Easy Recipe: Smoked Haddock and Spinach

Why I won't be dieting this year.......In my house we couldn't possibly think about cutting back on sugary foods until the end of January. We've got a stash of Christmas cake, meringue nests, chocolates, biscuits and lots of other wonderful goodies to get through and as I type this blog post I'm enjoying a bag of Galaxy Minstrels, delicious they are too.

I've just come across a recipe which uses ¼ of a banana, what's going on here, what am I supposed to do with the remainder if I was to embark on a serious New Year diet.  We don't do diets in my house but try to cut back on sugary treats, eat more soup and generally serve up smaller portions.  I went on a low fat diet many years ago and craved fish and chips on a daily basis, I'm now convinced that the no-diet diet is the only one that works.

A friend has enthusiastically thrown herself into every diet known to man but as usual she is now back to her normal weight plus a few pounds more thanks to the diets that don't work. Her venue for the group dieters was opposite an Indian Restaurant and after the dieters group hug she went straight over the road for a meal.  She was also buying ready made dieters meals.  She brought a friend along to one of our lunch get togethers and said friend counted points all throughout the meal - annoying.

Apparently most diets only last for 24 hours and some dieters fail because they go out for meals with friends who aren't on a diet.  I find it's dieters who spoil meals for those of us who don't do silly diets. The only sensible diet aid I have ever come across is a diet plate which helps with portion control for those with no control.  In my house we bought smaller dinner plates years ago and practice portion control. Make a cake, slice into portions and freeze, we don't eat the lot in one go......

I'm a huge fan of smoked haddock and this recipe can be made in a microwave safe dish in just 8 minutes or if you have a steam oven it cooks successfully too.  The creme fraiche and cheese turns into a cheesy sauce and for a minimum of effort here is a delicious meal. All you need is a small bag of fresh spinach, top with a piece of smoked haddock, spread a few tablespoons of low fat creme fraiche on top, sprinkle over mature grated Cheddar cheese, top with slices of spring onions and grind over lots of fresh ground pepper.  Serve with poached egg, new potatoes and garden peas.

The perfect healthy midweek meal

Nigel Slater's Smoked Haddock with Potato and Bacon

You will definitely need more sauce on your plate than this!

We would happily eat this tasty meal any day of the week, my husbands name for this is 'posh fish and chips' and I agree.  Dyed smoked haddock is our choice because it always looks good on the plate.

A pan of fabulous bacon and chips

Smoked Haddock, cream, bay leaves and peppercorns

There is a very generous amount of sauce, we didn't waste one single drop - dunk some fabulous bread into any remaining sauce.

The Smoked Haddock with Potato and Bacon recipe can be found on the Guardian website.

I am entering this into Dish of the Month challenge hosted by Janice at Farmers Girl Kitchen and the host for June is Sue at A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate.

Smoked Haddock with Bacon and Leeks

I remember going to a 'posh' restaurant and being served undyed smoked haddock. They served the fish on top of a mound of mashed potato.....I've never forgotten how dull that meal looked.  It's definitely dyed smoked haddock for me every time!

There are a lot of buttery juices after the fish has cooked, I placed my cooked new potatoes and leeks in the tray and turned them in those fabulous juices.  This is a quick and tasty fish dish with only a few ingredients, it was really delicious too.

You will need:

Serves: 4

50g softened butter, 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley, few rashers streaky bacon, 4 smoked haddock fillets, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, freshly ground pepper, 2 chopped leeks.

1. Place the butter into a bowl, add the chopped herbs, mix together.
2. Grill the bacon until crispy, drain and set aside.
3. Put the fish fillets onto a foil lined baking tray, grease the foil and spread the herb butter over the fillets.
4. Sprinkle the lemon juice over and season with black pepper.
5. Grill for 6 minutes or until the fish is cooked.
6. Cook the leeks in boiling water, drain. Add to the tray in which the fish has cooked and coat with the buttery juices.
7. Crumble over the reserved bacon.

Smoked Haddock and Leek Risotto

I'm not one for take out meals but on occasions I feel lazy, can't be bothered, can't get into the zone and can't even think what to make. On these occasions I always feel guilty, but then I do have a husband to feed! Left to me it would be a plate of leaves and a spray of balsamic vinegar, but then as I said before, I do have a husband to feed, and I don't think he would be very impressed with a plate of leaves.

For all the above occasions risotto saves the day. Risotto fills you up and as long as you have some arborio rice, a glass of white wine and some chicken stock you can make a substantial meal. Hopefully, you will have some Parmesan cheese to grate over the risotto too.

Risotto isn't the prettiest of meals but taste wise it takes some beating. Risotto costs less than a take out, takes less time than if you have to fetch it and won't hurt your wallet either.

I have a clever kitchen gadget which makes mine in 25 minutes from start to finish, a present from my husband, and so on lazy days and can't be bothered days it's risotto for us.

This delicious recipe is from Olive Magazine and can be found on the BBC GoodFood website.

A few more lazy day risotto's:

Lemon Thyme, Prosciutto, Pecorino and Goat's Cheese Risotto
Porcini and Spinach Risotto
Nigel Slater's Leek Risotto with Parmesan Crisps

Creamy Haddock Gratins

I made four of these lovely little gratins and they were one of the best dinners we had this week. They were a bit of a faff to make and I seemed to use every basin and saucepan in the kitchen, I managed to run out of work surface and made a mess everywhere too. There wasn't a space in the kitchen to take the photograph of the gratins and so I had to run outside and photograph them, it was so cold outside they cooled down straight away, looked a little sorry for themselves and had to be rescued with a few grilled cherry tomatoes placed on top to cheer them up.

The lack of preparation was because I had planned to cook salmon but somehow the salmon managed to get lost. I know I bought it, I found my receipt - I looked in the fridge, the freezer, in the car....I can only think it must have got fed up and swam back to the river. Or, it's still in Sainsbury's, but I felt too embarrassed to ring up and ask if they had found some salmon hanging around. Mr W said forget about the fish, but how am I supposed to forget about the fish that somehow managed to get lost between the supermarket and home?

It's been a week of losses, Mr W lost the remotes to the DVD and the hifi, he also fell asleep in the cinema and he nearly lost me when he started snoring! I have also lost some Tupperware containers which I use to put small amounts of sauces into for the freezer. It's also been a week of frustrations, we have invested in new technical wizardry and I am now on techie overload.

Mr W thinks we may have entered a new chapter in our lives ...........

This recipe is by the Hairy Bikers from the television series Mums Know Best and is on the BBC Food Website.

CHEESY FISH PIE

This recipe came from a recent food magazine, and is an advertisement feature for Green Giant sweetcorn, encouraging us to use sweetcorn as one of our five-a-day.

The potato topping caught my attention. You simply put cubes of parboiled potato mixed with cheese, on top of the fish pie filling, and now, I don't think I will ever top my fish pie with mashed potato ever again!

It's recommended in the recipe to use a large 340g can of sweetcorn, that's fine if you want lots and lots of sweetcorn, but I thought a 198g can would be more sensible. Fortunately, this was the right decision and gave just the right amount of sweetcorn to the finished dish. Obviously, some frozen peas can be used instead of the sweetcorn.


If you are reading this posting son, next time you have made a fraught journey home late at night after a hard week at work, this tasty, comforting fish pie will make the journey home even more worthwhile!! PS. I haven't forgotten your request for a crumble.

Serves: 4 people

You will need: A large ovenproof buttered dish.

700g potatoes, 15g butter, 75g grated mature cheddar cheese, 300g skinless salmon fillets, 400g skinless cod (or other white fish), 6 spring onions, 198g can of sweetcorn or alternatively some frozen peas.

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/gas 5.
2. Peel and chop the potatoes into small chunks. Boil for 8 minutes until tender and then drain.
3. Melt in the butter and then stir in the grated mature cheddar cheese.
4. Poach the fish for 5 minutes then cut into small chunks. Place in a buttered ovenproof dish.
5. Scatter over the spring onions and the can of drained sweetcorn, or alternatively the frozen peas.

For the sauce:

400ml semi-skimmed milk, 4 tsp cornflour, 1 tsp vegetable stock, 2 tablespoons chopped parsley.

1, Blend a little of the milk with the cornflour. Heat the rest of the milk in a pan, add 1 tsp powdered vegetable stock and when it is almost simmering, stir in the blended cornflour, until the mixture thickens. Cook over a low heat for 1 minute, then add the chopped parsley.
2. Pour the sauce over the fish. Top with the cheesy potatoes and then cook for 35 minutes or until golden brown.



I have been fortunate enough to be awarded some awards from my fellow food blogging friends.

My friend Jan over at What Do I Want To Cook Today has passed to me a 'Friendship' award - thank you Jan!


The 'Brillante Weblog' award has been given to me from Jan of What Do I Want To Cook Today - once again, many thanks Jan! Also the same award from Rosie of Rosie Bakes a 'Peace' of Cake, and Cakelaw of Laws of the Kitchen - to both of you thank you.


I am passing the above two awards to all the food bloggers who have visited my site over the last two years - thank you.

JAMIE OLIVER'S FABULOUS FISH CAKES

This is one of Jamie's 'Feed Your Family for a Fiver' recipes from Sainsbury's Try Something New Today.

They were very easy to make and instead of my usual method of cooking fish cakes in butter and oil in a frying pan, these were cooked in the oven with only a drizzle of oil over them and obviously this is a much healthier option.

The basics salmon was surprisingly good, and I wouldn't hesitate to use this again in recipes requiring cooked salmon. Make sure you go over the salmon though for the odd few bones because you wouldn't want your children to have any of these in their mouths!

I didn't follow Jamie's salad to the letter because I had other salad ingredients in the fridge to use up, but I give the recipe below.

On another note - I still prefer to fry my fish cakes for extra taste and colour, also I always add some chopped parsley to the potato and salmon.

Nigel Slater says tinned salmon makes 'deeply flavoured fish cakes'. He has written a charming piece about fish cakes for Waitrose.

As a child we always had fish cakes made with tinned salmon and mashed potatoes. They were mostly served with baked beans and then we used to prod open the fish cakes and pour malt vinegar inside of them! That meal was always one of my favourites as a child. Does anyone else remember having this dinner or a variation of it? I would love to know.

Here is Jamie's recipe:

Serves: 4

You will need: 350g basics salmon fillets, 4 baking potatoes, 1 lemon, 1 egg

1. Place the salmon fillets in a metal colander over a pan of simmering water. cover and steam for 5 minutes.

2. Peel the 4 potatoes, cut each into about 8 pieces and boil until soft. Mash and leave to cool. Remove any skin from the salmon, flake and mix with the potatoes, a lightly whisked egg, lemon zest and some salt and pepper. Roll the mixture into 8 fish cakes.

3. Drizzle olive oil on both sides of the fish cakes and cook on a baking tray in a preheated oven for 15 minutes at 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6 or until crispy on the outside and heated through.

For the salad: Round lettuce, cucumber portion, 2 tomatoes, 1 red onion.

1. Quarter the heart of the lettuce and set aside.

2. Chop all the remaining washed salad ingredients, including the outer lettuce leaves.

3. Place in a salad bowl.

For the dressing: Dijon mustard, juice of the lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper.

1. Make a well in the middle of the prepared salad and squeeze in the juice of the lemon. Add a dash of olive oil, a spoonful of Dijon mustard and the salt and pepper.

2. Mix through the salad.

3. Serve the fish cakes with the salad and quartered lettuce heart.

SMOKED SALMON WITH SCRAMBLED EGGS AND BRIOCHE TOAST

The Passionate Cook is hosting this months Waiter! there's something in my....... challenge and Johanna's theme for April is "breakfast favourites".

As a rule breakfast in my house isn't a big deal, but just something to sustain you until lunch-time comes around. That is, unless my three year old grandson comes to stay, then breakfast takes on a whole new meaning and lasts about an hour!

I decided to make an indulgent breakfast of smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and toasted brioche. For this breakfast, the salmon more often than not, is added to the scrambled eggs and then spooned onto the brioche, but I prefer these ingredients to be served separately. The eggs should be made with a small amount of double cream added to them, for extra indulgence.

This is my perfect breakfast, not too filling but extremely satisfying.