Fish tacos

It's all about the Mexican food in this house. I got carried away while watching Mexican Food Made Simple and ordered a whole big box of Mexican goodies from the Cool Chile Co. A lot of chipotle based products, some tortillas and various other delicious bits and bobs. First I made corn and courgette tacos (the recipe is here, but it's the corn and courgette salad I made before on tortillas), which was wonderfully fresh and flavoursome.
But then I wanted to try something new. And I don't think that I've ever had fish tacos. They don't seem to have crossed the Atlantic in any great numbers. But Americans seem to love them. I'm not sure how authentically Mexican they are, but what could be better than a lovely corn tortilla wrapped around beer battered fish, splodged with chipotle mayonnaise, and sprinkled with some shredded cabbage, coriander and lime juice?

The recipe for the beer battered fish came from Tide and Thyme. I used 2 fillets (350g) haddock and that made loads of tasty fishy chunks. The chipotle mayonnaise was a combination of  chipotle ketchup, mayo and lime juice. And it was really bloody delicious.

Chocolate apricot upside down cake

Once again, I am entering We Should Cocoa by the seat of my pants. Today's the last day for entries, but I really wanted to enter this time as the extra ingredient was apricots. I love baking with apricots - an apricot and almond tart is one of the great pleasures of the world. But I thought that the addition of chocolate might work better with another fine fruity pud - the upside down cake.

And this is one of those cakes where everything went wrong. I (or, if we're being totally honest, Mr 'Splorer) had to go to the shops about 3 times to pick up things I thought we had but we didn't. My attempt at caramel split the moment it hit the cake tin. (Not caramelized enough? Any hints most welcome!) I made half the chocolate cake recipe, spread it on the apricots, decided it wasn't enough so had to make another half the recipe as fast as I could. (Luckily it was a 'just weigh it and mix it' type recipe.) And it took bloody ages to cook. 

When it was done, it wasn't quite what I expected. The chocolate cake was denser than I imagined, and the apricots were rather subsumed within the cake mixture, rather than being a beautiful topping. And I think actually half the recipe would have been enough cake. But it was one of those recipes where your thought process goes along these lines: 'oh dear, this is a bit of a disaster ... doesn't taste too bad though ... must have another go at it soon ... I think I'll just have another slice ... hmm, that's quite nice actually ... now where's it all gone?'

I took some of it to work and received this in depth review: 'It was interesting cake. Tastier than it sounded, but I think this is due to your excellent sponge-making and good sticky apricot mush on top, which was zingy as well as sweet. Yumski!' Not too bad a write up, really. 


So I don't think this is a polished and ready recipe but basically what I did was use the topping from this Bill Granger apricot upside down cake recipe and covered it in this old fashioned chocolate cake by Nigella. Might have to give both those recipes a try by themselves actually.

Ham and olive cake

As I think I have mentioned before, I take a lot of flack (during work lunch hours mainly) for the number of foods that I don't like (raw tomatoes, mushrooms, mustard, custard, coffee, celery, soggy aubergine ...) But, dear reader, I promise you that I am working on it. That whole 'keep trying it until you like it' thing really does work. And also what works is getting other people to make you delicious meals. I date my new-found love of olives to a couple of amazing dishes: a prawn, olive and feta pilaf made by my big brother and a spaghetti puttanesca made by my friend Tom. 

Now I'm a little bit addicted to them. Their salty savouriness really is quite marvellous, isn't it? And also, now that I like them a whole load of new recipes has opened up to me. Just wait until I start liking raw tomatoes (ugh!) - the sandwich possibilities will be endless...

My latest foray into olive based cookery is this ham and olive cake, a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe from the Guardian. You can find the recipe here. My Mum actually made it first, as little muffins, and it was delicious. So, when I signed up for a volunteer day with The Wildlife Trust raking hay and doing other helpful woodland-type tasks, and realised that a soggy over-margarined sandwich from the work canteen (quite possibly containing tomatoes) was not going to cut it, I thought of savoury cake.

And these big wodges were perfect at providing the energy required to rake hay through rain and sunshine. It's kind of heavy, so in future I might cut it a little more thinly! But, as Hugh suggests, it's perfect for all kinds of picnics and alfresco eating opportunities. Or packed lunches. Or, you know, just dinner in front of the TV. In fact, I'm struggling to think of an occasion which wouldn't be enhanced with a bit of savoury cake.

The cows weren't that impressed though. Holding out for the hay, no doubt. 

Doubles

I would like to dedicate this post to all the poor foreign types trying to cope with the British summer. This is Mr ‘Splorer’s third British summer. And he is, bless him, still struggling. He still goes out without a jacket if the sun is shining, in the naïve assumption that sun = warmth. He still doesn’t remember that the very instant the sun goes down, all warmth disappears. And he’s still trying to find some order in the chaos. After a couple of weeks in which a cold few days were invariably followed by a warm few days, he decided that that was a pattern. This helped him to greet the next patch of cold with equanimity, but I did feel that it would be unfair not to prepare him for the fundamental truth of the British summer: ANY weather could arrive at ANY time. That’s one theory about why we’re so into talking about it, apparently. And it is also why the moment the sun starts shining, it’s practically one’s national duty to dash outside, scooping up potato salads, quiches and sausages as one goes. 

This is a recipe for the days in a British summer when the sun is not shining. For the rainy Saturdays when you squelch home from your Zumba* class muttering to yourself about inconvenient puddles and how it’s always raining at the weekend. It’s comforting but also tropical. In fact, you could eat it and imagine you're sheltering from the afternoon shower on a Caribbean island. Just don’t look out of the window.

Doubles are apparently a Trinidadian street food and the recipe is courtesy of the wonderful Maddhur Jaffrey and her fantastic World Vegetarian book (also famous in this household for her Korean pancakes recipe). They are really simple – chickpeas cooked with tinned tomatoes and some spices wrapped in fried flatbread and served with some splodges of mango chutney and spicey sauce. Maddhur gives a recipe for the flatbreads but I cheat and use bhatura, a Punjabi fried flatbread bought from my local ethnic food emporium.

It's one of those recipes that is so much more than the sum of its parts and has become a firm favourite in this household. It definitely cheers up Mr 'Splorer! And it's really quick and can be mostly cobbled together from basic larder ingredients: onion, garlic, tinned chickpeas, tinned tomatoes and spices. Just pick up your bread and you're away. Oh, and don't forget your condiments.

Doubles 

(adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian)

Serves 2

1 tin of chickpeas

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or crushed

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 hot chilli, chopped finely

1/2 tin chopped tomatoes

Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and add the onion. Cook and stir for about five minutes before adding the garlic. Cook for another 30 seconds or so, then add the spices, followed by the chilli, tomatoes and then the chickpeas. Add about half a pint of water. Bring to the boil and then simmer until the liquid has mostly disappeared.

Serve with four warm bhaturas, mango chutney and hot sauce. Madhur says that the way they are served in Trinidad is with the filling sandwiched between two breads (is that perhaps where the name comes from?). However, I found that pretty much impossible to eat without getting it absolutely everywhere. After a few experiments, I recommend rolling it up and then wrapping in silver foil, like a burrito. Still not elegant, but it does reduce the chances of getting mango chutney down your front.

* Slightly cult-like but also excellent dance based fitness thing.