Sicilian Roasted Fish with lemon, anchovies, capers & rosemary

Last night we had this delicious fish from Jamie Oliver’s Happy Days. The recipe called for Brill, turbot or halibut steaks which I’m not sure if you can even get here in Australia, certainly not at my local fish shop anyway so I used some lovely Blue Eye fillets instead. All of the flavours give the fish a beautiful flavour & I found no additional lemon or seasoning was required at all, it was perfect the way it came out of the oven. Also for the fist time ever I actually really enjoyed the anchovies, these being one item I was never that fond of when whole & only coped with when incorporated into sauces, stews, etc, amazing how your taste buds change over time. I served it with a simple baked potato & some salad.

Sicilian Roasted Fish with lemon, anchovies, capers & rosemary

1 handful of fresh rosemary, leaves picked
extra virgin olive oil
4 x 200g brill, turbot, halibut or blue eye tranches/steaks
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
2 large unwaxed lemons, finely sliced
1 large handful of salted capers, soaked
8 good anchovy fillers
a splash of white wine or prosecco

Preheat the oven to 200c. Bruise your rosemary in a pestle & mortar to bring out the flavour. Add 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil & scrunch together. Pat half of this flavoured oil round the fish, season well & put into an earthenware dish or roasting pan. Lay 4 or 5 thin slices of lemon over each steak, sprinkle over your capers & drape over the anchovies. Drizzle with remaining flavoured oil & bake for around 15 minutes off the bone or 25 minutes on the bone. Now you could splash the wine in if you like. Remove from the oven & allow to rest, like a steak for 5 minutes.

Caponata (Sicilian Eggplant Stew)

Since my mum started growing eggplants & doesn’t really use that many herself, I am always on the lookout for new ways to cook them. This is a lovely recipe from Jamie Oliver’s Italy, he says it can be eaten as a cold starter or a warm side, we served it along side some meat & mash. I also tried out the leftovers from the fridge cold as suggested but I think the lovely warm wintery flavours are lost & I will continue to heat it up to eat nice & hot. The eggplant is lovely & creamy & as always the tomatoes are lovely with it. The olives, capers & vinegar all blend in nicely to give it a slightly sour flavour which is nice for something a bit different.

Caponata (Sicilian Eggplant Stew)

Olive oil
2 nice large purple eggplants, cut into large chunks
1 heaped teaspoon dried oregano
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 small red onion, peeled & finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled & finely sliced
a small bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley, leaves picked & stalks finely chopped
2 tablespoons salted capers, rinsed, soaked & drained
a handful of green olives, stones removed
2-3 tablespoons herb vinegar
5 large ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
optional: 2 tablespoons slivered almonds, lightly toasted

In a large frying pan, pour in a couple of glugs of olive oil & place over heat. Add the eggplant & oregano, season with a little salt & toss around so the eggplant is evenly coated with oil. Cook on high heat for about 4-5 minutes, giving the pan a shake every now & then. When the eggplant is nice & golden all over, add the onion, garlic & parsley stalks & continue cooking for another couple of minutes. Feel free to add a little more oil to the pan if it’s getting too dry. Throw in the drained capers and the olives & drizzle over the vinegar. When all the vinegar has evaporated, add the tomatoes & simmer for about 15 minutes or until tender. Taste before serving & season if needed with salt & pepper & a little more vinegar. Drizzle with some good olive oil & serve sprinkled with the chopped parsley leaves & almonds if you like.

Good Friday - Three Fishes with Three Herb Salsa

Dinner for Good Friday called for fish, not that I am religious (even though I was brought up a Catholic), it just seems to be the thing to do. So I tried out this simple dish from Nigella Lawson’s Forever Summer. The recipe feeds 6-8 so I reduced the quantities for the two of us. A very simple dish for when your feeling very lazy yet so much better & quicker than fast food any day, my favourite was the salmon.

Three Fishes with Three Herb Salsa

2 Salmon fillets, approx 150g each
2 swordfish fillets, approx 150g each
2 tuna fillets, approx 150g each
3 tablespoons olive oil for frying

Herb Sauce
125ml extra virgin olive oil
zest of 1 lemon, juice of half
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons capers preserved in vinegar, drained but not rinsed
half teaspoon dried oregano
half teaspoon dried mint
salt & pepper

Make your herb sauce by combining everything in a bowl, whisking together & leave to macerate for at least 15 minutes for the flavours to develop.

Cut each fillet of fish into three pieces so that you have longish strips. Fry them in the olive oil beginning with the salmon as it will need the longest, then the swordfish, then the tuna.

Arrange on a large flat plate so that the different fish intermingle, and drizzle the herb sauce over the top. Serve the remaining sauce in a bowl alongside.

Pink-Eye potato, olive and Caper Salad

Being of both Polish & Lithuanian background I am a very big fan of the humble potato & am always looking for new ways to dress it. I love anything from a simple mash, a hearty baked spud jammed packed with tasty fillings, crispy roast ones & of course a great potato salad. My all time favourite potato salad is the family recipe which I have eaten my whole life, its pretty much boiled potatoes, peeled, mixed with chopped onion, boiled eggs, tons of mayo & some salt & pepper, very simple yet very tasty. Occasionally however I do like to try something different so the other night I tried Ben O’Donoghue’s take on the dish from the surfing the menu cook book of series 1. It was great, the olives & capers added a nice zing to the dish. Very repeatable, we served it alongside a good steak for a quick & simple meal.

Pink-Eye Potato, Olive and Caper Salad

1kg pink eye potatoes
½ garlic clove
salt
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped flat leaf parsley
100g baby capers
200g pitted large green olives
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
100ml extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground pepper
finely peeled zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons white celery leaves

Place the potatoes in a large pan & cover with cold water. Add salt, bring to the boil & simmer until tender, about 20 minutes depending on the size. In a large mortar smash the garlic with a little sea salt, then add the parsley & roughly smash. Add the capers & olives and do the same to give a coarse, roughly broken up texture.

Peel & cut the potatoes in half while still hot. Add the vinegar & oil. Cool fro 10 minutes, then add the olive & parsley mixture. Season with salt & pepper & toss through the zest, celery leaves & remaining parsley.

Veal Cutlets with Tomatoes, Capers & Polenta

Michael has been taking on the task of cooking a meal a week for me these days & this week he chose this great recipe form Bill’s Food. We didn’t use Bills method of making the polenta as it need 1.5 hours & who has that kind of spare time after work? Instead he made the cheesy Polenta from Allan Campions Food with Friends that we have made before. Great dish, love polenta & looovvve it when someone else cooks for me for change!

Veal Cutlets with Tomatoes, Capers & Polenta

4 large rip tomatoes, each cut into 8 wedges
1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed & squeezed dry
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 red onion, cut into fine wedges
2 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
4 veal cutlets

Polenta to serve

Preheat oven to 200c. Put the tomatoes, oregano, capers, garlic & olive oil in a small roasting pan & toss together. Sprinkle with salt & pepper. Cover with foil & bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove the foil & bake for another 10 minutes.

While the tomatoes are cooking, brush the cutlets with oil & season liberally with salt & pepper. Heat a large frying pan over high heat for 1 – 2 minutes until very hot. Add the veal & cook for 1 minute on each side, or until sealed. Remove from the pan & place on top of the tomatoes & bake for 10 – 15 minutes until veal is cooked. Serve with polenta.

Sizzled Haloumi with sundried tomatoes & home made pesto

Today my good friend Elise came over for lunch. She is studying Bowen therapy at the moment so the deal was she got to practice & ‘do my husband’ while I cooked up some yummy lunch for us all. Michael was very relaxed after the therapy & I’m looking forward to my turn next though I don’t know if we can leave the lunch to Michael, better prepare something in advance I think! For dessert I was finally making a tarte tatin (see next post) so I wanted lunch to be nice & light so I threw together this salad inspired by a recipe in a mag some time back, cant remember which one. I used some fantastic King Island Haloumi that I picked up from the Vic market & served it with a wonderful St Andrews seed & sprout wood fired oven loaf which I bought from the baker himself over at Ceres this morning. I also made my own pesto for the recipe following Jamie Oliver’s advice in Jamie’s Dinners & served the whole lot on a bed of rocket. It was all great though the rocket & olives probably weren’t necessary, I ate most of my cheese on torn chunks of bread with the pesto sauce, god I love Haloumi. The leftover pesto will make a very quick meal tonight too stirred through some pasta, might even leave that one to the hubby.

Sizzled Haloumi with sundried tomatoes & home made pesto

12 vine ripened cherry tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus ½ tablespoon to coat tomatoes
Leaves form 4 thyme sprigs
4 sundried tomatoes, finely sliced
250g haloumi, rinsed, cut into slices
Handful of kalamata olives
Basil leaves to serve

Pesto Sauce
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon pesto
1 tablespoon baby capers, rinsed

Heat the oven to 180c. Coat the cherry tomatoes with 1 teaspoon olive oil, scatter with thyme leaves & sea salt & black pepper to taste, then bake for 15 minutes or so until soft but still retaining their shape.

To make the pesto sauce, mix the oil, capers & pesto together in a bowl.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a non stick grill pan over high heat. When very hot, sizzle the cheese slices until browned on each side.

Arrange ingredients over rocket on a plate & serve drizzled with pesto sauce.

Pesto

½ a clove of garlic
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
3 good handfuls of basil, leaves picked & chopped
a handful of pine nuts, very lightly toasted
a good handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese
extra virgin olive oil
a squeeze of lemon juice

Pond the garlic with a pinch of salt & the basil leaves in a pestle & mortar, or pulse in a food processor (I used the processor). Add the pine nuts & pound again. Turn into a bowl & add half the parmesan. Stir gently and add sone olive oil – you need just enough to bind the sauce & get it too an oozy consistency. Season to taste, then add most of the remaining cheese, pour in more oil & taste again, keep adding until you are happy with the taste & consistency. Add the lemon juice at the end to give it a bit of a twang, this last step is optional – I go for it as love the extra zesty flavour it gives.

Ladro

Last night I went along to the Melbourne Affordable Art show with some girlfriends & had a magnificent time admiring most of the work, laughing in disbelief at others & not understanding the rest! Managed to pick up a piece I am very happy with too so as soon as that decision was made we started on some champagne while wandering around, lucky I had no money left by then as it all looks like the perfect piece for the lounge room wall after 2 glasses of bubbly!

So after working up quite an appetite wandering around & spending all my pennies we headed down to Yeltza for a glass of wine while waiting for our 9.30 table at Ladro which I managed to get them to squeeze us in for. Yeltza was a hive of activity & even the main bar area was becoming packed by the time we left, Thursday night was up & running. I hear they have a great beer garden hidden out the back where you can get some great food, will have to remember to check it out next summer. Great place for a drink anytime of night though.

Next was Ladro, this was the 3rd time I’ve been & finally I managed to bring my camera along. To start with we had some marinated mushrooms which are divine. We couldn’t have the stuffed olives which are to die for as they have been taken off the menu, when I demanded to know why it was explained that they were so good that they couldn’t get people to order any of their other appetisers so they had to go, can you believe it, hopefully they will come back one day? Next I ordered the same thing I have had each time I’ve been as I cant go past it, Duck Ravioli with a lentil sauce (sorry about the blurry photo again!), I love duck, love ravioli, love lentils so have can I not order this, next time I promise to try very hard so I can sample some of their other dishes which I’m sure are all fantastic too. The ravioli is superb, very simple flavours & not rich at all yet in all works wonderfully together. The girls shared the puttanesca pizza which was topped with tomato sauce, cherry tomatoes, anchovies, capers & olives, very good. The pizza are huge, the base is ultra thin & crispy & cooked to perfection in a wood fired oven. The girls were kind enough to share some with me (as I did mine with them) & tasted very yum. On the side we had a mixed leaf salad as there were some specimens included that I was yet to try, chicory, radicchio, rocket, fennel & witlof, think that was all, very nice & simple with a light dressing. I had never seen chicory before & we couldn’t identify it so our lovely friendly very knowledgeable waiter pointed it out for us & even bought us out a whole leaf which you can see I took a photo of for all those others out there as ignorant as me. Was nice, a bit on the bitter side along with the radicchio but mixed with the rest was not too much for me. This was all washed down with some nice Italian Chianti that was recommended.

Anyway after all this food you would think that we would be stuffed right? Wrong, we did a lot of walking around that exhibition floor so dessert to share was called for, a small piece of pistachio nougat & crepes filled with vanilla custard & peaches finished off the night perfectly.

The place is nice & cozy with a modern look & very warm on a cold blustery night like it was & I will say it again our waiter was perfect, attentive, funny & had an answer for us on anything we needed to know & we were an inquisitive bunch last night let me tell you. If you haven’t been seriously give it a go, just remember to book ahead as its very small & always packed

Ladro
224 Gertrude Street
Fitzroy VIC 3065
Ph: 9415 7575

Spiced Salmon

Tonight I cooked up this very very quick & simple dinner from Marie Claire’s Luscious. It’s just a matter of throwing it all together & whacking in the fridge while you run around the house sorting out all of those after work bits & pieces you normally don’t have the time for as cooking elaborate dinner! Nice simple flavours with the smokiness of the paprika really coming through. I also added some cherry tomatoes to my couscous for just a teeny big of fruit/veg factor.

Spiced Salmon

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
juice of 2 limes
1 tablespoon small salted capers, rinsed & drained
1 tablespoon finely chopped preserved lemon rind
2 tablespoons finely chopped coriander
4 Salmon Steaks

Place all ingredients in a bowl & stir, add the salmon, cover & refrigerate for 1 hour.

Bake in an oven preheated to 180c for 10 minutes & serve with steamed couscous & mint leaves.

Lemon Chicken with a warm lentil salad and Herb relish

Last night my good friend Rach was coming over for dinner for a well overdue catch up. Had some computer disasters at work so got home a bit late, the 1 hour marinating time for the chicken was not looking good! Don’t you hate it, things always seem to go wrong only when you have plans! Luckily Michael got home early for a change & I managed to instruct him over the phone on the chicken, lemon juice, olive oil & chicken, what could go wrong? Well surprisingly the chicken nearly went wrong as Michaels first pick was some thighs that I had out for making stock today, luckily he thought to ring me & all was soon corrected. I used breasts instead of the chicken supreme suggested as couldn’t find any of these & omitted all tarragon as none on hand. Also used a tin of brown lentils instead of cooking up puy lentils as really didn’t have the energy or time. The result was a smashing success, lots of ingredients mixed together to create beautiful subtle flavours, Rach loved it & has vowed to start cooking with lentils, something she has not tried yet. The recipe comes from Bill’s Food.


Lemon chicken with a warm lentil salad and herb relish

1 lemon, finely sliced
125ml (1/2 cup) extra virgin olive oil
4 chicken supreme (breast fillet with wing attached, with skin on)
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

to serve
100g (3 ½ oz) baby English spinach leaves
warm lentil salad (below)
herb relish (below)

Mix the lemon and olive oil in a bowl, add the chicken and coat well, then cover and marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 200c (425 F/Gas 7). Heat an ovenproof frying pan (large enough to hold all the chicken) over a high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, place with the skin side down in the pan and sear until golden on one side. Turn the chicken over and cook for another minute to seal the chicken.

Put the pan in the oven and cook the chicken for about 10 to 12 minutes, until the chicken feels firm to touch. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes before slicing the chicken on the diagonal into three pieces. To serve, put a handful of spinach leaves onto each plate, spoon some lentil salad on top, then divide the sliced chicken among the plates. Serve with fresh herb relish. Serves 4.

Warm lentil salad
1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard
60 ml (1/4 cup) extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
215 g (1 cup) lentils du Puy, cooked to instructions on the packet and drained
½ red onion, finely diced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon
1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Whisk the mustard, olive oil and vinegar together in a small bowl until combined. Combine the vinaigrette in a bowl with the warm lentils, red onion, herbs and salt and pepper.

Herb relish
1 tablespoon salted capers, rinsed, squeezed dry and chopped
1 anchovy fillet, chopped
3 spring onions (scallions), finely sliced
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chervil or tarragon
½ teaspoon grated lemon zest
60 ml (1/4 cup) extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
a few drops of red wine vinegar
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Stir all the ingredients together in a bowl, then leave for 1 hour to allow the flavours to develop.

Pasta with garlic prawns

Today the temperature soared to 37 degrees so needed to whip up something quick for dinner, no slaving over a hot stove tonight. Whipped up this simple pasta dish from the Delicious 2006 diary, very, very tasty version of garlic prawns, the lemon juice & capers really lifted the flavour. Now I’m upstairs sweating over the computer in the hottest room of the house, I must be crazy.

Pasta with Garlic Prawns

500g pasta (short pasta recommended though I used spaghetti)
1 tblspn olive oil, plus extra to toss
3 garlic cloves, crushed
20 green prawns, peeled, deveined, tails intact
¼ teaspoon dried red chilli flakes
2 tblspns chopped fresh parsley
juice & zest of 1 large lemon
1 cup (250ml) white wine
100g unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small pieces
1 tbspn baby capers, drained

Cook the pasta until al dente, drain, return to the pan & toss with a little olive oil, set aside & keep warm.

Place remaining oil & garlic in a frypan & heat gently over low heat. When the oil is hot, add the prawns, chilli & half the parsley, increase heat to high & cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove the prawns & set aside, then add the lemon juice & wine to the pan & allow to bubble & reduce for 2 minutes. Briefly stir in the cold butter, lemon zest & capers until you have a smooth sauce. Return the prawns to the pan to heat through, then add the pasta. Toss together & serve garnished with remaining parsley.