Tuesday 15 April 2014

Risotto ai topinambur

I got some weird looking potatoes in my Abel & Cole vege box this week - turns out they were Jerusalem artichokes! So having never cooked one before, I turned to my Silver Spoon cookbook and found a Jerusalem artichoke risotto recipe. 

I don't mean to brag... but I cook a mean risotto. My mum once told me that she never orders risotto at a restaurant, cause mine is always better! Ok I'm now officially bragging. 

I hadn't followed a risotto recipe in years, and this one differed slightly. You cook the onion in plenty of butter, then add the sliced artichokes, and some stock. You let the artichokes cook in the stock and when cooked, you mash them. Then you add the rice to soak up the liquid - and keep adding stock as per usual. Slightly different, but still worked really well.

Best part is, L ate it without complaining (he's not a risotto fan... neither is my Dad - they both call it 'mushy rice'!) so all in all, I'd consider this a win.

The risotto master at work

Sunday 13 April 2014

Trance did entice marinate

I'm so lazy that I've handed this blog post over to my baby sister! Here's her... Surfing the Silver Spoon:

Marinated sea bream

I should start by saying something cool like, "As an avid reader of the 'Surfing the Silver Spoon' blog... but because it's my sisters blog, that goes without saying. But actually, I do love her blog and I'm always fascinated at the different recipes that she pulls out of that giant cook book. I was keen but slightly worried to give it a go myself because I know there are some weird and wonderful things in there that could either scare me, or open my eyes to something new and interesting. And so when J asked me if I'd do a guest blog post for her I jumped at the chance. 

We used the 'You pick three, I pick one' approach which is a theory I use when my husband and I can't make a decision on something. The first one she picked was lobster but luckily this one was disregarded because I'm not sure if you can get lobsters at my local Asda. My three choices were chicory with Prague ham and béchamel sauce; strawberry ice cream; or marinated sea bream. The ice cream one caught my eye first but you need an ice cream maker so this one was out. The chicory recipe sounded yum and I could go in search of the ingredients in the posher supermarkets around London but that required more effort and another recipe from the silver spoon for the béchamel sauce so it all seemed a bit too hard for this lazy cook. Besides, the fish one looked easy enough and I could buy everything locally. By locally, I mean at the giant supermarket two minutes from my apartment. Finding truly 'local' produce in my neighbourhood is a) not something I want to experience or b) not something that is actually an option.

So sea bream it was or 'Trance did entice marinate' to use the exotic name.

It seems I may have failed at the first hurdle. I was so proud of my local supermarket for stocking sea bass and I bought two fillets for Thursday night - silver spoon night. And then I got home and realised I needed sea bream, not sea bass. Oh well, it's got the word 'sea' in it. That still counts right?

Step one was marinating the fish overnight in a garlic, lemon and herb marinade. Finely chop garlic (I used extra cause I'm a bit of a garlic freak and put it in everything) fresh thyme, mint, dried oregano, the juice of three lemons and good quality olive oil. The recipe called for fresh parsley but I reeeeeeally don't like parsley (I know J finds this really weird but I just hate it!) so I left it out. I marinated my fish overnight but it says three hours will do.

Step two, well... cook the fish, that was it. That's what I loved about this recipe, it was SO easy and simple! I served the fish with turmeric and sesame sweet potato wedges, garlic aioli and steamed purple broccoli and asparagus. Simple and very delicious. The fish was lovely and citrusy and I could really taste the thyme which I loved. I think B may have found the fish a little too plain but I think that might be because he was already a bit miffed I'd made sweet potato wedges and not 'proper' wedges so wasn't in love with dinner at all.

From left: Ingredients including sea bream... or bass and the finished fish - yum

All in all, I loved making something I wouldn't normally make (I never marinate my fish) and it was almost a new experience having to follow a recipe for such a simple but delicious dish. I have to apologise about my photos, they're definitely not as pretty as J's usual pics but I have horrible rental apartment plates and ugly black benchtops (plus a hideous glass coffee table) which doesn't make for very beautiful picture. Oh, and it wasn't the prettiest of dishes to make either. I'm almost a bit relieved there wasn't a picture in the book to go off because I'm certain it wouldn't have looked like mine! Thanks for having me J and I hope you'll have me back again soon! You can find me at http://lifelovetravelfood.blogspot.co.uk in case you're wondering! x