Dinner ideas

Ok, I am trying something new.. I made a dinner menu - this is what I did last night and as usual, it is very simple. As the old TV show went "Yan can cook.. so can you!"

Anyway, the basic menu was :-
* Pub styled fresh fish
* Olive oil mushrooms
* Broccoli and Cheese Casserole (recipe is in the blog)
* Oven roast potatoes

All, as mentioned before, really easy. Lets start with the fish.

Take any white fish fillet - I used Mullet because that's the only thing available here. Cod is also great for this. Wash the fish with lime/lemon so you can avoid a funny smell. You mix equal quantities of beer (yes, beer) with flour - I used 100g of flour with 100 ml of beer. Add a pinch of baking soda, a pinch of salt, a pinch of paprika and 1 egg. Soak the fish in this mixture and fry!

I also attempted to make a nice sauce to go with the fried fish. I love tartar sauce but that has way too many calories so this is my basic substitute.

Mix 1 small yogurt cup with 2 tbsp of mayo. Then add about 1 tbsp of steak/tomato/chili sauce - for the dinner, I used steak sauce. Then add 1 tsp of mustard paste. Add the juice of 1 lemon. Chop up 1 small onion, and add. Mix very well, the mustard can be lumpy so avoid that. That's it :) To garnish, I just sprinkled some paprika.

Voila~!


Now, the potatoes. That is equally simple. Chop up the potatoes and boil them. You can use a pressure cooker too - just make sure they are cooked well. By cutting them up early, you avoid broken potatoes and they cook much faster. After you are done, spread them in your serving dish (it helps if it is oven safe) - and add some butter. Then sprinkle some Parmesan cheese and grate some lemon peel on top (don't add too much lemon, then its a weird taste). Mix well - try to avoid mushing the potatoes though. Put into the oven - temperature can be 160C so you can do your Broccoli Casserole at the same time. Occasionally take it out and mix the potatoes. When it has become the consistency you like, take it out and add some chopped mint (fresh or dried, doesn't really matter) and serve warm. You don't even need a dressing!



The mushrooms is truly the easiest thing - you can do it in your sleep. Simply cut up some button mushrooms - I cut mine into quarters. Then add some olive oil into a pan and fry some chopped garlic. Add the mushrooms and brown them. You do not have to add any salt/pepper. I just serve mine plain then you can enjoy the actual taste of the mushrooms. THAT'S IT!



This is a long post, so forgive me if I can't update for a while.. :)