Vodka Tonic Battered Hake

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Tandy

It is not often that I lose my sense of humour and it takes me a long time to get angry. But like a typical red head when I lose it, I really lose it. I think it is important in life to respect other people and to take them into consideration. When I am constantly not taken into consideration by the same person, I will let it slide until ENOUGH is ENOUGH. Has this happened to you? Yesterday, the last straw was placed on the proverbial camel’s back. I had a lot of things on my list to do – shopping, banking, meeting a friend for a birthday milkshake amongst going to gym, working, fetching the post and baking. All of this in a normal day is time consuming enough – but waiting around to meet someone who cancels 15 minutes after I expect them is more than rude. It is inconsiderate. Today I waited 35 minutes (“why” I hear you all asking yourselves) to meet someone to give them their gift. The plan was to meet at a specific time but not a specific place. I decided after 35 minutes to call and tell my friend that I would wait in the coffee shop closest to where I was, only to be told – sorry, I am not going to make it for another 20 minutes. That person knew already at the time we should have met that she was going to be late. So why not send me a text message saying so? Why do she think it is OK for me to sit around and wait for her? This is the same person who would not wait 2 minutes for me when I was running late – go figure. Clearly her time is more important in her mind to my own. So, with my anger levels way up, I have come to realize that this friend is not worth having in my life. My life is short, and time is precious and I cannot spend it sitting around, waiting for them to be in it.

With my time wasted so, supper was a simple fish dish. We do not usually deep fry anything, but for this batter I would do so over and over again. I first experienced it at the Good Food and Wine Show when we cooked this James Martin recipe – it is brilliant and I am sure you could swap out the vodka and tonic which I will do next time I make this. The batter seems to be very thick but do not ‘water’ it down, it works just as it is.

VODKA TONIC BATTERED HAKE

adapted from James Martin

ingredients:

1 tablespoon fresh yeast

pinch of sugar

175mls tonic water

25mls vodka

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

200g plain flour

pinch of salt

4 portions of hake

Well seasoned flour for dusting

oil for frying

method:

in a bowl add the yeast, sugar, tonic water, vodka and vinegar

in another bowl add the flour and salt

slowly whisk the flour into the liquid ingredients

leave the mixture to ferment – it is ready to use when the mixture starts to bubble

heat your oil to 190° Celsius

pat dry the hake fillets

dust with the flour and then coat with the batter

cook for 4 minutes – or until golden and crisp

carefully remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper

VODKA TONIC BATTERED HAKE PRINTABLE VERSION

Tandy

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Snoek Pâté

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Tandy

I can tell how far my recipe development has come along from my first post on Snoek Pâté to this one. I have a note book in my kitchen and each time I make something I want to blog about I write down exactly what I have used, and what I did with the ingredients. This helps me a lot, as it sometimes takes me months to get my posts from paper to page! I blog when I have time and my memory is not brilliant. In November 2011 I took a trip to Johannesburg and my mom asked me to bring some snoek pâté with me. A trip to Johannesburg involves a 40 minute car ride to the airport and a one hour wait (usually) at the airport before a two hour flight. I then have to wait for my bags and catch the Gautrain to Sandton – it will be at least 5 hours of travelling. I had to ensure that the snoek pâté would stay frozen and so used my very clever lunch containers. They have a freezer block you clip into the lid. The first process was finding some decent snoek and then seasoning it without garlic. My dad is not a fan of garlic and so we could not do our usual braaid snoek recipe. After having some snoek for supper, I allowed the left overs to cool before making the pâté. I then put it into my lunch container, clipped in the freezer block and froze the pâté. I was amazed as by the time I got to my sister’s house 7 hours after leaving the office, the pâté was still frozen. We left it to defrost in the fridge overnight and you could not taste that the pâté had been frozen. This was a huge hit with the people having snacks with us on the Friday night.

SNOEK PÂTÉ

ingredients:

1 cup snoek, flaked

3 tablespoons crème fraîche

1 teaspoon cream

2 spring onions, chopped

10g flat leaf parsley, chopped

salt to season

method:

place the ingredients into a blender and blend until as smooth as you want it

SNOEK PÂTÉ PRINTABLE VERSION

Tandy

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Turnip and Spinach Soup, Mushrooms With Spinach and Gruyere, Quinoa Coated Hake Gougons & Chocolate and Berry Swiss Roll For Ready Steady Cook

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Tandy

I want to thank all the bloggers who took part in this challenge. I was not going to take part, but Paula was going to have her ingredient list ‘orphaned’ so I decided to participate. I love making food with a random set of ingredients and so this challenge is a pleasure for me. Paula challenged me to use the following 7 ingredients:

fresh spinach
fish – fresh or frozen, freshwater or saltwater
berries – fresh or frozen
cheese – Gruyere or Emmentaler
portabello mushrooms
quinoa
turnips, parsnips or rutabaga – or any combination of the three

Together with the 7 ingredients, I had devised quite an extensive pantry list of ingredients the participants could use – based on the original challenge I did, and I asked each blogger to add an ingredient. These were as follows:

Milk/Cream
Eggs
Flour (or a flour substitute)
Lemons
Garlic
Ginger
Chillies
Fresh Herbs
Dried Herbs
Dried Spices
Sugar (or a sugar substitute)
Butter/margarine
Salt
Pepper
Oil – any of your choice
Vinegar
Pasta / Noodles / Rice
Tinned Tomatoes
Tinned Chickpeas
Chocolate / Cacao
Stock

For starters I decided to do a turnip and spinach soup. This was easy, and perfect for the night I decided to make my ready steady cook meal, as the heatwave had broken and it was raining.

TURNIP AND SPINACH SOUP

ingredients:

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 large turnip cut up into a large dice

1 cup stock

1 cup water

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning

80g baby spinach

method:

heat the oil over a medium heat in a soup pot

add the turnips and stir well, until they are starting to cook

add the stock, the water, the nutmeg and the seasoning

bring to the boil, reduce the heat and cover and simmer for 30 minutes

blend until smooth

add the spinach and bring back to the boil

blend again, adjust the seasoning and serve

TURNIP AND SPINACH SOUP PRINTABLE VERSION

My side dish for the main course was easy to prepare. I chose the biggest portabello mushrooms I could find and I chose a locally manufactured Gruyere cheese. The cheesery is less than 100km’s from us and they make a really nice selection of cheeses. I added the rest of my spinach to these and came up with a really good side dish, which could be served as a starter.

MUSHROOMS WITH SPINACH AND GRUYERE

ingredients:

2 portabello mushrooms, stalks removed

100g baby spinach

2 cloves garlic, crushed

salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning

a pinch of nutmeg

30g Gruyere, grated

10g butter

olive oil for drizzling

method:

preheat the oven to 180° Celsius

wilt the spinach with the garlic and season

set aside to cool

squeeze out the excess liquid and add the nutmeg

chop finely and mix in the cheese

place the butter into a frying pan and cook the top of the mushroom

drizzle the bottom (ribbed side) with olive oil and season

distribute the spinach mix into each mushroom

bake for 10 minutes

MUSHROOMS WITH SPINACH AND GRUYERE PRINTABLE VERSION

For my main course I chose hake – a soft white fish that is fished for off the coast in False Bay. These come directly from the company that fishes for them. I have never used quinoa before and so the night before, I made up some to go with our meal. This is a low GI grain with an unusual taste and texture – and Dave loves it. We are quite addicted to Chopped and so I used the the program for my inspiration here. I took the quinoa and ground it up to ‘bread’ the fish with. It added a great texture to this soft fish, and I am going to do this again.

QUINOA COATED HAKE GOUJONS

ingredients:

¼ cup flour

salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning

1 egg, beaten

¼ cup quinoa

½ teaspoon coriander seeds

½ teaspoon salt

1 hake fillet, sliced into goujons

15g butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

method:

season the flour

grind the quinoa together with the coriander seeds and the ½ teaspoon salt

pat dry your fish

set up a breading station and place the fish first into the flour, then into the egg and finally into the quinoa

heat the butter and the oil in a large frying pan

cook the fish one minute per side, skin side down first

QUINOA COATED HAKE GOUJONS PRINTABLE VERSION

After such a healthy starter and main course, a decadent dessert was in order. I made a Swiss roll that has me thinking about other options with the base. Raspberries and blackberries were on special and so I bought a punnet of each, knowing the colours would be great in contrast to the chocolate base, and whipped cream centre.

CHOCOLATE AND BERRY SWISS ROLL

adapted from James Martin BBC Hands On Workshop

ingredients:

for the Swiss roll:

2 eggs

55g caster sugar – I used fructose

50g self raising flour

5g cacao and more for dusting

for the filling:

125mls cream

24 assorted berries

method:

for the Swiss roll:

preheat the oven to 180° Celsius

line a small Swiss roll tin with baking paper

whisk together the eggs and the sugar until they are light, fluffy and thickened

sieve together the flour and the cacao

fold the flour into the eggs until well combined

pour the batter into the tin and smooth the top with a spatula

bake for 8 – 10 minutes – watch from 8 minutes as you want a skewer to come out clean and you don’t want the surface to crust

place a piece of baking paper on your work surface that is larger than the Swiss roll

dust lightly with cacao

turn the sponge out onto the baking paper and then peel the baking paper gently off the exposed side of the sponge

set aside to cool slightly

whisk the cream until stiff

spread the cream over the sponge, leaving a 2cm gap along one of the long sides

on the long side that has the cream to the bottom, place a row of berries

and then place a second row quite close to the first one

starting at this edge, use the baking paper to roll up the sponge to form the Swiss roll

make sure you press tightly to encase the filling

CHOCOLATE AND BERRY SWISS ROLL PRINTABLE VERSION

Tandy

To see what all the lovely challengers did, click the linky below

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Hake Curry

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Tandy

This post has been sitting in my draft folder since May. Sometimes I have so many words and no recipes, but at the time of writing this recipe, it was the opposite. Life has moved in an amazing direction since May that it is a good opportunity to reflect. It is also Thanksgiving Day in America – a tradition that should be celebrated the world over as I think people everywhere have so much to be grateful for. I am grateful for my loving husband who does not mind being without me while I travel to Johannesburg. I am grateful for my work which means I can keep a roof over my head and food on my table. I am grateful for my family who are amazing. I am grateful for my friends – both old and new. I am grateful for the people I have met in real life and virtually through this blog. I am grateful for the work I am doing because of this blog. I am grateful for the home I have made with Dave, and the house we are building together. I am grateful for good health. My list is endless but the one last thing I am grateful for is the generosity of customers who make sure Dave and I always have fresh fish.

HAKE CURRY

ingredients:

1 tablespoon oil

1 onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 2.5cm piece root ginger, peeled, and grated

1 red chilli, seeded and sliced

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon garam masala

1 tin coconut milk

2 potatoes, quartered

2 carrots, sliced

1 large hake fillet, seasoned and cut into chunks

100g green beans

method:

in a thick bottomed pan heat the oil over a medium heat

cook the onion until translucent

add the garlic, ginger and chilli and cook for a few minutes

add the curry and the garam masala and as soon as you can smell the spices add the coconut milk

add the potatoes and the carrots, cover and simmer over a low heat

when the potatoes are soft add the hake and as soon as it is nearly cooked add the beans

serve with a mint raita

Printable Version

Tandy

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Carom Seed Curry

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Tandy

I have a troll, a person who reads my blog, from start to finish, and then leaves me really horrid comments. The great thing is that I am able to control who comments on my posts, and so Mr Allan Trollface, your comments will not be displayed on my blog. I find this all so childish and suspect that a fellow South African food blogger is responsible for this behaviour. I think it is probably a scare tactic to ensure people stop blogging so that their blog is the last one left standing. I am not intimidated by you, your comments, or your general meanness. However, please feel free to continue leaving your comments for me – I love to improve myself. My spelling is hopefully correct and my grammar is as I speak! Oh, and by the way, I have a degree in English – I could write like I was taught, but the reading aloud of the blog would not sound like me at all. Another thing I am not afraid of is new ingredients. And so, here is another dish using the mystery ingredients gifted to me by Cindy.

CAROM SEED CURRY

Recipe adapted from Dahi Wali Machli Curry page 48

ingredients:

2 hake fillets, cut in half

½ teaspoon salt

juice of half a lemon

¾ teaspoon ground turmeric

¼ teaspoon crushed chillies

2 ½ teaspoons carom seeds

1 tablespoon chickpea flour

for the sauce:

3 tablespoons ghee

1 small onion, finely chopped

½ teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon ground turmeric

½ teaspoon salt

1cm fresh root ginger, finely chopped

1 green chilli, split in half

200g yoghurt

20g chickpea flour

175mls vegetable stock

¼ teaspoon garam masala

¼ teaspoon fenugreek

method:

place the fish in a large bowl

make a rub of the salt, lemon juice and turmeric and rub into the fish

set aside to marinade for 20 minutes

remove the fish from the marinade and set aside to dry – retain the marinade

mix together the crushed chillies, carom seeds and chickpea flour

coat the skin side of the fish with the flour

heat the ghee in a frying pan

pan fry the skin side of the fish until nice and crispy

remove and set aside

add the onion and sauté until golden brown

add the cumin, turmeric and salt and sauté until you can smell the spices

stir in the ginger and the chilli and cook for 2 minutes

whisk together the yoghurt and the flour and ensure there are no lumps

add the left over marinade to this

slowly add the mixture to the pan and stir constantly to ensure it does not split

increase the heat and bring to the boil

add 125mls of the stock and bring back to the boil

add the garam masala and the fenugreek

reduce the heat and simmer for 3 minutes

remove the chilli and add the fish

cook over a low heat until the fish is cooked

while the fish is cooking you may need to loosen the sauce with the balance of the stock

Printable Version

Tandy

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Lime Poached Hake

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Tandy

Cindy has gifted me a few interesting products and we have decided to post the recipes together. Our first ingredient is kaffir lime leaves. I always have these in my store cupboard as I make a lot of Thai curries. The verdant and aromatic leaves of the kaffir lime are normally added as a final garnish to a curry after it is cooked. Their perfume helps to cover any bitter or muddy flavours. When adding, crush the leaves lightly to help release their fragrance. Frozen kaffir lime leaves have little of the characteristic smell, while dried have none. (Curry page 211). One would traditionally associate using lime leaves with a coconut milk based curry, but I decided as this is an ingredient challenge to use the lime leaves in a different way. I hope if you try this recipe you find it as mildly fragrant as we did.

LIME POACHED HAKE

ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

5 spring onions, chopped

1 hake portion per person

fish rub for seasoning

1 cup vegetable stock, warmed

2 kaffir lime leaves

1 lime, sliced

Small handful of fresh coriander, chopped, for garnishing

method:

heat the olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the onions until soft

season the hake and place into the pan skin side down

after 2 minutes add the vegetable stock and lime leaves

after 4 minutes turn the fish and add the lime

serve with lime infused basmati rice and the coriander

Printable Version

Tandy

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Apple Cider Mackerel with Horseradish Mash

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Tandy

Of all the things I have lost, I miss my mind the most! This seems such an apt saying for me right now. I have lost my memory. I certainly hope that where ever it is vacationing, it is having a good time! Also, I need it back. I think I am being challenged right now as I am so tired. I am just not sleeping well. I woke up ten days ago with a sore throat and since then my sleep has been fitful. It has finally caught up with me, and right now, I could put my head on the desk and catch a quick snooze. Instead, I will have to conquer the day and my tiredness as we have house guests for 2 days. This quick meal should be perfect for entertaining!

PS, I wrote this post a month ago! The house guests came and we had an amazing time with them. They shared the good news of their engagement and hopefully we will go overseas for their wedding! Congratulations to the both of you – may your lives be filled with love always

APPLE CIDER MACKEREL WITH HORSERADISH MASH

ingredients:

2 mackerel fillets

salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning

1 shallot, thinly sliced

1 apple, thinly sliced

340mls apple cider

3 tablespoons cider vinegar

chopped chives for garnish

method:

season the mackerel

place the shallots, apple, apple cider and vinegar into a pan and bring to the boil

add the mackerel and boil for 5 minutes

remove the mackerel and the apples and reduce the cooking liquid

pour over the mackerel and season with black pepper

garnish with the chives

serve with horseradish mash

Printable Version

Tandy

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Hake with Anchovy Butter, Olives and Caper Berries

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Tandy

We have been given the most beautiful, huge pieces of hake and as this fish can take on so many wonderful flavours, I decided to make use of the anchovy butter with olives and caper berries to sauce it up.

© hake with anchovy, olive and caper berry

ingredients:

salt

hake fillets

1 tablespoon butter

1 shallot, sliced

1 garlic clove, crushed

10 olives, depipped

10 caper berries

10g anchovy butter

method:

salt the skin of the hake

heat the butter in a frying pan and saute the shallot and the garlic

place the hake in the pan skin side down

when cooked turn, and add the olives and caper berries

serve with the anchovy butter

Tandy

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Snoek Soufflé

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Tandy

This is another way I use up my left over snoek from when we braai. You can use any left over fish so there is no need to limit yourself to snoek.

ingredients:

for the Soufflé dishes

1 tablespoon butter melted

breadcrumbs for coating

for the Soufflé

100g warm béchamel sauce

175g egg whites (about 5)

the egg yolks from the whites

1 teaspoon lemon juice

left over snoek, flaked

method:

Preheat the oven to 170˚ Celsius with a baking tray on the middle shelf (this is important so that the Soufflés can get a kick start when you put them in the oven, and to make getting them out easier)

use a pastry brush to butter the inside of 4 Soufflé dishes 10cm across x 7cm high

sprinkle the breadcrumbs into the dishes and rotate until the butter is completely coated, shake out the excess

over a bain-marie mix together the béchamel and the egg yolks and keep it warm (use a bigger bowl than you think you need!)

add the lemon juice to the egg whites

whisk the egg whites until they are firm but not too stiff (this will take longer than whisking egg whites with sugar)

whisk a quarter of the egg whites into the base until smooth – do this off the heat!

using a spatula fold in the balance of the egg whites

place the flaked snoek on the bottom of the soufflé dish

fill to the top with the base mixture and smooth off with a palette knife

thumb the edge

bake for 10 – 12 minutes

Tandy

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Swordfish

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Tandy

Being very lucky in the fact that fresh fish is readily available, I am able to shop for supper the day I want to eat fish. We have a fish monger a block from the office and I head in there to see what they have available and then plan my meal around the fish. This lovely piece of swordfish made a wonderful supper, served with potato and carrot mash and pan fried tomatoes and mushrooms. The trick to cooking fish is to season before you cook, and make sure it is not overcooked or undercooked. You need to watch the pan closely. I use a knife to test the fish – just stick it in to the meatiest part and withdraw straight away. Touch the knife to your lips – if it is hot, the fish is cooked.