Pizze Bianche

Bored of pizza margerita?  Try one without a tomato base. This pizza uses creme fraiche instead, which makes it feel lighter.

Serves two

For the dough:
110g plain flour
110g strong white bread flour
pinch of sea salt
a few lugs of olive oil
150ml warm water
4g quick yeast
half tsp of sugar

For the topping:
2 or 3 tbs of half fat creme fraiche
Whatever fresh herbs are to hand (marjoram, basil etc)
A couple of sliced tomatoes
1 tbs of capers
1 small shallot, thinly sliced
Small handful of hard-type mozzarella cheese, cubed
 plus whatever else you fancy - in the one in the picture I used some chunks of leftover roasted squash and some grilled peppers

To make the dough, sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and some olive oil, then mix together. Make a well.
For the yeast mixture, add the sugar to the warm water in a bowl and stir. Sprinkle in the yeast and stir, then leave for a few minutes until it starts to activate.
Once the yeast is ready, pour it gradually into the well in the flour, folding it in until it's all incorporated. Keep stirring the dough mixture with a fork until it comes together, then switch to hands, kneading it until it's smooth and elastic (if it gets too sticky, drizzle a bit of olive oil around the bowl). This will take five or ten minutes. Cut a cross on top, and cover. Leave to prove for about an hour.
Pre-heat your oven (and pizza stone) as hot as it will get.
When proved, knock back the dough and work it on a floured surface, or toss between your hands until it's thin and roughly pizza shaped. Carefully transfer to the pre-heated pizza stone, then add the topping.
Spoon on the creme fraiche, then sprinkle the other ingredients on top. Bake for about 15 minutes or until it looks done!

Cut in half or into slices and serve with a mixed salad.

Grilled sardines with samphire salsa verde

...following on from the samphire salsa verde post earlier, here's a serving suggestion!

Flatten out your sardines, slash the skin a few times, season well with salt and black pepper, and put them under a hot grill for 3-4 minutes.
Arrange a circle of salad leaves on each plate, and in the middle, scatter some garlic croutons dotted with spoonfuls of the salsa. Place the grilled sardines ontop of the croutons and dot the last of the salsa on top. Squeeze over some lemon juice and you're done!

Samphire salsa verde

This is a great accompaniment to fish. Try it with grilled Cornish sardines!

Handful of fresh samphire
A few cornichons or pickled gherkins
Tablespoon of chopped mint or lemon mint
Tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley
Plenty of freshly ground black pepper
A few capers
A big dash of cider vinegar, or white wine vinegar
A couple of lugs of olive oil

Either chop everything by hand or use a mixer. Check for seasoning - there's no need to add salt, as the samphire is really salty. If you're using ordinary mint, you might want a squeeze of lemon juice. Make it a couple of hours before you need it and let the flavours mingle in the fridge.

Cocoa shortbread

This rustic-yet-sophisticated chocolate shortbread works well (possibly best) with ice cream. It's quite crumbly, with a light texture, and the cocoa powder gives at an after-dinner feel. Or just have it with your morning coffee if you can't wait til then.

Makes about 10 pieces (depending on how you cut it up)

150g plain flour
50g caster sugar (plus extra for sprinkling)
120g unsalted butter
25g cocoa powder
pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 150C.
In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, cocoa and pinch of salt. Rub in the butter, then combine into a smooth dough.
Place the dough on a non-stick baking sheet and roll out to about 8mm thick. Prick all over with a fork, and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes.
Sprinkle with the extra sugar and cut up whilst still warm and pliable before allowing to cool.

Prawn, samphire and roasted pepper pasta salad

A summertime supper dish. I love samphire (or 'Hampshire', as predictive text prefers) with fish, with all its salty, mineral flavours. You can eat it raw, but it's also really nice just quickly steamed.

Serves two

Handful of samphire
200g raw prawns
A roasted sweet red pepper, cut into chunks
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Pasta, cooked and cooled
Handful of rocket

For the dressing:
Juice of half a lemon, olive oil, sea salt

Steam the samphire and prawns together for just a few minutes, until the prawns are done. Meanwhile, toss all the other ingredients together with half the dressing. When the prawns and samphire are done, add them to the dish and drizzle over the rest of the dressing.

New look, new format!

I've redesigned the Raw Prawn a bit. Got a posh new header thing, courtesy of Stewart Harris Designs.
And I'm going to post recipes in a less formal way - that way I can post stuff even if I can't remember what quantities I used (I never measure anything unless baking). So I'll post up the general idea of a dish - I'm sure you can work it out...

Spiced sweet potato wedges

An ideal accompaniment to the baked haddock and spinach dish below!

Serves two

2 medium sized sweet potatoes, cut in half then twice lengthwise, to get about six wedges out of each potato

A couple of lugs of groundnut oil

For the spice rub:
2 tsp fenugreek
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
pinch cayene pepper
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
Pinch Maldon sea salt

Parboil the potato wedges for ten minutes or so until just cooked. Set aside.
Meanwhile, put all the spice rub ingredients in a mortar and pound with a pestle until well crushed.
In a baking tray, put the cooked sweet potatoes, the oil and spice mix. Rub them all over until well coated with the oil and the spices, then bake at 200C for 25 minutes or so until crispy.

Smoked haddock baked with spinach and almonds

We're getting autumnal now, and this is a sort of autumn warmer supper dish.

Serves two

2 fillets of undyed smoked haddock, ideally quite thin (this would also work well with plaice fillets or other flatfish)

For the stuffing:
two or three big handfuls of spinach, wilted under boiled water
tablespoon of capers, rinsed
two tablespoons of flaked almonds, lightly toasted in a dry pan
splash of cider vinegar
a lug of olive oil
grated nutmeg
white pepper

Preheat the oven to 200C. Prepare the stuffing, squashing the excess water out of the wilted spinach, chopping roughly, then putting into a food processor. Add the toasted flaked almonds and all the other stuffing ingredients, then blend to a rough paste.

Lay one of the fillets on a board and spread spinach paste all over. Lay the other fillet on top, then slice lengthwise to form two portions. Place the fish portions on a piece of lightly buttered baking foil, and wrap loosely. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until done. Serve with lemon.

This dish goes really well with baked sweet potato wedges, which you can do in the oven at the same time (the wedges will need to go in first for five or ten minutes), and some stir-fried kale.

Sing for your supper! The Prawn Song...

Food and music collide! A group of enthusiastic Canadian foodists have made a nice little film about their fishing trip to catch Spot Prawns, native to British Columbia, and used they one of my February Album Writing Month ('FAWM') songs on the soundtrack.
The song appears at about 5'20'' - but it's well worth watching the whole film!... http://vimeo.com/43839814

Read the full article.

Stuffed fried chillies

We love to watch a spaghetti western on a Sunday evening, and it's nice to have food that fits the fake Mexican vibe.

Makes six to eight, depending on the size of the chillies

6 or more medium sized mild green chillies, or you can use small sweet peppers for a milder dish

For the filling:
2 tbs cream cheese
1 can tuna, drained
two handfuls grated cheese (Montery Jack, Cheddar or Emmental work well)
1 tbs chopped chives

For the batter:
two eggs
plain flour
salt and pepper to taste

Vegetable oil suitable for shallow frying

Slit each chilli down one side lengthways, and put them in a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat for about ten minutes, shaking and turning them occasionally. When the skins have started to blister, put the chillies into a plastic bag, tie the top (those sealable food bags are handy for this) and set aside for twenty minutes. They'll steam in the bag.

While the chillies are steaming, mix all the filling ingredients together in a bowl. You want quite a sticky filling, which helps the chillies keep their shape and won't leak out.

To make the batter, separate the egg whites and yolks. In a large bowl, whip the whites until quite stiff, then fold the yolks in. Get another bowl for the flour, seasoned with salt and pepper to taste.

Take the chillies out of the bag. The steaming will have loosened the skins a bit, so peel off the loose chilli skins, then carefully open each chilli and take out the seeds and veins. Fill each with the cheese and tuna stuffing, making sure there aren't any air pockets left.

Heat a large deep pan filled with enough oil to shallow fry the chillies in. Roll each chilli in the seasoned flour, then dip in the whipped egg so all the surface is covered. Fry the chillies in the hot oil for a few minutes, turning once or twice, until they're golden brown.  Drain the excess oil off on kitchen paper, and serve immediately.