Baked Fennel with Tomatoes and Olives

This is a fabulous dish to serve for dinner when you are having friends round.  It can be prepared well in advance, then baked when you're ready and it never seems to mind hanging around in the oven a little longer than necessary!

Not only that, the flavour of the fennel is so delicious and a little out of the ordinary.  It goes well as a side dish with fish, or as a main course with pasta or simply as an accompaniment to other vegetables.

For this recipe, I usually blanch the fennel in boiling water to speed up the baking time.  If you don't have fresh ripe tomatoes, use a well drained tin of plum tomatoes instead.

Ingredients            Serves 4

2 medium bulbs fennel
350g tomatoes
50g pitted black olives
2 cloves garlic 
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 
About half a tbsp fresh thyme

Method

Wash the fennel and trim away the feathery fronds to use as a garnish.  

Slice a thin layer from the base and remove any outer layers that are discoloured.    Quarter the fennel bulbs, then cut each quarter in half. 

Cook in boiling salted water until just tender  - this usually takes about 10 minutes. Remove the fennel from the pan with a slotted spoon, reserving the cooking water.

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 220C/200C fan/Gas Mark 7.

Place the drained fennel in a single layer in a shallow gratin dish. 

Then place the tomatoes in the hot fennel water to remove the skins. After a minute, transfer the tomatoes to a chopping board using a slotted spoon.  The skins should peel away easily.

Leave the tomatoes whole if you are using the cherry variety or cut into quarters if they are larger.  Scatter the tomatoes and the black olives over the top of the fennel.  

Peel and finely chop the garlic and sprinkle over the vegetables, together with the thyme.  Add a good seasoning of salt and pepper.

Finally, drizzle with olive oil and bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Halfway through the cooking time,  baste the fennel with the juices in the dish.

Serve as a side dish with fish,  as a main course with pasta or simply as an accompaniment to other vegetables.

Tabbouleh Salad

Mention tabbouleh and I automatically think of summer picnics on the beach!   It's the ideal salad to take on a day out and somehow tastes even more delicious when you're in a beautiful location!

As long as you have a bag of bulghur wheat stored away in your kitchen cupboard and have some fresh tomatoes, cucumber and herbs handy, you can put this salad together in no time but, if you can, make it a day ahead to allow the flavours to fully develop.  

Unlike the classic tabbouleh, my version contains black olives which I love. They definitely add extra taste, texture and colour to this simple salad.  If you like spring onions, they are a nice addition too.

 

Ingredients

125g bulghur wheat
About 250g ripe tomatoes
Half a cucumber
A generous handful of black olives
A bunch of fresh parsley
(approx 3 tbsp finely chopped)
A small bunch of fresh mint
(approx 2 tbsp finely chopped)
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Salt and Pepper

First put the bulghur wheat in a bowl, cover with plenty of cold water and leave for about 45 minutes. 

(or, for fast soaking, add boiling water and leave for just 20 minutes)

Drain the bulghur wheat through a sieve and press with the back of a large spoon to remove excess water.

Meanwhile make your dressing by whisking together the olive oil and lemon juice in a large bowl. Then add the finely chopped parsley and mint and a good seasoning of salt and pepper. 

Chop the tomatoes and dice the cucumber and add to the herb dressing.  Roughly chop the olives and mix in.

When your bulghur wheat has drained thoroughly,  add to the other ingredients and stir well. 

Cover the salad and place in the fridge overnight. 

TIP
If you don't want to make the whole salad the night before,  just soak the bulghur wheat in water and make the herb dressing. Pour the dressing over the drained bulghur and leave in the fridge overnight.
The next day, all you have to do is add your chopped salad ingredients.

Moroccan Fish Tagine

Even though I haven't eaten meat, eggs or dairy products for thirty years, I'm not vegetarian or vegan as I eat fish.  It's always seemed like the right decision for me and I've never read anything in all that time that has convinced me that eating fish is bad for my health, in fact quite the opposite.

However, I don't eat it that often and when I do, I like to know where the fish I buy comes from so I'm not contributing to over-fishing or unnatural farming practices.  Fortunately, choosing fish clearly labelled sustainable or responsibly sourced and certified by the MSC (Marine Stewardship Council)  is an option that is available to us in the UK.

A few years ago, I came across a recipe for a fish tagine created by the London restaurant "Moro".   I've simplified their recipe but it still retains that wonderful Moroccan flavour and everyone seems to love it.  

Any filleted white fish will do, such as cod, haddock or hake. Just make sure there are no bones for some unsuspecting person to find on their plate or, worse still, in their mouth!  The fish is marinated in a traditional Moroccan charmoula which is what really makes this dish special.  

It's an ideal recipe for a party as you can make most of it in advance,  then simply cook the fish when you're ready to eat.  When you bring your piping hot tagine to the table and remove the lid, your guests will be blown away!

Serve with some good rustic bread, a mixed green salad or a green vegetable.

Ingredients for four people

For the Charmoula:

1 clove of garlic
1 level tsp sea salt
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp red wine vinegar
Juice of half a lemon
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small bunch of fresh coriander

4 thickish fillets of white fish, skinned
3 green or yellow peppers, sliced
18 - 20 small waxy new potatoes

 (e.g. Pink Fir Apple, Charlotte)
About 15 ripe plum/cherry tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
Olive oil
A handful of black olives
100ml water

First make your charmoula.  In a pestle and mortar, grind the cumin seeds to a powder, then tip out on to a plate.   

Now, using your pestle and mortar again, pound together a peeled clove of garlic and a teaspoon of sea salt until creamy smooth. 

Add your ground cumin powder, then the paprika, lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil and finely chopped coriander.  Stir well together. 

If necessary, cut your fish into even sized fillets. Remove the skin if you can and pull out any bones. Place the fish in a shallow dish and pour two thirds of the charmoula over the top.  Then leave to rest in the fridge for at least 20 minutes or up to two hours.

Meanwhile, boil the potatoes in their skins for 10 to 15 minutes until almost tender.  Drain and cool, then peel away the skins and cut in half lengthways.

Peel and finely slice the garlic.  Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan or saute pan. Fry the garlic over a medium heat until lightly browned. 

Add the sliced peppers, cover with a lid and cook until they begin to soften.

Now add the halved tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes on a medium heat until they start to soften.

Pour in the remaining third of the charmoula and stir well.  Add some freshly ground pepper.

(If you're serving this to friends and family, you can prepare everything up to now in advance)

Using a tagine, if you have one, or any casserole dish with a lid that can be placed over a heat source (e.g. a cast iron dish like Le Creuset) first spread the potatoes evenly over the bottom. 

Now put about two thirds of the pepper and tomato mixture over the potatoes.  Then, lay the fish fillets evenly on top of that and put the remaining pepper and tomato mixture over each piece of fish.  

  

Finally, scatter the black olives over the top, add the water and then drizzle on the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. 

Cover with a lid and cook over a medium heat for about 15 minutes (allow a bit longer if you're re-heating the vegetables from cold) until the fish is lightly cooked and flakes easily. 

This looks and smells wonderful when you bring it to the table.  Carefully lift out a piece of fish with a generous portion of potatoes and peppers onto each plate. I serve it in large pasta bowls to catch all the delicious sauce.  

Simple Tomato Sauce

As promised, here's my recipe for a simple tomato sauce.   Despite it's simplicity, a good tomato sauce is endlessly versatile and can be the making of a dish.   Serve it on it's own with pasta,  as an accompaniment to grilled fish or homemade burgers, as a pizza base or with the Olive Polenta and Mediterranean Roasted Vegetables recipe I posted recently!

In the late summer months, I make this sauce with lovely sun-ripened tomatoes from my organic greenhouse. I fry a chopped onion or some shallots and a crushed clove or two of garlic in some good olive oil. When they've softened, I add some roughly chopped tomatoes, simmer the pan over a low heat without a lid until all the juices have reduced and I'm left with a naturally thick sauce. 

Then I put the whole mixture through a vegetable mouli to remove the skins. It's much easier than skinning them beforehand.  The beautiful smooth sauce goes back in the pan with some freshly ground salt and pepper and a handful of torn up basil leaves.  Simple yet intensely flavoured, without the need for any other ingredients and with a natural sweetness that tinned or bought tomatoes never have.

Unfortunately, for most of the year, the British climate can’t provide enough sunshine or warmth for homegrown tomatoes so we have to rely on imported ones which can be a total disappointment with tough skins, no flavour and often rotten before they’re ripe.  Goodness knows how they ever end up in this condition when home-grown ones last for ages!

The only answer is to make a sauce using either half fresh/half tinned tomatoes or just tinned tomatoes on their own though they can be rather acidic. If you ever find any tinned tomatoes without citric acid in the ingredients,  snap them up!  To balance the acidity, you can always add a pinch of sugar. 

There are absolutely no rules when it comes to making tomato sauce and there are any number of variations depending on what you have available. When you're using tinned tomatoes in the winter, I think it's worth adding some extra flavour, like an outer stem of celery that's lurking in the fridge,  a green pepper if you happen to have one handy, a bay leaf or a nice handful of fresh basil leaves.  Adding a teaspoon of sundried tomato paste or some chopped sun-dried tomatoes gives an extra intensity.  If you're making a sauce to eat with pasta,  adding black olives, grilled or baked courgettes, mushrooms or thickly sliced red peppers makes a perfect variation. 

Here's the basic recipe for a Simple Tomato Sauce.

Ingredients 

15ml (1tbsp) olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 stick celery, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 clove garlic, skinned and crushed

400g (14oz) can tomatoes, chopped
1 bay leaf

1 tsp sundried tomato paste

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a saucepan.  I use a wide-based non-stick saute pan with a glass lid. 

Add the onion, garlic and celery.  Cover with a lid and cook for a few minutes, then add the chopped green pepper. 

Cook over a medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes stirring occasionally.  The vegetables need to soften but don’t let them brown.

Add the tinned tomatoes with it's juice, the sundried tomato paste and some freshly ground salt and pepper and bring to a simmer.

Continue to cook gently without a lid for about 15 minutes until the sauce has reduced and thickened.

  

If using, add your extras such as halved black olives,  grilled courgettes and peppers, fresh basil leaves etc. 

A FEW FINAL TIPS ....

Save the oil drained from a tin of tuna and use instead of olive oil. It adds a lovely depth of flavour.

If your tomato sauce has cooked too long and gone very thick, add a spoonful or two of the water you've cooked your pasta in. 

VARIATIONS ON A THEME  ....  some extras

A Red or yellow pepper, deseeded and cut into pieces 

Drizzle with olive oil, cook until golden under a hot grill and stir in at the end

1 Courgette, sliced or cut into wedges

Add to the sauce before the tomatoes or cook under a grill as above

50g (2oz) Sun-dried Tomatoes in olive oil, drained and chopped

Add at the same time as the tinned tomatoes

Mushrooms, quartered or sliced 
Add to the sauce before the tomatoes or cook under a grill as above

15-20 Black Olives, stones removed and cut in half
Add towards the end of the cooking time 

Olive Polenta with Roasted Mediterranean Vegetables

In this recipe, each of these lovely vegetables retain their individual identity yet combine to create the flavour of the Mediterranean.   The polenta is made in advance, then quickly fried to give a crispy outside and soft middle.

Serve with a tomato and olive sauce - I'll be posting that recipe next time!

Ingredients                                                                         
Serves 4 people

Polenta:

110g (4oz) maizemeal (polenta)

20 fl.oz (1 pt) boiling water

1 vegetable stock cube (Kallo Organic)

28g (1oz) dairyfree margarine

28g (1oz) black olives, stoned and chopped

Salt and Pepper

2 red onions

1 red pepper

1 orange or yellow pepper

1 aubergine

1 or 2 courgettes

Extra-virgin Olive Oil

Polenta is a traditional Italian ingredient made from ground maize and is a wonderful golden-yellow colour.  It’s so easy to cook in the microwave and can be made with water or vegetable stock for extra flavour.

First make your polenta.  Put the maizemeal into a bowl.

Dissolve the stock cube in a jug of boiling water and add to the maizemeal. Stir well to make a smooth liquid. 

Add the margarine and mix well.

Microwave for 10 minutes, removing the bowl every 2 or 3 minutes to give the mixture a really good stir as it thickens.

Finally add the chopped olives.

Now you need to spread out the polenta to set.  I either use a baking tin (approx 18cm x 28cm) or a large dinner plate,  greased with a little olive oil.  Pour in the polenta and level neatly with a knife.

.

Cool, then leave to set in the fridge.  This can be made well in advance and stored in the fridge until needed.


When you’re ready to eat, preheat the oven to 220C. 

Prepare the vegetables.  Cut the red onions into about eight segments and place in a bowl with a tablespoon of olive oil and some salt and pepper. Mix together then transfer to a large roasting tray.

Then cut the peppers, aubergine and courgettes into pieces about 1” square.  Mix in a bowl with a tablespoon of olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Transfer to the roasting tray and spread out neatly.

Place in your preheated oven and bake for about 30 - 35 minutes. Check the vegetables once or twice, turning them over so they become evenly browned.

Meanwhile cut the polenta into four oblong slices  (or 8 equal segments, if using a circular plate) 

Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and fry the polenta slices for about 5 minutes on each side until brown and crispy.

(Alternatively, brush the polenta slices with olive oil and grill on both sides until brown and crispy)

Transfer to the oven to keep warm whilst you fry the remaining slices.

Serve the polenta slices with the roasted vegetables and a
generous spoonful of homemade tomato and olive sauce.  

Sprinkle some chopped fresh basil leaves on top.