Fish Stew with Clams, Red Peppers, Almonds and Saffron

This is a Catalan fish stew from the Moro cookbook, it is called Romesco de peix. Romesco after the famous nut sauce from the region. Different types of fish can be used, Moro use monkfish and clams, you can also use mussels, prawns and other white fish. I'd be pretty happy sat in a little Catalonian restaurant with a bowl of this, some fresh bread, a salad and a crisp cold white wine, it would be delightful actually...

We picked up some very pretty clams from the Grainger Market and two little gurnard. I got a bit I got a bit carried away taking photos of the clams, and the gurnard are quite cute in an odd ugly fish way...

To start you need to heat 6 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan and add a large chopped onion with a pinch of salt. Cook the onion slowly for about 15-20 minutes until it is soft, sweet and golden. Then add 2 cloves of garlic sliced thinly, a couple of large sprigs of rosemary finely chopped, 3 bay leaves and 2 red peppers thinly sliced. Soften the pepper for about 10 minutes then add half a teaspoon of sweet smoked paprika and a tin of chopped tomatoes. These amounts will serve four people.

Simmer everything for another 10 minutes then add 150ml of white wine, let the alcohol bubble off for a couple of minutes then add 100ml of fish stock and about 50 strands of saffron that have been infused in 4 tablespoons of hot water, add the saffron and the water. Then add about 100g of ground almonds, Moro say 150g, which seems an awful lot, I may have added less than 100g, just until you have a thick-ish sauce. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste.

Finally add the fish, we left the gurnards whole, with their heads removed. If you're using monkfish cut it into chunks, about 650g. Add the fish and the clams, about 500g to the pot of sauce. Put the lid on and simmer until the fish is cooked through and the clams have steamed open, about 5 minutes. The sauce is deliciously smoky and sweet with paprika, tomato, nuttiness; with bites of sweet red peppers and fresh white fish and sweet little clams.

Chicken Tagine with Caramelised Baby Onions and Honey

The Lake District was beautiful and sunny on Friday evening, sitting in the quiet of the valley watching the deer with their new bambi's was a lovely end to the week. It did rain pretty much continuously from then on in, but it was still a lovely weekend. It stopped long enough to light the bbq for supper, but also managed to soak us thoroughly while out for a walk. The mist was rolling down the hills dramatically as we left but even in bad weather it is still such a beautiful and relaxing place.

So it may be August, British Summer Time, in case you had forgotten, but I think this rainy windy day calls for something a little bit warming... I have mentioned Claudia Roden before, her book Arabesque is never far from hand in my kitchen. A taste of Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon, full of spice and flavour. My favourite section is full of Moroccon tagines, spiced with ginger and cinnamon, sweet with honey and perfumed with saffron...

Claudia uses a whole jointed chicken for her version of this tagine, but as I was only cooking for two I used boned chicken thighs. I find chicken thighs much tastier than breast meat, and for longer cooking times like this tagine, thigh meat is much less likely to dry out.

Start with 150g of shallots or baby onions. Pour hot water over them, in a bowl, and leave for five minutes to blanch. This makes removing the skin whilst keeping the onions or shallots whole much easier. While they are bobbing around in hot water finely chop a small onion and then cook slowly in a tablespoons of olive oil. Cook until soft, for about 5 minutes, and then add half a teaspoon of ginger, half a teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of saffron. Continue to cook the onion and spices for a few minutes longer.

Chop about 300g of boned and skinned chicken thighs into bite size pieces, perhaps a bit more if you're really hungry. Add the chicken to the pan with the onions and spices, and when it is sealed all over add 150ml of water, the blanched onions with their skins removed and a pinch of salt and pepper. Leave the tagine to cook, on a medium heat, uncovered for about 20 minutes.

While the tagine is cooking you can prepare the couscous. It needs to be in a pan that can go in the oven. Use 100g per person, pour it into the pan and add the same amount of salted water to the couscous, cover and leave for 10 minutes. I used 200g of couscous to 200ml of boiling water with a teaspoon of salt in it. Fluff up the couscous after it has absorbed all of the water, it may have become quite a hard mass, but just break it apart with a fork until it is light and fluffy. Add a glug of olive oil and work it all through the couscous with your hands, getting lots of air into it as you do. Finally put the dish into a pre heated oven at 200°C for 15 minutes. Before serving stir a knob of butter through the piping hot couscous and fluff it up again. Claudia uses 20g of butter, but I think you can get away with a lot less, but just to your own tastes.

To finish the final stage of the tagine remove the chicken pieces from the sauce and set them aside, leave the onions in the pan to continue to soften. The sauce now needs to reduce and thicken up a bit. Add 2 tablespoons of honey and lots more black pepper, you need quite a lot to balance the sweetness of the honey. Just keep tasting it until it suits your taste. Turn the heat up a little and allow the sauce to bubble away and reduce by about half. Finally return the chicken to the pan to heat through for a few minutes.

Fill a bowl with a large scoop of buttery couscous and top with the chicken, sauce and onions. I sprinkled the top with some toasted sesame seeds, you could also use some toasted almonds roughly chopped. The gingery, cinnamon spice is lovely with sweet honey, spicy black pepper and soft onions. It is making me want to cook it again just writing this, I might have to wait until tomorrow...

Saffron Cauliflower, pinenuts and raisins with Belly Pork

In honour of the Champions League Final at the weekend, we decided on a little Spanish meal, we were supporting Barcelona, controversially... Some slow cooked belly pork with herbs, cooked the same way as my previous post 'Belly Pork and Beans' teamed with Spanish side dishes. Moros y Cristianos, which is a white rice and black bean dish with orange zest and parsley, and a saffron cauliflower with pine nuts and raisins. We even took a little trip to Carruthers and Kent in Gosforth for a lovely bottle of Spanish red wine to complete the plan...

This isn't one of my cauliflowers, they are still babies, just four or five little leaves. I don't know when the actual white cauliflower part, the curd, starts growing but I'm keeping a close eye on them. They seem to be doing quite well so far. Fingers crossed.

I have not really been much more adventurous with cauliflower than a basic cauliflower cheese in the past, and as I'm growing quite a few of them this year I guess I need to learn a few alternatives. The cauliflower is quite earthy and can hold its own with quite strong flavours and spices. My 'Flavour Thesaurus' pairs it with anchovies, almonds, chilli, cumin, garlic, hard cheese and saffron. I doubt all at once.... I'd like to make some sort of smoky cauliflower purée and also a ground almond cauliflower curry at a future date... I will keep on experimenting.

This recipe is enough for 2 or 3 people as a side dish and comes from the 'Moro' cookbook by Sam and Sam Clark. You need to cut your cauliflower in half and keep one half for another day. Remove the leaves, keeping any tiny ones and break the cauliflower into little florets. I tried some of it raw and it is actually very tasty, a bit nutty and musky. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, add the cauliflower, bring back to the boil for one minute and then drain and set aside.

Slice half a Spanish onion into thin slices. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil until hot and add the onion, cook it with a pinch of salt for 15-20 minutes over a low heat. Stir them every 5 minutes to stop them sticking. When they are done drain them, keeping the oil.

While the onions are cooking add about 25 strands of saffron to 3 tablespoons of boiling water and leave to infuse. Also soak 35g of raisins in warm water. Finally lightly toast 2 tablespoons of pine nuts in a dry pan until golden.

Return the pan to the heat and add the reserved onion oil until it is hot. Add the cauliflower and any small leaves and fry until it begins to colour, then add the onions, the saffron water, the pine nuts, and the drained raisins. Mix everything up and cook for 5 minutes until most of the water has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper to your taste.

This was delicious with the slow cooked soft pork and the mild creamy rice and beans. The football was quite good too...