Brown shrimps: a 5:2 diet treat

Fellow 5:2 dieters will almost certainly have discovered prawns are a great fast day food. What you might not know is that brown shrimps even tastier.

Not that they’re cheap - a 90g packet will cost you about £3.40-something in Waitrose although they’re currently on offer in Sainsbury’s at £6 for two packs - but because they’re so small it looks like you’re getting far more than that weight suggests (great psychology).

The other advantage is of course that unlike potted shrimps they’re not coated in calorific butter which makes them only 87 calories per 100g - or 39 calories for half a pack.

I’ve scattered them over the top of a finely sliced fennel salad (with chilli, mint and lemon juice) and also added them to celery to jazz up a piece of baked fish. Incidentally celery is another wonder ingredient that contains practically no calories at all, if you can face it. Try it this way.

Baked cod with celery and brown shrimps
Serves 2 at 189 calories per portion

1/4-1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
1/2 tsp coarse salt
300g cod (300 cals)
125ml veg stock made with 1/2 tsp bouillon powder (6 cals)
10 sprays oil (10 cals)
50g brown shrimps (44 cals)
110g celery stalks and leaves (10 cals)
1 tsp fish sauce (3 cals)
white pepper
A wedge of lemon (5 cals, if that)

Heat the oven to 190°C. Grind together the chilli and salt. Season the fish on both sides with the chilli mixture and pepper.

Spray half the oil over a baking dish, place the fish in the dish and spray with the remaining oil. Bake for about 10-12 minutes until just cooked. Set aside in a warm place to rest.

Wash, de-string* and slice the celery. Put in a pan with the veg stock and fish sauce, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the shrimps.

Serve the cod on warm plates with the celery and prawns and a wedge of lemon.

De-stringing celery really helps makes it more digestible. just snap it in half and pull away the strings away from the stalk. Simple

Smoked haddock, roast tomatoes and parmesan

A recipe - if you can call it that - which scores on a number of fronts. Easy, only 3 main ingredients, suitable for the 5:2 diet and ideal for those of you who like to keep Monday meat-free

It features smoked haddock which is much more interesting than the unsmoked variety but as low in calories. 100g - less than half the pack I bought - totalled just 85. I managed to put away and freeze 2 other portions which made the £3.71 outlay seem relatively modest.

I baked it with sliced tomatoes and a sprinkling of parmesan which is one of the most 5:2 friendly cheeses because you don’t need that much. In fact it didn’t really register on the scales which confused me when it came to working out the calorie count. In theory 1 tablespoon would be 5g and therefore 22 calories but this can’t have been more than 1g. I’ve adjusted the recipe to make it slightly more cheesy

Serves 1
133 calories

100g undyed smoked haddock (85)
2 medium tomatoes, sliced (20)
1 rounded tbsp parmesan (5g) (22)
a pinch of thyme or zatar (optional)
freshly ground black pepper
6 puffs low cal oil spray (6)

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Squirt the base of your baking dish so the tomato and fish don’t stick. Lay half the tomato slices on the base of the dish and season with black pepper and thyme or zatar, if using. top with the fish, skin side downwards and lay the remaining tomato slices on top. Season, sprinkle with parmesan and spray with the remaining oil. Add 3 tbsp of water to the baking dish then bake for15-20 minutes until the fish is cooked through and the cheese topping lightly browned. Serve with steamed or boiled broccoli (80g = 27 calories) or some new potatoes if you're not on a fast day.

Thai trout and cucumber bake

I hesitate to put Thai recipes in this blog because they involve a significant outlay on ingredients but chances are if you're into Thai or other spicy food you'll have a fair number of them already. And if you haven't you can pick them up reasonably cheaply at an Asian store or stall.

I hesitated even more this time with cucumber in the spotlight over the recent e-coli scare but at the time of writing the connection has not been proved and so long as you wash and peel the cucumber there shouldn't be a problem. There's been absolutely nothing to link British cukes with health scares.

Trout I admit doesn't sound as nice as salmon (the very word is offputting) but it's generally quite a bit cheaper than salmon fillets. They do have a slightly coarser flavour but one you don't notice with the zingy marinade.

It's also low fat, low calorie and so long as you don't overdo any accompanying rice, low carb. Hooray!

Serves 4
350-400g trout fillets or salmon tail fillets
Juice and rind of a lime, preferably unwaxed
1 crushed clove of garlic
A small cube of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 tbsp Thai fish sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp each water and sunflower or vegetable oil
1 small red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped (optional)
A handful of fresh coriander + a bit of chopped mint if you have some
1/2 a cucumber

Rinse the fish fillets and lay them in a single layer in a lightly oiled baking dish. Mix together the lime juice and rind, garlic, ginger, fish sauce and soy sauce and whisk in the sunflower oil and water. Add the chilli, if using together with the coriander stalks, washed and finely sliced. Pour the mixture over the fish and leave to marinate for half an hour.

Heat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4. Peel the cucumber, cut lengthways and scoop out the seeds with the tip of a teaspoon then cut each half into little half moon shapes. Chop the coriander leaves and mint if using then scatter the cucumber and herbs over the fish, spooning over a little of the marinade (See pic for what it looks like just before it goes into the oven) Cover the dish with foil and bake for about 15 minutes until the fish is cooked. Serve with boiled rice. (Also surprisingly nice cold.)

Do you ever use trout and if not what puts you off? Is it the T-word or the bones (not obviously a problem with this recipe) or don't you like salmon either?

Instant French fish paté

I had to spend last week unexpectedly in France for a family funeral - hence the absence of posts - but we went out for the odd meal and I was very taken with the presentation of this fish paté which was brought to the table as an 'amuse' at a restaurant called Larcen.

My guess is that it was whizzed up from some leftover cooked fish along with some spices, a few cooked chickpeas or haricot beans and - I think I heard the waiter saying to the next door table - some mayonnaise. Looks like there was a bit of finely chopped red pepper and cornichon on the top and possibly even some grains of quinoa (or that could have been what was blitzed with the fish). Add a few baked or toasted slices of leftover baguette and you've got yourself a pretty and ridiculously inexpensive starter.

Still catching up on the work I missed last week but hopefully normal service will resume shortly . . .

Fish couscous

Fish couscous might sound an odd idea but it actually works really well, particularly at this time of year when you can get your hands on properly ripe tomatoes without them costing a fortune. (I would also say that it's perfect for summer weather but that seems a bit ironic given the deluge forecast for the West Country today)

It also suits the frugal cook as you can use fish offcuts for it - or even those brick-like fish steaks - and those strange bags of frozen mixed seafood which are tremendously good value but which I can never think quite what else to do with.

I first came across on the west coast of Sicily - it's a speciality of the town of Trapani. (I've just discovered that Ryanair fly there and that it's 33°C there today. Grrrr!) This is the version I put in The Frugal Cook. Apologies for the quality of the pic which was taken as an afterthought . . .

serves 4

2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 large clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 1/2 tsp Moroccan spice mix (see below)
1 tbsp tomato paste
350g ripe tomatoes, skinned and roughly chopped
150g small frozen (or chilled) prawns (the North Atlantic ones are cheapest - and sweetest)
250g skinned white fish fillets or frozen fish 'steaks', cut into small chunks
100g cooked mussels or frozen mixed seafood (optional)
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander or parsley or a mixture of the two
250g instant couscous
Vegetable stock (I use Marigold bouillon powder)
Salt and pepper

Heat a large frying pan over a moderate heat, add the oil and fry the onion for a few minutes until soft. Add the crushed garlic and spice mix, stir and cook for a minute then stir in the tomato paste. Tip in the tomatoes and half a small wine glass of water then simmer over a low heat for about 10 minutes until the sauce has thickened, mashing the tomatoes with a fork as they soften to break them down.

Meanwhile make up the couscous following the instructions on the pack but using vegetable stock instead of water. Add the prawns, fish and mussels or seafood, if using, to the tomato sauce, mix lightly and heat through until cooked (about 5 minutes). Season and stir in the coriander and/or parsley, adding a little more water if needed (you want quite a wet, soupy consistency) Fluff up the couscous with a fork and serve with the fish.

You could also obviously serve this fish stew with rice.

* I think I've mentioned this Moroccan style spice mix before. I make it up in bulk - say 20g each ground cumin and coriander, 10g turmeric and 3-5g hot paprika or chilli powder

Any other bright ideas for frozen - or chilled - seafood mix? Or other frozen fish for that matter. Do you use it?

So how keen ARE you on fish?

Interesting, the feedback - or rather lack of it - on the two recent posts I've done on fish, both of which have excited (if that's the right word) much less response than the ones I've done recently on meat and veg.

I'm intrigued to know why this is. It's possible, of course, you didn't like the sound of either recipe (well, I did say the skate smelt of ammonia which is hardly a come on) But the chowder was actually pretty nice.

Does this mean you're not really that keen on fish? And is that because you don't like the bones or the smell or don't really know what to do with it?

Trout, for example, is a really thrifty buy (see the newspaper-wrapped trout recipe in the Frugal Cook book which is easy, delicious and fun). Tinned sardines, mackerel and tuna are still cheap despite the recent price rises. Healthy as well. Frozen prawns are great value, especially the little North Atlantic ones, as are frozen white fish fillets - great for a fish pie. And you can actually make quite a tasty fish stew or chowder with those compacted frozen fish 'steaks' which have the advantage of no skin or bones.

So do tell - I'd love to know.

Skate knobs with capers

Prior to The Great Lurgy (from which I am fully recovered, thankyou) I'd picked up a couple of interesting buys I was going to cook up and report on. They got transferred to the freezer but I thought I'd have a crack at them this weekend to alleviate the tedium of tackling my tax return.

The first was what are peculiarly called 'skate knobs' (don't snigger) the sweet little nuggets of fish you find by the bone of skate wings. They're a real delicacy which you never find in supermarkets, rarely in fishmongers and just occasionally on a market stall and they're amazingly cheap. I paid £3.82 for 700g, easily enough for three.

Offputtingly they smelt of ammonia when I opened the bag and I was just about to consign them to the bin when my husband, who has the memory of an elephant, remembered this was a common feature of skate. I checked with Jane Grigson's Fish Cookery and he was right (of course) so our meal went ahead as planned. (The smell dissipates on cooking.)

I did very little to them. I simply fried them for a couple of minutes in a mixture of olive oil and butter, add a small splosh of dry white wine, let it bubble up and reduce then added a couple of tablespoons each of chopped capers and parsley and heated the whole thing through. Total cooking time, 5 minutes. We had them with a few new potatoes and the first of the season's purple sprouting broccoli. A real feast.

They would also have been nice deep fried*, I think or in an upmarket fish pie with prawns. They have something of the taste of scampi or scallops but not quite the same firm texture. Do look out for them or see if your local fishmonger can get them for you.

(*Mark Hix of the Independent has a nice recipe here)

Leftover fish curry

As I write the title to this post I'm aware it doesn't sound a big turn on. Leftover fish. Hmmmm. But trust me, it was good.

First of all the fish wasn't cooked, merely the odd bits and pieces that hadn't found their way onto the kebabs that our friend Rich's mate Chris was rustling up for a big family barbecue (mainly tuna and swordfish). Chris is a chef so you'd expect him to come up with something good but this was an impressive use of the scant contents of a holiday villa storecupboard.

Apparently he sweated off a few onions and peppers and about 4 cloves of garlic over a very low heat for about half an hour then added some cayenne pepper and ground coriander, some chopped tomatoes and some water, cooked the sauce until it was thick, added the cubed fish then stirred in a carton of crème fraîche (interesting effect - I'd thought he'd used coconut milk). Think he might also have added a squeeze of lemon (lime would also have been good)

The great thing about fish curries is that people who profess not to like fish much will eat them. You can also use those frozen fish steaks that look unappealingly rectangular on their own but are fine cubed and/or throw in a few cheap frozen prawns or those frozen seafood mixes.

Spiced mackerel in cider

Since I've finished the recipe sections of the book I have the luxury of delving into my cookery books to decide what to cook. I was looking for some ideas of what to do with yesterday's mackerel haul and came up with this recipe from Rick Stein's Taste of the Sea which was first published in 1995 - 13 years ago!

I didn’t have any pickling spice so just substituted a few ingredients from the storecupboard and it worked out fine. Not hugely popular with my other half though who wasn't terribly taken with the idea of cold fish.

Stein remarks how cheap the recipe is but I suppose had the luxury of being able to pick up mackerel for next to nothing where he lived (still does, I think) in Padstow. In those days mackerel was dirt cheap. It's still a reasonably thrifty recipe though.

Spiced mackerel in cider
Serves 4

500 ml cider
1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
3 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
Sprig of thyme
1 bay leaf
1/2 stick of celery or a couple of fennel stalks cut into 2 or 3 pieces
1 tsp whole coriander seeds
1/4 tsp crushed chillies
2.5 cm cube of peeled fresh ginger, sliced
4 large mackerel fillets
A few chopped fennel or dill leaves

Put all the ingredients except the mackerel in a saucepan, add 100ml of water, bring to the boil, turn the heat down and simmer very gently for 30 minutes. Put the fish, skin side upwards in a shallow pan, pour over the infused cider and bring back to the boil. As soon as the surface starts to bubble take the pan off the heat, leave to cool and refrigerate overnight. Remove the fillets from the pan and place in a serving dish. Strain the liquid through a sieve into a bowl or jug. Pick out a few of the carrot and shallot slices and arrange them over the fish then pour over the strained liquid. Serve each fillet of fish with a little of the liquid spooned over the top and sprinkled with a few snipped fennel or dill leaves This goes well with a cucumber and herb salad and new potatoes.

Newspaper-wrapped trout

At the last minute I abandoned the idea of pan-fried trout and almonds because my neighbour downstairs told me that she always used to wrap trout in old newspaper to bake it and that seemed such a brilliantly frugal thing to do I couldn't resist it.

You simple soak a couple of sheets of newspaper in water (two spreads of a tabloid, two pages of a broadsheet) place the trout in the middle, stuff it with lemon and herbs, season it and wrap it in wet newspaper. Then you bake it at a moderate heat (180°C/Gas 4) for 25 minutes. When you unwrap it the skin comes away in one piece leaving you with fabulous, pink succulent flesh

The only downside is that you lose the baking juices which tend to sink into the paper which seems a bit wasteful but you can simply pour over a little extra melted butter and a squeeze of lemon - or of course, make a more elaborate creamy herby sauce.

I was so excited by the whole process I forgot to take a photo but I guess you'll get the picture.

Frugal Fish

I suddenly realised I'd got a bit fixated on meat and it was time to turn my attention to fish. (And veggies, obviously. That's next)

My impression up to now is that if you don't like farmed or tinned salmon (which I don't much) and don't like bones and don't want to eat unsustainable fish or fish that's been flown half way round the world there aren't a lot of options. But in a world of rapidly rising food prices fish seems to have stayed relatively stable.

This is what I found in my local Sainsbury's:

A frozen packet of whitefish fillets (Alaskan pollock, apparently) for £1.27 for 520g. OK, that's a long way for it to travel but at least it's sustainable and it's a terrific price. Together with some small frozen prawns (at £1.99 for 300g much cheaper than large ones) it would make a cracking fish pie (see my student website www.beyondbakedbeans.com for a recipe)

Cod steaks at £2.79 for 568g. Oddly if cod is in a block it's cheaper. Fine for chowders. Enough for four.

2 x rainbow trout for £2.81. That's our supper tonight with the leftover almonds from the weekend's couscous.

Boil in bag kippers at 62p for 220g. OK, I don't much like kippers but it's a cheap weekend brunch if you do.

2 salmon steaks on the bone for £2.44 (as with meat anything on the bone tends to be cheaper)

2 pollock fillets for £2.42. Pollock is sustainable. Hurray! But slightly tasteless so needs a garlicky tomatoey or similarly gutsy sauce with it.

220g of 'Seafood Medley'(I hate the word medley) for £2.99 on a two for one offer. Enough to make a seafood salad (with a Thai-ish dressing I suggest) and a pasta sauce.

Scottish rollmops at £1.09 for 260g. Easily enough for one, maybe two. Good with some crusty bread and a cold lager.

Marinated herring at £1.59 for 280g. Great base for a Scandanavian-style herring and potato salad. With dill if you can find some at a reasonable price.

Smoked mackerel at £1.87 for 292g. You could make a decent size batch of paté with this or a filling for a large quiche. Smoked mackerel is a great buy.

So, plenty of reasonably priced options then. And think of the good all that oily fish will do you . . .

Being a 'locavore'

Bit of a lapse from grace to report. Two restaurant meals in the past 48 hours. Maybe it's the realisation we're due back in England next week and will no longer be able to sit in the sun pretending it's June.

Neither meal was wantonly extravagant. The first was at what is basically a seafood caff called Chez Loulou which serves some of the most brilliantly fresh shellfish and fish I've ever eaten. The second was at a restaurant that overlooks the oyster beds at Bouzigues.

I'm not going to tell you the name because it's a mercifully Brit-free zone which is becoming increasingly rare in this part of France. Not that I mind my fellow countrymen, I just don't want them to outnumber the French.

I justified the whole exercise to myself on the following grounds

a) I was eating local food and drinking local wine. Being a 'locavore' (someone who does just that) is very PC these days

b) Oysters are ridiculously cheap here - about 8 euros (just over £6 a dozen - enough for two)

c) Grilled fish and oysters are hugely healthy

d) Oysters were at one time the food of the poor so I was just undertaking a bit of historical research . . .

Still, not exactly frugal, I must confess.

A crisp, healthy winter salad

Yesterday's shopping trip wasn't wildly exciting but yielded some good bargains. 2 kilos of oranges (11 in total) for €1.99 (£1.48), a kilo of endive or chicory for €1.39 (£1.04) and a huge bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley for 78p. That'll last all week.

I don't know why chicory is so much cheaper in France. You'd be lucky to get two heads in England for the price I paid. We'll bake some tonight with the 'Label Rouge' chicken we bought (also reasonable value at €6.53 or £4.86) and probably have some tomorrow wrapped in ham topped with cheese sauce but today I used two to make a simple salad together with a couple of the oranges, some chopped green olives and a can of mackerel (the latter ingredients retrieved from the back of the storecupboard). And a generous handful of chopped parsley. The dressing was made from the juice of half of one of the oranges and some of the oil from the olive jar. Lots of pepper - a bit of cayenne wouldn't have gone amiss - but you couldn't fault it for healthiness. Oily fish and all.

If you can't get hold of any cheap chicory you could substitute fennel or celery.

Incidentally, as you may have gathered, I didn't flake out as a result of eating the out of date Caprice des Dieux which was perfectly fine. Not that I would urge you to follow my example. Heaven forbid.

In praise of smoked haddock

Phew! I was so busy planning and shopping and cooking yesterday I didn't have time to post. A productive day, though.

First, I managed to restrain my natural instinct to stock up as if it were Christmas when we have friends round. Or rather when the neighbours do. I'm just providing the main course. I decided what it should be in advance (slow roast shoulder of lamb) and stuck to it. A good buy - for organic meat - at £14.82. A similar sized leg of lamb would have been at least £10 more expensive

I also bought two large fillets of smoked haddock from the local fish shop (Fishworks) to experiment with. I haven't cooked it for a while but it lends itself beautifully to leftovers. Which is just as well as it's expensive these days. I paid £12.60 for 850g including a 10% discount which you can get simply by signing up online to their Seafood Club

I cut up the fish and poached it in water. (Just cover with cold water, bring to the boil and skim off any white frothy scum then simmer very slowly for 5 minutes) then removed the fillets, slipped them off their skin and carefully flaked them. (This is the tedious bit. You have to watch like a hawk for bones. The best way is to run your fingers over the fish to make sure you haven't left any behind)

I made a kedgeree with a third of the fish. Found I didn't have any curry powder so spiced it with turmeric, coriander and a pinch of cumin and chilli powder and served it with a cucumber raita.

I folded the next third into a small amount of white sauce which I made from soy milk* as my husband is dairy intolerant. Infused the milk first with half an onion (used the other half in the kedgeree) which gave it a bit more flavour and grated in a bit of parmesan which curiously doesn't seem to upset him. This we can have on toast for supper tonight with more cheese on top like a fishy Welsh rarebit.

With the final third I made a kind of smoked haddock paté/ brandade by blitzing the remaining fish with butter and a little milk, just enough to make it whizz easily in the blender and seasoned it with lemon juice, chilli powder, black pepper and a pinch of mixed spice. (No nutmeg or mace in the cupboard which would have been ideal). That will do for little hand-round toasts with drinks before lunch. So the fish will have stretched to 9 portions which isn't bad.

On the debit side I found some uneaten leftovers lurking in the fridge which I should have checked before I went out shopping, including some thawed frozen raspberries I was going to use for a pudding and never got round to. Hadn't fortunately gone mouldy so I simmered them up into a fruit compote which we can have with yoghurt for breakfast. There was also the best part of a bunch of celery (shall braise that to go with the lamb), some leftover puff pastry (could be used as lids for the creamy smoked haddock - an instant pie) and some sprouting seeds. (They're gone I'm afraid. Would be cheaper to sprout your own)

There's also a very elderly loaf which is possibly rescuable for breadcrumbs if I remove all the crusts, cut into cubes and whizz up in the blender (can then be frozen) and some very heavy spelt bread which I can't for the life of me think how to use. Heavy ethical issue here - should you chuck away food you don't like?

Blimey! It's hard work this frugal eating.

* Incidentally it's much cheaper to buy soy milk off the shelf than in the chill section. Saved about 30p there.