Roast trout with tomato, orange and barberry salsa
This is one of those dishes that’s a lot easier than it looks. The result is a wow, for sure, but it isn’t at all complicated to put together. Serve with rice or potato salad. Serves two.
150g cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 orange, zest grated, to get 1 tsp, and juiced, to get 1 tbsp
2 limes, 1 juiced, to get 1 tbsp, the other cut into wedges, to serve
1½ tsp maple syrup (or honey)
1½ tbsp barberries (or currants soaked in 1 tbsp lemon juice)
1 tsp fennel seeds, lightly toasted and crushed
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
70g unsalted butter
1 small garlic clove, peeled and crushed
2 trout, gutted and scaled (ask the fishmonger to do this for you, if need be)
10g coriander leaves, finely shredded
Heat the oven to 230C/450F/gas mark 8.
Put the tomatoes in a medium bowl with the orange zest, orange juice, lime juice, maple syrup, barberries, fennel seeds, oil, an eighth of a teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper, and toss to combine.
In a small pan, gently warm the butter with the garlic on a medium heat until just melted. Line a medium-sized oven tray with greaseproof paper, and lay the trout on top, spaced apart. Sprinkle each fish all over and inside with a quarter-teaspoon of salt, then pour over the butter mixture, making sure it covers both sides of the fish as well as the cavity. Roast for 18-20 minutes, basting once, until the fish is just cooked.
Put one fish on each plate and spoon over some of the cooking juices. Stir the coriander into the salsa, spoon over the fish, and serve with lime wedges.
Jacket potatoes with chorizo and gruyère
For me, the best bits of a jacket potato are the crisp skin and whatever you can cram inside it. This recipe ramps up both. You can stuff and bake these ahead of time, and warm through before serving. Serves six as a snack or three as a main course with a crisp salad.
3 large baking potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper
2 bunches spring onions, trimmed and cut on an angle into 2cm pieces
2 tbsp thyme leaves
150g cooking chorizo, peeled and roughly chopped
25g basil leaves, shredded
110g gruyère, coarsely grated
Heat the oven to 200C/390F/gas mark 6.
Put the potatoes on a baking tray and bake for 90 minutes, until soft all the way through. Leave to cool down and, when cool enough to handle, cut in half and scoop the flesh into a large bowl (take care not to tear the skins): you should end up with about 720g. Lightly mash the potato and set aside.
Put the potato skins cut side up on a medium baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and drizzle over a tablespoon of oil. Sprinkle with an eighth of a teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper, roast for eight minutes, until browned and crisp, then remove.
Put a medium, nonstick frying pan on a medium-high heat with the remaining tablespoon of oil. Once hot, fry the spring onions and thyme for five minutes, stirring a few times, until soft and starting to brown, then add the chorizo and fry for four minutes more, until the chorizo is cooked.
Scrape the contents of the pan and any oil into the potato flesh bowl and mix in the basil, four-fifths of the gruyère, half a teaspoon of salt and a generous grind of pepper. Spoon the mixture into the potato skins equally – you’ll have enough to pile it up inside – then sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake for 10 minutes, until the cheese has melted and the filling is golden-brown. Serve hot.
Chinese five spice- and coffee-marinated chicken skewers
The joy of marinating food is that you do a bit of work in advance, then leave time to do the rest. Coffee might sound an odd ingredient for a marinade, but trust me, it adds a real depth of flavour and doesn’t actually make the chicken taste very much of coffee. This would be a great dish for a feast or a barbecue, or on a bed of couscous or rice; a lamb’s lettuce and spring onion salad would be welcome, too. Makes eight skewers, to serve four.
4 tsp instant coffee granules, dissolved in 150ml boiling water and left to cool down
½ tsp Chinese five-spice
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1½ tbsp light brown muscovado sugar
Salt
2 tbsp groundnut oil
6 skinless chicken thigh fillets, cut into 4cm cubes (about 650g)
8 30cm-long wooden skewers, soaked in water for 20 minutes
Put the coffee, five-spice, garlic and sugar in a medium bowl with three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt. Whisk to dissolve the sugar, then whisk in the oil. Add the chicken and mix with your hands until it’s coated all over, then cover and refrigerate for at least an hour, ideally three or even overnight.
Heat the oven to 220C/425F/gas mark 7. Thread the chicken pieces on to the skewers; you don’t want to overcrowd them, so put only five or six pieces on each. Lay the skewers on a 25cm x 35cm oven tray lined with aluminium foil, then roast for 10 minutes. Turn the skewers, brush all over with the reserved marinade and roast for 10 minutes more, until cooked through and golden. Transfer to a platter and serve warm.
Lamb and pistachio patties with sumac yoghurt
You can prepare the yoghurt and the patties up to a day ahead and keep them in the fridge; you can also fry the patties a few hours in advance, and warm them through in a 180C oven for eight to 10 minutes before serving. These are a lovely drinks snack, or serve as part of a barbecue spread; to turn them into a meal, serve with some rocket dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and shaved parmesan. Makes about 20 patties, to serve four.
For the sumac yoghurt sauce
250g Greek-style yoghurt
1 tbsp sumac
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and black pepper
For the lamb patties
60g pistachios, lightly toasted
25g rocket leaves
1 onion, peeled and quartered
1 large garlic clove, peeled
500g minced lamb
1 tbsp olive oil
Put the yoghurt in a serving bowl. In a second bowl, whisk the sumac, oil and lemon juice with a third of a teaspoon of salt, then spoon over the yoghurt and stir to swirl the sauce through the yoghurt – don’t overmix, so it keeps a marbled look – then refrigerate.
Put the pistachios in the small bowl of a food processor, blitz briefly, until coarsely chopped, then tip into a bowl. Coarsely chop the rocket in the food processor and add to the nuts. Blitz the onion and garlic to a smooth paste, add to the pistachio bowl, then mix in the lamb, oil, half a teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper, until combined. Wet your hands and shape the mix into patties – use a heaped tablespoon for each one, and you’ll end up with about 20.
Heat a large, nonstick frying pan on a medium-high flame, then fry as many patties as will fit in the pan without overcrowding it for seven minutes, turning them halfway, until golden brown and just cooked through. Keep warm and cook the remaining patties.
Pile up the patties on a platter and serve with the sumac yoghurt.
Fishcake tacos with mango and lime and cumin yoghurt
Tacos are such an easy and fun way to feed friends. You can prepare everything well in advance – the fishcakes, the yoghurt, the mango pickle – then hop to the stove five minutes before you want to eat. Makes 12 tacos, to serve four.
450g sustainably sourced plaice fillets (or similar white fish), skinned, pin-boned and cut into 2-3cm chunks
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
1 egg
1½ tsp cumin seeds, toasted and finely crushed
4 limes, zest finely grated, then cut into halves, to serve
Salt
20g coriander leaves, finely chopped
120g Greek-style yoghurt
½ red onion, peeled and very finely sliced (use a mandolin, ideally)
⅓ mango, peeled and cut into julienne strips
1 red chilli, deseeded and cut into julienne strips
3 tbsp vegetable oil
12 corn tortillas (15cm-wide ones)
Put the fish, garlic and egg in the bowl of a food processor with a teaspoon of cumin, three-quarters of the lime zest and three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt. Blitz briefly to a rough paste, then tip into a medium bowl. Stir in half the coriander, then form the mix into 12 round fishcakes. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes (and up to four hours), to firm up.
In a small bowl, mix the yoghurt with the remaining half-teaspoon of cumin, the remaining lime zest and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt.
In a second small bowl, combine the onion, mango and chilli.
Heat the oil in a large, nonstick frying pan on a medium-high flame, then fry the fishcakes in batches for two to three minutes a side, until golden-brown and cooked through. Transfer to a plate lined with kitchen paper.
Warm the tacos in a dry frying pan or in the oven and cut the fishcakes in half. Top each taco with two fishcake halves and a spoonful each of the yoghurt and the mango salsa, and sprinkle with coriander. Serve with a lime half.
- Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay
