Happy as a...

I went out the other night to the 'soft launch' of a friend's new restaurant – a bit like a dress rehearsal. The idea is that you give the restaurant kitchens and the front of house staff a chance to test out their abilities before they get let loose on paying punters. The place – Terroir, 5 William IV Street, WC2 – is just behind Charing Cross tube station and, once they've got over a few teething problems, I think it'll be a truly pleasant place for an evening out (and I'm not just saying that because it's a mate's restaurant). Mark and I tried a few of the dishes, including a steak tartare and salad of smoked duck breast with green beans and walnuts, but for me the standout dish was one of clams with ham, garlic and chilli.

I liked it so much, in fact, that I decided I wanted to try my own take on the dish, which I did last night. In fact, we liked it so much – and I got so carried away – that I forgot to take a picture of the finished dish (hence the generic picture of clams, top). Here's the recipe (Mark said it was even better than the original, but he could just be biased...)

Clams with ham, garlic, parsley and chilli for two

150g smoked bacon, preferably cut into thick slices, then cut into lardons
a skerrick of olive oil
a smear of butter
2 shallots, finely chopped
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red chilli, finely chopped
150ml white wine
150ml fish stock
600-700g clams
a large bunch flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil and butter (use as little as possible – it's just to lubricate things until the bacon fat starts rendering) in a heavy-bottomed casserole dish or saucepan, then add the lardons. Fry until the lardons are beginning to brown.

Turn the heat down low and add the chopped shallots. Fry gently until translucent and soft. Add the garlic and chilli and fry for another half a minute.

Stir in the wine and the stock and bring to a fierce boil until the liquid has reduced by at least a third.

Lower the heat to a medium flame. Tip the clams into the pan, along with the parsley and the pepper. Stir thoroughly then place the lid on the saucepan. Cook for another few minutes, until the clams have all opened. Serve in a bowl, along with a slice or two of bread for your non-dieting beloved...

Last night's dinner was delish

After going to two tastings yesterday (one appallingly organised balls-up held on a smelly, badly lit barge docked at St Katherine's Wharf, in the shadow of Tower Bridge, the other a slick professional operation organised by one of the UK's major supermarkets), I was absolutely knackered. Quite frankly, I would have liked to opt for a take-away curry or a pizza from a supermarket, but I know that's verboten at the moment. I also needed a good, solid protein fix after spending much of the past few days in Italy, where everything seemed to come with pasta.

The solution was spice-crusted salmon, which we ate with a puree made of roast aubergines (about 50 minutes in the oven, until the skins blacken and the flesh turns soft and mushy) mixed with some 0% fat Greek yoghurt and reheated gently. We also had a stir-fry of veggies (they come in a pack in the supermarket), spiked with some lime juice to liven them up.

Spice-crusted salmon for two

2 salmon fillets (mine weighed just under 150g, Mark's was closer to 200g)
1 tbsp coriander seeds
half a dozen dried curry leaves (weird, but there actually is a plant called the curry plant)
1 mild dried Kashmiri chilli (any mild dried chilli will do – if you can't find any, use hotter chillies sparingly, this isn't really meant to be a spicy dish)
1 tbsp sesame seeds
sea salt
a smear of cooking oil (groundnut or vegetable would be best)

Make sure the salmon has been scaled and deboned. Rinse clean.

Heat a small frying pan on the stove, then, when it's smoking hot, add the coriander, curry leaves, chilli and sesame seeds. Cook until the spices begin to release their aromas. Place in a mortar and pestle with some salt and grind to a fairly fine powder.

Coat the salmon on both sides with the spices.

Heat a frying pan with a little bit of cooking oil, place the salmon in the pan and cook on a fairly gentle heat until the salmon is cooked as you like it (I like mine fairly rare).

If you happen to be fishing for compliments...

With all the hot weather we've been having recently, I've become incredibly keen on eating fish at dinnertime. Somehow it just feels lighter and easier on the stomach than a big hunk of red meat.

The last time I went to my local fishmonger's (I'm really lucky in that I have a really good fishmonger within a couple of miles, so I don't have to rely on the rather tired-looking selection at the supermarket - what do they do to those poor fish before laying them out on the slab? The only thing that could explain them looking that knackered is hard-core training for the London marathon...) Anyway, yes, the fishmonger's... They had some brilliant sea bass and they were selling it at reasonable prices, so I bought two small fish and took them home in triumph.

As you can see from the picture, I served them with slow-roasted cherry tomatoes, still on the vine (cooked for around an hour at about 120ºC, by which time they should go a little bit soft without getting burned - you can cook them for around half an hour at about 200ºC, but you have to keep an eye on them as they can go quite black rather quickly). We also had a good green salad.

As for the fish, I sliced a lemon thinly and stuffed two or three slices in each fish's body cavity. I laid each fish out on some tin foil, rubbed a little smear of olive oil over it, along with a good twist of black pepper and some salt, then folded the foil over to create two small parcels, which I baked for about 20 minutes in an oven preheated to 200ºC.

Just before the fish was ready to serve, I squeezed the juice of about three-quarters of a lemon into a saucepan and heated that up with a couple of tablespoons of pastis (any kind of aniseed-flavoured tipple will do), boiling it so that the alcohol burned off and the liquid reduced by about half. I then whisked in about 35 grams of butter, cut into small chunks, chunk by chunk, to emulsify the sauce a bit, then finally tossed in some shredded basil leaves and chopped tarragon. (These quantities made enough sauce for both of us, so even though the butter's a bit indulgent, it wasn't really OTT - and Mark got the lion's share of the sauce.) I poured the sauce over the fish once I'd plated it up.

I have to say it was utterly delicious. Definitely a keeper – and something to trot out if you've got guests coming round for dinner because it looks so pretty on the plate and it doesn't really feel like you're dieting, even though it's not too high in calories.

Simple and seasonal is good

If you're not going to eat your bodyweight in indulgent goodies (I find myself yearning for a plate of really good chips – a bit of a surprise, I thought it would be chocolat I missed most) you might as well make sure that you eat well. By which I mean that it's becoming even more important to me than it ever was to cook with really good, fresh ingredients.

A few nights ago, Mark and I settled down to a beautifully simple supper (left) of grilled lemon sole, Jersey potatoes and a mixture of samphire and wild garlic.

Samphire, if you've never eaten it before, is a green vegetable that grows in marshy areas near the sea; there's a tangy saltiness to it that evokes the taste of the sea, which is what makes it particularly good as an accompaniment to fish.

Wild garlic leaves are in season now – for a few weeks only, so if you find some, snap it up! The leaves have a mild flavour – more of a gentle fragrance than a full-on blast of garlickiness.

Grilled lemon sole, Jersey royals, samphire and wild garlic for two

1 medium-large lemon sole (or Dover sole, if you really want to splash out)
some Jersey royals (be sensible about how many you put on your plate – I had four small spuds while Mark had about double the amount)
150g samphire
a good double handful of wild garlic leaves
1 tbsp olive oil
a small knob of butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Get your fishmonger to clean the fish for you. Place it on a grill tray, brush it lightly with olive oil, then season. Grill until cooked, then turn the fish over, oil lightly, season and grill until cooked through.

Meanwhile, cook the spuds in pan of salted water (bring to the boil, then simmer for 15-20 minutes, until done).

Cook the samphire in boiling water for about 4 minutes, the drain.

Heat the remaining oil in a frying pan over a medium flame and chuck in the wild garlic. Once it begins to wilt, toss in the samphire and heat through. Melt the butter into the greens.

Fillet the fish, divide into two portions and plate up with the spuds and greens.

Fiddly food

I think I've already explained my theory that highly flavoured food is more satisfying when you're on a diet than bland food. I also tend to think that food that takes a while to eat because it's fiddly in some way (eg chicken wings, shell-on prawns, etc) also does the trick.

So this dish of Thai-spiced mussels (above) has to be the ideal combination of fiddly and flavoursome. We certainly enjoyed them this week.

Thai mussels for two

1kg mussels (I think smaller rope-grown black mussels are tastier than the big green ones from New Zealand)
1 tbsp grated ginger
1-2 small chillies, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp vegetable or peanut oil
1/2 onion, sliced into thin rings
2-3 stalks of lemongrass, bashed about a bit
300 ml fish stock
300 ml low-calorie coconut milk
1-2 tbsp fish sauce (nam pla – if you don't have any, light soy sauce will do)
lots of chopped fresh coriander, Thai basil (use the regular stuff if you can't find it) and mint

Make sure the mussels are clean before you start cooking. This means getting rid of their beards and the worst of any dirt clinging to their shells.

Stir-fry the ginger, chillies and garlic in the oil in a big saucepan for about 30 seconds, until they start releasing some of their aromatics.

Turn the heat down and, adding the onion, cook on a low heat until the onion is soft and translucent.

Add the lemongrass and cook for another few seconds.

Pour in the stock, coconut milk and fish sauce. Bring up to the boil then reduce to a simmer.

Tip the mussels into the pot, put the lid on and cook for just long enough for the shells to open (overcooked mussels go rubbery, those that are just cooked are tender and sweet). Shake the pot vigorously a couple of times to ensure the mussels cook evenly.

Serve in large bowls with a spoon so you can sup the sauce as if it were a soup.

We also had a small green salad with half a sliced avocado and some toasted sesame seeds, dressed with a simple mixture of lime juice, a bit of soy and a splash of sesame oil.

Dishes that pack a punch (part one)

One of the reasons I've always dreaded going on a diet is that the recipes in most diet books are so bland. The prospect of nibbling on rice cakes, lunching on cottage cheese and dining on steamed chicken and veggies for a week horrifies me. The thought of eating beige food for several months, a year even, just doesn't bear contemplating.

But over the past few weeks I've stumbled upon a secret. For me, the key to dieting lies not only in eating little and often but also in making sure that the food I eat is really and truly tasty. Most of the meals I've really enjoyed over the past month have been packed with taste – some of them have been spicy while others have just featured strong flavours.

There's one particular dish that's becoming a bit of a regular round here: sweet potato and feta. Quick to prepare on a weekday evening, but full of punchy flavours, this combination of sweet, savoury and salt is something that appeals to both Mark and I. Mark's portion is almost double the size of mine and we both fill the rest of the plate up with a zesty salad (try a bag of rocket and watercress or herb and green leaf salad, slice up half an avocado and add a handful of roughly chopped walnuts, then dress it with a small amount of simple vinaigrette – I usually use some walnut oil to enhance the walnuts in the salad, plus a tarragon or white wine vinegar and a dash of Dijon mustard in my dressing).

Sweet potato and feta for one

1 x 200g sweet potato 50g feta, cut into small cubes 1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted in a frying pan 1-2 spring onions, sliced 1 tsp orange juice
1 tsp olive oil fresh coriander, chopped
freshly ground black pepper
Heat the oven to 200C, then roast the sweet potato for about 40 minutes (it's done when a knife will cut through to the middle easily).
While the sweet potato is cooking, mix the other ingredients together (you can add a pinch of salt, if you want, but taste the mixture first as the feta can be quite salty anyway).
Once the sweet potato is cooked, slice it lengthways, then pour the feta mixture over it. Serve with the salad.

Another dish I find I'm enjoying at lunchtime is inspired by Japanese cuisine. A mixture of rice, fish and vegetables, it's very simple to prepare, but its salty/smoky/umami flavours leave me feeling really satisfied for a long time.

Japanese rice and fish for one

50g brown rice
100g sprouting broccoli or broccoli florets
50 smoked eel
1-2 tsp light or Japanese soy sauce
furikake seasoning (available from Asian food stores)

Cook the rice and set aside to cool.
Cook the veg and set aside to cool.
Place the cold rice in a bowl. Slice the broccoli and eel and stir into the rice.
Season with soy sauce and sprinkle with furikake.
That's it. What could be simpler?