04May / 2016

Thai Crab Cakes and Papaya Salad

I was a little worried that the crab cakes would come out floppy but once cooled they were the perfect consistency. If you want to eat straight away it might be worth making the crab cakes in advance ready to go in the oven and then leaving them out for half an hour to dry out a little.

Makes 5 lunches

Crab Cakes

75g celeriac

6 lime leaves

zest of 1 1/2 limes

1 stick of lemon grass

3 spring onions

7cm ginger root

2 small/1 big clove of garlic

2 small/1 big chilli

3 170g (120g drained) cans of white crab meat

3 tbsp millet or oats

1 tbsp olive oil

Salad

2 handfuls of bean sprouts

1 – 2 red peppers

1/2 chinese cabbage or any crunchy lettuce

1 papaya

1 bulb of fennel

3 tbsp cashew nuts

1 large handful of coriander leaves

Dressing

1 1/2 limes (use the zested ones as we just need the juice)

3 tbsp coconut milk

Preheat the oven to 170C.
Boil the kettle and heat up a hob.
Remove the tough outer skin of the celeriac and cube into 1cm pieces.
Add to a medium saucepan with boiling water and bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes until soft.
Meanwhile, top and tail and peel the other crab cake ingredients as necessary, except for the millet and the crab. Roughly chop and blitz in a food processor and leave it in there.
Drain the crab and flake into a large bowl.
When the celeriac is done, drain well, pat dry with kitchen roll and add to the food processor and blitz once again. Add the contents of the food processor to the bowl with the millet to soak up some of the moisture. Mix well.
Oil a couple of baking trays. Using your hands shape the crab cake mixture into little patties about 4cm in diameter. Arrange on the baking trays.
Cook for 25 minutes turning halfway through. ( You might want to wash up the bowl at this point unless you have more than one!)
To make the salad, simply chop out the core of the pepper and discard. Cut into 5mm strips and cut each strip in half.
Shred the cabbage.
Cut off the core of the fennel, cut in half lengthways so the pieces aren’t too big and shred using a mandolin.
Remove the skin and the seeds from the papaya and chop into bite sized chunks.
Finely chop the coriander.
Add all the salad ingredients including the bean sprouts and cashews to a large bowl.
Mix the coconut milk and juice of the limes together and use that to dress the salad.
Arrange into bowls/tupperware and top with the crab cakes when you are ready to serve.

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01May / 2016

Thai Steamed Sea Bass with Sesame Noodles, Garlic Pak Choi and Beetroot

My mum is on a Slimming World diet which doesn’t allow oil unless you count it as a syn. So I decided to create something that she could cook. This recipe does include oil but you can omit it as it’s not used in the cooking process or you could swap the noodles for cauliflower rice if necessary. To make cauliflower rice, simply blitz up raw cauliflower in a food processor until fine, put in a bowl covered in cling film with a small slit in the top and microwave for 2 minutes. I definitely cook this for her next time she comes around as she loves fish, loves Thai food and it’s really tasty! I bought my thai ingredients from an oriental wholesaler, they were very cheap. I have about 100 lime leaves in my freezer now!

Serves 2

Paste:

6cm ginger root

1 garlic clove

Juice of 2 limes

4 lime leaves

2 tbsp water

1 birds eye chilli

1 stick of lemon grass

2 large handfuls of fresh coriander

Fish

2 sea bass filleted or 4 sea bass fillets

Salt and Pepper

Vegetables

2 fresh raw beetroot

2 pak choi

1 clove of garlic

Noodles

2 nests of wholewheat noodles

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp sesame seeds

Unsweetened desiccated coconut to serve (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200C.
Peel the ginger and lemongrass and blend it together with the other paste ingredients in the food processor.
Get 2 1 metre pieces of kitchen foil to make your 2 packets for your fish, 1 per person. Divide the 2 portions of fish between the 2 pieces of foil and place them in the middle with space either side to seal. First, lay the fish skin side up and season with salt and pepper. Then turn them over and spread on the paste on each of the fillets.
For each packet, bring the two ends together and scrunch so that there is some space above the fish to make steam. Then seal the sides.
Place in the oven on a baking tray for 15 minutes, then open each packet up and bake for a further 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the vegetables and noodles.
Boil the kettle
Meanwhile, chop off the root and tops from the beetroot, scrub any mud and remove any gnarly bits with a knife. Using a mandolin on its biggest setting (about 2mm) cut the beetroot into slices. Put in a small saucepan with the boiling water and simmer for 10 minutes.
Put a large dry non stick frying pan on a medium heat.Slice the pak choi lengthways into 5mm thick slices. Add to the pan and wait for it to sizzle. Add about 5mm of water from the kettle to the bottom of the pan. Crush in a clove of garlic. If all the water evaporates, add more, don’t let it go dry until near the end. Cook for 3-4 minutes each side.
Add boiling water from the kettle to a medium saucepan and simmer the noodles for 5 minutes with a pinch of salt.
Once cooked, drain and return to the pan, stir in the sesame oil and sesame seeds.
Plate up and sprinkle on the coconut if using.

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14Mar / 2016

Thai Style Fish Soup

I investigated my local oriental shop and was amazed at how cheap it was compared to supermarkets. For example, 99p for 4 lemongrass stalks, £2.50 for 250g of cashew nuts. It costs £4.50 for 300g in Sainsbury’s! It was called a wholesaler but you could buy in small quantities.

I made the fish stock in advance as I don’t like processed stock and usually contains yeast.

Serves 2 as a main, 4 as a starter

Base:

1 stalk of lemongrass bashed with a rolling pin

1 birds eye chilli, stalk removed

2cm root ginger peeled

1 clove garlic peeled

1/2 lime (juice from)

3 lime leaves

Coriander stalks from 1 handful of fresh coriander

Herby tops from the fennel bulb

Other ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

2 spring onions

1 fennel bulb

2 pak choi

250g any white fish

1 litre fish stock

1/2 can coconut milk

1/2 lime

Salt and pepper

To serve

1 large handful of beansprouts chopped into thirds

1 large handful fresh coriander leaves chopped

100g chopped cashew nuts

Begin by heating the oil in a large saucepan
Then put all of the base ingredients into a chopper or blender and blitz until fine
Finely slice the spring onion. When the oil is hot, turn down to medium and saute the onion for 5 minutes
Slice the fennel in half lengthways and remove the core from each half. Finely slice and shred the fennel into bite sized strips.
Add to the onion and cook for another 2 minutes
Add the base and saute for 30 seconds longer
Then add the fish stock, coconut milk and juice from the other half of the lime.
Bring to the boil and season to taste
Whilst it is boiling chop the fish into bite sized chunks and thinly slice the pak choi from top to tail and once boiled, turn the soup down to a simmer.
Add the fish and pak choi for 4 minutes until the fish is cooked all the way through but still maintaining its shape.
Take off the heat and add chopped coriander, cashew nuts and beanspouts to serve.

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Thai Crab Cakes and Papaya Salad