Baked Trout and Sunny Days

Ah, sunshine! It's usually a rare commodity in these here parts but April and, so far, May have been nothing but glorious.

It's weather like this that makes me think of holiday food and that, more often than not, means fish.

This dish in particular reminds me of sunset at a restaurant on the beach in Mallorca a few years back. At the time the fish in question was actually Gilt-head Bream but, being at the mercy of Tesco fish counter (other supermarkets are available) I chose the fish that looked freshest and that was some nice Rainbow Trout.

Incidentally, best way to tell if the fish is fresh is to look at the eyes. They should be clear and bright. If they look cloudy then avoid at all costs.

Right, back to the trout. I keep it nice and simple. Take a roasting dish or baking tray large enough to hold your fish and scatter the bottom with a finely sliced onion and a bunch of chives.

Next, cut slashes in the sides of the fish on both sides and season the fish with salt and pepper, both inside and out.

Stuff the insides of the fish with a few slices of lemon, thin slivers of garlic and a bunch of fresh parsley.

Lay the fish on the onions and drizzle the whole thing with a good olive oil.

Roast (or bake, if you prefer - no difference as far as I can determine) for around 20 minutes at 180 degrees (gas mark 4 - I think).

Serve the fish whole with new potatoes and crisp blanched veg such as sugarsnap peas, green beans and asparagus. Oh, and how about a cheeky little dry white? Ah, go on then, I'll have a Gavi.

We've also had a raft of bank holidays, with an extra one courtesy of Prince William and his lovely bride, Catherine. We watched the wedding with a drop of fizz round at our good friends, Sles & Jac followed by a barbecue and a certain amount of cider. Cheers Will and Kate!

We finished off the bank hols with a trip up to the Camelot theme park with The Missus, Pooky and I plus Pooky's sidekick, Ubiquitous Katie.

When you've been to Orlando, those sort of places kinda pale by comparison. Still, a good day (along with picnic) was had by all.

Oh, speaking of barbecues, and Orlando for that matter, after being treated to gas barbies in Oz a few years back, Sles & Jac took the plunge and splashed out on a huge 4 burner contraption. We resisted but were tempted again by the one we had in Florida at Christmas.

Last weekend's wedding barbie finally persuaded us that we needed to abandon the charcoal and go gas so we've ordered a four burner piece of our own. It's getting delivered on Friday so putting that together will no doubt be fun. I'll keep you posted....




The Bloke

On me shed, son.

The aforementioned shed.

Myself and three of the allotment old guard moved this from plot 11 to my plot, 14a, on a tiny trolley. The whole scene was reminiscent of Last of the Summer Wine.

Anyway, there you have it. Home sweet home.

Happy Experiment!

Ok, it's been a while and I apologise. What with the Swimathon a few weeks back and work, family and footy commitments, oh, and the allotment (which I'll come to later) it's been all go at Bloke HQ.

Anyways, first to the experiment. The Missus is out at the theatre today and The Pookster is in bed so, as usual, that means it's pasta for one.

Now, I've talked about my pasta fast food before here http://blokeinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2009/10/bloke-pasta-with-chorizo.html and this is just a variation on the theme but it's also using some leftovers and the result is, if I say so myself, pretty great.

Recently, I've mentioned something called pringá; a Spanish slow-cooked pork that we discovered in Seville (details here http://blokeinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2011/03/foodie-weekend.html). Well, I'd kind of made rather a lot so, as I always do if I have leftovers of anything freezable, it was bagged, labelled and frozen.

Also leftover from yesterday was some mixed olives in oil with herbs and chilli.

This all got me thinking that there was a pretty special marriage (never mind William & Kate) waiting to happen right there.

So, after defrosting a batch of the pringá, I finely sliced a fat clove of garlic and a spring onion and softened them, along with some dried chilli, in the oil from the olives. I kept the olives to one side where I roughly chopped them, along with some fresh parsley, to be added later.

While all this is going on, I cooked some pasta for about 12 minutes in well-salted boiling water.

With a few minutes to go on the pasta, I added the pork, olives and parsley to the onions, garlic and chilli to warm through.

I then drained the pasta, tipped it back into the pan and stirred through the meaty, spicy sauce, added a little black pepper and served up with a very nice South African Chenin Blanc.

Oh, quick note about the allotment. I now have broad beans, peas, radishes, sprouts, yellow courgettes, squash and carrots planted out and fending for themselves. I've also managed to blag a shed from an empty plot which I'll be moving onto my plot tomorrow.

I've currently got onions, leeks, peppers, chillis, green beans, tomatoes and courgettes growing in propagators in my conservatory which will be going out in the coming weeks. Oh, I've also got a couple of varieties of spuds growing in a planter (which I keep topping up with compost as the plants grow) in my garden. Hopefully it won't be long until I've got a bumper crop of fresh produce to cook and eat over the summer.

Right, back to my Chenin Blanc.

Enjoy!

Footy and Food

Ok, The Missus is away on business, Pookster's in bed and there's footy on the telly. It can only mean one thing - Bloke Pasta and beer.

Tonight it's a variation on a theme previously written about here http://blokeinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2009/10/bloke-pasta-with-chorizo.html - this time with mushrooms, chilli, garlic, olive oil, some leftover manchego and Serrano ham and a handful of chopped parsley. All ready before kick-off.

I'm keeping an eye out for the Blue Boys tonight with Bainesy and Jags wearing the three lions. COYB!

Laters.

Lovely Leftovers

I'm a big fan of using up leftover food and a Sunday roast is usually a good source of leftover goodies.

For me, yesterday was no exception and my roast beef yielded not only a batch of broccoli stalks which are great for broccoli soup (diced and frozen until needed) but a nice chunk of beef just crying out to be turned into a cheeky curry.

This recipe works just as well with lamb and if I'm going to take the time (4 hours or so) to cook lamb shanks, I always do one more than I need, just for a Monday night curry.

Anyway, back to the recipe.

Soften one thinly sliced onion in a little vegetable oil along with a couple of cloves of crushed garlic, four cardamoms and cloves, salt, pepper and a teaspoon each of cumin, ground coriander, turmeric and crushed chilli flakes.

While that's all softening, cut the beef into bite-sized chunks.

Add the beef to the pan and give it a good stir to coat the meat with the spice mixture. Leave that to cook for a few minutes while you get a pint of hot chicken stock ready (if I don't have any fresh or frozen stock I use Knorr Touch of Taste concentrate).

Add the stock to the pan along with a carton of passata and stir well.

Bring it to the boil then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for at least 2 hours.

Serve it up with some pilau rice. I thought I'd previously covered pilau rice on another post but a quick trawl through the Bloke archives confirms otherwise.

Ok, bring a large pan of water to the boil and add a good pinch of salt, pepper, saffron, turmeric and onion seeds (these are the little black seeds you see in naan bread and they're available from supermarkets).

When it's boiling, add a mug of rice (I always use basmati but that's just my preference), stir well and boil for around 10 minutes.

I tend to regard cooking times on rice packets with a degree of scepticism. I've seen some instructions say 15 minutes or more. If you want wallpaper paste then go right ahead. But I digress. Try a bit of rice after about 9 minutes and make your own mind up.

When the rice is cooked, drain into a colander, put the colander back over the pan (not over heat) and cover it with foil. Leave it for around 10 minutes. This will leave the rice nice and fluffy.

Serve the curry and rice with a few bottles of ice-cold beer or, as I did last night, a big, meaty Cabernet Sauvignon.

Enjoy!

Sent from my iPhone

Foodie Weekend!

Well, it's been a food filled weekend; buying, cooking, eating, even growing!

With friends Les & Jac round for tapas yesterday - a thank you for looking after Pooky whilst the Missus and I went off to Seville to celebrate my 40th birthday, shopping was a little more interesting than the usual trip to Tesco (other supermarkets are available).

For a touch of the authentic, I popped into Liverpool One to visit the excellent Lunya Deli. I left with two types of olives, one stuffed with orange and chilli, the other marinated in olive oil, paprika, chilli and oregano - both wonderful. I also bought some fantastic manchego cheese, jamón Iberico, morcilla with rice (which I pan-fried and served with a little rocket and topped with caramelised red onion) and some of those marvellous little breadstick like nibbles which were served with every beer in Seville.

I also served up some chicken wings seasoned with a little paprika, patas bravas with a great spicy tomato salsa, roasted asparagus wrapped in Serrano ham, roasted almonds and another wonder discovered in Seville - pringá.

Pringá, or certainly the version we had, is slow-cooked pork (I used shoulder steaks) cooked for hours with chicken stock, garlic and onions until the meat is falling apart and served with crusty bread. From what I've read, I think it's traditionally a way to use up leftover pork and is sometimes also made with morcilla or chorizo.

Needless to say, that was all washed down with a considerable amount of Spanish beer and a couple of nice bottles of white Rioja.

Which brings me to today and the growing part.

Today I finally got my seedlings in the ground. For a couple of months now I've been growing a batch of plants in propagators, waiting for them to get big enough to fend for themselves.

So, after getting rid of the weeds and giving one of the beds a good dig over, I've planted my broad beans, radishes, peas and Brussels sprouts. Hopefully the frosts have passed now and they'll be ok out there.

I still have some onions, grown from seed, and butternut squash indoors. They're not yet big enough to go out but I'm sure they will be in a few weeks.

Now I've got empty propagators now though and that'll never do. Courgettes, leeks and tomatoes are next to go in and I'll be sowing them later on today.

Anyway, today's roast (topside of beef with all the trimmings) won't cook itself so I'm off to sort that out.

I'll leave you with a photo (although I'm updating this via email so I don't know if it will work). I'll keep you updated on the progress of my crops and hopefully I'll soon have a bountiful haul of fresh produce to cook, eat and write about.

TTFN

The Bloke