Welcome to Mum&sons

My two eldest boys challenged me to start a cooking blog with simple recipes that we can cook together - and my youngest one has now joined in. I am hoping they pick up some cooking and photograph skills... or that at least they learn to design and run a blog.


HADDOCK 'A LA EUROPEENNE'

This week we saw the Brexiteers throwing haddock into the river Thames, a sin worthy of ex-communication to any Spaniard. Most of the fish from UK waters is actually sold to Europeans, so when Brexit kicks in the Brexiteers are going to have a hell of a lot of fish to eat. Since deep down I am a good girl (very-very-extremely deep down as far as Brexiteers are concerned) I though I would give them a fish recipe so that they can start practising.

We do not make this recipe with haddock in Spain, but with hake, simply because do not eat much haddock there. In fact most Spaniards would not even recognise haddock's Spanish name: 'eglefino'.  I am pretty sure that if you say 'eglefino' to most Spaniards they would think you are calling them names and it is most likely they would respond 'eglefino tu!'  or perhaps even something less polite than that...

Anyway, back to the recipe. Though I have called it fish 'European style', in Spanish this is called fish ' a la marinera'. It is a bit confusing, because the recipe for one of our most traditional and delicious dishes, 'almejas a la marinera' (clams seaman style) does not call for sweet paprika (pimenton) and tomato -  but this one,  merluza 'a la marinera' (hake seaman style) does. Nobody knows the reason for this. But I am sure we Spaniards did this many years ago with the single objective of confusing the Brexiteers, because of course everything we do in Spain, on indeed in the rest of Europe, is all directed to them.

The recipe is very easy to make. You need:
- four steaks of haddock (preferably a bit thick... and if you want the proper recipe then use four steaks of hake)
- half a lemon
- 12 raw prawns (this is not essential)
- an onion (chopped very thinly)
- a quarter of a red pepper (chopped very thinly)
- 2 cloves of garlic (chopped very thinly)
- a bay leaf
- a tablespoon of tomato sauce
- a teaspoon of sweet paprika- pimenton
- half a glass of sherry.
- a glass of water
- half a teaspoon of cornflour
- a tiny bit of parsley
- too tablespoons of (not too strong) olive oil
- salt

Salt the haddock. Sprinkle the lemon juice on it and leave it aside while you get on with the sauce.

In a shallow pan, fry the onion, red pepper and garlic over very low heat in the olive oil (it should take 12-15 minutes). Then add the tomato, paprika, a tiny bit of salt and the bay leave. Wait for a couple of minutes and add the sherry, let it bubble for a couple of minutes and then add the water.  Take three spoonfuls of the bubbly sauce and mix them in a cup with the cornflour - get this mixture back into the pan so that the sauce thickens. Wait for another couple of minutes and add the haddock, cover the pan with a lid and wait (it should take 3-4 minutes maximum though this really depends of the thickness of the haddock of course) Then add the prawns and after a minute it should be all done. Just sprinkle a little bit of parsley on it before serving it.

Do not be tempted to overcook the fish as overcooked fish is awful. If you are a Brexiteer you should be particularly careful with this because, let's face it, you are prone to overdoing things.

So here you are: fish 'European style'.  If eating this does not get you to like Europe, then nothing will.


RHUBARB JAM

I originally did this some years ago from a BBC recipe with real vanilla pods, but the recipe below is with frozen rhubarb (less than half the prize than fresh) and vanilla extract and it is just as good as the original one.

You need:
- 1 K of frozen rhubarb
- 1 K of jam sugar
- juice of 1.5 lemons
- 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
- and the essential ingredient for making jam without any stress: a jam thermometer (£8 in Lakeland - totally worth it)

Put the rhubarb, jam sugar, vanilla extract and the juice of a lemon in a big pan over medium heat. Let it simmer for a good 22-25 minutes until the rhubarb goes mushy. My children do not like big bits of fruit in the jam, so as soon as a rhubarb is soft I press it down a few times with a potato masher. Keep the heat on for another 10-14 minutes until the mixture reaches 105 degrees. Take the pan off the heat and add the juice of the half lemon. Let it rest for a few minutes and pour it into sterilised jars (just rinse the jars with water and microwave them for 2 minutes). You should get 5 jam pots from this.