Seared Plaice with Spicy Butter Beans

Saw this on the telly, so thought I would give it a try,

You'll need a couple of good size plaice fillets, I asked the chap on the fish counter just to de-skin them for me to save time, they are always happy to accommodate.

Also to save time I used tin butter beans too, cuts down on the cooking time (and the scum - never like scum when cooking)

So;

1/2 a red onion sliced and diced
1 red chilli almost de-seeded (the recipe on the telly called for de-seeded- but this is my version)
Rind of half a lemon
1 garlic glove crushed
4 teaspons of grated ginger
Sprig of Thyme
3  Table spoons of chopped Dill
2 tins of butter beans
1 or two tablespoons of creme fraiche
400 ml of chicken stock


Prepare your herbs 

Cook your butter beans with a sprig or two of Thyme and I drain and wash the tinned butter beans and  cook them in the chicken stock 

Just before the butter beans are cooked, add the onion, chilli, ginger and garlic to a good sized pan with a couple of table spoons of vegetable oil and cook gently for a couple of minutes.  Don't let the onions garlic brown. 

Add the butter beans and the stock to the pan and stir to combine the beans with the herbs. Add two table spoons of the chopped dill to the pan and stir.

Add the creme fraiche and stir and allow to gently cook through 

 Add a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil to a non stick pan and add the plaice fillets.  As yo can see I cut the fillets down to more manageable sizes, and sear on one side for two minutes.  Use a pallet knife to turn over and squeeze the juice from a half a lemon on top, remove from heat after 1 minute







Spoon the butter beans and sauce onto a plate and serve the plaice fillets on top sprinkle with more chopped dill

Enjoy

Don't forget to clean the hob afterwards 

original recipe; BBC Saturday kitchen 

Easy Peasy Steamed Chicken (and Dessert)

Here's an easy one for you all and the beauty is you don't even need to follow my herby butter one, use whatever you want, chilli, garlic, herbs, the result will be the same, delicious simple and easy.

So, for mine today I took some fresh tarragon and lemon thyme and some soft butter.  Combine the herbs and the butter to make a patty and then divide to give you a patty to place into each breast.

Cut a good sized slit in the top of a good sized breast of chicken, season with salt and fresh ground black pepper, wrap in greaseproof paper and place into a steamer.

I was being lazy here now and used a bag of Uncle Ben's basmati rice, but you can use your own preference.  I made up a pint and a half of stock, chicken or vegetable, whatever you prefer.  You can if you prefer and if you are using chilli for instance, replace the pint of stock with a tin of coconut milk and say a 1/4 pint of stock the rice comes out deliciously creamy (but not today).



Place the rice in the bottom of the pan add 1 pint of warm stock 1/2 pint in reserve, in case you need it.

Place the steamer on top of the pan, (always a good idea to check that you have a pan that the steamer will fit snugly onto first) and then let the stock infuse the rice and steam the chicken for around 25 minutes.

While that's going on take a carrot, cucumber and spring onions and cut and shred into strips and set aside.  Prepare a tablespoon or two of rice or wine vinegar for the veg and set aside.





Turn off the heat and remove pan and steamer, the rice should now be fluffy and bulging with all that juice.  Unwrap the chicken (test to make sure fully cooked through and be careful to keep the melted juice for pouring over the chicken when plated.







Place the rice on a plate, slice the chicken, the herby mix should still be in the slit but the butter will have gone all through the chicken, and place on the rice.

Pour the rice or wine vinegar over the vegetables and place on the plate.......

 And the washing up is easy for this one too........



 And Now for Dessert.........

Fresh Fruit Puff Pastry Tartlets with Creme Fraiche

 Roll out a sheet of puff pastry

Cut two good sized circles out and place on a floured baking tray.  Draw a circle about a 1/4 inch in from the edge all the way around the pastry circles (you can just see it on the left hand circle), and prick the whole of the pastry inside the circle with a fork.

Add fruit of choice to the pastry inside the ring and sprinkle with sugar or sweetener to taste, of course you can choose not to do that if you want......  and brush the outer ring with milk.  The outer ring will rise, the centre with the filling should remain flat and baked under the fruit, well that's the theory anyway.....

Place the tartlets into a pre heated oven, 190 degrees, 170 if using a fan and who knows if your oven has other forms of measurements, you'll figure it out  and bake for around twenty minutes  and hopefully you will get something like this 

Add a dollop of your preferred scrumptiousness, ice cream, cream, or in this case Creme Fraiche and tuck in

Enjoy