The Miso Mushroom Burger - Aioli and Halloumi

Remember the two gigantic bulbs of garlic in the veggie box which I roasted and committed to the freezer? Now is the time they come into their own!

I think of Aioli as posh mayo – really it's a sauce made of garlic and olive oil. There are many variations of the sauce – the current French-Provencal version is probably closer to a mayonnaise but originally both the French and Catalan recipes don't contain egg yolks and have more garlic.

Aioli

Serves 6

2 large cloves of roasted garlic

2 egg yolks

½ tsp of Dijon mustard

½ tsp salt

60ml/2½ fl oz extra virgin olive oil

180g/6½oz rapeseed (Canola) oil

2 tbsp water

freshly ground black pepper

Blend the roasted garlic, egg yolks, mustard, salt and 2 tbsps of water in a food processor. Keep the motor running and add the olive oil, then the rapeseed oil – slowly. The sauce will emulsify to a thick, pale consistency similar to mayo. Taste for seasoning. Box and fridge, ready to use.

Spiced Halloumi

Serves 4

225g/8oz Halloumi sliced into 4 pieces

45g/2oz plain flour mix with

1 tbsp of seasoning of your choice

Rapeseed oil for shallow frying

The 225g pack will give you four portions, sliced lengthways – 8x7cms/3x3½ inches approximately. Open the pack and discard the liquid, pat the cheese dry with kitchen roll and then slice into four. Pat each slice dry, then box and fridge ready for cooking.

The seasoning for the Halloumi is your choice – a shop bought version is fine. If you'd like to try your hand at making your own check out “Halloumi – seasoning and dips to go with” for inspiration.

You'll never think of it as squeaky cheese again!

The veggie burger – the quest continues

I can't get away from the archetypal image of a veggie burger – dry as sawdust, bland, boring and the best use for it is as a frisbee!

In March this year we had the “Bazzin' Burger” made with chick peas and spices.

In my house, as the only vegetarian, if I want to try out a new recipe I wait, hoping that eventually willing volunteers appear. I've been dying to try out a new “veggie” burger for a while and hey presto my IT guru, Editor, and Nephew Lucas and his girlfriend Sam came for a visit. Perfect!

Lucas and Sam were staying over for one night. I don't get time with them often so I wanted to make the most of it. Happens to us all I know - I want to give them a delicious meal but didn't want to be away from them in the kitchen whilst they were visiting, except for half an hour pulling stuff together.

Here's my menu :

Miso Mushroom Burger et al

Serves 4

4 Brioche buns

Aioli

Spiced coated Halloumi

Miso roasted portabello mushrooms

sides

Bazzin' beetroot relish

Stick fries

The next step is to work out what could be made and prepped ahead. Aioli, the coating for the Halloumi, slicing the cheese too, the miso marinade, and the relish. Nothing major but every little helps and saves precious time.

Sounds good to me – fingers crossed!

More mornay therapy

Before I move on to other stuff, here's a variation on a theme of fish and mornay sauce. Simple and delicious, especially if you're a fish pie fan.

This recipe is structured using my usual “plan ahead” strategy.

Mornay Fish Pie

Serves 4

2 large baking potatoes – stab carefully with a

paring knife, wrap in foil and bake for 1 hour at

180fan/200c/Gas 6

Set aside to cool then slice thinly – skin on or

off – personal choice

Whilst your potatoes are baking wrap 400g/14oz of fresh

fish in foil and bake for the last 15 minutes of your

potato baking time – use a timer!

Set the fish and potatoes aside to cool until ready to assemble

Your fish can be a mixture of whatever you choose – for example, smoked haddock or cod with salmon and prawns – it's whatever floats your boat – pardon the pun. If you're using cooked peeled prawns as part of your 400g/14oz of fish don't add them until you're assembling your pie. You can buy bags of mixed pieces of fish designed for a pie if you don't want to make up your own.

Now for your therapy – the mornay sauce. Make up the sauce as given in the recipe in “Moreish Mornay”.

As I've mentioned already you can make the sauce ahead, cool box and fridge. You can freeze it too if that's more convenient.

Assembly

When you're ready to assemble, preheat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

As you know I use foil trays – in this case 24x24cms/9½x9½ inches – available from Wilkinsons if you wanted a supply – otherwise a square casserole.

Open up your foiled fish and tip it into a large mixing bowl. Break the fish into chunks, gently, then season with black pepper. If you're using cooked, peeled prawns, now is the time to add them. There will be jelly from the cooked fish – discard or include – it's all flavour and will combine with the sauce you've made. If you've not used any smoked fish then you may want to add a sprinkle of salt. Add your Mornay sauce and fold to mix, gently.

Tip the mixture into your tray or casserole.

Add the sliced cooked potatoes, add a knob or two of butter and ground black pepper. If you're feeling really decadent then sprinkle grated Parmesan over the top.

Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, you can make each element when convenient for you. All you have to remember is to take the sauce out of the freezer!

Probably a tad early for Autumn/Fall comfort food but who cares. I made the pie for a class recently despite the heat. I'd cooked the potatoes and fish in the cool morning kitchen so it actually worked like a dream and my students had a ready made supper to take away!

Mornay moments – photo guide

These photos show a generous supper.

Place the fish in the bottom of the bowl and add a generous layer of potatoes

Add a generous drizzle or two of mornay sauce, “Jackson Pollock” style

Finally garnish with the griddled asparagus

The verdict … “****** wonderful”!

Hmm, a result and a recipe that will be repeated.

P.s. Feeling adventurous?

Try garnishing the dish with samphire instead of asparagus. Samphire is a sea vegetable and there are two types, marsh and rock. Marsh samphire is very similar to fine asparagus and is the most palatable of the two. Be warned, it is, not surprisingly, very salty so try steaming for a couple of minutes. It is delicious and a perfect partner for fish, which reminds me – you'll find it on the fresh fish counter!

Smoked haddock and mornay sauce

It's traditional, certainly in the UK, to put fish with parsley sauce – can't say I'm enthusiastic. I immediately think of cod in parsley sauce which in turn makes me think of invalid food.

If you'd like an idea for a lunch, or a supper main course here's my latest.

As is usually the case with me, less is more - there are four elements to this dish – two of which can be made ahead.

This recipe is based on a light lunch for two or a generous supper for one.

Fish and Chips – sort of

300g/12oz of new potatoes, cooked and peeled

drizzle of rapeseed (Canola) oil

200g/8oz of smoked haddock – in two pieces

Mornay sauce – half the recipe given previously

110g/4oz of extra fine asparagus tips, snapped and then

trimmed to a similar size

Cook and peel the potatoes ahead. Cool and then cut into quarters, set aside.

Make the sauce ahead, cool and fridge.

Pre-heat oven 170fan/190c/Gas 5

This dish is based on frozen smoked haddock, cooked straight from the freezer. Clearly you can use fresh fish – the recipe is for speed and so long as it's good quality why not – if you have heaps of time to pop to the Fishmonger and buy fresh, even better.

Frozen smoked haddock will take 30 minutes. Place your fish in a foil tray or a small casserole. Add a drop of water and a knob of butter. On a separate baking sheet cut your potatoes into quarters, add a drizzle of rapeseed (Canola) oil, toss to cover and roast at the same time as the fish. Set your timer for 20 minutes.

Re-set your timer for the remaining 10 minutes cooking time. Warm a griddle pan for the asparagus – oil the asparagus, not the pan – all that will happen if you oil the pan is that the oil will sink into the grooves and will burn.

Warm the mornay sauce, gently on a low heat. Warm a large bowl too!

Here it is ...

Moreish mornay

I've always loved the combination of fish and cheese. Some might say contentious – you won't get seafood and cheese served together in an Italian restaurant - some might say old fashioned!

My first encounter with a mornay sauce was in the 70s, working in Mayfair the “birthday treat” was to go to “Wheelers” the ultimate in fish restaurants. It was there that I first tasted cod in mornay sauce. A memorable experience.

Mornay sauce is French – usually enriched with egg yolks. My version is without the egg yolks. I realise this is not for the purists but I want a sauce that I can freeze and uncooked eggs ain't such a good idea. I have not received any complaints.

Here's it is :

Mornay Sauce

Serves 4-6

40g unsalted butter

40g plain flour

600ml of milk – I use semi skimmed

150g mature Cheddar cheese

(or a combination of Cheddar and gruyere)

salt and black pepper

½ tsp Dijon mustard - optional

Melt the butter in a pan and stir in the flour. Cook gently for a minute, stirring – make sure you don't brown the mixture. Gradually add the milk whisking constantly and eventually bring to the boil, whisking until it's smooth and thick. Lower the heat and simmer for 2 minutes, then add the cheese, mustard and season. I'd taste before you add salt – there's salt in the cheese – adjust accordingly.

I've found two theories of origin – the first, it was named for a 17^th century French diplomat, Philippe de Mornay, seigneur du Plessis-marly. The other is that it was created by Chef Joseph Voiron of Paris, naming the sauce after his eldest son, known as Mornay.

I like useless bits of information – you never know what trivia questions are going to pop up when you're quizzing!

Moving on …

A pandowdy post script

I received an email from my friend in the USA who had looked at the pandowdy blog. It raised an interesting question for her, which was “the apple pie recipe requires “black treacle” - I have no idea what that is”.

I can help - “black treacle” is “molasses”.

Here's what the can looks like :

It then occurred to me that the USA uses Imperial measurements and not metric as we do in the UK - if you're not familiar with both it can be a nuisance and would put you off a recipe because you don't have the time or inclination to translate.

As an example, my friend talked about a hamburger recipe she'd come across and so I mentioned that mine was on the same USA link “On location in SC – Friday night is burger night!” The recipe calls for 500g of minced beef, pork or turkey.

Here's a quick translation of the metric measures given for the burger :

1 kilo is equal to 2lbs 2oz,

for a recipe requiring 500g (½ kilo) you'll need 1lb 1oz of minced meat

and the 5x100g burgers equates to 5 quarter pounders

The UK introduced the metric system in 1965 so for those of a certain age – which includes me - we'd already been taught the Imperial system. There are many who still stick with Imperial in the UK. It messes with your head to effectively have two systems.

There are occasions when cooking needs to be exact – you can fly by the seat of your pants generally speaking – a sprinkle of this and a dash of that (note to self when you're flying by said pants try and remember what you've sprinkled and dashed!). However where baking is concerned this is an exact science and you have to be precise … unless of course you're like my Nana who never used a set of scales in her life and made the best pastry in the world!

This might help … strictly speaking an ounce is equal to 28 grams (g) - consequently the practise is to use either 25g or 30g. I use 25g as my rule of thumb – it's entirely up to the individual - both are correct – using 25g to an ounce makes the sums easier for me.

Note to me – give Imperial and Metric measures in recipes!