Thai-spiced Fish Stew

 "This is heaven in a bowl and needs no more introduction than that" says Kate Humble.

I think you could use the Vegetarian Butcher's "Cod Almighty" and "Shrimpees" to make it vegan, (or perhaps tofu?) but I'll give the original full recipe below: 

Ingredients (serves 4)

300g firm white fish, cut into chunks

200g raw peeled king prawns [or whatever you have]

Flavourless oil, such as sunflower or rapeseed/"Granola" [for the delicate amongst you]

 2 lemongrass stalks, trimmed and bashed

3cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled [or not] and grated or finely chopped 

4 garlic cloves, finely sliced [I used a mandolin]

3 spring onions, sliced [into strips]

1 long red chili, sliced

1 Tbl tomato puree

150g cherry tomatoes, halved

160ml coconut cream 

500ml fish or vegetable stock [cube]

1 Tbl fish sauce [oyster sauce e.g.]

1 tsp sugar

1 Tbl tamarind/assem

250g sugar snap peas [or regular, if you don't have them!]

Leaves from a small bunch of Thai basil [ditto]

Sea salt and freshly ground Black pepper

 

Method

1. Put fish and prawns ito a bowl and sprinkle over 1 teaspoon of salt [or do this before chopping them]. Mix well and leave to one side for up to 1 hour [basically whilst you're doing the rest]
   
2. Heat a large saucepan over a medium heat, add a dash of oil and stir the lemongrass, ginger, garlic, two-thirds of the spring onions and the chili over the heat until the garlic turns golden. [This is where I differ. I always sweat my onions before continuing to let them turn golden.] Add the tomato puree and stir for a minute.
3. Tip in the tomatoes, the coconut cream and the stock and mix to combine.
4. Then stir in the fish sauce [or appropriate alternative] sugar and tamarind and bring to a gentle simmer for 10 minutes. Taste and adjut the seasoning, bearing in mind the fish with its salt will be added shortly. More fish sauce will give a saltier flavour, extra tamarind will increase the sour.
5. Add the fish, prawns and sugar snap peas and mix through. Simmer gently for a further 3-4 minutes, or unti lthe fish is only just cooked through.
   
6. Remove the lemongrass stalks and discard. Serve in bowls, scattered with basil and spring onions.

This is really easy and very delicious!

Spanakopitatin

 This "upside down spanakopita" is really good because the filo is baked on top and then flipped to become the bottom, which makes for a really crispy crunchy result. Apparently it is an Armenian variety of spanakopita but I haven't verified whether that is actually true. Either way, we all loved it as an alternative of our trusty version. The recipe on Instagram didn't quite match the video so I adapted it, below. 

1 packet filo pastry 

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

2 shallots, sliced in half rings or green onions sliced

Lemon zest 

Red chili flakes

300gr feta cheese or vegan alternative 

300g fresh spinach (I actually used 400g plus some sliced mushrooms)

2 large eggs beaten or vegan alternative 

100gr hard cheese, grated (parmesan or kefalotyri (?)

50g melted butter or vegan alternative 

Fresh dill & mint, chopped

Baking paper 

Line a large baking tray with a sheet of baking paper. Drizzle over olive oil, sprinkle salt & peper, followed by a sprinkling of chopped dill & mint. Crumble over a little bit of feta, scatter the onions over the tray. 

In a bowl beat the eggs, crumble in remaining feta, add grated cheese and herbs. Add lemon zest and red chili flakes. Mix well. 

Lay 1/3 of the spinach on the tray in a sturdy pile in the middle with a generous border. Spoon over half the cheese mixture, then another layer of spinach, the other half of the cheese, then the last of the spinach. Gentle push it down and into shape. 

Melt butter, add 2 tbsp olive oil, mix. Open filo pastry and brush top sheet with the olive oil mixture, lay it face down on the spinach. Continue like this until you have used up all the filo, covering the spinach well and brushing the top layer with olive oil mixture. Squish the filo pastry to ensure all sides of spinach are covered, if it breaks a bit that is fine. Stab the top 3-4 times to let air out. 

Bake for approx 35 minutes at 180-200 degrees (start at 200, turn down a bit after 20 mins) until dark golden. Take out of oven, let cool for approx 5 mins, then lay another sheet of parchment paper over the top plus another baking tray or a cutting board and flip carefully! Cut into triangles and serve. 

Slightly adapted from @dominthekitchen (Instagram)

Mariëtte's cauliflower canelini bean mash

 Mariëtte made this in Sweden based on a recipe from her local supermarket, the ICA. I made it today again and it is really tasty and very nutritious. My browser translated it by to Dutch automatically but if yours doesn't then the Swedish is not too hard to understand the recipe anyway. 

https://www.ica.se/recept/?recipeid=727640