Smoked salmon and radish salad

If you loathe the thought of diet food Fast Days and Feast Days by my mate Elly Curshen (aka Elly Pear) is just the book for you!

Based on the 5:2 diet it combines recipes for fast days and feast days of which this beautiful looking dish is only 91 kcal per portion. The thing I love about Elly's food is that even when she's working with minimal calories the food is colourful and delicious. As the posters all round London are saying 'healthy eating just got interesting'.

Elly writes: "A few delicate, peppery, crunchy garnishes on top of the best-quality smoked salmon you can afford, this dish is as pretty as a picture and every mouthful really packs a punch. It’s also one of the few fast-day recipes that I’d do in exactly the same way if I was serving it on a feast day."

Serves 1

60g smoked salmon

20g radish

3g spring onion, sliced on the diagonal

10g China rose radish sprouts

1/8 tsp poppy seeds

1 tsp lemon juice

freshly ground black pepper

1g fennel fronds

Lay the salmon out on a serving plate, creating a neat circle.

Slice the radish very thinly, using a very sharp knife or a mandoline.

Lay the radish slices evenly over the surface of the salmon. Sprinkle over the spring onion.

Scatter the sprouts and the poppy seeds over the top and sprinkle with the lemon juice.

Season well with black pepper and finish with the delicate fennel fronds.

What to drink: Sparkling water with a slice of lemon or cucumber (it's a fast day, isn't it?!)

Recipe extracted from Elly Pear's Fast Days and Feast Days published by Harper Collins and currently available in branches of Sainsbury's for £8.99. Photography © Myles New

Lobster thermidor baked potatoes

Another run-out for Mark Hix's wonderfully decadent recipe for a lobster-stuffed baked potato from his book Hix on Baking. Such a great idea . . .

Mark writes: "This is a great way to stretch out a lobster and makes for a fantastic, luxurious baked potato. Extravagant you may think, but not really. The baked potato is making a bit of a comeback – I’m sure they'll soon be dished up in all the smart restaurants..."

Serves 4

4 baking potatoes

80g butter

salt and freshly ground black pepper

50ml white wine

1 large shallot, peeled and finely chopped

2 tsp English mustard

100ml fish stock (or a third of a good-quality stock cube dissolved in 100ML hot water)

300ml double cream

30g Parmesan, grated

80g mature Cheddar, grated

1 small egg yolk

1 x 500–600g cooked lobster

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6. Wash the potatoes, transfer to the oven and bake them for about 1–1 1/2 hours, until soft. Leave them to cool a little, then cut off about a quarter of the top of each potato and scoop the flesh out into a bowl. Mash as chunky or as smooth as you wish, then mix with the butter and season to taste.

Return the potato skins to the oven for about 10 minutes to crisp up before setting aside with the flesh.

Meantime, simmer the white wine with the shallots until the liquid has almost evaporated. Add the mustard and fish stock and reduce again similarly. Add the cream, reserving a tablespoon, bring back to the boil and simmer until the sauce has reduced by half or more and is quite thick. Add the Parmesan and 60g of the grated cheddar and whisk until smooth.

Season and leave to cool. (You can add a little more mustard at this stage to taste if you want the sauce more tangy).

In a small bowl, whip the remaining tablespoon of double cream until it forms soft peaks. Fold into the cooled sauce with the egg yolk.

Turn up the oven to 230°/gas mark 8. Halve the body of the lobster lengthways and remove the meat from the shell. Cut the tail meat into four or five pieces. Crack the claws and leg joints and remove all of the meat. Remove the claws from each lobster, then crack and remove all of the meat including the smaller joints.

Mix half of the sauce with the mashed potato and spoon into the crisp potato shells, leaving about a centimetre from the top of each. Arrange the lobster on top of the potato, scatter over the remaining cheese and spoon over the rest of the sauce. Return to the oven or place under a hot grill until nicely browned. Serve with a few dressed salad leaves.

What to drink: I'd suggest a good white burgundy with this like a Meursault or a similarly rich style of chardonnay from elsewhere. Or a full-bodied champagne. You could drink an aged red Bordeaux too. An excuse to crack open a good bottle, anyway!

This recipe comes from Hix on Baking by Mark Hix, published by Quadrille Publishing RRP £20. Photography © Jason Lowe

100 calorie monkfish chermoula

A main course for 100 calories? Yes, that's possible in Kalpna Woolf's inspiring and original new book Spice Yourself Slim which explores how spices can enhance your diet.

Of course you'll need some veggies too but it will still work out remarkable low in calories.

Kalpna writes: I am always keen to experiment with storecupboard spices to create new and exciting flavours and bring more taste and goodness to my dishes. This marinade is probably one of the most versatile and delicious you can make. The ingredients can vary, but normally, roasted cumin and coriander seeds are mixed with saffron, ginger, garlic, paprika and fresh parsley and coriander.

Chermoula is a powerful combination of taste and spice equilibrium that originates from North Africa, and the mix definitely evokes the smells and tastes of that region and Moroccan souks and medinas. This can be made in advance and kept in the refrigerator for a few days.

Serves 4

Calories per serving: 102

Ingredients

300g/10.oz monkfish fillets, cut into thick 10–15cm/4–6in chunks

For the chermoula marinade

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp coriander seeds

½ tsp ground paprika

1 tsp chilli (red pepper) flakes or cayenne pepper (optional)

½ tsp finely chopped fresh ginger

1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped

5–6 saffron threads, soaked in 2 tbsp warm water for 3–4 minutes

juice of 1 lemon, set aside 1 tbsp for the fish

2 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp salt

a large handful of fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves, finely chopped

a small handful of fresh parsley leaves, finely chopped

Method

To make the chermoula marinade, heat a small, heavy-based frying pan over a medium heat. Add the cumin and coriander seeds and gently dry-fry for 3–4 minutes until roasted and the aroma is released (be careful that the seeds don’t burn). Allow to cool, then grind in a food processor or pestle and mortar into a powder. Place the powder and all the remaining ingredients, including the water from the saffron, in a food processor and blend into a medium-thick paste.

Place the fish on a foil-lined baking tray and spoon over the chermoula paste, spreading it over all sides of each piece of fish. Cover with foil and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 15–20 minutes.

Preheat a grill to medium.

Remove the foil cover from the fish, place the baking tray under the grill and cook the fish for about 8 minutes. When the fish is cooked, squeeze the juice from the remaining lemon over the fish and serve.

Tips

Although this recipe is for fish, you can use this marinade for chicken and lamb dishes (if marinating meat, leave the marinade for longer and even overnight to infuse).

For a delicious vegetarian option, marinate a selection of vegetables and roast with the chermoula paste.

What to drink:
I'm assuming you're probably not drinking with this if you're trying to lose weight 😉 but a small glass of dry rosé would be a good match.

Extracted from Spice Yourself Slim by Kalpna Woolf which is published by Pavilion Books. Photography © Clare Winfield. You can find Kalpna's website on www.kalpnawoolf.com

Simon Hopkinson's Oysters Rockefeller

I've always been intrigued by Oysters Rockefeller, described by the great Simon Hopkinson as "the best hot oyster dish I know". Here's his recipe.

"Why oysters Rockefeller is quite so good lies in the perfectly chosen ingredients which marry so well with the unique taste of an oyster" Hopkinson writes. "The transformation from the natural, raw oyster (delicious in itself, of course) to the warmed oyster (never too hot) is critical. Buttery creamed spinach, tarragon, parsley, the essential pastis (Pernod, here) and softened shallot and celery. The aniseed flavours have always been key; pastis added to creamed spinach, for instance, absolutely makes that particular dish sing out loud."

SERVES 2

12 rock oysters, shucked

FOR THE ROCKEFELLER PURÉE:

250g young spinach leaves

10g parsley leaves

100g unsalted butter, softened

1 large stick of celery, peeled and chopped

1 small shallot, chopped

20ml Pernod

the leaves from 3–4 sprigs of tarragon

several shakes of Tabasco sauce

¼ tsp salt

a handful of fresh breadcrumbs

Fill a pan with water and bring to the boil. Plunge in the spinach and parsley, bring back to the boil then drain in a colander. Immediately refresh in iced water until cold. Squeeze as dry as possible between two hands until no more liquid seeps out. Set aside.

Melt 25g of the butter in a small frying pan, gently fry the celery and shallot until softened then add the Pernod, allowing it to bubble a little. Cool briefly, then scrape into the bowl of a small food processor. Add the cooked spinach and parsley, tarragon, Tabasco, salt and the remaining 75g of butter. Purée until very smooth and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7.

Tip off any excess juice from the opened oysters and, using a small palette knife, completely cover each oyster with a generous coating of the spinach purée. Strew a baking dish (or deep metal pan) with coarse salt, to allow the oysters to sit neatly. Distribute a fine showering of breadcrumbs over the oysters and bake in the oven on the top shelf. Cook for 8–10 minutes or until the breadcrumbs have become slightly toasted. Serve without delay.

What to drink: Not the easiest dish to match with wine. I asked Simon for his view and his suggested a white Rhone ("Fonsalette would be very special, if one can afford it." My own choice, I think, would be a brut nature style of champagne - i.e. one with no or a very low dosage or a premier cru Chablis though I'm sure a Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé or other minerally style of Sauvignon Blanc would be fine."

This recipe comes from Simon Hopkinson Cooks which is published by Ebury Press at £25. Photograph © Jason Lowe.