The best fish and chips?

I've been avoiding buying a chip pan for a long time as it's so tempting to use it far too much, but I finally gave in and bought one for two reaons, firstly I'm not really keen on shop bought fish and chips, the fish is fine, but I just don't like soggy chips.  The rest of the family like them though so if I want good fish and chips I have to do them myself.  The second reason was for croquettes.  We had them in Italy and they are marvellous, I tried making them in the oven and they're OK, but don't quite hit the spot, so a deep fat fryer was the way forward.

Anyway, while researching the fish and chips recipes I came across the articles in the Guardian from Felicity Cloake, they are excellent articles and she does a lot of research into them, so well worth reading!  Her fish batter recipe was the one for me, tis turned out to be absolutely yummy, just perfect.  Have a look and try yourself, you won't get better in my view!  Thanks Felicity :)

She has also done some research into the perfect croquette recipe ans I tried that too, again perfect.  I shall be using a lot more of her recipes from now on!

Fresh tomato soup with tapenade

Fresh tomatoes are in plentiful supply at the moment so why not make a delicious soup out of all those tomatoes whether they are lying around in the fridge or waiting to be picked?  With fresh tomatoes, the softer they are, the more flavour they get so if they've gone over slightly and really need using now, this recipe is ideal as soup freezes really well too.

My recipe is based on Rick Stein's but I found his a little, dare I say, tasteless?  That's really unusual for Rick as I love his recipes normally, but as I've also found the same effect using fresh tomatoes in pasta sauces, maybe it's really about the varieties I can get hold of around here rather than the cooking. Whatever the case, I've modified it by adding a good dollop of tomato puree and the remains of a jar of sun dried tomatoes and their oil added to add to the flavour along with a few basic vegetables and I've managed to get what I was looking for.  I hope you enjoy it, let me know how you make your tomato soup or what variations you make.

These quantities make 5 decent helpings but you can easily change the quantities to suit whatever you have.

Ingredients

For the soup
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion
1 large carrot
1 stick celery
4 large garlic cloves
A good pinch of chilli flakes
1.2 Kg really ripe tomatoes, a mix of varieties is ideal
Half a tube of double concentrate tomato puree
1 jar of sun dried tomatoes
Salt and black pepper to taste


For the tapenade
200g pitted black olives - I find Teso olives in v=brine are good enough
8 anchovy fillets - alternatively use a jar of roasted peppers to make a vegetarian version
20g capers
A little olive oil to loosen the mix

Method
Heat the oil in a large pan.  Peel and roughly chop the onion, carrot and celery and add them to the oil over a medium to low heat - you want them to soften without colouring.  Skin, crush and chop the garlic into large chunks and add these to the veg  along with the chilli flakes. 

While the veg are softening, get the tomatoes ready by washing them then chopping them roughly.  When you've prepped them all, add them to the pan with a teaspoon of salt, bring to a steady boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

While the soups cooking, make the tapenade by putting all the ingredients into a blender goblet and whizz with a stick blender until it's finely mixed.  You may need to add  little olive oil to thin the mix down but aim for a hummus like consistency that can be spread on a cracker or toast.
 


Once the tomatoes have cooked, blend everything with a stick blender.  Heat through and serve with a good spoonful of tapenade stirred in and plenty of toast or bread.