Barbecued Mackerel with Ginger, Chilli and Lime and Grilled Asparagus

After not having enough Asparagus last year, I have maybe gone out of my way to ensure I get some every weekend this season.  But I also really wanted to utilise my barbecue on another semi-fine day, so decided to try and do some mackerel.  So far, the only time I've cooked fish on my Weber is either in a paella, or using fillets on a cedar plank, but this time, I wanted to try and do a whole fish, straight on the grill, using direct cooking.  I'm far more comfortable with more slow cooked barbecue stuff, although using my phone for a count-down timer, I've got better at not overcooking things that just need minutes and seconds, or at least need to be checked every couple of minutes.

I'm not sure I've ever cooked a whole fish before, be it on the barbecue or anywhere else.  I normally get my fish filleted, or when I have cooked something with bones in, it hasn't been the entire fish.  But, having read up on a number of mackerel recipes done straight on the grill, I thought it was about time I gave it a try, especially as it's cheap enough that if I messed it up first time around, I could easily go out of buy a couple more to try again.

A number of places talk about having your grill squeaky clean to do this.  I'm guessing this is for people that don't use their grill much.  Personally, I clean my grill by getting some hot coals under it, closing the lid for 15 minutes or so, then giving it a good brushing with a decent, wire grill brush.  I'm sure a perfectly new, squeaky clean grill will work really well, but it doesn't have the character of one that shows real use.  It's like woks.  The blacker the wok, the better the chef.  But like also like woks, just because it's black, it doesn't mean it should have large amounts of grease, and leftover foodstuff hanging to it.

This recipe was good for two Whole Mackerel, a really good value, but nice meal for two.

Recipe for the Marinade

• 3-4 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 Lime (zest and juice)
• 1 Red Chilli (finely chopped)
• 1 thumb of Ginger (finely chopped or grated)
• 1-2 cloves of Garlic (crushed)
• 2 teaspoons of Honey
• 1 tablespoon Fish Sauce

Recipe for the Grilled Asparagus

• 12 or so big, thick pieces of local Asparagus (if it's too thin, it will cook too quickly on the grill)
• 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil
• Salt and Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Mix all the marinade ingredients together.  Adjust amount of lime, honey and fish sauce to taste.  If too salty, add a little more lime juice.  If too sour, add a little more honey.  Balance to taste.  Maybe add some finely chopped Fresh Parsley too.

Make 6 deep slits on both sides of the Mackerel with a sharp knife.  Massage the marinade all over the fish, into the slits and the body cavity.  Wrap them in cling film, and keep in the fridge for 20 minutes or so while you get your barbecue going.  Keep any remaining marinade to drizzle over the Mackerel after grilling.

Cut away any woody bit at the end of the Asparagus.  If it's in season, fresh and local, there shouldn't be much to cut away at the base.  Rub in Olive Oil, then season with Salt and Fresh Ground Black Pepper.  Keep aside to grill towards the end of the Mackerel cooking, or while the Mackerel is resting.  

Get your barbecue (grill) ready for moderate direct cooking.  Depending on your lighting method, this could take about 40-45 minutes to get the coals to their optimum.  Ensure your grill is as clean as possible.  A lidded barbecue (such as a Weber kettle barbecue) helps to ensure coals don’t flame up too much as the marinade and oil drips from the fish.

Place the fish on the grill for 5-6 minutes per side, only moving when turning over.  When done, the eyes should look milky and the middle of the fish should be warm (about 52-55°C near the spine with an instant read thermometer, or fairly warm, but not burning to the touch). Leave to rest for 2-3 minutes.

While the fish is resting, grill the Asparagus, turning fairly frequently.  Again, use the lid to calm any flames from small amounts of Olive Oil dripping on the coals.

Serve the Mackerel with the Asparagus, drizzling any remaining marinade over the fish.

Jhinge Ka Pulao (Spicy Prawns and Rice)

Since discovering the wealth of recipes to be found on the web, especially those published on many of the food blogs I now regularly read, I find that I hardly ever feel to the need to seek out a recipe book. That said, I do like to occasionally flick through one of my few recipe books at the weekend to get ideas for meals. This Christmas, I received another two books, both with good flick-through properties and today, I decided to give one of the recipes I found a try.

My sister got me The Indian Kitchen by Monisha Bharadwaj, a really interesting book, with more emphasis on the ingredients, rather than the recipes themselves. Definitely a nice format for a book of this kind, and with lots of nice photos and illustrations too. There’s more than one ingredient mentioned that I’d never even heard of, and so I decided to make one of the easiest recipes, for which I had all the required spices already, just to be on the safe side. I also added some peas which weren’t in the original recipe.

This really was a quick and easy recipe, and I can definitely see myself making this one fairly often. Still, I’m going to have to go ingredient hunting soon to try out some of the others.

Recipe for Jhinge Ka Pulao (Serves 2)

• 2 tablespoons of Sunflower Oil
• 1 teaspoon Cumin Seeds
• 1 medium Onion, finely chopped
• 4 cloves of Garlic, minced
• Thumb of Ginger, minced
• 200g Uncooked Prawns, shelled and de-veined
• 1 cup of Basmati Rice
• 3 tablespoons of Tomato Ketchup
• 1 teaspoon of Turmeric
• 1 teaspoon of Chili Powder
• 1 teaspoon of Ground Coriander
• Half teaspoon of Salt
• 1.5 cups of Hot Water
• 1 cup of Peas
• 3 tablespoons of Fresh Coriander, finely chopped

Using a heavy bottomed pan (with a lid), heat up the oil, add the Cumin Seeds, and when they begin to pop, add the Onion, Garlic and Ginger. Fry for about 5 minutes until starting to brown. Then add the prawns and cook until translucent. Next put in the rice and stir in until all the rice is shiny. Drop in the powdered spices, salt and Tomato Ketchup and stir in well before adding a little water to help deglaze the pan, then the rest of it. The whole thing should be brought to a simmer, then covered until the rice is cooked and has absorbed the liquid. Stir once or twice using a wooden spoon during this time. Finally, stir in the Fresh Coriander and serve.

Paella 2.0, on a Barbecue, in Warlingham

Anna and Jose gave a slightly rough review of my last attempt to make Paella. The main problems they highlighted were that I'd used chicken drumsticks rather than wings, the prawns were not in their shells, nor the mussels, that the rice wasn't yellow enough and I had no lemon as garnish. I think the lack of yellowness might just have been my camera performing badly with the colour with the poor lighting, but even so, I got the saffron as ordered, and made Paella 2.0 using that instead of turmeric.

I'm cat-sitting Nutmeg for my parents over the next couple of weeks, and they have pretty decent (although filthy) barbecue with adjustable grill height, so I decided to try and make it on that. I'd brought my Paella with me, knowing that my sister would be a willing taster, that cooking facilities and that better local shops would help with the endeavor. There was also the added bonus of getting my sister to do all the food photography with her decent camera. Although, saying that, she did manage to drain her battery taking pictures of Nutmeg, then have to bolt back home for the spare so that she could take pictures of the finished food.


The recipe was pretty much the same as before, except that I used Dwarf Beans instead of Fine Beans, a good pinch of crushed saffron instead of turmeric, and chicken wings, instead of legs (as per Anna and Joses' instructions), plus prawns and mussels in their shells. Also, I used about 50% more rice this time as I was fairly certain it wasn't enough last time.

Recipe for Paella 2.0

• 5 Whole Chicken Wings, cut in their 2 halves
  2 Pork Ribs, cut into bit size pieces
• 1 clove Garlic
• 4-5 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 large Red Pepper, cut into 6 strips
• 1.5 cups Dwarf Beans
• 2 medium Fresh Tomatoes
• 1.5 cups Paella Rice
• 4.5 cups Boiling Water
• A pinch of Saffron (enough, when crushed, to turn the water yellow)
• 1 teaspoon Smoked Spanish Paprika
• 1 can of Chickpeas
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• Lots of Prawns in their Shells (could have been bigger in our case)
• Lots of Mussels in their Shells
• A Lemon

The method was exactly as before, only done on a barbecue instead of the stove. The Mussels were cooked briefly in White Wine before adding to the top of the Paella in the last few minutes of cooking. The other difference is that I didn't use any stock as I seemed to end up with a better stock in the pan this time around, so just added the Saffron and Paprika to the boiling water (3 times that of the rice). I also remembered to add the Chickpeas as I had them washed and drained and out with the rest of my ingredients before I started to make sure nothing was forgotten.

My sister's hectic schedule for the day meant that I didn't get started on cooking until there was no real sunlight left in the garden and it was getting dark by the time I'd finished cooking. This was partly caused by the barbecue dying halfway through (luckily at a good moment to pause in the cooking) and us having to get it started again before getting the rice in. So, rather than a nice afternoon meal in the sunshine, it ended up as an evening meal around the dining table.

Although I pretty much followed their instructions to the letter this time, I can still almost hear the comments Jose and Anna are going to make. For one, I'm sure they are going to say that I put too many prawns and mussels on the top so that the chicken and peppers are nearly invisible. The rice was cooked to perfection though, with that slightly caramelised bottom, but without sticking to the pan. Definitely got a lot more confidence after cooking this one. I just need to get the time of day right.

Valencian Paella, made in Willesden Green

This was a recipe which I could not get wrong. Well, I could get it wrong, and probably have got bits of it wrong, but I'm satisfied enough with the results of this, my first ever paella, made from a recipe from Jose and Anna, using the Paella, Rice and Paprika they left me (and no Chorizo!).

Once again, I'm cooking for Caroline and Gabriel, so I figured that Paella would be a good thing to do as it's not really spicy and so would go down well with Gabriel. Plus it was a good one to flex my cooking muscles, as the instructions from Jose and Anna were pretty intricate. To be honest, like all the recipes I put up on this blog, if it had been a failure, it wouldn't be here. Even more so with this one, given that Anna and Jose will no doubt examine this particular blog entry and give thorough feedback on whether this was a success or failure.

Pretty much everything went according to plan with this recipe, although I was having to rush back to the computer to double check the email from Anna and Jose to make sure I was doing everything correctly. I totally forgot about adding the chickpeas, which I think would have been a nice addition. Plus I think I could have got away with a little more rice in the size pan I have. Also, I exchanged one of the mugs of hot water for chicken stock, as I remember them having some in their Paella, so I figured one mug wouldn't be so bad, especially as it was the nice stock cubes they left me.

Recipe for the Paella (Serves 2-3)

This is based on the size dish I have. So you need to adjust the proportions depending on the dish of Paella you have.

• 4 Chicken Drumsticks
• 2 Pork Spare Ribs, cut into chunks
• 250g Cooked Seafood Medley (from Waitrose in my case, with mussels, prawns, squid and cockles)
• 1.5 Red Peppers, cut into about 6 strips per pepper
• 2 Tomatoes, pureed with a little Salt and Olive Oil (Anna used a cheese grater and so did I)
• 1 Clove Garlic, finely sliced
• 1 Cup of Fine Beans
• 1 Cup of Chick Peas (optional, and forgotten in my case)
• 1 large mug Paella Rice
• 1 large mug Chicken Stock
• 2 large mugs Water
• 1 teaspoon Spanish Smoked Paprika
• 0.5 teaspoons Turmerric
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 5-6 tablespoons Olive Oil

First, prepare all the vegetables and other ingredients so that it's easy to just get everything together as you're cooking. Put a little salt over the meat and heat up the 5 or 6 tablespoons of Olive Oil in the Paella. When it is hot enough, add the meat and cook until it is golden all over. Halfway through this process, add garlic and the Red Pepper and cook until the Red Pepper is easy to peel. The stove should be on a moderate heat. Nothing should burn, and you should just be moving pieces around the dish to make sure nothing sticks and cooks evenly.

Remove the meat as it is cooked and set aside. Once the Red Pepper is easy to peel, remove from the pan and set aside, then add the fine beans.

Once all the meat is cooked and you just have beans remaining in the pan, add the pureed Tomato and fry until cooked. Then add the Paella Rice and fry with the tomato, making sure it is all coated with the tomato and oil. You can now start adding the boiling water and stock if using (3:1 ratio to rice). Also add the Salt, Paprika and Tumeric (or Saffron), and make sure that the rice is boiling all over. Add the chickpeas (if you remember) at this point, then bring the heat down to a simmer. Stir the rice about to ensure that there are no peaks or troughs. It should be totally flat and even all over, as should the heat being applied underneath.

It will cook for about 20 minutes or so, until the rice is aldente. You need to add the cooked seafood in the last 6 minutes or so of cooking, then arrange the Chicken, Pork and Red Pepper pieces on the top. Once the Rice is aldente, switch off the heat and cover the Paella with a newspaper to help the top cook for a few more minutes.

You are now ready to serve. Bring the whole dish to the table and impress your friends!

Caroline and Gabriel both loved it. What little leftovers there are, Gabriel wants for breakfast. Personally, I'm quite pleased with the result for a first attempt.

Fisherman's Pie

This dish was one of the things which I used to buy as a TV dinner (normally when I've had a hangover for some reason) and have never quite had a the right kind of shallow dish to prepare it in for myself. However, when my friends, Anna and Jose, left to go back to Spain, they gave me the perfect stoneware dish to make something like this, and it was about time I made good use of it.

My local Sainsbury's once again let me down on the ingredients front, as it does nearly every time I go there. The selection of fish to choose from was pretty useless, with not a single piece of smoked haddock, which is what I really wanted for this recipe. So, I had to go with some Cod and a couple of 'Crayfish Medleys' (pre-cooked Crayfish, Mussels and Prawns). Not what I necessarily wanted to put in it, but still worked pretty well.

Recipe for Fisherman's Pie (serves 4)

• 450g Cod Fillet
• 440g Cooked Crayfish, Mussel and Prawn Mixture
• 1 kilo Potatoes (Maris Pipers, in my case)
• 2 Carrots, chopped
• 2 sticks of Celery, chopped
• 1 cup Fresh Peas
• 1-2 teaspoons Ground Black Pepper
• 1 handful Fresh Parsley (fined chopped)
• 1 Bay Leaf
• 40g Butter
• 1.5 tablespoons Plain Flour
• 1.5 pints of Milk

Put the carrot, celery and whole cod pieces into a pan, cover with milk and add a couple of stems of parsley, black pepper and bay leaf. Heat gently until the milk starts to simmer, then turn off the heat and leave for about 15 minutes to steam. Pour into a colander, reserving the now seasoned milk.

Peel the potatoes and cut into small cubes so that they cook fairly quickly. Boil in water with a little salt, drain in a colander, then mash, using a little of the milk from the fish and a little of the butter.

Remove the skin from the fish, then put into a greased, shallow, baking dish, along with the carrot, celery, peas and other cooked seafood.

Next make a roux using the remaining butter, flour and the seasoned milk from cooking the fish. Add a little more milk if sauce becomes too think. Add the chopped parsley, then check the seasoning of the sauce and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Then pour the sauce over the fish and vegetables, cover with the mashed potatoes and put in an oven, preheated to 200 degrees Celsius for 20-30 minutes, until the potato is golden on top. Some people decorate the top beforehand with a fork, but I just added a little grated cheddar on the top.

Even though it seems extremely late in the season for purple sprouting broccoli, my local Sainsbury's, for the first time this year, actually had some, albeit from Jersey, so this is what I decided to serve with it.

Caroline and Gabriel seemed to really enjoy it. It's actually very refreshing to see a 6 year old not question what's put in front on him and just eat it all, and Gabriel certainly did that and went as far as to say that it was really nice. I wonder what else I can get him to eat? It was quite filling though, and so it looks like I'll be having more for breakfast tomorrow, although if Dave was here, he'd probably say that it only served 3 and I doubt there would be any leftovers.

Red Jambalaya

I've only made Jambalaya a couple of times before. The first time, it was a disaster due to the fact that I didn't have a big enough pot to make it in, didn't have any nice Chorizo and ended up burning it because I couldn't stir properly without it going everywhere. The next time, it came out much better, although I didn't have a charged camera to document it properly. This time, I made every effort to get everything together, although, I didn't get it ready in time to get any decent daylight to get a good shot with my camera.

The original inspiration for my recipe was from Chuck's Jambalaya on the Gumpo Pages website. However, due to not being able to get all the correct ingredients, and not making my own stocks most of the time, I looked around at other variations, including Charita Jones's version (after all, her Jambalaya seems fairly popular, although not a Red Jambalaya like Chuck's), then adapted things a little during the cooking process. I'm going to try one without tomato one day, but there is something about the rich, red sauce during the cooking process which attracts me to Chuck's version.

The traditional recipe calls for Andouille (not easily available in the UK) or Chaurice (which seems to be close to Chorizo) and looking around at recipes on the Internet, it seems that all the recipes written by people based in the UK tend to use Chorizo instead. I'm a big fan of Chorizo, cooked or uncooked, and I definitely find that it's great in Jambalaya. My friends, Anna and Jose, bought me some great stuff from Spain, so I used some of that along with some stuff I bought here. I wanted to save the stuff from them until I make Fabada with the nice Morcilla they also bought me.

Recipe for Red Jambalaya (serves 6-8)

• 600g Chicken breast, cubed
• 600g Chorizo (2-3 rings), skinned and sliced
• 2 medium Onions, chopped
• 4 sticks of Celery, chopped
• 1 Green Pepper, chopped
• 1 Red Pepper, chopped
• 1 Chilli Pepper, chopped
• 6-8 cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
• 2 small cans of Tomato Puree
• 1 can Chopped Tomatoes
• 3 mugs of Basmati Rice
• 2 pints Chicken Stock
• 1 cup Peas
• Half cup of Baby Carrots
• 3 teaspoons Black Pepper
• 2 teaspoons Cayenne Pepper
• 1 teaspoon Oregano
• 1 teaspoon Thyme
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 2 tablespoons Olive Oil

First, season the chicken. In my case, I use a bit of Lawry's Seasoned Salt, but a combination of Salt, Pepper and a little Cayenne Pepper will probably do just as well. Then brown the Chicken slightly in the Olive Oil in a large, heavy pan. Remove the Chicken from the Pan and set aside. Next, do the same with the Chorizo slices, although without additional seasoning, remove from the pan and pour away the excess fat.

There should now just be a thin layer of oil on the bottom of the pan with which to saute the Onion, Garlic, Celery and Peppers until transparent. The moisture from the vegetables should help deglaze the pan of dark matter from the Chorizo. Then, add the tomato puree and cook so until it starts to darken to a mahogany sort of colour.

At this point, add a little of the stock to the sauce to help deglaze the pan again, then add the additional herbs and spices and Chopped Tomatoes. Cook for about another 10-15 minutes and check the flavour so that if you need to add more spices, you can do it before the rice goes in, as it's better to get balance right beforehand so that the rice can soak up all the flavours. Add the Chicken and Chorizo back to the sauce.

Now, add the rice and ensure that it is thoroughly mixed, add the stock, mix and bring to the boil, then put the lid on the pan and put in a 180 degree Celsius oven for about 40-60 minutes until the rice as absorbed all the liquid and is well cooked. You should stir it a few times during cooking, and about halfway through, you can add the peas and carrots and any cooked fish.

I prefer finishing it in the oven as I find it cooks better and doesn't get stuck to the bottom, but you can do it all on the stove by lowering the heat to a simmer after it has started boiling with the stock and rice added, and stirring occasionally.

Serve with a salad and bread.

With this one, I wanted to add some crayfish too, but I didn't get the time to go up to Wing Yip to buy some. Instead, I added a little selection of Crayfish, Prawns and Mussels (should've bought double really) halfway through the rice cooking phase. The problem was that compared to the quantity of food, they were barely noticeable. Another time, I'll have to get some crayfish in their shells so that I can use the shells to improve the stock.

This recipe fed 5 people well (one of whom had about 4 or 5 helpings) and still with leftovers for a good 3 helpings. It was loads, but tasted so good, it didn't seem to matter. Jambalaya can be made with lots of different types of meat. It's certain not Paella, but it is a great, spicy, rice dish, and the fact that it's made all in the same pot makes it easy when you have limited cooking space.

Basic Homemade Sushi

It's been a long time since I've managed to post anything, which doesn't mean that I haven't been cooking. I've just been too busy to write up the recipes and more recently, not had a camera to hand to get a photo. However, now that summer is nearly on us and there is more daylight, I'll hopefully get more done.

This weekend I had a second attempt at making sushi. My first attempt worked quite well, but I only made simple Maki the first time around and I wanted to get a little more adventurous and make inside-out rolls (California Rolls or Sakamaki). I didn't go too far out of my way to source quality fish, partly because it was only my second attempt and I didn't want to make a mess with a nice piece of raw tuna or salmon. So, I just went for some cheap smoked salmon and crab sticks along with avocado and cucumber (which tasted fine, but not as nice as raw tuna). Next time, I'm going to go a travel a bit further for some nice fish, and probably do some Nigiri and some of the other more advanced rolls.

I'm not going to go into detail about how to make these as I learnt most about how to make sushi at home from imakesushi.com, which provides easy to follow instructions, with photos of each step in the process. There are other websites too, but I spent more time going back to this one while making mine. The only thing I would say is that it's probably best not putting the wasabi into the rolls as I know a number of people who simply don't like it, so having it on the side as an option is a safer bet.

Making sushi wasn't as time-consuming as I first thought it would be, however, preparing the rice definitely takes longer than for any other rice-based dish I have made. All the instructions I read said to fan the rice after applying the seasoning, so it was just as well I had an electric fan to hand so that I could get on with other preparation while I waited for the rice to cool down. Once the rice is ready, the rest of the preparation doesn't take too long, and the end result is definitely very satisfying.

Sesame Fish Balls

As I already had all that groundnut oil from deep-frying the Potato and Pea Pasties I decided to try out this tasty looking fish ball recipe. It was very cheap to make as I just used odd shaped Pollock fillets as it's all getting blended anyway. Really quick to make too.

My sister reckoned they would taste even better with some sweet chilli sauce, but we didn't have any, and by then I was busy with the Thai Red Curry and so didn't get around to making any. Definitely a tasty snack, hot or cold, but should be eaten the same night as otherwise they're likely to go soft, although they taste fine the next day, they're nothing like as nice.

Recipe for the Sesame Fish Balls

• 250g White Fish Fillets
• 2 cups Breadcrumbs
• 2 tablespoons Plain Yoghurt
  
• 1 clove of Garlic, crushed
• 1 small Red Onion
  
• 2 tablespoons of Fresh Coriander, finely chopped
• Half to 1 teaspoon Ground Cumin
• Half to 1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
• 2 tablespoons Fish Sauce
• 2 Large Eggs, white and yolk separated
• Quarter cup Sesame Seeds

Cook the fish, either by steaming or microwaving. Then throw into a blender and blend until finely chopped, but not a paste. Then in a bowl, mix the fish, 1 and a half cups of the Breadcrumbs, and all the other ingredients except the Egg Whites and Sesame Seeds. Once thoroughly mixed, with wet hands, form into small balls. You should get about 20-24 from this size batch.

Lightly whisky the Egg Whites in one bowl, mix together the rest of the Breadcrumbs and Sesame Seeds in another bowl, the coat each Fish Ball in first the egg white, then the Breadcrumb and Sesame Seed mix so that they are well coated. You should then deep fry them in hot oil for about a minute or two, until they're golden brown.