Monthly Archives: March 2015

Tip to make peeling butternut squash easy!

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Butternut squash is the most glorious of vegetables.  But how can it possibly feature in a blog of recipes for travelling – a website for cooks who want good food without too much effort, and who are probably working in a very restricted kitchen – if they have a “kitchen” at all?  After all, to peel butternut squash requires a very sharp peeler, strong arm muscles, time, and determination.

Not with this simple trick, it doesn’t.  Put the unpeeled squash in a bowl or a saucepan (cut the squash in two if you don’t have a bowl / pan big enough to cover the whole thing).  Save washing up by using a pan you will be cooking in.

Cover it as much as you can with boiling water and let it stand for a couple of minutes.  If you can’t cover the whole piece of squash, just turn it round carefully in the water while it sits, so that most parts get a fair go in the water,

Drain it, let it get cool enough to handle, and now even a blunt peeler will glide through the skin!

It’s harder for the bivvy brigade, or campers with very limited facilities, to use this trick, but many even of them will have a kettle, a saucepan and a peeler.  And if you’re really roughing it, the water you used to soften the butternut squash might even do as hot water to wash up as you go!

And of course this tip is golden (like butternut squash) for making life easier back home.

Happy quick and easy cooking and – bon appétit!

Anna

A tip for tuna from Julia Child, and my best-ever recipe for fresh tuna fish

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We are all exhorted to eat more fish, but are too often constrained by complaints that the bones make it too difficult to eat, or it’s too strong-tasting.  Is it going to have to be fish fingers, or fish and chips, again?

Enter the tuna fish, or “tunny fish” as you will rather delightfully find it called in older English cookery books.  I’m talking about fresh tuna here, not the tinned variety (though I happily use tinned when it suits the recipe and my convenience).  There are no bones in a tuna steak, and if your picky eaters find the taste a bit strong, take this tip which I found in Julia Child’s compelling book My life in France, the story of her lifelong love affair with France and French food (the autobiography is rather less daunting than the actual cookery books).

She suggests soaking fresh tuna for five hours in water to which you have added a good dash of vinegar – she does not specify what vinegar but presumably she would have used wine vinegar since the ladies who told her this tip were the fishwives selling fish in the Marseilles market.  It works with whatever vinegar your store cupboard can offer.  Anything from white wine vinegar to traditional malt.  But the stronger-tasting the vinegar, the less you should use.  No vinegar?  Use a small squeeze or squirt of lemon juice instead.

Julia Child tells how the Marseilles fishing fleet had got a big run of tuna and that while the run was on the fishermen just went on and on fishing for more, all hours of the day and night (this is the south of France in the years following World War II):  “I couldn’t resist and bought a big slice of tuna, its flesh bright red.  The market ladies said to soak it in vinegar and water, to avoid an overly fishy taste, which I did for five hours.  The flesh turned almost white.  The I braised it with a purée de tomates, oignons étuvés a l’huile, champignons, vin blanc and quelques herbes.  Marvellous!”

Marvellous indeed, but probably not a recipe for the traveller or holiday maker (though I am tempted to have a go at a simple version – I’ll blog it if it works).  There are lots of superb very easy recipes for tuna, and the soaking isn’t necessary unless your diners don’t like the meaty-ness of tuna.  Even if you do soak it doesn’t have to be the 5 hours Julia Child used.

If you are bringing food back from the shops at the end of the day and all you have available is half an hour while you dig out the other stuff for supper, you’ll be surprised at how much difference even that small amount of soaking time makes. And if you can leave the water and vinegar ready in the morning so that you can put the tuna in to soak straightaway, before you have even taken off your muddy boots or other footgear, the soak time will be the best part of an hour (especially if you need something liquid inside you before you embark on making supper).   Or you can put the tuna and vinegar-water mix in the fridge, in a covered bowl or a leak-proof plastic bag , before you go out and come back to find it well steeped.

Do keep the fish chilled of course, it you are leaving it long.  And go easy on the vinegar until you find the strength that suits you – too little is better than too much and still surprisingly effective.

Oh and if you want to know more about Julia Child, a towering figure in American cookery who brought French cooking to the US but who is still remarkably little known the other side of The Pond, the film Julie and Julia is well worth a watch. And read My life in France, by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme

Our absolutely favourite recipe for tuna is unbelievably simple:

Tuna with caraway cream sauce recipe

Happy quick and easy cooking and – bon appétit!

Anna

 

 

Fresh tuna fish with caraway cream sauce

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I adore caraway, a taste I fell for when I fell for Prague.  Some people hate caraway however, and even I don’t want it absolutely always. So be footloose and fancy free:  be inventive – the recipe works very well with just about any herb or spice that is your favourite, or which you happen to have available, and changing the herb or spice makes a different dish every time. Just make sure your choice “feels” right with the cream in the sauce: imagine the taste in advance, and think a bit about the geography of the fact that it is marrying with cream.  So smoked paprika would give a touch of Hungarian dash, ground coriander something delicate and aromatic, and even a mild curried sauce works well.  But given the cream, don’t try to go all Mediterranean and slice a few olives in it (that would be a different sauce, probably made with tomatoes …).

If you’ve got just one herb/spice and you’re not sure if it will work – try it anyway!  You’ll find something out, and as long as you don’t tell your diners that you are uncertain about it they will probably wolf it down.

This recipe uses ground caraway, but use whole seeds if you prefer or that is all you have – it makes a slightly different dish, but just as good.

The essence of it

Lightly saute the tuna steaks.  When they are nearly cooked, stir the herb/spice into the oil to cook briefly.  Add some cream and season.  Dish up with the sauce over the tuna.  Voilà!

Bon appétit!

Anna

And now in more detail

Ingredients per person

A tuna steak of the size you like or can get (150 gr will be on the small end of things,  250 gr for heartier appetites)

Cream – a couple of tablespoons (any of soured cream, cream. or creme fraiche are all good)

Ground caraway seed – or unground caraway, or almost any other herb or spice you choose.  1/2 a tsp or so of caraway per person.  Most herbs or spices you could probably use nearer a tsp, but to little is better than too much – this produces a very delicate sauce, to match the delicacy of the cream.

Salt and pepper

Butter or oil to cook

If you think your diners will find tuna quite a strong-tasting fish – it’s always referred to as “meaty”, then have a look at this tip to make the flavour more delicate.

Put a little oil or butter in a shallow pan that is as nearly the size of the pieces of tuna as you have available, and gently sauté the the tuna steaks until they are nearly done.

How long this will take will depend on whether you have ended up with steaks that are thin cut or thick cut – anything from about 4 minutes to 10 or more.  If they are very thick, sear both sides on a high heat and then let them cook as gently as possible so they don’t get hard.

When the steaks are nearly done – test them by snipping through the thickest part with a pair of scissors if you are uncertain – push them to one side of the pan.  (If the tuna fits into the pan so snugly that it is taking up all the room, remove the steaks to a plate and cover them with foil if possible to keep the tuna warm.)

Stir the herb/spice into the oil for about a minute to cook it briefly.  Add some cream and salt and pepper and stir the sauce as it warms through, avoiding boiling it if you can.  If you had to remove the tuna from the pan to make the sauce, put it back in for long enough to warm through.

Dish up with the cream sauce spooned over the tuna.

And now some variations

It doesn’t have to be tuna:  this dish works well with any white fish – cod, plaice, dabs haddock.  And salmon or trout.  Don’t go there though, I think, with mackerel or herring.

You can make the sauce more substantial in all sorts of ways – useful if pieces of fish you bought by pantomine and gestures in a foreign market turn out smaller than you had expected.  Saute an onion before you add the tuna;  or some mushrooms; or both.  If you add veg in this way, you will probably need more cream.

And now you have a dish fit for a dinner party!

Happy quick and easy cooking and – bon appétit!

Anna

 

 

Glorious Butternut Squash Gratin

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This dish combines the sunshine of butternut squash with the tang of red peppers, topped off with either cheese and breadcrumbs for crunch, or else meltingly soft cheese. The perfect antidote to a grey, miserable day like the one when I am writing this, but a wonderful reflection of the weather on a sunny day.

Butternut squash is perhaps the most glorious of the vegetables that are readily available now but were almost unheard of in the UK a couple of decades ago.  It tastes fantastic, keeps extremely well, and it even grows happily in our climate.

But butternut squash is the devil’s own job to peel.  So how can it make an appearance in a blog of recipes for travelling – recipes for cooks who want good food without too much effort and probably with less than first class facilities?

It can do this because a simple trick transforms the murderous chore of peeling butternut squash.  Put the unpeeled squash in a bowl or a saucepan (cut in two if necessary) and cover it as best you can with boiling water.  Let it stand for a couple of minutes and drain it.  Now even a blunt peeler in an ill-equipped holiday cottage glides through the skin.  It’s not a trick for the bivvy brigade, or campers with very limited facilities, but if you have a kettle, a saucepan and a peeler, you’re in the frame!

You can make this dish in an oven, or finish it off under the grill, but it is especially brilliant made in a Remoska.  The top heat does something special to it.

If you don’t have any of these, it can certainly be made on a hob, but you’ll need to be happy with the topping being soft melted cheese – and why shouldn’t you be?!

The essence of it –

 Sauté or roast onions, red peppers and butternut squash, all chopped to bite size.  Top with cheese and breadcrumbs, or just cheese and brown the top in the oven or under the grill (or sprinkle cheese over the top, put a lid on and wait for the cheese to melt.  That’s all!  You have to eat it to believe how good it is.

Happy quick and easy cooking and – bon appétit!

Anna

And now in more detail –

Ingredients for four people

A large butternut squash, or two smaller ones

Up to one pepper per person, ideally red, or yellow, but green is good too and produces a different dish.   Half a pepper per person is fine for smaller appetites

2 medium onions – red onions if you are feeling fancy, but white are good too.

50 gr / 2 oz cheese per person for topping, more for hearty appetites.  Lots of different cheeses will work – see the detailed recipe

A small handful of breadcrumbs per person, if you can get hold of breadcrumbs.  Use just cheese if you can’t – equally good, just different

Your preferred oil for cooking

Salt and pepper

Click here for Remoska instructions, otherwise here is how to make it with just a single burner, or an oven, or a single burner and grill.

Chop the onions, not too finely, and sauté them gently in the pan while you de-seed and chop the peppers, also not too finely.

Add the chopped peppers to the pan while you peel the butternut squash, stirring the pan from time to time.  Turn the heat down or take it off the heat temporarily if the veg are beginning to colour.

The pieces of butternut squash should be bite-sized.  Add them to the veg mix and continue to sauté, stirring from time to time, until they have softened but still have some bite.

If you are lucky enough to have been able to use a pan that will go under the grill or in the oven, add the cheese topping and grill it until brown, or put the dish with topping in a hot oven until the top is browned.  This might be 10 minutes 200C, or 15 at 180C – whatever suits your plans, and the vagaries of the oven you are working with.  Just keep an eye on it until it looks attractive and ready.

If you have no grill or oven, then put the cheese over the top, add a lid and leave it undisturbed for about five minutes on an extremely low heat (you may need to use a heat diffuser).  If your cooking equipment is not that sophisticated, just take the pan off the hob – it won’t lose much heat with a lid on.  When the five minutes is up, open it, discover nicely melted cheese, and serve.

If you ask “what cheese?”, I will answer “what cheese do you have?”.  If you have the wherewithal and time to make decent breadcrumbs, or can get them in a shop (not those horrid yellow-orange things), then a mix of just plain cheddar and breadcrumbs takes some beating. Grate the cheese and mix it loosely by hand on a plate with roughly an equal volume of breadcrumbs (how many breadcrumbs can be very haphazard – it makes a very good but different dish whatever proportions you use).

If you’re using breadcrumbs, Cheshire or Wensleydale or Lancashire could be good, or similar hard cheeses.  You could give it a go with anything you can grate.

If you don’t have or don’t want breadcrumbs, or if your facilities mean you have to just melt the cheese by leaving the lid on the pan, then the world’s your oyster.  You are spoilt for choice.  What cheeses do you know that melt nicely and whose flavour would work with peppers (which are probably more finicky about what they go with than the serene and charming butternut squash is)?  Gruyere is the ultimate melting cheese, with emmental following close behind, and if cutting the cook’s work is more important than keeping to a tight budget, both have the advantage that they are often available ready-grated in supermarkets. Or what about some very ripe camembert or brie that needs eating up sliced over the top?  Or mozzarella roughly torn?

If this dish could ever seem to be putting in too many appearance and to be in need of a makeover (it hasn’t yet here, despite multiple repeat outings), you could dress it in entirely new clothes by using a blue cheese – stilton left over from Christmas (it freezes well for exactly this sort of purpose), gorgonzola, cambozola – a whole range of blue cheeses.