This pasta recipe combines the fanciness of scallops, with the flavour of chorizo and the comfort of gooey melted cheese. Basically, it’s the best of all worlds.
Recently I did a big order of frozen fish and seafood from Bradley’s, a family-run business based in West London. They only sell frozen fish, with the concept behind that being that often, lots of the ‘fresh’ fish we eat isn’t actually fresh at all, and has spent a fair while being transported around before it ends up on our plates. Their fish however, is frozen within 3 hours of being caught, therefore ensuring that both the flavour and the nutrients are bound within the products from the outset, so they taste just as good whenever you choose to eat them later down the line.
Part of my order included the queen scallops featured in this recipe. The kilo bag has provided me with many meals so far, with plenty more to come, and texturally and flavour-wise these small scallops are pretty good quality.
Serves 2
Ingredients:
200g penne pasta
30g chorizo
½ leek
1 red chilli
2 cloves of garlic
150ml double cream
150ml fish stock
2 tsp sun dried tomato paste
small pinch saffron
1tsp chilli flakes
salt/pepper
200g scallops
chives
parlsey
50g cheddar (grated)
Chop the chorizo into tiny crumb/cube pieces then fry until beginning to crisp and set to one side.
Fry the chopped leeks with the chilli and garlic on a low-medium heat until soft and fragrant.
Cook the pasta according to packet instructions.
Add the cream, fish, sun dried tomato paste, saffron, chilli flakes, salt and pepper to the leek mix and continue to cook on medium heat for 15 mins until reduced slightly.
For a super smooth pasta sauce you can blend the creamy leek/stock mix at this point using a hand blender, although it isn’t essential.
Add the scallops, chives and parsley to the pan with the sauce then mix in the pasta.
Place in an ovenproof dish, and top with grated cheddar and the chorizo crumb. Put the dish under the grill until the cheese is golden and melted.
Sprinkle with more chives to serve.
I always like to include alternative adaptations of my recipes, and this one is no different. If you can’t get hold of, or don’t want to use scallops, other seafood would also work. Admittedly, if you’re desperate to showcase amazing scallops, you probably won’t be serving them in a pasta dish, so for me, the scallops aren’t actually the most important part here. Pasta + salty chorizo + cream/cheese + seafood is always going to be a success, whatever ocean-dwelling treat you choose to include!
Many moons ago, after making my delicious paella, I used the mussel and prawn shells to make a shellfish stock which had been sitting in my freezer for a while waiting to be used. I didn’t want to use it for another rice dish, so came up with an alternative using noodles, which I very rarely cook with.
This broth is super light, but it certainly isn’t watery; I also refuse to call it a soup, as there’s so much more going on. It’s a bit of a spicy one, but of course you can play around with the ingredients to make it milder if you prefer; I however, love the kick.
I topped my noodle broth with some dumplings that I can’t claim as my own – I actually followed a recipe from Rick Stein’s Road to Mexico, but I definitely recommend seafoody-style dumplings as an ideal topping, as they add different textures to the dish, along with even more flavour. If you don’t want to go to the effort of making dumplings, other seafood such as prawns would also work really well, and as for the veg, you can mix and match as you like. I love steamed pak choi, but if I’d had some bean sprouts I definitely would’ve added those to.
This is a pretty straightforward recipe, but in order for it to really work, a stick blender is highly recommended, as otherwise you end up with little chunks of onion and chilli floating around, and although that doesn’t affect the flavour, you don’t get a lovely smooth texture. Stick blenders are so worth buying though, especially if you’re a fan of making soups and broths at home.
Serves 2
Ingredients:
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
chunk of ginger
1 red chilli
small handful of cherry tomatoes
2tsp fish sauce
1tbsp rice wine vinegar
shellfish stock (or fish stock if you don’t have shellfish)
1 400ml tin coconut milk
2tsp sweet paprika
2tbsp sriracha
2tsp miso paste (dark)
bunch of coriander
2 nests of noodles (I used wholewheat)
1 spring onion
paprika flakes
chilli oil
optional toppings, i.e. dumplings, pak choi, bean sprouts, prawns, baby corn
Heat the onion to sweat, and then add the garlic.
Add the chopped or grated ginger, chilli and tomatoes and cook for 5 mins on a medium heat, stirring occasionally (turn down heat if they start to burn or catch on the bottom).
Add the fish sauce and rice wine vinegar and cook for a further 5 mins.
Pour in the shellfish stock, coconut milk, sriracha, miso paste and paprika, sprinkle in some chopped coriander and leave on a low-medium heat for 15-20 mins for all the flavours to soak each other up.
Meanwhile cook your noodles and any toppings, i.e. steam the pak choi. NB. You could cook the noodles in the broth later on after it’s been blended if you prefer.
Use a stick blender to blend the broth to a smooth, slightly creamy consistency.
Add the noodles and top with whichever seafood or vegetables you’ve chosen
Finish with a sprinkling of paprika flakes and spring onions, and a drizzle of chilli oil.
I love the colours in the finished dish – the bright, glossy orange, with the deep red paprika flakes and the contrasting fresh green from the veg. Although not based on any specific dish, this recipe is strongly Asian-influenced – I realise what a broad, sweeping statement that is – but I love how broth-style meals are such a staple in places like Vietnam (Pho), Malaysia (Laksa) and Japan (Ramen). They’re all so different both in terms of flavour and consistency, but what they have in common is the ability to demonstrate just how punchy, comforting and delicious, all at the same time, soup-like meals can be.
Haven’t done a review for a while so here we go… This review actually should’ve taken place a couple of years ago, except for the fact that I got confused, and booked a table at the underwhelmingly shit Steak and Lobster, instead of Burger and Lobster.
Before I dive into the actual review, just for comparison, Steak and Lobster has a near identical (although slightly less interesting menu), obviously is based around the same ‘surf ‘n’ turf’ concept, but the interior is weird and sterile, the service was a bit shit, and the food was dead. Literally of course, the steak and lobster were dead, but going beyond that. Dead af. Bland and uninspiring. I’m not sure I could paint a less glowing picture.
So after this unintentional restaurant visit, I’d been pining for the real deal. Pining for two years in fact. And today was finally the day that I got my Burger and Lobster.
This is not acceptable lighting.
I can probably concede that the only thing Steak and Lobster did better was the lighting. I have a thing about poorly lit restaurants. Really does my head in, and the Burger and Lobster in Soho at least was like this. That is, however, pretty much where the negativity ends.
To start, the three of us shared the Lobster Croquettes. These were super creamy with a lovely level of spicy flavour from the bed of Chipotle mayo. The little avocadoey blob on top doesn’t add much but it does look pretty. These aren’t cheap. You get 4 croquettes for £9.50, and you can bet that we divided that last one up between us into incredibly precise thirds. But at the end of the day, it’s a lobster restaurant, so if you’re on a budget, just don’t bother in the first place.
I’d always thought that I’d end up having the Lobster Roll here, but ultimately after some intense social media stalking, I decided that the B&L Beast Burger looked exciting. It consists of a thicccc AF beef patty (medium rare ofc) with a solid chunk of lobster meat on top, gooey melting Brie, truffle and tarragon mayo, fennel and Chinese cabbage. It is such a satisfying burger. Part of me thinks the flavour of the lobster gets a bit lost when it’s served like this, but despite that I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it. It really is a bit of a beast.
I was super tempted by the melty Gruyere Spinach on the side, but decided to be slightly less naughty, and opted for the tenderstem broccoli instead. As far as veggie sides go, it was nice and buttery, but obviously there are more interesting options. I did however, have to try one of my friend’s Truffle Chips of course. I was surprised that they were proper thick cut chips rather than fries, and if I’d known I might have been tempted myself, although we all agreed that despite the truffle smelling quite strong, there wasn’t much actual truffle flavour from them.
Finally we come to dessert, which I had told myself I wouldn’t have. But why stop myself if I change my mind? Gutted I didn’t get there last Easter for their Creme Egg Cheesecake, but rather than going for their plainer White Chocolate Cheesecake, I was taken by the Cranberry and Hazelnut Brownie with Vanilla Ice Cream.
First off, it definitely ticks the gooey box. It was super soft and melt-in-the-mouth. The hazelnuts and cranberries were both really nice additions, both in terms of texture and flavour. My only complaint would be the warmth of the brownie. Normally when something is served with ice cream on the side, it’s so hot that the two kind of melt together, and the hot-cold contrast works beautifully. With this dessert, the brownie seemed to be kind of lukewarm in the first place so that delicious contrast wasn’t quite there.
Service was great, super friendly, and the menu has a decent selection of mains combos.
There is probably a gimmicky element to the lobster craze, which accounts for the high cost of the food, but if you’re willing to look past the food as a trend, for me at least, it was a good quality, tasty meal. £25 for a burger with a small amount of lobster in isn’t ideal, but I’m in London, I know what I’m getting myself in for, so there’s no use in complaining.
As I often tell people with a sickly sweet smile at my place of work when they scoff at the pricing,’It’s fine, you don’t have to buy it.’ 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Paella is incredible. It’s one of the first foods from overseas that I remember loving. Holidaying in Spain fairly often when I was younger gave me loads of opportunity to get used to this beautiful seafood rice dish – surprising considering this was a time when I was incredibly fussy and actively disliked so many staple foods, even including plain white rice. I remember saying that I only liked ‘yellow rice’.
The highlight of my paella journey was probably having it for our Christmas dinner about ten years ago, and I can honestly say, with that incredible seafood, I didn’t miss the traditional roast at all.
There are many different varieties within Spain itself, paella valenciana being one of the most popular, and hailing from the city after which it’s named. You’ll find paella with a combination of seafood and chicken, some with either or, and sometimes vegetarian paellas are available.
Other variations that wouldn’t necessarily be classed as paella are arroz negro (black rice) which is made with squid ink, and fideua which uses short lengths of noodle-like pasta instead of rice. I’ve only ever had this once, but it was cooked by the abuela (Grandma) of the little boy I was looking after as an au pair in Barcelona. We went to stay in the grandparents house in Costa Brava for a weekend. She cooked this on the outdoor oven, and we sat in the sun by their pool (alright for some) enjoying this incredible meal. This was before I’d discovered my incredible appetite and I honestly struggled to deal with the amount of food they would try and pile into my plate, but they really did look after me.
I’m sure most Spaniards would be completely disapproving of any ‘paella’ recipe coming from elsewhere in the world, much as they were when Jamie Oliver added chorizo to his version, but you can guarantee that isn’t going to stop me from trying.
I browsed a selection of recipes online in the days before I was planning on attempting my own version, and so when it came down to it, I was able to wing this much-loved dish of mine.
When attempting dishes like this that are so adored in their country of origin, you kind of have to forget what people might think. Forget about how others might rip it apart, criticise every wrong turn. Just do it your way. Of course, if you are making any obvious major adjustments, it’s better to acknowledge this, and the fact that your version makes no attempt to follow the ‘traditional’ norms, but otherwise, you’re all good, and I don’t think I stray too far from tradition here.
Paella takes a bit of patience, but it’s actually very simple. My first attempt was certainly a raging success, even if I do say so myself.
Just promise me one thing – if you’ve bought one of those packets of frozen mixed seafood that no longer even bears any resemblance to seafood, not even an ounce of flavour, just don’t even bother with the paella. Not worth it hun x
Serves 2
1 red pepper
garlic
onion
Paella rice
Saffron
tinned tomatoes
pimentón
white wine
chicken or shellfish stock
peas
selection of seafood (mussels, squid, prawns etc.)
chicken thighs (optional)
lemon
Preheat oven to 180C.
Roast red pepper until it’s bursting from its skin.
Heat oil in pan and fry garlic and onion until fragrant and softened.
Add paella rice and coat with the oil already in the pan.
Add a small amount of the tinned tomatoes or normal salad tomatoes.
Add pimentón.
Make up the stock and add the saffron then pour into rice bit by bit along with a splash of white wine.
Add handful of peas and season.
Whilst the paella is cooking, cook the seafood (and/or chicken) separately if necessary and then add to pan when done along with the cooking juices. Prawns can cook simply by sitting on top of the paella, same with squid. Mussels should be washed and cooked along with a splash of white wine, garlic and butter until open. Use your common sense with anything else.
Keep adding stock until the rice is cooked through but still firm and there is no liquid left in the pan (if you overcook it the rice will go mushy so make sure you keep tasting as you go along).
Stir through the roasted red pepper and top with the seafood, ensuring everything is warm and cooked through.
Before serving squeeze lemon all over and serve with slices of lemon on top.
It may look like a lot of effort but actually the individual steps really aren’t. In terms of the ingredients, it can be as much or little effort as you like. Go for a simple chicken and/or prawn paella if that’s all you fancy. Or head down to your local fish counter to see what they’ve got in for a more ‘all-out’ dish like the one above, featuring mussels, monkfish, squid and langoustines.
Gonna end this one, bigging myself up a bit with something my friend said – apparently, after spending a year abroad in Barcelona, the flavour of the above paella that I cooked was better than any he’d had over there.
What could be more normal than spending the morning of your
birthday in a smoked salmon factory in Hackney?
For me, nothing.
I wouldn’t prefer to be drinking, partying, watching
Netflix. You name it, nothing would beat it.
It was a pretty last minute plan when I realised I wouldn’t be working, and I’d received an invite from Foodtryb whose community I’ve recently become part of, and this fantastic opportunity had been organised by them.
I wasn’t sure what to expect of a tour of a salmon factory
but I turned up, intrigued and ready to learn.
Forman & Field is a family-run business that started producing smoked salmon over 100 years ago. Their factory now runs alongside a kitchen that produces delicious food ready to be shipped to you and eaten at home, a restaurant, and a newly opened deli.
As well as their renowned smoked salmon, they offer a range of other high quality foods including meat dishes, other types of fish and seafood, and even cakes.
DISCLAIMER: As part of the Foodtryb community, this tour, the tasting session and goody bag were free, however, I have not been asked to post anything, and as I have said before, I would not post about an event, business or brand that I wasn’t impressed by (lol #blackfoodfest). My enthusiasm is always genuine, and likewise my disappointment or indifference wherever that may arise!
After dressing ourselves in highly attractive hairnets, jackets and shoe covers, we headed to the factory itself where a huge team were already hard at work, and some had been since the early hours. For those who are sensitive to the intense smell of fresh fish, this would not be the place for you, but to me it was fantastic, and seeing exactly where our food comes from and how it’s prepared was incredibly enlightening.
To begin with, we were shown the salmon being prepared, ready to be salted, so heads removed, and sliced down the middle. A few large patches of skin are also removed so that granulated salt can be added, seeping into the skin, drying the flesh out and travelling right down into the tail. Our wonderful host, Darren, explained that some supermarket-bought smoked salmon can be overly slimy as instead of being dried out with salt, they are left in brine meaning that the moisture is held in. This ultimately means that the quality is much poorer, particularly when frozen and then defrosted.
The visit also emphasised how the point of smoking salmon was never to give it an intentional smoky flavour. I’d never thought much about the fact that the point of smoking the salmon when people started doing it originally was purely to seal in the freshness and flavour back when fridges weren’t available. Therefore the smoky flavour is only something that people have come to demand more recently.
There are no flames used in Forman & Field’s production process. Instead, this wooden block is rubbed against the wheel below causing friction, which in turn produces smoke. They don’t believe that the flavour should be too smoky, and so the subtlety of the flavours in their salmon make it perfect for those who don’t typically enjoy smoked products.
Darren couldn’t give us a thorough tour and demo without telling us all about his world record for the fastest time slicing salmon – he even competed against Gordon Ramsey and you can find the video on their website! The bones have to be removed, and no matter what size the salmon is, there are always 30 to pick out.
There are then a couple of different ways of slicing it – a
‘D cut’, slicing vertically which is the more modern option, and a longer,
horizontal cut which was more popular in the past.
We also visited the room where the salmon is hung up – all of them being Scottish salmon – some wild, and some farmed. The farmed was slightly brighter in colour as in the image below.
We welcomed the much needed warmth in our next stop – the kitchen. There was so much going on in here, ready for orders to be shipped out to both big supermarkets and businesses, and independent orders. Some of the dishes being made before us included lobster terrine with langoustine and smoked salmon, and a meat roulade – our first insight into the non-fish dishes produced here.
By this time, we were v excited to try some samples.
I say some samples… no one had anticipated just quite how
much food would appear before us, and I have to say the spread was incredible.
First up were the raw basics – simple smoked salmon. We were introduced to both fatty and lean versions so that we could make a judgement on which one we preferred. I’m still not sure, and think I need a bit more practice (!) but for now I’d probably say the fatty one was slightly preferable. We also tried the bit from the belly (centre), and then two slices of the royal salmon.
The royal salmon was beautiful. The slice on the left is
plain, and on the right is flavoured with truffle. The pieces were light and
buttery with a beautiful texture. I would never have thought that truffle could
work so well with salmon in this way but it was delicious – for me it the
perfect example of how to use truffle in a dish. Less of the raved-about
truffle pasta at Gloria, which is a sickly overload of slimy, wasted truffle.
Here there was enough truffle to taste, but it was subtle enough not to feel
thrown in for the sake of it.
Next we tried the Swedish gravlax, which contrary to what many people think, is not smoked salmon, as it’s not actually been smoked! This one was flavoured with dill, and it was ok but nothing special.
Surprisingly, I much preferred the ginger and wasabi salmon,
despite not really liking wasabi. I found this one creamy and delicate.
On to another course, and this one sounds odd. Salmon jerky. I actually quite like jerky anyway so was looking forward to trying this. It’s pretty salty and so moorish. I noticed some people taking a bite and leaving the rest on their plates but I was straight in there, bite after bite. Really unusual concept, and that’s always something that has me curious!
The first non-salmon-related dish was an onion tart, which I actually brought some of home. Not too eggy, with soft, crumbly pastry and a tasty filling. The scotch eggs also came out at this point. The first one was a smoked salmon scotch egg, and the second, a traditional pork one. Interestingly I did prefer the salmon one, and the egg yolk in the centre was that perfect combination of being cooked yet still gooey.
Writing this is just making me realise how much food there was. It really was a madness. But we’re now onto the fried goodies – croquettes and arancini. First up was the salmon and lobster croquette, then we had thai salmon (my favourite – beautiful flavours) and then smoked haddock. I can’t remember what the first arancino was to be honest, but the second interestingly was a greek salad one with feta. This one was good, and I heard lots of people saying it was their favourite.
YES WE ARE STILL GOING. AND HERE COME THE HIGHLIGHTS. I couldn’t believe it when I heard the words ‘mac ‘n’ cheese’ floating through the air. This was not what I had anticipated, especially combined with the word TRUFFLE. I realised I had to start being more sensible at this point, as who knew when it would stop, so I managed to limit myself to just half a mini portion. Mac ‘n’ cheese was fab, perfectly creamy and again, light on the truffle flavours but still enough to notice.
Alongside the Mac was a salmon lasagne, which I wanted to try but didn’t have massively high expectations of. Just goes to show how open-minded you should be when trying things because this was my favourite dish of them all. I’m not sure what made it so beautiful, but it just had a kind of butteriness to it and I’m very tempted to order more of these from the catalogue because it was fantastic, and tasted such high quality.
Last fishy dish was the smoked mackerel paté. Mackerel is the ultimate fishy kind of fish, and so I reckon is only good for genuine foodies or fish lovers. I appreciated the paté but I wasn’t hugely fussed by it.
Who would’ve thought we’d also end up being served a load of desserts at a fish factory of all places, but we were. The lemon and pistachio cake came first and was lovely and light with a sweet hint of lemon. Then came the brownie which was excellent – for me a brownie MUST be gooey, not at all hard, and more dense in a chocolately way than spongey. This one was exactly that without being tooo heavy. Finally was the banana bread which was decent but I have had better (Fox Café in Nottingham is still my number one of all time!).
And. That. Is. Everything.
And so it should be. Luckily all the portions were small tasters, but still it was a crazy amount of food. I also received some of their packaged smoked salmon to take home, which I’m going to freeze whilst I research some fantastic recipes to put it to use.
I’ve had such a wonderful morning, and after having a look
at the menu for their restaurant online (they do both dinners and weekend
brunch), hopefully I’ll get chance to head over there at some point.
Thank you to both Forman & Field for their fantastic hospitality and genuine passion and knowledge surrounding their products, and Foodtryb for the organisation and invite.
If you want to find out more, browse their catalogue or
restaurant menus then head to www.formanandfield.com.
¡Comemos! 