Monday 22 April 2013

Roasted Sea Bass with Chorizo, Red Onion & Cherry Tomatoes


Had a little trip to see Gordon the Fishmonger on Saturday morning and he tempted me with some glorious fresh sea bass, I chose two that were not too big, not too small just perfect for serving one each.  Once home I trawled my cook books for a suitable recipe, I vaguely remembered trying one years ago served with honey and onions, but could not find it.  Thinking it may be a James Martin recipe I hit up Google and came across THIS recipe which made me forget all about my original search. 

We had it last night (with a bottle of wine, so excuse the poor photo!) It was so very tasty, a recipe that really lets every single ingredient shine through.  Will definitely be cooking this one again.  I have tinkered with the quantities to suit myself.

Roasted Sea Bass with Chorizo, Red Onion and Cherry Tomatoes
Serves 2

2 tsp oil
1 large red onion, rough chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
100g cooking chorizo, chunky chopped
50g black olives, without stones
12 cherry tomatoes
bunch fresh thyme
2 medium sea bass, descaled and gutted.
glug of olive oil.

Heat the oven to 190oc

Heat the 2 tsp oil in a frying pan, and add the onion, garlic and chorizo.  Fry for 5 minutes until onions soft and the oil for the chorizo renders out.  Add 2-3 sprigs of thyme, roughly chopped, olives and tomatoes. cook for a couple of mins and then transfer into a ovenproof dish.

Take the sea bass and slash the skin in three places along the body of the fish on both sides, stuff with more sprigs of thyme, season well with S&P then lay the fish on top of the chorizo, tomato mixture and drizzle the fish with a glug of oil.

Place in the oven for 25-30 minutes, until fish is tender and cooked through, flaking from the bone.

Roasted Aubergine Stuffed with Curried Turkey


This is a hearty veg packed dish that is low on points and so delicious I made it for myself two nights in a row!

Roasted Aubergine Stuffed with Curried Turkey
Serves 1  Approx 9 WW Pro Points

125g turkey mince
1 red onion sliced
1 clove garlic chopped
1/2 red chilli, minced
1 red pepper chopped
handful of mushrooms, sliced
cherry tomatoes, however many you want
tenderstem broccoli, roughly chopped
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp oil
1 medium aubergine
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 cal spray.

Pre heat the oven to 180oc w/fan. Halve the aubergine length ways and score the flesh, sprinkle over the cumin seeds and spray liberally with 1 cal spray S&P.  Place in oven for 30 mins or until soft. Remove from oven and cool.  Then scoop out the flesh leaving a 'boat'.

Blanche the broccoli for a couple of minutes in a pan of boiling water, drain and keep to one side.  Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the onions garlic and turkey, cook for a few minutes then add the chilli, pepper curry powder, mushrooms and tomatoes.  Cook for another 5 minutes.  Add the scooped out aubergine flesh and broccoli, heat though again, check seasoning and then, stuff the mixture back into the Aubergine boats.

Serve.

Tuesday 9 April 2013

Baked Lamb Shanks - Jamie Oliver

The finished product!

Easter saw us in Holland with my Brother and his family.  It fell to my Bro and I to make Easter Sunday lunch for 10.  This we did by using a lovely Jamie Oliver recipe to be found HERE.

Lamb, in Holland is not the popular meat that it is in the UK, so Dan had specially order these Lamb Shanks and it turned out that they were the perfect choice.  It was great fun to individually parcel up these joints with their own herby butter and vegetables and a glug of wine, then wallop them in the oven for 3 hrs on 160oc w/fan and pretty much forget about them.  Which allowed us time to start on the fizz and dance along to the Bee Gee's

It made for quite an entrance to the dining room, 10 silver parcels, each shank was then unpacked and served with masses of mashed potato, boiled cabbage and their own juicy sauce.  Extremely simple to make, utterly delicious and quite a showstopper.

Packaging up the shanks in foil, on a bed of carrots, leeks & onions with a glug of white wine and stuffed with herby butter

Parcels, ready for the oven.


The Easter merrymakers!