I will be glad when this launch that I have been working on is over next week. Particularly if it goes well of course. It's been fun but very intense. I had a dream last night that I was launching French sausages and it was the night before the launch when I realized there was no English text on the packaging. Merde. Luckily I am not launching saucissons and the packaging definitely has English text.

We've also been doing some media training in case we get opportunities. It's been a while since I have done any media interviews. I used to do quite a few early in my career when I was looking after the Easter egg range for a large confectionery company. It was a shitty product category, seasonal products, Christmas and stuff. No one wanted to do it. Imagine you get your timings wrong and miss your dates by a week. Not good. Anyway, I was often interviewed around Easter about the latest trends in Easter egg toys etc. I even once made it to the national TV, they wanted me to present our latest brainwave, finger puppets! Proud moment.

There were some tricky interviews as well. I remember one from a religious magazine about a little plastic raccoon sitting next to a barrel seemingly happily drunk. Apparently not appropriate for children. But ingeniously I turned the question around. Maybe the inappropriateness was in the eyes of the beholder, because clearly looking at it with the innocent eyes of a child it was a barrel of honey and the raccoon had just overindulged a little. Ever heard of Winnie the Pooh you dirty old bigot. I didn't say that last bit. Because I had been rigorously media trained, you see. Lesson one - don't call the journalist names.

So last night I was very glad to wind down and make husband proper dinner. I haven't been a completely useless wife this week, I made him really lovely chickpea and courgette burgers one evening, I might even blog the recipe at some point. And one evening I followed a recipe that promised to be the best ever lentil soup. It was really good, but I didn't realise that yellow lentils expand quite so much more than red lentils. I had to keep adding water. It reminded me of the story that dad told about the time he cooked rice for the first time in his student days. Had no idea that they would expand, ended up with enough to feed a Chinese village. Anyway lentil soup was nice and fed us for several nights and there is a good portion in the freezer.

The b(igg)est ever lentil soup

Our Friday dinner is a special thing and often I opt for fish. This time I had some lovely slightly smoked salmon fillets which I baked and made this orzo, basil, pesto, tomato and mozzarella bake. It's a tasty little side dish that I invented. I'm sure some one has thought of chucking these same ingredients together before me. It's not the most out there combination, the ingredients kind of all belong together naturally. There is nothing stopping you having it as a main. Side or main, or just cold from the fridge the following morning while waiting for your husband to wake up for breakfast - very yummy.

Beautiful heirloom toamatoes, the big green one was tough as old boots, but doesn't it look lovely.

Red pesto, tomato and mozzarella orzo bake (serves 2)

Oil
200g orzo
3-4 spring onions
1 small clove of garlic
2 large or 10-15 small tomatoes (heirloom for extra pretension)
2 tbsp of red pesto (or green)
Bunch of fresh basil (about 1/3 cup chopped)
1/3 cup grated parmesan
Salt and pepper
Ball of mozzarella (about 125g)

Pre-heat oven to 200C.

Cook the orzo in salted water until almost done, but still slightly al dente. In the meanwhile chop the spring onions and tomatoes and mince the garlic, Heat oil in a frying pan and saute the vegetables for a couple of minutes until the tomatoes have softened a little.

Drain the pasta. Add the vegetable mix, pesto, parmesan, salt (not too much because there is salt in the pesto and parmesan), black pepper and chopped fresh basil (leave some for garnish) to the pasta. Mix well and check the seasoning, add salt and pepper, if necessary. Pour the mix into a baking dish. Slice the mozzarella and place the slices on top.

Bake uncovered for about 15 minutes until the mozzarella has melted and the top has got some colour. Garnish with basil.

Another busy week done. There was a moment of last minute high drama when IT came to confiscate my laptop because apparently I had a virus on it. Don't you hate that. No time to clean your browsing history and shut the non-workrelated windows like Fuck you Friday or the halibut en papillote recipe.

While hoping the virus was not related to that time I accidentally clicked a traffic source link from my blog which took me to a Russian porn site (I seem to get more traffic from Russian porn sites than anyone interested in cooking) and trying to remember if it was on my work laptop that I googled "Leonardo di Caprio raped by a bear" (trying to prove to husband that he really wasn't) I was feeling very lonely without my laptop and not really sure what I should do.

Go talk to a colleague. But they would think it's strange someone loitering around purposelessly. Maybe call someone, but that would also be weird, you don't just call people nowadays without scheduling it in outlook with them, or at least dropping a warning email that you're going to give them a call. Pondering on this sad state of modern work communications the nice fresh faced young man from IT came back with my laptop and didn't say anything about Russian porn sites, just confirmed that it was clean now. He didn't even smirk or anything so I think maybe he's seen worse or has better things to do that check up on people's browsing history.

If he had checked though he might have anticipated that there was going to be basa served in our house sometime soon. I think I've only had basa once before. My sister cooked it for me. She dusted them with rye flour and shallow fried them. They were really good. I think it's such a mild flavoured fish that it needs something to make it a bit more interesting. I decided to modify my Finn-Crisp and pesto salmon recipe and it worked beautifully.

Basa fillets with red pesto, basil and olives (serves 2)

4 basa fillets (or you can use cod)
Oil
Salt
Pepper
4 tsp red pesto
4 tbsp breadcrumbs (panko or crushed Finn-Crisps)
Handful of fresh basil leaves
Handful of pitted black olives
1 spring onion
Handful of cherry tomatoes

Preheat oven to 200C.

Season the fillets lightly with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil on top and place in an oven dish. Spread 1 heaped teaspoon of pesto on each fillet and sprinkle on top the chopped fresh basil, breadcrumbs, olives, chopped spring onion and halved cherry tomatoes.

I used crushed Finn-Crisps for breadbrumbs, but you could use panko or normal breadcrumbs, just something to give the dish a bit of crunch.

Bake for about 10-12 minutes until fish is done and flakes easily.

This week's #fishfriday meal was going to be whatever would catch my eye at the fish counter at John Lewis Foodhall. I often work Friday's at our London clinic just behind the Oxford Street John Lewis so I pop over at lunch or on my way home to get something nice that's not necessarily available at my own local not always so versatile supermarket.

This time I kind of had halibut in mind because I've never cooked it, but then saw these interesting looking Norwegian deep-sea red fish fillets which I have never tried before either. I asked the fish guy what kind of fish it is, like taste and texture-wise and he said it was like bream but fishier and meatier. After establishing how fishy and meaty exactly (not mackerel fishy or monkfish meaty) I asked for three fillets, two for husband and one for me and the fishmonger agreed that it sounded like a good plan.

I decided to gently bake them rather than pan fry. I'm sure they'd be lovely panfried with a little bit of butter. I just seasoned them with salt, lemon pepper, chopped fresh dill, lemon zest and juice and let sit in the fridge for an hour before pouring some Sauvignon Blanc on top and baking for 15 minutes. I served the fish with basil and tomato gnocchi. It was a lovely dinner and just light enough for us to go out for a sophisticated little drink to our favourite Soho cocktail bar and get completely hammered. Oops.

Recipe: White wine baked redfish fillets with lemon and dill (serves 4)

4 Redfish fillets
Salt
Lemon pepper
2 tbsp chopped dill
Zest and juice of half a lemon
Oil
100 ml white wine

Place the fillets in a baking dish. Season them with salt and lemon pepper, lemon zest and juice and chopped dill. drizzle over a little bit of olive oil and let marinade for a couple of hours in the fridge.


Heat oven to 200C. Pour the white wine in the baking dish and bake for about 15 min (depending on the thickness of the fillets).

This is kind of a rough version of Bouillabaisse. I love the elegant French soup with it's beautiful velvety broth, but this time for our #fishfriday last week I thought something a bit chunkier and less refined was in order. Like sometimes George Clooney would be more fun if he wasn't quite so smooth, profound and political, you know. With a flawlessly smooth, profound and political wife. I mean, a human rights lawyer, seriously, who does he think he is? Bridget Jones? Sometimes something a bit more ruffled and earthy is the way to go.


I love saffron in these kinds of tomato based soups and stews. And this can be either a soup or a stew. If you want to make it thicker and stewier, you can serve it with rice or pasta. I made mine more soupy and we ate it with warm ciabatta rolls.

My friend's cat is staying while my friend is on hols and he joined us at the table lured by the lovely fishy smell emanating from the kitchen. He naturally got his little share of the fish.



Recipe: Mediterranean fish stew or soup (serves 4)

1/2 leek
3 shallots
2 garlic cloves
4 tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup white wine
1 cup (or more) fish stock
4-6 new potatoes
1/2 aubergine
1/2 courgette
2 tbsp fresh basil
pinch of saffron
400 g fish, one or two different kinds (I had cod and fresh tuna steak)
400g other seafood, I had scallops, prawns and mussels
fresh basil for garnish



Chop your leeks and shallots and mince the garlic. Heat oil in a pan. Fry leeks and onions for a few minutes until they start to soften, add the garlic, chopped aubergine, courgette and sliced new potatoes and continue frying for a few minutes, add chopped tomatoes, tomato paste and white wine.

Soak a pinch of saffron in boiled water for a few minutes. Once wine has evaporated a little add the fish stock, basil and saffron. Season with salt and pepper and leave to cook until the vegetables are done.In the meanwhile devein the shrimp and cut the fish to bite size chunks. Once vegetables are done add the basil and saffron and your fish and seafood, and cook just until all the fish is done, don't overcook.

"I wish it was always Monday morning and never Friday evening", one of our teachers used to say.  She thought it was funny. We hated her.

But Monday it is. Last week's plan didn't happen completely, but some of the planned meals were done. I did the minestrone soup which was very nice. I also did the oven-baked falafel but I wish I hadn't. They were terrible. The taste was ok, but they were just horribly dry. And Saturday's Sicilian rice and lemon chicken was on the plan and fantastic.

For my sardine dish I couldn't find fresh sardines on the day, so I went with mackerel. Not the same thing! A heart-healthy but almost unbearably smelly option for fish lovers. Husband suggested maybe not making it too often as we woke up the next morning and the house still smelled like the Dubai Fishmarket. Which is a quite a strong smell I'm sure you can imagine in that heat. Might be one for outdoor cooking. I remember actually going through a similar thought cycle last time I cooked mackerel a long time ago. This time maybe I need to write it down somewhere like a blog or something.

I changed Friday's trout and squid pasta because I felt like plaiting with strips to trout and bass plaits. And Sunday we had something on the go so I moved the Finnish fish soup to today.

Food bill came to £78. Improvement. Below some of the food of the week.

Italian minestrone soup with homemade seeded bun - hearty!

Wholemeal pittas - plump!

Oven baked falafel - awful!

Baked mackerel with potatoes, sweet potato and carrot - smelly!

Rainbow trout and sea bass plaits - elegant!

Riso al forno alla Siciliana - yummy!

This week's dinner plan

Monday                      Creamy Finnish salmon and prawn soup
Tuesday                      Left-overs of above, or roasted butternut soup
Wednesday                Moroccan chickpea, butternut and lentil stew
Thursday                    Chicken korma and basmati rice
#fishfriday                 Mediterranean fish stew
Saturday                     Lamb kleftiko
Sunday                       Leftovers or pizza


Sharing the plan




and Organising Junkie - menu plan Monday

I saw these lovely looking fish plaits made from two kinds and colours of fish on a Finnish recipe site some time ago. I think the recipe called for arctic char and sander, but it could really be any fish from the salmon family and a white fleshed fish cut into strips and plaited.


I decided to do these for our Friday's fish dinner and got a couple of fillets of rainbow trout and sea bass, but you could use salmon and cod. You could steam these, but I cooked them in the oven with a splash of white wine.

Lovely and delicate they make an elegant and impressive main course.

Recipe: Trout and sea bass fish plaits with dill and thyme in white wine (serves 2)

2 fillets of trout or salmon
2 fillets of sea bass or other white fish
salt
lemon pepper
zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tbsp fresh dill
1/2 tbsp fresh thyme
oil
1/2 cup white wine

Cut the fish fillets into 2 or 3 strips each depending on the size of your fillets. You should try and end up with a number that divides by three, so either 9 or 12 strips altogether. You need 3 strips for each plait.

Season the strips with salt and pepper, add the chopped herbs, lemon zest and juice and drizzle with olive oil and leave to marinade for a few hours if you have time. If not you can cook immediately.

Heat the oven to 200C.

Grease an oven dish lightly. Plait the fish (like you would hair) and secure the ends with toothpicks.

Place the fish plaits on the oven dish. Pour in the white wine and cover. Cook until fish is done, approximately 10-15 minutes. Don't forget to remove the toothpicks before serving.

Last week was my French week and I loved it. I didn't stick to all of it, I missed the tuna nicoise salad, because the supermarket didn't have fresh tuna on the day and I skipped the French onion soup, because there were leftovers to be had. But I did some pretty lovely French meals. The one I enjoyed cooking and eating the most was the Bouillabaisse and I can't wait to do it again. Coq au Vin was lovely and I got some bread baking done as well in the form of a Provencal olive and rosemary fougasse.

Bouillabaisse - French fish soup

Coq au Vin - French red wine chicken stew

Fougasse

Saturday we celebrated step-son's 18th birthday. I could have freaked out about the fact that I have a grown-up step child, but seeing that I could easily and quite legally be a grandmother, great-grandmother if it was the Tudor times, I chose to remain philosophical and bake a cake.

Three layered angelfood cake with vanilla cream and fresh berries

And yesterday we finished our French week with a ratatouille and pissaladiere, a Provencal anchovy and olive pizza type tart. The winner of the week's last French meal was surprisingly the humble ratatouille, it was gorgeous.

Ratatouille

Pissaladiere

Week's food bill came to £84 not taking into account the Saturday's meal out. Merde.

This week I'll focus on healthy and light meals with lots of vegetables and heart-healthy fish. I am trying to put off wintery comfort foods as long as I can, although I am really missing ragus, stews, slow cooked lamb and the like and the weather is getting definitely autumnal. But knowing that there are way too many winter months ahead to stew my way through I want to stretch the more summery menu as long as possible.

I lost the fight to ponchos and pashminas though. I love them, but have tried to not start wearing them too soon, but caved in last week. I scandalously even had a pair of boots on one day.

So this is what our early autumn meal plan looks like:

#meatfreemonday            Classic Italian Minestrone soup, home-made wholemeal seeded rolls
Tuesday                           Baked falafel and home-made wholemeal pitta bread
Wednesday                      Sardine with sweet potato, new potato and peas
Thursday                          Leftovers of the above
#fishfriday                        Lemon, trout and squid spelt pasta
Saturday                           Riso al Forno alla Siciliana, lemon and herb roast chicken
Sunday                             Mum's Finnish salmon soup

Hooking up with Mrs M and the Organizing junkie and all the other lovely meal planners and junkies (organizing junkies)!

Last week went quite well to plan. I changed Sunday's meal though, not only because I realised that the authentic Paella Valenciana is made with rabbit and snails and I didn't particularly fancy either, but also because a friend was coming over for dinner and I wasn't sure how she'd feel about mussels and squid which I would have put in the paella instead of rabbit and snails, so I decided to make my foolproof duck legs Provençal These little babies never let me down. I served them with my puy lentil and camargue red rice side, garlic rosemary bread, duck fat roast potatoes and green salad. Dessert was several cups of cardamom tea and my mother's special Jack Daniel's whiskey bundt cake.


Money-wise I'm not sure if this meal planning thing is working that well. I didn't track my spending before, so maybe I was spending completely outrageous amounts. But last week I managed to get through £87 pounds on just the food, not including wine. I think it's quite a lot for two reasonably normal sized people. I bought a really nice emperor fish and a red grouper for #fishfriday as a friend came over for dinner and to drop her cat for a sleepover with us. The two fish came to £20 pounds, so that explains part of the cost. But still. Anyway the fish was lovely, this time I oven baked it and served with my awesome Greek rice, a Santorini salad, parmesan asparagus and roast vegetables.

An easy weeknight Tuscan Bean Soup

This week will be my French week. I was inspired by an old email my friend unearthed about a wine tour we did to Burgundy with a friend of hers, a Norwegian guy of a particularly unhumorous, stiff and overbearing constitution. Let's call him Canute. I could call him other names, but nothing appropriate before watershed. So the trip wasn't an all-round success. Partly because of Canute's epic lack of social skills and partly because of our immature response to it. He was completely unable to communicate with us as adults bellowing orders and refusing to listen to anything we said. The situation wasn't improved by us then behaving ever more immaturely as the result of his patronising. Vicious cycle if ever there was one!

Example: I was doing the map reading (my friend was sulking in the back seat, because Canute had already driven her crazy) and he was driving. He then complained about the way I was giving instructions. If you ask me, the problem was not my instructions, but the fact he either would not listen at them or it would take him two miles to compute an instruction which would mean that we'd miss every turning. I don't remember the exact wording of his complaint, but it can't have been good because I threw him in the head with the map.

Seriously, about 5 minutes into our road trip he told us off for eating potato crisps too loudly in the car. I can't believe I didn't punch him.

Apparently Canute was called "Prime Minister" by his friends as a kid. He told us himself. I think he thought it was meant as a compliment. It wasn't. It was meant as a "You're a giant self-righteous pain in the ass". We completely cracked up at someone being called prime minister at the age of six. Looking bemused and not seeing what was funny he corrected us "I was eight". As if that would make it ok. That cracked us up even more.

Anyway in honour of poor Canute, who I'm sure didn't enjoy being trailed by two constantly inebriated, rebellious, giggling blondes, I decided to do a French menu for the week. I have wanted to do this for some time now. The challenge is that I don't want to cause irreparable cardio-vascular damage and the meals can't take forever to cook. I do have a full time job so can't faff around in the kitchen all day every day. Also we don't eat pork or sausages (apart from the occasional sneaky chorizo) so that shrinks the choice considerably leaving out the Lyonnaise and Alsatian cuisines for instance completely, because everything including desserts has either sausages or pork or both in them like the famous Lyonnaise crème brûlée au saucissons et lardons. No, not really.

This will be the French menu for the week:

Lundi                      Bouillabaisse
Mardi                      Sunday's leftover duck and lentils
Mercredi                 Coq au vin (without the bacon)
Jeudi                       Soupe à l'oignon - French onion soupe
Samedi                   Eating out for step son's 18th birthday - probs not French as he's choosing
Dimanche               Ratatouille, pissaladiere

So I already made the bouillabaisse. And it was délicieuse, no bones about it, hah!


I am sharing my plan at Mrs M's and Organising junkie. Come and check out all the plans for food inspiration!

Last week was cupboard clearout and although I didn't get to cook all the meals in the plan because some lasted us a few nights, I did quite well. I only bought new food for Saturday and got through several cans of chickpeas and some other stuff. I don't know what I'm doing wrong though, I still managed to buy 5 massive bags of food worth over £70 even with all this cupboard clearing.

I think I have a problem.

Monday I did a nice veggie pasta with sundried tomato paste from the cupboard and vegetables from fridge. Tuesday and Wednesday we had hummus and chickpea burgers which were really nice. Next time I'll add some fresh herbs and chilli for even more taste, but I was surprised that carnivorous husband completely loved Tuesday's meal of leftover veggie pasta and chickpea burgers.

Sundried tomato pasta and chickpea and hummus burgers

Thursday I did the tinned moose and dry chanterelle tart with my Finnish wild mushroom salad, which we also had on Friday.

Wild mushroom salad

Saturday we had a Mexican night with the kids. I made beef with black beans, lime chicken, fried vegetables and we had them with tortillas, tacos, nachos, guacamole, sour cream, salsa and the works. Oh and thin cut mexican spiced oven chips.

Enough food for 4 people?

To my sadness the kids are eating less nowadays. I think they have probably reached their full height which is not a bad thing as they both are about 6'4", but that means their appetites although still good are not as epic as they used to be. Before they would have effortlessly demolished the almost 2kg of meat on the table, but now there were enough leftovers for Sunday and today.

They did eat all the peanut butter biscuits I made - there must have been about 40-50 of them.

I used the leftover chicken and veg for my Sesame chicken noodle recipe on Sunday. At least they scraped that pan clean. And there's enough beef and black beans to make us quesadillas tonight.

I'm going to stop writing pizza on my plan - as long as it's on the plan I never get to make it, it seems.

This week I'm going to continue using things that I have kept way too long in the cupboard, but will also try to make the week quite light. Husband was rubbing his belly the other night and said he'd like to get rid of it. I quite like his belly, secretly I would love to blow raspberries on it, but I don't think he'd find that sexy. It's not a big belly, and a skinny husband is an embarrassment to a wife. Ha! Joking.

We will be having lots of vegetables and fish, less meat and carbs although we'll start the week with meat and carbs.

This weeks meal plan

Monday          Beef and black bean quesadillas
Tuesday          Tuscan bean soup
Wednesday     Salmon fishcakes
Thursday        Leftovers from Tuesday / Wednesday
#FishFriday    BBQ or baked snapper or grouper
Saturday         Oregano chicken with lemon orzo and rice
Sunday           Anniversary dinner, we might be going out

Lemony smoked salmon and prawn pasta

Last week didn't go fully to plan and some dishes I didn't get to cook will appear in my plans later. The reindeer pizza is cursed somehow, I've had it on the plan several times, but something always happens to knock us off course. This time it was a surprise invite to a BBQ party - surprise to me but probably not to husband, who in all likelihood just forgot to tell me. But I don't mind a nice surprise. Our friends were celebrating their 9th wedding anniversary and had invited some friends and family over for a BBQ on Saturday.

There was lots of meat - this was just the beginning

Last time we went for a similar barbecue at theirs, we were so late (husband totally messed up) that when we arrived the host couple were saying their goodbyes to the other guests in front of the house. I suggested we just drive past and go back home. But husband doesn't think there is any shame in being slightly (!?)  late, it can happen to anyone (somehow though it mostly happens to him) so we said quick hellos and goodbyes to the other guests and followed the hosts to the back garden. We had a nice evening enjoying some reheated but still delicious BBQ food.

This time we were only half an hour late, but they live in Bromley which is practically abroad, so even I think 30 minutes is acceptable. We had a fun afternoon sitting in the garden. Weather was gorgeous, company was fun and food was great. We had lamb and chicken skewers and dreamy Patisserie Valerie cakes for dessert.



Of my own cooking the highlights of the week were a very tasty lemony smoked salmon and prawn pasta and BBQ lime and chilli tuna that I made for our own wedding anniversary on Friday.

This week I will do a cupboard clear. I am totally inspired by Emma at Supper in the Suburbs. I love buying food, so my cupboards are really full always and I like it that way. I don't have to think whether I have things when I plan a meal, there is always different types of pasta, rice, noodles, couscous, bulgur, lentils, all kinds of beans, chickpeas (lots of them), tomatoes, passata, olives, mushroom, coconut milk, olives, capers, tinned fish and even some meat (moose) and lots more.

I also like to think that if there was a disaster of some sort I could easily feed us for weeks, maybe even a few months from the cupboards and the freezer. Anxiety inherited from parents traumatized by post-war rationing.

But I decided some recycling is in order to get rid of some old stuff so I'll have room for new things.

From the cupboard I will use pasta, rice, olives, chanterelles, chickpeas, fava beans, moose meat, sundried tomato paste, tinned tomatoes and dried peas. And of course things like flour, spices, herbs, breadcrumbs etc. From the freezer I'll use filo pastry, peas, reindeer salami and broccoli. And in the fridge I already had cream, cheeses, bell peppers, tomatoes, chillies, onions, courgette, potatoes etc.

The main things I need to buy for the week are milk, bread and fresh fruit. I will also probably need some more fresh salad veggies towards the end of the week plus the meat for Saturday dinner which I'm not decided on yet. And I will need some cat food and treats for our little visitor. We are looking after a friend's cat while they are on holiday. She's very cute and I love feeding her. As a reward she curls up on my lap and purrs.

Our little guest

Meal plan for the week:

#meatfreemonday      Sundried tomato and vegetable pasta
Tuesday                     Chickpea and hummus burgers
Wednesday                Moose and chanterelle filo tart, Finnish wild mushroom salad
Thursday                   Traditional Finnish Thursday meal: Pea soup, Oven pancake
#fishfriday                 Smoked salmon "temptation" - Swedish inspired fish and potato bake
Saturday                    Haven't decided yet, kids are coming so something meaty probably
Sunday                      Reindeer salami pizza (moved from last week, will probs be moved again)

I am sharing my plan at Mrs M's and Organizing junkie (which I really am not, but here's to aspiring!)