—————————————————————————————————————–

      Prep time                 Cooking time

20 minutes                         20 minutes

—————————————————————————————————————–

Serves: 2

Ingredients

2 x 90g seabass fillets
2 lemongrass stalks
3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
100g chunk fresh ginger, peeled and finely sliced
3 small red chillies, finely sliced
Zest and juice of 1 lime, plus extra wedges to serve
Torn coriander leaves, to garnish

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas mark 4. Bash the lemongrass with the blunt side of a knife to bruise it, then slice it into thin rings. Squash the unpeeled garlic cloves to release their aroma.
2. Take a piece of baking parchment about 50cm in length and place the lemongrass, garlic, ginger and chillies in the centre. Top with the 2 sea bass fillets across its width. Add the lime zest and juice. Fold the sides of the parchment over the fish, then roll it into a parcel. Place on a tray, put into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.
3. Once cooked open the parcel and scatter over the torn coriander leaves. Serve with the lime wedges.

—————————————————————————————————————–

Prep time           Cooking time

2 minutes              26-30 minutes

—————————————————————————————————————–

Serves: 4

Ingredients

450g kippers
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cardamon pods, lightly crushed
½ tsp turmeric
2 tsp curry powder
1 cinnamon stick
350g basmati rice
600ml reduced-salt vegetable stock
2tbsp chopped parsley, plus extra to garnish
4 hard-boiled eggs, quartered

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas mark 6. Wrap the kipper fillets and bay leaves in some foil and place on a baking tray in the oven. Bake for about 8 minutes until cooked through. Take out of the oven, discard the bay leaves and flake the fish.
2. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onion gently for 5 minutes until soft. Add the cardamom pods, turmeric, curry powder and cinnamon stick, and cook for a further 1 minute or so.
3. Add the rice and stock and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Remove the cinnamon stick from the rice. Add the kippers and chopped parsley and cook for a few more minutes to warm through.
5. Serve topped with the eggs and garnished with more parsley.

—————————————————————————————————————–

Prep time           Cooking Time

5 minutes                13-15 minutes

—————————————————————————————————————–

Serves 2

Ingredients

6 fresh oysters, cleaned
30g (1oz) light brown sugar
Juice of 1 small lime
1 x 15ml spoon (1 tablespoon) tarragon or cider vinegar
Half a green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
Half a small red onion, finely chopped
Few sprigs fresh tarragon

Method

1. Place the sugar, lime juice and vinegar into a small pan and heat gently to dissolve the sugar.
2. Remove from the heat, add the chilli, onion and a couple of roughly chopped tarragon sprigs.  Leave to cool.
3. Lay the oysters onto a metal steamer and place into a large pan, covered with boiling water.  Steam for 8-10 minutes over a medium heat until the oysters start to open.
4. Using a cloth to protect your hands, ease the shells open.  Take a knife and loosen the flesh from the shell, leaving the oyster meat in the deeper half of each shell.  Discard the upper shell.
5. Add any cooking liquor to the tarragon sauce, then spoon over the oysters.
6. Garnish with the remaining tarragon and serve immediately.

—————————————————————————————————————–

Prep time                         Cooking time

5 minutes                             10 – 12 minutes

—————————————————————————————————————–

Serves 2

Ingredients

250g of pasta shapes

2 tins of mackerel

200g Light Philadelphia with Chives

Method

1. Cook the pasta according to packet instructions

2. Whilst the pasta is cooking, add the philadelphia into a pan and heat through until smooth and creamy. (You may need to add a little splash of milk here to help soften the philadelphia)

3. Add in the tinned mackerel and heat through. Combine with pasta.

Tip: You could also try tuna

—————————————————————————————————————–

Prep time                   Cooking time

      26-30 minutes                    5 minutes

—————————————————————————————————————–

Serves: 8

Ingredients

250g white crab meat from a Brown Crab
450g smoked salmon slices
1tbsp olive oil
140g watercress, tough stems removed, plus extra to serve
600g reduced-fat cream cheese
Zest 1 lemon, plus wedges to serve
2tbsp finely chopped fresh dill

Nutritional Information

241kcal
12.9g fat
6.4g saturates
3.2g carbs
3.2g sugars
0.8g fibre
27.6g protein
3.7g salt

Method

1. Line a 20cm x 10cm loaf tin with cling film, laying it in as smoothy as possible and letting the excess hang over the sides. Cover the base, ends, and the sides of the terrine tin with 325g of the smoked salmon slices, slightly overlapping them. Again, allow the ends of the pieces to overhang so that they can be folded over the finished terrine. Chop the remaining smoked salmon finely and set aside.
2. Put the olive oil in a large frying pan and add the watercress, allowing it to wilt down over a medium heat for 1 minute. Let it cool, then squeeze out the excess water in a clean tea towel and chop finely.
3. Divide the cream cheese between two medium-sized mixing bowls. Add the watercress to one half and season. Add the crab meat, chopped smoked salmon, lemon zest, dill, and plenty of black pepper to the other bowl or plain cream cheese and fold together, trying not to break up the salmon too much.
4. Spoon half the crab mixture into the lined loaf tin, smoothing the top with a spatula. Top with all of the watercress mixture, again smoothing the top. Finish with the remaining crab mixture and smooth the top.
5. Fold the overhanging smoked salmon slices over the top to seal the terrine completely. Then cover the terrine with the overhanging ends of cling film. Weigh it down with a couple of tins or similarly heavy objects and chill in the fridge for at least 5 hours (preferably overnight). Slice and serve with watercress and lemon wedges.

—————————————————————————————————————-

Prep time                              Cooking time

5 minutes                                    13-15 minutes

—————————————————————————————————————-

Serves: 4

Ingredients

16 king prawns or prepared langoustine
12 Scallops
3 garlic cloves or a spoonful of chopped garlic
300g risotto rice
1 litre of fish stock or vegetable stock cube dissolved in a litre of boiling water
1 chopped onion
1 butternut squash
2 rashers of bacon
Oil

Method

1. Peel the butternut squash and finely chop it into chunks before boiling it in a saucepan. After 10 minutes drain the water and mash the butternut squash down to form a paste consistency. (Or blitz in a food processor)
2. Take some oil and in a wok or frying pan, add the chopped bacon, onions and garlic.
3. Add all the rice and quarter of the stock and stir for 4-5 mins or until the rice absorbs the stock, then add more stock and keep cooking and stirring gently until all the rice absorbs all the stock. Add the butternut puree and keep cooking gently, cook until the rice is just cooked (More stock may need to be added)
4. In a separate pan add in the prawns and cook for a few minutes before adding the scallops and cooking for a minute on each side.
5. Dish up risotto, and place the scallops and prawns on top and finish the dish off with finely chopped chives to garnish.

—————————————————————————————————————–

Prep time                            Cooking time

5 minutes                                          1 minute

—————————————————————————————————————–

Serves: 4

Ingredients

110g can smoked mackerel, flaked
1 tortilla wrap
1tsp light mayonnaise
Few snips of chives
4 baby gem lettuce leaves

Method

To make this super simple (but scarily spooky) snack…

1. Slice the tortilla wrap into long, thin strips about 5mm wide.
2. Mash the mackerel and shape into 4 ‘mummies’. Gently wrap the tortilla strips around each mummy, folding the ends underneath and leaving space for the eyes.
3. Pipe 2 small dollops of mayonnaise onto each ‘mummy’ to make the eyes and top each with a small piece of chive. Serve each on a lettuce leaf.

Tip: Toasting your ‘mummies’ in a hot, dry frying pan for 20 seconds on each side will firm up the wrap and give them an authentic aged look. As an alternative to mayonnaise, use low-fat soft cheese, soured cream or tomato ketchup.

For Hallowe’en, decorate with eyeballs, spiders and cobwebs and your spooky scene will be ghoulishly great!