Mini Crispy Fish Tacos

As somewhat of a taco connoisseur, I was always a bit dubious about the idea of fish tacos. I mean fish is great on its own, tossed into pasta, or even whipped up into a pie English style, but in a taco? Nah, I always thought, just gimme the beef.

Tentatively, I approached the idea of a fish taco, willing to give it a try. After making a few adaptations to the recipe I saw of this, I came up with these little gems, both unusual and stunningly sophisticated in their presentation, if you ask me. Tacos are always regarded as cheap delicacies, this is one quick and simple way to jazz them up. You take your favorite firm white fish and dice it into bite-sized chunks. Dip in egg and dredge in flour before shallow frying and placing between tortilla discs. These little orbs of goodness are dressed up with a fresh and tangy pico de gallo. 

All right, let's cook:

For the pico de gallo, you'll want to be sure to make this well in advance so it has time to marinate. Dice the pepper and onions and add to a bowl. Scoop out the seeds of a cucumber, dice and add to the same bowl.

In a saucepan, bring the water, sugar and vinegar to a boil. Once boiling, remove from the heat and pour over the vegetables. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.

For the fish, dip each piece into the egg then dredge in the flour before frying.  Be sure to season your flour. If you don't want to use any eggs, you can add some milk to your flour to make an easy batter.

Shallow fry the fish in batches until golden brown and cooked through. If you have lots of fish bites to fry, then deep fry them in batches to make the process quicker. Strain on a paper towel-lined plate.

For the tortilla discs, cut store-bought soft tortillas into smaller discs using a chef's ring or circuar cookie cutter. Assemble the tacos and sprinkle with extra cheese and chives for an extra kick.

Gluten Free Honeyed Tarragon Pork with Roasted Cabbage and Sweet Potato Puree

There I was, bobbing about on Pinterest (as you do) when I came across a pin for roasted cabbage. Right away my tastebuds perked up and I could instantly see how it would work, that lovely earthy cabbage flavor lightly charred and tender? Yes, please!

So, I had the veg, but what about the starch and the protein? I noticed that the photo of the roasted cabbage contained fennel seeds, another favorite of mine. I first encountered fennel seeds in sausages and love the subtly spicy and bitter kick they give foods. Naturally, I decided to go with pork because fennel + pork = nomgasm. 

The rest of the dish just seemed to fall into place after that, I'd decided to pan fry the pork with honey and tarragon, vamping up the earthyness of the dish and undercutting the bitterness of the fennel and the char that would be on the cabbage with playful honey. When it came to addressing the starch, I wanted something that I could use to compliment the honey in the dish. The obvious solution seemed sweet potato. Taking my inspiration from candied yams, I blitzed up a sweet potato puree laden with brown sugar, cream and cinnamon. 

The groceries you'll need are:

pork loin steaks

2 tbsp honey

1 tbsp tarragon

one head green cabbage

one large sweet potato

butter

1/2 tbsp brown sugar

100 ml double cream

2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt

olive oil

1 tbsp fennel seed

For the pork, sear 1 to 2 minutes each side, using a hot pan. Coat with honey and tarragon and grill until preferred doneness. 

For the roasted cabbage, cut a cabbage head into rounds. Place onto a greased cookie sheet, moisten with olive oil, seasoning and fennel seeds. Roast for 30 minutes at 400F.

For the sweet potato puree, dice, boil and mash one large sweet potato. Season and add cinnamon, brown sugar and a pinch of salt. Transfer to blender and add double cream. Blend until desired consistency. Pass through a sieve or muslin to remove any stringy bits. 

Gluten Free Deep Fried Loaded Mash Potato

Why has it taken me so long to discover these?! I am a bona fide potato-holic. Spuds and I go way back. They've been my favorite food for as long as I can remember, yet, until recently it never occurred to me to deep fry them (other than chips --er, fries, of course)!

So I was flipping through my latest cookbook purchase when I came across the words fried mashed potato balls. There was no recipe for them, they were just mentioned in passing. I was immediately intrigued and set out to make these on my own. It seems most people make mash potato balls to use up leftover mash. Really? You people actually have mashed potatoes left over? I don't think I've ever sat down to an offering of mashed potatoes that I couldn't polish off. No potato dish--mashed, roasted, gratin, boiled--ever goes uneaten in my house!

Here's my take, freshly made deep fried mash potato. For heaven's sake, don't even consider making this with instant mash!

Deep Fried Loaded Mash Potato::Marabel potatoes, Applewood Smoked cheddar, dried chives, fresh sour cream, rock salt, pancetta, chives, seasoning, mustard powder, milk, butter, batter, gluten free breadcrumbs

The thing that makes this dish so special to me is its zingyness. You've got that salty pancetta blended with the lightly salted sour cream and the delicate crunch of breadcrumbs with warmed mash (dotted with chives) oozing forth.

Note: There are no exact quantities needed for this recipe. No exact ingredients either--everybody likes different things in their potatoes, so just go with what you know and what your family enjoys.

That said, here's how I made my deep fried loaded mash potato:

Add roughly diced Marabel potatoes* to a pot of boiling water.  Allow to boil for 15 to 20 minutes, strain and proceed to mash incorporating seasoning, milk, a little butter and drived chives. Note, lumpy mash yields better balls than mash that is too smooth.

Grate over any smoked cheddar cheese that you prefer, add a dash or two of mustard powder, give it a good stir and refrigerate until firm. 

Once the mash has firmed up a bit (shouldn't take long if the mash still has some lumps), shape into balls. This is the fun part--you can do millions of little balls using a melon baller, or hearty orbs using an ice cream scoop. Or, and I plan to do this one day, enormous grapefruit-sized balls. Whatever you fancy.

Once you have your balls formed, drop them in batter, then coat individually in breadcrumbs. I found the best way to crumb the battery balls is to pour some breadcrumbs into a bowl, drop a ball in and roll it around quite vigorously. This way, you kind of knock the shape back into the ball and don't end up with a crusty breadcrumb manicure.

Fry the balls until golden, this should only take a couple of minutes. Place the balls on a lined cookie sheet or plate to the let the excess oil drain off before garnishing with crispy pan-fried pancetta, fresh chives, salted sour cream (add some rock salt to store bought sour cream, it really makes a difference) and more of the smoked cheddar.

*Marabel potatoes are a European cultivated potato from Germany and The Netherlands with a sweet taste, creamy texture and yellow flesh. In America, they can be substituted with the Canadian Yukon Gold variety of potato.

Gluten Free Chicken Saltimbocca Strips with Sultry White Wine Sauce

My Italian isn't up to par, but I am told (thanks, Wiki) that the Italian word saltimbocca translates as being "jumps in the mouth". With this being the case, I envisioned creating almost bite-sized chicken saltimbocca pieces. What I've come up with are more strips than nuggets; this way you get way more prosciutto.This dish is full of richness--it has a lovely salty tone from the crispy prosciutto, a creamy, slightly nutty flavor from the edam and a rich, full-bodied tang from the sultry white wine sauce.

Chicken Saltimbocca::chicken, sage, Dutch edam, prosciutto, white wine, garlic, chicken stock, seasoning

Now, I know there's nothing Italian about Dutch cheese, but I love edam. It is by far the stringiest cheese there is and when it has been warmed, it gets a 10 on the goo scale. This is super gooey cheese, the kind of cheese that grilled cheese sandwiches were invented for. Alas, this delicious Italian dish is no grilled cheese; so let's get to it!

The groceries you'll need:

chicken breasts

proscuitto, halved

30 grams of Dutch edam, shaved

1/2 tbsp minced garlic

black pepper

1 tbsp dried sage

1 tsp olive oil

4 tbsp white wine

3/4 cup chicken stock

2 tbsp unsalted butter, cold and cubed

salt

2 tbsp lemon juice

salt

To prepare the chicken strips, place the chicken on a cutting board and first sprinkle with some pepper. Next, top with the sage, followed by the edam and then covered with a piece of prosciutto. Drape a sheet of cling film over the chicken and using a rolling pin, beat 'til thin.

Cook the chicken prosciutto side down in a hot, well-oiled pan. You'll probably get cheese oozing out of the sides and some of the prosciutto falling off when you flip the meat. Don't worry, just let this stick to the pan; it'll enrich the sauce later.

After the chicken has been cooked thoroughly, move to rest, covered. To make up the sultry sauce, remove the pan from the heat, discard any oil but not any bits left in the pan, and add the garlic and the white wine. Placing the pan back over the heat, allow the garlic and wine to reduce by about 1/3.  Use this time to scrape up any bits of cheese or prosciutto. 

When the sauce looks syrupy and has a nice shiny gleam, add the chicken stock. Bring to the boil and allow to reduce by about half. Once the sauce is shiny and gleaming again, switch off the heat and gently stir in the cold, cubed butter. Once all the butter has melted, add your lemon juice and give it a stir. Plate up, dressing each strip with the sultry sauce.

Gluten Free Chocolate Truffle Sandwich Cookies

Some of the best things around had their start as mistakes. Don't take my word for it, just look at these beaut's.

They were originally meant to be truffles, but instead we ended up with these! The cookies, which are more like British biscuits, have a nice crunch, but they're buttery and (surprisingly) light. Filled with vanilla, chocolate chips and walnut pieces, they provide much needed texture before, and after, the silky chocolate ganache.

ganache: French. derived from the French word for jowl, ganache is a glaze, icing or filling for pastries made from chocolate and cream.

Now about that ganache. It's a rich mix of melted milk chocolate, a few pieces of dark chocolate, double (heavy) cream and a hint of milk. I mentioned that these little nuggets were the result of a mistake, let me briefly explain. I had set out to make truffles--little ganache balls hugged by a coating of cocoa, coconut or candies.
My hiccup? I didn't spread the ganache into a thin enough layer when trying to set, so that the top of my chocolate pool was set but the subsequent bits weren't. Instead, I was left with this lovely firm top that gave way to fluid underpart. There was no way I could get that softly set chocolate to form a ball.

Out of failure, came the chocolate truffle sandwich cookies. They're dead easy to make: whip up some ganache, allow to firm up in the fridge for a day. Bake your cookies (the day after you make the ganache), fill with the gooey filling, munch and enjoy.
Fancy a go?


Ganache::chocolate, cream, milk
For the ganache you need equal parts chocolate and equal parts double (heavy) cream. Play around with the combinations that you like, you could use 50 percent milk chocolate and 50 percent dark or 25 percent dark, 25 percent milk and 50 percent white. Whatever you like, really. Just make sure it's equivalent to the amount of cream.
Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of boiling over on the stop. Warm the cream in a separate saucepan. Once your chocolate is melted, remove the glass bowl from the pan and begin to add the warmed cream, a little bit at a time. After the first bit of cream, you might find that the chocolate seizes up a bit. No worries, just continue to give it a good stir until it loosens before adding more cream.

After you've incorporated all of the cream add a splash of full fat milk. Decant the creamy chocolatey pool into a shallow dish and let cool at room temperature. Once cooled, pop it in the fridge to set.


Crunchy Cookies::flour, butter,margarine, sugar, vanilla extract, walnut pieces, chocolate chips
 To make two dozen small cookies, you want:
                     50 grams of unsalted butter
                     50 grams of margarine
                     150 grams of gluten free plain (all-purpose) flour
                     57 grams of caster sugar
                     2 tsp vanilla extract
                     1 tbsp chopped walnuts
                     1/2 tbsp chocolate chips


Using your food processor cream together your butter and sugar. Once creamed, add the vanilla, walnuts and chocolate chips. Pulse once or twice before adding the flour and continuing to combine the lot. Once a nice dough is formed, remove from the food processor, roll out and cut out your cookies.

You'll probably have some dough leftover. If you're like me, you'll probably nibble on it while you're cooking. But if you're a bit more restrained, wrap it in greaseproof (parchment/baking) paper, pop it into a Ziploc and store it in the fridge. (In a few weeks time when you're craving cookie dough ice cream but don't feel like leaving your house, break off some of the cookie dough into a bowl of ice cream and enjoy!)

Gluten Free Pan Fried Salmon with Beurre Rouge (Red Butter Sauce)

For the last four years, if you asked me what the best salmon dish I ever had was I would have replied, "Canapes of smoked salmon on Guiness bread." Back in 2008, I had the pleasure of spending St. Patrick's Day in Dublin. While there, we took a tour of the Guiness factory and in celebration of the holiday, they were serving canapes made using Guiness. The salty chilled smoked salmon next to the warm, rustic Guiness bread was edible bliss. No salmon dish came close to touching it. Until last night.

Behold, the salmon dish that trumped the Guinness bread concoction.

Pan fried salmon with red butter sauce. It was my intention to pair this dish with purple sprouting broccoli, to enhance the flavors and to really play around with the presentation. But, unfortunately, I wasn't thinking and boiled instead of steamed my purple sprouting broccoli. My vibrant lovely broccoli that reminded me of wild sprigs of wisteria or lavender looked pretty humdrum when it came out of the pan.

For the beurre rouge (a butter emulsion made with red wine), place the diced shallots in a small sauce pan, add the wine and simmer. Let the liquid reduce by two-thirds. Once the wine has reduced, reduce the heat to the lowest setting and whisk in the butter, one cube at a time. This forms the emulsion. After all of the butter has been dissolved season the emulsion with salt, pepper and a few drops of lemon juice. Leave the emulsion on low, whisking every-so-often to prevent splitting, and prepare the salmon.

For the salmon, season the fish with salt and pepper. Fry skin side down first, for about 3 minutes. Flip over and fry for a further minutes. Serve with whatever combination of vegetables you'd like. If you use purple sprouting broccoli and fine beans, I'd recommend steaming as opposed to boiling.

Gluten Free Strawberry Meringue Shortstack

I don't know who decided it'd be this way, but strawberries seem to be the fruit of love. I get why--that luscious deep garnet hue of perfectly ripe strawberries, like the most precious stones. And all of us have nibbled a strawberry eccentrically shaped like a heart.

It was while walking through the aisles of the grocery store, getting ingredients for Valentine's Day dinner, that I spotted the box of unseasonably red strawberries in the produce aisle. Once I saw them, my mouth began to water and I longed for lazy summer afternoons, toes in the grass, just me and the berries.

Alas, it's February and our city-center flat distinctively lacks grass of any sort. Making lemonade, I decided to buy the strawberries anyway and put them to use in a different way. Thus, the strawberry shortstack--like a strawberry shortcake, just with the cake 86'd and swapped for vanilla meringues.

That, my dears, is the a strawberry shortstack--a pink meringue sandwich filled with homemade vanilla whipped cream, a boozy homemade strawberry coulis and sliced strawberries.

Although composed of many steps, here's the super easy recipe:

Components of the dish are pink meringues, vanilla whipped cream and boozy strawberry coulis. First off, you'll need 250 grams of fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced.

Pink Meringues
 These aren't meringues in the lemon meringue pie sense of the word, these are crunchy, crispy, gooey meringues: egg whites whipped until they peak, doused in sugar and baked.

These are essentially, little mini pavlovas. Made exactly the same way, except, to bring out the vanilla in the dish, I've added vanilla sugar as well as caster sugar. I've also added powdered sugar to help enhance that smooth texture.

For the meringues you will need:
3 egg whites
1 to 2 drops of pink food coloring
100 grams of caster sugar
75 grams of powdered sugar
25 gram of vanilla sugar
*mix all of the sugars together*

Preheat your oven to 140 degrees celsius.

Using an electric mixer (if you want to build up the muscles in your arms, you can use a handheld whisk), beat the egg whites on high until stiff peaks form. You'll know when the egg whites have been whipped enough when you can tilt the bowl and even turn it upside down without the contents spilling out. I'm sure there's some other, more professional way to test this, if you were bothered.

Once your egg whites have been whipped into shape, you want to gradually add the sugars. I tend to add about a tablespoon at a time. You had a bit of sugar, then continue to mix with the electric mixer until you get your stiff peaks back. Beware: because you've added sugar to the egg whites, they will no longer stay in place if you were to tip the bowl. Continue adding the sugar bit-by-bit (much like ladling stock into a risotto!) and mixing until you get to the very last tablespoon. Now you add the food coloring and the final tablespoon of sugar. Voila. You have your pink meringues!

Spoon the meringues onto a paper-lined cookie sheet and bake for 50 minutes to an hour. Once the hour has passed, turn the oven off but leave the meringues in until the oven has cooled completely. This ensures nice crispy meringues with a slightly gooey center. The meringues have dried enough when you can easily pluck them from the cookie sheet.

Homemade Vanilla Whipped Cream
350 mls of double cream
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 teaspoons of powdered sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar + some

Before beginning to make your cream, it is important that the bowl you use has been chilled.

Using an electric mixer, cream together the vanilla and the double cream until loose peaks form. Once you have loose peaks, sift over the sugar and cream together until you get stiff peaks.

Continue to beat the cream until it reaches the consistency you want. As pictured, that's the consistency I went for. Cover the bowl with cling film and let it sit in the fridge until you're ready to serve.

Boozy Strawberry Coulis
I must be honest. The coulis was super easy because I used ready made strawberry conserve for the base. Not just any strawberry conserve, though. For Christmas, my brother-in-law gave us a lovely festive food hamper from Marks and Spencer and nestled inside was a jar of strawberry conserve made with strawberries and oudinot champagne (probably the only time I'll taste this £138 bottle of champagne!).

You'll need 2 tablespoons of good quality strawberry jam or boozy conserve
1/3 of the strawberries, sliced

All you have to do is puree the conserve and the sliced strawberries in a food processor until it reaches the consistency you'd prefer, then decant to a bowl, cover with cling film and refrigerate until you're ready to serve. Easy peasy!

Mmmm. I think I'm going to go down and have leftovers ...

Serrano Ham & Ricotta Ravioli

It's no surprise; if I could have picked my ethnicity, there's a pretty good chance that I would have chosen to be born Italian. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: Italian cuisine is the world's greatest cuisine.

Who needs ultra rich French food when you've got the luxuriously comforting Italian food? From the hearty pasta dishes to the fun and simple pizzas, Italian is unbeatable.

I've always wanted to try to make ravioli and never really gave it a shot. Since I've been pregnant, my cooking has kind of taken a back seat. Well, not really a back seat, I've just gotten more Nigella Express and less Domestic Goddess in the last few months. That said, I couldn't be bothered to make my own ravioli pasta. Instead, I popped into the closest Chinese supermarket in Chinatown on my lunch break and spent less than a quid on a pack of wonton sheets.

Yup, this is wonton ravioli: super simple and super tasty.
Ingredients:
pack of wonton pastry
pack of serrano ham
tub of ricotta
parsley
salt and pepper
lemon zest
spinach
butter
cheese to top

Okay, let me set the record straight, I used serrano ham although it's Spanish and not Italian, simply because I like the earthy taste of serrano. I think it's a bit more rustic than prosciutto, which would have been my choice of cured meats for this. The serrano adds an extra bite to the dish, I think. It helps to deepen the flavors, plus it really works nicely against the lemon zest.

So, here's what you do. Combine the ricotta, serrano ham, cut into bits, lemon zest, parsley and salt and pepper in a bowl. Lay your wonton sheets out and place a small dollop in the middle of the pastry. Dip your finger into a shallow bowl of water and dampen the edges of the ravioli. Fold over or place another wanton sheet over the top. Press and then boil.

Once the water has come to a rolling boil, it should only take three minutes to cook the ravioli. I did it in batches, made up about four to six, then cooked them while I made up another for to six. It was a simple conveyor belt process. :)

When the last batch of ravioli was cooking, I dumped the spinach into the wok to wilt the leaves as well as popping about two tablespoons of margarine into a bowl and melting it in the microwave for the sauce. I served the ravioli on a bed of spinach and drizzled the butter over the ravioli, topped with cheese and sprinkled with a bit of salt and pepper. Easy peasy and tasty, too!

All Things Orange & Pumpkiny

I do not know what I discovered first--the salty crunch of sunflower seed or the heady, balmy feel of softball. No matter which came first, both became big parts of my life. It's true, if I have to pick a favorite snack, I might be tempted to say sunflower seeds.

My love of sunflower seeds gradually evolved into a slight infatuation with other seeds and nuts. Such was my rapture, that I embarked on what could very well be a lifelong love affair with seeds and nuts, quite squirrel like, to be honest. Eventually, sunflower seeds gave way to pumpkin seeds. In fact, I can still remember the day I first tried pumpkin and pumpkin seeds.

We, the seven year olds who made up my elementary school class were sitting in a circle on the carpet, minutes away from starting our Harvest Festival. Parents had come to school carting Tupperware boxes of goodies or plastic bags of store-bought treats. The classroom had been divided--Indians sat on the floor in a way that was deemed ethically correct and fat-faced Pilgrims with white nun habits on their heads sat across from us. We were divided by an impressive cornucopia of festive fall foodstuffs.

Amongst that autumnal spread lay something I had never tasted, though I had known much about it. I could spell it; could tell you what color it was; knew that it belonged to the squash family, but never until that day had I ever eaten a pumpkin.

My first taste of it was in the form of pumpkin pie. One of my classmate's moms served me up a thick slice. It was a beautiful rich color, like the sweet potato pies my mother would make for Thanksgiving and Christmas. My mouth watered as I lifted the fork. The texture wasn't too different from sweet potato pie, just a bit more stringy, but it was lovely and delicious. I finished the pie and the whipped cream, dazed by the new food I'd discovered.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, someone was passing around pumpkin seeds. I had never seen pumpkin seeds but I was intrigued. Their pale white shells and teardrop shapes were enthralling and I peeled one apart after sucking the salt from its hull to find a curiously colored green seed. They were divine and so it began.

I became (as I guess we all have to be) a seasonal pumpkin consumer. It was never big in my family, my mom never really cooked with it, nor did she make pumpkin pies. But everywhere I went that was serving something pumpkin related, I devoured. In college, I discovered one of the best restaurant desserts ever: Olive Garden's pumpkin cheesecake.

One of my roommates and close friends and I would go to Olive Garden repeatedly in the autumn to devour the massive servings of pumpkin cheesecake. It became a rather pointed ritual--if the leaves we were changing we were sure to be found in the bistro sitting area of the Greensboro Olive Garden, sipping Venetian sunsets, waiting for our two course meal: a shared plate of spinach artichoke dip and a piece of pumpkin cheesecake each. It's amazing the things you can live off of in college. :)

Anyway, pumpkins and I, we have a lovely relationship. I keep licking my fingers as I type this, shoveling in helping after helping of freshly roasted pumpkin seeds. The fiance and I, per our ritual, bought a pumpkin (two pumpkins, actually) last week and carved one into a rather whimsical jack o'lantern. Of course during the gutting process, we reserved the seeds, left them to dry out for a day or two in a bowl covered with Saran wrap.

This afternoon, I dumped the seeds onto a baking sheet, doused with generous helpings of salt and olive oil and roasted for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. When they were finished roasting (and still warm) I tossed them in cinnamon, poured them onto a plate and sat down to eat and write this entry.

There's not much better in the days surrounding Halloween than pumpkin seeds and pumpkin recipes. As I type this, rough wedges of sliced pumpkin with skin and seeds intact are roasting in the oven in a bath of olive oil, sea salt, cracked pepper, sage and garlic, waiting to be transformed into a roasted pumpkin risotto and the next entry. :)

Slow-cooked Gluten Free Beef Bourguignon

Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year. I love the crispness in the air, I love the amazing way leaves change color and how the nights are slightly longer but not completely as long as winter.

One of the best things about fall, though is that it's the best time for comfort food. There's nothing better than hearty food just as the weather's getting chilly.

Last week it felt like fall was just around corner. There was freshness and a chill in the air (let's ignore the fact that this lovely chill has given me the first stuffy nose of the season!) and it made me excited to know that fall wasn't far off. In the spirit of fall and excited about leaves and scarves and boots, I rushed out and bought a slow cooker! All excited for things to try cooking, I gave beef bourguignon a go!

Of course for most people, the words beef bourguignon conjure up images of Julia Child and scenes from the movie Julie & Julia, but this isn't Julia Child's beef bourguignon, that is to say, there's no sherry in it. (Gasp!) But, I think it tastes absolutely great. The flavors are amazing, it makes the house smell divine and the beef is so tender. Served with a steaming pile of homemade mashed potatoes, all that's missing is a little sprinkling of snow outside!

For the ingredients and instructions, go to the updated  beef bourguignon recipe.