A Simple Fish Traybake

It's Autumn and we pulled up the last of the tomato plants at the weekend. We had a good crop of small cherry tomatoes (Gardener's Delight) and larger salad tomatoes (Black Russian) but the weather has changed and the fruit still left on the trusses won't ripen so I picked about a kilo of them in various states of ripeness.

Now there are only so many fried breakfasts you can have and I'm not a chutney maker so this week has involved some experimentation, one of those is this simple traybake.

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 medium size potatoes sliced into 4mm slices

2 medium sized green tomatoes (or half a lemon sliced thinly

2 fillets of sea bass or sea bream

A small bunch of parsley

Olive or Rape Seed Oil

Method

 Preheat the oven to 180c. Scatter the sliced potatoes and tomatoes on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper then drizzle with a little oil. Bake in the oven for 20 mins. Pinch and slash the skin side of the fish a couple of times rub on a little oil and season with salt and pepper. Place on top of the potatoes and bake for 10-15 minutes depending on how thick the fish is.

Serve with peas or runner beans or a green salad.

 

Chicken, Potato and Spinach Curry

Too many potatoes and too much spinach in my veg box so I came up with this recipe. Ingredient proportions are flexible depending on what you have! For a vegetarian option you could replace the chicken with chickpeas or lentils. You could easily do a fish version using a firm fish like monk-fish or cod but add the fish much later, after adding the spinach and cook the dish until the fish is done.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 bag of baby spinach
2 Chicken Breasts or 4 chicken thighs, diced
2 medium onions finely sliced
2 carrots, grated.
2 ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed.
2 medium or the equivalent amount in small potatoes, diced. Peal them or not - it's up to you. Waxy ones are best.
Spices: 1 tsp of each of Cumin, Coriander, Turmeric, Fenugreek, 4 Cardamom pods, 2 cloves (ground), 1/4 teaspoon pepper, 1 dried chilli (optional).
 Small bunch fresh coriander

Fry the onions in a tablespoon of oil in a large pan or a casserole - you need a big pan to fit the spinach in later - then add the chicken and fry until coloured. Add the potatoes, tomatoes, carrots and spices. Fry for a few minutes then add a cup or so of hot water or stock. Stir then cover and cook over a low heat until the chicken and potatoes are cooked through. Add more water or stock if the curry dries out too much, it should be fairly dry but should have some sauce.Wash and add the spinach and gently stir in. Cover and cook for a few minutes until the spinach has wilted. Add the chopped coriander and a teaspoon of garum massala, stir and serve with plain boiled rice and a yoghurt raita.

Pan Fried Pigeon Breasts with Potato Rosti and Gin and Blackberry Sauce

A few weeks ago I bought a pack of pigeon breasts from the Ealing farmers market. A hard day of wondering around Amersham's charity shops brought on a fierce appetite and this seemed like the perfect thing to satisfy it. Serves two hungry shoppers.

Ingredients
4 Pigeon Breasts (check them over for any shot that might be lurking within the flesh)

For the rosti:
2 medium potatoes, peeled and grated
1 clove garlic, crushed
large knob of butter, melted
large pinch dried thyme
Salt and pepper

For the sauce:
1 small onion finely chopped
1 shot glass of gin
5 juniper berries crushed
1 small handful of blackberries (I usually have some in the freezer)

Method:
Grate the potato and mix in the thyme, garlic, melted butter and a good grind of salt and pepper. Heat a small frying pan and add the potato mixture. Fry until richly golden on one side then turn and continue frying.
Meanwhile fry the pigeon breasts in a little olive oil for 3-5 minutes on each side then put in a warm oven to keep warm.
Fry the finely chopped onion in the pan juices (add a little oil if you need to - pigeon is very lean and will give off little extra fat). Add the crushed juniper berries and deglaze the pan with the gin. Add the blackberries and cook until they have softened to a mush.
Serve with a bitter green salad.