July recipe: Fried mackerel fillet with gooseberry sauce

Fried mackerel fillet with gooseberry sauce

July is peak season for gooseberries. They are traditionally used in desserts and preserves, and I’ve previously posted recipes for gooseberry fool, gooseberry jam, and gooseberry pie.

Gooseberries can also be used in savoury cookery.  Their sharp sweetness goes especially well with pork or oily fish such as mackerel.

Here’s a quick and simple recipe for fried mackerel fillets with a sweet and sour gooseberry sauce, ideal for dinner on a summer evening.

Fried mackerel fillet with gooseberry sauce (serves 2)

2 fillets of fresh mackerel

1 Tablespoon (1 x 15 ml spoon) olive oil

1-2 shallots, or half a small onion

4 oz (approx 125 g) fresh gooseberries

1 teaspoon (1 x 5 ml spoon) demerara sugar

1 Tablespoon (1 x 15 ml spoon) lemon juice

1 Tablespoon (1 x 15 ml spoon) cider vinegar or white wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon (1 x 15 ml spoon) chopped fresh herbs (I like mint, sage, or oregano, or a combination thereof)

Peel and chop the shallots or onion.

Top and tail the gooseberries (this means cutting off the stalk at one end and the remains of the flower at the other).

Fry the onion or shallot gently in olive oil for a few minutes until softened.  Add the gooseberries and continue to cook gently for another few minutes until the gooseberries have produced some juice.

Add the sugar, lemon juice, vinegar and chopped herbs. Season with salt and pepper.  Mix well.  Leave the sauce to simmer, uncovered, over a low heat while you fry the mackerel fillets.

Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan over a moderate heat.

When the butter is melted and starting to foam, make sure it is spread out over the bottom of the frying pan and put the mackerel fillets in, skin side down. Fry the fillets for about 3 minutes.

Turn the mackerel fillets over and fry the other side for 2-3 minutes.  The flesh should be opaque and a knife should slide in easily.

Remove the mackerel fillets from the frying pan, transfer to a plate, and pour the gooseberry sauce over them.

Serve with new potatoes and salad or a green vegetable of your choice.

 

June recipe: Red berry fool

Red berry fool

Fruit fools involve combining a fruit puree with custard or whipped cream or both, and are some of the easiest desserts to make.  I’ve previously posted a recipe for gooseberry fool. This variant uses red summer berries.  The photo shows a redcurrant fool, but you can use raspberries or strawberries instead, or any combination thereof. Raspberries and strawberries need no cooking.

Red berry fool

8 oz (approx 250 g) red summer berries (redcurrants, raspberries, strawberries or a mixture)

1.5 oz (approx 40 g) sugar

5 fl. oz (approx 140ml) double cream

Wash the fruit.

Hull the strawberries and raspberries. Snip the stalks off the redcurrants.

If using redcurrants, put the fruit in a saucepan with the sugar.

Heat gently, stirring from time to time, until the sugar has dissolved, then cover the pan and simmer for a few minutes until the fruit is soft and starting to break up.

Remove from the heat and crush the fruit with a wooden spoon.  You can puree it in a food processor if you like, but I never do.  If you don’t like pips, you can sieve the puree, but I never do this either.

Leave to cool.

If using strawberries or raspberries, simply mash the fruit and mix the puree with the sugar. Again, if you don’t like pips you can sieve the puree, but I never do.

If using a mixture, mix the mashed strawberries/raspberries with the cooled redcurrant pulp.

Whip the double cream until stiff.

Stir the cooled fruit pulp into the cream.

Divide between four glasses and chill in the fridge for at least an hour or overnight before serving.

For larger portions, divide the mixture between two or three glasses instead of four.

Dunwich Heath

Dunwich Heath is one of the few areas of coastal lowland heath remaining in eastern England.  It lies on the Suffolk coast, between Dunwich village and the bird reserve at Minsmere.

Map link

Dunwich today is a pretty coastal village with an attractive shingle beach:

Dunwich beach

 

Dunwich is a possible candidate for the location of Dommoc, where St Felix established the bishopric of the Kingdom of East Anglia under the patronage of King Sigeberht in the 630s.

In the Middle Ages Dunwich was a major town and an international port, until a series of fierce storms in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century destroyed the harbour, silted up the river and swept large parts of the town into the sea.

Dunwich Heath is south of the village, a wide open space of sandy soils covered in gorse, bracken and heather.  In the time of King Sigebehrt and St Felix, much of the Suffolk coast would have looked like this.  The heath is especially lovely in late summer, when the heather comes into bloom and carpets the landscape in purple flowers, alive with bees and other insects.

Dunwich Heath

Close-up of heather flowers

Peacock butterfly

August recipe: Plum bread

Most recipes for plum bread use dried fruit, usually raisins.  However, fresh plums work very well in plum cake, so I thought I would try fresh plums in plum bread.  Here’s the recipe.

Plum bread

0.5 teaspoon (0.5 x 5 ml spoon) sugar

1 teaspoon (1 x 5 ml spoon) dried baking yeast

12 oz (approx 350 g) strong white bread flour

1 oz (approx 25 g) light brown soft sugar

0.5 teaspoon (0.5 x 5 ml spoon) salt

Milk to mix

6 oz (approx 150 g) fresh plums, after removing the stones

Put about 25 ml of boiling water and 25 ml of cold water into a cup.  Stir in the half-teaspoon of sugar.  Sprinkle the dried yeast on top.  

Leave for 10-15 minutes for the yeast to froth up.

Mix the flour, light brown soft sugar and salt in a bowl.  Make a hollow in the centre.  Pour the yeast liquid into the hollow and mix well.  Gradually add milk until the mixture forms a soft dough.

Knead the dough for a minute or two.

Put the dough back in the bowl and leave for 45-60 min to rise.

Grease a baking sheet.

Remove the stones from the plums and chop roughly.  I usually halve the plums, then cut each half into quarters.

Knead the dough again for a minute or two.  Roll out the dough on a floured work surface to a rectangle about 7 inches (approximately 18 cm) wide and about twice as long.

Spread the chopped plums over two-thirds of the rectangle of dough. Fold the other one-third of the dough up over the plums.  Then fold again over the remaining third, so you end up with alternating layers of dough and plums.  Press the edges together along each side so the plums are fully enclosed.

Roll the layered dough again to make a square about 7-8 inches (approximately 18-20 cm) square.

Put the square of layered dough on the greased baking sheet. Mark into 3 x 3 squares.  Leave for another 45-60 minutes to rise again.

Bake for 25-30 min in a hot oven (approx 250 C) until the loaf is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the base.

Cool on a wire rack.

When cool, cut along the marks to make 9 squares of plum bread.

July recipe: Pork pie

A home-made pork pie is ideal as part of a summer meal for a group of family and friends, especially if you don’t care for barbecues or feel like a change.  It also works very well as part of a picnic, or for an effortless dinner after a long day at work – once cooked and cooled, it needs no further work, just cut a slice and serve with salad.  It’s also surprisingly easy to make, as hot-water pastry is very forgiving. 

Here’s my recipe.

Pork pie

Pastry

10 oz (approx 300 g) strong white flour*

4 oz (approx 125 g) lard

0.5 teaspoon (0.5 x 5 ml spoon) salt

Hot water to mix

Filling

1.25 lb (approx 500 g) minced pork

4 oz (approx 125 g) smoked streaky bacon (or back bacon if preferred)

1 teaspoon (1 x 5 ml) ground nutmeg

1 Tablespoon (1 x 15 ml spoon) fresh sage leaves (or other herbs of your choice)

8 oz (approx 250 g) carrot

Grease a deep cake tin about 6 inches (approx 15 cm) in diameter.  If the tin doesn’t have a loose base, fold a long strip of tinfoil into three lengthwise (so you get a triple-thickness strip), and lay it across the bottom of the tin and up the two opposite sides.  Make sure it is long enough to extend well past the top of the tin so that you can grasp the two ends easily.  The tinfoil strip will help to lift the pie out of the tin after it is cooked.

Rub the lard into the flour and salt until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Stir in approximately 6–7 Tablespoons (6–7 x 15 ml spoons) of very hot water and mix well.  The mixture should form a ball of stiff dough.  If it is floury and flaky, add a little more hot water. If it is too sticky, add a little more flour.

Set the pastry aside for a few minutes to cool.

Chop the bacon into small pieces.

Peel, wash and grate the carrot.

Chop the sage (or other herbs) finely.

Mix the minced pork, chopped bacon, grated carrot, nutmeg and chopped herbs in a large bowl and season with ground black pepper and a little salt.

Roll out three-quarters of the pastry into a large circle.  Line the greased cake tin with the circle of pastry, pushing the pastry well down into the corners.  If the pastry tears, dampen the edges with water and press them back together.

Put the filling into the pastry case and press down firmly.  Fold the edges of the pastry case down over the filling.

Roll out the other quarter of the pastry into a circle big enough to make a lid.  Dampen the ring of folded-down pastry with water, and put the pastry lid on top.  Trim off any excess pastry.

Roll out the pastry trimmings to make decorations of your choice for the top of the pie.

Brush the top of the pie with milk.

Cook in the centre of a slow oven, about 150–160 C, for about 2 to 2.5 hours, until the pastry is golden brown.

Remove the pie from the oven, and run a palette knife around the sides of the tin to loosen it.  Don’t try to take the pie out of the tin yet.

Cool the pie in the tin on a wire rack.

When the pie is completely cool, run a palette knife around the sides again to make sure it is still loose.  Then press up the loose base of the tin (if it has a loose base), or lift the pie out of the tin using the tinfoil strip.  Don’t try to take the pie out of the tin until it is completely cold, or there’s a risk it may collapse.

Serve cut in slices.

I generally get 8 to 10 slices out of a pie this size, although it depends how large a slice you cut.

The pie will keep in the fridge for several days, so you can make it well in advance, or eat it over several days.

*’Strong’ flour is the kind used for making bread.