Snapper with Rhubarb sauce served with pea and watercress mash

I was determined to make fish tonight but when I came across this recipe I was a little bit dubious. I have never cooked rhubarb before and I have never ever heard of it served with a savoury dish but I am glad that I tried it.

Ingredients

• 1 large bunch of rhubarb
• 1/3 cup sugar
• pinch of saffron
• 4 snapper fillets
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

Pea and watercress mash

• 500g packet of frozen peas (not minted)
• bunch of watercress, washed with approx 2cm trimmed from the end
• tbs of butter, salt and pepper

As you can see from the photo the rhubarb sauce was a little overdone. Not to be one to shirk responsibility but my sister was responsible for saucing!

1. Wash the rhubarb, trim the ends and cut it into approximately 1/2 cm pieces. Put into a pot with the sugar and pinch of saffron over a low heat and cover. Cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. ( I was very tempted to add water and I just didn't understand how the rhubarb would turn into a sauce but to my surprise after cooking it on low with a lid for 10 minutes the rhubarb magically transforms into a bubbly delight!)

2. Check the rhubarb, mine was a little on the tart side if you like it a little sweeter you can add some more sugar. Set aside.

3. Heat oil in a fry pan and place snapper skin side down. Cook for approx 2-4 minutes before adding salt and pepper and turning over for an additional 2-3 minutes. Serve with rhubarb sauce.

4. For the pea and watercress puree. Bring a pot of water to the boil, add a 500g packet of frozen peas, once the water has come back to the boil thrown in the watercress and turn of water, cover and leave for 5 minutes. Drain and puree (i used a hand blender) with a tablespoon of butter, salt and pepper.

Prawns with tomato and feta - Greek Style

I am going to start with the disclaimer that the photo is not mine because I forgot to take one but mine looked pretty much like the picture.

I made this dish as a starter last night when my sister and her fiance came over, but it could easily have been served as a main dish by increasing the quantity. It is packed with flavour and very very easy. My only regret is that I won't be able to cook it again this year!

My sister's fiance who is Greek informed me that it was a popular dish in Greece called Prawn Saganaki and was often served as a breakfast dish.

The quantities in this recipe serve 4 for a generous entree and 2 for a main.

Ingredients

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 2 x 400g cans of vine ripened tomatoes, coarsely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• teaspoon of oregano
• salt and pepper
• One tbs of butter
• 24 green prawns (deveined and peeled)

1. 250g feta (I used a low fat Danish Feta)
2. Heat the olive oil in a pan, add the garlic cooking for a couple of seconds before adding the tomatoes. Add the bay leaf and the oregano and cook on low for approximately 20 minutes until sauce breaks down. Season with salt and pepper but remember that the feta is going to add salt too so don't over salt.
3. Remove bay leaf.
4. Heat another pan to high (preferably non stick) and add a table spoon of butter. Briefly saute the prawns, only sealing them rather than cooking. This shouldn't take more than 60 seconds.
5. Put the prawns and sauce into an oven proof dish with the feta.
6. Place in oven and cook for 10 minutes at approximately 220c. The sauce should be bubbling when you take it out.
7. Serve with crusty bread, which is delicious for dipping.

Bouillabaisse

I was hesitant to tackle this French classic for a number of reasons, the main one being it is French. But whilst i was trawling through the numerous recipes for this dish I was comforted by the fact that it can be translated into a 'fish boil' not as elegant, but definitely something that I am not afraid to tackle.

From start to finish this dish literally took me 15 minute to make. It is so easy and so tasty and the most surprising thing of all was that it was very filling. Something that is appropriate both for a dinner party and for a quick meal at home.

All of the traditional recipes that I found use equal parts olive oil and fish stock, I didn't do this as I just couldn't bare to add a cup of oil, olive or not to this otherwise healthy dish.

Ingredients

• 1-2 tbs olive oil
• 2 medium tomatoes, peeled, cored, seeded and sliced
• 1 small onion, thinly sliced
• 1 carrot, peeled and very thinly sliced (I used my trusted mandolin)
• 2 pinches of saffron threads
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 sprigs of parsley
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 piece of each of (bluefish, sea bass, salmon) any firm  fish will do and if you don't want to use a variety just use your favourite
• Approx 300 g peeled, deveined medium prawns
• Approx 8 mussels (I got the NZ mussels that are already cleaned and come in kg packets, the fish monger was more than happy to open a pack and sell me however many i needed. 
• juice of half a lemon
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup of fish broth
• 1/2 cup of dry white wine
• 6 slices of sourdough, toasted

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium high. Add tomatoes, onion, carrot, saffron, bay leaf and parsley. Crush 1 clove of garlic and add to pan. Cook for 2 minutes. Add all the seafood, lemon juice and salt and pepper and cook on high for 5 minutes. 
2. Add the fish stock and wine, bring to a rapid boil and simmer until fish is just cooked (a couple of minutes). it is important that the stock actually comes to a rapid boil. 
3. Add an additional pinch of saffron, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste
4. Rub the toasted bread with garlic and serve the bouillabaisse in a bowl over the bread. 

Maida Heatter's Cuban Black Beans (take 2)

Besides for being one of the longest dishes to cook, it was nothing like I expected it to be. I thought it would be full of flavour, partially due to the cooking time and the inclusion of 2 ham hocks but the end result was surprisingly mild. Not in a bad way, and i am not sure if you can say this without sounding terribly pretentious but the word that comes to mind when describing the taste is balanced! There was no one flavour that was particularly overpowering and at the same time there was nothing missing!

To be honest I am glad that I don't need to attempt this again for 12 months, but will I after 12? Maybe...the dish is really interesting and if you are unemployed or bored or snowed in and unable to leave the house then this dish is a offers a tasty, hearty and vegetarian (if you omit the ham hocks) meal.

Ingredients

• 500g dried black beans, preferably turtle beans
• 6 cups of cold water
• 2 small ham hocks (next time around I am not going to include these  because they are disgusting but I will add more salt)
• a glug of olive oil (recipe calls for half a cup but seriously with the ham hock there was no way, I barely used enough to coat the pan and I don't think there was any compromise to flavour)
• 3.5 cups of finely chopped onions
• 1.5 cups of green capsicum
• 2 tbs of minced garlic
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 3 tbs red wine vinegar
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp Tabasco
• 3 tbs of dark rum ( as i am typing this recipe up I realise that I accidentally left this out oops)
• rice for black beans (rice with some lemon juice and a little butter through it)
• onions for black beans (finely sliced sweet onion, i used a mandolin to slice. For every onion add 1 tsp of vinegar and 1 tsp of sugar)

Ok so I am exhausted after writing the ingredients. What was I thinking tackling this???

1. soak the rice in 6 cups of cold water overnight.
2. Drain the next day. Put the drained beans in a pot with 8 cups of water and ham hocks, bring to the boil. Reduce and cook slowly, uncovered, skimming surface as necessary to remove any foam until the beans are tender. Approx 4-6 hours. So basically, you could put this dish on, leave it run a marathon, come home and it still won't be ready.
3. Heat oil in a large fry pan, add the onions and green peppers and cook, stirring until mixture is wilted. Add garlic and cook briefly.
4.Add the onion mixture to the beans when they have approximately 30 minutes left to cook.
5. After 30 minutes remove the ham hocks and add Tabasco and cayenne pepper.
6. Serve over rice with onion mixture as a side.

Chicken breast burgers

So I did everything correctly, I soaked the black beans over night, I purchased all the correct ingredients (this might sound like a given, but the recipe called for ham hock and despite my better judgement I purchased this). I got home. I chopped 2 green capsicums, what seemed like hours of onions and then I realised that oops I didn't read the recipe and these beans take 6 hours to cook. 

I did a quick calculation.....great if I hurry we will eat at midnight. 

Stay tuned. Malvina vs the Black Beans tomorrow night. 

I just rushed out and got some chicken breast mince which I am going to mix with some herbs and spices and make chicken burgers. Please don't try these at home. Really. 

Matilda Heatter's Cuban Black Beans and Rice

Not so much.

Chicken Canzanese

A dish that originated in 1969, this Italian Chicken dish was surprisingly easy to make and very flavourful. It is one of those pile in the pan dishes. My sister and her fiance came over for dinner last night and it is probably one of the easiest dishes that I have made for entertaining. I altered the dish to make it into a lower fat version, and as always I am sure that the taste was slightly compromised.

This serves 4 generously.
Ingredients

• 8 chicken pieces (I used skinned chicken breast and full leg pieces, with thigh and drumstick. When I make this recipe again, I will leave the skin on the breast pieces and remove it from the legs as the chicken breast was a little dry)
• salt
• 4 sage leaves
• 4 bay leaves (I used fresh ones)
• 2 cloves of garlic sliced length ways (no idea why you slice them length ways as opposed to the other way?)
• 8 whole cloves (I detest cloves and associate them with the dentist, and despite my desire to leave them out I followed the recipe and surprisingly you couldn't taste the cloves or even smell them at all)
• 4 rosemary sprigs
• 1 teaspoon of cracked pepper
• 1 teaspoon of chili flakes
• 1 thick slice of prosciutto (250g) cut into chunks (any deli will do this for you, just ask them to cut it off by hand. As prosciutto can be expensive you could substitute for a ham hock)
• 1 cup of white wine
• 1 cup of water.

My version of Chicken Canzanese

1. Put the chicken in a large mixing bowl and cover with water and one tablespoon of salt. Leave it for approx an hour. Then remove and pat dry with paper towels.
2. Lay the chicken out in a large fry pan and dump all the ingredients on top.
3. Cover and cook on medium for 35-40 minutes. Remove the lid ( I used foil) and cook for 5 minutes so sauce slightly reduces.
4. I served it in the pan with smashed potatoes (boiled with then added some crushed garlic and butter) and a simple salad of tomatoes, cucumber and Spanish onion.

Braised Liguirian Chicken

I am resisting the temptation to go out and buy every Jamie Oliver book on the market after making this Jamie Oliver recipe. It's not that it was the best chicken that I have ever had, but it definitely has the highest effort to taste ratio of any dish that I have ever made. You literally throw everything into a pan and that is it. The most consuming part of this whole process is browning the chicken.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons of flour
• sea salt and pepper
• 8 pieces of chicken, skin removed (I used 4 breast pieces and two leg and thigh pieces without skin, but the original recipe calls for a whole chicken cut into 8 pieces with the skin. I am sure that that the end result would be much tastier if you use skin but I just couldn't bring myself to leave it on.)
• olive oil
• 5 rosemary sprigs
• 6 cloves of garlic thinly sliced (this is the second recipe that I am posting that calls for sliced garlic. I am not sure why it is different to crushing the garlic, but it just works)
• 1.5 cups of white wine
• 5 anchovies
• half a cup of kalamata olives (recipe calls for pits in but I used pitted)
• 4 ripe egg tomatoes halved, seeded and chopped
• Combine the flour with some salt and pepper and toss the chicken pieces in the flour.

1. Heat the olive oil to medium and place the chicken in the pan leaving until a golden crust forms on the bottom. This took about 5 minutes. Turn and add the garlic and whole rosemary sprigs. Don't let the garlic burn, leave for 3 minutes then add the wine.
2. Once the wine is boiling add the anchovies, olives and tomatoes
3. Partially cover and leave for 20 - 25 minutes on a medium heat.
4. That's it!

I went old school and served it with mashed potato and it worked really well.

Spaghetti with Zucchini and Basil

After reading a book called Skinny Bitch late last year. I was bullied (by the vegan authors) into cutting down on red meat. For myself, this hasn't been as challenging as I thought it would be, but for my husband who was used to some form of red meat 3-4 times a week it has been somewhat of a challenge. So when I attempt to cook something that has no meat at all, his reaction is a good measure for all of the meat lovers who are following this.

Ingredients

• 4 large zucchini
• 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced ( I used a mandolin, but watch your fingers)
• salt and pepper
• half a cup of milk
• 500g spaghetti
• half a cup of freshly grated Parmesan (don't even bother with the crappy kind that comes in a packet, this is not Parmesan and has no flavour)
• Handful of basil leaves, torn into small pieces.

1. Quarter the zucchini lengthwise, then cut into 1cm chunks.
2. Heat a pan with oil and add the garlic on a low heat. After approx 30 seconds, add the zucchini and season with salt and pepper, cooking gently over a medium heat. Stir every so often but allow the zucchini to brown and become completely soft. Approx 20 minutes.
3. Add the milk and cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Prepare the pasta (make sure you cook it in water that is well salted).
5. Drain and toss with zucchini, cheese and basil.

The result is a super flavourful pasta and you really don't miss the fact that there is no meat in the dish.

The challenge

So one of my pet hates has always been my 2pm phone call to my husband each day asking the question "What's for dinner?" This is closely followed by my second pet hate and that is the response "I am not fussed". You see, although my husband has explained many times that what he means when he says "I am not fussed" is "whatever is easy, I eat everything so I don't mind", my interpretation went something like: "whatever you cook, regardless of how much effort you put in it doesn't matter because I DON'T CARE". My third and final pet hate and the explanation behind the title of this blog is my husband's idea of the perfect meal. Meat and 3 veg. I am not going to go into any explanation other than to say that my husband was brought up in a household where a Sunday roast was something to look forward to and somewhat of a ritual. On the other hand, growing up I could never relate to the lamb commercial where the girl chose to stay home for a roast lamb over dinner with Tom Cruise.

So I started of the year (yes I know it is already the end of March) by setting myself the challenge of cooking something different from a recipe book each night. Now, to many this may seem as though I am putting myself under undue pressure, but surprisingly it has been kind of liberating for two reasons, the first is if the recipe is a flop then it is OK because I won't be cooking it again this year and the second is that it has given me a strange kind of freedom to taste and try new things. Crab pasta on a Tuesday night doesn't seem so extravagant when you are making your way through a dozen recipe books.

My best friend Shari, who thinks she can't cook, but is really fabulous and just scared to experiment encouraged me to take inspiration from a movie that shall not be named and share some of my successful and not so successful adventures via a blog.

My only disclaimer is that I am and have no desire to be a professional cook. I take short cuts and I substitute in recipes quiet often to the detriment of the final outcome.