Nicoise Roasted Fish Tray-Bake

Now that it’s school holidays I have more motivation to both cook, and blog again. Because I love roasted vegetables and don’t want to relegate them to cold winter meals, something I really enjoy in the summer are roast vegetable salads. I often make these as a one pan tray-bake including the meat of my choice, just to make things simpler. This was last night’s version, inspired by Nicoise Salad flavours. Roasting the tomatoes with the fish, olives and lemon juice makes a luscious, zingy sauce.

Serves 2
300-400g fresh fish (I used NZ Tarakihi)
2-3 large roasting potatoes, cubed 1cm
250g cherry tomatoes, halved
generous handful kalamata olives
250g green beans
zest and juice of one lemon
handful parsley
olive oil
salt and pepper to season

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celcius – I used fan bake. Line a shallow roasting dish with baking paper. Toss the potatoes, tomatoes and olives with some olive oil, parsley and half the lemon zest and a liberal seasoning of salt and pepper. Spread out into an even layer and carefully place the fish pieces on top. Sprinkle the rest of the lemon zest on the fish, and pour over the lemon juice. Throw in the oven for 15 mins and don’t mess with it.

You could roast the green beans with the rest of the tray bake, but this time I steamed them for 4 mins in a pan with a tiny bit of water and butter. (Yes, I snuck a little asparagus in there too, and I suspect paid for it!)

When the 15 mins is up, check your fish. My fillets were only 1cm thick so they were done by now. Any longer and they’d have dried right out.

Serve the veges on the base of the plate, place the fish over the top and drizzle over the sauce. So easy!

Left-over Pork Satay Noodle Stirfry

What to do when you just have a couple of handfuls of roast pork (or other roast meat) leftover? Why, make a stir fry, of course.

Serves 2

Ingredients

A couple of handfuls of cold roast meat, sliced.
Half a cup leftover gravy (or a teaspoon of stock powder)
A glug of soy sauce
1 dessertspoon peanut butter
1 tablespoon cornflour
100g packet rice noodles (not dried if possible)
1 clove garlic (I can tolerate 1/2 clove in a meal)
plain oil (or garlic oil if garlic not tolerated)
1 thumb ginger
2 spring onions (green part only)
1 small red chilli
1 carrot
1 small courgette
3 stalks celery – is now seen as FODMAP, so limit to 1 stalk if a trigger
3-4 small bok choy
fresh coriander and lemon/lime to garnish

Method

Boil the jug and put a pan/wok on to heat.

Chop the garlic, ginger, chilli and spring onion finely. Slice the veges into even sized pieces. Slice up the roast meat. Mix the gravy with peanut butter, soy sauce and 1 cup boiling water. Pour more boiling water over the noodles and allow to soften as per packet directions.

When the pan has heated, add a glug of the oil and fry the garlic, ginger, chilli and spring onion for 1 min. Add the meat and veges, except for the soft bok choy leaves. Stir fry for another couple of minutes. Sprinkle the corn flour over and stir until it is absorbed. Pour over the gravy mixture and bubble together until reduced a little. Add the noodles and toss through.

Serve and use lemon and coriander to garnish.

Low-FODMAP Beef Nachos for One

Here is a quick recipe for throwing together a comforting meal of beef nachos.

Ingredients
200g premium beef mince
1/2 stalks celery (now need to limit as added to the FODMAP list)
1/2 red capsicum
1 medium carrot
5cm length of leek (if tolerated)
1 red chilli or 1-2 chipotle chillies en adobo
1/2 can tomatoes or 1/2 c tomato juice
1 c home-cooked chickpeas (see my FODMAP-friendly method here)

any cheese you can tolerate – I’m using sheep’s milk feta

handful plain salted corn chips

salad & salsa to serve

Method
Begin by browning the mince over a medium heat with a little olive oil. When brown, I like to use a potato masher to press any lumps out of it. Chop and/or grate the veges to the size you prefer. Finely chop the chilli. Add the veges to the meat and soften for a few minutes before adding the chillies, tomatoes and chickpeas. Add half a cup or so of water to give a bit more liquid. Season with salt & pepper and let simmer for at least 20 mins until all the liquid is reduced. I like to mash the chickpeas up a bit to make it more creamy. Season to taste with more salt and pepper, and a dash of chilli sauce if you like. (I was naughty and added a little squirt of ketchup).

Heat the grill in your oven (broiler I think it’s called elsewhere?). Lay some baking paper on an oven tray, and arrange the corn chips so they are in a roughly plate-sized circle. Pile the nacho mix up in the middle of the chips and grate over your cheese. Pop under the grill until the cheese has melted nicely.

Top with your lettuce and salsa and enjoy!

Easy FODMAP Friendly Pumpkin and Black Bean Tacos

Black beans? How can you make black beans FODMAP-friendly? You soak them… you soak them good.

You might have read my post on Cooking Beans and Chickpeas… well here’s the cheat’s version:

Grab a can of legumes, drain and soak in cold water in the fridge for 24 hours, changing the water regularly. Easy.

This was the main prep for this meal – make sure to think about it the night before. I find that if you chuck the beans in to soak when you’re cooking dinner one night, change the water before bed and in the morning before work, you can easily have the basis of a cheap and nutritious meal.

Then, I diced 2 cups of buttercup pumpkin and 1 medium aubergine. you can mix the veges up as you like. I used to use cauliflower before I knew about FODMAPS. Spread this out on a shallow roasting tray and toss with a little olive oil, paprika, cinnamon and dried red chilli flakes. Season with s+p and roast at 200 degrees for 20-30 mins. Keep an eye on it and toss the cubes often.

When that’s done, throw the veges into a large bowl along with the drained black beans. I had one lonely tomato, so I diced and added that, along with the juice of a lime. I tossed this together (it turned a little mushy, but who cares?). I also added some diced avocado and crumbled feta – they might not be officially FODMAP-friendly, but in small amounts I personally have no problem with them. Have a taste and season if you need to.

To serve, warm some corn tortillas and grab some lettuce. Info I have found on the net says that ‘a couple’ of corn tortillas are usually tolerated – while fresh corn needs to be limited. This is a meal I love doing as DIY from the dining table (or coffee table on the sofa). I also added some sour cream for my non-FODMAP partner, and some yummy Louisiana Hot Sauce for me. Easy to make vegan without the feta and sour cream.

How easy is that?

Salmon Noodle Bowl with greens

This recipe is inspired by recipes from my two favourite ladies: Annabel & Nigella. It is a combination of Annabel Langbein’s ‘Chicken noodles with asian greens’ from Free Range in the City, and Nigella Lawson’s ‘Lemony Salmon with Cherry Tomato Couscous’ (which, incidentally, can easily be made FODMAP-friendly by losing the onion and using my ‘I can’t believe it’s not couscous‘ recipe)

150g salmon
1 spring onion (green part only)
1/2 red chilli
zest & juice of 1 lime
sesame oil
fish sauce
cooking sake
200-300ml homemade stock
soba or other gluten-free noodles (check the packet)
spinach or other greens
small handful dried shitake mushrooms*
3 brown button mushrooms*

(*Mushrooms officially include FODMAPs. I personally don’t have symptoms unless I eat mushrooms with other high-FODMAP foods like garlic, onions, wheat or dairy.)

Combine half the green part of the spring onion, half the diced red chilli, half the lime zest and about 1tsp of sesame oil. Marinate the salmon for at least 15 mins.

Bring the stock to the boil, along with the remaining spring onion, chilli & lime zest. Add a small splash of fish sauce, sake & sesame oil. If using mushrooms, soak the dried ones in boiling water for 10 min. Then, fry in a pan with a little sesame oil, adding the fresh mushrooms after a few minutes. Toss into the stock, and add the noodles. Cook as per packet directions. Sear the salmon in a pan for 3 mins on each side. Rest the salmon while you wilt the spinach in with the stock and noodles.

Season broth to taste. Place the noodles in a bowl, pour over broth and place salmon fillet on top. Squeeze over some fresh lime and serve.

Seared Lemon & Oregano Pork Fillet

Ingredients
150-200g pork fillet per person
1 tsp dried or fresh oregano
1 lemon- zest and juice
1tsp caraway and/or fennel seeds
garlic oil
Dash of homemade stock: chicken, pork or vege

To cook
Toast the spices. In a pestle and mortar, pound together oregano, zest, spices and garlic oil. Season with s+p. Slather over the pork fillet and leave to marinade.

Head a non-stick pan on a moderate-high heat. Sear the pork fillet for 5 mins, turn over and cook another 5 min with the lid on. My fillet was quite a fat one and the 10 min total time was just long enough. Leave to rest for 10 min while you deglaze the pan to make a light jus. Squeeze the lemon juice into the pan and add an equal amount of stock. I used unsealed homemade pork stock, so needed to season with a little salt. Bubble 5-10 mins until reduced.

Slice the pork and pour over the jus. Top with a little fresh parsley & some lemon zest.

I served this with a wee potato galette, and some fresh courgette and tomato which I quickly sautéed covered in the pan I had used for the pork. The seasoning lingering from the pork, plus a dash of balsamic vinegar was enough to give it a touch of zing to complement the pork and potatoes.

Easy pork meatballs with rocket and millet salad

I’m having friends for dinner and want to throw something tasty and impressive together without breaking the bank. One of the best budget friendly dishes I often crank out is meatballs. It’s also easy to extend them further with a can of chickpeas (pre-soaked of course!) So, how to bring meatballs into the summer? Well, make them with a Middle Eastern/North African influence and serve them with a salad, duh!

I’m using the 250g pork mince I have left from my Asian Pork Patties, but you could also easily use lamb, beef, chicken, turkey or a combination.

A least 12 hours before, drain your can of chickpeas and soak in cold water in the fridge to leech out the naughty galactans. When you begin, turn on the oven to 180 degrees celcius.

For the meatballs… I combine 250g mince with 1 c approx fresh breadcrumbs made from FODMAP-friendly bread, 1/2 tsp ground cardamom & dried chilli flakes, and 1tsp toasted and ground cumin seeds. Mix with your hands and brown in an oven proof pan and set aside. Because I am cooking for guests, I am going to be very naughty and brown 1 sliced red onion in the meatball pan. Throw in 1 cup or so of wine of your choice to deglaze the pan a little. Add 1 cardamom pod, and a touch of cinnamon and chilli and 2 tsp brown sugar. Let bubble down and make sure to scrape up the residue from the meatballs to incorporate into the sauce. Now add 1 can of cherry tomatoes, the meatballs and the chickpeas. Mix to combine, being careful not to break up the toms. Bring to a simmer, cover tightly and transfer to the oven for about 30 min, or as long as you’ve got.

For the salad… Cut 4 small carrots and 4 baby kumara lengthwise and in half so they are similar size. Steam for 6-8 mins until tender. Transfer to a large bowl to cool. Make a dressing out of the juice of 1 lemon, 1/2 tsp each cinnamon and allspice, chopped red chilli, parsley, salt & pepper and about 1 tbsp olive oil. Pour over the veg to marinate as they cool. Get on with steaming 1 cup millet a la Jamie Oliver’s rice technique. When cooked, toss through the veges and dressing, and finally throw in the rocket.

This really was delicious! So delicious, I forgot to take a picture. Sorry!

Jerk chicken (revisited) with potato wedges and chopped salad

With some chicken drumsticks on hand, I remembered that I still had half of my Jerk Chicken marinade lurking in the fridge, so have added a new version of this meal to my repertoire. See link for marinade recipe.

Enough for 2:

Slash 4 free range chicken drums to let the marinade in, and slather it all over them. Leave to soak up the deliciousness for about an hour.

Heat the oven to 200 degrees C and chop some potatoes for wedges. I’m using tiny new season Jersey Bennes that are around in the summer. Season with olive oil, salt & pepper and some lemon zest. Bung them in the oven and get on with the chicken.

Make sure to use a non stick pan, as you want to keep all of this marinade ON the chicken. Brown the chicken on both sides over a medium heat: it will blacken, this is normal. Then, pop the drums into the oven with the wedges for 15 or so mins, until cooked through.

I was about to bust out my new fave, Cos-slaw but I had a moment of inspiration thanks to Jamie Oliver, and decided that a chopped salad would be a great way to use up that half avocado lurking in my fridge. If you need more detailed instructions, see Jamie’s Chopped Salad instructions. If you think you can handle freestyling it, see my image below. (Dressing was wholegrain mustard, olive oil, cider vinegar and lemon juice. The avo kindly mushed itself into the salad to give the dressing a creamy deliciousness.)

Pork patties with fresh Asian salad

An easy, fresh and very tasty dinner.

To begin, I made a vinegary pickling liquid for my salad. I combined about 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar with 2 tsp brown sugar, 1 chopped red chilli, a handful of chopped coriander, a dash of fish sauce and sesame oil and a squeeze of lemon juice.

To make my salad I used a vegetable peeler to cut thin strips from two small carrots, a small Lebanese cucumber and a radish. I then poured the vinegar mixture over and left it to stand while I made the patties.

For the patties, I combined 250g lean minced pork with a finely chopped red chilli, a handful each of chopped coriander and basil, a tablespoon of hoisin sauce and a tablespoon of sweet chilli sauce, and a teaspoon of sesame oil mainly because that’s what I had in the house. I was hoping for a slightly caramely flavour in the pork because of the sugars in the sauces I added.

It makes about 10 small patties, probably enough for two meals if you’re not too hungry. (I ate 6 with the salad and the rest cold a couple of hours later) I fried them quickly in a non stick pan while I softened some bean thread vermicelli in hot water.

Finally I tossed the noodles and some shredded cos lettuce through the salad, and served that up topped with the patties. The left over liquid in the salad bowl I used to quickly deglaze the pan and collect up all the delicious porky flavours before drizzling it over everything.

Yum!

Mediterranean style lamb fillet

More of a casual meal idea here, less a prescriptive recipe. Arriving back in NZ after a short break in the US, all I wanted to eat was amazing NZ lamb. This is a recent, healthy lamb fillet dinner I whipped up.

For one:
Chop together a handful of kalamata olives and an anchovy. Transfer to a pestle and mortar with the zest and juice of half a lemon and some garlic oil. Pound into a rough, tapenade-like paste and smother over a nice lean lamb fillet (also known as backstrap). Leave to marinate for about half an hour.

Sear for 2-3 mins on each side in a hot non stick pan so you keep the crust on. Leave to rest while you prepare the salad.

Use the zest and juice of the other half of the lemon, and make a vinaigrette with some oil and additional chopped olives. Toss through a salad of baby spinach leaves, red capsicum and parsley. I also added some lightly cooked broccolini (up to 1/2 cup is FODMAP-friendly).

Slice the lamb and serve with the salad. Top with a little goats cheese- I used a shaving of Pecorino Romano. YUM!