Archive for September, 2012

Recipe 9 – Trout and Ginger Salad

Sunday, September 23rd, 2012

healthy and delicious

This is a deliciously clean and easy to prepare starter, the perfect balance to a richer main course. It is also so versatile that it works with all types of trout – hot or cold smoked, or unsmoked cooked fillet.

If like me you keep capers in the cupboard, ginger in the freezer and always have salad in the fridge then its perfect for when you’d forgotten you were meant to be cooking dinner.

Ran Morgan enjoying trout

Ingredients

For the salad:
Hot smoked trout or cold smoked trout or pre-cooked trout fillet
Strong tasting salad leaves such as rocket
Yellow or red peppers or both
Fresh coriander
Thinly sliced ginger
Capers

For the dressing:
Lime juice
Grated ginger
Sesame oil
Soy sauce
White wine vinegar or rice vinegar

One useful tip, use scissors to cut the trout into bitesize pieces.

tip to cut the trout

Then just add the trout and chopped pepper to the salad, add the dressing, toss the whole salad and add cracked black pepper and a sprinkling of coriander as a garnish.

red and yellow peppers with trout

Use both red and yellow peppers for maximum effect.

trout and ginger salad

Delicious and exceptionally healthy.

Marks out of ten:

10/10 for ease of preparation.
10/10 for taste.
10/10 for healthy nutritional food that you can eat as much as you like of without feeling guilty.

Receipe 8 – Trout meets Vietnam

Thursday, September 6th, 2012

the best ingredients

Receipe 8 was inspired by Hannah Fowles-Pazdro, visiting for the weekend and an expert in Vietnamese cuisine.  With a combination of fresh roots and spices from Morrison’s (amazing that you can get fresh turmeric in Dumfries) and herbs from the garden we set to work – Hannah on the chopping board and Shara at the fish sink.

immaculate chopping

Delicious fresh ingredients immaculately chopped by Head Chef Hannah Fowles-Pazdro.
(Fresh turmeric, ginger, chili, lemon grass, spring onion and celery, plus lemon thyme and curry plant from the garden.)

trout-preparation.jpg

While Shara organised the star of the show, our fresh whole rainbow trout.

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After a brief flash-fry to soften the spices Mr Rainbow was stuffed with love and tenderness and steamed in a fish kettle in the aga.

deliciously fresh

And the result was perfection.  Served with rice noodles and roasted cashews to complete the sensation.

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Marks out of 10:

10/10 for enjoyment of preparation.
10/10 for taste – this is a delicious fresh and healthy meal.
6/10 for ease of preparation, though if we’d capitulated to the electric chopper that would be 8/10.

Recipe 7 – Selcoth Sunday Special

Saturday, September 1st, 2012

It has become such a staple meal for us that we almost didn’t include this recipe in our 52 Recipes in 52 Weeks Challenge which would have been a pity, because it is one of the most delicious, simple and easy ways to enjoy hot or cold smoked rainbow trout.

Selcoth Sunday Special is poached or scrambled eggs from Selcoth hens with Moffat Water Foods hot or cold smoked trout.  It is incredibly quick and easy to prepare and, if you are on a Dukan or other protein-orientated post-weekend detox, it is  the most perfect and guilt free way to finish off the weekend.

selcoth sunday special
Cold smoked rainbow trout with poached egg from our Selcoth hens.

Olly enjoying smoked trout
Olly tucking in, no Sunday Blues in sight.

Moffat Sheep Racing

Saturday, September 1st, 2012

For a family day out it doesn’t get better than Sheep Racing down Moffat High Street.

pre race anticipation
The pre-race anticipation builds.

the racing sheep
The athletes are in the enclosure.

jockeys are ready
Number seven seemed the most upright, we put a tenner on each way.

and they are off
Unfortunately he didn’t make the top 6.

busy day on our stall
And it was a busy day on the stall for Moffat Water Foods.

Selcoth Haybaling & Moffat Sheep Racing

Saturday, September 1st, 2012

 Not content with mere piglet wrestling the weekend crew were dragged from their beds early Sunday morning to help out with hay-baling before the rains arrived. The reward was a trip to Moffat to see the inaugural Moffat Sheep Racing down the high street.

haybaling
Employing the weekend crew to gather the bales in the new hay field

more baling
All hands to deck

stacking high
Apparently there is an art form to keeping the stack upright

boys baling
Either way its better than your average day in the office

sun shining
Luckily the sun kept shining

even the girls helped
Until even the girls got roped in.