Zarzuela

A robust Spanish fish stew from Stevie Parle's fabulous new Dock Kitchen Cookbook. Stevie is one of the best -travelled and most original chefs in London with a well-honed magpie tendency of picking up ingredients and techniques from every country he visits. He also writes a weekly column in the Daily Telegraph.

Catalonian fish stew with mussels (zarzuela)

Serves 6

This Catalonian recipe first caught my eye because of its extraordinary name. A beautiful saffron-laced fish stew, it is baked in the oven with a picada of almonds, garlic, saffron and parsley. Picada is a useful tool, a way to add punch, usually with raw garlic, sometimes paprika or almonds.

Zarzuela is also the name of an operetta or a variety show in Spain; I imagine the name comes from the many kinds of fish in the stew.

500g monkfish tail

1 small red onion, roughly chopped

½ small heart of celery, roughly chopped

olive oil

2 bay leaves

2 sprigs of thyme

1 tsp paprika piccante

400g can of whole plum tomatoes, washed of

their juice

200ml white wine

50g coarse breadcrumbs

2 garlic cloves, green sprouts removed

sea salt

a few sprigs of parsley

pinch of saffron

50g blanched almonds (preferably Spanish)

1 red mullet, filleted

400g wild bass fillet, cut into 4 pieces

200g small, clean rope-grown mussels

If it hasn’t already been done by your fishmonger, pull the skin from the monkfish: you should be able to do this with your hands and the occasional nick with a sharpknife to help you on your way. Cut the fish through the central bone into four pieces.

Fry the onion and celery in a heavy-based pan in olive oil with the bay leaves, thyme and paprika. After about 10 minutes, once the vegetables are soft, add the tomatoes, increase the heat and add the white wine. Simmer for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.

Meanwhile, make the picada. Fry the breadcrumbs in a generous splash of olive oil until golden and crunchy. Crush the garlic with salt, parsley and saffron, add thealmonds and pound until coarsely ground. Add the fried breadcrumbs and set aside while you assemble the dish.

Place the monkfish, red mullet and bass in an earthenware oven tray and pour over the tomato sauce. Add a little water and the mussels, then sprinkle over thepicada. Bake in the hot oven until the fish is easy to flake apart and the mussels open (about 15 minutes).

Serve with a plate of greens or potatoes liberally dressed with olive oil and sherry vinegar.

What to drink:
There are several ways to go with this robustly-flavoured dish. My own preference, I think, would be for a dry Spanish rosado from Rioja or Navarra but you could drink an Albarino or even a young red like the increasingly fashionable Mencia or a young (joven) Rioja. Chilled manzanilla sherry would be great too.

You can visit the Dock Kitchen website here - it's a little out of the way but has a great atmosphere and fabulous food. Well worth a visit.

Photograph © Toby Glanville

Espresso and Hazelnut Cake and Fairtrade Coffee

As you've probably noticed we're currently in the middle of Fairtrade Fortnight. Encouragingly sales of Fairtrade produce and products were up 12% last year making sales in the UK worth £1.32bn in 2011, compared to £1.17bn in 2010, according to this recent piece in the Guardian.

To celebrate here's a delicious recipe from the Fairtrade Everyday Cookbook (£16.99 Dorling Kindersley) from Ruth Rogers and the late, great Rose Gray of London’s famous River Café. I suggest accompanying it with a cup of freshly brewed Rwandan or Ethiopian Fairtrade coffee from my favourite coffee company Union Hand-Roasted (available online at www.unionroasted.com.)

Ingredients
Serves 6
Preparation time 20 minutes
Cooking time 50 minutes

200g (7oz) butter, plus extra for greasing
400g (14 oz) hazelnuts, shelled
2 tbsp espresso used making Fairtrade coffee
200g (7oz) Fairtrade 70% dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
6 medium eggs
220g (7 3/4 oz) caster sugar

Method
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5.
Using the extra butter grease a 25cm (10in) cake tin and line with parchment paper
Roast the hazelnuts in the oven until brown. Let cool, rub off the skins and grind the nuts to a fine powder.
Make up espresso, using Fairtrade coffee.
Melt the chocolate with the butter and coffee in a bowl over barely simmering water. Cool, then fold in the hazelnuts.
Separate the eggs and beat the yolks and sugar in a mixer until pale and doubled in size. Fold in the chocolate.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and then carefully fold into the mixture. Pour into the tin.
Bake in the oven for 50 minutes. Cool in the tin.

Tip: Turn the cake upside down out of the tin to serve. You could dust it with some icing sugar if you like.

NB: This would also be delicious with a coffee or hazelnut liqueur such as Kahlua or Frangelico

Mushroom and Mustard soup

With the country blanketed by snow what else can you think of but soup? A favourite recipe from my book An Appetite for Ale that makes a great pairing with a dark, Trappist beer. You can decide how creamy you want it - my preference is to add just a dash to the soup then swirl a little in each bowl to decorate.

Serves 3-4

50g butter
250g portabella mushrooms, wiped clean and roughly chopped
1 small onion (about 90-100g), peeled and chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 small potato (about 75g), peeled and finely sliced
1 tbsp madeira or amontillado sherry
500ml fresh beef stock or stock made with a beef stock cube (or 2 level tsp yeast extract if you’re a veggie)
1 rounded tsp grain mustard
2 tbsp double cream (optional) + extra cream for swirling
A good squeeze of lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Chopped parsley or chervil to garnish

Heat a large saucepan or cast iron casserole for a minute or two, add the butter then as soon as it’s melted tip in the mushrooms. Stir and cook for about 8-10 minutes until any liquid created begins to evaporate. Add the onion, stir and fry for 3-4 minutes then stir in the garlic and fry for a minute longer. Add the potato, stir, then add the madeira and beef stock and bring to the boil. Simmer until the potato is cooked (about 12-15 minutes). Turn the heat off and cool for a few minutes then add the mustard.

Pass the soup through a strainer, reserving the liquid and put the mushrooms into a blender. Whizz until smooth then add half of the reserved liquid and whizz again. Add the remaining liquid and whizz. Pour the soup back into the pan or casserole. Pour 150ml of water into the blender to pick up the remaining soup you haven’t managed to scrape out and add to the pan. Add the cream if using then reheat gently without boiling.

Season with a good squeeze of lemon, a little salt and freshly ground black pepper. Garnish each portion with a swirl or splosh of cream and sprinkle over a little chopped parsley or chervil.

Recommended beer match: I found Westmalle Dubbel was a great match with this soup but you could also try it with a porter or stout.

Dark, sticky Christmas cake with prunes and Guinness

This delicious cake, which comes from my book An Appetite for Ale, is based on a recipe from one of Britain's best bakers Dan Lepard. Do use organic dried fruit in it - you’ll get a much better result.

250g currants
150g mi-cuit (semi-soft) prunes, preferably from Agen, cut into small pieces
200g organic dried apricots, cut into small pieces
125g large raisins
Grated rind of 1 unwaxed orange
150ml Guinness or similar stout
200g unsalted butter
1 tbsp mixed spice
150ml treacle
200g dark muscovado sugar
2 large eggs
300g spelt or wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder

You will also need a deep, loose-bottomed cake tin about 20cm in diameter, double-lined with baking parchment.

Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas 3

Combine the dried fruit and orange rind in a bowl. Pour the stout into a saucepan heat gently until hot (but not boiling) and pour over the fruit. Heat the butter in a saucepan over a gentle heat and skim off the milky curds that rise to the surface. Simmer until it begins to deepen in colour then stir in the spice and treacle. Add to the fruit along with the sugar and stir well. Cool the mixture then add the lightly beaten eggs, bit by bit. Sift the flour with the baking powder and add to the mixture. Spoon the mixture into the lined tin, pressing it down well and smoothing over the surface. Bake in the pre-heated oven for an hour, covering the top of the cake with foil if it starts to brown too quickly then turn the heat down to 140°C/275°F/Gas 2 for a further 1 1/2 - 2 hours until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and cool in the tin. Peel off the the baking parchment and cover with fresh parchment then wrap tightly in foil. You can eat it after a week but it will keep for up to a month.

This cake would taste great with a barley wine or a sweet sherry.