Fish cakes with parsley sauce

Fish cakes
250 gr salmon
400 gr cod
400 gr smokes haddock
500 gr potatoes diced
750 ml milk
6 spring onions chopped
Zest of an unwaxed lemon
Bay leaf
25 gr flour
2 eggs beaten
breadcrumbs
3-4 table spoon rapeseed oil for light frying

For the sauce
25gr butter
25 gr plain flour
2 handfulls of parsley

Steamed kale to serve

Fish cakes;
Boil the potatoes until cooked, drain and mash.
Put the fish in a pan with the milk bay leaf and salt and bring to boil. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
Take off the fish and strain the milk to a jug to use later for the parsley sauce.
Flake the fish removing the skin and making sure there is no bone left in the fish.
Add the flaked fish into mash along with chopped spring onions and the lemon zest.
Season and mash and mix up everything really well.
Divide your fish cake mixture into 8 and pat into circles about 2 cm thick.
Beat the eggs on a plate, flour in an other plate and the bread crumbs on an other plate.
One by one sit the cakes on flour first until they are all covered in flour.
Then sit them in the beaten egg and brush over the sides and top until it is coated completely.
Sit the cakes in the crumbs on the sides and tops do they are lightly covered.
If you'd like to freeze them you can wrap them in cling film at this stage and freeze.

Put a large frying pan on medium heat and add rapeseed oil.
When the oil is hot, flour your fish cakes, then put them in beaten egg and then add your fish cakes and cook about 3-4 minutes on each side or until crisp and golden.
Put the fried fish cakes on a baking tray lined with baking parchment and bake them in medium oven, gas mark 7 for 10 minutes.

Parsley sauce;
In a medium sized saucepan melt the butter over medium heat. Once butter is melted add flour and stir through until a thick paste forms.
Cook gently for couple of minutes.
Gradually stir in the milk. Add a little and mix and wait until a thick paste forms again, then a little bit and stir until a paste forms and add a little more milk and do so on until all the milk is used.
Bring to boil and simmer for 3-4 minutes.
Add chopped parsley.
Season.

Serve the fish cakes with steamed kale and parsley sauce.
Enjoy.

Strawberry and poppyseed cake

I tried the BBC Good Food magazine's June 2013 cover recipe for my friends birthday. It was delicious very light and not so sweet.
I will post a link to the recipe when it is available on BBC website.
Mr round sandwich tin was old and bruised so I had to use my small square cake tin twice which made the cake look like a giant sandwich.
Icing was made of crème fraiche and yoghurt, I used Sainsbury's brand Greek yoghurt but didn't manage to get the consistency right, it was too thin. Next time I will try it with the Total Greek yoghurt which seems to be much thicker.

Houmous

This houmous recipe is from a cookbook of my mother-in-law which she got in 70's. When the houmous is made from dried chickpeas soaking the chickpeas  over night takes a bit more planning but makes a big difference in taste. However all the steps of soaking and cooking the chickpeas can be skipped if using tinned chickpeas and everything can go into the food processor at no time.

 250 grams dried chickpeas
100 ml tahini
100 ml olive oil
2 teaspoons paprika
5 gloves of garlic (crushed)
Juice of 3 lemons
Salt

Soak the chickpeas in hot water water overnight, make sure the water is at least 2 inches above the chickpeas.
Drain the chickpeas place them in a pan and fill with fresh water and a pinch of salt.
Bring to boil and simmer in low heat for an hour, until the chickpeas are very soft and can be smashed with your fingers.
Drain the chickpeas and let them cool to room temperature.
If you prefer a really smooth houmous then once cooled peel the chickpeas.
Chickpeas have a thin skin and it is easiest take them off when you place a single chickpea between your thumb and next 2 fingers and press gently until the chickpea pops and into a bowl and you are left with the skin in your hand. This may seem like it takes long time but in fact it only takes about 10 minutes and make a real big difference in the final texture.
Put the chickpeas, crushed garlic, tahini, half of the olive oil and half of the lemon juice in a food processor. Pulse and while the food processor is working add more lemon juice and olive oil.
Check the texture of the mixture and if it needs more thickening add more olive oil, if it nee is thinning add more lemon juice or if you don't like too much lemony you can replace some of the lemon juice with water and add water instead.
Taste and add seasoning and paprika.
You can reserve some of the olive oil to pour over the houmous for presentation.
Serve with chopped parsley and a sprinkling of paprika.

Leek and potato soup

We had a veggie dinner tonight. On the menu we had leek and potato soup followed by rice pilaf and peas cooked Turkish way.

Leek and potato soup

Serves 6

3 leeks (weighing about 250 grams) - chopped

3 medium potatoes (weighing about 250 grams) - chopped

1 medium onion - chopped

500 ml veg stock

100 ml milk

100 ml whipping cream

Vegetable oil

Seasoning

Heat 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a pan and add chopped leeks, potatoes and onions.

Stir them in until they are all covered in the oil. Add salt and black pepper.

then cover with a wet kitchen paper towel that is soaked in water and then wrung before putting on the vegetables.

Leave to cook on slow heat for 10 minutes.

Do not over cook otherwise you will lose the flavour of the vegetables.

Get rid of the paper towel and add veg stock. Bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

Puree in a blender until it is smooth, then put back onto the heat and add the milk and cream.

Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Peas
Serves 6
500 gr peas
2 carrots - diced
1 bell pepper -chopped
1 medium onion chopped
1 medium potato - diced
3 tomatoes - chopped
1 teaspoon tomato paste
200 ml water
1 teaspoon sugar
Seasoning
Olive oil

Put a pan on the heat and put 3 table spoons of olive oil.
Add onions and peppers and cook for a minute on high heat.
Add peas, followed by carrots and potatoes. Stir well.
Add tomato paste and stir.
Add chopped tomatoes, water seasoning and 1 teaspoon sugar.
Bring all to boil.
Simmer about 30 minutes or until all the vegetables are cooked.
Serve with rice pilaf.

Rice pilaf
Serves 6
200 gr rice (I use Turkish baldo rice)
50 gr pastina (I use turkish tel sehriye, or orzo)
50 gr butter
about 250 ml water or chicken or veg stock
salt

It is best to measure the rice with a cup which you can then use to measure the water.
Measure and weigh the rice and wash.
Put boiled water enough to cover the rice and leave to soak for 30 minutes then strain.

Melt the butter in a pan with a lid, add the pastina and cook until they begin to change colour about 2 minutes.
Add the strained rice and stir and cook for 3 minutes.
Add the same amount of water/stock using the same measuring cup you used to measure the rice. i.e. 2 cups rice then 2 cups water/stock.
Add salt and bring to simmer. Simmer until there is no water left.
Take off the heat and cover with the lead well. And leave to rest for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Artichokes hearts

My lovely husband brought home 15 artichoke hearts from his trip to Turkey. We can hardly find them in London and they are far difficult to prepare I usually end up with a very big bag of leaves and six of the littlest artichoke harts. Here is a good video showing how to clean them.

In Turkey artichoke hearts are sold all cleaned and in clear bags full of lemon juice and water which makes it much easier to cook and they are huge when compared to the ones you can get here. So 10 of the hearts went into the freezer, I just froze them in the lemon-water bag they came in, and cooked 5 of them. Here is the recipe;

5 artichoke hearts, cleaned and waiting in the water with lemon juice

2 carrots diced

100 gr peas

8 pearl onions left whole or quartered or a medium onion chopped finely

50ml olive oil

100ml water

Juice of 2 lemons

1 teaspoon sugar 

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon plain flour

Bunch of dill tied up with one of the stems

2 small or 1 medium potato diced

Place the artichoke hearts in a pan and put the onions, peas, carrots and the tied up bunch of dill to the pan. Add the olive oil, water, lemon juice, sugar and salt and bring it to simmer.

Simmer for 30 minutes on low heat.

Add the potatoes and simmer for an other 10 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked.

Turn off the heat and in a small bowl mix the flour in 2 tablespoons of water and add this to the pan.

Leave it to cool completely, it is much better when it is cold or in room temperature. I usually refrigirate it and take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before serving.

Sprinkle with chopped dill and enjoy.

Stuffed cabbage leaves

Stuffed cabbage leaves

1 large cabbage or 2 small or you can use savoy cabbages, spring greens anything with large enough leaves

Filling
300gr beef mince
1 large onion diced
100gr rice
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 small bunch of flat leaf parsley chopped (about 25g)
1 teaspoon of dried mint
100 ml olive oil
Salt and pepper to season
200 ml water + 1 teaspoon tomato paste

Take the leaves off the cabbages one by one carefully not to tear them and keep them whole.
Steam the leaves for 10 minutes (if using a big cabbage like mine you need to do this in batches, I have done 3 batches). Let the leaves cool.

In the meantime mix the filling mince, onions, rice, tomato paste, parsley, olive oil, drien mint and season with salt and black pepper.

Take a steamed cabbage leaf and cut it in to two lengthwise taking the big fat vein in the middle out from the bigger leaves, you can leave the softer veins on the smaller leaves. Put a tablespoon full of the filling and wrap it by rolling the leaf over it. Place the wraps in a pan and continue until you finish all the leaved or the filling.

Mix 200 ml of water with 1 teaspoon of tomato paste and add it to pan cover and cook in high until it starts bailing, then put it on low heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Serve warm with yogurt on the side.

Enjoy.

Under the water birthday party

Here is the photos of our mermaid birthday cake.


I used this recipe but made it with brown cane sugar and added blueberries. The icing on the top is just creme fraiche with no sugar in it but with berries and a light dusting of icing sugar on top.

This is the first time I made a sugar paste cake topper. I followed this tutorial but changed it to be a mermaid.
Made it with my daughter and it was so much fun to make. All the years of playing with play-dough finally paid off.

These are the dolphin sandwiches and octopus sausages.

We have even made crab plates using red paper plates and sticking legs and pincers made out of glittery red crafting paper.