Not strictly a Monday mealtime as I made this on Saturday, but it makes fantastic quantities for four, so Mr DCB & I will be finishing it tonight for dinner ;o) The book advises it takes 45 minutes and it’s pretty spot on I think – I’m not the fastest cook in the world, but I don’t conduct a scientific experiment each time either so it’s a bit slap-dash and I cut corners where I can!

Here’s what you need:

-25g/10z butter
-2 large red onions, finely sliced
-2 tbsp light muscovado sugar
-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
-flour, for dusting
-450g puff pastry, thawed if frozen
-100g/40z feta, crumbled
-175g/60z black olives, pitted and chopped
-1tbsp extra virgin olive oil
-shredded basil leaves, to garnish

Step 1)
Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6/fan over 180C. Heat the butter in a pan and add the onions. Add a pinch of salt (I forgot that bit!) and fry for about 10 minutes, until caramelised. Now I’m not sure what really constitutes caramelised – by the time I was done, the onions were very soft, had lost some of their colour and didn’t smell as pungent as the raw version. Add the sugar and balsamic vinegar and cook for a further 5 minutes, until the juices are reduced and syrupy. Leave to cool. *Note: it doesn’t matter if you go over the 5 minutes, it’s just a guideline

Step 2)
Roll out the pastry on a floured surface and use to line a 30 x 22cm/12 x 8.5in Swiss roll tin. I would recommend greasing your tin with just a bit of butter even if it is non-stick – I tend to find pastry has a stickability all of it’s own at times! Cover with the onion mixture and scatter over the feta and olives. Season and drizzle over the oilve oil.

Step 3)
Bake for 15-20 minutes until the pastry is risen and golden and the base is crisp. Scatter over the basil leaves and cut into wedges. Serve with a green salad.

I would say this is a very easy dish to make, and it’s fantastic that it can go in the oven and cleaning up can be done whilst it cooks (huge bonus for me!). If you are a pastry connoisseur you can of course make your own but I don’t have the inclination just yet to be going down that route. If anything you can leave it in slightly longer to make sure the base isn’t too soggy and definitely don’t make the mistake that we did of eating it with new potatoes first time around. It looks deceiving but is quite a large portion. You could even get away with serving this for 6 portions instead of 4, perhaps as a starter. Enjoy!

Apologies for the darkness of piccie, my phone camera was a bit off-colour. Home made tart!

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Since our health-kick began in January, I’ve been making more effort to cook, rather than just shoving something in the oven and heating it up. Tonight’s culinary masterpiece was a very yummy Salmon and Broccoli Bake that was  easy to make and the tidying up could even be done whilst the main dish was in the oven – bonus as I HATE eating when I know all the dishes have to be done afterwards ( So complete with piccies, I thought I’d share this great recipe.

What you’ll need to make 4 servings:
550g of salmon fillets (I only used about 480 but it was still plenty)
1 broccoli crown, cut into florets (about 250g)
300g Yeo Valley Organic Fat Free Natural Yoghurt
1 medium egg, beaten
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
Grated zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
3 tbsp white breadcrumbs

Salmon and Broccoli Bake ingredients

As you can see from the piccie, I used shop-bought breadcrumbs. Of course you can use your own, but since we make our own bread, it’s a complete sin to use fresh bread to make breadcrumbs and believe me, it doesn’t last long enough to go stale to justify using it for crumbs!!

Start by pre-heating your oven to 200C, gas mark 6. Take your salmon fillets and place them skin-up in a shallow pan, a frying pan will do fine. Cover them with cold water and bring to the boil. Then, lower the heat and poach gently for 10-12 minutes until just cooked through. You’ll be able to see once they’re down as the flesh will lighten and the skin will start to come away. Remove from the cooking liquid and flake the fish. Arrange in the base of a shallow dish.

Poaching broccoli and steaming salmon

Whilst the salmon is poaching, you’ll also need to steam the broccoli. If you don’t have a steamer, I can really recommend the adjustable ones you can get from John Lewis, they’re stainless steel, around £6 and fit inside any pan. A most genius invention and means you get the best from your vegetables without the need to boil them. Add a little water to the bottom of a large pan, place your steamer in and add the florets. Steam for 4-5 minutes until tender and then layer on top of the salmon.

Layered salmon topped with broccoli, awaiting sauce

For the sauce, whisk together the yoghurt, egg, mustard, zest and juice of the lemon and season, before pouring over your salmon and broccoli mixture. Finish by scattering the breadcrumbs and bake for 20-25 minutes until the topping is set and golden.

The finished product!

You can serve with whatever you like, but we had it with new potatoes and a glass of wine ;o) It EASILY makes 4 portions, so I’m really pleased that when I get home on Monday I can just heat it up and don’t have to think about dinner! Per serving is calorific at 430 but it also has 37.8g of protein so if you’re exercising it’s the perfect post-workout meal