Get back in touch with your food with these easy 30-minute dishes.
I am convinced we are being made to think that cooking for ourselves is too hard, laborious and time consuming; that it’s best if we let someone else take care of it. As a result, cooks will come to rely on instructions that begin “microwave for …” or “just add water …”
And what, you may ask, has set off this little rant? A new TV ad for microwaved mashed potatoes has left me feeling exasperated. Although some may like the certainty that comes from opening a bag, there is much greater pleasure to be had from actually handling your food and following your instincts. A recipe doesn’t need to be complicated, time-consuming or difficult. To prove a point, none of this week’s recipes take longer than 30 minutes to prepare and cook.
On every level, this salad works. Smoked fish sits comfortably with winter or summer ingredients, and although I feel green beans are essential regardless of the season, fennel bulb or shredded raw cabbage make handsome substitutes. Use a really good almost creamy-textured smoked fish such as kahawai, trout or snapper.
Deliciously bitter radicchio, with its deep-purple leaves streaked with white, is one of winter’s most beautiful lettuces. I use the more common small, round variety rather than the long-leafed one, which tends to taste a little coarse. The garlic and anchovy dressing is also great spread on toasted baguette.
Warm Salad of Smoked Fish with Radicchio and Beans
salt
250g green beans
350g smoked fish
a little olive oil
250g pancetta or streaky bacon
3 spring onions
2 radicchio hearts
Dressing
2 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves
6 anchovy fillets
Set the oven to 160°C. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Trim the green beans, then drop into the boiling water and cook until tender – about 4-5 minutes. Drain the beans and set aside. Skin and bone the fish, then break the flesh into even-sized pieces, pulling out any small bones that may have escaped your attention. Put the oil into a small ovenproof frying pan and heat until it starts to smoke. Sprinkle the fish with salt, then place the pieces in the pan and cook for 30 seconds. Transfer the pan to the oven and bake for 15 minutes until heated through. Cut the pancetta into small pieces and fry in a small frying pan until the fat begins to colour. Slice the white part of the spring onions into thin rings and stir into the pancetta. Continue to cook for 2-3 minutes until softened. Remove the smoked fish from the oven, tip the pancetta and spring onion into the pan and toss together. Place the beans and radicchio leaves in a bowl and toss with the dressing. Divide the salad between 2 plates and top with warm smoked fish.
To make the dressing, heat the oil in a frying pan and gently fry the garlic cloves over a low heat until golden brown and soft – about 5-6 minutes. Tip the pan’s contents into a food processor. Add the anchovies and blend until smooth.
Enough for 2.
I made the beans in this dish into a sort of sauce enhanced with parsley, basil and thyme. The aromatic vegetables provided a bit of sweetness, and when I added the fish (I used snapper, but blue cod would have been better), the result was a blissful combination of flavours.
Braised Pieces of Fish with Haricot Beans
100ml olive oil
2 carrots
1 medium onion
3 ripe tomatoes
250ml white wine
440g tinned haricot beans
2 cloves garlic
6 stalks of flat-leaf parsley
1 stalk of basil
1 stalk of thyme
salt and pepper
2 x 180g pieces of fish
Put the oil into a large frying pan over a moderate heat. Peel and chop the carrots and onion into small dice and fry until they start to colour and soften. Chop the tomatoes, discarding the seeds, then add the flesh to the pan with the wine. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes. Drain the beans, then stir them in and cook for 5 minutes. Finely chop the garlic. Roughly chop the parsley, basil and thyme. Gently toss the herbs through the beans and simmer for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Arrange the pieces of fish over the beans, covering with bubbling sauce. Simmer for 3-4 minutes until the fish is cooked through. Season the fish with a good pinch of salt, then divide the beans between 2 plates, and place the fish on top.
Serves 2.
These tarts never fail to elicit “oohs” and “aahs” when they come out of the oven. The sight of the pastry, risen crisp and golden, and the fruit caramelised under a thin crust of sugar is magical. Pears produce a fine tart, with a luscious flavour, but the fruit must be cut thinner than you would for an apple tart or the flesh will not be tender.
You need a hot oven for this tart to work because you want the sugar to caramelise at the same time as the pastry is cooked.
Thin Pear Tart with Vanilla Ice Cream
425g pack of ready-rolled puff pastry sheets
4-5 large pears
60g unsalted butter, melted
½ cup of caster sugar
6 tbsp vanilla ice cream
icing sugar
Heat the oven to 220°C, using a fan option if you have it. Roll out the pastry sheets to make them as thin as possible so that you will end up with crisp, flaky tarts. Using a large saucer or bread and butter plate to trace around, cut out 6 pastry discs. Using something smaller, like a cup or mug, score a slightly smaller circle within each disc so that there is a rim on the pastry. Slide the discs onto a flat baking tray lined with non-stick paper and use a fork to prick all over the inner circles. (This will stop the pastry rising.) If you don’t want to bake the tarts straight away, pile them like crepes onto a plate, separating each one with plastic wrap. Chill to firm the pastry while you prepare the pears.
Peel the pears, cut into quarters, core then slice thinly from stem to stalk. Arrange the slices in overlapping circles on the pastry discs, finishing in the centre of each tart. Brush the pears with butter then dust with a fine layer of caster sugar. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the pears are golden, the pastry crisp and the sugar caramelised. Remove from the oven and cool slightly. To serve, dust with icing sugar and top with a generous spoonful of ice cream or whipped cream flavoured with a hint of vanilla.
Enough for 6.