Malaysian Style White Fish Coconut Curry

I got the idea for this from "Cook Malaysian" by Lee Sook Ching but, as usual, I had to tailor it to what was in our fridge. The peas are definitely not in the original recipe but they were perfect with it.

So, first put together a couple of diced purple onions (shallots would be better but I didn't have any), lots of sliced garlic, and a couple of tablespoons each of: chopped ginger, lemongrass and lime leaves.

This lot goes into a big frying pan with some oil and a chopped, red chilli. Fry these up for a minute or two, until the aromatic smells start to fill the kitchen, then add a can of coconut milk, a tablespoon or two (depending on your tastes) of tamarind paste, one or two of palm sugar (again according to taste) and a big teaspoon of shrimp paste.

Stir together and bring up to a simmer, then lower the heat and leave it to cook for a while, maybe 10-15 minutes. Taste it, I added fish sauce because I love it, but whether you do is up to you.  
I shelled a load of peas because I had fresh but frozen would have done just as well. Throw them in the sauce and let them cook almost through before adding whatever white fish you have; I had whiting fillets.

Cook the fish through but take care not to overcook it. Finally stir in a load of coriander, fresh is best but I didn't have any and the frozen kind is really very good. Spoon over a bowl of rice (instructions for perfect rice here) and sprinkle a sliced spring onion on the top.

Homemade Veggie Burgers

These were so easy to make I wondered why on earth I've been paying someone else to do it all these years. They taste amazing and I think you could make all sorts of exciting variations.

I had some broccoli and carrots wilting away in the fridge, desperate to be used, so they went in, along with a few very finely sliced and de-strung runner beans.

First, take a load of new potatoes and put them in boiling water to cook, with the rest of the veg chopped up in a steamer over the top. Separately, fry up a purple onion (I'm not a fan of steamed onion!).

While those are cooking, whizz up some breadcrumbs and lay out three plates, one for flour, one for a beaten egg and one for the breadcrumbs - to coat the burgers with.



When the veg and potatoes are cooked, mash them with some butter, pepper, a little milk and salt if needed. Mix in the vegetables and form into patties, then coat them first in the flour, then the egg and finally the breadcrumbs.

Heat up some oil in a big frying pan until it's really, really hot, then put the burgers in and let them cook without moving them for a few minutes. When the breadcrumbs around the side start to turn brown turn them over and cook for a few more minutes.



Serve with some melted cheese and tomato ketchup, they went brilliantly with sweetcorn but it would have been lovely in the mixture too.

Runner Bean & Fennel Seed Pasta Bake

I got the inspiration for this from Abel & Cole's cookbook, but as usual I corrupted it to fit my needs. Sadly, my poor pasta machine has broken so my plans of serving the sauce with fresh egg pasta was scuppered. Instead I was stuck with a packet of pre-made semolina shapes, which usually work best in bakes (mind you, that's just my opinion).

The first thing is to make the bechamel which is easy: warm up half a pint of milk with some bay leaves, peppercorns, mace (or nutmeg), a bit of onion and some parsley stalks - I've actually run out of parsley so I omitted them this time. Once the milk is hot to the touch, but not boiling, take it off the heat, strain into a jug and allow it to cool a little.

Finally, heat up 25g of flour and 25g of butter, constantly stirring. Once you have a roux, take it off the heat and slowly mix in the flavoured milk.Once you have mixed everything in together, put it back on the heat and stir until thickened.

Pre-cook the runners, after destringing and cutting them into small peices. Heat up some olive oil in a saucepan and add a few smashed cloves of garlic, a chopped onion, a sprinkle of chilli flakes and about 1/2 a teaspoon of fennel seeds. Give them a minute or so, then add a tin of tomatoes, a glug of red wine, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar. Allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes while you cook 175g of dried pasta.

Drain the cooked pasta and mix the tomato sauce and runners in, along with a handful of torn basil. Decant this mixture into oven safe dishes, you can do it all in a single dish or split it into two or three smaller ones.

Spoon the bechamel over the top and dot with peices of mozzarella. Top with a light grating of parmesan and a grinding of pepper. Bake at 200 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Ricotta & Spinach Ravioli with Sage Butter

I learned to make ravioli and sage butter from Chef Steve Watts, after my first attempt ended up a squishy disaster and put me off making them for several years. They were effortless to make this time though, I think storing them individually and coating them with semolina was the best tip, and a firmer dough really helps. 
I wouldn't necessarily make these for a workday but they are a lovely weekend treat. They don't take too long to make and taste wonderful, but they are not particularly healthy!

I'm assuming that you've already made your pasta and that it's resting in the fridge. Ravioli is best made with slightly dryer, tougher pasta than my usual recipe. I used 2 eggs to 300g pasta and added a little water to bring it together. Kneaded it as much as I could until it had a texture not unlike cold blue-tack. This made a hearty dinner for 2 people, with enough left over to make tagliatelle to dry for later in the week.

Take a bag of spinach and cook through, using a mere suggestion of water to start them off; you want the leaves as dry as possible when they go into the filling. Once cooked, lay them out on a clean teatowel and pat dry.


Use a pair of scissors to cut the spinach into a bowl along with a pot of ricotta, lots of grated nutmeg, pepper and a small pinch of salt. Mix them up and that's the filling done. Try not to eat it all before it goes into the pasta.


Roll out your pasta sheets and pile a small teaspoon of the filling at regular intervals along each strip's length, placing them off-center, nearer the bottom edge. Dab your finger into a saucer of water and dampen the edges and in between the dots of filling, then fold the top half over the bottom half and firm down with the sides of your hands. Press down pretty firmly to make sure they are sealed, then cut into squares with a sharp knife. Sprinkle semolina over a clean tray, lay each ravioli out separately and sprinkle with more semolina.

When you're finished, boil up a huge pan of water and put a sizeable amount of salt in, then add the ravioli. They don't take long to do so keep an eye on them - when they're all floating at the top that's a good sign, a bit like gnocci. 


Put a nice, sizeable hunk of butter in a small pan and heat it up until it's bubbling away nicely, then add in a load of fresh sage leaves and cook until the butter is a lovely dark golden colour and the leaves are crispy.
Drain the ravioli out and lay on your plates. Use a spoon to drizzle the sage butter over the top, serve and then promise yourself you'll go to the gym in the morning.

Hedonethical Holidays: Sopley Farm Wigwam, Dorset

This is Part II of the Hedonethical Holidays post, you can click here to go to Part I. We stayed in a wigwam / tipi on Sopley Farm in Dorset. Truly this is the other end of the price scale, with the tipi and pitch costing just £40 a night for two of us; the usual cost is £50 per night, however I believe we were given a discount due to there being just two people. The tipi could, technically, sleep six; for comfort, I wouldn't recommend going above four though.

Glamping this is not. There are definitely both positives and negatives to this sort of camping holiday, especially if you find yourself battling inclement weather as we did; however, if you are a relatively flexible person and inclined to make the best of things, then you'll have an absolutely marvellous time.

Here are the main ethical positives:

1. Again, the location, in the Uk.
2. No electricity, heating or hot water, so you can't use (or overuse) any!
3. If the weather is dry you can gather your own wood from the forest floor for the fire.
4. Self-catering, so you're less likely to contribute to food and energy wastage.
5. Few harsh cleaning products are likely to have been used at the site.
6. Local free range eggs, organic fruit and vegetables are available from the Pick Your Own farm or shop. The Barn Owl farm shop just down the road also sells locally reared meat (you can see the pigs and cows for yourself) and organic tinned produce such as beans and tomatoes.
7. Items like towels, soap and other toiletries are all bring-your-own, so you won't be using unneccessary miniature bottles, new hand soaps or getting your towels boil washed every day.

And the main hedonistic ones:

1. No pitching and dismantling your own tent and the tipi is much bigger than all but the most expensive tents, you can easily walk around standing inside. 
2. Parking right next to the pitch, with some gravel on the ground to prevent sinking.
3. Absolutely gorgeous surroundings with plenty of wildlife and, in the right weather, stunning sunsets. While we were there we saw (or heard) rabbits, squirrels, barn owls, tawny owls, a kingfisher, ducks, geese, bats and suspected badgers and hedgehogs. There are also domestic pigs, cows and deer to see locally.
4. Eating (and drinking) round an open fire, a true pleasure. Especially a jacket potato cooked in foil. And noone says that you can't bring a bottle of champagne if you want to!
   Using a combination of the fire and a small gas stove we were able to eat very well, including lentil dal, pasta, mixed bean casserole and fresh raspberry compote for toasted crumpets.
5. Little "beaches" around the lake, ostensibly for anglers to fish from, but we took one over for playing mah jong and it was lovely.
6. The Woolpack pub is a short way away. Be warned though, the kitchens don't open until 6pm. They allowed us to charge our mobile phones for £1, although I don't think this is a regular request.
7. The fruit and veg from the farm are delicious and the super fresh bantam and duck eggs are among the best I've tasted.
8. The farmer who owns the pitch also runs a deer safari which is absolutely fantastic.
9. Peace and quiet - mostly. Outside of the sounds of wildlife, you may occasionally be disturbed by a family out on a walk, a couple of chatty anglers or (around this time of year) the ongoing drone of a combine harvester in the distance.
10. For a pitch near an open body of water there were very few mosquitos.
11. JCBs, John Deeres and various other tractors and combine harvesters. If you like that sort of thing. There's also a tank somewhere, but we didn't get to see it.

 And now for the negatives, ethical first:

1.  You will probably use quite a lot of batteries to light the tipi at night, you can recycle them though.
2. A gas stove is a must, but of course this does leave the empty cannisters to dispose of.
3. If you buy logs and kindling for the fire which, if it is wet, you will have to, the chances are that what you buy won't be sustainable wood - although again, they might be, but it's very hard to tell if the sacks aren't labelled.

And the hedonistic negatives:

1.  It is damp and it can be cold. If you haven't taken enough lights, it will also be dark. A bit of advice: load the car up with sleeping bags, blankets, jumpers, socks, lanterns and torches. I'd recommend at least one wind-up torch. There were two chinese lanterns in the tipi, which gave off a lovely yellow glow, but they ate up AAA batteries at the rate of 2 batteries for about 2 hours.
2. The loo is a little walk away from the tipi, you're unlikely to want to make that trip on your own in the middle of the night. 
3. There are no showers, in fact no hot water at all. We were stoic enough to wash in cold water, if you aren't then it's a trip to the local leisure centre for you.
4. If you are a really rubbish cook then you're stuck, otherwise the goodness of your meals are down to what you've brought and whether you can turn them into something edible.
5. If it really rains, for example like the thunderstorm we had on the last night, then the tipi will leak through the ventilation gap at the top. Take a brolly to pop over your stuff and make sure you have plenty of blankets to absorb the moist air before it reaches your sleeping bag.

In order to ensure a good time, here are a few of the items that we were the most grateful we'd brought with us:

• Camping gas stove and spare cannisters. Saucepan, frying pan, kettle, easy-clean plates, cutlery, glasses and mugs.
• Wind-up storm lantern
• Torches, mp3 player and spare batteries
• Dry kindling and some old newspaper
• A rug for the middle of the tipi
• A camp bed to raise you off the damp and draughty floor. Failing that make sure you take a waterproof foam ground mat, you'll be glad you did.
• Spare loo roll, bin bags, compostable food waste bags, a pan scourer, tin foil and kitchen roll.
• A 15 litre water bottle. The drinking water tap is a fair march from the tipi, you'll need water onsite.
• Socks. Lots and lots of clean, dry socks.
• Wellies and waterproof flip-flops
• Wet wipes
• A sealable cool bag, so you can keep some items like cheese or butter at the camp.
• A plastic ground sheet and/or tarpaulin... for sitting on outside.
• Salt, pepper, oil, sugar, bay leaves, oregano and chilli flakes.
• A deck of cards
• Cameras
• Many bottles of wine!