10 MINUTE VEG STIR FRY + TUNA

I made this delicious meal for dinner last night. The boy's been ill at home all week and I wanted to make something healthy, quick and tasty to feed us both (before we collapsed on the sofa to watch How to Train your Dragon 2 - perfect film for a 31 and 37 year old to watch!)

This recipe uses tuna as the main protein but you could make it veggie by omitting the tuna, or top it with some grilled chicken or beef if you want something meaty.

Serves 2

1 large tuna steak
Squeeze of lemon juice
1 broccoli
1 red pepper
3 cloves of garlic
Bunch of spring onions
2 nests of dry egg noodles
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
Coriander
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 chilli (for mine only, the boy's allergic so I added this last)

Fill the kettle and put it on.

Rub the tuna steak with olive oil, a grind of pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Chop the broccoli heads off and slice into small pieces. Slice the pepper into rings. Crush the garlic and finely chop the spring onions.

Put the noodles in a bowl and pour over the boiled water. These will need to sit for 5 minutes while you cook the tuna and the veg.

Heat a small frying pan over a high heat. Once hot put the tuna in the pan and leave it to sear for 1-2 minutes, depending how thick the fillet is.

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LONDON PRODUCE SHOW

Last week saw the launch of a new event in London - The London Produce Show set up home in the Grosvenor House Hotel for 3 days, filled with fruit and vegetable producers from all over the world. The lovely ladies organising the event invited me down, via amazing boxes of fruit and veggies that arrived at my house, to the opening cocktail evening and the show the following day.

The first I knew about the show was when Liz got in touch via Twitter to ask if I'd like to come and if yes, what my postal address was. This was followed by a box waiting on my doorstep, that contained a bottle of rum, a cocktail shaker, dragon fruit, grapefruit, limes, mint and lychees. I made a dragon fruit and lychee mojito, which was just like a super healthy fresh fruit juice (with added rum!)

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SIMPLE SUMMER SALAD

This is a really quick and straightforward salad that I made for dinner a few nights ago. It was so well received on social media (and at home!) that I wanted to share the recipe for it here. Other than making some mayo, it's really just a case of boiling the veg - all of which can be done in the same pan. Mayonnaise might seem like it's going to be complicated to make, but honestly, once you've made it once and realised how easy it is, you'll make it over and over again. I've posted a recipe for mayo here before, but actually make it slightly differently when I'm using it as a dressing rather than a dip, so the recipe below is adjusted for this. 

Makes enough for 2 people as a main course, or 4 if served as a side

300g new potatoes, scrubbed and cut into chunks the same size as the smallest potato
125g asparagus
250g frozen peas
1 or 2 avocados
1 tbsp nonpareille capers
1 free-range egg yolk
1 heaped tsp English mustard
Squeeze of lemon juice
1 tsp cider vinegar
40ml rapeseed oil
40ml sunflower oil
Zest of 1 lemon
Pepper

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EATING IN SEVILLE

A couple of weeks ago the boy and I took ourselves off to Andalucia for a well earned break. In fact, I had won a weekend at a 5* hotel near Estepona back in Autumn last year, via Quintessentially Travel, so had booked another 7 days on top of that via AirBnb, firstly in Seville then on to Cadiz, before the weekend at the hotel. More on both the hotel and Cadiz in my next few posts, but here I want to tell you about Seville.

I spent a year living in Seville in 2004. I have wonderful memories of lots of good food, interesting tapas bars and great places to drink. Although structurally Seville hasn't changed too much (apart from the addition of trams and tubes!) pretty much everything else seems to have been replaced or upgraded. Yes, there were still a few places I knew and recognised, but the food scene in particular, seems to have taken off in a big way. Gone are many of the small, traditional tapas bars, having been replaced by fusion restaurants, sushi bars and all sorts I would've never expected to see in Seville. 

We set off, armed with various emails and blog links that recommended places to eat, and print offs from Lizzie's blog, Hollow Legs, including her really helpful spreadsheet she compiled from a Seville/Cadiz visit, ready to go. However, on arriving in Seville, I began to realise just how much has changed, even since Lizzie's visit 2 years ago. We hung on to all recommendations, and visited a few of them, but were thrilled to bump into an old acquantance of the boy's and mine, the very talented grafitti artist Seleka, who now runs the wonderful DeLimbo gallery in the centre of Seville, and had a whole load of recommendations of the newest and best places we should go to eat.

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MY NEXT POP UP - 26th APRIL

Another month, another pop up! I thought I should let you know about my next pop up restaurant, as there are still tickets available, but they do start to sell out around now.

I've got a bumper Spring menu, full of some of my favourite produce for my pop up on Saturday 26th April. The event is at our lovely house in West London, and starts at 7.30pm, and is kind of similar to a dinner party - a large table filled with guests, eating my four course menu, and having a great time. I've had guests from age 11 up to 60+ in the past, from all walks of life, and from all over the world. You can come with a group of friends, in a pair, or on your own, and it's bring your own booze, so you can bring a bottle or 2 of your favourite. I also serve either a welcome cocktail, pudding wine or port to go with the cheese, and there's homemade soft drinks for anyone who wants.

Every component of the food I serve is made from scratch, in my kitchen, with as much as possible being British, seasonal ingredients.

The menu for 26th April is:

 

Hand picked Dorset crab, homemade mayonnaise, remoulade, crusty white bread

 

Slow cooked shoulder of Spring lamb, savoy cabbage, Jersey royal new potatoes, with watercress and wild garlic salsa verde

 

Lemon posset with rhubarb compote and vanilla shortbread biscuits

 

Somerset cheeseboard, tomato chutney and herby salted crackers

 

Coffee/herbal tea served with sticky chocolate balls

If you'd like to come but can't eat or don't like something on the menu, that's fine - when you book there's a comments section where you can mention this. I don't think I've yet done a pop up where I haven't done at least 2 different main courses to cater for everyone's needs.

To find out what my previous guests have thought of the evenings you can see reviews of my last event here or a review written by another of my guests here.

Tickets for my pop up on 26th April are £30 each and can be bought via Grub Club.

And here's a couple of pics of the food my from the last event (although I always forget to take proper photos!)

Crusty white bread:

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SQUID INK, SPINACH, PESTO & SEA BASS

I wasn't actually going to post this recipe up on my blog - it was just something I threw together for a weekday supper for me and the boy, and the title of it's a bit long winded. But the photo I posted on Instagram of our meal went down a treat, so I thought I'd put the recipe up here in case any of you want to make it.

You can substitute any ingredients you don't have for what you do have - my recipe was influenced by the contents of my fridge!

Serves 2:

150g squid ink spaghetti
50g spinach pasta

Handful frozen peas
2 tbsp pesto - I used Pisco pesto (I think that's what it's called, although can't find any info online about them), which was a homemade brand I picked up at Battersea car boot sale at the weekend
Packet of spinach
Lemon juice
Black pepper

2 fillets of sea bass

Get 2 pans of water on to boil - 1 large for the pasta, one smaller for the peas. 

Add salt to the larger pan once boiling and add your pasta. This needs to boil for 10 minutes. In the meantime, add the peas to the small pan, and boil for 1 minute, then drain and leave to one side. 

Heat a frying pan until hot, rub the sea bass fillets with olive oil and season. Place in the frying pan, skin side down and cook for a couple of minutes, until the skin is golden and crispy, and the fish is cooking through. Flip the fillets and cook for 1 more minute. Remove from the pan and leave to one side.

When the pasta is cooked (taste to check it's to your liking), drain, leaving a tiny amount of the cooking water, and return to the heat. Turn the heat right down and add the bag of spinach, stirring it through the pasta until it has wilted. Add 2 tablespoons of pesto and the peas and continue to stir. I drizzled some really nice olive oil through the pasta at this point as well; just to loosen the whole thing up a bit.

Put the pasta in shallow bowls and the fillet of fish on top. Squeeze a nice amount of lemon juice over the whole thing, and serve. A perfect, quick weekday dinner for 2!

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DUCKSOUP, SOHO

Last night I ventured into Central London for some dinner with my brother and his wife. We had plans to go and check out the new DubJam restaurant in Covent Garden, but unfortunately Lucy wasn't able to make it in the end, so we didn't want to go there without her. We popped into Flatiron, Polpo and Burger and Lobster, but they all had waits of over an hour, and by that point neither of us could wait that long for food! Luckily though Ducksoup had room for the 2 of us, and I'm so glad we ended up eating there, as neither of us had been before and we absolutely loved the food! Sadly, as we were sitting downstairs, it was quite dark, lit mostly by candle light, so the photos I took are terrible!! But bear with me, I'm sure you'll get the gist, and you should go check it out yourselves anyway as I think their menu is really original and utterly yummy.

Ducksoup's menu consists of small bar menu plates, and larger plates from the kitchen. We decided to share a few things so we could get to try as much as possible.

We started with a plate of capocollo, which is cured pork shoulder, and tasted like it was seasoned with black pepper and juniper. It had the perfect balance of meat and fat, and just melted in the mouth, leaving it's wonderful flavour lingering:

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WEEKEND JUICING

Recently, you can hardly move for articles about juicing and juices, and greens and health, and arguements about whether smoothies or juices are more beneficial etc etc. Either way, I know what I like and what I think tastes good, and this is my version of that. It's a juice not a smoothie, and it's one I only make once a week as I honestly don't have time to juice and then clean the kitchen (because I do always make a massive mess when juicing) before I go to work. So here it is - my weekend juice.

This is what I use, but you can grab anything fresh and green and stick it through the juicer! I do like using lemons or limes though, as it lifts what can actually be quite a heavy juice.

Makes 2 large glasses of juice

Large bunch kale
2 red beetroot
1 golden beetroot
1 cucumber
1 bunch celery
2 peeled lemons
3 apples
1 pear
Large bunch spinach
Large bunch cavolo nero

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SEARED TUNA with PUTTA POTATOES

My cooking abilities are still limited. 6 weeks post bike fall, 5 hospital visits later and my wrist is still broken. In fact, one of the bones has healed but that's no use when the other one hasn't! So a quick change of plaster cast and the wait to be able to cook, clean, wash properly, and all those other things I took for granted, continues!

However, I was pretty pleased with myself when I managed to make this last night, home alone, and without anyone to help peel, cut or lift trays. It's not ground breaking, but it is delicious, and pretty easy to assemble. If you wanted to have this with meat instead of fish it would be great with thinly sliced rare steak. And if you don't want meat or fish, this is perfectly yummy on its own - just leave out the anchovies too.

I've called these putta potatoes as they have a lot of the same ingredients as the Italian puttanesca pasta sauce.

Serves 4.

4 large potatoes

1 pack green beans

1 pack of English mini red peppers

Handful black olives

4 cloves garlic

1 tbsp capers

6 anchovy fillets

2 tomatoes

Paprika

Good olive oil

2 lemons

Basil

Salt and pepper

4 responsibly sourced tuna steaks 

Get a pan of water on to boil, and turn the grill onto a medium high heat.

Peel the potatoes and slice into 3cm cubes. Boil in salted water (they should take 12-15 mins).

Slice the peppers in half, remove seeds and stalks, toss in olive oil and grill for 5 minutes.

When the potatoes are nearly cooked (soft when poked with a knife), chop the green beans in half and add to the potato pan. Cook for 90 seconds and drain.

Take the peppers out of the oven and sprinkle with paprika. Add the drained potatoes and green beans, and the crushed garlic, sliced black olives, capers and anchovies. Slice the tops and bottoms off the tomatoes and slot these in too. Top with a good grind of pepper - you don't need salt as the olives, anchovies and capers are all quite salty anyway, and a generous glug of olive oil. I did all of this on a foiled baking tray, so there would be less for the boy to wash up (I'm definitely still off washing up with my cast on!)

Put the tray of vegetables under the grill for around 8 minutes.



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SUMMER PRAWN and PEA SOUP

This isn't actually a soup. Well it is, but normally soup has more liquid than other ingredients, so I suppose this more of a broth. Either way, it's the perfect lightweight, healthy meal that's quick and easy to cook. The original recipe came from Lyndsey Bareham's column in The Times, but I've made a few tweaks to give it my own twist.

Serves 2.

250g Jersey Royal new potatoes
1/4 vegetable stock cube
1-2 cups of water
1 lemon, zest and juice
200g raw king prawns, peeled
200g peas

100g green beans, chopped into 2cm pieces
1 tbsp creme fraiche

Rinse the new potatoes and chop into bite size pieces (about 2cm square). Put the potatoes in a wide saucepan (I actually use the wok to cook this in) and pour over enough water to just cover them. Sprinkle with a tiny corner of vegetable stock cube. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook uncovered for 8 minutes or so, or until the potatoes feel slightly soft when poked with a knife.

Add the zest and juice of the lemon and the prawns, stir, and cook for another 2 minutes. Now add the peas and beans and cook for 1 minute.

Remove from the pan, and stir the creme fraiche into the juice.

Serve in bowls with plenty of the liquid, a grind of black pepper, and a big wedge of lemon.

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TIBITS - VEGETARIAN in the WEST END

Tibits is a purely vegetarian restaurant, nestled just off Regent Street, in the Heddon Street food court, and is a cross between a sit down restaurant and a fast food take away place.

I was invited to try the food at Tibits and chose to go on a weekday evening. Despite it being a school night, it was really busy, and although it's right in the middle of tourist-ville, it felt like there were quite a lot of regular customers there too.

We started the evening with a fresh fruit juice cocktail - both going for the Apple and Cucumber mojito, that I thought was really good. It was really refreshing and I can imagine how good it would taste sitting in the sun outside the restaurant (the day we visited was sadly not one of the 3 sunny days we've had so far this year!)

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BEST SALAD EVER

Refreshing yet rich, this salad is SO good, and takes 2 minutes to make. It's great on its own for lunch, or with seared steak.

For 2 people

1 bag of watercress

2 cooked beetroot, chopped

1 avocado, chopped

50g roquefort cheese

Pinch of sunflower seeds

Lime juice

Olive oil

Wash and chop a bag of watercress. Add 2 chopped cooked beetroot, 1 chopped avocado and little nuggets of Roquefort cheese. Mix together with some sunflower seeds, drizzle with lime juice and olive oil, add salt and pepper... and enjoy!!!

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SUMMER TUNA NICOISE SALAD

This is my version of a salad nicoise, without some of the traditional ingredients but with others added. You need to cook everything at the same time - the cooked parts of the salad should be served warm, so don't worry if certain elements are done before others.

Serves 4

10-12 baby new potatoes
1 pack of asparagus
4 large free range eggs
2 tuna steaks
Olive oil
1 pack of green beans, ends chopped off
1 bag of salad leaves (lamb's lettuce is great with this)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp grainy mustard

Start by boiling a handful of baby new potatoes.

Whilst these are boiling, trim and grill some asparagus for 4 minutes or until they are just going soft.

Get another pan of water on the boil and when boiling, put the eggs in for 5 minutes 30 seconds.

Put a lightly oiled frying pan on a medium heat, and fry the tuna steaks for 1 minute on each side. Remove the steak from the heat and leave to rest for 3-4 minutes.

When the potatoes are nearly cooked add the trimmed green beans to the water, boil for 2 mins and then drain.

Mix salad leaves with the potatoes and green beans and cover with a dressing made from 2 parts olive oil, 1 part lemon, 1 crushed garlic clove, 1 teaspoon of grainy mustard and salt and pepper. Cover a large plate with this mixture.

Lay your grilled asparagus on top of the salad mixture, and the anchovies on top of them.

Peel the boiled eggs, cut in half and place on top of the salad. Then take your tuna steak and cut into slices and lay over the salad. 

Serve with crusty bread and a bottle of white wine, perfect for a sunny summer evening.

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