Lemon Sole and Salmon Ceviche

 

It’s paaaaayday! I always got a good excuse to buy fish.

Last night I’ve decided to treat myself for some Ceviche with rice vermicelli! It’s super delicious and it’s a great summer dish! I bought a whole side of salmon to do Gravlax (expect the recipe this weekend!) and I’ve cut off the side and tail for this ceviche recipe. I also used one whole lemon sole – big mistake of you don’t have the skills to remove the skin off ha like me! I spent way too much time butchering the fish – luckily I need the fish in small slices so it didn’t matter – but I’d advise you all to use sea bass or any non flat fish!

I’ve took the skin off both salmon and lemon sole and cut them up in thin slices. Put it all in a bowl with the juices of 3 or 4 lines, and some chopped up red chilies – I used 2 because I love it! Add chopped up coriander, half of a red onion, a whole red pepper, add a bunch of salt and black pepper. Mix everything up and put it in the fridge for at least 30min. The juices of the line and the chili will cure the fish and that way you’re not eating raw fish – if you are able to get fresh fish and like raw fish, you can cure it for a little at 5min/10min.

When the fish is almost ready, cook your rice vermicelli, make sure you don’t overcook it – nobody likes mushy vermicelli. Drain the water off and add some sesame oil to the vermicelli. I like it with quite a lot, it helps the vermicelli not stick together.

I’ve served mine with some fresh, ripe and ready to eat avocado!

 
No surprise that I had two servings!
Ana x

Roasted Tomatoes and Parmesan Soup

it’s Thursday!!! One more day and it’s the weekend! 

I know I should be posting salad recipes and such because it’s basically summer – well no! No in England! I’m joking, it’s alright here! But yesterday I wasn’t feeling very famous, and I decided to make soup for lunch. 

I got a bunch of big fat juicy tomatoes, one onion, a bunch of garlic and put them in a tray full of olive oil, salt, grounded black pepper, herbs (bay, thyme, parsley and oregano) and paprika! – one of my housemates Bea is from Hungary and her mother made a fresh batch of paprika for her. Being the foodie in the house, Bea told me about the fresh paprika and I couldn’t resist myself to add it to one of the recipes. 

Bake the vegetables until they have softened. Let it cool down and take the skin off the tomatoes – you can keep the tomatoes if you’re too lazy or don’t mind it, I find that it makes the soup smoother.

I shouldn’t have to tell you, but yes blitz the vegetables, and put the mixture in a pan to reheat – now adding the stock/water is to your preference – I don’t like my soup too watery. Once you get to your preferred consistency you are ready to serve – freshly grate a lot of Parmesan cheese on top (yes it’s tomato and Parmesan soup, so be generous with the Parmesan!)

 

It’s super delicious! I’m sure you can make a few raviolis to go with it or just add some macaroni for your kids!

I had my serving with half of a toasted wholegrain bagel. 
Ana x

Eggs and Ham

About two years ago I applied to go on “First Dates” – and they called be for an audition last October.

They asked me about the things I am passionate about, and I said cooking and food. (Obvi.. Food inever cheats on you… Now your bathroom scales.. You can’t trust that creep!)

They asked me how I would relate love and food. I said “Eggs! Eggs are the perfect methaphor.. They are hard enough if you leave them alone but you need to handle it with care because they are still fragile! Some people like poached, others prefer scrambled.. You just need to find someone that likes poached eggs like you do and if they don’t, they better be willing to compromise, otherwise you’re wasting your eggs!”

Anyway, I do love eggs, and it’s a easy go to food.. I always have eggs in my kitchen!

 
I call this Egg nest with Parma ham! This recipe takes literally no more than 10minutes (if you have an electrical whisk!)

I’ve seperated the yolk to the whites (see.. You can save the yolk for the Bag’hole recipe!) and beat the whites until peak.

Add some Parmesan cheese (I’m going to say to your taste.. There’s never enough cheese in the world for me!), and some black pepper. You spoon the mixture to some parchment paper and shape it as you wish. I rolled some Parma ham and put it in the centre of the mixture. You can cut up the Parma ham or use fried bacon/pancetta and sprinkle on top instead of you want.

Make sure the oven is preheated on a high temperature and put the egg nest in the oven to bake for about 7/8 min – please keep an eye on it, the outside should be brown and they should have risen a bit when it’s done.

 
I’ve served mine with some rocket salad, but I’m sure you can get a piece of buttered toast and it would be equally delicious.

Have a great hump day!

Ana x

Roasted Salmon with Crab Mayonnaise

After teaching Matt how to make raviolis, I’ve decided to treat him for a nice main for all his hard work.

Below we have a roast fillet of salmon served with crab mayonnaise and grilled fennel.

Is this recipe mine? No.. I’ve seen the original one on Masterchef Ireland. Obviously the original dish contain more fancy ingredients like purlane and samphire and unfortunately my local sainsburys cannot provide that. They also use fresh crab for the crab mayonnaise, but I’ve got 2 tinned crab meats for £5.70.

I started by cutting the fennel in halves and frying them in butter until they softened. I then transferred them to the grill.

I pan fried the fillets of salmon skin side down with a oven proof pan with butter in high heat for about 3 min then transferred to the over on a very low heat – I’m sorry I don’t really know oven temperatures or times, I usually know when the food is done by looking or touching the food.

For the crab mayo, I drained two tins of crab meat and mixed it with your normal Heinz mayonnaise – I would usually take the time to follow the recipe and make my own mayonnaise, but since I was teaching someone who doesn’t really cook much, I tried to keep it simple and easy.

For the sauce, I used knorr fish stock pot and mixed a little bit of mayonnaise again. The stock on the original MasterChef recipe is made with fresh velvet crab but again, that isn’t something I can easily get in London – or cheap unfortunately.

I layed the 3 halves of roasted fennel on the plate and carefully spooned the sauce around, put the piece of salmon and two spoonfuls of crab mayonnaise  on top of the fennel and decorated it with a piece of terragon for some colour.

I hope you guys take the time to try this at home because it’s easy and delicious!

Ana x

Matt-ioli

Today I had a special guest in my house, Matt Wright – he doesn’t really cook… He’s signature dish is beans on toast. So I’ve decided to teach him how to make a nice meal.

For starter we (me mostly haha) decided to make Parma ham and goats cheese ravioli. Baring in mind I’ve never made ravioli in my life – I just mastered the art of pappardelle making the other day.. Ravioli is on a whole other level!

 
For the filling, we used ricotta, goats cheese and parmaham (flown in specially from Rome thanks to my lovely friend Abi!)

We shaped the raviolis – I did the first one and the rest I let Matt get involved, and I must say he did a pretty damn good job for someone who can’t cook! – We cooked the ravioli in herbs and vegetable stock for about 15min (yes the pasta was a bit too thick unfortunately.. But we learn from our mistakes don’t we?)

Served in a bed of rocket and Parmesan salad with lemon and black truffle oil!

I must say that for first timers, we did well!

Ana x

Morning Bagels!

Good morning my loves.

After having a few drinks last night, all I want this morning is unhealthy comfort in food..

What do I have in the fridge… Black pudding, eggs, bagels….hmmm right, I know what to do now.. But what do I call this? Egg in a bag’hole? Yes that’s it… Egg in a bag’hole! Haha

 
My drunk self decided to snack on a bagel last night, and I’ve managed to leave the head and eat the butt! Let’s face it, if I had done it with a butt, it wouldn’t have looked as pretty!

I’ve seperated the egg yolk from the white (I have a surprise recipe for later that involves egg whites, so don’t waste yours!) – I buttered the bagel, and fried it in a pan along with the black pudding. Put the egg yolk on the bagel hole. And let everything fry away..

For the sauce, I used some mayo, English mustard, olive oil to liquify it a bit (is that even an expression?) and some salt and pepper to taste.

I guess this will be done until your egg yolk is done… I prefer mine runny to be honest, I need that to dip the bagel in!

All I can say now is that my place is empty! LOVE IT!
Ana x

Pappardelle Bolognaise

I have a bit of an addictive/perfectionist personality.. So when I attempt to make something, I want to be able to make it in my sleep… So as you can tell, it’s the second day consequetive that I’m making this pappardelle pasta.

 

  In this instance I have made the pasta with roughly 100gr of 00 pasta flour and 1 free range egg – the pasta was enough for 1 big portion.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Borough Market for the first time (it’s food heaven) and got a few different French cured sausages. For the normal Ana, I would have finished the sausages in a heartbeat, however in this occasion one of the sausages is made of donkey meat and pork.. And not knowing which ones are which, I’m playing Russian roulette with a donkey sausage.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about trying new meats, but there’s something about knowing that it’s donkey that makes me gag.. Haha

For the bolognaise sauce, I’ve raided my freezer and found qorn minced meat, so I have added this to my bolognaise, which is just basically one onion, half of French cured (hopefully not donkey) sausage, qorn mince and a tin of tomatoes.

I’ve cooked the pasta twice, both times for no more than 2 min, then added the pasta to the bolognaise!

I’m definitely going to make more pappardelle, I feel like a seafood one id needed!

Please don’t hesitate to ask me any questions or give me any suggestions!

Ana x

Last night’s dinner

Yesterday, I was a bit homesick and all I wanted was salt and pepper ribs with Chinese sausage and rice.

This is what it looks like (thanks google for the images)

Because I’m a bad half-Asian, I barely have any Chinese condiments to make these yummy stuff.. So I’ve decided to make my own westernized version.

Sticky spicy ribs with European rice (got borlotti beans and French sausage so we’ll stick to European!)

The ribs were baked with a tomatoes, agave, soya sauce, Worcester sauce, chili powder, salt snd pepper.

For the rice, I used wholegrain, a whole onion, French cured sausage and black olives. I cooked the rice in knorr beef stock pot.

I’m a terrible teacher, I don’t use measurements, I cook everything by eye so I couldn’t tell exact quantities! I’ll try to do better next!

Ana x

A Cheese Affair

Good Wednesday pals!

So everyone that knows me, knows I have a unhealthy obsession for cheese – cheese on everything pleeeeease!!

When it gets to almost the end of the month, you’d rather save those pennies and have a scavenger hunt in your cupboards!

I went away for Portugal for a week and completely forgot that I had black truffle oil laying around in my house.. Yes this is something that you can use and lift a dish up.

 Let me present to you:

Grilled cheese in truffle oil

 
Instead of buttering the outside parts of the bread, sprinkle a bit of the truffle oil – not too much because the taste can be overpowering! – grill that mofo’ until you can see the cheese inside oozing out. Now for the cheese, I used cheap cheese but if you can please take the time and go to your local fromagerie and ask for a mild child that melts easily – like Gruyere, manchego, Swiss, Haverti, provolone, etc..

When it’s time to serve, please do yourself a favor and sprinkle a bit of salt, pepper, smoked paprika and dried herbs (herbs de Provence should do).

Now, get off your seat, try it and thank me later!

Ana x

Homemade Pappardelle

I tried to make pasta for the first time today and I loved it.. It’s definitely my new addiction.

I was watching “two greedy Italians” on food channel as you do, and they were making homemade pasta with pesto sauce… I have been dreaming of homemade pasta ever since..

Today I made some lamb ribs, and since I had so much left over tomato sauce from the ribs, I have decided to save this for pasta sauce.. Like a cheating lamb ragu.. All the flavors of lamb but no meat just tomato sauce!

Since I haven’t bought a good scale yet, all measurements were done by eye and roughly how I would think pasta feels like

I used roughly 200gr of 00 flour and two free range eggs. Hand mixed the mixture like it was play dough, and rolled it with a glass – since I don’t have a rolling pin either… Once it’s thin enough that you can blow it off from your bench (trick learnt from the Italian gents) your pasta should be ready to be cut. I’ve cut mine with a pizza cutter.

Once your pasta is all cut in pieces, boil a pot of water and season it with salt to your taste. I’ve cooked the pasta for 1 minute and then rinsed it in cold water, this should helpremove the flour from pasta. Change the water in the pot and boil it again, once this is boiled, cook your pasta for another 2 minute and a half (or longer I like my pasta al dente).

In a sauce pan, heat your chosen sauce and add your pasta in for 30seconds.

Serve your homemade pappardelle with freshly grated Parmesan cheese

I hope you enjoy your meal

Ana x