Pomegranate S.L.

Sea bass in Pomegranate Sauce (Lubina en Salsa de Granadas)


Never has so much responsibility been placed in a fruit. Pomegranate S.L. is the name of our new company and Granada (where we've moved to) is the Spanish name for the fruit. So, if this whole move to Spain goes wrong at least we’ll be able to blame some other fruit.

Given all of the above, I thought it was time to cook something with pomegranate. This recipe comes from Blanca’s friend, Sofia Craxton’s “The Mexican Mama’s Kitchen: Authentic Homestyle Recipes”.


Along with cactus pear, dates, figs and jujube, McGee[i] defines pomegranate as a fruit from arid climates. It was brought to Spain in the ninth century by the Moors. They named their kingdom after the fruit. Missionaries from Spain introduced the fruit to the Caribbean and Latin America in the 1700-1800’s. Today it is principally found in the Mediterranean and western Asia (with the best said to come from Iran). McGee rattles off a few adjectives in association with pomegranates that, honestly, leave me a little confused:
- very sweet – tasting of sugar
- fairly tart – sharp to the taste; acid; sour
- astringent – chemical substance that tends to shrink or constrict body tissues (incidentally a taste that is not detected by birds)

[ii]Jewish tradition teaches it as a symbol of righteousness due to the fact that it is said to have 613 seeds corresponding to the 613 commandments (mitzvot) of the Torah. It is often eating on Rosh Hashanah (Jewish new year for people, animals and, appropriately, legal contracts).


[iii]In a plot that makes the average Spanish Telenovela look tame, Persephone, in Greek mythology the queen of the dead, was said to have been damned to a month every year in hell for every pomegranate seed she ate. She was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter (goddess of the earth) who was abducted by Hades (god of the underworld). In her grief, Demeter became distracted and as a result life on earth came to a standstill. In order to save the world, Zeus ordered Hades to return his daughter. Before being returned, Hades tricked Persephone into eating 6 pomegranate seeds, thereby being condemned to return to the underworld for the same amount of months every year. For this reason, the earth flourishes with vegetation for the 6 months of mother and daughter unity every year.

I honestly never thought that I would get a picture of a grenade into a blog...

On a rather more prosaic note, the hand grenade gets its name from the pomegranate. The seeds of the pomegranate burst forth with juice in a similar manner to the grenade’s fragments. The juice of the pomegranate stains permanently, whilst the grenade can have similar long-term effects.

One pomegranate myth that is not true relates to the English. Some sources believe that Australians call the English POMS either due to the fact that they have a habit of turning red in the sun or that they came on boats that were also carrying pomegranates. The name in fact comes from Prisoner of Mother England.


The arils (seed casing) are surrounded by a rind that is rich in tannins and very bitter. So much so that it was once used in tanning leather. Each fruitlet contains one prominent seed which is used “as is” or cooked into a molasses, or fermented into wine. A ripe pomegranate spurts juice as soon as it is pierced, for this reason Blanca showed me the “beat it with a rolling pin” technique. This highly sophisticated method involves cutting the fruit in half and beating each half with a pin in order to dislodge the seeds. Note: a baseball bat could be used for this purpose.

Ingredients (for 4):
2 seabass
1 ½ large pomegranates
1 tsp sugar
Juice of ½ lemon
1 cup basmati rice
½ cup coconut milk
1 cup water
Butter
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Sofia agrees that pomegranates came to Mexico from Spain. They are in season from September to December. This innovative recipe needs only 20 minutes of preparation to produce a really original taste.

Extract the seeds (reserve some for garnish) and blend with the sugar and lemon until pureed. Place the fillets on their own sheets of aluminium foil. Season with salt and pepper. Pour the sauce over and drizzle with olive oil. Close the parcels, ensuring that the edges are well sealed. Bake in a 180 C oven for about 15 minutes until the fillets are cooked.

Pomegranate seeds lose their colour during cooking, it is important to garnish the cooked fillets prior to serving.

Sofia recommends serving this dish with white rice. In Mexico this is a traditional partner for fish dishes. We cooked the lighter version; melt the butter, add the milk and water and bring to the boil. Add the rice, bring back to the boil, cover and simmer for 10 minutes, leaving to rest before serving.

Sources:
[i] Harold McGee “McGee on Food & Cooking An encyclopedia of kitchen science, history and culture”
[ii] Wikipedia
[iii] Stephanie Alexander “The cook’s companion”

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Arroz Negro (Black Rice) and a new Apartment

Arroz Negro (Black Rice with Calamari)

27-Nov-2005 Steve: This blog was written exactly a month ago. Despite the popularity of the dish I had been unable to answer a question that had occurred during the research into Calamar. Finally, yesterday, after unpacking Blanca's cookbooks from London, we found the answer and I could complete the recipe. Read on...

27-Oct-2005 Steve: It has been over a month, but we cooked last night for the first time in our new flat in Granada. In this blog I would like to acknowledge the contribution of various people and professions across the province of Granada to this inaugural meal:

- el notario – the town notary in Guadix
- el estanco – the newspaper stand
- el ayuntamiento – the town hall
- la dueña – the landlord
- la policía – the police
- el banco y el director de la sucursal – the bank and bank manager
- los padres – parents
- los tíos y primos – uncles, aunts and cousins
- el taller – the garage
- el portero – the porter
- la churrería – the churros restaurant
- el fontanero – the plumber
- el toldero – the awning guys
- las mudanzas – the removal company
- muebles morino – the useless kitchen fitters
- el electricista – the electrician
- el pintor – the painter
- la ferretería – the hardware store
- el tapicero – the upholsterer
- el corte inglés – supermarket where we bought the food
- and last, but by no means the least important… el butanero – the gas delivery man

As it was the first night, we wanted to cook something traditional. As we were completely wrecked, we also wanted to cook something simple. Blancs suggested arroz negro. This is a typical Spanish dish, originally from Barcelona and Valencia. With my newfound residence, strictly speaking, I should be boycotting Catalan recipes, but I'm Irish and, more importantly, people have been known to call this the "most delicious rice preparations ever invented"*. Simply put it is paella made with calamar, dyed with its own ink.


We did the shopping in El Corte Inglés, Blanca left me at the pescadería (fish counter). I managed to navigate my way to buying 3 medium calamar (calamari is Italian). I was quite happy with myself until later when she realised that I hadn’t asked for cleaned ones. Nevertheless, an unexpected techniques session came out of my mis-procurement… how to clean the calamari. This is the technique that Blancs learnt in Blagdens in London.

1. Calamari are shellfish; part of the molluscs family, as distinct from the crustacean decapods. They are cephalopods, meaning ‘head-foot’, mainly due to the proximity of their head and feet. Their sub-family is shared with squid, octopus and cuttlefish. They are the most advanced molluscs and, unlike the rest, they don’t have shells. The ink is used to evade capture… humans have a more mundane use in that it forms colour and flavour for this dish in particular.

2. The cleaning process focuses on the various parts of the body. First you must reach into the head and remove the transparent cartilaginous shield from inside the body. This is the spine and is particular to squid and calamari, the octopus doesn’t have any.
3. Grasp the tentacles and pull firmly to remove. Squid and cuttlefish have 8 ‘arms’ and 2 tentacles. Octopus has 8 tentacles. Note: both Spanish and Catalans have 2 arms and 2 legs.
4. Rinse the body and discard the purplish-black membrane. Calamari have long triangular flaps running along side the body, these are located at the narrow end of the body, cut these off, but save to eat.
5. To ensure that the head is fully clean, wash it inside out.


6. Next prepare the tentacles. Press the bunch away from you, the 'beak' will pop out. Pull away and discard. Be careful as this can cut you. I innocently thought the beak was something to do with the nose of the fish, I have since learnt it is the anus. I'm not sure how I feel about this.
7. Cut the tentacles just below the ink sac (visible as a purple bulge). Discard the remaining part.

Ingredients (for 2):
3 medium calamari
1 sack of ink (best frozen)
3 tbsp white wine
½ onion chopped
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 cup of medium-grain rice
3 ½ cups of warm fish stock (depends on the rice type)
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to season

The following recipe is, as mentioned above, one that works. It is taken from Penelope Casas's "The Food and Wines of Spain". Heat a pan with oil over the flame. We used a wide, flat paella pan as the cooking method is principally about leaving the rice to settle and absorb the stock rather than stir like a risotto. Add the onion and cook until translucent. Add the squid and sauté 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a moment. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the stock (boiling hot) and rice and stir in the ink and wine. Note, ink is most easily used frozen as it is less likely to stain. Season with salt and pepper. Cooking times vary depending on the rice. We were cooking with Arroz Bomba de Calasparra, this is a medium grain rice from near Murcia. Bring to the boil and cook over a medium high heat, uncovered and stirring occasionaly, for 10 minutes until the rice is no longer soupy, but some moisture remains.

Transfer to a 160C oven. Bake 15 minutes, uncovered until the liquid is absorbed, but the rice not yet done. Remove from the oven, cover lightly with foil and let sit for 10 minutes. It is then ready to eat.

The paella dish is extremely wide, in order to retain the heat and moisture (thereby prolonging the cooking time) traditionally, cooks would often place a newspaper over the pan.

In Spain even the newspapers can cook paella

So what was the reason for the month's delay?
The recipe, as you can see, is pretty straight forward. We actually used a slight variation; sauté vegetables, add the calamar, add the rice. Overall cooking time for the calamar was about 25 minutes as opposed to about 80 minutes above. The flavour was great, but the calamar was quite tough.

As with many things, the problem (but not the solution) was brought to our attention in my research into calamar...

Cephalopods have extremely thin muscle fibres reinforced by about four to five times the amount of collagen in a normal fish. This makes their cooking somewhat unusual. McGee and Stephanie Alexander are adamant that they must be cooked either briefly (2-5 minutes to prevent the muscle fibers being broken down) or for a very long time (over 1 hour in order to breakdown the collagen). “In-between” cooking results in a tough, rubbery texture.

Blanca reckons that Penelope Casas has written "the best book on Spanish cooking by a non-national". She is either making a very subtle point about Catalan independence or is measuring her words. Either way, judging by the fact that she was, so far, the only author that was able to solve our calamar problem... I'm convinced.

Enjoy.

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Home Alone 1: Snapper

Red Snapper with Warm Tomato Vinaigrette and Green Pea Purée


Blanca, the resident zarzamora teacher, has gone off to Spain to try and find us somewhere to live. Tragically, I’m left in London for the next week to fend for myself. I did the obvious thing; look for a friend whose husband was away for the weekend. As a result, by lunchtime I had met with Claire and we’d decided to have a dinner party in the evening.

The kick of a morning coffee gave us some unwarranted confidence. We decided to crossbreed two menus from “fish” and make the red snapper with green pea purée. An unnecessarily complicated trip to Northcote Road gave us most of the ingredients. The fish mongers supplied 5 nice snappers. Somerfield gave us the rest of dry ingredients with the mint, thyme and chives coming from the food stalls on the road. “Northcote Merchants: proud sponsors of all your culinary exploits”.

Prior to actually cooking Blanca managed to ignore three phone calls from me; I recall her parting words; “… you need to get more confidence in the kitchen. Stop bugging me”…

Early evening, with the Lydons (John, Anthea, Charlie and Muireann) due in 45 minutes, we somewhat shabbily started cooking. Now, Claire is pregnant so has a reason for forgetfulness, but there really is no good excuse for me forgetting; a blender, blanched almonds, soy sauce and spring onions. A quick return trip to Northcote meant that we managed to recommence cooking at 6.45 with only 15 minutes left before they are due. Luckily, being culinarily humble, Claire had told them that we were having… er, logistical issues and to delay until 7.30. The Lydons were polite enough to realise that we were under pressure. They arrived at 8.10 and we were finished in the kitchen by half past (8).

In the plating rush we didn't get a chance to take a photo of the purée, you can see it above, the center of attention... pea purée, you old charmer.

Pea Purée
1 onion, chopped
60 g butter
250 g peas
200 g potato (chopped)
200 ml chicken stock
1 sprig of mint
1 sprig of thyme
3 tbsp single cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Sauté the onion in half the butter. Add the peas, potato, stock, mint, thyme, salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and simmer until the potato is cooked. Purée. Add the cream and remaining butter. The finished mash should be liquidy, but not overly so. You can reheat this when required.

Given that we’re Irish and we knew that Charlie would appreciate dining on pea and potato for the week, we trebled the ingredients. It isn't that Charlie is a big pea and potato fan, he is 9 months old and doesn't have a choice.

Claire models the snapper with tomato vinaigrette. Ever the consumate host, she doesn't even seem surprised that we managed to pull-off the meal.

Ingredients for warm tomato vinaigrette
3 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 tsp chopped chives
1 shallot very finely chopped
85 ml olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper

Put all the ingredients into a pan and cook until warm. In fact we cooked until the life was boiling out of it, but we can blame this on the fact that we were having our starters. There was no discernable loss of taste or flavour, but that could be due to the wine.

5 snappers
Juice of ½ lemon
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Lemon chopped

The snappers are straightforward to cook; snip the fins and make diagonal slashes across the thickest parts of both sides of the fish. Season inside and out. It is recommended to leave for at least half an hour before cooking.

Claire and Simon’s grill doesn’t work and frying seemed like too much effort so we cooked in the oven; 250 degrees for 12 minutes. To be honest, their oven doesn’t really work either (even if they had no grill, it would in fact work better than the oven). In oven time, we were cooking for 30 minutes. In fact, the only people that can advise on how long the snappers took to cook are John and his sister Muireann. Thek cook some good snappers. John got his boning badge tonight (ahem) by showing Claire how to remove the bones from the snapper. He also lost his boning badge tonight by making me eat a fish eye (tough and kind of indigestible).

A quick dig into Alan Davidson’s “North Atlantic Seafood” revealed very little information on the snapper. It was odd that the only reference seemed to be as a pseudonym for Bluefish (family Pomatomidae). Not only does the Bluefish bear no resemblance, but it seems more similar to the oily mackerel. “Fish” gave a more meaningful description of an exotic fish originally being imported into the UK from The Seychelles, now readily available. It goes on to explain some of the difficulties with snapper. There are over 200 species to choose from. Red and Yellowtail are amongst the favourites. It is a good fish to bake whole, they can be grilled, baked, poached, steamed, fried and eaten raw.

Furthering my misgivings, “Fish” references a similar fish called “Jobfish”. “North Atlantic Seafood” does not even reference this. Could it be that Mr. Davidson does not like snapper?

p.s. OK, before anyone comments, the clue was pretty much in the title. The "North Atlantic Seafood” doesn’t reference snapper, because it pretty much only deals with, eh, north atlantic seafood. Snapper is found in the tropical and subtropical regions of all the oceans.

my funky new "Technorati Tags":food fish

the sea devil (with salsa verde)

Monkfish with Salsa Verde

...david attenborough voice over: "...from the distance this jungle archipelago looks like slices of monkfish grilled with a great salsa verde"

Last night, cooking from “Fish”, we made a variation of their salsa verde recipe. From the one meal I've cooked, I can see this is a cool book. Blanca recommends it on the basis that it is co-authored by a cook (Sophie Grigson) and her husband fishmonger (William Black)... thus having taste and authority. I recommend it for the best cover of any food book I've seen so far; a mackerel on a red background (check the amazon link).

Ingredients for Salsa Verde (for 4):
Bunch of fresh parsley
Handful of basil
40 g olives
Few anchovies
2 tbsp capers
2 garlic cloves
Bread
100 ml olive oil
Salt and Pepper to season

This is the Italian version of the salsa verde, the Mexicans, enthused by the Spanish name have obviously come up with their own variant that looks fantastic. It is spicier and I’ll do it at some point in the future.

The recipe calls for a “bunch” of the fresh herbs. This is a quantity that I always struggle with. Dictonary.com defines bunch as “group of things grown together”, “group of like items”, “group of people with a common interest” or “a considerable number”. Whilst parsley does no doubt share a common interest, these descriptions are not all that appropriate. Some sites go as far as quantifying “bunch” depending on the ingredient. For example, a bunch of parsley is in fact 1 ½ cups chopped or 2 oz. To Blanca, a bunch seems to mean half of whatever you have.

Instead of anchovies, we used olives from Spain stuffed with anchovies. Capers are a Mediterranean flower bud. They are not a favourite of mine, but I’m going to try living with them for a while to see if we share common interests. All recipes call for the cook to rinse the capers from their preservative (generally salt or vinegar). Their piquant flavour comes from mustard oils (methyl isothiocyanate) released when crushed (similar to our friend the horseradish).

As we all know, parsley is a regular acquaintance of garlic. The reason for this is that it is thought to freshen the mouth (more importantly the breath) from the effects of garlic or onion. Given that garlic actually infuses your blood and lungs, the effectiveness of parsley may be relatively short lived.

Similar to pesto, you could use a pestle and mortar in order to make this sauce. I used a food processor which was... less effort. Mix all excluding the oil and seasoning. When finely diced, add enough olive oil to make a moist, but not wet sauce. The recipe recommends bread, but we preferred to just use less oil.

Monkfish
Olive oil
Salt

Cut the meat into large rough pieces, season and brush on olive oil. These require a relatively short grilling or frying over a high heat. Serve as islands or otherwise.

The monkfish has many aliases; it is called angler-fish, frogfish, goosefish and, best of all, sea devil. All reference sources paint a picture somewhat like the wolf from little red riding hood, they agree that it is:
- ugly
- has a big head
- has large teeth

I'm feeling quite sorry for monkfish, even Alan Davidson turns his back on it, placing amongst "miscellaneous uncouth fish".

It grows up to 2 metres in length and is found predominantly in the waters of the Mediterranean to Iceland. The only edible portion of the monkfish is its muscular tail and its liver. The tail meat is dense and sweet. We had a large monkfish fillet still on the bone. The tail is amazingly large and strong.

I’m off to the fishmonger now to discuss whether the sea devil can be caught in bunches or whether it is just too damn ugly…

Fancy a Lawsuit for Lunch?

Cause rellena de atun

Lucy and Anil were over recently – they have just got engaged so we wanted to do something special. London has also been doing something special lately – the sun has been shining. Given the occasions conspired; Blancs pulled out the sunny recipes from a sunnier clime – Peru …



Causa is Spanish for “cause” or “lawsuit”. To be honest I don’t believe that either of these are very meaningful translations of the name, but let’s move on. A good lawsuit is generally served cold for lunch (that’s justice for you). The basics are pretty simple and once you get it, you can stuff with whatever takes your fancy.

La Causa:
- Potatoes for mashing (mature, floury are best)
- Aji Amarillo
- Oil
- Salt and pepper

Stuffing:
- Avocado
- Tuna
- Mayonnaise

Cook the potatoes and mash. It is best to keep them fairly dry so you could boil with the skins on and subsequently peel as I’ve mentioned before regarding gnocchi. Cool the mash. Mix in the Aji Amarillo to suit your flavour or courage. Mix tuna and mayo in order to form a good mixture constituency.

Aji amarillo (Capsicum Annuum) is the most used chilli in Peru. It is a hot, yellow chilli pepper native to the Andes. It is said to retain its citrus flavour, which I think I agree with (either way, I wouldn't argue with a chilli). To those of you living in London; the only thing more dangerous than eating aji amarillo is buying it. Blancs and I go to Amazonas, a great little Peruvian shopping centre at 206 Old Kent Road, Elephant and Castle, SE1 5TY. When I say shopping centre I should make this clear – they would normally be just one shop, but it appears that the owners have managed to squeeze two shops and two restaurants into the space. It is a great trip and we have it from a reliable source that it’s the best place to buy authentic Peruvian food in London. We went for the shopping and stayed for the food. Blancs stayed longer to get some recipe recommendations from the owner (or robber) of one of the little restaurants.

To mould: Cover the bottom of a small mould with a ball of the potato. Note: it is good to line the mould with cling film to make the release easier. Layer tuna on top. Next causa and another tuna layer. Finally causa with avocado layer. Refrigerate for approximately 1 ½ hours. Release from mould and serve with avocado on the plate side.

We served the causa with endives, samphire and orange sections with a balsamic dressing.

yes, i am a sole man...

dover sole... simply dover sole

a number of years ago, in her cordon bleu days, blanca worked at the much missed blagdens fishmongers off Marylebone lane. it was here that she introduced me to the joy of dover sole. well... we went for a birthday dinner one evening to the river cafe. she had made a delivery just that day. in honour of the delivery (and being a lot easier than having to make one myself) i selflessly ordered the sole. it was the tastiest fish that i thought i had ever eaten.

the cost of the fish has kept me away for a number of years, but when asked i will always say it's my favourite. it's been a torrid romance of denial. much like the girl that you fleetingly see at a disco or on a train and never see again... as if a restraining order had been put on you, or you couldn't afford the train.

indeed, if she was a girl, you would find her swimming in the seas of the mediterranean to the north of scotland. she is not the prettiest of romances; her pectoral fins are well developed and her eyes are ... well spaced.



ingredients:
dover sole
malden sea salt
leek
olive oil
lemon

julienne the leek and fry briefly in olive oil. alan davidson mentions that dover sole is one of the few fish that actually improves about a day or two after its death. in no small part attributed to a distracting tarte tatin last night, we cooked fish that was a day old. heat a frying pan with some olive oil. lay the fish down a briefly cook (1/2 minute). flip onto the skin side and cook for no more than a minute. squeeze lemon over and some salt. eat as soon as plated. this recipe is deliberately simple. sole, being one of the best tasting fishes, is best served with lemon alone. we find that olive oil is a great addition and add a nice edge of complexity to the taste.

this was so good that we cooked 3 fillets and then went back for the last. we ate this like it was chocolate dessert ~ off one plate and trying be honourable, but wanting it all to ourselves.

incidentally... i've been absent, but i haven't forgotten... leek, from the allium family (shared with onions and garlic) contains most of the healthy attributes of these vegetables. a high intake of allium is actually shown to reduce total cholesterol and LDL. it raises HDL at the same time. it is associated with reduced risk of prostate and colon cancer. note: onions and garlic both contain more of the healthy compounds, but it is somewhat more sociable to eat in large amounts.

10 years on a plate

Salmon, Spinach with Tomato and Mint Salsa


it may take me some time to get to the point so, in the meantime, enjoy the end product

I’m finding a curious trend in the books / movies that I’ve encountered of late:
- The life and death of Peter Sellers ~ the biography of a man obsessed with his on screen character to the detriment of his life.
- Supersize Me ~ a month in the life of a guy who forces himself to eat only McDonalds in order to prove a point.
- Round Ireland with a Fridge ~ the story of Tony Hawks travelling around Ireland over the course of a month with only a fridge (and national radio) as a companion.
- The Know it All ~ tracking the author’s attempt to read and digest the encyclopaedia britanica.

These have helped me reach a few conclusions:
- Peter Sellers may be my favourite actor
- Geoffrey Rush may be my favourite actor
- I must watch more Peter Sellers or Geoffrey Rush movies
- I need to explain the thread behind this blog fast …

These 4 books / movies (what's a good term for these .. media?) all of these reveal an odd similarity in their subject; a single-minded determination in the part of the hero to explore a theory or idea at the expense of everything else. It’s all method acting of a kind. Stressful stuff... the blog was in danger of becoming a similarly all consuming affair lately. I've decided to limit myself to a blog per week ~ increase the quality, lower the frequency (don't laugh).

To get away from the deadline stresses of blog writing, I recently went to have my cholesterol read (it’s cheaper than seeing a psychologist and, for me at least, I hoped that it would be more revealing). A week after the reading, upon contacting the doctors’ surgery for the results, Blanca was told that they could not give the results over the phone and wondered if I would come in person.

We went together. I fearing the worst … and Blancs wanting to grab a coffee (sometimes you need support no matter what motives it has). The doctor greeted me with an ominous “Hello Mr. Cooper, please come in and take a seat”. My life flashed before my eyes; all that cheese, all those steaks, why didn’t I just ease off a little. How could I have done this to my body … would I even make it to the seat without collapsing?

My fears were relieved when she followed with “How can I help you today?” Bless the NHS; the cutback in financing of the healthcare in the UK has at least ensured a certain lack of sentiment behind any life altering news that you may be delivered. I assumed that they wouldn’t tell me over the phone on the off chance that the worry and apprehension would cause a heart attack and allow them give my place to someone else in the queue.

The verdict was far more positive than I had anticipated. The result was a “moderately high” reading. Not bad considering that I have a moderately extravagant diet. It was a lower reading than 3 years ago (when I went to visit a similar psychologist). All in all I took it as a vindication and general thumbs up on my lifestyle.

The doctor was completely unwilling to give any creative advice on lowering my cholesterol other than getting it checked every 6 months and considering cutting out butter, salt and mussels. I tried to explain that I was married to a chef, she was Spanish and I had at least one blog reader to think about … but this seemed to fall on deaf ears (or at least hard of hearing, professional ears). It seems that in the UK it is better to die from dietary boredom than heart disease.

For this reason, I have decided to pursue a diet styled upon the great actors and authors of our time. Over the next 6 months (or week), I will become a “method actor” of nutritious diets. I will not sacrifice the salt in my soup, the saturated fat in my steak; but I will look at creative means to boast the chances I have of eating well and, according to some eager sources, adding 10 years to my life.

It turns out that I already eat well (there goes the quick wins). Our post-visit celebration meal serves as an indication of how easy it is to eat your way to health. In writing the analysis below, I have used the fascinating WHF website as source and explanation of various ingredients’ benefits.



Ingredients:
- Salmon fillets
- Mint leaves
- Tomatoes
- Spinach
- Salt & pepper to season
- Olive oil & balsamic vinegar

As with the healthiest foods, the instructions are very simple. This also ties in nicely with my abilities as a cook. Starting with the tomato, slice it from the base. Cut the slices both horizontally and vertically in order to cube the fruit. For the mint, a new technique that I learnt (... uh, I've also forgotten the name, but will find out again and update). Roll a few leaves and slice finely in order to produce long cuts of the herb. Mix with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, season with salt and pepper as per your preference.

Fry the salmon in a pan with olive oil. Steam the spinach. For this we used a new steamer that I brought home from Japan, but any steamer will do. Really you are just trying to cook with the vapour in order to keep as many nutrients in the vegetable as possible.

Serve immediately with the salsa on top of the salmon.

So, why so healthy?

Spinach
Harvested in March to May. Apparently, calorie for calorie, spinach provides more nutrients than any other food. It has antioxidants that fight cancer, it builds strong bones, it combats heart disease with vitamin C and magnessium. It also aids eyesight.

Tomato
Slightly out of season, but still juicy. Antioxidants (lycopene) helps protect against oxygen damage and is protective against many types of cancer. What immediately strikes me is that tomato is extremely high (57%) in Vitamin C. This is apparently the most beneficial vitamin for fighting the hardening of veins. Interestingly, scurvy (lack of VC) is thought to produce what is called “leaky arteries”; allowing nutrients to be lost from the blood flow. Cholesterol is actually the bodies attempt to dam these leaks. Therefore, Vitamin C can fight leaky arteries and produce longevity and suppleness in arteries. OK, I’m sold.

Salmon
Here’s the king of healthy eating. Cold water fish are a rich source of Omega 3, an essential fatty acid. This fat is required to keep the body in good working order. It is thought that it actually rectifies imbalances in the balance between the cholesterol types in the body. This theory extends to the reason why the Japanese and Mediterranean diets are (were) so successful for long lives. Omega 3 is something that I am going to continue my research on. It hasn’t been recommended by the doctor or by anyone that I know who has high cholesterol, but various articles and research sources talk about it. I am going to take supplements over the next few months and see the end effect on my cholesterol levels.

That’s all I have at the moment – I’m feeling weak right now. I’m going off to find a tomato eating salmon who has a spot in their schedule for lunch.

R is for Mussels

Creamy (distinctly not cholesterol friendly) fish pie

I went for a cholesterol checkup a few days ago. In preparation I was to feast ... sorry, I mean FAST ... for the evening. For a kind of send off, and knowing that this is last month that we can have mussels, we had some delicious fish pie last night.

It's April, so, in theory, the last month to enjoy good mussels until October. This is based on the Month with an R rule. The reason for this old adage is simply that this group of shellfish tend to spawn thereby losing succulence, relatively empty etc. Steingarten, in his great essay, “Hot Dog” mentions that one in every two thousand servings of raw molluscs is likely to cause illness. Limiting consumption to the R months reduces the likelihood of Vibrio Vulnificus infection (exaggerated by warmer water).



I cooked from Nigel Slater's Appetite.

The ingredients (for 4-6) as follows:
-mussels
-smoked haddock
-cod (little addition here – I’d been recommended to use white fish to balance the smoked haddock)
-white wine
-milk (500ml)
-butter (50g)
-plain flour - 4tbsp
-parsley - chopped
-potatoes for mashing
-salt and pepper

The directions are fairly straightforward. Cover the mussels with wine and bring to the boil. Let them steam for one or two minutes until all the mussels are open. It is best to cook them shallow (in a single layer on a shallow pan) in order to pick cooked ones out from the rest. Sieve the wine to collect it and make sure there is no grit in the sauce. Take the mussels from their shells.

Bring the haddock and cod to boil in milk (with as much water needed to cover the fish). Leave to simmer for a few minutes until the fish comes away from the skin easily. Take the saucepan off the heat.

Make the mash (see cottage pie), use some of the haddock liquor to the mash.

Make a roux with the butter (melted) by adding flour and stirring over a moderate heat until it is biscuit coloured and nutty. The addition of the mussel and 500ml of the haddock milk will convert this from a roux to a veloute. Leave to simmer; stirring over 10 minutes to ensure it doesn't stick.

Skin the fish and add to the sauce with the mussels and parsley (chopped). Season this with pepper and salt. Put all of this into a dish and put the mash on top (don't worry if it sinks a little - that's life).

Preheat the oven to 200c and heat until the top is crusty and the sauce bubbling up around the edges. You'll need a spoon to serve!


creamy fish pie and some nice product placement - i wonder when i'll get my first sponsorship deal?

I was a little disappointed just now to read in Leith's techniques bible that crustaceans have very high cholesterol and are best avoided by those with hereditary conditions ... oh well, you can't have everything. From now on I’ll just look for the crustaceans that lead a healthy life and eat those.

Naturally, this will be my excuse if the results come back high.

cod en papillote

cod en papillote

thanks to ana in ottawa for your recommendations on my little blog - as you can see, i've got the 'read more...' working and hopefully will be adding photos soon - i'm trying to balance the geek inside me with the cook outside of me ...

in the meantime, blancs keeps recommending me to go to a 'proper' cooking school, i'm not sure whether it's because she doesn't want to be responsible for me or whether she would prefer if i stop harassing her with questions. either way, i'm going to stand firm on my artistic credentials and not go to any cookery school ~ i have relented to her in one aspect; i am willing to cook food that she has learnt in cookery classes ... how magnanimous of me.

with that in mind, today we embarked on cooking cod en papillote (her first dish from the excellent telva cookery course in madrid, spain). my first mission was to find out what the hell papillote is; first attempt revealed "a frilled paper cover used to decorate the bone end of a cooked chop or cutlet" ... hmm, interesting, but didn't seem to make all that much sense. my second attempt revealed an altogether more sensible definition "an oiled paper or foil wrapper in which certain foods are baked". papillote apparently gets its name from papillon (butterfly) due to the fact that the traditional cut of the parchment is in a heartshape. in my travels, i found an excellent description at http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art4541.asp ~ now this website calls itself the "voice of women", but i won't let that dampen my enthusiasm ... it is now the voice of steve aswell ...

cooking in envelope is an ancient way of preparing fish, layers of other materials would be used in the past, such as clay, salt (pescado a la sal) and leaves. the benefit is that the fish is protected from the direct heat and is thus more gently and evenly cooked. it is a combination of baking (the initial direct heat) and steaming (from the heated juices of fish and vegetables). contemporary techniques are most often with parchment, foil or lettuce. it is normal for the dish to be left intact and actually opened by the diner. as a technique it works best with shrimp and white meat or flaky / tender textured fish such as cod, snapper, whiting and salmon.

ingredients: cod, courgette, carrots, potatoes, oil, salt and pepper

the technique is amazingly simple; slice the potatotes finely and fry in oil until nearly browned. julienne the courgette and carrot (fine: 1.5cm 1.5cm x 1.5cm). whilst i had heard the term before, this was the first time that i got to julienne the old fashioned way (with a knife) ~ best style seems to be to block off the vegetable, cut to roughly four fingertips in length, slice and stack the slices together in order to dice (thanks to leiths techniques bible). saute the vegetables for a couple of minutes. oil the foil. place the potatoes in rows on the foil and put the fish on top. season as required. put the vegetables on top and seal. we used a very basic seal, simply rolling up all the edges. place in a pre-heated oven (170c) until it's cooked (approximately 15 minutes).

http://www.chefsselect.com/htm/jmrecipes/enpapillote.htm ~ seems to be the home of professional parchment paper; i surely couldn't have missed a reference to this!

this is a very robust cooking technique; it is possible to cook many dishes including chicken and potatoes ..