Healthy living
Healthy eating
The comfort zone
Hearty but healthy food is what's called for in the dark days of January. Lindsey Bareham searches out recipes that tickle tastebuds but won't pile on pounds
Smoked Haddock Chowder with Green BeansPale, glistening naturally smoked haddock is always a treat. I love it poached with a soft-boiled egg and it's terrific too with a Dijon mustard sauce and mashed potato. Another favourite way of cooking smoked haddock, is New England chowder-style, in milk with potatoes and leeks and a few scraps of bacon. This lovely meal-in-a-bowl needs nothing more than crusty bread to mop up the delicious juices with salad of crisp green leaves to follow.
Serves
Two-Four
Ingredients
2 fillets naturally smoked haddock, approx 600g/1lb
600ml/1pt full fat milk
6 black peppercorns
2 sprigs of thyme
3 bay leaves
4 rasher rindless smoked streaky bacon
1 shallot
1 washed leek, approx 125g/5oz
4 medium potatoes, approx 350g/12oz
25g/1oz butter
1 tsp vegetable oil
150g extra fine green beans
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
1 small lemon
Immerse the fish in a pan with the milk, peppercorns, thyme and bay leaves. Cook gently for 5 minutes without letting the milk boil. Leave the fish to cool in the pan. Meanwhile, slice across the bacon to make chunky strips. Peel and finely dice the shallot. Trim the leek, split lengthways and slice into chunky half moons. Pile into a colander, rinse under cold water and shake dry.
Peel, chunk and rinse the potatoes. Melt the butter with the oil in a heavy-bottomed, lidded pan placed over a medium-low heat. Cook the bacon briskly for a couple of minutes to release its fat. Stir in the leek, shallot and potatoes. Adjust the heat so the vegetables soften gently, cover the pan and cook for 10 minutes until tender. Top and tail the beans then cut them in half. Boil for 2 minutes in salted water. Drain.
Lift the fish onto a plate and strain the milk into the cooked vegetables. Flake the fish in big chunks into the pan. Add the beans and simmer gently, uncovered, for 5 minutes without letting the milk boil.
Remove the paper-thin zest from half the lemon and chop finely. Chop the zest with the chopped parsley. Remove the thyme and bay leaf. Scatter the soup with the chopped parsley and serve.
Bacon Stew with Spinach, Leeks and Lemon
Big, rosy chunks of dry-cured smoked and green bacon, enough to make this old fashioned family stew, cost a mere £1.50 at my farmers' market recently. Your butcher might oblige with 'bacon bits', but my Wiltshire supplier sells by mail order (Dowland Produce, tel 01249 730101 www.Downlandproduce.co.uk). Find them at Wimbledon, Turnham Green and Bath farmers' markets on Saturdays and Marylebone, Chiswick, Islington and Bradford-on-Avon on Sundays. This stew is particularly good with buttery, nutmeg-dusted mashed potato.
Serves
Six
Ingredients1 large onion, approx 200g/8fl oz
6 fresh sage leaves or 1 tsp dried
2 tbsp groundnut oil
1 bay leaf
750g/1lb 10oz bacon bits (or kebab-diced gammon)
400g/1pt trimmed leeks
600ml/1 pt light chicken stock or water
1 lemon
600g/1lb carrots
300g/1/2lb mature spinach
50g/2oz bunch parsley
Peel and finely chop the onion. Chop the sage. Gently soften the onion in the oil in a large Le Creuset-type, lidded pan. Add the sage, bay leaf and bacon, increase the heat and brown all over.
Meanwhile, slice the leeks in 2.5cm/1ins rounds, rinse and shake dry. Remove the paper-thin zest from the lemon in button-size scraps. Stir leeks and zest into the bacon, then add the stock. Bring to the boil, reduce immediately, cover and simmer for 1 hour. Scrape, trim and chunk the carrots.
Wash the spinach and shake dry. Trim the stalks and chop into 2.5cm/1ins lengths. Shred the leaves. Add the carrots and spinach stalks to the pan. Cover and cook for a further 20 minutes. Stir in the shredded spinach. Boil, uncovered, for a few minutes until wilted.
Chop the parsley, stir into the stew. Taste and adjust the flavours with lemon juice and black pepper.
Caramelized Roast Apples
When my sons were growing up, I was forever casting around for quick and easy pudding ideas to round off the meal. This one, which is a speedy version of baked apples, using eating apples, or pears, was a regular favourite. They loved the apples drenched in custard but it's healthier and more elegant with Greek yoghurt, when the slight sharpness of the cold yoghurt is a perfect complement to the fruit and toffee sauce.
Serves
Six
Ingredients
6 small eating apples, such as Cox's
3 tbsp golden syrup
3 tbsp soft brown sugar
50g butter
Greek yoghurt to serve
Heat the oven to 375F/190C/gas mark 5. Cut the apples in half lengthways and cut out the core. Lightly butter a small oven tray and lay out the apples, cut-side up. Spoon over the golden syrup and dredge with sugar. Add a knob of butter. Bake the apples for about 20 minutes until tender. Serve with the syrup spooned over the top. Serve the cream separately.
To read more of Lindsey Bareham's recipes she has released two books: The Fish Store, ISBN 0718148096 and The Prawn Cocktail Years by SH, ISBN 0718149807, both published by Michael Joseph.
Seasonal food for January is: <a href="Rocket,LeekAndCaperPie.asp" class="sect-au">Leeks</a>
Information on this site is for interest only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You should consult your own doctor about any specific health concerns.