Pan-fried Dover Sole with Bean Salad

Just thought I write up a quick post to show you what I served with the bean salad I put together for No Croutons Required!

I was down at my fishmongers* and they had the most gorgeous sole - I picked up this beaut for £2!!! Bargaineous! ;)

What with all the flavours going on in the salad I figured the best treatment of this delicate fish was to keep it simple. A quick dredging of the skinned fish with flour, salt and pepper, then frying it in a medium heat pan with a good glug of olive oil for 4/5 minutes each side. Just before the first side was finished I melted in a knob of butter... Easy, tasty, perfect!

I tried something a bit different when preparing the fish this time - dover sole is notorious for getting rid of all the wee bones along the fins... so this time I left the fins on whilst cooking, then when it was cooked, used the side of the fish slice to gently pull the side fins away. Woo hoo - They came away in tact, with no little bones left to catch me out! I don't know if that was a fluke, but it definitely seemed easier than when I've left them whole in the past!

Pan-fried Dover Sole with Bean Salad

* oooo, excitement for kittie! It was the first time I'd been there in a week or so... and they've had a redesign... Now, in addition to the 'normal' fish I buy, they have a tank of live lobsters and crabs. I can't wait to try them - I've never prepared live lobster or crab before! Any tips or tricks will be much appreciated :)

NCR: Bright & Beautiful Bean Salad with Capers & Oregano

Well, this is a first for me - sat in on a Friday night writing my blog! I never thought I'd see the day... But I've made it to the end of my first week at new work - and it's been a good one. Going to catch up on some of my reading tomorrow - I've been missing my daily blog-fix!

Anyway, I'm going to keep this entry short and sweet - it's 9pm and I'm far from ready to go out.

This is my month's entry to No Croutons Required. It was perfect timing for tonight really - healthy, tangy salad, with a hint of heat... ideal to prepare the body and soul for a good night out!

Bean Salad with Capers & Oregano

• 2 large tomatoes, chopped into large chunks
• 100g dwarf beans, lightly steamed, refreshed in ice water and chopped into bitesize chunks
• 1 tin kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 1 clove garlic, fine chopped
• 1 tbsp capers, roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano - plus extra to garnish
• half a cup of vegetable bouillion
• olive oil to fry

Prepare the Kidney Beans...
Heat a glug of olive oil to a medium heat - then fry the garlic for a minute. Toss in the kidney beans and half of the chili. Fry for a minute, keeping it moving, then add half a cup of vegetable bouillion. I like my beans quite soft - so I allow this to boil away for a few minutes - alternatively leave it to sit to absorb the flavours for a bit.

Make the Dressing...
Whisk together the extra virgin olive oil and the lemon juice, and mix in the capers and chopped oregano. Season to taste.

Put the salad together!
Mix together the tomatoes, remaining chili and dwarf beans. Strain off the remaining bouillion from the kidney beans and add them to the mix. Pour over the dressing and mix well.

Give it 10 minutes to let the flavours get to know each other. This will equalise the heat from the kidney beans and the cold items - best served at room temperature I reckon!

Enjoy!

NCR: Hot (Sauce!) Potato, Pear & Blue Stilton salad

This is the salad that I had worked out as my entry for No Croutons Required this month. Unfortunately life conspired against me, and between parental visits, a trip to Liverpool, and trying to prepare my apartment for sale I've had hardly any time to do the shopping/ preparation required to do many of my dishes! Anyone fancy coming to help me paint and garden the place into submission??

Anyway, I'm a day late for the submission, but here's my entry anyway - it's still worth a post! I had meant to make crispy pear croutons by drying out syruped pear cubes in the oven... but forgot to put them in the oven... So instead I fried them in a teeny dot of butter with a touch of sugar and a sprinkle of black pepper.

The 'Hot' in the title comes from the drizzle of the home made hot hot HOT scotch bonnet sauce I made yesterday - I was thinking along the lines of buffalo wings being served with blue cheese dressing! The salad should be served just warm or room temperature - not hot or the greens will wilt!

Hot (Sauce!) Potato, Pear & Blue Stilton salad

Serves 2!

• 1 pear, halved and sliced
• 100g blue stilton - I used Organic Stilton from Ley Cross Farm - a gorgeously smooth and creamy stilton... I still have a bit left - looking forward to it already!
• 1 chicory
• watercress
• Jersey royal potatoes - boiled and thickly sliced
• A few drops hot sauce to drizzle
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp english mustard
• salt

Prepare the potatoes...
Heat a glug of olive oil in a frying pan, add the potatoes and fry until crispy round the edges.

Prepare the dressing...
Whisk together the vinegar, olive oil mustard and salt to create an emulsion. Crumble in the Stilton and mix well.

Once the potatoes are crisped, transfer them to a bowl and pour over half of the dressing. Mix well - the heat from the potatoes should start to melt the cheese. Leave to cool for a bit - you don't want to add the potatoes when they are too hot.

Prepare the pears...
I would still have preferred the crispy pear croutons... bah... Oh well, will try to be less rubbish next time ;) Heat a tiny dab of butter in the frying pan and arrange the pear slices in the pan. Sprinkle with a little bit of sugar and a grind of black pepper. Cook for a minute or two on each side.

Assemble the salad!
Break up the chicory and half each of the larger leaves. Combine with the watercress and dress with the remaining dressing.

Arrange the potatoes and pears on top of the leaves. Drizzle with hot sauce to taste.

Vietnamese Crab Noodle Salad

Mmmm... I made this salad last week when I was ill with the cold - I figured I needed something with pretty strong flavours just so I could taste it! And it definitely hit the spot!!

I'm back at work now - feeling loads better. Luckily the cold didn't impact my appetite at all - even though I had days when I couldn't taste anything at all... Y'know - it's really hard to cook when you can't taste or smell!! I made a curry for my mum and dad on Thursday. I was using some new dried habenero chillies - and was really disappointed by how bland they were. Until my mum tried it... after the 2nd glass of water it became apparent that they weren't so bland after all!

But despite the cold and lack of taste, in the end I did manage to do some cooking - I just wasn't up to posting! And not being able to leave the house too much definitely helped me stick to my store cupboard challenge!

I'm sending this over to Ruth at Once Upon A Feast for Presto Pasta Night. I'm so glad you're feeling better now Ruth!

Vietnamese Crab Noodle Salad

Per person, multiply at will!

For the salad:

• rice vermicelli noodles, soaked according to packet, rinsed in cold water
• 1 scallion, shredded
• 1/2 medium carrot, grated
• 5 radishes, grated
• 1/4 cucumber, seeds removed, and chopped into chunks
• white crab meat (mine was from a tin!)
  

For the dressing:

• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• Juice of half a lime
• 1 Thai red chilli, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1" piece ginger, finely grated
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp rice vinegar (optional!)
  

Garnish:

• handful of raw peanuts, roasted and roughly chopped
• rough chopped cilantro
  

To make the dressing...
Put all the ingredients in a bowl, and mix until the sugar is dissolved

Put the salad together...
Pour half of the dressing over the drained noodles and mix well. Mix the salad veg together with the remaining dressing.
Put the noodles in the serving bowl and top with the veg, then the white crab meat.

Top with the peanuts and cilantro... and enjoy!

Store Cupboard Cooking Day 23

No Croutons Required: Spicy Mushroom Bulgar Salad

Hello and Happy Sunday!

This will be a short post - I'm about to go out and mow the lawn... in a vain attempt to restore order to the jungle before my parents come to visit on Thursday! But on the positive side, it is gorgeous outside - I even managed to get my pics taken outside!

But I just realised that today is the deadline for No Croutons Required, jointly hosted by Lisa and Hollers. It's the third one - and a great event. This month the theme is mushroom soup or salad - I couldn't miss it!

So without further ado - I present...

Spicy Mushroom Bulgar Salad

• 1 cup bulgar wheat
• hot vegetable stock (approx 250ml - enough to cover the bulgar wheat by a cm or so!
• 1 red chilli, finely chopped
  
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
  
• Approx. 500g mixed mushrooms - I used 2 portabellos, and equal amounts of oyster and chestnut!
• 12 sun dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
• Small handful of pinenuts, lightly toasted
  
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp dried chilli flakes
• maldon sea salt (or normal!)
• rocket leaves

Make the Bulgar What...
In a dry frying pan, toast the bulgar wheat for a few minutes until it turns golden. Transfer to a bowl and cover with the stock. Cover and leave for 10 minutes. Check that it is cooked through and all the stock is absorbed - you may need to add more water and leave for a bit longer. Once cooked, fluff up well and cover.

Make the dressing...
Chuck the oil, vinegar, a couple pinches of salt and the chilli flakes into a jar and shake til emulsified. Or whisk it. It's really up to you!

** As soon as both the dressing and the bulgar wheat is ready, pour 1/2 the dressing into the bulgar wheat and mix well. Cover again and set aside.

Frying the mushrooms...
Prepare the mushrooms by peeling those that need peeled, cleaning those that need cleaned, and chopping into decent sized bits. Heat frying pan to a low to medium heat, add a glug of olive oil, then add the mushrooms. Fry slowly, stirring frequently. Once the water starts to come out of the mushrooms, add the garlic, chilli and a good pinch of maldon salt. Fry for another couple of minutes, then add to the bulgar wheat mix.

Putting it all together...
Add the sun-dried tomatoes and most of the pinenuts to the bulgar wheat and mix well. Use the remaining dressing to dress the rocket leaves. Put a handful on each plate. On top of that add the bulgar mix, and garnish with a few of the remaining pinenuts.



Right, got to go and make the most of this sunshine... by gardening!

Yummy Scrummy AND healthy! Mmmm... Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh - the first time I tried it, I found it so-so. Nice idea, nice ingredients... but in the end, wasn't it just a bit.... bland? Some years later I visited a local Lebanese restaurant - where Tabbouleh formed part of an amazing mixed starter plate. I was shocked with it arrived. Instead of a pile of bulgar wheat, it was full of herbs, beautifully soft parsley - with just a hint of cilantro. Mmmm... I can still remember even bypassing my beloved hummus to eat it. it was that good.

So when I was deciding what to do with the rest of my chermoula, I decided to stick with the North African theme and even though the weather was cold outside, go for this beautiful salad.

It isn't entirely authentic - I do add a touch of garlic - just because I like it! And I wasn't too happy with how it turned out - there was too much tomato (and it was chopped too big), the parsley wasn't chopped quite finely enough, and my local greengrocer was out of cilantro. But after 2 hours resting in the fridge it still ended up tasting lovely!

Tabbouleh

Serves 4

• 1 cups bulgar wheat (I used the medium grade)
• 1 large bunch parsley, thoroughly washed
• 3 large tomatoes (I used 5 - too much!)
• 1 small clove of garlic (optional)
• 1 red onion
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of one lemon
• Salt and pepper

Cover the bulgar wheat with cold water, and leave for 20/30 minutes. If you have a thicker grade bulgar wheat you may have to leave it longer!

Blanch and remove the skins from the tomatos. Quarter them and discard seeds before dicing finely.
Finely chop the garlic and red onion.
Using a knive, finely chop the parsley - including the stocks. I think I left about 2 inches of stock left from my bunch - you don't want the really tough bits.

Mix the herbs, tomatoes, onion and garlic with the bulgar wheat, add the lemon juice and a couple of glugs of extra virgin olive oil. Add a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper.

Cover and put in the fridge for a couple of hours to let the flavours mingle. After this time, give it a good mix, taste and adjust seasoning if required.

Serve with Moroccan chicken like I did, or with hummus and pita bread for a light lunch or supper!

My smug and tasty bean salad!

Well, after my speedy efforts to cook myself a quick dinner last night, I found myself with time to spare to make something nice and healthy to bring to lunch today!

After going for sushi on Saturday night, and snacking on pork gyozas when watching Terminator 2 on Sunday, I was feeling somewhat Japanese inspired, and decided to do something with edamame beans (soybeans) - but I can't take credit for the salad idea, as I nicked it from from Marks and Spencers...!

It tastes fabulous, and is super healthy. Unfortunately since I started typing this I've scoffed a choccie biscuit - but I still feel fairly virtuous!

Tuna and Bean Salad with a Spicy Sweet Chilli Dressing

Now, I have absolutely no idea what quantities I used - so am going to use handfuls! I made enough for 2 lunches - add or remove from this as required... Though it will keep for a couple of days in the fridge - just don't put the dressing on until you are ready to eat it. I reuse an old vitamin bottle to take salad dressings to work - then just shake it up and pour it on!

• 200g tin tuna steaks
• Large handful of broad beans (I used frozen)
  
• Large handful of edamame beans (I used frozen)
• Large handful of sugarsnap peas
  
• 100g fine green beans, chopped into 1cm long pieces
• Small handful of chopped coriander
• 2 large handfuls leafy salad (I wanted to get rocket for this, but the shop didn't have any - so I tried pea shoots instead - lovely! Watercress would also work well)

Cook the broad beans , edamame and green beans for 3/4 minutes, or until just tender, then plunge into iced water to refresh. Drain well.
Divide the cold cooked beans between two dishes.
Place a handful of the salad leaves on top of the beans and top with the coriander.
Scatter over the sugarsnap peas.
Flake the tuna steaks and divide between the two dishes.

The dressing:
6 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
Juice of one lemon
Dash soy sauce
2 tbsp olive oil

Shake dressing ingedients together well, and pour over salad just before eating.