Mediterranean Fish Casserole

Many, many years ago I decided that I wasn't eating fish on a regular enough basis and I resolved to eat a fish meal at least once every week.   It didn't take me very long to discover that, even though I had my resolution, weeks would sneak by and I would discover that, once again, I'd not eaten fish for another week.

Reflecting on this, after one particularly long fish free period, I decided on a new resolution.   Every Friday, I would consider whether I had eaten enough fish in the past week, and if not, I would make a fish supper.

Of course, for a fish lover like me, the answer is very rarely, yes I've had enough fish this week.

Today was just such a day.  I considered what fish I had eaten in the past week....  I had a Jacket Potato with a tuna topping, I had a salad with shrimp and surimi in a hot marie rose sauce, and a tuna sandwich for lunch.    Oh only two meals, so No, that's not nearly enough!

I looked around to see what I had.

There were left over shrimp from the salad.

There was also a bag of frozen hake.

I decided to throw together a fish casserole

Now, many of you will know that when I say throw together a dish, that is exactly what I mean, so no accurate measurements for today.

I took 3 fillets of hake out and left them to thaw.

At the same time I also emptied a good handful of tiny cocktail shrimp to drain.

I found a casserole with a good fitting lid.  I didn't want to let too much moisture out whilst the dish was cooking.

The fridge also revealed a good handful of green olives, which I pitted.

In the stock cupboard I had some lemon juice and a bag of Herbes de Provence.

I found a couple of cloves of garlic, which I crushed and peeled.

In the casserole, I first put the hake, cut into about 2" squares.

Then I added the shrimp and the olives

I sprinkled the herbs over and added a splash of olive oil and the zest and juice of a couple of lemons.

It looked ok but a bit dry, so I added just a small splash of cider, (left over from the pork in cider)

Then I put the lid on and put it to cook in a hot (240C) oven for about 30 minutes

Finally, after 30 minutes cooking, I took the lid off, stirred everything and put it back in the oven for a further 10 minutes

I enjoyed it with some sweetcorn.

Pork chops in a Creamy Mushroom Cider Sauce

I often like to cook pork chops in cider and have various recipes I use.  I like the way cooking pork in cider really enhances the flavour and renders the meat so deliciously tender.

I was thinking about all this today and, as always, turned to the Internet for inspiration, which is exactly what I got.

A blog I had never visited before jumped off the page at me, Called "Girl Interrupted Eating", the quirky title was exactly my cup of tea, and when I read that Becky was a 30 something year old from Nottingham in the UK I knew I had found my source.

I like Nottingham.  It's famous for being where my brother lives, but it's probably more famous for the infamous....  the infamous Robin Hood, who allegedly stole from the rich to give to the poor.  Well, on this occasion, Becky, I guess I'm sort of keeping up the tradition as I unashamedly studied your recipe for "Pork Chops with Cider and Rosemary" in order to steal the ideas.....  erm, I'm not exactly sure where the giving to the poor comes in but give me time!!!

Becky's recipe sounded delicious to me,and, apparently, lucky Beccy discovered this wonderful dish when her boyfriend cooked it for her.Having got my inspiration, I rebuilt the recipe with my own variations.  In fact, I changed very little but I completely changed the taste with the addition of mushrooms and cream.

 

Here is my recipe:

 

INGREDIENTS

Two Pork Chops
2 tbps of olive oil
1 knob of butter
2 tbsp of rosemary finely chopped
1 medium onion finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 handful of roughly chopped mushrooms
1/2 a bottle of cider
200ml single cream

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 180C

Sprinkle the pork chops on both sides with salt and pepper

Fry the pork chops in butter and olive oil. Use an oven proof lidded saucepan.

Once browned, remove the pork chops and set aside

Add the onions , garlic and rosemary into the pan and fry till onion is soft and translucent.

Add the mushrooms and cook a further minute or two.

Pour the cider in to the pan and bring to a simmer before returning the pork chops to the pan

Remove from heat, cover and place in the preheated oven for 120minutes. Then, remove lid and leave in oven a further 15 minutes

Remove the pork chops and whisk in the cream, thickening a little if needed.

 

To serve, place the pork chops on plates and pour the sauce over .

Serve with mustard mashed potato and cabbage dressed with nutmeg, and the remains of the bottle of cider.

 

Now for those readers thinking that I might have made a heck of a lot of potato and cabbage to accompany this simple dish, I have one word to say...  Well, I could probably come up with one word but the real reason probably needs three....

 

Bubble and Squeak....     which will be supper tomorrow.

A Surprise Sunday Lunch

I'm sure most of you will by now have heard about the problems in the skies above Northern Europe and the resulting no fly zone which has been in place, more or less continuously since it's imposition on Thursday.  The zone covers much of Northern Europe and is the result of  a volcano erupting in Iceland.

Hundreds of thousands of passengers are finding themselves stranded in the wrong place as air travel plans fall apart.  There is, as yet, no real sign of the situation abating and many experts are now suggesting that nothing will fly in the affected areas until the middle or end of the coming week or even later.

One unexpected aside that has arisen out of this situation was a very pleasant Sunday lunch which I have just enjoyed with five friends.  All of the friends should have been in the UK, having left France yesterday afternoon for the short flight to Bristol.  But they are all still here.   Two of them live here and have cancelled their short break and the other three have been offered replacement flights next Saturday afternoon, a week after they should have returned from their holiday.

As a result of this, I offered all five of them Sunday lunch "Chez Moi" and prepared a simple meal.

For starter I mixed several leaves from the garden and prepared a small salad with cucumber.  I then turned it into a Perigordine Salad by making a bacon and crouton mix, stirring it into the salad leaves and then dressing with a garlic and herb vinaigrette.   I served it with a sliced tomato salad dressed in a tomato vinaigrette.

For the main course I prepared Pork in Cider to my own recipe.  It takes it's inspiration from a Porc de Normandie recipe but has been developed over the years.

• Coarsely chop a whole onion
• Peal and thinly slice several garlic cloves
• add a good quantity of herbes de Provence
• Fry the onion, garlic and herbs in a little olive oil until tender then line a large ovenproof dish with them
• Lightly fry pork chops in a little olive oil in the same pan until they are just slightly browned on both sides. (They don't need to be cooked through) I use one large chop per person.
• Arrange the chops in the dish on top of the onions and garlic
• In the same pan,mix about 50ml of cider vinegar and a 75cl bottle of light cider, (I use a sparkling cider)
• Cut an apple into  large pieces, (cored but not peeled) and add to the cider
• Bring the cider, vinegar and apple gently to the boil.
• Arrange the apple pieces around the chops and pour the liquid over to completely cover
• Add lots of freshly ground pepper and some salt
• Bake in the middle of an oven at 180 C for about 1 hour
• Check midway through cooking and add more cider if the chops are showing above the liquid
• Remove from oven after 1 hour and add a good tablespoon or two of fromage blanc to the top of each chop
• return to oven for about 15 to 20 minutes
• Serve the chops and apple and thicken the juice to make a delicious gravy

I served this dish with cous cous.

I simply measured the amount of cous cous I need, (2 cups for 6 people) into a serving basin.  In a sauce pan I put the same amount of water, a handful of dried sultanas and some macedoine of vegetables and added just a dribble of olive oil.  I brought the saucepan to the boil and as soon as the vegetables were cooked I poured the whole lot on to the couscous and left to stand for exactly 3 minutes

Fluff up the mixture and serve immediately.

Three or four french cheese and the remains of the fromage blanc made up the cheese board and for dessert, one of the guests brought a wonderful peach and apple tart which we devoured!  As always there was a big basket of french bread and several bottles of red wine on the table from the start.

It was a surprise meal for my surprise guests.  I'm sorry I don't have any photographs but maybe this is one of those occasions when the words will leave enough to your imagination to let you savour the flavours and dream of the occasion.   My guests don't seem to be too upset about being stranded in France!