Tuna and Pea Canneloni

It's this time of year again when fresh peas are available in the shops. I don't really like shelling them but it's a small price to pay.

(serves 4)

8 no cook canneloni tubes
500 g fresh peas in pods or 250 g frozen peas
1/2 red onion
2 garlic cloves
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 pointed red pepper
250 ml semi-skimmed milk
1 tbsp flour
1 egg yolk
1 tin of line-caught tuna in olive or sunflower oil
1 bay leaf
juice of 1/2 lime
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
freshly ground nutmeg
balsamic vinegar
extra virgin olive oil

freshly grated parmesan

1. Shell the peas, place fresh or frozen peas into steamer and steam for 3 minutes. Set aside and leave to cool.

2. Drain the oil off the tuna and drizzle with the lime juice.

3. Chop the onion and garlic. Half and slice the pepper. Heat some fresh olive oil or a little of the oil from the tuna in a frying pan. Sauté onion, garlic and pepper for a few minutes until they start to soften. Add the tinned tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and the bay leaf. Season with pepper and salt. Simmer for about 10 minutes, then transfer into an oven-proof dish.

4. While the sauce is cooking mix the peas and tuna with a fork. Season with a little salt and pepper. Fill the canneloni tubes with this mix and place into the tomato sauce. Sprinkle any left-over filling onto the tomato sauce.

5. Now make the bechamel. Start by heating a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan. Sprinkle the flour into the oil. Once it's "dissolved" gradually add the milk, bring to the boil, then remove from the heat. Beat in the egg yolk. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Pour the bechamel over the canneloni. Cover with tin foil and bake in the oven at 175 °C/gas mark 4 for 30 minutes.

6. Remove the tin foil, grate some parmesan and scatter over the top. Bake for a further 10 minutes at 200 °C/gas mark 6.

Pineapple Salsa

1/4 fresh pineapple, very finely diced
1 heaped tbsp fresh coriander, finely chopped
1 spring onion, finely chopped
juice of 1/2 lime, or more to taste
1/2 red chili incl. seeds, very finely chopped
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Mix all the ingredients and marinate for approx. 30 minutes.

Sautéed Savoy Cabbage with Balsamic Glaze

My other half loves cabbage and I have to admit the savoy cabbage looked great at the store last week – dark green, very curly leaves on the outside, tender yellow on the inside. Still it's supposed to be summer and cabbage in summer. I wasn't too happy but in the end came up with something light and very tasty.

1 savoy cabbage
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
water
balsamic glaze

Finely shred the leaves of a savoy cabbage, removing the stalks. Heat a generous amount of olive oil in a frying pan and sautée the savoy until it starts to brown. Season with pepper and salt. Add a little water and simmer adding water as necessary until the savoy is cooked to your liking. There should be very little cooking liquid left. Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool until tepid or at room temperature. Drizzle over some balsamic glaze, toss, check the seasoning and enjoy.

Potato and Aubergine Hot Pot

My other half runs a cooking group at work, twice a week. Funny, she never cooks at home, well hardly ever... Erm, change of subject ;)

Today, they made stovies and tonight we used the idea at home and came up with this.

(serves 4 as a main course, 8 as a side dish)

1 kg potatoes
1 large aubergine
5-6 large tomatoes
1 onion
1 red onion
1 pint of stock of your choice
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
dried herbs of your choice
1 red chilli
3-4 cloves of garlic


Slice all the vegetables very thinly and layer them in a roasting tray seasoning with pepper and salt as you go: potatoes sprinkled with pepper and salt, onion rings. tomatoes sprinkled with pepper and salt and dried herbs, aubergines sprinkled with pepper and salt. Repeat the veggie layers.

Finely slice the red chilli, optionally removing the seeds, and finely grate the garlic. Mix with the stock. Pour over the veg. They'll be half covered in stock. Cover with tin foil and cook in a preheated oven at 220 °C for approx. 30-45 minutes. Check if the veggies are done or almost done. Remove the tin foil and cook uncovered for another 15 minutes.

Serve with a green salad for a main course or as a side dish.

White Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce

I've just returned from a few days in my home state in Germany where I was just in time to catch the end of the asparagus season. White asparagus is not readily available in Scotland and it'd been three years since I last tasted it. Even though it wasn't that cheap I bought nearly two kilos of the stuff, enough to accompany two meals.

My godson love asparagus with an Hollandaise sauce but is generally happy with the powdered stuff enriched with an egg yolk and/or some cream. He also thinks the world of my cooking so I decided to  give him and the rest of the family a treat: homemade Hollandaise sauce!

It's been decades since I last made it and without any internet connection we first checked my mum's sparse selection of cookery books – no joy – then phoned around without reaching anyone nearby. In the end, we spoke to my other half's sister in London who did an internet search and, knowing we like Jamie Oliver, gave us his recipe, which I modified as I simply couldn't bring myself to make a sauce, in which two servings were made using 2 egg yolks and 100 g (!) of butter. Admittedly, that was probably meant as a main course but still...

Perada

When I made membrillo (quince cheese) for the first time last autumn I realised that fruit "cheeses" have been around for a long time. Knowing I couldn't get quince for another year and expecting the batch of membrillo to be finished well before then I made a mental note to try and make perada (pear cheese) some time.

Today, my favourite discount supermarket hat 25 % of Abate pears and I seized the opportunity. I came home with 2.5 kg of pears, went on the internet and found two recipes I liked. One is from a blog called LondonEats, the other from whatscookingamerica. I based my perada primarily on the LondonEats recipe but added apples instead of pectin as suggested by whatscookingamerica.

After cooking the fruit pulp for three hours without my spoon leaving a trail I decided I'd settle for a soft spreadable rather than a firm perada that can be sliced. I'm sure it'll be just as tasty.

2.5 kg pears
0.5 kg apples
soft brown (unrefined sugar), 1 part to 2 parts of fruit pulp
300 ml water
juice of 2 lemons
rind of 1 lemon, cut into strips with a speed peeler

1. Rinse the fruit, don't remove the skin but place whole into a couple of saucepans so there's just the one layer and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil, then simmer until the fruit is soft. The fruit is soft when a pointed knife slips easily into the pears. As my pears were still firm, this took 30 minutes of simmering. I removed the apples earlier as their skin burst when they were done.

I thought the boiled pears looked reallz funky.

2. Drain and leave to cool. Once the pears are cool enough to handle, remove the skin and discard. The fruit now needs to be passed through a sieve using the back of a (wooden) spoon. You can either chop it up or run it through the food processor with the coarse grater disc inserted. The latter tip I gleaned from the membrillo recipe and it makes pulping the fruit much easier.

3. Measure out the pulp. The above recipe resulted in 1.8-2 l of pulp. As it was quite sweet already I used only 1 part sugar to 2 parts fruit.

4. Place the fruit pulp, sugar, lemon juice, water and lemon rind into a stainless steel saucepan. Stir well and bring to the boil. Simmer until the mixture is thick enough for a spoon to leave trails. Mine took 3 hours but never got that thick, perhaps because I didn't use pectin.

Remember to stir regularly to prevent it sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Warning: Do be careful. The thicker the mixture gets the more it spatters and those spatters are roasting. My right hand got hit numerous times. Eventually, I got wise to the danger and put on an oven glove to stir.

5. Remove the lemon rind. It seemed a shame to discard it so I set it aside and placed a slice or two on the top of each filled jar. Pour into sterilised jars , screw on the lid and turn upside down until completely cool. Store in a dark cool place.  

Layered Aubergine, Tomato, Chorizo and Mash Bake

We've been on holiday at home for the last week and as the weather was gorgeous spend a lot of time in the garden though we still haven't had a barbecue. When the temperatures dropped to 8 °C today and we had driving rain and even hail stones, interspersed with sunny, if chilly, intervals I was a bit at a loss as to what to cook. My other half craved potatoes – baked, mashed, roasted, whatever. A look in the fridge revealed several aubergines, a couple of kilos of vine tomatoes, fresh taragon and soft chorizo sausages. There was also some left-over white bread earmarked for bread crumbs. The cooking gears in my brain started grinding and before I knew it I was well on my way to create another new dish. And only now do I realise that there was neither garlic nor onions in this dish. Never missed them.

This dish is incredibly versatile as it can be vegetarian, vegan and even gluten free. It's great as a main course with a side salad or a side dish with a roast, pork chops, poached, fried or baked fish.

(serves 3-4)

2 aubergines
4 fist-sized potatoes
2 small soft chorizo sausages, approx. 110 g
2 small pointed red peppers
5 plum vine tomatoes
(elderflower-infused) olive oil
2 sprigs of fresh taragon
sea salt
freshly ground pepper
milk
bread crumbs

1. Peel and quarter the potatoes, wash and place into a saucepan. Season with about 1 tsp sea salt and pepper. Add boiling water so the potatoes are just covered and boil for 15 minutes or until tender. Drain off the water, add a good glug of milk and a splash of olive oil. Mash, check the flavour and set aside.

2. Meanwhile slice the two aubergines into 1 cm slices. Heat a generous amount of olive oil in a frying pan. Fry in batches until golden, then drain on kitchen paper.

3. Half the peppers lengthways and core. Slice and fry for a couple of minutes.

4. Slice the chorizo and fry until brown on both sides.

5. Cut the tomatoes into 1/2 cm thick slices. Pick the leaves of the taragon sprigs and chop.

6. Assemble the dish in an oven-proof dish: Layer the first aubergine, season with pepper and salt. Place all the tomato slices on top and season with pepper and a little salt. Scatter the taragon on chorizo slices over the tomatoes. Next add the sautéd pepper and another layer of aubergines. Spread the mash on top and bake for 45 minutes at 200 °C/gas mark 5.

7. Mix a couple of small handfuls of fresh bread crumbs with a little olive oil. Scatter over the mash and bake for another 10 minutes.