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19 Mar 2013

Recipe: Fishfinger Sandwiches. For Grown Ups.

As a girl who loves her grub, I have to confess there’s nothing better for me than comfort food, especially during this never-ending winter we seem to be having. So last weekend when I asked Mr DCB what he wanted for dinner and he replied “fishfinger sandwiches” I thought “jackpot”.

Before I go any further, this is not my original recipe. I came across it years ago online and made them frequently enough that I remembered the ingredients and have adapted it slightly over time. Every time I make them I do look for the original post I read, because it was written in such a hilarious style that its author has forever inspired me. Alas his post has been swallowed up by many more (and non superior!) versions of the same dish and I can’t find it anymore. The beauty of it is it takes no more than about 15 minutes start to finish and you can add anything you want really! Plus, who doesn’t love a child-dish with an adult twist? I also have to apologise for the photo, I was in a bit of a rush and wasn’t really planning this properly. Next recipe – must try harder and dig out the camera rather than my phone…

So here it is, fishfinger sandwiches for grown ups. Serving 2.

Take:

10 fishfingers. Yes really, 10.

A couple of spring onions, finely chopped.

A couple of cloves of garlic, finely chopped.

A fresh chilli, finely chopped.

As much mayonnaise as you like (in my case, easily a quarter of a bottle).

Juice of half a lemon.

A baguette.

Method:

Pop your fishfingers into a frying pan and fry until cooked through, around 6-7 minutes. It’s up to you whether you put oil or anything in, I’m a big fan of dry frying and of course make sure you turn them over!

Once the fishfingers are cooked, add them into a large bowl with your chilli, spring onions, garlic and mayonnaise. Mash the fingers into the other ingredients and mix well, adding as much mayonnaise as suits and season. Keep your pan on a low heat whilst mixing the ingredients together.

After combining, return the mixture to your frying pan and turn up the heat. Your fishfinger mash should be sticking together nicely and heating through well, pop in your lemon juice, mix and just leave to heat for a couple of minutes.

In the meantime, take your baguette, slice off each end, cut in half and then in half lengthways, giving you 4 bits of bread. Butter it if you wish (I wish!) and then take your fishfinger mixture and spread it onto the two bread bases, close the sandwiches and enjoy!

The finished fishfinger sandwich!

My final advice would be: it’s dense. I thought I was starving, really starving, but in the end I was defeated and couldn’t quite finish. You may want to halve the ingredients and make a half bageutte which can be again cut in two, and add a salad or other side dish.

Follow DaisychainBaby on Facebook and Twitter. If you want to guestpost for us, email linsATdaisychainbabyDOTcoDOTuk. Our clearance section lives here. Follow Missing Sleep on Facebook and Twitter. Their blog lives here.

DaisychainBaby
USA dcb@cali.demon.co.uk

Lins | One comment | Tags: comfort food, fish, RECIPES

13 Feb 2013

DAISYCHAINBABY • PERSONAL • RECIPES

Why I’m Shopping Locally This Lent

As Lent rolls around each year (is it just me or it feels VERY early this year?) the inevitable twitterings crop up about what people are giving up. I remember back in school when pretty much all of my group of friends declared ourselves chocolate-free zones. For 40 days. As hormonal teenagers. Yeah, like that ever works. Besides, Cadbury Mini Eggs are far too tasty. These days, I’d be more than happy to give up spending money for 40 days but that’s not really feasible either.

I read with interest the post from Modern Mummy about why she is giving up supermarkets for Lent, and sat thinking about whether it could be done. And the answer has to be yes of COURSE it can.. I do live in London after all, it’s not as though my nearest shops are a drive away. In fact, I’m really spoilt for choice as if I factor in my average week, I have a thriving local shop community in Forest Hill SE23, am a 10 minute walk away from Borough Market during the week when I’m at work, and spend most of my Sundays trading at markets so have instant access to some great local produce. Taking all that into consideration, I really have no excuse.

It will come as a bit of a challenge I have to admit – as many opportunities as I have to buy fresh, there are just as many to buy convenient, and I’m the first to admit that when you’re both working full time and dinner is therefore somewhere between 8 and 9 at night, it’s all too easy just to shove processed food in the oven and go off and do something else. At the same time, Mr DCB and I are both on a long-term health kick and have vowed to cook from scratch more and incorporate more fruit and veggies in our diets than we currently do. I’ve been cooking as much as I can over the past week to 10 days since we decided it was time to shape up and have really enjoyed it.

Forest Hill’s Inagural Food Fair. Photo courtesy Forest Hill Society.

We also have the added bonus of the recently opened Aga’s Little Deli in Forest Hill, as well as a monthly food market taking place in the station forecourt on the first Sunday each month. Brockley Market is on every Saturday and just a short drive away (or an energetic run, but one thing at a time!). We have a new butcher who will be hopefully opened by the end of February for the odd times when only meat will do for Mr DCB and the super Hills and Parkes over in neighbouring Honor Oak which IS on our running route.

I’m also intrigued to see how prices compare to supermarket shopping – it could probably be argued that shopping at markets/locally can be more expensive, but I think I’ll be cooking more wisely and wasting less. I also think that as I get used to going to different shops for my ingredients, I’ll get used to it and hopefully be able to continue long after Lent is finished. So I’m really looking forward to dusting off more of my cook books and whittling down my waistline, as well as sourcing local produce, supporting the community and blogging about it all. Watch this space!

Lins | No comments | Tags: Forest Hill, fresh produce, markets, SE23, shop local

30 Aug 2012

DAISYCHAINBABY • RECIPES

What I Made: White Chocolate & Raspberry Tray Cake

One of my recent resolutions has been to tackle baking. Unlike cooking, I just can’t seem to get the hang of it but on seeing a delicious image and subsequent recipe posted over at White Lily Green blog, I decided to give it another go. I should also add that I’ve started watching Great British Bake-Off and am hopeful one day to be able to pull off a baking masterclass. We’ll see. Until then, here is the recipe for White Chocolate & Raspberry Tray Cake.

All the ingredients you need for yummy cake!

What You Need

120g butter at room temperature
200g white chocolate broken into cubes (I didn’t know what to buy so got the white chocolate from the bakery section at my local Sainsbury!)
110g caster sugar
Around 110g raspberries – Tracy used frozen ones for her recipe, I was going to as well until I realised I had to defrost them first – see, told you I don’t bake! So I bought fresh ones, and dumped in the whole punnet which was about 150g
2 large eggs
140g self raising flour

What To Do

1) Preheat your oven to 190C/Gas Mark 5

2) Melt half the chocolate and the butter in a Bain Marie (for the uninitiated, this is a bowl resting over a pan of boiling water on the hob

3) In a separate bowl, add the sugar and eggs, whisking until light and a little frothy

Mixing the eggs and sugar

4) Add the butter mixture and sift in the flour, mixing it all together until the flour is absorbed

5) Add the rest of the chocolate and raspberries and mix through

6) Pour into a lined tin – Tracy used a brownie tin and I used what I think is the equivalent, basically a small rectangular tin with shallow sides, seemed to do the trick. I lined all the way round and the sides with greaseproof paper and then very lightly buttered the bottom of the greaseproof paper in case of sticking disasters which often happen!

Ready to go into the oven

7) Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden. I found 30 minutes was just perfect and tested it by sticking a knife in

Once out, leave to cool completely – DON’T be impatient like me and try to turf it out of the tin beforehand as it will break up a bit. Woops. I managed to salvage it, but have learned my lesson. Patience is the key

And – done! Mr DCB was lucky enough to try one before I whisked them off to work for our office picnic. Delicious.

The finished goods!

Lins | No comments | Tags: cake, chocolate, great british bake off, raspberry, RECIPES

13 Jul 2012

PERSONAL • RECIPES

What I Made: Prawn, Pea and Lemon Risotto

This was made to be titled “What I Made Last Night” but seeing as I made this about two weeks ago, that doesn’t really work. It was simply so yummy and relatively easy to make for a risotto which I kind of have a love/hate relationship with that I thought it would be a good recipe to post. I also forgot I was going to blog about it before I started preparing, so you get the picture of what I am like in the kitchen – a bit chaotic. Here it is – prawn, pea and lemon risotto. It serves 2, they advise the prep time to be 10 minutes and the cooking time to be 20 minutes. Cooking time is pretty accurate, it always take me longer to prepare because I’m a slow chopper!

Ingredients

1 teaspoon olive oil / 1/2 small onion, finely chopped / 1 garlic clove, finely chopped / 125g (4oz) risotto rice / 1 tablespoon white wine / 400ml (14 fl oz) hot fish stock / grated rind and juice of 1/2 lemon / 250g (80z) cooked king prawns / 150g (5 oz) frozen peas / 15g (1/2 oz) butter / 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese / 1 tablespoon chopped parsley / salt and pepper

Risotto Ingredients

What To Do

Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the onion and garlic and fry for 2-3 minutes until softened. Add the rice and cook for a further minute, making sure that the rice is coated in the oil.

Adding the rice to the onions

Add the wine and cook for a further minute, and then gradually add the stock, ladle by ladle, stirring continuously and allowing each addition of stock to be absorbed before adding the next. This is always the bit that maddens me a little as I like to tidy as I cook if possible, so having to stir something all the time is a bit of a pain but actually the stock soaked in very quickly.

Add the prawns and peas with the final ladleful of stock and add the lemon rind and juice. Stir until the prawns and peas are cooked and heated through. Remove the pan from the heat and stir through the butter, Parmesan and parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

Adding the prawns and peas with the final stock

Funnily enough as I was finishing cooking it, I was convinced there was enough for 4 people (I like prawns so used 2 packets instead of measuring out the advised quantity), but actually on serving up it was more or less just right, with a bit leftover for little seconds

The end result!

I’d really recommend this as a quick, fairly healthy-ish and extremely tasty dinner for two.

Lins | One comment | Tags: dinner for two, prawns, RECIPES, risotto

27 Jun 2012

DAISYCHAINBABY • EVENTS • GUEST BLOGS • PERSONAL • RECIPES

When Saturday Kitchen’s James Martin cooked for me…

Some of you with the more eagle-eyes may have seen some exciteable Facebook posts a few days ago with the news that I, intrepid London-based gal-about-town have teamed up with my beloved long-term friend Karen who is the powerhouse behind Missing Sleep and mummy of my two adorable godsons, to launch a full-frontal attack on the blogging world. Or something like that! She gets invited to lots of lovely things that she can’t always make because she lives in Wales, and so bravely, or stupidly, I’m stepping into the breach.

Getting ready to taste the goods!

My very first event as her official London roaming reporter took place yesterday and what a fab one it was! Armed with my trusty notepad and pen, I ventured off to a “Potato Masterclass” hosted by none other than Saturday Kitchen’s James Martin! The British love affair with potatoes has been a long one, but I confess to being a bit of a philistine when it comes to potatoes and know next to nothing about them, apart from mash and roasts are my favourite. I’m certainly not alone, according to manyfacesofpotatoes.co.uk, who are on a mission to show Brits how to get the most from their potatoes and change the way we eat and cook them.

The stunning Violin Factory

So I found myself in the stunning Violin Factory, just behind Waterloo Station (as an aside, the venue is a former Grand Design and before I’d even got down to anything potatoe-y totally knocked my socks off!) ready to see how my cooking could be changed. What made the whole event even better was that on arrival I bumped into the lovely Liz from Me and My Shadow who has been a long-time supporter of DaisychainBaby and super all-round fab lady. Result!

Liz gets some one-on-one poached egg tuition

After some mingling with our fellow attendees, we were talked through the different types of potatoes there are, and sampled a few in their cooked forms. I had no idea that certain types of potato can never result in those perfect roasties that I love, which are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, no matter HOW you cook them.

Then – over to the pro! James Martin was on hand to show us to make some delicious recipes using the three different types of potato classification: a Potato, Pea and Watercress Soup; Salmon with Potato, Pickled Cucumber and Chili and finally Apple Mash with Grilled Pork Chop and Walnuts.

Pea, Potato & Watercress Soup topped with Poached Egg

I have to say, it is pretty awe-inspiring seeing someone who really, really knows what they’re doing in the kitchen cooking away. I love cooking but I don’t do enough of it and am only fairly average. Yesterday I learned the best way to poach an egg (make sure you add vinegar to the water and drop the egg in as the water swirls) and that any London hotel will poach their eggs up to 24 hours or so in advance and they keep beautifully in ice water for up to 48 hours! Peas are best frozen than fresh to make the soup a lovely green colour. Marcus Wareing apparently makes the best mash in London according to James, and uses 1lb of potatoes, 1lb of butter and a pint of double cream (heart attack on a plate I was thinking, but I’d still bury my face in it!) and that no matter how hard James tries, he still can’t make roast potaoes better than his Mum’s (bless!) Oh, and he likes butter. Tons of the stuff.

James gets mashing

We sampled all three of the dishes he made and each one was delicious, the potatoes perfectly placed as accompaniments but never stealing the show. The apple mash was simply amazing, even though I had to scoop it out from underneath the pork chop (I’m a fish-eating veggie but wasn’t about to tell a celebrity chef, never mind a Yorkshireman that I don’t eat meat!) – who would have thought that you could grate raw apple into mash and for it to be tasty?

Apple Mash with Grilled Pork Chop and Walnuts

I confess – I have a new found respect for this humble staple food-stuff and am determined to be more adventurous with them, especially mixing things in with mash. It’s ironic that this was my first event for Missing Sleep, because I do remember a certain Karen in our last year at Uni trying to make her own variant of mash, by boiling the potaotoes to within an inch of their lives and mashing them in the water. No milk, no butter. I think she’d whole-heartedly say her cooking hasn’t come far from those days ;o)

I hope this has inspired you to show more love for our potato friends – you can find some great recipes over at www.lovepotatoes.co.uk and Potato Week runs from 1st to 7th October 2012. I’ll be blogging again next week for Missing Sleep, in the meantime why not head on over to see what great competitions she has running.

Lins | 3 comments

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Archive for RECIPES

Recipe: Fishfinger Sandwiches. For Grown Ups.

Why I’m Shopping Locally This Lent

What I Made: White Chocolate & Raspberry Tray Cake

What I Made: Prawn, Pea and Lemon Risotto

When Saturday Kitchen’s James Martin cooked for me…

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