Crab Linguini

A simple and tasty meal for 2. You can make this as spicy as you want but don't add too much chilli as you will lose the flavour of the crab.

Ingredients:

• 1 off shallot (banana type) - finely sliced
• 2 Cloves of garlic - finely sliced
• 3 red chillies (mild - de-seeded) and finely sliced
• 6 cherry tomatoes (quartered) 
• 8 pieces of sun blushed tomato -chopped 
• large knob of butter
• 1 pack of white crab meat
• Handful of chopped parsley
• pinch of sugar
• salt and pepper to taste.
• linguini or spaghetti for 2 people 
• splash of olive oil

This is an easy and quick recipe. Just fry on a low heat the shallot, garlic and chillies until soft, using the butter. Put the pasta on to boil in salted water and remove when tender, drain and then add a splash of olive oil and stir (stops the pasta sticking together). Add the tomatoes to the shallot mixture and fry for a little while longer. Then add the remaining ingredients and mix together well. At this point add salt, pepper and sugar if required and then toss with the spaghetti. Serve with some sourdough bread and enjoy.

Spicy Prawns

I’m not really sure what to call this but it is one of those satisfying recipes that is easy to cook and tastes great. Enjoy it with a little basmati rice or similar.

Ingredients (serves 4 , or 2 greedy ones!):

• One red onion, chopped
• One onion , chopped
• Half of one red capsicum pepper, chopped
• Half of one green capsicum pepper, chopped
• One tin of chopped tomatoes 440gms
• Approx 10 cherry tomatoes – halved
• One birdseye red chilli chopped
• One red chilli (milder) sliced thinly
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• One Tsp of sugar (if required – ie if tomatoes are not sweet)
• 5 tbsp of light olive oil
• Fresh black pepper
• Sea Salt
• 2 cups of peeled prawns – fresh or frozen

Fry the onions and garlic until soft (over a medium heat). Add the peppers and chilli and continue over a medium heat. After about 5 minutes, add the tinned tomatoes, cover and leave on a low heat for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally) Remove cover and add remaining ingredients and season. The salt makes a big difference to the flavour of this dish. Cook until the prawns are cooked through and the cherry tomatoes are just soft. Serve in a bowl with plain rice, feet up and a big glass of wine – perfect!

Crayfish Fishcakes

In a desperate try to get a decent spicy fishcake, I tried using a tub of crayfish bought from the local supermarket – a few tweeks here and there, and voila – delish!

Ingredients (Serves 2 hungry people):

• 1 Tub of peeled crayfish tails
• 1 tbsp of Thai fish sauce
• 1 chopped green chilli
• 1 tbsp of red thai curry paste
• 1 small piece of ginger – grated
• 1 clove of garlic – roughly chopped
• 2 tbsps of chopped fresh coriander (inc stalks)
• Juice of ½ lime
• ½ tsp sugar (ideally palm sugar but any will do)
• 1 tbsp of dried breadcrumbs
• 2 eggs – beaten
• 1 tsp chopped thai basil leaves
• Veg oil for shallow frying

Put the crayfish, fish sauce, chilli, paste, ginger, garlic, lime into a blender and blitz for a very short while – but make sure it is roughly chopped and not too fine. Put this mix into a bowl and combine with the eggs, breadcrumbs, coriander, and basil and ensure the mixture is well mixed together. You should be able to form little patties of the mixture and they should keep their shape. If the mixture is a little liquid, add a few more breadcrumbs. Fry the patties in vegetable oil and make sure they are well cooked on one side before turning over. Serve with some sweet chilli dipping sauce and maybe some cucumber relish.

Coquille St Jacques

I’m not sure, these days, what is the correct version for this dish, but this recipe is pretty darn good and very easy…

Ingredients (serves 4 starters):

• Pack of Queen Scallops
• 100gms of Chestnut Mushrooms – sliced
• 30gms butter
• 30gms plain flour
• 250ml of water
• 125ml of dry white wine
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 shallot – sliced
• 2 tbsps double cream
• ½ cup of grated parmesam
• ½ cup of dry breadcrumbs
• Salt & Pepper

In a small saucepan, mix the wine, water and shallot and then put the scallops in the pan and bring to a simmer. Gently simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the scallops and keep warm. Keep the cooking liquid for the sauce.. In a small pan, fry the chopped mushrooms in a knob of butter until soft, bowned and all the liquid has gone. Now for the sauce! Melt the butter in a pan and stir in the flour until all blended. Now over a low heat, gradually stir in the saved cooking liquid and until you get a rich sauce – quite thick. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the cream.

Place equal portions of the scallops and mushrooms in small ovenproof bowls or dishes (I use a large squat ramekin) then pour over the sauce unitl it has just covered the scallop mix.Mix the parmesan and breadcrumbs together and then sprinkle liberally over the top. Warm in a hot over for a short while (10 mins) and finish off under the grill until the topping is golden brown if not already so! Enoy. Make sure you have a little fresh bread handy to mop up any sauce…..

Fish Stew (or Bouillabaisse)

This recipe gives you a soup that is ‘strained’ of the bits but has the fish in it giving a rich taste and allowing you to enjoy the texture of the meats. Mrs H. is not that keen on squid or mussels etc so I used white fish, salmon and prawns but you could use anything you fancy or anything that is on offer at the market – inc mussels!

Ingredients (Serves 4):

• 1 small fillet of cod
• 2 small fillets of other white fish – different textures – say 200gms each
• 1 small fillet of salmon
• Small pack of peeled prawns
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 leek, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• ½ bulb of fennel, finely chopped
• (I used 5 mini fennel bulbs)
• ½ tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes (440gms)
• 1 tsp of tomato puree
• 2 small sprigs of thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 500ml of fish stock
• 1L of water
• ½ tsp of saffron stamens
• 1 tsp of salt
• ½ tsp smoked paprika
• Pinch of chilli powder
• Charlotte potatoes – peeled and turned or chopped
• 1 tbspish Chopped parsley

Remove the bones and skin from all the fish and chop into decent size chunks and put to one side.

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onion, garlic, carrot, leek and fennel and cook gently for 10 minutes until soft but not coloured.

Stir in the tomatoes, puree, fennel seeds, thyme, bay leaf and any fish trimmings (if you kept them). Add the stock, water and saffron and bring to the boil. Gently simmer uncovered for around 45 minutes. About half way through, add the potatoes. When it has reduced to about 1 litre remove from the heat, remove potatoes with a slotted spoon into a dish and then strain mixutre into a clean pan. Keep the potatoes warm (ensure they are firm but edible!) Now its time to taste and season accordingly. Bring back to a simmer and add the cod and white fish . After a few minutes, add the prawns and stir in the chopped parsley. When all cooked, which isn’t long, add the potatoes and serve immediately with warm crusty bread in large bowls – I am now drewling again and may have to cook this again tonight!

The secret is to cook the fish in stages so that the firmer cuts cook first and the softer ones cook last. I have seen some recipes for this where 15 different fish are used and cooked in separate pans and added just at the last minute into the dish – now there is dedication!

Sea Bass, Mullet, Monkfish are all great. For a change I tried Tilapia fillet and Vietnamese River Cobbler ! Whatever you choose it will taste great!

King Prawns and Rice

Friday last saw Mrs H and I tucking into King Prawns and rice – just the way we like them. The idea of a Thai salad on a cold evening sis not appeal to us! It a quick and simple dish and tastes great. In fact it takes more time to peel the prawns than cook then! The primary ingredient are those type of prawns that are massive – I tend to buy then from my local Korean supermarket – about £10 for 20 and about 150mm’s long. (make sure they are the uncooked variety!) - they are often frozen as they probably come from The far east...

Ingredients (serves between 2/3 people):

• Pack of Super King prawns
• 1 large clove of garlic
• 10gms Butter

For the rice:

• 1 cup of basmati rice
• 1 tsp of groung tumeric
• 2 tbsp of sultanas
• 2 tbsp of pistachio nuts
• 1 tsp of pine kernel nuts
• 1 large onion
• ½ tsp of sugar
• Olive oil

I take a prawn and remove the head. I then cut the prawn lengthways to break open the underside of the shell. The shell is then easy to remove and the prawn can be cooked on a griddle, splayed open. Wash all the peeled and split prawns and set aside.

Boil the rice until just cooked with the tumeric. Drain and wash with hot water and leave to drain. Chop and fry the onion in about 1tbsp of olive oil. When cooked, add all of the nuts and sultanas and fry until starting to turn brown. Add the rice and ensure all is completely mixed well and hot throughout. Keep warm.

Now melt the butter in a hotish pan or griddle and add the garlic. After a few seconds, add the prawns and fry until they change colour to pink – meaning they are just cooked.

Serve prawns on a bed of the rice and spoon over any butter and garlic on to the top. Absolute bliss!!

Crab with Mango, lime and chilli

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 2 tsp of palm sugar
• 1 green bird’s eye chilli
• 1 red bird’s eye chilli
• 1 tsp of ground dried shrimp
• 300gm of fresh white crab meat
• 20gms of chopped mint leaves
• 20gms of chopped coriander leaves
• 4 small shallots – sliced in rings
• 1 green mango – halved, peeled and sliced
• Cherry tomatoes – for garnish
• 1 large green chilli – thinly sliced at an angle

(Serves 4)

This dish is fabulous! It has a ‘clean’ taste, typified by lots of Thai dishes. You may want to add another small chilli if you like your food spicy but don’t add too much as it will ‘kill’ the dish. I suggest that you mix all of the ingredients soon before you serve. If you want, you can prepare the mix and leave out the crab until the last minute.

So there you go – put the lime, fish sauce, sugar and chopped chillis into a bowl and allow to infuse – taste and adjust with sugar or lime (the proportions I have given should work perfectly, however!). Chop all the other ingredients and mix up (less the crab) in a large bowl. Make sure the shallot slices are separated into rings. When you are ready to server, mix the crab in bowl with the shallots etc and add the ‘sauce’. Mix well. Enjoy – I know you will!

Crab with lime, chilli and linguine

I love crab meat – especially the white stuff! This probably dates back to my early years when my mother used to bring a fresh crab home from the docks in Fleetwood – and other food delicacies. In fact my father’s favourite food was Dover sole, Lobster and Scallops – now I know where I get the taste from…

Anyway, I digress, This dish is fresh and tasty and with warm pasta – is a decent autumn starter.

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp of Olive Oil
• 250gms of White Crab Meat
• Juice of 2 lines and their zest
• Juice of one lemon
• 1 chopped red chilli
• 1 tsp of sugar syrup
• 1 cup of chopped spring onions
• ½ cup of chopped parsley
• 1 cloves of garlic – chopped
• Linguine – cooked – enough for 4 small servings

Mix all of the ingredients (except pasta and crab) in a bowl and allow to infuse. Cook the linguine and when drained, mix in with the crab and citrus mixture. Serve straight away and enjoy. This could serve 2 people as a main meal or 4 as a starter. I will post up soon another Thai version of this with Mango…..