Cooking in Radlet

We stayed recently with Nick’s Mum and Dad and to make the time more special we also had my Mum staying from NZ.  I put myself in the role of cook and had loads of help from both Nick and Steph.

Looking in someone else’s kitchen is always harder than your own but there is one single factor that make this one really fun – I have a love affaire with a kitchen appliance that I’ve never seen before– The Bean Cutter.  It attaches to the bench and as you turn the handle the bean (green and flat, I call it a runner bean) gets pushed through the machine and out comes perfectly fine cut pieces – I don’t know anyone in the would that shares the level of my excitement for this simple and quite old machine (it squeaks badly enough to send my sister in law running)…but it did mean I had to find a way to use this machine!!

So Jamie Oliver came to the rescue.  Luckily I had cooked this so many times we didn't need the book.

Beans with Cod, prosciutto and pine nuts.  As a starter we served the food with a simple salad of pear, witlof and walnut dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. Some new potatoes with the fish and finished with roast peaches which we had simply added a little honey and popped in thte already hot over served with a very good quality vanilla icecream.

Did I mention we where in a village outside of London, finding prosciutto was interesting but all the other ingredients came from a great farm store with a butcher and a fish monger and is now going to be the only place I buy food while I’m there.

Here’s Jamies recipe – It’s really good and simple and best of all everyone really enjoyed it.

Baked cod with French beans, pancetta and pine nuts

Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef Takes Off

So easy and so delicious -- one of our all-time favorites.

Ingredients

350gms French beans, trimmed and sliced at an angle

1 Small clove garlic, finely sliced

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil

Cod steaks for 6, on the bone if you can get it or any fish is firm and think enough that it doesn’t over cook

6 Strips of smoked pancetta or thinly sliced bacon (but I usually use proscuitto)

1/2 Good handful pine nuts

1 Lemon, halved

Preparation

Preheat oven to 220C

Place French beans in roasting pan. Throw in garlic and a little salt and pepper, add just enough olive oil to coat the beans, and mix it all around.

Nestle the cod steaks in among the beans, lightly season again, and then place some pancetta over the cod and among the beans. Sprinkle with the pine nuts and drizzle a little olive oil over the top. Take your lemon halves and place them in the pan -- they will cook and colour slightly, going jammy, sweet and lemony.

Cook for roughly 15 minutes in the middle of the preheated oven. Lightly lay aluminum foil over the fish for the first 5 minutes and then remove it. This is a meal in itself, so serve with all the lovely juices from the pan drizzled over the top.

Fresh is best,

Love Mary