Colcannon Cakes with Warm Smoked Salmon

With leftover potatoes and sprouts, why not try something different.......like these colcannon cakes with smoked salmon. This is a deliciously healthy way to use up winter leftovers.

I made colcannon myself yesterday as I needed a comfort food fix after my first day back at work from the holidays, I made too much so I stored the remaining colcannon in the fridge for this evenings supper.

 Just to try something new,  I thought why not try to make some little potato style cakes with them. Remember, the colcannon I made has only potato, sprouts, 2 tbsp of skimmed milk and leeks. Virtually no fat in that!!!

So, to stick with the low fat theme ( this is January after all) use a low cal  oil spray, and a non stick pan, to fry up these babies! I’m serving these on a bed rocket and some beautiful smoked salmon (also a survivor of the Holiday period).

By grilling the smoked salmon you are getting a completely different texture, but it gives it a delicate touch. Add a drop or two of lemon juice and viola, you have a low fat ,nutritious supper.......or perhaps it’s an idea for an elegant dinner party starter.

Serves 2

Ingredients

·         Low fat colcannon (http://serenasmediumrare.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-year-colcannon.html)

·         Low cal oil spray

·         Rocket leaves, dressed with lemon juice, and seasoning

·         1-2 spring onions

·         2 portions of smoked salmon

·         Lemon juice from half a lemon

·         Salt & pepper

Method

1.       Heat a non stick pan to medium

2.       Mould the colcannon into small circular balls and flatten them a little into patties

3.       Preheat grill to medium

4.       Spray low cal spray on pan and heat the patties, for 6 minutes a side.

5.       Meanwhile, place the smoked salmon on foil and squeeze with lemon juice, and grill for 4 minutes.

6.       Toss rocket, lemon juice, salt, pepper and chopped spring onion together in a bowl.

7.       To serve, lay the salad on the plate, top with 2 patties per person, top with the salmon and finish with a wedge of lemon.

New Year Colcannon

This winter comfort food is the ultimate indulgence, with warm milk and potatoes being the main ingredients. There’s something about the wellness feeling of mash potato!!! It just makes you all warm and fuzzy inside.

This recipe for a low fat colcannon has a little twist. Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish that involves mash potatoes, cabbage and cream and butter. As scrumptious as that sounds though, seeing as it’s just after Christmas, we are going to take the low fat route, using just a little skimmed milk heated, instead of butter and cream.

 Also as Brussels sprouts are still in vast supply  after Christmas, we are going to use them instead of the traditional cabbage.

This meal would be a great accompaniment to low fat sausages or some lean bacon.

(When sprouts go out of season, substitute with cabbage, kale, or spinach)

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 small leek, washed and chopped finely
• 6 brussel sprouts, shredded
• 2 tbsp of skimmed milk
• Salt and white pepper

Method

1. Place the potatoes in a saucepan over a high heat and boil for 10 minutes, or until soft.
2. Then add the shredded sprouts and cook for a further 2 minutes
3. Meanwhile, in a separate pan, add the milk and leek and cook over a low heat for 5-7 minutes, until the leek has softened.
4. Drain the potatoes and the sprouts, and add to the pan with the milk and leek.
5. Add salt and pepper and mash everything together with a potato masher.

Serve with your choice of lean meat for a real comfort feeling. Perfect for these wintery nights.

Honey & Teriyaki Salmon

Happy New Year everyone!!!! The start of January for me has always been a time for healthy, low fat meals, after a normally over-indulgence Christmas season. This Christmas was particularly over indulgent, so for that reason I have to have an extra healthy low fat start to 2012.
This recipe is easing me into healthy dinners again, with fresh stir fried vegetables, a small portion of egg noodles and some fresh salmon fillets oven baked in a quick teriyaki marinade.

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 2 Salmon fillets
• 1 tbsp of runny honey
• 3 tbsp of shop bought teriyaki marinade
• 1 garlic clove, diced
• 1 thumb size piece of ginger, peeled and diced
• 1/2 a red chilli, diced
• 100g of dried egg noddles
• 2 tbsp of soy sauce
• 1 tbsp of groundnut oil
• All sorted Stirfry veggies, i.e. mushrooms, mangtout, brocolli, red pepper, spring onions (Whatever you have to hand, but best to bulk up on veggies for a healthy low fat dinner)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees
2. Place the salmon on some foil in an oven proof dish (you'll thank me later, the marinade is not kind to dishes and stubborn to wash off)
3. In a jug, mix the teriyaki marinade and the honey together and pour over the salmon.
4. Meanwhile, chop all your veggies for the stir fry. Try to cut them into the same size so they cook through at the same time.
5. Place the salmon in the oven for 12 minutes.
6. Get a pan of water on the boil. Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions.
7. Pour some oil into a wok and add the garlic, ginger and chilli. Then heat the wok up to high and quickly stir fry the aromatics.
8. Add the veggies, starting with the biggest ones first and working your way through to the veggies that take the shortest time to cook.
9. Add a splash of water to the stir fry to help the veggies steam a little the soy sauce.

Japanese Calamari with Sweet Chilli Mayo

These calamaris are a fantastic drinks canape for the party season. The slow baking of the calamari makes the squid really tender, avoiding the normally rubbery texture of over cooked calamari which is deep fried, a bonus then that this method of cooking calamari is way lighter on calories.Whoop!!!

Serves 8

Ingredients

• 3 Squid pockets (frozen is fine and defrost overnight in the fridge)
• Panko Japanese Breadcrumbs (pulse 4 slices of toast if you can't get panko breadcrumbs)
• 1 cup of cornflour
• salt/pepper
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 egg, beaten

Sweet Chilli Mayo

• 1/2 cup good quality mayo
• 2 tbsp of sweet chili sauce
• Juice of half a lemon
• Salt/pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and prepare a baking tray lined with parchment paper, sprayed with low fat cooking spray 
2. Cut the squid pocket into rings
3. Combine the cumin powder, salt and pepper to the flour and put in shallow bowl
4. break up the egg and put in another shallow bowl
5. Put the panko breadcrumbs in yet a another bowl
6. Dip the squid rings one at a time into the flour mixture, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs and place them in single layer on baking tray.
7. Baked for 18-20 minutes
8. For the mayo, combine the mayo, lemon juice, salt and pepper and sweet chilli sauce. Transfer to a clean bowl for serving.
9. Place the rings in a bowl along side the spicy mayo and dig in. I guarantee you will be left wanting more!

Seasoned French Fries and Wasabi Mayo

These are another great canape for a drinks party. Who doesn't like french fries?!!!! These are a little posh and served with a wasabi mayo for a grown-up kick.

Ingredients

• 5 potatoes, chopped thinly with skins still on.
• 1 tbsp of Arromat all purpose seasoning
• 1 tsp of wasabi paste
• 6 tbsp of good quality mayo
• 1 spring onion, finely chopped

Method

1. These are 3 times cooked chips, the only method for the ultimate crispy, fluffy chip.
2. Add the chopped potato to a saucepan of cold water and bring to the boil on a high heat.
3. Drain the potatoes when the water comes to the boil, and allow to rest in the colander so the steam leaves the potatoes.
4. Add the chips to a deep fryer and fry until almost cooked through.
5. Remove from the fat, and rest until just before you are ready to serve.
6. Add the fries to the fat for one last blast, until nice and golden.
7. Drain on some kitchen paper and douce with the Arromat seasoning.
8. Serve with the wasabi mayo, which is made by simply combining the wasabi paste, spring onion and mayo.

Nigella's Christmas Bonbons

If like our family you spend a good share of the week visiting family and friends during Christmas, lots of tins of chocolates and biscuits are distributed and redistributed. Here is a great edible gift which will help you make use of leftover Christmas pudding. It's an adaptation of Nigella Lawsons Christmas Puddinis. Nigella is a genius in my eyes, and these sweets are up there with the best of her. She does warn that they are a bit fiddly to make, so here I need to warn likewise. At times I cursed them so much I contemplated just forgetting about them. But that is probably more to do with my extreme impatience, than these being too hard to handle. As Nigella also points out, once they are made.....man was it worth it, and yes I'll definitely make them every Christmas now.

Makes approx 30 sweets

Ingredients

• 350g of leftover Christmas Pudding
• 4 tbsp of golden syrup
• 125g of dark chocolate
• 1 tbsp of brandy
• 100g good quality white chocolate
• 6 red glacé cherries
• 6 green glacé cherries

Method

1. Melt the dark chocolate over a bowl of barely simmering water.
2. Crumble the pudding and mix with the brandy and golden syrup.
3. Add the melted chocolate and mix well until combined.
4. Lay a baking sheet with baking paper.
5. Put on a pair of disposable gloves and roll 30 little balls of the mixture.
6. Lay them in a row on the baking sheet and cool in a fridge until they are firm.
7. Melt the white chocolate and then allow to cool for 5-7 minutes.
8. Cut the red cherries to resemble berries from holly branch, and cut the green cherries into strips to resemble holly leaves.
9. Pour the white chocolate over the bonbons and place one piece of red cherry and two pieces of green cherries on top.

10. Return to the fridge to firm completely then place in tins or cardboard boxes and you have a great gift for visiting family and friends for New Years.

Boozy Chocolate Biscuit Cake

This has been adapted from my mother-in-law secret chocolate biscuit cake. Her's is totally awesome, it was the talk of a recent party, and I ate more than my share. I was hoping I could steal the recipe and play around with it a bit , by adding nuts and brandy. The result is a great flavor and textured cake perfect as a last minute edible Christmas gift. If making for the little ones, I'd omit the nuts and brandy and add some mini marshmallows perhaps.

Ingredients

• 1 packet of marrieta biscuits (or rich tea),crushed to rubble
• 1 beaten egg
• 50g of chopped mixed nuts
• 4 tsp of dark cocoa powder
• 6 oz sugar
• 2 tsp of brandy (optional) [rum, whiskey or sherry would also be yum)
• 250g margarine/butter

Method

1. Melt the margarine slowly on a hob
2. Once fully melted add the sugar and cocoa and stir well to combine
3. Allow the mixture to cool
4. Add the beaten egg and stir until incorporated  (this thickens the mixture). Make sure the chocolate mixture is cool though, otherwise you will have scrambled egg, which is not a good flavour combo.
5. Finally add the brandy, and stir. Then add the biscuits and nuts and mix fully with the mixture.
6. Put in a container lined with parchment paper and press down well.
7. Refrigerate overnight.
8. Cut into squares and try to refrain from eating the whole batch yourself.

These are a fantastic homemade gift.