who ARE more interested in catching fish than eating them, please check out my husband's blog, yes about fishing at andywhapham.blogspot.com
tasteof-mylife.blogspot.com
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