Cook book challenge | Poisson meuniere

My first recipe for 2014’s cook book challenge comes from Rachel Khoo’s Little Paris Kitchen. The recipe was for poisson meuniere or fish with lemon and brown butter sauce to us non-French speaking folk. I chose the recipe because it seemed simple enough from the ingredients and prep time. I managed to get the lemon sole in Tesco for £3.50 for two fillets, so not too bad, and everything else I already had. I didn’t include the optional capers as the recipe suggested, as I’m not a big fan.

Ingredients: lemon sole*//plain flour//salt//pepper//butter//lemon juice*//oil//parsley*//capers (optional)

Taste: The fish was so delicious, and made me wonder why I don’t eat more fish! I cooked this for my New Years Eve treat dish and it was very worthy. It tasted decadent whilst being easy to follow, it was fresh, light, and as I added extra lemon, very zingey, which is good, as I love lemons!

Good: The recipe itself was very easy to follow, and took the stated amount of time, if not less. I think I could probably get it to plate in less than the ten minutes if I made it again. The ingredients were easy to find in Tesco, but when I looked in Morrisons after out of curiosity for price comparisons I couldn’t see any lemon sole, so maybe something to pick up when you see it and put in the freezer for when you’re ready.

Time taken: The recipe states 10 mins prep and 10 mins to cook, I’d say I could probably do it in less now I’ve done it once. The first time it probably took me a shade under the 20 mins total time allocated.

Likeness to the book: The above picture is what my version looked like, and the below is the picture from the book. I’d say bar the capers I didn’t include, they look pretty similar! (Mine is more orangey looking because of my photo taking, not the fish!)

Improvements: Whilst a delicious dish on it’s own, I would have liked to see some suggestions for what to accompany it with, as just fish on it’s own isn’t enough for my appetite! Maybe I’m just used to recipes for meals instead? I ate this with wild rice on the first night, and noodles on the second.

Cost*:  Approx £2/portion.

*I’ve only included ingredients you need to actively buy for this recipe, as the others I would consider store cupboard basics that I always have on hand.

 Overall score: 4.5/5 (Would have got a full 5 if it had some suggestions on what to serve it with).

 

So there you have it for recipe number one in the challenge. A good one to start with, and one I think I’ll revisit.

Tuesday’s Travels – Palermo–The Food

As you all know, Rylar and I recently came back from Palermo, in Italy. I think before we went Rylar and I were probably most excited about all the local foods we would get to try, and so of course I set about documenting the majority of our meals.

Breakfast – Every morning at our hotel. If this is what Italians typically eat at breakfast time, I seriously don’t know how they stayed slim. There were pastries, bread, meat, cheese, coffee, fruit and cereal available. I typically had two small bread rolls with nutella, a pastry and a black espresso. I found this was enough to keep me going until lunchtime without snacking. Perhaps not the healthiest, but I can’t really have much dairy, so milky cereal was off the menu!

Lunches and Dinners – Rylar and I did some research before going on Trip Advisor and using our guide book about the best places to eat. We found the guide book to be particularly helpful, and ate from a lot of their recommendations.

Casa del Brodo – A restaurant not far from our hotel and on one of the main streets, it literally means ‘house of broth’. This had a great review in the guide book but wasn’t rated too highly on Trip Advisor. However, this was our favourite restaurant of the holiday, and we ate here twice! The staff were so helpful and friendly, and you could tell they were proud  of what they serve.

     

Tortellini in brodo (starter)                              Involtini- meat skewers (main)

    

Breaded veal escalope (main)                         Sicilian canolo (dessert)

Cafe Bristol – Near the port, Rylar and I stumbled onto this modern looking restaurant after hours spent walking and we were very hungry! We had lunch here. I was a bit disappointed by the service and quality of food, but it filled our bellies.

             

Linguini al ragu (main)                                    Gnocchi al pomodoro

Al Covo de I Beati Paoli – Another restaurant near our hotel that we went to for dinner one night. Rylar really fancied having pizza, plus it was raining and we didn’t want to walk far! We got there early and were one of the first people to get there, apart from a group of four  men. Now, I hate to add to the mafia rumours in Sicily, but I think these men were mafiosi. They had lots of platters of food that kept coming out for them, stuff which I didn’t see on the menu, and they all just got up and left at different times without paying. Plus, for Italians, they were eating very early in the evening!! I guess we shall never know….! I also had my favourite dessert here, the most fantastic chocolate tort. Mmmm!!

         

Bruschette varie (starter)      Pizza with prosciutto, rocket and grana padano      

                   

Pizza with prosciutto, oregano and mozzarella      Chocolate tort

La Botte – Another recommendation from the guide book, this restaurant was in a very quiet and rainy Cefalu’. Cefalu’ was a wonderful seaside town, and I bet in the summer it is packed!! We were the only people in the restaurant, but that didn’t stop us from having a nice lunchtime meal.

               

Swordfish in an olive, tomato and caper sauce            Pasta alla norma

La Cambusa Trattoria – Rylar liked the look of this evening restaurant, which was again close to our hotel. After eating a lot of carby pasta dishes Rylar and I both chose fresh fish. Rylar had sea bass and I had sea bream. I’ve never eaten a fresh quite like this before, and squeamish people might want to keep scrolling down!!

 

Ristorante Le Delizie di Cagliostro – Rylar and I went here for dinner one night. Neither of us were particularly hungry and were just wondering around and eventually ended up in here. To be honest the choice wasn’t fantastic, and it was a pretty touristy restaurant so I didn’t have massively high hopes. They were confirmed when we were served our food. Probably one of our least favourite meals of the holiday.

    

Caponata (starter)                            Pasta with cuttle fish ink and cuttle fish (main)

Linguinie al ragu with ricotta (main)

Antica Focacceria San Francesco – This is a famous eatery in Palermo, and had good recommendations in both the guide book and Trip Advisor. It dates back to 1834 and Italians come here for a quick lunch, a working lunch or even on school trips!

          

Typical local Sicilian street food (starter) Baked pasta with ragu sauce (main)

Mozzarella and tomato salad (main)

Sorry for such a long post, but here’s the majority of our eats! As you can see we definitely ate well, and had lots of variety. However, I think I probably over did it on the pasta. So much so, the lady at check in on our way home asked me if I was pregnant……But that’s another post for another time!!

Do you take photos of all your food when you go away?