Ginger cake cooked in a pumpkin

For last week's lunch buffet on Hallowe'en we went festive with this cake - you eat the squash and the cake: 2 for the price of 1! 

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Turbot and trout fish head soup

I know I know - you shouldn't make fish stock with oily fish. But that's just in french style cooking. They don't know everything do they?

Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Indonesia - all those places and more they'll cook & eat everything - it's suprising how much we waste! The eyes in particular are a delicacy. Not sure I could eat crab shells though - maybe it's an acquired taste?

So with some trout and turbot heads & tails left after filleting them for a couple of parties (the turbot for a main course dish and the trout to cure for a starter of another party) I made this soup.

Onions
Whole baby shallots
Carrots
Leeks
Celery
Fennel
Baby button mushrooms
Parsley and coriander stalks
Garlic
Ginger
Lemongrass
Chilli (only had green so used those)
Rice wine
Light soy sauce
Lime
Thai fish sauce
Coriander leaf
Seaweed


Made this back in January - so it was a winter warmer with the root veg, ginger & lime. It had been another typical Monday - phone & email going mad with enquiries, so by the time it came round to doing this the daylight had gone - hence odd light.

After doing quite a few thai meals we had all these thai ingredients in the kitchen - and they work really well with the fish heads. Thai fish makes everything taste good - even lamb (that's another story/ blog post).

Sweat off all veg. Add veg stock, ginger garlic, lemon grass, chilli etc & fish heads. Bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Should never overcook fish stock - taste goes bad. The parsley & coriander stalks give out flavour to the stock, then I removed them for the finished dish. Keep adjusting to taste - you can never have too much thai fish sauce, soy & lime. Think I added some rice wine vinegar too. On top I did a variation on gremolata - instead of the traditional parsley, garlic and lemon zest this was a more thai version - coriander, garlic and lime zest. It gives it a nice fresh taste on top. I also added some deep fried seaweed on top - really going for the healthy soup that day!

Next time might try a coconut milk version......

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2 quick (to prepare, but slow cooked) pork casserole recipes

While I spend all day shopping, preparing, cooking, travelling etc. for my clients, when it comes to my own meals they have to be fast.
I had two packs of diced pork in the freezer from Home Farm to do something with. The first one made the cajun pork risotto a few weeks ago which I gulped in 5 minutes before I hit the road delivering one dinner party and cooking for another, while another was going on somewhere else. The second pork dish I left in the oven for Hannah & Adam last Friday while I went to cook for a dinner party with Gill, and eventually ate my portion at 01:30 after I had finished, and was pleasantly suprised - when you chuck it all in a pan and hope for the best the results are always suprising.

1 - Cajun pork oven risotto

Diced pork (150 - 200g per person)
Onion
Garlic
Cider
Chicken stock
Cajun spice
Dijon mustard
Homemade tomato sauce
Tobasco
Left over fresh herbs
Risotto rice (rinsed with cold water in a sieve - removes excess starch)

Brown pork & onion. Add everything else but the rice. Bring to boil, cover & transfer to the oven. Cook for 3 - 4 hours till pork is tender. Stir in rice and place back in oven for 20 mins till rice is cooked.

EDIT

A few weeks after this I made another version with pork hock (£1.30 on reduced to clear - which made 8 portions). Cooked in the same way, but left the hock in the oven for 5 hours. Along with the cajun spice I added thai fish sauce, chilli, soy & lime juice after the 2nd pork recipe had turned out so well - all that umami does you good on a busy Saturday. After the pork is cooked take it out & mix in the rice and let that cook for 20 mins. As there were some celery leaves left I chopped those up and mixed those in with the rice too. So much flavour in the leaves - it's a shame they are so often neglected.
Once the rice is cooked you can pull the pork into strips on top of the rice - fast food can be good food! If it needs a little more acidity you can add more lime or a bit of (white wine) vinegar.

2 - Thai style pork

Diced pork
Onion
Garlic
Fresh ginger
Homemade tomato sauce (could use tinned tomato/ passata)
Anchovy puree
Thai fish sauce
Soy sauce
Thai chilli sauce
Ground cumin
Ground coriander
Chicken stock

Cooked in the same way as the first but without the rice. I added less liquid with this one, so as it cooked so long it thickened naturally. Served with creamed potato - comfort food.

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