Red Chilli Fish Patties…

I have wanted to use a recipe I had for fish kebabs for ages, and decided that one night after a big workout would be the night, however I had not read the whole recipe through, only the fact that it took 25 minutes in total which wasn’t true!

So I had to improvise a little and change them to patties as they might not have held on a kebab… this meant they worked out a little expensive as instead of two dinners and one lunch it only made two dinner but you could easily add some potato or make them smaller to make them last longer or just reduce your quantities of fish and make enough for one dinner.

If you are going to do large ones like this, I recommend halving the recipe and only buying as much fish as you would eat normally, i.e. 1 fillet per person, you could bulk it out with mashed potato if needed.

You need:
500g white fish fillets, skinned
250g salmon fillet, skinned
1 egg white
3 red chillies, finely chopped
4 spring onions, chopped
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
1 tbsp chopped mint leaves
2 tsp finely grated ginger
2 cloves garlic, crushed
juice and zest 1 lime
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns

1. Remove any bones left in the fish and roughly chop, mash the fish with the egg white together, use a food processor if you need to, then add the chillies, spring onions, coriander leaves, mint, ginger, garlic, lime juice and zest and mix well.

2. Heat the fennel seeds, coriander seeds and peppercorns in a frying pan over a medium heat until fragrant, then grind in a pestle and mortar, before stirring into the fish mix, season with sea salt

3. Mold into patties, whatever size you wish and chill for 30 minutes (if possible, mine worked fine skipping this step)

4. My patties were quite large and I then griddled them for 10-15 minutes, turning frequently.

For a super healthy dinner serve with steamed brown rice (I added spring onions and soy sauce for taste) and a cucumber yogurt dip…

250 ml half fat greek yogurt
1 small cucumber grated
2-3 tbsp roughly chopped mint leaves

Combine all and season with a little salt

 So good, and very healthy if a little expensive!

Easy Peasy Healthy Chicken…

Just a quick post today, and not a recipe as such, more of a chuck these together they taste quite good!

I am working quite hard at the gym at the moment and am ravenous when I get home but need to stay healthy or I would be un-doing all my good work… so this was a compromise between ‘I need more than a salad’ and staying healthy…

I literally chucked remains of the fridge on some chicken, left for 10 minutes (as I say… starving, no patience) but I suggest you leave to marinade longer and the wrapped it up in a parcel…

Baked it in the oven for about 15 minutes and served with the standard sweet potato chips (do a search for the recipe, it’s on here a lot) and some steamed asparagus… Perfect!

So I used;
2 red chillies
bunch spring onions
half bunch coriander
zest and juice of 1 lemon
zest of 1 lime
sea salt and lots of black pepper

I also mixed up some lemon and lime zest and juice with some creme fraiche to serve

A real meaty BBQ with the Boys…

So in the lovely weather last week some my uni boys (who live on BBQ food and not much else in the summer months) fired theirs up, my first BBQ of the summer was a very meaty affair!

Oliver made some amazing lamb koftas and a very spicy salsa

To make the lamb kofta;
500g lamb mince
1tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp Paprika
3 garlic cloves
handful fresh chopped mint
Sea salt and black pepper

Mix together all the ingredients until well blended. Divide into 8 balls, then roll each ball on a board with a cupped hand to turn them into ovals.

Thread onto 4 metal skewers and brush with oil. 
You need to cook these through, this should take about 10 minutes on each side on a medium heat.
Don’t turn until they are well sealed or the meat will stick to the grill or pan.

Serve with some yogurt (mix some natural yoghurt with some finely chopped mint, half a finely chopped apple, finely chopped cucumber)

Salsa
6 tomatoes finely chopped removing the middle
2 red onions finely chopped
1 green chilli finely chopped (no seeds)
drizzle of olive oil
sea salt and black pepper
fresh coriander leaves

Mix it all up and leave for as long as you have for the flavours to combine. You can play about with the ingredients and quantities of this to make a salsa you like, maybe more/less chilli, more red onion, some parsley instead of coriander, mix it whatever you feel.

and Teeny marinated some chicken and made a really good potato salad…

plus we had hot dogs to snack on whilst we waited for all of that… I ate a LOT of food!

For ease of eating on our laps in the garden, we made wraps out of everything…

Thanks Boys! When’s the next one?

Food Fights in the Middle East

My little brother is living in Beirut at the moment, working as Middle East editor at The Daily Star, an English speaking newspaper… my brothers blog is here has his articles and lots of interesting news about goings on direct from Beirut! This is him next to a graffited wall in the city… with my name on it!

There have been massive ‘food fights’ going on between Lebanon and Israel about the origin of the famous middle eastern foods hummus and falafel… and with some record breaking…

Photo from France24

An article from the BBC and France24 explains it!

Don’t know if I fancy making that much falafel… but the recipe below for Baked Sweet Potato Falafel is so good I had to share, I make this a lot for lunch boxes and even though it’s vegan it got the Boy’s approval (who is a devoted carnivore!)

Linking to to a recipe, one of the reasons I started this blog was 101cookbooks.com. Based in San Francisco Heidi focuses on all natural healthy cooking and cites recipes from her favourite cookbooks as well as her own… this one is from the Leon cookbook

Baked Sweet Potato Falfel

2 medium sweet potatoes (orange inside), around 700g
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 small cloves of garlic, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 big handfuls of fresh coriander, chopped
Juice of half a lemon
120g chickpea flour (I got mine from the Indian section of my local supermarket)
a splash of olive oil
a sprinkling of sesame seeds
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 220C and roast the sweet potatoes whole until just tender – 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Turn off the oven, leave the potatoes to cool, then peel.

Put the sweet potatoes, cumin, garlic, ground and fresh coriander, lemon juice and chickpea flour into a large bowl. Season well, and mash until smooth with no large chunks.
Stick in the fridge to firm up for an hour, or the freezer for 20-30 minutes.
When you take it out, your mix should be sticky rather than really wet. You can add a tablespoon or so more of chickpea flour if necessary.

Reheat the oven to 200C. Using a couple of soup spoons (put a well-heaped spoonful of mix in one spoon and use the concave side of the other to shape the sides) make the mixture into balls put them on an oiled tray. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and bake in the oven for around 15 minutes, until the bases are golden brown.

Makes about 18 falafel, enough for 4 – 6.

I then made these into wrap with a cabbage and carrot coleslaw

With a mashed avocado with chili and lime juice, a guacamole of sorts