Quickie light and tasty salmon spaghetti

There's something about the beginning of spring that has me looking at food a whole new way every week.  The new produce, the lighter meals, the heater not having to be on.. more daylight.. and sunshine!  Loving the sunshine!   I made this for lunch the other day and it was just enough for me and hubby so suggest if you want to make it for a family or more, multiply the ingredients as you need.   It takes about 25 minutes from beginning to end, such a great way to get dinner (or lunch) in a hurry.

Ingredients:

120 gr spaghetti of choice

1 small spanish or red onion, diced

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

3 tb of parsley chopped

zest and juice of half a lemon

100g smoked salmon

1/3 cup evaporated milk

4 tb fresh pecorino or parmesan cheese, finely grated

Method:

Put a medium sized saucepan full of water on to boil.

Prepare your onion, garlic, parsley, lemon zest (do not juice yet) and salmon.  Open your evaporated milk.

Once your pot is boiling, add your spaghetti.. then heat a heavy frypan and add oil, garlic and onion until soft.

Keep it simmering until your pasta is almost cooked, if it gets dry, just drop some tablespoons of the spaghetti water to keep it bubbling away.

Drain your spaghetti, and add to the frypan.

Ad parsley, lemon zest and salmon to the top and squeeze lemon juice over the top before tossing.

Add evaporated milk and toss a few times

Then add some lashings of black pepper

Lastly grate your pecorino/parmesan over the top and give it one last toss before serving.

The smell is so fresh, as is the taste.  You can taste it all - it tastes light and filling all at once.

I'll be making this one again soon, looks like smoked salmon slices will be making a regular visit to my shopping list!

Leek and Crab Lasagne

Karen Martini on Better Homes and Gardens is a bit hit and miss for me.    But when she hits, she hits it out of the ballpark.  I saw this recipe on the show a few weeks back and thought it looked interesting and mentioned it to hubby.  He was practically drooling just talking about it so I picked up this months edition of the magazine and gathered the ingredients. The original recipe uses fresh lasagne sheets and capers - hubby detests capers so I didn't use them and I had some dried lasagne sheets to use...

Crab meat my friends isn't cheap though - and although the recipe calls for 200g, I used 400g.  And that cost me a bit - but in hindsight totally worth it - it made enough for us, a leftover lunch and gave some to Nanny.   This would impress the pants off friends at a dinner party I'm sure (well hopefully not literally) but Hubby has already told me this is his new birthday meal - he's pretty impressed!


Ingredients:
4 leeks, sliced
4 cloves of garlic
200g crab meat
100g butter
700ml fish stock
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup plain flour
100ml cream
1 packet large curly lasagne (or whatever you like!)
1 tub baby bococcini
180g mascarpone
fresh grated parmesan


 Method:
In a saucepan place 30g of the butter with garlic and leek, over medium heat cook until the leeks are soft and a bit golden on the edges.

In another saucepan (hope your dishwasher is empty!) bring your fish stock up to a boil with the bayleaf (I used 2 small fresh ones from the garden..)

In another saucepan (yes I'm serious) heat the remainder of your butter until it starts to bubble and go golden, add the flour and whisk quickly - add the stock bit by bit still whisking until all the stock is in the mixture and it's like a gravy.  Discard the bayleaf.

Add the cream and then pour the leek into the sauce or vice-versa.

Preheat oven to 190 degrees c.

Put a bit of the leek sauce on the bottom of your baking dish and put your lasagne sheets on top.

Then start layering.... 1/3 at a time - crab meat, baby boccocini, dollops of masarpone, leek sauce and then sprinkling of freshly grated parmesan and black pepper.

Keep going, layer after layer until all done.  Cover with baking paper (will stop the cheese sticking to the top) and then a layer of aluminium foil.

Place in the oven for 50 minutes with the foil and baking paper on and another 15-20 minutes with it off.

Let it sit for about 15 minutes before serving.  Oh my - you're going to congratulate yourself (and by then you've done all the washing up too!)

OK, who wants some?

RECIPE: Shortcut slow cooker tuna pasta casserole !

Hello!

As you might have guessed I've been rather time-poor recently.  My big project I've been working on has gone live - but before that one ended, I've started another 2 phases of the project and preparing another!  It's caaarazy.   So these days on the rare days I do get to cook I find myself wanting to spend time with the frills and basically, sleeping!

This one's super cheaty.  It's not something you'd want to eat every day but it's a firm favourite with kids and I love it for the comfort-food factor.  The added bonus is it only has a few ingredients and takes about 10 minutes to prepare.  And there's leftovers - feeds us two meals!  And the biggest bonus for me is my biggest Frill Miss Eloise can make it with me.

Ingredients

1 tin cream of mushroom soup

300mls cream or evaporated milk

2 large tins of tuna, with brine (don't drain)

2 cups uncooked macaroni

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup frozen corn (you can use whatever you like, mixed veges if you like!)

3 shallots or spring onions, chopped

1 cup shredded/grated cheese

1 tsp ground pepper

Method:

One by one  add all the ingredients to your slowcooker...albeit the cheese.

Remember if you want to use evaporated milk instead of cream, that's a lower fat option..

Eloise loves to cook with Mummy.  I miss my frills!

If you're in a bit of a hurry, pre-cook your macaroni for 5 minutes - this will cut down the cooking time in the slow cooker to 1 hour on high.

I love white and black pepper, but you can add other herbs like parsley or chives also if you like!

Cook on low for 5 hours or medium-high for 3 hours.  About 30 minutes before serving, stir in the cheese.

Delicious!  And so simple, great for a lazy or busy day!

The one where I admit my hubby was right: Oven baked smoked salmon spring rolls

Well as I was scouring the internet last week looking for a use for some extra smoked salmon I had (I bought a good amount for blinis I'd made but had leftovers) and I came across these - and I was a little dubious but as I called it out to hubby he was very enthusiastic:

'They sound yummy' he said

'You really think so? Fish in a spring roll?  In the oven?'  I wasn't so convinced.  Ironic given I'm the fish-lover in the family.

So hubby went out to the garden and picked some spring onions and coriander and I popped the oven and got chopping. 

Well my hubby was right (If he reads this I'm sure he'll print it for future reference....!) these are delicious and definitely would be fabulous for a canape or entree or just a treat.  Really delicious.

Ingredients: (makes 24)

250g smoked salmon, roughly chopped

2 tb mayonnaise

2 sprig coriander, finely chopped

3 spring onions, finely chopped

pinch of chinese five spice

8 sheets filo pastry

50gr butter, melted

Method:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees c

Mix together the salmon, mayonnaise, coriander, spring onons and five spice together, set aside

Melt butter in a small bowl or cup in the microwave

Wet a teatowel with cold water and wring out the excess, have on standby.

Layout your pastry on the bench and cut into thirds lengthwise.  Carefully wrap 2/3 of the pastry in the teatowel to keep the pastry moist whilst you make the spring rolls.

Brush each piece with the melted butter and place 2 tsp of the mixture towards the end of the pastry...

fold the pastry inwards to cover the ends..

Then roll up to make the roll shape.

Brush outer with butter... and place on some greaseproof paper-lined tin.

Bake for 15 minutes or until golden... serve with some soy sauce and eat when warm and crispy!

Do you admit when your other half is right?  Do they take delight in it and vice versa?

15 seafood dishes to inspire you on Good Friday

I'm pretty sure I've told you before but for years before I had babies I was pescatarian.  I ate fish/seafood at least four times a week and I didn't eat any read or white meat.  Hubby was a country boy who loves his steak so our compromise was to eat out two nights a week.  I could order what I liked and he could get his fill steak juiciness.  When I fell pregnant with Eloise I started to crave steak myself which of course delighted my husband.

I remember exactly when it happened: he picked me up from work (in our tiny hatchback car at the time - how things have changed!) and I looked across at him and said 'I think I want steak for dinner'.  I'm sure he thought I was joking but I assured him I wasn't.   So we stopped by a butcher on the way home and he got us some scotch fillet.  I don't think he wanted to risk any chance of me not liking the cut but I'm sure he spent at least $30 on two pieces of meat.

Then he dutifully cooked me the steak medium well and even made a mushroom gravy.  I haven't looked back since.  BUT I still love my fish and we still have it at least once a week.  It doesn't have to be fancy, but especially with the price of seafood going down - do compare your prices to chicken and beef/lamb per kilo and you'll notice these days fish is really affordable.  Some things you don't even need that much - anything smoked you can use to flavour sauces etc so a little can go a long way.

Even if you don't do fish for Good Friday - here's some seafood inspiration for any day!   Hope you enjoy your Easter weekend! xxx
[image source]

The Good Friday fish buying guide and talking sustainability with Curtis Stone

There's nothing quite like picking up your telephone and hearing on the other end: 'Hi Melissa, it's Curtis, Curtis Stone' really.  A bit surreal.  Someone who's cardboard cut-out you pass regularly on your way through the supermarket....

Now he's talking to ME on the phone. Thank goodness he can't see me, I'm in my tracky dacks.

In fact, when he calls me he's just finished cooking fish on the The Circle - here he is their test kitchen with his sous-chef Hawaiian born Mario Manabe (thank you Emily for your pic! x) - the recipe looked easy but impressive - you can find it here.

Curtis is passionate about getting the good word out about fish with his latest campaign with Coles about Fish sustainability.   Curtis has worked with Coles and the WWF to ensure all fish at Coles is sold in an ethical and responsible way.  I like this because for me, I'm not totally up on what's sustainable and what's not - and that is an important thing to know - so Coles is taking the guesswork out of it for me!


So once I've got over the shock that I'm sitting there in my tracky dacks, talking to Curtis Stone, and my questions I prepared are on my computer which has decided to spontaneously lock, I gain composure and begin asking the questions I want to ask... for all of us -

What does that all mean?

'Coles have signed a 3 year agreement with World Wildlife Fund to ensure they sell only seafood that are sustainable - i.e. are not endangered and whose supply is constant. This of course changes all the time, so accordingly you will find the seafood changes from time to time at your local Coles.'

Curtis he tells me has a very active role in this new direction of Coles - he is passionate about ethical food and although he knows price is quite a concern of the average shopper he put it to me in a very provoking way.

'Imagine if you were serving your dinner to your family - organic this and free-range that, and then someone came up and said 'hey, here's $2.50 - I'm just going to give inject some hormones here, and some additives there'  would you take the money?' 

Isn't that literally food for thought? You could also easily exchange the 'inject some hormones here and additives there' for 'swap it with imported product' too.


Do you know how Coles is progressing with labeling genetically modified food?  Do you see this happening in any near future?

'I definitely see that as something that looks like it will be on the cards world-wide - it's very hard to trace though in some cases as some fish for example feed off waste of other fish and even other fish entirely - who's to say if it's wildcaught fish that it hasn't fed from waste that has genetically modified fish in it?  It could easily happen in a farming environment too - but I think the word is getting out there, I think it's in the  future.'

What are your suggestions for those of us who arrive at the fish counter and draw a blank?
What should pregnant/breastfeeding mothers choose?

'You need to buy fish with low mercury content - so try baby barramundi, whole or filleted snapper.'

Kids? (even those who think real fish comes in a fish finger!)

'Try some boneless fillets of trevally, blue eye cod or barramundi.  These will hold together when cooked either on a frypan, stove top, bbq or oven.   You could try crumbing them and shaping into fish fingers or coujons'

BBQ?

'Barbeque on the flat part of your grill only and choose a firm fish like barramundi, blue eyed cod, trevally or salmon.  Avoid tuna on the BBQ as it quite dry.'

Baking fish?

'Baking fish is a really great 'set and forget' and by wrapping loosely and sealing in aluminium foil with flavour you can achieve a very good result without a lot of effort.  Any kind of fish is great baked.'

What are some budget options you could recommend?

'Shellfish like prawns and yabbies are great budget busters and there's many ways to prepare them - mussels and calamari are also great budget ways to get your fix of fresh seafood.  Sushi is a great option for budget fish consumption because you only need a little - prawn or salmon.'

You can see more information on how to select, prepare and cook fish for your family here at the Coles seafood online guide.  (I'd personally love to see this as an iPhone app don't you think?)

And the last question I ask is about some of the apparatus he cooked with that morning -  in particular I was enamoured with the oil bottle and mortar and pestle - both of which he says on the Circle are from his range - I ask where can you get them?  David Jones people!  Aren't they lovely?  

So friends, how often do you cook with fish?  Do you have a favourite type/method of cooking?  Does the idea of touching raw fish give you the willies?

Quickie dinner - Tempura prawns

I'm not a big fan of deep frying anything really but tempura prawns is something I adore and whenever I get the opportunity I have some.  I love tempura zucchini flowers too.  My girls like tempura fish fillets and actually if you find some fish on special it's a quick meal to make for the kids - little tempura fish cocktails.

The batter is lovely and light and I like that there's no greasy aftertaste.  I love these plainly with just a bit of sea salt and mayonnaise but I also love to make sushi with them too.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup rice flour

1/2 cup plain flour

1 egg, whisked

COLD soda water

Oil for frying (I used canola)

12 green prawns 

Method:

Peel your prawns - I've recently discovered the prawn peeler  note to all friends who hate peeling the endtrails from prawns - this is brilliant.  Use only raw prawns though - cooked prawns are a bit too tough for it.

Mix your batter in a bowl, simply by adding the flours and egg together and then adding soda water (how I love the soda stream at times like this) please make sure it's cold, because this makes the batter 'bubble'. Mix until is holds together but is runny - like thinnish paint.

Heat your oil and when it is sizzling hot (test it by flicking a bit of batter in there) dip your prawns in the batter ...

...and then straight into the oil for no longer than 15-20 seconds, take out with tongs and place on some kitchen paper.

Serve!

(Psst check out the competition on the new Howards Storage World online store:  win a chef for a night! and 5x $500 vouchers - I love that it's online! I can shop when I'm time poor or just check out stuff before I go instore - I have kitchengadgetitis.) 

Fresh, quick and yummy - Yabby salad

Yabbies you say?  Yabbies?  Are you sure?

If you grew up near or have holidayed near freshwater creeks, odds on you may have been yabbying.  Yabbies I would describe as like a mini-lobster with the taste or a gamey-like prawn.  You cook them similar to a lobster - if they are fresh - freeze them first to put them to sleep and then straight into boiling water for a minute - two tops!  If you've bought them cooked, just peel them similar to a prawn.

image credit

They are actually beautiful barbequed - just the tails - with butter and garlic.

Today, I just made a salad - because I felt like something refreshing and I love the taste of the yabby with the dressing and the crunch of the lettuce - let's call it a 70's deja-vu moment to a prawn cocktail perhaps....

But my kids ate it - they love their seafood and particularly prawns - when they are prawns on the table - there's a scramble - now we can add yabbies to that list also.


Ingredients:
1/2 iceberg lettuce, roughly torn
3 truss tomatoes, cut in eight pieces each
1 lebanese cucumber, diced
1 kg yabbies, cooked, peeled and de veined
Dressing
3 tb mayonnaise
2 tsp tomato sauce
1/4 tsp tabasco sauce


Method:
Mix contents of your mayo and mix well.

Layer the lettuce, then tomato, cucumber, yabbies and lastly dressing.