Sort of Persian-inspired Fish and Rice

A random experiment to use up some broad beans, inspired by reading through some Persian recipes.
The result was tasty, and worth recording so we can repeat it another day.
Add more chopped fresh herbs if you have them - parsley, dill, chives, fenugreek leaves...

• 1 Onion, chopped
• a knob or two of Butter
• 1 bunch Coriander Leaves, finely chopped
• a few sprigs of garden Mint Leaves, finely chopped
• 1 cup Basmati Rice
• 1 mini carton of White Wine, plus water to make it up to 1.5 cups total liquid
• Salt, Pepper, Cinnamon and a little Turmeric to season
• 3 frozen fillets of White Fish
• Fresh Broad Beans, shelled.

Turn on the rice cooker to cook mode and melt the butter in its pan.
Saute the onions in the butter until translucent.
Add the rice, wine+water, chopped herbs and seasonings and stir to combine.
Layer the frozen fillets and the broad beans on top of the rice.
Put the lid on the rice cooker, switch it off and on again, and restart the cook cycle.
Once the rice cooker switches to keep warm, let it stand for a few more minutes to finish steaming the fish and beans.
Break up the fish into bitesize pieces and fold gently through the rice.

Mango Kulfi

The weather is threatening to maybe get hotter in the next few days, and the huge tins of mango pulp were on special offer at the supermarket.

Time to make this quick Indian kulfi-style mango icecream, in the hope some survives long enough to eat in the sunshine...

If you don't have an icecream maker, just pour the mixture into ice lolly moulds and freeze as individual portions.

Marmalade (again)

The problem with my first recipe for making marmalade is that peeling and preparing the raw fruit throws up a lot of the volatile oils in the orange peel that I cannot stomach, leading to needing to round up a helper to do that bit for me.

This time I tried another method in which the fruit is poached whole so that the peel is already soft and cooked when it is chopped up, and doesn't therefore spray orange oils around the place.

Crumpets

If I'd realised they were so easy to make, I'd've made crumpets years ago!

Crumpets are yeast-leavened pancakes that are cooked on a girdle, supported by a metal ring. The name is believed to possibly be a borrowing into English of the Welsh word crempog, meaning a pancake.

Freshly-baked crumpets make you realise how stale and old the ones you buy in the shops really are. So next time you fancy some crumpets for tea, get cooking.

Basboosa

I found a bottle of rose flavoured syrup for a few pence in the reduced to clear section in Tesco just before Xmas. It was perfect for this Lebanese cake, made with semolina and yoghurt, and soaked in a flavoured syrup.

It was quick and easy to make - but also quick and easy to eat! I didn't manage to get pictures before it was scoffed! The picture is of a later batch made another day.