Mouthwatering restaurant style fish dish, and oh-so-easy.

Serves 4

•  1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 halibut steaks  (or thickish fillets)
• 1/2 cup white wine (125ml)
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 1/4 cup butter (about 50g)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons capers, with liquid
• to serve – new potatoes, extra butter and parsley – optional

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Fry the halibut steaks on all sides until nicely browned. Remove from pan, and set aside.
2. Pour the wine into the pan, and use a spatula to scrape any browned bits from the bottom. Let the wine reduce to almost nothing, then stir in the garlic, butter and capers. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Let the sauce simmer for a minute to blend the flavors.
3. Return the steaks to the pan, and coat them with sauce. Cook until fish flakes easily with a fork. Serve fish immediately with the sauce from the pan poured over it.

 Hils Comment: Serving suggestion – lay on a bed of crushed buttery new potatoes before pouring the sauce over, and sprinkle chopped parsley over the top. Alternatively, serve with a simple rice or noodle accompaniment.

 Couldn’t be simpler. Halibut is quite an expensive fish, but cooked this way it makes the most of the firm flesh and delicate taste, and is more than worth the expense.  Mouthwateringly delicious.

Ingredients 

These delicious American-style chocolate chip cookies contain small chunks of marzipan that melt to give yummy chewy bits

(Waitrose recipe http://www.waitrose.com/recipe/Marzipan_Hazelnut_cookies.aspx)

Ingredients

175g butter, at room temperature
175g caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
75g Waitrose Hazelnuts
100g plain flour
100g self raising flour
75g Renshaw Brandy Marzipan, roughly chopped (I could not find Brandy Marzipan at Waitrose, so used Waitrose Golden Marzipan, it was delicious – H)
75g Waitrose Dark Chocolate, roughly chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C, gas mark 5.
2. Using an electric mixer, whisk together the butter, sugar and vanilla until pale and fluffy.
3. Place the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan and lightly toast until golden. Allow to cool slightly, then roughly chop.
4. Sift the flours over the creamed butter then fold in the marzipan, chocolate and nuts.
5. Shape the mixture into balls and place on two baking sheets, roughly flattening them with the palm of your hand and leaving room for them to spread slightly. Bake for 15 minutes until lightly browned.
6. Cool for a few minutes  then transfer to a wire rack. Eat while still warm or cool completely and store in an airtight jar.

Hils comment: Wonderful! Don’t chop the hazelnuts and marzipan too small, you want to get the crunch and taste of the nuts and marzipan chunks. Throw in a few extra hazelnuts, if you love nuts as  I do, and use a good quality dark chocolate.  These might just be the best chocolate chip cookies ever!

Quick and tasty vegetarian low fat supper

(Waitrose Recipe http://www.waitrose.com/recipe/Spinach,_tomato_and_chick_pea_curry.aspx)

Serves: 4 

 Ingredients

1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
2cm piece fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp Bart Veeraswamy Medium Moglai Curry Paste
400g can Waitrose Organic chopped tomatoes
410g can Waitrose Organic chick peas
250g bag essential Waitrose Spinach, roughly shredded
4 tbsp natural yogurt
4 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
(Cooked diced butternut squash, if desired)

 Method

1. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and cook the garlic, onion and ginger together for 5 minutes until softened and golden. Stir in the curry paste and cook for a minute, then add the tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes to make a thick sauce, stirring occasionally.
2. Stir in the chick peas with their liquid and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes, then season and stir in the shredded spinach. Cook gently together for a couple of minutes until the spinach is just cooked. Check seasoning and serve with a spoonful of yogurt, then scatter with chopped coriander. Serve with warm naan bread.

Cook’s tips:   You can follow step 1, then freeze the tomato sauce for future use. Just thaw and continue as above.

Hil’s comment: Truly delicious and filling, and so quick and easy. Perfect for a hearty yet healthy autumn supper. I added some cooked diced butternut squash (left over from Sunday lunch) at the same time as the spinach, which worked very well and made the curry a bit more robust.  Any curry paste would be fine;  I used a mix of garam masala and rogan josh. Taste it before the end and add more curry paste if necesssary.  I didn’t add all the chick pea liquid as it would have been too sloppy – maybe my Waitrose Essential tinned tomatoes had a little more juice than the organic version used by Waitrose. The dish is slightly low on protein although the chick peas do contain some protein. For a totally balanced one dish meal, next time I will add a little diced tofu or sliced chorizo or sausage.

Spicy warming chilli hits the spot on a cool wintery night. Easy to prepare, and even tastier the day after!

(By Jo Pratt)

Preparation time: less than 30 mins
Cooking time: 1 to 2 hours
Serves 5 -6

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1kg/2¼lb lean beef mince
• 250ml/9fl oz red wine
• 2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
• 3 tbsp tomato purée
• 2 red chillies, thinly sliced, or 3-4 tsp dried chilli flakes
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 stick cinnamon
• good shake of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 beef stock cube
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 x 400g can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 large bunch coriander leaves, roughly chopped
• wedges of lime, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan with a lid and fry the onion and garlic until softened. Increase the heat and add the mince, cooking quickly until browned and breaking down any chunks of meat with a wooden spoon.
2. Pour in the red wine and boil for 2-3 minutes. While waiting, pour a glass for yourself.
3. Stir in the tinned tomatoes, tomato purée, fresh chilli or chilli flakes, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and Worcestershire sauce and crumble in the stock cube. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bring to a simmer, cover with a lid and cook over a gentle heat for about 50 minutes to 1 hour, stirring occasionally until the mixture is rich and thickened.
4. Add the kidney beans and fresh coriander. Cook for a further ten minutes, uncovered, before removing from the heat, adding any extra seasoning if necessary. Serve with rice or crusty bread, sour cream and a big green salad.

Top recipe tip

The chilli is much tastier a day or two after it’s cooked because the flavours develop and the texture becomes richer. Simply leave to cool, stick in the fridge and gently heat before serving. If you’re eating the chilli on the day you prepared it, any leftovers can be frozen in individual portions in well-sealed sandwich bags, then reheated in the microwave or by boiling from frozen in a saucepan of water for about 15-20 minutes until steaming hot.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chilliconcarne_67875

Creamy tomato and prawn curry bursting with flavour

Recipe: Creamy tomato and prawn curry
(By Sunil Vijayakar http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-1304799/Recipe-Creamy-tomato-prawn-curry.html)

Rich and spicy: This creamy tomato and prawn curry is bursting with flavour
SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS
2tbsp mild curry powder
1tsp turmeric
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2tsp finely grated fresh ginger
2tbsp ground cumin
6tbsp tomato purée
1tsp caster sugar or palm sugar
2tsp tamarind paste
300ml (½pt) coconut cream
15-20 cherry tomatoes
800g (1lb 12oz) raw tiger prawns, cleaned and shelled, with the tails left on
Coriander sprigs to garnish.

Chopped cucumber, tomato and red onion salad to serve with crusty bread, naans, pappadoms or steamed white rice

METHOD
Place the curry powder, turmeric, garlic, ginger, cumin, tomato purée and sugar in a saucepan and mix with 300ml (½pt) water.

Place the pan over a high heat and bring to the boil. Cover, reduce the heat and simmer for 8-10 minutes. Stir in the tamarind paste and coconut milk and bring back to the boil. Add the prawns and cherry tomatoes.

Cook for 6-7 minutes or until the prawns turn pink. Serve immediately, garnished with sprigs of chopped coriander.

Hils comment:   Tasty and quick, and uses mainly store cupboard ingredients so a great stand by.  Used a  bag of  frozen raw prawns , more economical than fresh with tails on! Bag of frozen mixed seafood would also work well, and be more economical than prawns.

Want a fast and yummy supper? You can't go wrong with mussels.

Quick rice with white wine and mussels

In terms of quick and yummy suppers, you can’t really go wrong with mussels: cheap, yummy and they produce their own stock in a matter of minutes. In this recipe, the rice is cooked in said stock, which is the making of this carbed-up version of moules marinère. A very easy throw-together. Takes 30 minutes to make.

Recipe by Allegra McEvedy http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/10/allegra-mcevedy-weekly-recipe

Supper for two

INGREDIENTS

500g mussels 

1½ tbsp butter 

2 shallots or 1 small white onion, finely diced 

3 cloves garlic 

1 chilli, sliced 

250ml white wine 

150g quick-cook, long-grain rice  

Big handful of baby spinach or rocket, washed 

Zest of 1 lemon 

Salt and pepper 

METHOD

First, debeard the mussels: take hold off the matted stringy bit and tug it down firmly towards the pointy end of the shell so that it comes away. As you’re doing this, run the mussels under cold water, discarding any open ones.

Heat the butter over a medium flame in a fairly large pan. Chuck in the onion and garlic and sauté gently, with a lid on, for a few minutes until golden and softened. Then add the chilli and fry for a minute more.

Tip in the mussels, roll them around in the onion, then pour in the wine. Stir, put a lid on, and cook on a high heat for around three to five minutes.

Once the mussels have opened, lift them out with a slotted spoon, on to a tray. Add 200ml water to the pan, and tip in the rice. Stir, put the lid back on, bring to the boil, then simmer on a low to medium heat. It will take about 12 minutes for the rice to cook.

Meanwhile, pick the mussels from the shells. Discard the shells but be sure to save any onion bits and liquid in a bowl, with the mussels themselves. Once the rice is nearly cooked (after about 10 minutes), tip the mussels, plus any onion and liquid, back into the pan.

When the rice is completely cooked, and the mussels have warmed through, turn the heat off and stir in the spinach (or rocket) till just wilted, along with the lemon zest and seasoning.

A delicious, easy and satisfying supper, and mussels are not terribly expensive – under £4 per kg. 1 kg served 3 – it would serve 4 if you were having a starter or pud. For guests, you could do all the preparation beforehand and cook and de-shell the mussels, leaving just the cooking of the rice and adding the spinach/rocket and lemon zest just before serving.

Affogato is a classic Italian dish of espresso poured over ice cream. Served with almond biscuits soaked in Marsala, it’s one of the easiest desserts ever.
Recipe by Waitrose Recipes

Serves: 6 

INGREDIENTS

12 Corsini Cantuccini alle Mandorle (almond biscuits)
6 tbsp Marsala or dessert wine
500ml tub Waitrose Roasted Coffee Ice Cream
150ml hot espresso or fresh coffee
½ x 100g bar Waitrose Swiss Plain Chocolate with Coffee, finely grated

METHOD

1. Place 2 cantuccini biscuits in each of 6 heatproof glass dessert bowls or tumblers. Pour a tablespoon of the Marsala over the cantuccini and leave to soak for 5-10 minutes.
2. When ready to serve, remove the ice cream from the freezer and make the coffee either in a cafetiére, filter or espresso machine.
3. Place a large scoop of the ice cream in each glass and take to the table. Just before eating, pour a little of the hot coffee over. Top with grated chocolate.

Cook’s tip:  As an alternative, soak Corsini Cantuccini Chocolate Chip biscuits, as above. Serve with chocolate ice cream drizzled with hot chocolate sauce (make your own by melting a 100g bar of plain chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water.

http://www.waitrose.com/recipe/Affogato_with_Boozy_Cantuccini_Biscuits.aspx

Hils comment: So easy you feel it doesn’t deserve to taste so nice! It was truly delightful, accolades all round and certainly special enough for entertaining. I could not get Waitrose Roasted Coffee Icecream, so used Waitrose Seriously Creamy Columbian Coffee Icecream – it was wonderful. I also scattered some toasted chopped hazelnuts over the top (lightly toast skinless hazelnuts in a baking pan in a medium/hot oven until they are golden brown but not burnt. Toasted chopped or slivered almonds would also work). Serve with an Almond Thin biscuit (or 2) in the saucer or with the icecream.

I’d say the 500ml ice cream serves 4 – 6, preferably 4 if you want a decent amount of icecream per person.

Serves 4

Jamie Oliver: “This is a pasta dish that Gennaro Contaldo used to make for our staff dinners when we worked at the Neal Street Restaurant in Covent Garden in London. In Italian this is called “pasta puttana,” which basically translates as “whore’s pasta”! I wanted to know why, as I’d never heard of this before. Maybe it’s because the dish was cooked very quickly, with no effort involved, or maybe it’s something the local prostitutes used to eat at home–who knows?

But this is the way my darling Gennaro taught me to make it. He comes from the Amalfi coast, where fresh tuna would have been available. If you can get hold of some, it will make the dish much more luxurious and an event to eat. But if you can’t, then tinned will do.”

INGREDIENTS

A handful of fresh basil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Extra virgin olive oil
2 x 225g (8-ounce) tuna steaks, chopped into bite-size chunks, or 2 tins of good-quality tuna, drained
400g (14 oz) penne or spaghetti
8 anchovy fillets
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 handfuls of soaked capers
A handful of black olives, pitted and roughly chopped
1 to 3 small dried chillies, crumbled to your taste, or 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
2 handfuls of really ripe tomatoes, finely chopped
Optional: a swig of white wine
A handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

METHOD
Smash the basil to a pulp with a pinch of salt and pepper. Add the lemon zest and juice and 2 good lugs of extra virgin olive oil. Mix this up and either rub over your chopped-up fresh tuna or mix with your broken-up canned tuna and allow to marinate.

Get a large pan of salted boiling water on and cook the pasta according to the package instructions. As soon as you put the pasta on, put 3 or 4 good lugs of extra virgin olive oil into a large frying pan and put on the heat. As the pan starts to get warm, add your anchovy fillets and allow them to fry and melt. At this point add your garlic, capers, olives, and chilli and stir around for a couple of minutes. If you have used fresh tuna, add it to the pan now with all of the marinating juices and sear it on both sides. When done, add the tomatoes and a little swig of white wine if you have some. If you have used tinned tuna, add it to the pan at the same time as the tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then simmer for around 5 minutes, stirring regularly with a spoon, breaking the tuna up into smaller pieces. What you don’t want to do is overcook the tuna so it goes tough. You want it to be soft and silky. Correct the seasoning carefully with salt and pepper.

The pasta should now be ready, so drain it in a colander, reserving some of the cooking liquid. Toss the hot pasta with the hot tuna sauce, add the parsley, and mix well. You may need a few more lugs of olive oil and a spoonful of cooking water to make the sauce nice and loose.

Hils Comment:  A hugely satisfying dish to cook, as well as eat – prepare all the ingredients beforehand and they look as pretty as a picture:

The sauce before adding the pasta

I had no penne and had to use spaghetti the second time I did this, and I think it was even nicer than with penne.

Very quick and easy low fat dish, a satisfying after-work supper

Serves 3 – 4

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 300g risotto rice  (arborio or carnaroli)
• 1 litre fish or vegetable stock
• 280g wedge savoy cabbage, thickly sliced
• 400g skinless smoked haddock
• 3 tbsp crème fraîche
• 50g parmesan , freshly grated

 METHOD

Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Heat oil in a 2-litre casserole dish, then soften the onion over a medium heat for about 5 mins. Tip in the rice and cook for 2 mins, stirring well. Pour in the stock, bring to the boil, then add the cabbage. Cover and bake for 20 mins.

Remove the pan from the oven and give the rice a stir. Place the fish on top of the rice, replace the lid, then bake for 5 mins.

Flake the fish into large chunks and stir into the rice with the crème fraîche and half the parmesan. Season with freshly ground pepper, then sprinkle with the remaining parmesan to serve.

Use other fish

You can replace the haddock with other meaty fish, such as cod from a sustainable source or salmon. For a special meal, add king prawns, mussels and scallops for the final 5 mins of cooking.

Per serving

469 kcalories, protein 32g, carbohydrate 66g, fat 10 g, saturated fat 4g, fibre 5g, salt 2.52 g

Recipe from BBC Good Food Magazine March 2007

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3460/baked-haddock-and-cabbage-risottol

Hils Comment: Delicious and extremely easy, and the left overs were also nice reheated in the microwave. Serve with a green salad or, if you’re very hungry, any other vegetables – there’s plenty of protein and carb in the main dish.  I had no savoy cabbage so used pointy spring cabbage – just as nice, any cabbage would be fine. Best with undyed smoked haddock. Next time, I’d love to serve it with a poached egg on top, a new take on kedgeree!

If you are looking for very low fat, you could halve the quantity of  parmesan and it would still be very tasty.