THIS week's recipes are two delicious dishes that I like to cook on the weekends, as a bit of a change from our mid-week cuisine.
With the cost of living on everyone's minds, I would encourage everyone to get into the kitchen when they have some free time instead of ordering takeaways. After all, cooking is a great way to relax, take your mind off the daily grind and explore your tastebuds.
The first recipe is a mix of haddock, mussels, bacon and cannelloni beans and the other is a creamy rice dish with leek and Gorgonzola. These dishes are perfect to serve at dinner parties as they are sure to impress guests.
If you want to explore your culinary passion even further, have a look at our cookery classes at The Waterman House Cookery School which is a great way to learn new culinary skills or to spend an enjoyable night out with friends: www.waterman.house/pages/cookery-school-calendar-view.
SMOKED HADDOCK, MUSSELS, BACON AND CANNELLONI BEANS (Serves 4)
Ingredients
650g of unsalted butter
2 large onions, finely sliced
6 smoked streaky bacon rashers, chopped
2 x 400g tins of cannellini beans, drained & rinsed
500g of smoked haddock fillets
1 bay leaf
400ml of whole milk
250ml of fresh fish stock or vegetable stock
1kg of mussels
A handful fresh parsley to garnish
METHOD
Start by placing the butter in a warm pot to melt and then add in the onions, gently frying for 10 minutes until soft. In the same pot, add the bacon and fry for five minutes.
Drain and rinse the beans and add these to the bacon, cooking gently for a further five minutes. At the same time, in a separate pot, add the fish and milk – making sure that the fish is covered.
Next, add in the bay leaf, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer, keeping it on a lower heat for five minutes. Keep the fish in the milk allowing it to continue to cook.
Remove the fish from the milk and add to the beans, discarding of any bones and skin. Add two tablespoons of the milk mixture to the beans and keep on a gentle heat (you can re-use the milk liquid in a fish pie, as it is suitable for freezing).
To cook the mussels, add the fish/vegetable stock to a pot with a lid, adding in the cleaned and debearded mussels. Place the lid on the pot and cook for three minutes on a high heat.
Before removing the lid, give the pot a shake. Then take the lid off and discard of any mussels which have not opened.
Next, add the cooked mussels to the haddock (which is already in the beans) and keep on the heat for five minutes.
Put the haddock in the pan with the bay leaf and pour over enough milk to cover. Bring to a boil and once simmering, turn the heat off and leave for five minutes.
Next, ensure that the fish is cooked and then remove the fish from the milk, flaking it into chunks and discarding of any skin and bones.
Add the flaked fish and a little poaching milk into the beans, discarding/freezing the rest of the milk.
Finally, season with salt and pepper and garnish with chopped parsley.
LEEK AND GORGONZOLA RISOTTO (Serves 4)
Ingredients
2 tsp of olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
1L of vegetable stock
300g of risotto rice
250ml of white wine, dry
4 leeks, chopped into 1 cm rondels
2 tbsp of olive oil
10g of butter
10 sprigs of thyme, destalked
100g of Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
METHOD
To start, heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the onion and sweat down for five minutes until soft, but not brown. In a separate pot, heat the vegetable stock.
To cook the risotto, add the risotto rice to the softened onions and mix well. Keep the mix on a gentle heat and start to ladle in the white wine, bringing the heat to a medium simmer.
Once the wine has evaporated, add in the vegetable stock a little at a time and stir well until the rice has absorbed the stock. Then, add in another ladle of stock until all the vegetable stock has been absorbed. The rice should be creamy and cooked through but still have a bit of bite to it.
Next, pan-cook the leeks in a bit of oil, adding a knob of butter and cook until soft. Once cooked through, add the leeks to the risotto and stir thoroughly.
Next, crumble the Gorgonzola cheese over the risotto. Remove from the heat, add a lid and leave covered for two to three minutes before serving.
Season to taste, serve and enjoy.
