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For some reason we are finding fish soup a good compromise between my preference for salad and DHs preference for a hot meal even in summer.
This one was outstanding, if I do say so myself!
prawn – I used two bags of frozen raw prawns. Fresh is better, but I had frozen.
oil – Macadamia nut oil or sunflower oil is best, olive oil otherwise
chili, garlic and ginger – I used a tbls. of each.
1 tsp ground coriander
1 can coconut milk and two cans of water
juice of two limes
3 tbls Thai fish sauce
bunch of green onions
bag of pea shoots
handful of mange tout (pea pods)
can of cannelli beans
Saute the spices in the oil for a minute or two, careful not to let them burn
Add the can of coconut milk and the two cans of water. Simmer for 10-15 minutes
Add the lime juice and the fish sauce, the beans, onions and the pea pods. Simmer for another 5 minutes.
Add the prawns and simmer until they go pink but don’t overcook them!
Add the pea shoots and cook for a minute more, just till they wilt.
Serve with a scattering of fresh chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lime. Looks a bit lackluster in the photo but it is a nice rich colour in real life. and very tasty!
You could add a bag of scallops as well, or some chunked up monkfish tails. And up the chili a lot if you like it hot. thought the beans might be odd but they actually were really nice with the shrimp.
Still doing a lot of BBQ, but when I do make a new recipe I will try to add it.
Another fish stew – a little different, much quicker, one-pot on the stove and not too bad for warmer weather. While I am quite happy eating cold food, salads and the like, in the summer, DH tends to like a hot meal except of the hottest of days. This doesn’t heat up the kitchen and is very tasty.
1-2 tbls olive oil
1 onion, diced finely
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced or a tbls of garlic puree
juice of one lemon
chopped fresh basil
300g fresh or frozen raw prawns/shrimp
400g can of chopped tomatoes (no sugar added)
100 ml chicken or fish stock
a couple of dashes of Tabasco
1 pouch cooked puy lentils ( or a couple of cups of your own cooked lentils, or even a drained and rinsed can)
Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil till the onions begin to brown but don’t let the garlic burn. Add the lemon juice and let it reduce slightly.
Add the tomatoes and the stock and bring it up to the boil. If using cooked lentils, stir them in and add the prawns then cook for 5-7 minutes, until the prawns are pink and cooked thru. Frozen prawns will obviously take a little longer than fresh. If you are using canned lentils, you can add them, then let them simmer for 5 minutes, then add the prawns – to be honest I don’t usually cook the canned lentils for long at all and they are fine. Salt (if you feel it needs it) and pepper to taste.
Spoon into a bowl, drizzle over a bit of olive oil and scatter the basil on top. If you like you can add another squeeze of fresh lemon juice then serve.
Yummy with steamed fresh asparagus.
You can substitute any sort of bean you like, chickpeas, butter, haricot, whatever. You can use lime instead of lemon, and coriander instead of basil. You can use a mix of seafood, like scallops and calamari and shrimp, and that’s good too.
It won’t surprise you that this is SOUP. OK, so it’s coming up on summer, but we still have the odd cold day, even in summer, so soup is never totally off the menu.
After having a meal from the roast chicken, I save all the bones in a baggie in the freezer. Two chicken carcasses will make enough soup for DH and I to have a dinner and a lunch from that. One carcass works, but it’s more like a hearty lunch or light (single bowl) serving or needs to be augmented with some commercial chicken stock.
Basically I pop the bones in a stock pot (for more than one chicken, or a large saucepan if it’s just the one) and add
1 carrot broken or chopped in half
1 large onion, quartered
the inner leafy fronds from the celery stalk
a couple of smashed garlic cloves
some herbs – usually thyme or sage
This all simmers happily on the stove (uncovered!) till it is quite reduced. Strain it. From a single chicken I want about 4 cups of stock, and test it for flavour. If it is thin and not very flavourful, which it can be if you have really eaten every shred of meat from the chicken, I add a Stock tub (you know, the little Knorrs jelly like pots) or a tub of fresh chicken stock to enrich it a bit. Discard the veggies, as they will have given up any flavour they had to offer, then pick over the bones, collecting the bits of meat in another container and popping it in the fridge.
Now add any and all veg that you have hanging about. This is good for stuff that is near to being good only for the bin – shriveled carrots, limp celery, leeks, green beans, I sometimes add a can of corn but not lately. Nothing like brocoli, unless you do it last minute as the long cooking time will reduce it to mush. Add a can of chopped tomatoes (no sugar added, in their juice) and all the veg and simmer for another hour. Again taste and add whatever you think it needs – salt, pepper, more garlic.
It will reduce a little during this cooking
At the end, maybe the last 10 minutes or so, you can add a can of beans and the chicken meat – indeed any other meat you want (bacon lardons are good, or cooked turkey or ham) then add, if you like (DH does, I don’t) a few frozen spinach pods.
Make some lovely besan fritters on the side and this is perfect for a rainy night comfort supper. Not fast, not minimal ingredients, but so satisfying.
I am always looking for a good way to use ground beef, as I often find it on sale, and this fits the bill.
1 kg ground beef
2 tbls garlic puree or fresh minced garlic
1/2 cup frozen spinach (defrosted and squeezed dry) – you could try fresh chopped spinach but frozen was what I had!
1 tbls herb mix (Italian is best) or a variety of chopped fresh herbs – thyme, sage, basil, oregano
1 large egg
1 finely minced onion
1 tbls of soy or Worstercheshire sauce
salt and pepper
Mix all this up in a bowl. Form into small meatballs, a heaped tablespoon in size, then pop in a baking tray and into a 180C/350F oven for about 15 minutes. Turn and pop back in for another 15 minutes till the meatballs are slightly crispy on the edges.
Drain off the fat. Add 500- 1000 ml of rich beef stock and a 400g can of chopped tomatoes to a large casserole (how much stock you add will depend on how much liquid you want – really soupy or more meatballs with some “juice”. Less stock and it will be more tomato-y in flavour) and extra herbs and garlic if you want. Add the meatballs and a 400g can of Borlotti beans.
Pop this in the oven for 20-30 minutes, to reduce the liquid a bit and heat the beans.
All it needs is a green salad, with some fresh spinach leaves if you like them that way.
Works great with black beans too, and you can surely add more than one can for a more bean-rich bowl.
How depressing. This was absolutely delicious, but I only checked the carb-count after I made it – butternut squash is actually one of the higher carb-count veggies. Blast and damnation. OK, so it won;t make it into heavy rotation, but it will appear occasionally, so long as things are progressing nicely.
1 180g pack smoked bacon lardons or pack of streaky bacon
1 butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and cubed
1 red onion, large dice or 3 or 4 shallots quartered
1 tbls garlic
500 ml chicken stock
1 200g bag of cleaned and washed kale
450g can of Puy Lentils
Fry the lardons or bacon till slightly crispy – you want good colour on them and for the fat to melt. Add the garlic and fry for a minute or two. Add the squash and the onion, a fry till they start to colour a bit on the edges. Pour in the stock and simmer, covered for 10-15 minutes. The squash should be just this side of tender and don’t overcook it or it will all turn to mush! Stir in the kale, gently, and cover. Let it all simmer for 5 or so minutes till the kale is tender. Drain and rinse the lentils. Stir in the lentils. Pepper, but between the salty bacon and the stock it’s unlikely you will need any additional salt!
Serve in big warmed bowls – it really is outstanding!
Personally, I don’t think anything is a good substitute for Puy Lentils but you can always try any other bean and see.
If the bacon is too fatty or too salty for your taste, I think it would be good with some cooked and diced ham to substitute for most of the bacon – maybe a couple of rashers chopped and cooked as above, for the oil, woulld give enough of that bacon-y flavour.
A bit like boullabaisse but less ingredients!
2 leeks and 2 stalks of celery, chopped
2 tbls good olive oil
2 x fish stock cubes made up as directed or 2 x 500 gm fish stock bags – you want about 1000 ml of liquid
juice of one lemon
2 (or more) cloves of garlic
2 tbls fresh thyme
a pinch of saffron threads steeped in a small amount of hot water
2 bay leaves
2 – 4 firm white fish fillets, fresh or frozen, cod or haddock work fine, salmon works too
fresh or frozen raw shrimp
fresh or frozen scallops
fresh or frozen calamari rings
fresh or canned lump crabmeat
2 450 gm cans of cannelli beans
The amount of fish and type of fish can be dictated by your preferences, and weather you want it more soupy or thicker and more stew-y. For two generous portions I use two fish fillets, two 180 g packs of shrimp, a can of crab meat, one calamari cleaned and cut into rings, scallops if they are on sale (about 10-12)
Saute the celery and leeks but don’t let them go brown. Add the fish stock, the bay leaves, the saffron and it’s soaking water, the garlic, and the lemon juice. Let all this simmer nicely on the stove top in a deep skillet for about 15 minutes. Halve the cherry tomatoes and add them to the broth.
Add the seafood. Turn up the heat. How long you cook it will depend on whether the fish is fresh or frozen. Fresh fillets and other seafood will only need a few minutes. The fillets should be cooked through, opaque and flaky, the scallops opaque and firm-ish, the shrimp uniformly pink, the calamari firm, Canned crabmeat needs only heating thru. All-fresh seafood shouldn’t take more than 10-15 minutes, depending on how MUCH seafood you are adding. Salt and pepper to taste.
Drain and rinse the beans, then stir them in gently to heat thru.
Serve in big, warmed bowls. Garnish with fresh flat leaf parsley or cilantro leaves. You can pass a bowl of lemon wedges for people to squeeze over at the table.
This is my go-to cupboard meal. If I have frozen fish and frozen shrimp and stock cubes I can make this in a flash and it’s always well received. If I’ve been to the store and can buy what’s fresh it will be a more complex stew. For a lunch, you can probably get 4 servings. A fresh spinach leaf salad is a great accompaniment or stir in a handful of spinach to wilt in a minute just before serving!
This was easy and quite yummy.
3 x 450 g black beans, drained and rinsed
cup of chopped onions
cup of chopped mixed red/yellow/green bell peppers
500ml (2 cups) chicken stock or vegetable stock
1 tbls cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tbls. garlic paste or chopped fresh garlic
hot sauce if you want it
Simmer for about 20 minutes till everything has had a chance to meld. Using a blending wand (or pouring into a blender) puree the whole thing.
Serve with diced avocado, fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves, sour cream if you can, crumbled cooked bacon, cooked meat. A nice spinach leaf salad is noce on the side!
I marinated some pork loin steaks in lemon and garlic then sautéed it last minute and added it it a little heap with the avocado and cilantro.
Options:
- add more broth for a soupier soup rather than a thick “your spoon stands up in it” soup. You can adjust, even after it is all cooked, by adding another can of beans, or another cup of stock or water and blending again
- or dump all the ingredients into your crock pot in the AM and let simmer til you get home, then whizz it up with the hand blender right in the pot. As the crock doesn’t let any liquid evaporate while cooking it will be thinner by default so if you want a really thick soup try even less stock
- substitute beef broth for chicken, or vegetable stock, or canned tomatoes
- add corn but not too much
- This is great to add any leftover meat to. Having it in the fridge as a base and finishing off with leftovers from any meal, meats and veg, or even copious amounts of spinach, means a quick lunch.
Just a note! as an American living long time in the UK, my measurements will tend to be a mix of US style measurements and UK style can (or should I say TIN) sizes. I’ll try to measure a few cans into cup measures at some point and try to note that here. But as I said before, I am not hung up on measures when cooking. It’s all to taste anyway. DH would add quite a few shakes of Dave’s or Chohula to this where I wouldn’t add any.
