Childfriendly tuna pasta

I really like this simple tomato based tuna sauce. It's basically my bolognese recipe but with tuna instead of veal or beef. The kids love it which is why it's called childfriendly. I do have another recipe which is the unchildfriendly one as its a mix of basically everything my kids don't like. Anchovies, capers, olives and chili to name a few. 

This week I have also made a jerusalem artichoke soup (for adult indulging), a filo pastry pie with lamb (not greatly appreciated by the kids but I loved it), chicken skewers on lemongrass (Mummy, I like the chicken lollipop). Monday was salmon teriyaki. Tomorrow the kids will probably need something familiar so perhaps meatballs or bolognese. I am spending the weekend husband-less so will stick to simplest of the simplest to survive! 

Ingredients

Pasta of your choice (this is a very girly household so we chose butterflies today)

1 tin of tuna (I use white tinned tuna)

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

2 anchovy fillets

2 mini or 1 small zucchini

1 onion

2 cloves of garlic

zest of 1 lemon and juice of half
1dl of water

1/2 tbsp of honey
1 bunch of parsley
Maybe 1 tbsp of vegetable liquid stock

salt and black pepper

Preparation

Cook the pasta according to instructions. 

Peel and chop the garlic and onion finely. Grate the zucchini (or just slice finely on a mandolin). Grate the lemon zest. Chop the parsley. 

Heat a pan and add some olive oil, then add the anchovies, garlic, onion and zucchini. Cook it until the onion is transparent and the anchovies have melted. Then add the chopped tomatoes, lemon zest, and lemon juice, water, honey and salt and pepper to taste. If you want you can add the liquid stock. 

Let it simmer for 10 mins, then add the tuna and separate it with a fork into small pieces, add the parsley and remove from heat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with lots of parmesan cheese and a green salad (or green beans for the kids). 

Default food

Since starting this blog I have made an effort to cook new food a couple of days a week but some days you need to do something that you know works and can be made with minimal effort. I make it even easier on myself by preparing either the day before or during my little ones mid-day nap. For this dish all you need to do is to chop the vegetables, wrap the fish and put it in an oven-proof dish. Then, when you get home everything can be done with one hand while the other hand is stuck around a couple of chubby legs that squeezes around one of your hips. The whole family ate with good appetite and half of us are now asleep in their beds while the remaining ones are almost asleep in front of each other with a computer each.

Parma wrapped haddock with risotto

Ingredients

as many fish fillets as you think your family will eat

enough parma ham to wrap around the fish

baby plum or cherry tomatoes

a lemon

olive oil

salt and pepper

sugar

any type of onion

2 cloves of garlic

some sort of mushrooms

any other vegetables you like for example courgette, peas, asparagus, mange tout, soya beans

some left over white wine

vegetable stock (I use liquid stock+hot water)

2 dl of risotto rice

butter and olive oil

Parmesan cheese

Preparation

Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC.

Pour a little oil in an oven-proof dish, season the fish fillets with salt and pepper, wrap them with ham, place in the oven-proof dish. Place the tomatoes around and on top, pour some olive oil over the tomatoes and the fish and sprinkle a little sugar on the tomatoes. Place the dish in the oven and bake for about 15 mins depending on the thickness of the fillets.

While the fish is baking, chop the onion, garlic, mushrooms and courgettes. Pour some olive oil and a dollop of butter in a pan. Cook the onion, garlic, mushrooms and courgettes until all the moisture has been absorbed then add the rice and stir for a few seconds. Then add the wine and let it absorb, then add a some water mixed with stock at a time and stir. Cook until the rice is soft but still has a chewy centre. Then add some grated parmesan, soya beans and black pepper. Squeeze some lemon on the fish and serve. 

Salmon parcels with olive oil, salami, basil, tomatoes and mozzarella

I know,  the story about eating salmon when my husband is travelling is getting old but it is totally worth it because this is delicious. Salmon wrapped in foil accompanied by olive oil, salami, basil, fresh tomatoes and mozzarella. Just reading that sentence is mouth watering. After dinner, my 4-year old, who's been going through an anti-Mummy streak this week, softly said "mummy, please can I have some more salmon" and later on after dinner "mummy, I have thought about what we had for dinner tonight and it was so good, please can we have it tomorrow too". I will happily admit that I have been purposely "starving' the kids giving them only one piece of fruit at school pick-up and what a difference it makes at dinner time. But there can be no dragging feet when preparing dinner or they'll be raiding the snack cupboard. I am glad it is Friday tomorrow so I can loosen the grip a bit on the military regime I am running here at the moment. Not quite there yet though so tonight I have managed to cook dinner, tidy the kitchen, get the kids in bed, prepare for tomorrow's breakfast, do the laundry, feed the sourdough AND I have a chilli con carne slowly simmering on the stove for tomorrow's dinner party. As you can see this energy spurt is bound to run out by the weekend. Well, that's ok, I'll just hand over the reins to my husband. I am sure he'll be delighted as he's been travelling all week! At ease and enjoy the salmon parcels: 

Ingredients (for 4 people)
4 salmon fillets
8 salami slices (I used Unearthed Milano Salami)
8 large basil leaves
4 plum tomatoes
1 packet of mozzarella
olive oil, salt and black pepper

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Place each salmon fillet on a piece of aluminium foil large enough to wrap around into a parcel. Add a slug of olive oil to each fillet, season with salt a pepper. Then layer with salami, basil, sliced tomatoes and sliced mozzarella. Close the aluminium foil. Place the parcels in a baking tray and leave for 15 minutes. Take care when opening the parcels! They'll be steaming hot. Serve with potato wedges or mash. 

I am back! With fishcakes and remoulade sauce!

Hello! Happy New Year 2012! We've spent, what feels like, a long holiday in Sweden over Christmas and New Year's. It's been both intense (skiing with 18 relatives) and relaxing (the four of us in our house in the south of Sweden). Right now we are enjoying a few days of calmness to get ready to take on London again!

Our skiing adventure over Christmas was fantastic but after a week of restaurant food I was relieved to be back in the kitchen cooking. The kids lived off meat balls, pancakes, pizza and McDonald's (ouch!) so a fish dish was imminent. This one was greatly appreciated among small and large people around the table. For the more reluctant ones there was the homemade remoulade sauce (for non-scandi's that's like a tartar sauce) to enhance the experience. It is a really easy fish recipe which can be varied with lots of different flavours but as I also made a remoulade sauce I kept it simple today. So here goes: 

Fishcakes

Ingredients (for 4 people)

300g white fish (haddock or cod)

1 egg

a couple of cooked potatoes (peeled and mashed)

1 1/2 dl breadcrumbs (panko preferred as always)

1/2 tsp salt

butter to fry

Preparation

Cut the fish in smaller sizes and whiz to fish mince in a food processor. Then add the egg, potatoes, 1/2 dl of breadcrumbs and salt. Mix and then shape into round fishcakes. 

Put the rest of the breadcrumbs in a shallow plate and turn the fishcakes in the breadcrumbs until covered. Heat the butter in a frying pan and then cook the fishcakes four minutes on one side, turn once, reduce heat and cook for a couple of more minutes. Recipe for remoulade sauce further down! 

Remoulade Sauce
Ingredients
(This makes quite a big portion but it keeps for a few weeks in the fridge)
1 1/2 dl mayonnaise
1 carrot, cut into juliennes (I use my new mandolin!)
1/2 dl finely chopped pickled cucumbers
1 tbsp capers
1 tbsp finely chopped pickled onions
1 tsp lemon juice
1 pinch of salt
1/2 tsp curry powder

Preparation
Mix everything and leave in the fridge for an hour so that all the flavours blend nicely.

I served the fishcakes and remoulade sauce with oven-baked sweet potatoes and cooked cauliflower.

Haddock with almond pesto

It's been a while since I posted but I guess Christmas gets the best of all of us! The kids have been unwell so not a lot of excitement food wise lately anyway. Today is the once-a-week-fish-day and I made one of my favourites. Growing up in Gothenburg, Sweden, the food in school was generally nothing to call home about, especially not the fish ones, but there was this one fish dish that I liked and it had some sort of almond covering. I found a recipe in a kids cook book a few years back and made a more grown-up version of it. It is simple and quick! Served with oven roasted root vegetables and maybe a dollop of lemon mayonnaise.

Ingredients
500g of haddock (or cod or any other white fish)
2 garlic cloves (or 1 large)
10g chopped parsley
1 dl breadcrumbs
1 dl of almonds
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp rapeseed oil

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 200ºC. 

Add chopped garlic, chopped parsley, breadcrumbs, almonds, salt and rape seed oil in a food processor and whiz until blended. 

Put the fish in an oven-proof dish and spread the fish with the almond pesto. Leave to cook in the oven for 15 mins. It smells divine when it is cooking. Serve with oven roasted root vegetables like sweet potato, parsnips and carrots.  

New style salmon sashimi

My quest to get the entire family, not just the kids, to eat salmon continues. A friend of mine commented on my Salmon teriyaki recipe and suggested I try Nobu's New style sashimi dish. I digged out the, now kind of old-fashioned-looking, Nobu cookbook, bought some good quality salmon and there it was, this divine thing. You are supposed to use Yuzu, which is a Japanese lemon juice. It is not stocked at my local store so my friend recommended to mix orange and lemon juice instead. You can grate the ginger on top of the salmon but I grated and squeezed out the juice to mix with the rest of the marinade instead. You can find lots of recipes of this dish online but this is how I did it. 

Ingredients

500 g of salmon fillets 

1 thumbsize of fresh ginger

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

1/2 orange

1/2 lemon

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1/2 tsp agave syrup (or honey)

toasted sesame seeds to sprinkle

chives to sprinkle

6 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp sesame oil

Preparation

Peel and finely chop the garlic and place in a bowl. Peel and grate the ginger, squeeze the ginger juice into the bowl, discard the ginger fibres you are left with, add the orange and lemon juice, add soy sauce and syrup. Cut the salmon fillets in fine slices and place on a large plate or on several smaller ones. Make sure not to place the salmon pieces too close to each other. Pour the marinade over the salmon and sprinkle with sesame seeds and chopped chives. 

Heat the olive and sesame oil in a sauce pan until they just start to smoke. Spoon over the salmon. You will hear a sizzling noise as the oil sears the fish. 

Eat as starter or serve with basmati rice and mange tout as a main course. 

Salmon teriyaki

What a treat! Both kids licked their plates and my oldest, who's not very interested in eating anything that does not have chocolate in it, mumbled a quiet mmm after her first taste and asked for seconds. Salmon is always on the menu when my husband is not joining us for dinner as he is not very keen on it but I love it. Sometimes it is oven-baked with mushroom and asparagus risotto, other times in tin-foil with tomatoes, mozzarella and salami. Today it was served with homemade teriyaki sauce, basmati rice, chantenay carrots and broccoli. I apologise for the pictures, they look like they could have been found in a German autobahn restaurant...but a clean plate is worth taking a picture of when there has been salmon in it! 

Ingredients (for the three of us today)

2 salmon fillets (skin removed), cut into 2 cm chunks

2 tbsp japanese soy sauce

1 tbsp mirin

1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar

1 clove of garlic, pressed

1 tumbsize piece of fresh ginger

1 tbsp sesame oil 

sesame seeds

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 200ºC

Peel and grate the ginger, squeeze out the juice in a bowl, then discard the fibrous left-overs. Add the rest of the ingredients to the ginger juice except the salmon and mix well until the sugar has dissolved. Add the salmon and leave in the fridge for an hour (or even over night so that dinner is prepared for the next day!). Pour the salmon and sauce into an oven-proof dish, sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake for 10 mins. Serve with rice and vegetables of your choice. 

Plaice with chorizo pesto

I am always on the lookout for appetizing fish recipes. My kids like fish so they are usually ok with most of them. My husband is not, he thinks they are fishy...but he liked this one, which is my own recipe. Pesto in all shapes and forms is a great way of adding taste to fish (or any other dish for that matter) and has so many variations. I used chorizo in this one.

Ingredients (for 2 adults and 2 young children)
6 plaice fillets (less if they are large)
1/2 dl of almonds
1/2 dl of breadcrumbs (preferably Japanese panko)
130 g of chorizo (or thereabout)
a handful of chopped flatleaf parsley
the zest of 1 lemon
2 tbsp of butter
salt

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 200ºC on grill

Add the almonds to a food processor and whiz until finely chopped. In another bowl mix the breadcrumbs, finely chopped chorizo, parsley, lemon zest and almonds.

Rinse the plaice fillets and then season with salt. Melt 1 tbsp of butter in a frying pan and add the plaice fillets skin-side down for 1-2 min then turn for 1 min.

Place the fish skin-side down in an oven-proof dish, add a small dollop of butter on each and then sprinkle the pesto over. Leave in oven until the pesto looks golden and chorizo has some colour so about 5 mins.

Serve with potato and parsnip mash (just boil potatoes and parsnips until soft, add butter and milk then mix with beaters until fluffy) as well as some blanched green beans.

Please be careful with the almonds if you have small children. They are such a good size for little hands as you can see...

Kids' and grown ups' favourites

I had made a reservation at Zuma http://www.zumarestaurant.com for Friday night. It is one of my absolute favourite restaurants in London and because you need to book sort of 2 months in advance we rarely make it. So big anticipation and I was not disappointed. Killer sushi, sashimi, seared tuna, crispy fried squid combined with a great bar for enticing cocktails. 

Of course the kids needed a treat too. Their favourite food is homemade fish fingers with mash and peas, and on this occasion I also made pea pure with cream and butter. I usually do a large batch of fish fingers and keep them breadcrumb-coated in the freezer.  

Fish fingers

Ingredients 

400g haddock fillets

1 egg

1/2 dl milk

1/2 dl flour 2 dl breadcrumbs (preferably Japanese panko)

butter for frying

salt

Preparation

Mix the egg with the milk in a shallow bowl. Mix the flour with breadcrumbs on a plate. Cut the fish in fish finger like shapes and season with salt. Dip first in the milk/egg mix and then coat with the flour/breadcrumbs. Heat some butter in a frying pan and fry on medium heat until golden.

Pea pure
Ingredients
1 1/2 dl peas
1 dl cream
1 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to season

Preparation
Add the peas, cream and butter in a small pan. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Boil for 5 min then process with handmixer or blender. 

Serve with mash (potato and parsnip is another favourite).