Food on Fridays

Pancake day is just around the corner, and Maria has found a way of jazzing it up, as well as a delicious fish dish to try…

This week has been hectic, with stress building up as deadlines come closer and after several hours of reading and typing, tiredness usually takes over.

Days which start at 6am and finish, when lucky, by 12am and don’t leave enough room for recovery.

At least the weather has been kinder to us; did you notice that even the Sun decided to shine brightly for the last couple of days?

But despite missing the white stuff lying around, we still need a lot more sun light because it help us to release energy.

Now, because we can’t have sunlight on demand, we have to find our energy from other sources.

And I don’t mean we have to go to the next Sun tanning boutique we come across, what I mean is that we can adapt our diet to include high energy foods such as Salmon.

Yes I know that it has a ‘fishy’ reputation, but if it is fresh and cooked with ingredients that break up the strong flavour, it is actually very tasty.
Besides it is packed with vitamins, for example 100gms of Salmon contains a 100% of your daily need of vitamin D, 90% of B12 and half the recommended daily amount of Proteins and Omega 3 fatty acids.

By the way it also helps us to stay focused!

For this week we are cooking Salmon with Green beans and Asparagus. And because they are on special at Tesco they cost next to nothing. Even the salmon fillets cost £1 each at the fish counter.

Pancake Day is next Tuesday, so for dessert we will be making just that. Yes they may be a bit naughty but I think we deserve them.
Especially if we consider that we are missing carnival!

I hope you give Salmon a chance to change its reputation, and that you enjoy making pancakes.

Serve them with your favourite toppings and have a great weekend.

Salmon with Asparagus and green beans
Ingredients: 
2 Salmon filets
1 lime
2 Garlic cloves
1 Green chilli (or half if you don’t like spicy food)
1 Teaspoon of cooking oil
A hand full of coriander
Black pepper and a spoon of soy sauce (optional)

For the side:
6 to 8 Asparagus sticks
Half a packet of green beans
A small carrot grated

Chop the garlic and some coriander and the chilli and put them on a small bowl with a little bit of water. Add the zest of the lime into the bowl and squeeze its juice in as well.

Leave the bowl to rest for as long as you can.

Meanwhile, boil the Asparagus and the green beans for 5 to 8 minutes until tender.

Then put a frying pan on the stove and heat up the oil, start frying the salmon fillets and add half of the mixture from the bowl.

Cook for around three minutes and turn them over. Pour in the rest of the juice and leave it for a couple of minutes.
Salmon cooks very quickly so try not to leave it too long or it will dry up.

When it is ready, serve it on a bed of grated carrots, and the greens that you boiled before.

You can always serve it with a splash of soy sauce and cracked black pepper.

Vanilla Pancakes 

Ingredients: 

1 Cup of flower
1 Egg
1 Cup of milk
1 Spoon of caster sugar
1 Spoon of Butter + more for frying
1 Spoon of natural Vanilla extract

Break the butter into small bits and whisk it with the egg, don’t worry if it doesn’t mix in well, it will give elasticity to the batter.

Mix in the sugar and the vanilla; continue by sieving in the flower slowly. Add half of the milk when the mixture starts to dry out.

Pour the rest of the milk if you like your pancakes thin, or if you like them thicker like the American style, add only enough milk so that the mixture is only a little bit runny.

Turn the cooker on medium heat.

Grease a hot frying pan with butter or oil, and using a ladle to pour the mix in the middle and spread it on the pan.

Turn or flip when you see bubbles forming on the pancake, cook the other side for about a minute.

Put the pancake onto a plate and continue the process until you run out of mix.

You could serve these pancakes with nutella, banana, shopped walnuts and a squirt of maple syrup or you could try making this delicious strawberry sauce and serve it along with lemons and icing sugar.

Strawberry Coulis:
5 to 6 Washed Strawberries
2 spoons of sugar
50ml of water
A squeeze of lemon juice

Slice the strawberries thinly, and then put them on a pan a pour the sugar and the water over them. Put them on the stove and cook them for a minute or two. Use a hand blender or a food processor and blend them for about 10 seconds. 

If you don’t have a blender, you can use a potato masher to puree the strawberries and then just pass them through a sieve.

When the sauce is ready, squeeze a little bit of lemon or lime juice to brighten up the colour and help to thicken the sauce. I won’t bore you with the scientific explanation, but the acid from these fruits actually helps to give body to the Coulis and sharpens the flavour.

Why not make the Coulis with raspberries or blueberries?

Have fun on Pancake Day, send us your pictures and let us know your suggestions on the media team Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/culsumedia