Top Blog Recipes

14 Aug 2015

SASHIMI TUNA TARTARE MARINATED IN SHAOXING RICE WINE VINEGAR AND SESAMEOIL

Gorgeous fragrant aromatically flavoured sashimi grade tuna tartare, a dash of sweet shaoxing wine is balanced with a splosh of sour rice wine vinegar and then a touch of richness from a drizzle of sesame oil makes this a really moorish dish, finished off with a smattering of finely diced sliced spring onions, scallions and fresh hot chilli.

Prep time 10 minutes 


Ingredients
(Serves 2)

200-300g slice of sashimi grade tuna
(this is important due to parasite safety)
1 fresh chilli de-seeded finely chopped
1 spring onion scallion finely sliced
8 large green salad leaves

The Marinade
50ml shaoxing wine
40ml brown or white rice wine vinegar
5ml sesame oil
(This can be tinkered with to suit your own sweet and sour tastes)

Sides
2 pea sizes of wasabi
50g sushi pink ginger
50ml light soy sauce

A simple and easy dish to prepare, take your tuna and with a sharp knife very thinly slice keeping all the slices together, turn the whole piece of sliced tuna ninety degrees and finely slice again, do this twice more and you will have a lovely finely chopped tuna tartare.

Place the tuna in a bowl and pour over all the marinade ingredients and stir in, leave to marinate for an hour or so or up to eight hours max in the fridge, bring out of the fridge one hour before serving to allow the tuna to slightly warm up towards room temperature.  

Serve sprinkled with the spring onion and chilli along with the large green salad leaves that you can use as your edible plate and wraps and sides of pickled ginger, wasabi and light soy sauce.

10 Aug 2015

BIG GIRLS DIET TACOS SUMPTIOUSLY STUFFED WITH GORGEOUSNESS

 These fabulous salad tacos will have you disgracing your manners at the dinner table, there will be lip smacking, ooohs, arrrhs, and lots of face painting with the ingredients !!!  Well that is how my family eat these and that sings satisfaction to me!

Taco Fillings
Potato and chorizo, cheese and sweet chilli jelly, beetroot salad and avocado, garlic butter peppered courgettes.

My family truly don't mind the difference in eating these salad taco wraps rather than the normal corn or wheat wraps, they still get to eat the same burrito, kebab or taco fillings and for me this is an awesome feat as I really thought they would turn their nose up at the triple layered salad leaves as their taco wraps, they also love the family style serving with all the stuffing ingredients lined up so they can individually stuff the taco leaves on their plates to their own choosing.

Prep time 20 minutes /  Serving time 10 minutes


Ingredients
(serves 2)

I like to serve all the ingredients family style with the taco leaves layered ready to stuff on your plates, then fill your taco leaves just how you like them.

Taco Leaves
4 rhubarb chard leaves
4 beetroot leaves
4 green lettuce leaves
Beetroot Salad Avocado
1 beetroot peeled and grated
1 carrot peeled and grated
2 spring onions finely sliced
1 jalapeno diced
1 avocado fork mashed
1/2 lime juiced
Sea salt and black pepper
Garlic courgettes 
1 green courgette sliced
1 yellow courgette sliced
1 clove garlic chopped
1 tsp butter
1 tsp coconut oil
Sea salt and black pepper
Top with beetroot salad
Pan seared chorizo and potato
100g chorizo 
1 lrg potato small diced
1 tsp coconut oil
Top with beetroot salad
Cheese and Sweet Chilli Jelly
100g strong cheddar sticks
1 fresh jalapeno sliced
Sweet chilli jelly
Top with beetroot salad

On a large family serving platter assemble the grated beetroot and carrot, then the spring onions, season and mash the avocado with the lime, jalapeno, salt and pepper and place on the platter, next add the cheddar cheese sticks, sliced fresh jalapeno and the jar of sweet chilli jelly with a spoon in it.

Next heat a non stick pan to a medium heat and pan sear the potato in the coconut oil, these will take approx 15 minutes to cook, after 10 minutes add the chorizo, cook for a further 5 minutes and then place in a serving bowl.

Meanwhile 5 minutes before the chorizo and potato are finished, heat the oil and butter in a medium hot heat and sear the courgettes and garlic for a couple of minutes, season with salt and pepper, place in a serving bowl .

On your two dinner plates place two rhubarb chard leaves, lay a beetroot chard leaf on top of each rhubarb and then the green lettuce on top of that, then stuff away to your likin.


3 Aug 2015

BIG GIRLS DIET SPICY TUNA AND AVOCADO LETTUCE WRAPS WITH A ZESTY LIME MAYO

 Gorgeous simple yet sumptuous lettuce wraps stuffed with pan seared yellow fin tuna, spring onions, red peppers, spicy chilli, coriander, raw grated beetroot and a mashed avocado rippled through some zesty lime homemade mayonnaise.

Prep time 10 minutes


Ingredients
(serves 1)

3 whole lettuce leaves
3 beetroot leaves
4oz yellow fin tuna (or a can)
1 avocado
1 spring onion finely sliced
1/4 red pepper finely diced
1 red chilli finely diced
1 raw beetroot peeled and grated
1 pinch sea salt (Himalayan)
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 lime juiced

Lime Mayonnaise
1 egg yolk
100ml organic cold pressed sunflower oil
1 pinch sea salt
1 pinch black pepper
1/2 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 the lime juice from above ingredients

First I like to make my mayo, this only takes a couple of minutes, in a deep bowl place the egg yolk, white wine vinegar and a tiny tiny dash of sunflower oil, gently whisk, then slowly start to add a drizzle of sunflower oil approx 2ml at a time, incorporating well, once you have added around a third of the oil you can start to add the oil in bigger glugs, gently whisking in, once you have a glorious thick emulsion add the Dijon mustard, seasoning, lime juice and combine.

If you are pan searing your fresh yellow fin tuna, heat a pan with equal amounts of oil and butter, then sear your tuna steak for approx 3-4 minutes on each side, remove from the pan and leave to cool,then flake, if using a can continue from this point.

Place your lettuce leaves on your plate and line each with a beetroot leaf.  In the mayonnaise bowl place your yellow fin tuna, diced pepper, spring onion, diced chilli, avocado, remaining 1/2 of lime juice, sea salt and ground black pepper, gently mix together.

Generously place the filling in a line in the centre of the leaf spreading left to right then roll up from the bottom to the top, place seam side down on your plate, these are best served fresh and cold, they will keep in the fridge or a lunch box for the day.