Monkfish Curry with Wild Cabbage and Worcester Apples

Photo courtesy of Photography by Sadiq

This dish is based on my favorite fish curry recipes, I discovered a lovely recipe for monkfish curry in one of Skye Gyngell's cookbooks. It's not often I follow someone else's recipe, however I do love the way Skye cooks and her books are wonderful. Until she left Petersham Nurseries, it was my favorite restaurant in London and to overcome my withdrawals since she's left, I've been delving into her books.

This version of Skye's monkfish curry is served with peppery foraged wild cabbage. I've also added worcester apples which are currently in season and brown shrimp to balance out the sweet and tart of the apples—a lovely alternative to rice and bread.

800g monkfish sliced into 2cm chunks
400ml coconut milk
400g canned plum tomatoes
1 red onion
25g butter
1 small bunch coriander with roots
3 cloves garlic
2 red chillies
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon palm sugar
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 kaffir lime leaves
1 lime

1 wild cabbage
8 worcester apples
60g brown shrimp
Sea salt
Extra virgin olive oil

METHOD:
Peel and thinly slice the onion, put butter in a large heavy-based pot and place over a low-medium heat to melt. Add the onion and cook gently until onion softens and turns translucent. Place a small fry pan over a medium heat and add the fennel seeds, coriander seeds and mustard. Lightly toast the seeds until fragrant, remove from heat and ground into a rough powder using mortar and pestle then add to onions. Peel and crush the garlic, dice the chillies, finely slice the roots of the coriander and add all three ingredients to the onion along with fish sauce, palm sugar, torn kaffir leaves and juice of the lime. Turn heat up to medium and cook for 5 minutes, add the plum tomatoes and turn heat up until sauce is just bubbling. Cover pot with lid and turn heat down slightly, cook for 20 minutes, stirring periodically.

Cut the apples into quarters and lay over baking tray then drizzle with a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Place apples in oven set at 180ºC for 15 minutes. Remove the large stalk base of the wild cabbage, wash the leaves and slice into 2cm width strips. Place a large pot with lid over a high heat and add a good dash of olive oil, once hot cook the wild cabbage with a good pinch of salt (you may need to do this in 2 batches). When the cabbage is cooked it should have wilted and be a vibrant green colour and still slightly crisp along the center stalky center, not black.

Once the sauce has cooked, add coconut milk and turn up the heat slightly, when the sauce is just simmering stir in the monkfish and remove from heat. Leave to stand for about 4-5 minutes, the heat of the sauce should be enough to cook the fish, making it tender and soft.
Serve the fish curry over a bed of wild cabbage and cooked apples, garnish with brown shrimps and torn coriander leaves.

Brown Sugar Cod Salad

Finally we can throw our soup bowls and duvet in the back of the cupboards, and make the most of whats left of the summer. What I'd do for a duel passport so I can chase the sun.
My latest salad use's the best of summer produce and delicate cod baked in brown sugar with fragrant flavours. Virtually fat free and completely satisfying.
Also I must once again thank Etienne for his fresh batch of wonderful and colourful photo's,

1kg cod fillet
4 tablespoons muscovado sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt
50ml fish sauce
1 long red chilli
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch coriander
2 limes
2 large aubergine
4 nectarines
2 baby gem lettuce
50ml extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper for seasoning

Method:
Remove the tops of aubergine and slice in half lengthways, then cut each half into 8 wedges and lay over baking tray, season with salt and pepper. Drizzle olive oil over aubergine and bake in oven set at 180oC for 30 minutes.
Place cod fillet on a baking tray and sprinkle with sugar, salt and pour over fish sauce. Peel garlic and roughly chop with chilli, finely slice the roots of coriander and scatter over fish with chilli and garlic. Cut limes into quarters and squeeze out the juice over fish, cover tray in foil and place in oven pre-heated to 180oC for 15 minutes.
Cut the base of the gem lettuce and separate the leaves and wash then pat dry with paper towels. Slice nectarine's in half and remove the stone, slice each half into 4 wedges.
To construct the salad you can either make 4-6 individual portions or one large platter. First place a wedge's of aubergine and nectarine in lettuce leafs and lay out over serving plate. Gently flake fish over salad and dress with fish cooking juice's, lastly garnish with coriander.

Prawn Brandy Cocktail Salad

Contemporary twist on the dated prawn cocktail and slightly more healthier than eating soupy mayonnaise and ketchup coated shrimp off a soggy ice berg leaf. This weeks winner in the salad selection at work and includes 3 of your 5 day! 

800g large raw prawns

25g butter

1 spanish onion

1 clove garlic

Small knob of ginger

100g baby spinach (washed)

1 large avocado

2 red grapefruit

Sea salt and pepper to season

DRESSING:

200ml cherry brandy

2 tablespoon red wine vinegar

2 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 small nutmeg freshly grated

6 pink peppercorns

1 bay leave

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon dijon

150ml extra virgin olive oil

METHOD:

Dice onion, crush garlic and grate ginger, place large pot on a medium heat with butter and add the onion, garlic and ginger. Cook till the onion goes soft and add the prawns then season with a little salt and pepper. Once the prawns have only just turned pink remove from heat and strain the juices and leave the prawns to cool.

To make the dressing put in a small sauce pan the brandy, vinegar, sugar, salt, nutmeg, peppercorns and bay leave and place over a high heat, bring to a rapid boil and reduce the liquid to a syrup consistency then remove from heat. Strain the liquid into a food processor and add the mustard, blitz together till well combined and slowly pour in the olive oil. The dressing should be thick, smooth and elastic. 

Peel the skin off the grapefruit and cut flesh segments from the pith and remove any seeds. Cut the avocado in half remove the stone and spoon out the flesh then slice into thin wedges. 

Now its time to construct the salad, on a large platter lay out half the spinach leave's followed by half the avocado wedges and grapefruit segments. Evenly place out half the prawns over the salad base and finally drizzle some dressing over the salad then repeat the layer one more time. Serve the salad straight away.

Red, White and Green Squid Salad

Red, White and Green Squid Salad is visual and full of textures and flavours.
Personally its the highlight of this weeks menu at work. A lot of washing up to do afterwards but hopefully you can rope some family or guest into doing the chores afterwards.

500g Squid tubes with tenticals removed
500g potato flour
75g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cracked pepper
1.5 liters Vegetable oil
100g baby spinach washed
50g almond flakes
1 teaspoon chilli flakes

PICKLED ONIONS:
2 red onions
250ml white wine vinegar
250ml water
1 lemon
100g sugar
1 tablespoon sea salt
8 peppercorns
2 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic
1 dried chilli

LIME AND GARLIC MAYONNAISE:
2 egg yolks
1 lime
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic
200ml vegetable oil
2 tablespoons water
Sea salt and craked pepper to taste

METHOD:
First make the pickled onions, place the vinegar, juice of lemon, water, sugar, salt, peppercorns, bay leaves, chilli, garlic peeled and sliced into a sauce pan and bring to a simmer till sugar has dissolved. Peel the onion and slice into 5mm rounds and place in a container and pour the pickling juice over onions cover and leave to stand for 2 hours.
Next place a shallow fry pan on a medium heat and add the almonds and chilli flakes toast the nuts in the pan till you get uneven brown flecks then remove from heat and put aside.
To make the mayonnaise place the yolks, juice of lime, dijon, garlic, salt and pepper to taste into food processor and blend together for 1 minute then slowly pour in the oil bit by bit and lastly add the water to make the mayonaise white. Place the mayonaise in fridge till ready to serve.
Pour the vegetable oil in a large pot and place on high heat to get hot! Slice the squid tubes in half length ways then very gently score the outer serface with a criss-cross pattern and place in mixing bowl. Add the plain flour, salt and pepper to the squid and mix together till evenly coated, in a side bowl place the potato flour. Now test if the oil is hot enough by placing the handle end of a wooden spoon in the oil, if rapid bubbles form around the handle after a few seconds then the oil is ready for cooking. Cooking the squid is a little dangerous and needs a balance of patience and timing, first lay a tea towel or paper towels over a large baking tray, this is where you'll put the squid once cooked. Dip a piece of the squid into potato flour covering both sides then gently plunge into the hot oil and repeat with 3 or four more pieces of squid (don't over crowd the oil as it will make the squid soggy). After about 30 seconds the squid will float to the top of the oil and it is then ready to remove with a slotted spoon and place onto lined tray. Repeat the process till all the squid is cooked.
Now its time to construct the salad, on a large platter lay out half the spinach followed by half the onion rings evenly distributed. On top of the onions evenly lay out half the squid then dot the salad sporadically with some of the mayonnaise and finally garnish with a sprinkling of almond flakes. Then repeat the layer and serve as soon as possible.

Fresh crab, Pomelo, Kohlrabi, Pickled horseradish, Frisee Salad

A customer at work this week described this dish 'The best salad I've ever eaten.' I'd like to agree!
This salad has several elements that complement each other perfectly sweet, juicy, creamy, crunchy and most importantly fresh.
There are probably some scary ingredients and items you've never used or heard of but don't let that scare you. I know most people will buy already pasteurized crab meat but it's simple and more rewarding to pickle your own fresh crab. Pomelo is a sweeter grape fruit with incredible thick skin/pith and contains white citrus jewels, commonly imported from Thailand and other Asian countries. Kohlrabi is a member of the turnip family and used in Germany and eastern European regions it has a crunchy sweet flavour that taste like a hybrid of apple and red cabbage. The horseradish and wasabi adds a little sneeze and kick. The frisee and parsley are the savoury that rounds the salad off. There's a process and some patience that is required to pull off a good crab salad. Go to the local fishmongers buy some good quality EXPENSIVE white crab meat and educate your mind and sensors.

200g fresh white crab meat
1 large kohlrabi
1 pomelo
3 tablespoons finely grated horseradish
1  small frisee washed and leaves roughly separated
Small handful of curly parsley finely chopped plus a little extra for the dressing

PICKLING LIQUID:
1 lemon juiced
4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
100ml water
100g sugar
1 tablespoon sea salt
4 peppercorns
1 bay leave
1 clove garlic thinly sliced
1 dried red chilli roughly chopped

DRESSING:
150ml double cream
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon wasabi
Good pinch of sea salt

METHOD:
First make the pickling liquid place all ingredients in a small sauce pan and place on a high heat and bring to the boil and cook for around 3-4 minutes till the sugar has dissolved and you have a syrupy consistency. Remove from heat and strain the liquid and leave to cool, discard the infusing spices.
In a small mixing bowl or container place the horseradish and in another bowl place the crab meat, spoon about 4 tablespoons of the pickling liquid over the horseradish give a little stir together and set aside for later.
Add the remainder of the liquid to the crab meat and roughly combine together, cover the crab and place in the coldest part of your fridge for 2 hours to pickle.
With the pomelo cut off the top and bottom of the thick skin and pith then using a small sharp knife cut a 1cm mark at the top using hands peel the skin and pith away, use the knife only to cut out the more difficult pithy areas of the fruit. Once the skin and pith is removed separate the fruits segments like a clementine and put aside.
Peel the kohlrabi and cut off the top and bottom then cut down the middle and slice into very thin half circles, place in bowl with horseradish and mix together till roughly combined.
To make the dressing place the lemon juice, wasabi, salt and 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley in a small mixing bowl and stir together till the wasabi has dissolved into the lemon then pour in the cream and combine together this will thicken the cream creating a natural sour cream dressing.
Now its time to bring all the elements together to create the salad, on a large serving platter lay out half of the frisee followed by half the sliced kohlrabi evenly distributed over the frisee. Then using your hands carefully break up several of the pomelo segments and scatter round the salad afterwards gently distribute half the picked crab meat over the salad. Using a tablespoon drizzle small thin streams of the dressing over the salad (don't add too much as you'll lose the flavour of  the other ingredients) then garnish with a sprinkling of parsley. Repeat the layer once more and your salad is ready and I recommend you serve it immediately to enjoy the benefits of a fresh crab salad.