Crumble Topped Ocean Pie

 

Hey folks, what’s up? It’s been a week since my last post on these EXTREMELY cute mini vanilla doughnuts and boy has a lot happened!

Every now and then you get one of those crazy weeks where it all seems to kick off.

Highlights of my week include a mini-school reunion with best friends from primary/secondary school/sixth form!!! A curry with Mr KG and our friend who has been working out in South Sudan for the last 4 months – he just headed back out there yesterday so it’ll be a while until we see him again. I also got my law school results – I passed with Distinction :D every single exams I got a distinction in so I’m a VERY happy girl. Shame no-one is planning to go to graduation, what with us all out working.

Then there was the not so good part of the week – I’ve been complaining of strange aches and pains most of the week. On Friday this turned into excruciating pains in my stomach as well as arms and legs. In the evening it hurt so much it was making me feel sick! So for the last couple of days I’ve been laid flat out either on a sun lounger, sofa or bed. It is seriously boring being ill and not much fun being in pain!!!

It has meant though that I’ve been able to catch up with lots of blog posts from you lovely guys!

 

This evening I’m thinking about getting back in the kitchen – or perhaps should I say instructing my Mum in the kitchen. It’s probably not a great idea I get stuck in with the food prep being ill and my Mum could do with a bit of practice. There’s still no news on our flat but hopefully we’ll have all the paperwork signed in the next week or two. Keep your fingers crossed for us!!! In the meantime I’ve got to teach Mum how to cook (or just get more confident) in the kitchen.

This recipe is one we cooked together a week or so ago. We’ve had it quite a few times and each time she’s helped out a little bit more. I reckon she’ll be able to whip this up for her and Dad in no time now!

The key with this dish really is the fish. I’ve chosen to use white fish of your choice as the base – think Cod, Pollack, Gurnard or anything else mild and flakey. But it also includes prawns and smoked haddock and this is really where much of the beautiful ocean flavour comes from so please, please, please don’t leave these out! My Mum was never a big prawn lover but she enjoys it in this pie so just give it a go and I’m sure you’ll surprise yourself.

I also love this recipe because it’s another great one for hiding vegetables from my Dad!!! Brocolli, peas, leeks and sweetcorn can all be hidden in the sauce from grumpy old folk and children.

 

What I love the most about this recipe though is the crumble topping. Mash potato and puff pastry are great ways of topping off a fish pie but this cheesey breadcrumb top is lighter making for a healthier pie and something more suitable for the summer evenings.

Parmesan and Herb Crusted Cod with Garlic Vine Tomatoes and Roasted New Potatoes

Parmesan and herb crusted cod served with extra green veg

 

Happy Wednesday eveyone!

- I'm saying that sarcastically. Can you tell?

 

On Monday it seems l set myself up for a bit of a fall. With all the best intentions in the world l said that on Wednesdays l would try to keep posting my recently developed recipes.

 

Low and behold just two days later when l should be writing up my latest post, I'm in the office working late.

 

I'm not going to complain though, l get paid 1.5x my hourly rate AND there's a special cupboard that gets opened at 6:30 full of sweets, fizzy drinks, biscuits and more!

l need to make the most if it because when l'm a trainee many of these perks will disappear.

 

A bit of local history
- Check out the inscription -
"Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Association"
I love Smithfields!

BUT less about work. l may have struggled to get pen to paper but I've still had plenty of time to cook!

 

Some of you will already be familliar with my healthy fish and chips. This is an evolution of that same dish!

 

The idea is that the flavour of the bread crumbs is ramped up with lashings of parmesan and traditionally ltalian herbs. The health factor comes from the oven roasted vine tomatoes cooked with garlic (which is great for your heart) and olive oil, one of the so called good fats.

No meal would be complete - or should l say balanced - without some carbs so the fish is lovingly served up with new potatoes roasted in the oven.

 

Have you noticed the real selling point of this meal yet though? It all just goes in the oven.

 

No pots and pans or complicated techniques!

 

And that's why this is a fab mid-week meal!

[BBQ Recipe] Char grilled Tuna Steak

Char grilled Tuna Steak

Last week we were fortunate enough to have blue skies all of Sunday. Dad was out in the garden, Mum was sunning herself on a beach somewhere off the south coast and I was revising. BUT, we still managed to find time to have a BBQ that evening.

On Sunday I shared with you my Summer Sizzling Prawns, an incredibly simple way of livening up seafood before popping on the BBQ. Today I’m sharing yet another BBQ fish dish (can you see a theme here?)

Tuna steaks have been a favourite of mine for a while now. Around the age of 16 I started going off the giant mound of blackened burgers and sausages that would invariably be served up at any family BBQ. I’d become more conscious about my weight and quite frankly was bored of the same old processed rubbish. Seafood came to the rescue as I soon realised that you could have fresh, healthy, non-processed food on the BBQ too!

You shall have a fishy on a little dishy...

Nowadays I’ll be the person who rocks up to the BBQ with vegetable kebabs, corn on the ob and some sort of fish to stick on the Barbie. Today it was tuna.

Tuna is so delicious cooked on the BBQ that sometimes I like to simply give it a few mins either side, and serve alongside a salad with a squeeze of lemon. This time, I decided to jazz it up a bit.

Law School Revision Survival Guide

It won’t be a surprise for any of you to know that I am back in the revision zone. After 2 years of GCSE’s, 2 years of A-Levels and 3 years of an undergraduate degree, I’ve become a bit of a revision expert. In fact at my secondary school I taught revision seminars on top tips for memorising facts and information. This post will be a little bit different though...rather than banging on about pneumonics, colour coding your notes and consolidation, I’ll be sharing with you my top tips for eating, drinking and exercising during your revision period.

Soy Glazed Salmon with Rice and Peas

When I was growing up my Mum had this thing about getting as much omega 3 in me as possible. I’d known for a long time that I wanted to do something in the City – the plan was to be a career woman – and it wasn’t going to happen without getting good grades. So from SATs onwards my Mum began plying me with omega 3 in the form of brain boosting tablets and lots of oily fish!

Fortunately for me I love fish!

Week in, week out we would have salmon in some form – sometimes twice! I must know a hundred and one ways to cook salmon. On this blog alone there are recipes for Salmon with Dill and Creme Fraiche, Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Tagliatelle and Asian Style Salmon with Red Onion and Cucumber Dipping Sauce and Warm PakChoy Salad

This one is slightly different. It’s hot and spicy yet sweet at the same time, and the steamed rice and peas brings a whole lightness to the dish to balance it out.

When I was growing up this was my favourite way to have salmon as it was the most exciting way that my parents would cook it. You can only have baked salmon and new potatoes so many times! If I was really lucky my Dad might come home from work with little extras like prawn crackers or spring roles. Dad’s way of treating us has ALWAYS been with food! If we had a curry he might bring home poppadums, samosas or onion bhajis when he was in a really good mood!

Even without the little extras though, this recipe packs a punch with the heat from the chilli and the zing of the lemon. For those of you who have resolved to cook more exciting things from scratch, this will certainly jazz up a normal weekday meal.

Baked Cod with lentils and lardons

There has been the odd recipe posted on this website claiming to be “brain food” – as a student brain food is very important to me and as we’re getting closer to the end of term and the inevitable horrifying 2 months that is “exam period” I can do with all the help I can get!

When my sister and I started taking important exams like GCSE’s (SAT’s didn’t count!) my Mum started giving us a type of Omega 3 tablet called “Eye-Q” (at least that’s what my memory tells me it was called…). The idea is that these tablets boost your brain power! Seeing as I achieved 6 A*’s, 3 A’s and 2 B’s in my GCSE’s we figured they worked…along came A Levels and what do you know 3 A’s – some of my module results were even 100%! So…fishy oils = brain power right?! The idea that fish is brain food can’t be wrong can it!?

I thought I would do a little research into this long standing idea! After watching a programme on television the other day that dispelled lots of cooking myths (E.g. a glass of wine in a spag bol will get burnt off during the cooking process and meringue can be made if a little egg yolk gets into your egg whites) I thought I’d find out if fish really is brain food!

After a little time spent on Google there is a whole RANGE of evidence that suggests the claim is really true!

Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Tagliatelle

This has to be one of my proudest dishes - it is perhaps the quickest and simplest dish I have ever come up with! So quick, it even rivals a stir fry, and can be from packet to plate in around 10mins! That's just as good as a microwave meal! But I bet you this is a lot nicer, and better on those purse strings!

At just £1.21 that's much cheaper than a ready meal which you can guarantee will be no where near as tasty as this!

Mackerel and Cream Cheese Pasta

One of the main things that stops me being a vegetarian is that I would miss fish too much! Red meat I can do without, though it is nice for a treat once in a while, and chicken and turkey are just nice for a bit of variety, but fish...I definitely couldn't live without! I need my brain food!

Not so long a go a friend of mine introduced me to this dish - I don't know his exact recipe, and didn't have him around to ask so I thought I would experiment, luckily for me it was a success!

The pasta is hearty, cheese is creamy, brocolli is fresh, and mackerel salty which makes it the perfectly balanced dish!

What's more, the combination of cheap ingredients and the omega 3 (a.k.a. brain food) makes it brilliant for students!

Two Ways with Trout

I love, love, love when things I can’t normally afford to buy are on offer in the supermarket! I don’t know why people don’t make more of reduced sections!!!

At the beginning of the academic year, as I did my first big supermarket shop I stumbled across a pack of two trout fillets for just £1. That’s right £1, saving me around £3.50!!! So with their best before date coming to an end I wacked them straight in the freezer!

Now, as the reading is piling up, and tutorials are kicking in, I’ve been in desperate need for brain food and I got my trout out to defrost...now all I needed were two delicious trout recipes to cook up a storm!

Here are my two ways with trout:

BBQ'd Sea Bass with New Potatoes - AKA Exam Brain Food!

With 3 weeks to go until my 2nd year law exams, the only part of the day where I get to relax is when I'm cooking dinner. As promised, today I cooked some "brain food" - sea bass!


(Now...as students...I know we can't usually afford sea bass! If you do need brain food on the cheap, go to Asda's in store fish monger, for just £1 you can get a variety of fish fillets, for example my favourite is their mackerel fillet with chili and garlic! In BBQ season they also do a trout stuffed with pea, mint and feta all for £1!!!)


If you don't fancy using Asda's cheap and yummy cheats, this is how to do it yourself!!!