Salted American Pancakes with Brown Pickle

Add two medium eggs to a glass bowl, a heaped dessert spoonful of cornflour, and three desert spoonfuls of whole milk. Add a teaspoonful of salt. A pinch of oregano is optional. Stir the mix together, until the cornflour is blended together with the other ingredients, then beat the mixture with a whisk for a few minutes. Repeat the process two more times.

Preheat a flat non-stick pan containing a brushing of sunflower oil, until a couple of drips of the pancake mixture begins to bubble and brown. Add a ladle full of the mix for each pancake. Cook for two and a half minutes each side. Turn down the heat until the pancakes are ready (if you are using an electric hob). Turn up to a high heat for each of the subsequent pancakes, and reduce the heat during the cooking process.

Serve with a dessert spoonful of brown pickle. Delicious!

Basa Fish with Green Beans

Basa fish, from Morrison's,  farmed in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, with Kenyan green beans, plus some boiled potato, grown (probably) somewhere close to my house. An excellent Sunday lunch.

I've cooked Basa fish before, and it is otherwise known as 'river cobbler' or catfish. The fish is delicious, and it can be cut (as here) so that generally the fillet is bone free.

The potatoes were cooked earlier in the day. I used a flat bottomed pan to cook the fish in a little sunflower oil. The pan was on a high heat when I put in the fish, then I turned the heat down to the lowest level. The fillet was turned at seven minutes (under glass), and cooked for another seven minutes, with the lid at an angle to allow steam to escape.

The potatoes were added to the pan just before the fish: their sizzling told me the pan was at the right heat.

The green beans were simmered in a separate pan for fifteen minutes at a low heat under glass.

Dust the plate with some white pepper before serving.

Pan-fried Coley Fillet

Fresh north Atlantic Coley fillet, which is a relative of Cod, bought from Morrisons.  Cooked slowly in a large flat non-stick pan, with either a little butter, or sunflower oil.

Cooked at a low heat, five minutes each side in a preheated pan. The fillet was quite thick, otherwise a shorter cooking time would be possible. I also cooked it under glass for the last five minutes, to make sure it was cooked all through, which is something you can determine by eye.

The fish flesh is so delicate it is difficult to get it out of the pan without it beginning to flake. A delicious fish, with very few bones, if the fillet is cut correctly (this one was). Served with boiled potatoes, steamed green beans, and freshly ground black pepper.

The flavour is very like Cod. The difference is that the Coley flesh is grey until it is cooked, when it turns white. People preferred in the past to have white fish flesh from the start, and so for a long time Coley was a favourite for feeding cats.

Can also be poached in milk.

Pan-fried Steak and Vegetables

Thin-cut beef steak,  pan-fried for one and a half minutes each side.

Steamed vegetables - strips of red pepper, thinly-pared carrot, green beans, spring onion, and a large sliced mushroom. Steamed for six minutes. Ground black pepper to taste. Delicious and quick!

Pan-fried steak and vegetables

Pollo Arrabiata

Pollo (Chicken) Arrabiata. Closely modelled on a meal I had at Vittoria's Restaurant in Edinburgh a couple of years ago. The ingredients are: pan-fried chicken breast pieces, tomato passata, green chilli, one yellow pepper, cut into thin strips, shredded fresh basil, chicken stock.

Pan-fry the chicken pieces until cooked and lightly browned. Add the pieces to the passata, the chopped chilli and yellow pepper. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes. The basil and the chicken stock can be added shortly before the dish is served. 

Serve with flat cut boiled potato. 

Pollo Arrabiata