Swordfish in tomatoes with olives and capers

I got my inspiration for this from a regular newsletter I get from eatingwell.com  And they say they were inspired by Mediterranean cooking in Sicily and Calabria. Ah Magna Graecia! I didn’t follow their recipe exactly and amongst other changes substituted their green olives with my favourite mammoth black ones. I served it one evening with roast vegetables and another with gnocchi whereas the original recipe had polenta as a core element. Mine tasted like I was in Athens. 🇬🇷

Ingredients

Olive oil

2 stalks celery including leaves

3 cloves garlic crushed

1 can (400 gr) diced tomatoes

8 mammoth black olives

3-4 tbs chopped fresh basil

1 tbs capers

400 gr swordfish

Mode

Heat the oil in a pan large enough to simmer all the ingredients

Chop the celery

Crush the garlic

Lightly fry the garlic and celery

Add the tomatoes and olives and stir occasionally

Chop basil and add it and capers

Turn down heat and simmer for about 5 minutes

Add the swordfish steaks and stir to cover the fish

Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes

Prawn pizza

Another weekend another pizza but not one for the Sunday pizza group. I had bought some prawns for a pizza on Friday and couldn’t resist making something with them on Saturday. It was delicious! How grateful am I to have fresh seafood on hand at my local Piedimonte’s! 

Ingredients

1 wholemeal Lebanese bread

Sundried tomato pesto

Mozzarella 

Cooked prawns about 250 gr

Green pepper

Mushrooms 

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c

Spread pesto sauce on the Lebanese bread

Slice Mozzarella and add

Place prawns over sauce and cheese

Slice mushroom and sprinkle over

Slice green peppers and sprinkle over 

Bake in 220c oven for 12 minutes

Enjoy on a Saturday or Sunday (or any time). 

Swordfish pie

Well, dear friends of Sunday night pizza from of old (and anyone else who is reading), there is no pizza tonight! Instead last night I cooked a #godoggies pizza which was lovely to eat but with unsatisfactory outcomes for the team I was barracking for on behalf of my mother who lived a long drought supporting them.  

Tonight instead became a swordfish pie night. It ended up being a simple combination of swordfish, rocket pesto, red capsicum and spring onions in puff pastry, but the simple is delicious especially teamed with lemon roasted vegetables as it was. With those flavours I could have been in Greece, though who knows when that may be possible or advisable for any of us?

Ingredients 

250 gr fresh swordfish fillet

2 sheets frozen puff pastry

1 tbs rocket pesto

2 spring onions

1/2 red capsicum

Poppyseeds 

Mode

Preheat oven to 350c

Remove pastry to thaw

Peel and chop spring onions

Roughly chop capsicum

Once pastry thawed place one sheet on bottom of baking dish

Place swordfish on pastry

Spread pesto on fish

Sprinkle spring onion over

Add red capsicum

Place second sheet of pastry over ingredients

Cut off excess and form edges of pie

Add pastry decorative features if desired

Sprinkle with poppyseeds

Cook in 360c oven fir 45 minutes

Lemon potatoes and carrots

Whoops! I had a plan of roast vegetables and swordfish pie for dinner tonight. Then a question on Twitter from @sandrodemaio about what everyone was cooking made me realize that timely cooking of the vegetables was necessary so a sort of compromise Greek lemon vegetables was the result. 

Ingredients

2 large potatoes 

2 carrots

Olive oil

Dry rosemary

6 cloves garlic

1 lemon

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c

Chop potatoes and carrots as desired

Place in ovenproof dish

Sprinkle with rosemary

Crush garlic cloves and add

Douse in olive oil

Cook in 220c oven for 30 minutes

Meanwhile juice the lemon

Pour the juice over vegetables

Return to 350c oven for 45 mins

Sardines with lemon

And with the rest of the sardines, I cooked them with lemon, breadcrumbs and pinenuts. They are to be eaten another night or even frozen and enjoyed even later as I know from previous experience.

Ingredients 

1 lemon

25gr pinenuts

Breadcrumbs 

20 fresh filletted sardines

Mode

Preheat oven to 180c

Juice the  lemon

Arrange the sardines in an ovenproof dish

Sprinkle breadcrumbs over

Add the lemon juice

Sprinkle over the pinenuts

Bake in 180c oven for 30 minutes

Sardines pizza

Sardines!! Yum!! I have never made a pizza with fresh filleted sardines before (or any sardines for that matter). So Sunday night pizza friends this is one to have and repeat. I love sardines and this combination is delicious - πολύ νόστιμο! 

Ingredients

1 Wattle Valley wholemeal wrap

Sun dried tomato pesto

Ricotta

12 fresh filleted sardines 

6 black olives

Pinenuts

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c

Spread pesto on wholemeal wrap

Spoon on ricotta and spread evenly

Place sardines over pesto and cheese

Chop olives and sprinkle in middle

Sprinkle pinenuts over

Bake in 220c oven for 12 minutes

Enjoy on a Sunday (or any time). 

Another Sunday pizza!

Another Sunday and another Sunday pizza though not the one I had planned to cook! Conscious of a request for vegetarian one, I had some chargrilled red capsicums on hand but had forgotten to buy the mushrooms and green pepper I wanted to use. Ah well next Sunday! This pizza is rather one of leftovers I had on hand but nonetheless delicious.

Ingredients

1 Wattle Valley wholemeal wrap

Basil & rocket pesto

Mozzarella 

Sopressa 

1/2 zucchini

1/4 red pepper 

1/4 green pepper

2 black olives

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c

Spread pesto on wholemeal wrap

Slice mozzarella and add

Place sopressa over pesto and cheese

Grate zucchini and add

Slice red and green pepper and olives and sprinkle over 

Bake in 220c oven for 12 minutes

Enjoy on a Sunday (or any time). 

Lemon potatoes

I love lemon potatoes but for some unknown reason have never cooked them. The topic arose in a conversation with @ladymidnight recently and I wondered why I have never done so. We talked about different shapes people cooked them in and after a bit of research in my cookbooks this is what I came up with last night. Just yummy!

Ingredients

2 large potatoes

Dry rosemary

Olive oil

2 lemons

1/2 cup water

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c

Chop potatoes in desired shape

Place in ovenproof dish

Pour oil over potatoes and use hands to ensure potatoes are coated

Sprinkle over dry rosemary

Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes

Meanwhile juice the lemons and add water to lemon juice

Remove potatoes from oven

Pour lemon mixture over the potatoes 

Return to oven for another 40-45 minutes

Friday night footy pizza

Friday night finals footy with Geelong playing so what better thing to do than experiment with pizza. Tonight I experiment with sun dried tomato pesto which I have never tasted before. Otherwise ricotta and various vegetables and olives and anchovies are nothing particularly new. The end result was delicious. Whether Geelong will win remains to be seen. 

Ingredients

1 Wattle Valley wholemeal wrap

Sun dried tomato pesto

Ricotta

Sopressa

1/4 green pepper 

4 mushrooms 

2 black olives

2 anchovies

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c

Place wholemeal wrap on oven tray

Spread the sun dried tomato pesto on wrap

Spread with ricotta

Slice green peppers and mushrooms

Place sopressa  on the ricotta

Add mushrooms, followed by pepper 

Sprinkle over chopped olives and anchovies

Bake in 220c oven for 12 minutes

Enjoy!

Abla garlic chicken with pinenuts

As readers of this blog have no doubt noticed I love Abla’s recipe for garlic chicken wings, though I rarely cook it as she did. And in Melbourne lockdown how would I love to visit Abla’s restaurant, one of my long-time favourites! Instead at home with curfew I am experimenting, inspired by Abla.  I have been yearning for lemon potatoes but maybe that is overkill tonight. I must check the pasta store for orzo or the like.

 Ingredients

16 chicken drumettes (about 1 kilo)
2 dessertspoons rock salt
1/2 cup pinenuts

2 lemons

2 tbs crushed garlic

1 tbs crushed ginger

Mode

Preheat oven to 210c.
Arrange the chicken drumettes in a baking dish
Sprinkle with rock salt and pinenuts
Roast for 30 minutes
Meanwhile juice the lemons
Add minced garlic and ginger to juice

Stir thoroughly

Remove the chicken from the oven and pour the  mixture 

Return to oven and roast for another 25-35 minutes.

Serve with rice, pasta or roast vegetables  

Rocket pesto, salami and ricotta pizza

Ah Sunday evening! What is there to cook except a pizza after years of the tradition of Sunday night pizza? It would be very nice to meet some friends outside in a pizzeria, but that was another time before lockdowns. 

We have no idea when this time will end. So I continue to experiment. Pritikin modified pizzes are the basis of my experiments, though he would not approve of all my changes, as indeed I don’t approve of his low fat options. I have experimented with a few wholemeal/multigrain wraps or Lebanese bread. My absolute favourite to date is one produced by Wattle Valley as shown in the illustration. 

This time produced a delicious combination of wholemeal wrap, ricotta, rocket pesto, and vegetables accompanied by capers and ginger. I can’t say that it is a very traditional pizza but I enjoyed my Sunday night pizza a lot!! 

Ingredients

1 Wattle Valley wholemeal wrap

Ricotta

Salami slices

1/4 red pepper

1/4 green pepper 

2 mushrooms 

1/2 zucchini

1 heaped tsp capers

1 tsp crushed ginger

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c

Place wholemeal wrap on oven tray

Spread the rocket pesto on wrap

Spread with ricotta

Grate zucchini

Slice red and green peppers and mushrooms

Crush the ginger 

Place salami on the ricotta

Add zucchini, followed by peppers and mushrooms 

Sprinkle over capers and ginger

Bake in 220c oven for 12 minutes

Enjoy!

Lazy lentil soup with sage and chili

This recipe is loosely based on a recipe of Diane Kochilas from her book Ikaria. She, however, started from scratch with dried lentils and my other ingredients are slightly different as is my method. But hers was the inspiration to use sage and chili which are not ingredients I had used before in lentil soup. 

Ingredients

1 large brown onion

Olive oil

800 gr canned lentils

400 gr diced tomatoes

6 dry sage leaves

3 dried bay leaves

1 tsp Sambal Oelek

2 cloves garlic

Water

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

Mode

Heat some olive oil in large saucepan on high heat

Roughly chop onion

Add to olive oil and stir to cover with oil

Cook for a few minutes stirring occasionally

Meanwhile peel and crush the garlic 

Drain and rinse the lentils

Add the garlic and Sambel oelek to the onions and stir

Add the bay and crushed sage leaves to the mixture and stir

Add the drained lentils and combine

Finally add the tomatoes and stir

Add about two cups of water and stir

Bring the mixture to the boil and reduce to a simmer

Simmer for about an hour stirring occasionally

Just before serving add the vinegar

Remove the bay leaves and any sage stalks

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and additional vinegar if desired

Pizza with ham, mushrooms and chargrilled red pepper

Another Sunday night, another Sunday night pizza! Once upon a time a long, long time ago some of us used to gather every Sunday for pizza. Now decades later we are scattered but the Sunday night pizza still exists wherever we are though not every Sunday and not often together.

This one of mine, Covid comfort food perhaps or nostalgia for the past, is based on the Pritikin idea of using wholemeal Lebanese bread as a base. I find it a lot lighter than the traditional Italian base and probably healthier.

Ingredients

1 wholemeal Lebanese bread

Pizza sauce from tomatoes (ready made)

Mozzarella 

Ham

Mushrooms 

Chargrilled red pepper

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c

Spread tomato pizza sauce on the Lebanese bread

Slice Mozzarella and add

Place ham over sauce and cheese

Slice red peppers and sprinkle over 

Bake in 220c oven for 12 minutes

Enjoy on a Sunday (or any time). 

Smoked salmon, ricotta and pesto pizza

During Lockdown number five in Melbourne eating and cooking and comfort food have been again on the agenda. I started experimenting with pizzas again, this time going back to methods I had learnt long ago in Pritikin-based cooking. Much has changed since then in terms of the discreditation of his calls for extreme use of low fat products including nuts for example. But there is also much that is valuable in the recipes in relation to exclusion of refined products for example.

This pizza is based on the standard Pritikin pizza base, wholemeal Lebanese bread, with the addition of pesto, ricotta, smoked salmon, grated zucchini, spring onions and capers. It was yummy.

Ingredients

1 wholemeal Lebanese bread

2 spring onions

1 dsp capers

1/2 zucchini

100 gr smoked salmon

120 gr ricotta

2 tbs pesto

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c

Chop spring onions

Grate zucchini

Spread pesto on the Lebanese bread

Add ricotta and smooth

Break smoked salmon into pieces and add

Add spring onions, capers and zucchini 

Bake in 220c oven for 12 minutes

Basil and ginger chicken balls in tomato sauce

Chicken balls with ginger and basil simmered in tomato and basil sauce! Yes!! I used ready made tomato and basil sauce and dried basil I had hanging in the kitchen. And lemon and pepper breadcrumbs. Yum. Yum. And I ate it with whole grain rice and some shaved Parmesan.

Ingredients 

500 gr minced chicken

2 spring onions

2 cloves crushed garlic

3 tsp crushed ginger root

Dried basil

Breadcrumbs

Ready-made tomato and basil sauce

Olive oil

Mode

Place tomato sauce in pan and bring to boil

Reduce to simmer

Chop spring onions

Crush garlic and ginger

Place minced chicken in bowl

Add ginger and garlic and stir to combine

Crumple dried basil and add to mixture

Stir to combine 

Place breadcrumbs on plate

Form balls from chicken mixture and roll in breadcrumbs

Pour olive oil into frying pan and heat

Quickly sear the chicken balls in batches

Add to tomato sauce and simmer for 30 minutes

Baked sardines with orange and lemon

Ah! The second half of my birthday sardines was cooked differently a day or so later. A friend thought from a photo of them that the olive oil was lemon juice, so this time I added lemon and orange juice and used cumin seeds instead of sumac. I ate this lot with potato and sweet potato baked with garlic, rosemary and olive oil.  It wasn’t my birthday dinner but another delicious meal in Melbourne’s latest lockdown.

Ingredients

16 filleted sardines

1/2 lemon

1/2 orange

1 clove garlic

2 tsp cumin seeds

Olive oil

Mode

Preheat oven to 180c

Arrange sardines in baking dish

Crush garlic and add to sardines

Sprinkle over cumin seeds

Add olive oil

Squeeze orange and lemon and add to dish

Bake in 180c oven for 20 mins