Rainbow Trout Pasta

Rainbow Trout Pasta

Firstly, I must apologise for my absenteeism. Turns out that third year at university is pretty hard work, and takes over your entire life for weeks at a time, subsuming any non-dissertation related activity that you might fancy doing. Luckily, my dissertation is now done and dusted with, so I am free to return to writing about delicious food, rather than witchcraft in Papua New Guinea, which is quite a relief I must say. I need to make the most of it given that I have another 11,000 words to write in the next few weeks which may result in my disappearance from the blogosphere once again!

This recipe is a very quick and easy, but still delicious, midweek meal. It takes only 15 minutes to throw together, and can be adapted to fit whatever it is you have in your fridge and cupboard. I have used rainbow trout as it is a more affordable option than salmon, but you could use salmon if you are more monied than me. I am often wary that since giving up meat I might not be getting all the right nutrients, or enough of them, so I think it is good to throw in some fish every now and again – especially if it is sustainably sourced.

Ingredients

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 small red onion

2 cloves of garlic

150g chestnut mushrooms

1 fillet rainbow trout, de-skinned and de-boned

225g pasta

Handful of frozen peas

Salt and pepper to season

Method

Set a pan of salted water to boil on the hob, cover and leave until boiling. In the meantime, finely slice your garlic, mushrooms and onion. Hopefully, your fishmonger will have filleted and de-boned your fish, but if not the easiest way to get the bones out is with a pair of tweezers under a bright light! As you will see from the photo, our fishmonger did a rubbish job so my boyfriend took on the tweezering! Once you have de-boned the fish, you can gently peel the skin off the back, making sure not to take any of the flesh with it. Once de-boned and de-skinned, finely slice the fish fillet.

Matt and the tweezers

Place a frying pan with 2 tbsp vegetable oil on the hob, and once hot, add the onion. Fry the onion until transparent and soft on a low heat (this will take about 5 minutes). After the onion has been frying for 5 minutes, add the pasta to the boiling water and leave to cook for approximately ten minutes or until al dente.

In the meantime, once the onion is soft, add the garlic, mushrooms and fish to the frying pan and fry for a further 7-9 minutes. Once the fish is cooked, and the mushrooms are softened, pour the cream into the pan and turn to a very low heat (you don’t want the cream to curdle or separate). Season with salt and pepper.

Approximately 1-2 minutes before the pasta is ready, add the frozen peas to the boiling water so they get a chance to defrost. After a couple of minutes, take the pasta and peas off the heat and drain. Take the sauce off the heat, and stir the pasta through the sauce. Season to your preference, and then tuck in!

This is a very speedy recipe so there isn’t really any point at which I could give you something to do, but if you fancy it whilst you’re eating, or simply at any other time when you’ve got a moment to spare, have a look at bloodandchampagne. It is a photographic blog, of beautiful interiors and houses of a minimalist, industrial and scandinavian ilk. The photos, and their contents are inspiring; now my dissertation is finished, I intend to while away many an hour gazing at them, and dreaming that perhaps one day my home will look something vaguely like this. Perhaps yours already does, or perhaps this will give you some ideas if you are bored of where you’re sat whilst you read this!

Pistachio and Herb Falafels

Pistachio and Herb Falafel with Coriander Yoghurt & Paprika Houmous

Falafels are one of my all time favourite things. There is a fantastic falafel restaurant on the Curry Mile in Manchester, that I frequent on my way in and out of uni when I feel like treating myself to more than a cheese sandwich for lunch. I also learnt two years ago that falafels are in fact incredibly easy to make at home, and this has been somewhat of a revelation, as they quickly became one of my regular, and most enjoyed meals.

Today’s recipe is a new spin on the usual falafel, and is based upon another Green Kitchen Stories recipe, although I have changed it somewhat to suit my tastes. This is the last of the pistachio recipes, as I have now run out of pistachios and feel maybe I should take a break from them, otherwise the obsession may reach dangerous levels. The pistachios, and the herbs used in this recipe, give the falafels a wonderful bright green colour, as well making the taste fantastic – the sweet, salty pistachio combined with the nutty falafel and the fresh coriander and mint is more than a winning combination. The texture too is wonderful – the soft chickpeas and the crunchy pistachio contrast with one another excellently. Topped off with smoked paprika houmous, lime and coriander yoghurt and some spinach, then wrapped up in a flatbread, it is a completely delicious, healthy and easy dinner.

Falafel Ingredients (serves 2)

8 sprigs of fresh mint

8 sprigs of fresh coriander

200g pistachio nuts, shelled

400g tinned chickpeas

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 white onion

3tbsp olive oil

1tsp cumin

1tbsp flour

Salt and pepper to season

1tbsp sunflower oil

2 flatbreads

150g smoked paprika houmous

Handful of baby spinach leaves

Sriracha, to serve

To begin with, place the herbs in a blender and whizz until you have a smooth paste. Then add the pistachios and blend again, so you have a pesto like texture. Following this, chuck in the chickpeas, garlic, cumin, flour, olive oil, and onion and blend once more. The end result should have something a bit like a sticky-doughy texture. Take a tablespoon of mixture out of the blender, and shape it into a round ball. Repeat until you have used all the mixture. This will make approximately 10 falafels, maybe more, maybe less depending on how big you make them.

Falafels – shaped and ready to cook!

Heat the sunflower oil in a large frying pan, and once hot, pop the falafels in and leave them to fry. They will take a couple of minutes to brown on each side, but make you sure keep an eye on them and turn them regularly. Whilst the falafels cook, it is time to make the yoghurt.

Lime & Coriander Yoghurt Ingredients

200g yoghurt

Handful of coriander leaves

Juice and zest of 1/2 a lime

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper to season

Finely chop the coriander, then place in a bowl with the yoghurt, lime juice and zest, olive oil and salt and pepper. Stir this together, and add more lime/salt/pepper to achieve the perfect flavour!

If you have any spare time whilst cooking, take a look at this fab blog Humans of New York . It’s a photography blog, set up by a former Wall-Street trader called Brandon, who lost his day job, and decided to start photographing New Yorkers and hearing their stories. The result is a wonderful, eclectic and intriguing collection of individuals, with all manner of stories and backgrounds. Some will make you laugh, some will make you melt and some will make you shed a tear, but you will enjoy reading about all those he has come across since embarking on this wonderful project.

Once the yoghurt is made, heat the oven to 180c. Make sure to watch over your falafels so they don’t burn! You want them to go a medium brown, and they should be hard and crispy on the outside. Once the oven is hot, put the flatbreads in to warm through for a couple of minutes.

Crispy frying falafels

By this point, your falafels should be cooked. Take the falafels off the heat, and take your flatbreads out of the oven. Lay a flatbread out on a plate, spread the humous and yoghurt over it, then top with falafel, spinach and sriracha. Carefully wrap the flatbread up, (being sure to tuck in one end to avoid leaks!) and then tuck in. Happy eating!

Falafels and flatbread

Two quick things before I go – I fry my falafels as I find this is the best way to achieve a crisp outer shell, and a moist, soft middle. I know it’s not as healthy as baking, but it’s also not as delicious, and that must always come first in my books. That said, if you must, then you can bake them, at 200c for 15 minutes, making sure to turn them regularly so as to achieve an even colour.

Lastly, I am aware that posts to this blog are currently few and far between, and this is due to the fact my dissertation is due in just over three weeks, and so everything is a little manic in my head, and my life. The Peckish Pescatarian gets a little forgotten about as a result, but I will try and put recipes up as often as I can, when I remember to!

Spring Vegetable Soup with Pistachio Pesto

Spring vegetable soup with pistachio pesto

So this is the second of my pistachio recipes, as the obsession continues. I don’t often make soups, but every so often a recipe comes along that catches my eye and is delicious. I think I often find soups to be a bit nothing-y, especially for dinner, but this one has vermicelli and cannellini beans in it, which really gives it some bulk, and means it doesn’t leave you hungry. The pistachio pesto infuses through all the other ingredients, making a delicious nutty broth, which complements the freshness of the vegetables perfectly.

Soup Ingredients

1tbsp olive oil

1 leek

1 courgette

100g green beans

1.2l vegetable stock

2 large tomatoes

400g cannellini beans

1 nest vermicelli

Salt and pepper to season

Pistachio Pesto Ingredients

25g pistachios, shelled

25g fresh basil

25g parmesan, grated

3tbsp virgin olive oil

2 cloves of garlic

Salt and pepper to season

Delicious fresh ingredients

Begin by heating the olive oil in a large pan, and then finely chop the leek, beans and courgette. Once the oil is hot, add the leek to the pan and fry for 4-5 minutes, or until soft. Next add the courgette and beans and fry for a further 3 minutes. Pour the stock over the vegetables, cover with a lid and leave to simmer for five minutes.

Meanwhile, you can make the pesto. It’s the same recipe used in the gnocchi, and is very easy. Place all of pesto ingredients into a blender, and blend until you have a smooth paste (or a not so smooth paste if you like a more rustic, homemade feel to your pesto). Season with salt and pepper and then put to one side.

Finely chop the tomatoes and add to the soup, along with the cannellini beans and the vermicelli. Leave to simmer for another 5 minutes or until the vermicelli are cooked and the vegetables are soft.

Whilst the soup finishes cooking, why not have a read of this fab article by Laura Bates, the founder of Everyday Sexism. The article discusses how being sexually harassed in the street is not the same as being complimented, and that people should stop telling women to take it as a compliment when men wolf whistle at them or comment on their appearance. Given what a frequent occurrence this is in probably all women’s lives, it’s really important to recognise the problem, and how damaging it can be, especially when it’s brushed off by those who have never experienced such behaviour, and therefore have no idea how demeaning, threatening and infuriating it can be.

Once the soup is ready, ladle it into two bowls and then divide the pesto between them, and then tuck in!

Fried Gnocchi with Pistachio Pesto

Fried Gnocchi with Pistachio Pesto

This week I discovered a place near where I live that sells pistachios for very little money. I love pistachios, and bought rather a lot of them upon discovering what a bargain they are at this particular shop. Consequently, there is quite the pistachio theme to the next few recipes I’m going to post here, so I hope you like them as much as I do! However, whilst pistachios feature heavily in the upcoming recipes, they are all very different and delicious meals so I don’t think you will get bored. The pistachios I use in these recipes are of the roasted and salted variety, which I personally think are the only pistachios worth using, at least in savoury food. Although I am more than willing to be proven wrong, especially as this is the first time I’ve ever cooked with them!

This particular recipe is ridiculously easy, quick and delicious, so is perfect when you’re in a hurry and want something filling and tasty. I must admit to not having made my own gnocchi – I have done so before, and whilst it was delicious, it was also insanely time consuming and quite fiddly. On this occasion, therefore, I used shop-bought gnocchi, as while I’d rather spend more time cooking and use homemade ingredients, unfortunately my dissertation must take priority at the moment. That said, if you do decide to make your own gnocchi for this, then you deserve a large pat on the back for the commitment and effort!

As for the pistachio pesto, I personally think it is ingenious. I love pesto, but never make it because pine nuts are so damn expensive. Pistachios, on the other hand, are not! And handily, they work wonders as a substitute for pine nuts, and make the pesto slightly lighter and saltier, which suits me down to a tee. It also occurred to me that this pesto would be really nice, and a bit different, if you popped in a couple of anchovy fillets to the mix – another thing to try!

In this recipe, I’ve just given the amounts to make enough pesto for 2 people but you could easily make much larger quantities and keep it in the fridge, so you’ve got some handy if you need a meal at the last minute! I didn’t serve the gnocchi with anything this time around, but I do think it would go splendidly with a simple rocket salad, so maybe give that a try if you fancy it.

Ingredients (serves 2)

50g butter (salted or unsalted)

500g gnocchi

25g fresh basil, plus a few extra leaves to serve

25g pistachios, shelled

25g parmesan

4tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, peeled

Juice of half a lemon

Salt and pepper to season

Melt the butter in a large frying pan, and once melted, pour in the gnocchi. Give the gnocchi a good stir to ensure that it all gets a good coating of butter – this will help it to crisp up during cooking!

Whilst the gnocchi is cooking, put the shelled pistachios, parmesan, lemon juice, olive oil, and garlic into a blender and blend until you have a smooth, pesto-like consistency.

Give the gnocchi a stir every so often to ensure it cooks evenly all over. Whilst the gnocchi finishes cooking, you could have a look at these photographs of Maskull Lasserre’s wood carvings.They are quite unlike anything I have ever seen before, and the intricacy and delicacy of the detail is mindblowing, especially when you see the upclose shots of his carvings, and how they fit within the work as a whole. I thought they were real skeletons for a while, so for him to have carved them out of wood is really quite incredible.

Perfectly crisp gnocchi

Once the gnocchi is crisp on the outside, with patches of golden brown, it is cooked! Stir the pesto through the gnocchi, and serve with an extra grating of parmesan, and some fresh basil leaves. Happy eating!

Aubergine, Chickpea & Spinach Curry

Aubergine, Chickpea & Spinach Curry

This is a delicious, simple and easy recipe, perfect for a quick weekday meal when you want to put together something tasty and healthy. The flavours are subtle but work really well together, especially with the nuttiness of the chickpeas, and the richness of the aubergine. I served this with a crispy paratha on the side to mop up the leftover juices, but it would work equally well with some rice. And if you’re trying to be healthy, or just want a lighter meal, then the curry is just as good on it’s own.

Ingredients (serves 4)

1kg fresh spinach

4tbsp sunflower/vegetable oil

1 large red onion

400g tinned chickpeas

2 garlic cloves

1 red chilli

1tbsp coriander seeds, ground

1tbsp cumin seeds

1 large aubergine

400g tin chopped tomatoes

Salt and pepper to season

Put a pan of salted water onto boil, and once boiling, add the fresh spinach and cook for two minutes. Once cooked, drain away the boiling water and pour cold water over the spinach. Drain the cold water then squeeze the spinach gently to remove as much water as possible from it. Chop finely and put to one side.

Next, finely chop the garlic, chilli and onion. Heat the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pan, and once hot, add the onion, chilli and garlic. Following this, add the cumin and coriander seeds and the chickpeas, and leave to fry for 3-4 minutes. Once the onion is softened and transparent, add the aubergine and mix well. Leave this to fry for a further 5 minutes, until the aubergine is slightly softened and has taken on some colour. Finally, add the tomatoes, spinach and a pinch of salt and pepper, then bring to a simmer, cover with a lid and leave to cook for approximately 15 minutes.

Whilst the curry cooks, you could have a look at the wonderful No More Page 3 campaign. This campaign, set up by the brilliant Lucy Ann-Holmes, is trying to get the Sun Newspaper (a particularly unpleasant British tabloid for those of you readers fortunate enough not to be from this tiny island) to remove the topless pictures of women that feature on page 3. This campaign has gathered huge momentum, and gained support from Girl Guides, Mumsnet and several of the big teachers’ unions in the UK. Page 3 is a demeaning, and misogynistic feature of the newspaper, that objectifies women and teaches young boys and girls to see women as sexual objects rather than equal human beings. Moreover, boobs aren’t news! The campaign has a petition, with 135,748 signatures at the time of writing, and could really do with more. If you agree with the campaign (and you don’t have to be from the UK to do so) please sign the petition. Banning Page 3 is such an important step in fighting for gender equality in this country.

By now, your curry should be cooked and ready to eat. Serve it with your chosen side, and tuck in. Bon appetit!