#PurpleMac

Some say fish is brain food. I think there's some truth in that and I often cook a fish dish for Sunday Lunch or Tea to help focus my mind prior to the tackling the intellectually challenging job I do during the week.

The middle Sunday of the month was one where I followed this approach. It had been another enjoyable weekend that featured the fourth game of my comeback to competitive cricket, having not previously played the game competitively since August 2013.

On the player was one of several new records I had acquired recently. My music is very important to me; in fact it is one of the things that makes me get up in the morning. I find that listening to a great album can make a tricky day better, turn a mediocre day into a good one and a good day into a corker of day.

I recalled buying a magazine produced by the Observer in 2004 that listed the 100 greatest British Albums. Reading it all those years ago had turned me onto the Smiths, Nick Drake and John Martyn. I decided to return to that list again to acquire a few albums by artists not already in my large collection. For those of you who are interested a link to the list is at: https://www.theguardian.com/observer/omm/idx/0,,1242360,00.html

The album I had acquired from this list was Soul II Soul's outstanding 1989 "Club Classics Vol 1". It is a distinctively British take on Soul and R 'n' B with hints of dub and shades of rap thrown in. The key track is the propulsive "Keep on movin" a number that is an excellent motivational piece.

So as to set myself up for the week I decided to make a light dish featuring pan-fried Mackerel and some light, fresh ingredients to dress it. I'm quite particular about what seafood I have in my diet as studies have confirmed that a lot of sea-going fish are riddled with plastic and therefore you as consumer are essentially eating this plastic, a habit that is clearly not healthy.

I chose the Mackerel as I knew it was sourced in this country under circumstances that meant it would have no exposure to plastic pollution. The ingredients to the recipe were:

2 Fillets of Mackerel.
2 fresh Beetroot, topped, tailed and then boiled in a pan of water for 90 minutes and left to cool in the fridge overnight.
0.1 litres of zero-fat Greek Yoghurt.
The juice of 1 Lemon.
1 teaspoon of dried Dill.
1 Fennel Bulb, topped, tailed and sliced very finely.
The fern-like fronds of the Fennel Bulb.
7 Slices of Cucumber.

I made the recipe by following the method below:

1. Make the dressing by slicing the Beetroot into quarters and add it to a serving bowl.
2. Add the Lemon Juice, Dill, pieces of Fennel Bulb, Cucumber Slices and stir these together thoroughly with the Beetroot pieces.
3. Add the Greek Yoghurt and stir this thoroughly into the mixture.
4. Cover the bowl and leave in the fridge while you prepare the Mackerel.
5. Fry the Mackerel in a frying pan covered with Olive Oil. Fry it on a medium heat for seven minutes on each side.
6. When the Mackerel is ready place it on the plate and top it with the dressing from the fridge and the fronts from the Fennel Bulb.

The taste of this recipe was just what I was looking for on a warm Sunday Evening in the middle of a heatwave. The Mackerel had a taste that made me think it had been prepared by being grilled over a campfire on the shores of a Scottish Loch, while the dressing combined the earthy flavours of the Beetroot with the aniseed flavour of the Fennel and the Yoghurt, Cucumber and Lemon added a welcome freshness to the meal.

Sesame Salmon with Oriental Sweet Potato Mash

The  heat continued during a week that also featured a memorable and inspirational meet up with a friend I first met at uni nearly seventeen years ago. It was our first meet up for nearly five years. Having been energised by some positive, different and innovative perspectives forged during our meeting, I decided to try a new twist on a traditional fish dish.

I first became aware of Salmon as a viable main course dish through adverts on the television during the early nineties for recipes involving Salmon Steaks served with a side of Watercress and Yogurt complimented by Roast Potatoes. My usual method for preparing Salmon often revolved around this type of recipe.

However for today's blog recipe I gave proceedings a more Oriental Twist by making a Salmon Fillet with Sesame Seeds, Broccoli Shoots and Sweet Potato Mash.

Partly as the result of a wonderful trip to the North Country towards the end of June for a friend's birthday party, I had been motivated to acquire a number of albums by artists whose work I was largely unfamiliar with. One of the albums in question was Nic Jones' final album from 1980 called "Penguin Eggs". Jones was a dyed in the wool traditional folk artist whose career was sadly cut short in 1982 by a near fatal car crash. At least "Penguin Eggs" saw him take an extended sabbatical from the music business on a real high.

The pick tracks on the album include "Canadee I-O", the arrangement of which Bob Dylan borrowed for his take on the song on his measured 1992 record "Good as I been to You". Other top drawer numbers include "The Humpback Whale" and "The Little Pot Stove".

The ingredients for this dish are as follows:

Ingredients for the Sweet Potato Mash 

1 Sweet Potato with the skin kept on but any crunchy bits cut out.
A palm sized piece of fresh Root Ginger peeled and then diced.
A Red Pepper, de-cored, de-seeded, topped, tailed and sliced thinly.
5 Spring Onions, topped, tailed and sliced thinly.
1 Bird's Eye Chili cut into very small pieces.
1 tablespoon of Sesame Seeds.
1 tablespoon of sweet Soy Sauce.
Sesame Oil to fry the above ingredients.
1 teaspoon of Honey
1 Lime cut into 5 slices and de-seeded.

Ingredients for the Sesame Salmon 

1.Fillet of Salmon
5 shoots of miniature Sprouting Broccoli.
1 teaspoon of Sesame Seeds.

The method to make this recipe is:

Sweet Potato Mash 

1. Shallow fry in a Le Cresceut in the Sesame Oil on a medium heat the Ginger,  Pepper, Spring Onions and Birds Eye Chili for five minutes.

2. Add the Sweet Potato Pieces, Soy Sauce, Sesame Seeds, Lime Pieces and Honey and mix these together with the other ingredients.

3. Sweat all the above ingredients on a medium heat for twenty-five minutes in the Le Cresceut. Do make sure to stir them regularly to avoid them sticking to the bottom of the dish and burning.

4. Remove the Limes and mash the other ingredients together.

Sesame Salmon 

1. Cover the Salmon Fillet in the Sesame Seeds and wrap it loosely in a foil parcel with the Sprouting Broccoli.

2. Bake in the Oven on Gas Mark 5 for 23 minutes.

I served the meal by using the Broccoli  to frame the Salmon Fillets and I book-ended them with the mash. The Sesame Oil gave the mash a taste of nuts while keeping the skin on the Sweet Potatoes gave it a very flavoursome texture. The Ginger, Lime and lone Chili blended well too.

The Salmon meanwhile had its usual damp and lush taste that was enhanced by the Sesame Seeds. Some like their Salmon fried or grilled, however I find this makes it too dry and it loses the great taste it retains when cooked in the oven.

The Broccoli I used came from Kenya and was more tender and had a tasteful, salty flavour that our native Broccoli often lacks. It added yet another new and innovative taste to the dish.

Frame by Frame- the Salmon Fillet is framed by the Broccoli Stalks

New York Thymes

It was a Wednesday. In fact it was the Wednesday of the first week that I had allowed myself to take off work since Christmas. The week off had included a very enjoyable adventure to the North, a buffet that featured exotic Hummus, an evening pint in the local watching the sun go down and a tactical Trout that broke up a walk deep in the country.

In among all this I decided it was time to make some new recipes for the blog and I settled on making some New York Style Meatballs with a twist. The twist was the Meatballs in question were vegetarian. However the sauce, with its proliferation of cheese, owed a serious debt to the famous Italian-American recipes made in New York.

The ingredients for this dish were as follows:

6 Vegetarian Meatballs, to be cooked from frozen.
A tablespoon of Oregano.
A tablespoon of Chili Powder.
A tablespoon of Smoked Paprika.
A teaspoon of Tomato Puree.
A tablespoon of Dried Thyme.
A tablespoon of Malt Vinegar.
2 Garlic Cloves, topped, tailed, peeled and finely sliced.
2 Shallots, topped, tailed, peeled and finely sliced.
3 Spring Onions , topped, tailed, peeled and finely sliced.
A tin of chopped Tomatoes.
Seventy Fives Grams of Mozzarella Cheese.
A tablespoon of grated Parmesan Cheese.
Seventy Five Grams of Penne Pasta.

On the player was Eurythmics' second effort from 1982 "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" . Apart from the famous title track, the record is a veritable cornucopia of memorable electronica with the dynamic opener "Love is a Stranger"just pipping the title track as the best song on the album.

For this dish I couldn't use my Le Cresceut as it was engaged in the preparation of some Red Cabbage Chutney, of which more on a future blog entry. Instead I started by frying the Herbs, Tomato Puree, Spices, Vinegar, Garlic, Shallots and Spring Onions on a medium heat in Olive Oil in a frying pan for around fifteen minutes. I stirred the ingredients well to blend them together and to stop them sticking them to the pan.

After twenty minutes was up I added the Vegetarian Meatballs and fried them with the other ingredients for around another fifteen minutes. I turned them regularly and kept stirring them into the other ingredients to get them thawed out quickly. While I was doing this I simmered the Penne in boiling water for around twelve minutes. It was then drained and set to one side.

After the meatballs were ready I added the tin of Chopped Tomatoes to the frying pan and stirred them in. This stopped the other ingredients  sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning. Next I added the Parmesan and, after first cutting it into pieces, the Mozzarella. Once these had melted into the mixture it was time to serve the dish.

The melted cheeses naturally made this dish very rich, while the Paprika and the Herbs plus the Vinegar ensured it was very flavoursome. It was also surprisingly light for a hot summer teatime.

Part 1- frying the vegetables, herbs, spices and meatballs. 

Part 2- adding the Chopped Tomatoes and Mozzarella 

Part 3- after melting in the Grated Parmesan, the dish is served with the Penne Pasta.