You’ve made fried courgette flowers, ratatouille, chocolate courgette donuts, courgette marmalade and spiralised seemingly countless squash. What’s left? Time to make chutney. Chutney is a mixture of fruit, vegetables, vinegar, spices and enough sugar to bind it all together. It is usually eaten as a condiment (like Branston pickle or piccalilli) but I can’t swear that the Davinator has not eaten a sneaky chutney sarnie from time to time.

Like ratatouille there are an endless number of chutney recipes on the internet. And to be honest if you cook it long enough and slow enough, ingredients become chutney. This one works for me – the main ingredients seem to ripen at the same time in my garden. It’s based on a recipe from BBC GoodFood which has a wealth of practical and straightforward recipes for home cooks.

Once you’re comfortable with the recipe it’s easy to vary the component fruit and vegetables. The ‘chutney base’ is the vinegar, sugar and spices. Then it’s a squash element, a vegetable element (don’t start on tomato is actually a fruit) and a fruit element.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 500ml (17.5 fluid ounces) cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
• 400g (14 ounces) brown sugar (light or dark)
• 1 tbsp allspice
• 2 tbsp yellow mustard seed
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 1 thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and diced very small
• 4 onions, chopped
• 1kg (2.2 pounds) courgettes (zucchini), chopped
• 1kg (2.2 pounds) tomatoes, chopped with core removed
• 4 tart eating apples, chopped
• 300g (10.5 ounces) sultanas (raisins)

Method

1. Put the vinegar, 300ml water, sugar and spices in a large deep heavy pan. Heat, stirring regularly, until the sugar dissolves .
2. Add the remaining ingredients onions, courgettes, tomatoes, apples and sultanas) with a tsp of salt.
3. Bring to a simmer then bubble away uncovered for 2 to 3 hours until darkened, thick and chutney-like. Sometimes mine takes longer. I have turned it off over night.
4. Time to sterilise the jars. If you prep 6 250 to 300 ml jars that should be plenty. You can watch this video: jam jars or wash thoroughly in very hot soapy water. Rinse in very hot water then put on a baking sheet in a 140C/fan 120C/gas 1 oven until completely dry.
5. Pour the chutney into the sterilised jars while still hot, seal and leave in a cool dark place. The recipe suggests that you wait for at least 3 weeks before opening. That recipe writer has never met the Davinator. It might improve with age, I’ve never had it stay around long enough to find out.

Thanks for reading the blog. Please let me know if you’re enjoying the recipes, send comments, photos and requests.

Spicy courgette (zucchini) marmalade, reminds you of summer when you’re eating it on toast in January.

Dark delicious chocolate courgette loaf cake.

Ginger snaps for grown ups.

How to deal with the courgette tsunami? The best defence is a good offence – get your punches in early. Pick the courgettes when first flowering (no fruit) or when the courgettes are still little babies. Then deep fry them. In beer batter. That will teach them who’s the boss. Seriously, the most divine way to eat courgettes and to reduce your chances of drowning in the courgette tsunami.

It’s easy and you don’t need a deep fryer. You have to be prepared to fry in 2 or 3 inches of hot oil though and have a deep heavy fry pan. The secret to these is to cook them and then eat them as soon as they are cool enough to handle.

Recipe

Ingredients

Stuffing & courgettes

• 12 blossoms (with or without mini-courgettes)
• 250 grams fresh ricotta
• 80 grams freshly grated Parmesan
• salt
• pepper
• nutmeg

Batter

• 125 grams of plain flour
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 175 mls ice cold beer (a good use for lager)

Method

1. Carefully clean the blossoms, check for insects and remove the pistil (hard bit) from the inside of the flowers.
2. Spoon stuffing into each flower. Don’t overfill. They will only be cooking for 2 minutes. You want to be able to pinch the top together and twirl it to seal the filling inside. Lay gently on some kitchen towl.
3. Heat the oil while you’re preparing the batter. Combine the flour and sea salt with a fork in a bowl big enough roll your courgette blossoms in. Then beat in the egg yolk and beer.
4. Check you oil – either use a thermometer (180C) or drop a cube of white bread in. If it goes brown in under a minute, you’re all set.
5. Using a slotted spoon, gently lower the flowers into the oil. 2 to 4 at a time depending on the size of your pan. Cook for two minutes, turning them over half way through.
6. Drain on kitchen towel, sprinkle with some flaky sea salt and serve with lemon wedges.
7. If you have any leftover filling – lovely on toast.

Celebrating English summer, the Wimbledon men’s final and the Cricket World Cup.

This recipe is for a good friend of mine who insists ‘I can’t cook’. This banana bread recipe is made with whole wheat flour and walnuts and has a lovely depth of flavour. And if you can’t cook – your five year old should be able to make this bread (with appropriate adult supervision). It’s a great introduction to the joy of whole grain baking.

We’re back to my retirement quest – cooking every recipe in the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking cookbook. As a quest, it’s completely lacking in organisation and I’m randomly skipping through the book and baking what looks good. Today I was inspired by a request for ‘recipes for someone who doesn’t cook’ and the Davinator’s excess banana purchases. This banana bread recipe is best with the ultra-ripe about to be thrown away bananas – you know that icky black mottled soft to the touch banana. If your bananas aren’t ripe enough, put them in a brown paper back with an apple. Fold the top of the bag closed and leave it overnight. This should convert a ripe banana to an ultra-ripe one.

Basically, the spotty banana to the left is just about ripe enough but if you can bear it – ripen it until more black than yellow. (I forgot to take pictures of the ultra-ripe bananas before I peeled and mashed them). Enough musings on bananas – on to the recipe.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 60 grams (2 ounces) chopped walnuts
• 110 grams (4 ounces) unsalted butter
• 105 grams (3.75 ounces) brown sugar (light or dark)
• 3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking SODA not baking powder)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 340 – 350 grams (12 ounces) ripe mashed banana (4 or 5 normal sized European bananas – 3 or 4 normal sized American ones)
• 85 grams (3 ounces) honey
• 2 large eggs
• 230 grams (8 ounces) whole wheat flour

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 170C (160C fan) or 350F. Prep your loaf pan or pans. I use two small (450 gram) (1 pound) loaf pans and line them with paper. If you’re using a single loaf pan it needs to be a genuine 9 x 5 or 900 gram (2 pound) pan. I prefer to line with paper but you can also lightly grease with butter.
2. Microwave the butter for about 45 seconds in a microwave safe bowl. Set it to one side.
3. Chop the walnuts. I go back and forth on chopping nuts. This is a small quantity and both taste and texture say ‘chop by hand’. Leave ready in a small bowl.
4. Peel the bananas and mash with a fork or a potato masher.
5. Combine the butter, sugar, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. Beat well by hand.
6. Add the bananas, honey and eggs, stir well to incorporate into a smooth batter.
7. Add the flour and the chopped nuts and again stir until smooth.
8. Divide between the loaf pans. If using two – you want about 480 to 490 grams of batter in each pan.
9. Two loaves – bake for 40 minutes. At about 30 minutes check the loaves and if they seem too brown on the top, cover loosely with foil. Using your trusty thermometer – the internal temperature should be around 85C.
10. One loaf – bake for 50 minutes. At about 35 minutes check the loaf and cover with foil if the top is looking brown and dry.

This bread smells absolutely delicious when cooking. Try and let it cool before cutting. Enjoy and bake on!

Not everyone loves fish cakes. Making ‘potted fish’ is a different and yummy way to use it up. It’s hard to call it healthy, no matter what fish you start with. The addition of copious amounts of butter and salt may well neutralise the health benefits of the fish. But it’s oh so yummy. The first time I made this I got the salt proportions wrong and the Davinator has not dared to try it again. My cunning plan has worked and I get to eat the potted fish.

What is potting anyway? Potting is making a simple pate or spread with cooked meat, fish or vegetables and butter. Potted food keeps well for a week or longer in the refrigerator and the potting preserves the taste and texture much better than simple refrigeration. Potting transforms leftovers into a lovely light meal or snack. It’s worth a try, if only to save money and the planet.

Most of us are prepared to take steps to help the environment, provided it doesn’t inconvenience us too much (speaking frankly here). We carry reusable bags, we shun plastic straws, we recycle. Not throwing away food is one of the best things you can do for the environment. All food that makes it’s way to your home has a carbon cost and if the food is not eaten, all that carbon is for nothing. I’m not saying eat the scraps but we work hard at not throwing food into the bin.

The recipe below does not include directions for cooking the fish. My assumption is that if you’re reading this blog, you have leftover fish. If you’re staring at an uncooked fish this moment – here’s my blog on baking fish in foil.

I used sea trout in my potted fish, but it will work well all kinds of fish and sea food. It’s traditionally used for what are called ‘brown shrimp’ in the UK, teeny tiny prawns. Any fish that can be flaked or very small crustaceans will go well in this recipe. You may want to experiment with seasonings – the wild sea trout I used had a lovely flavour so I did not want to over season. You know what you like – go for it.

Potted fish, a hunk of sourdough bread and a green salad makes for a lovely lunch or a light dinner. The potted fish also can be used as a sort of ‘stir in’ sauce for pasta. Enjoy.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 2oz/50g butter
• About 4oz/110g cooked sea trout, flaked
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 bay leaf (optional)
• Grind of fresh black pepper (optional)

Method

1. Sterilise a jar for your potted fish. If you just broke into a cold sweat and are about to abandon the recipe, fear not. Watch this video from the BBC on sterilising of jars. Or follow your usual method.
2. Combine all of the ingredients in a heat resistant bowl and mix well.
3. Heat the butter until it fizzes and the milk solids appear as white flecks in the foam. When the milk solids start to go golden brown, remove from the heat and strain the butter through a sieve lined with kitchen towel.
4. Pour most of the clarified butter over the fish mixture, holding back a teaspoon or so for finishing. Pack into your sterilised jar, making sure the mixture is covered with butter. Pour the last teaspoon or so onto the top and close up your jar.

Makes a nice snack for two people and will keep for a week in the refrigerator.

This is the third in a three part series on cooking wild sea trout. And I promise the blog will be less ‘fishy’ for the new few weeks.

Learning to cook for two people has been a challenge for me. It’s the same effort to make food for eight as it is for two. But the Davinator and I are empty nesters 90% of the time. Rather than eat the same old stuff (steak, chops, chicken breast, swordfish) that is easily portion controlled, I’m trying to be creative with leftovers and also to cook things that are easily reheated or easily frozen.

Cooked fish, other than fish pie, doesn’t freeze well. But if you’re overwhelmed by fish greed (as we frequently are in our local fishmonger) then I’ve got a couple of recipes that will help you out with the leftovers.

My fab fishcake recipe below calls for 500 grams of cooked fish and 400 grams of potatoes. It makes 5 generous fishcakes (even the Davinator could only eat 2). But you can flex this recipe to the amount of fish you have. Essentially, it is 125 grams of fish to 100 grams of potato. I used the leftover wild sea trout from this recipe ‘here fishy fishy‘ but you could use salmon, cod, haddock: basically any cooked fish. Although I’ve never had a tuna fish cake……I’m sure it would be edible.

If you’ve never made fish cakes, don’t be nervous. We’re going to combine fish and cooked potatoes with a binding sauce, dip them in egg and bread crumbs then fry them. Sounds like a lot of steps but the end result is worth it.

I’m not going to explain here how to cook the fish – either poach in milk or oven bake in foil as per the link above. Most fish cakes call for rustic mashed potato (mashed but drier and with lumps as opposed to creamy mashed). I use smashed roasted potatoes. It adds a couple of steps but the added taste and texture are worth it.

I’m not a potato zealot. I accept the theory that different kinds of potatoes are good for different things but I must say I’ve never really noticed. If you care a lot, use the same type of potatoes you would use for roasties. I used some new potatoes I had in the kitchen and left the skins on. Because I did the smashed roasty approach, they added some nice texture.

Ingredients & Instructions

For the sauce

• 125ml (1/2 cup) mayonnaise(see this link to make your own)
• 1 tablespoon capers roughly chopped (drained)
• 1 heaping teaspoon of Dijon mustard
• 1 small shallot or 2 spring onions, very finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

Adjust the proportions for the amount of fish you have. Combine the ingredients, cover with cling film and refrigerate until you’re ready to make the fish cakes.

For the smashed roasty potatoes

• 400 grams potatoes
• salt
• olive oil
• black pepper

1. Peel the potatoes or scrub well if using new potatoes and leaving the skins on. Cut the potatoes into chunks no bigger than 3 cms (bit larger than an inch across). Put in a pot of cold water, add a generous amount of salt. Bring to a boil and cook for 8 to 10 minutes. You’re not done cooking them and you don’t want them to disintegrate in the next step.
2. Preheat your oven to 220C (400F)
3. Drain the potatoes and return them to the empty pot and place it over a low heat. You want to dry off the moisture. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, black pepper to taste and remove the pot from the heat.
4. Cover a baking sheet with foil. Coat the foil with cooking spray – preferably an olive oil type or lightly coat with olive oil. Put the potatoes on the covered baking sheet and arrange in a single layer. Take out your potato masher and give them a bit of a crush. Drizzle with a bit more oil and place in the oven for about 15 minutes. They will have some nice browned bits on them.

The potatoes are yummy. You could stop now and just eat the potatoes with the fish and the sauce. But where’s the fun in that.

Assembling and cooking the fish cakes

• one large egg
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped chives
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
• 90 grams of bread crumbs
• flour for shaping
• neutral oil for frying

1. Combine the fish, the potatoes, the chives, the parsley. Mix together with your hands. You want to bring it together but not reduce it to mush. Add enough of the sauce to help hold it together. You should be able to form a ball with the mixture.
2. Beat the egg and put it in a shallow plate or bowl.
3. Lightly flour a board.
4. Gently form the fish cakes with your hands on the floured board. Think hamburger shape and size (or a flattened hockey puck if you’re from my home state of Michigan) and about an inch thick (2.5 cms). Dip in the egg, then the breadcrumbs and coat well in each. The easiest way to coat in breadcrumbs is to gently flip from one side to the other and then spoon crumbs over the edge. If you’re feeling good about the consistency then trying rolling on the edge in the breadcrumbs. Cover with cling film and chill for 30 minutes. The chill down is to help with the consistency but I often omit and go straight to the shallow frying.
5. Heat a large shallow non stick skillet over medium heat. Add oil so there is about half a centimetre in the bottom. Corn or canola oil has the least taste. A tip – add a tiny amount of butter to the oil, it will spatter less. The oil should be hot so that the fishcakes sizzle a bit when you put them in but not smoking.
6. Cook each fish cake for about 5 minutes per side. Remember all the ingredients except for the egg coating will have been cooked so you’re warming the fishcake.

Then enjoy with the remainder of your sauce, some slices of lemon and a green salad. Or asparagus from your garden.

Enjoy

It has been a busy 6 weeks for the Davinator and Mama Dolson. Travel, work and welcoming the first guests to our ‘informal’ bed and breakfast was all consuming for most of May and June. More on the ‘B&B’ in another blog post.

We are blessed with a great local fishmonger in our town – The Fish Shop . They have amazing fish – so we eat more fish. This is good. But they have amazing fish – so sometimes we buy fish that are too big for two people. Like the lovely wild sea trout in the photo above. When we succumb to our fish greed, I try to use all of the fish at least.

This sea trout gave the two of us several tremendous meals. I cooked it in a foil bag in the oven, then made fish cakes with some of the leftovers and finally made potted fish with the last of the leftover fish. All will be explained below.

Fish in foil

Less is more when confronted with a magnificent whole fish like this wild sea trout. Never frozen and less than 24 hours from ocean to my kitchen, I want to let the lovely delicate taste speak for itself. This method has you wrapping the whole fish in foil with herbs and lemon, sealing it and baking it. A couple of simple steps and you’ve got a great main course.

Ingredients & Equipment

• A whole fish, |2 kilos or less, cleaned and gutted. Leave the head on or remove it based on your preferences, not everyone likes to look dinner in the eye.
• A bunch of fresh parsley
• A lemon, cut into thick slices
• Olive oil or neutral cooking oil
• Large sheet of foil
• Baking sheet or a shallow roasting plan

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 200C (190C fan).
   
2. Rinse your fish gently with cold water and pat dry.
   
3. Brush one side of the foil with oil.
   
4. Lay the fish on the oil.
   
5. Rough chop the parsley, stuff the fish cavity with the parsley and lemon.
   
6. Seal up the foil packet; bring the long sides together and fold over several times. Then fold up both ends towards the middle.
   
7. Put the sealed foil packet on the baking tray and place in the oven. Bake for about 45 minutes for a larger fish (say 2 kilos) but a minimum of 30 minutes in a preheated oven for any whole fish big enough to serve 2 or more people.
   
8. Remove from oven, unwrap and serve promptly.

Enjoy with boiled and buttered new potatoes and fresh asparagus. Links below to recipes to use up your leftovers.

Here’s a link to Fabulous Fishcakes to use up your leftover fish. And likewise to Potted Fish.