Quite possibly the most amazing week of the year, between the 9th and 15th of October, the UK is celebrating both National Chocolate Week and National Curry week! Manna from Devon Cooking School is here to help with mouth-watering recipes for each.
From their upcoming Wood Fired Fish & Seafood cookbook, due out Spring 2018, Manna from Devon owners Holly and David have taken inspiration from a recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's 'Curry Easy':
Spiced hake fillet with pepper and coconut sauce - for four
This dish will work with any fish so use whatever you happen to have; we love using hake for its sweet white flesh and big flakes and can get it readily from our fishmongers at Brixham Fish Market. This recipe works well in a hot oven – preferably a wood fired oven but standard domestic models will work just fine.
- 800g fish fillet – cod, haddock, salmon, hake all work well
- Salt and pepper
- 2 level tbsp rice flour
- 1tsp ground cumin
- 2tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp chilli powder
- 2 large red, yellow or orange peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped
- 2 large cloves garlic, peeled
- 3cm root ginger, peeled
- 1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 fresh red chilli, roughly chopped
- 1 x 400ml tin good quality coconut milk (regular not light)
- 4tbsp sunflower oil
- Limes to serve
- Use a food processor to blitz together the peppers, garlic, ginger, onion, chilli and coconut milk until smooth. Season well with salt and pepper.
- Mix the rice flour with salt, pepper and the dry spices and use this to lightly dust the fish.
- To cook the sauce, heat 2tbsp of the sunflower oil in a deep frying pan. When the oil is hot, add the pepper and coconut mixture, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes until the sauce thickens, stirring from time to time.
- Meanwhile roast the fish in a preheated oven at 210C. Heat the rest of the oil in an ovenproof frying pan and when hot add the fish skin side down. Put the pan in the oven and roast the fish for 8-10 minutes but check regularly to feel when the flakes of flesh start to break under a little pressure. You won't have to turn it over as the oven will cook it from all sides.
- Serve the fish with the pepper and coconut sauce and some lime wedges to squeeze over along with some plain cooked Basmati rice.
Sweet Flatbreads
- 250g strong white flour
- 75ml warm water
- 60ml milk
- 1 egg, beaten
- 15g butter
- 15g caster sugar
- 5g fine seasalt
- 5g fast acting yeast
- 2 medium bananas
- 150g milk chocolate
- 50g cream
- 50g hazelnuts, roughly chopped or bashed in a pestle & mortar
- Mix together the flour, water, milk, egg, butter, caster sugar, yeast and salt. Knead to get a smooth soft dough. Leave covered to rise in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size and puffy.
- Heat the oven to 210C.
- Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to get a rectangle about 25x30cm and put in on a non-stick baking sheet. Prick the dough all over with a fork.
- Gently melt the chocolate and cream together in a saucepan over a low heat on the hob and mix together with a spatula. Spread the chocolate mixture over the top of one of the rectangles. Peel and slice the bananas and arrange them over the top of the chocolate spread.
- Bake the flat bread in the oven for 8 minutes, turning from time to time to get an even bake. Sprinkle over the hazelnuts and return to the oven for another 4-5 minutes, keeping an eye on the nut so they don't scorch.
- Take the flat bread out of the oven and let it cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes before chopping into pieces and serving warm.
