Cod with Peppers and Potatoes

I don't actually know what this dish is called so I'm giving it a 'duhh' name. It's a recipe my sister gave me and it's dead easy and tastes awesome. I was too hungry to take a picture of it before eating so you'll just have to imagine it in your creative mind.

Feeds 2 people

You need:
250g jar of roasted mixed peppers (you can easily find this in the antipasti section at the supermarket)
250g new potatoes
1 red onion
140g green beans
2x175g cod fillets (these have a few tiny bones in it so you may want to inspect your fish before cooking it otherwise you'll end up pulling bones out of your mouth throughout the meal. max unglam)
1/2 lemon

And... go!
1. Cut the potatoes and onions into wedges (personal preference really) and halve the beans
2. Drain the oil from the jar of roasted peppers into a pan on high heat
3. Fry the potatoes and onions in the pepper oil for about 5min/until golden
4. Pour away most of the oil, leaving about 2 tbsp in the pan
5. Add the beans and peppers. Cook for another 5 min
6. Put the cod skin side down on top of your oily stirfry
7. Cover and let it cook for about 10min
8. Drizzle with lemon juice (I forgot this step and it still tasted fine)

The best part is you have your carbs, veg and fish all in one dish with no extra salt/seasoning!

easy reliable pizza (:

to my surprise, pizza proved to not be quite as scary as i'd thought. apart from being pretty straightforward, the recipe also seems relatively idiotproof! and there are many basic versions which seem quite reproducible (unlike my one-hit okayness experience with most other recipes) and more pimped up versions one can progress to (:

here is the one ben & i began with: makes 6-8 bases

jamie oliver no less,

1 kg '00' flour

1 level tbsp fine sea salt

2 x 7g sachets of dried yeast

1 tbsp golden caster sugar (pimped up version has some honey in it too)

4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
650 ml lukewarm water (pimped up version swops part of the water for white wine)

(note: '00' flour can be found at waitrose and appears to give a better result but on 2 repeat occasions ben used bread flour and i used plain flour and both still gave us pizza so no worries!)

1. in a large bowl, mix flour and salt together and create a lovely expectant looking well in the middle.

2. mix the yeast, sugar, olive oil (+honey, wine if present) with the lukewarm water in another bowl. lukewarm just means about 50 + deg i think, so you can put your hand comfortably in and so yeast can have a happy play day. leave this mixture for about 5 min

3. pour the awakened yeast into the well you made in the large bowl and using a fork first, bring the flour in gradually, mixing well the whole time.

4. when the mixture starts to look vaguely like one entity, flour hands and get your hands in there kneading until the dough is smooth and springy.

(on the website, one of the comments from a reader said: if the dough is still sticky YOU HAVENT WORKED HARD ENOUGH!)

5. when satisfied with springiness, place in large flour-dusted bowl , and leave in a warm room for about 1/2 h until doubled in size

6. take this half hour to chop up toppings: some suggestions are below, also, preheat the oven at the highest temperature

7. tear out adequate sizes of baking paper and divide the dough into as many pizzas as you want

8. flour the baking paper (if not, nightmare getting it off later!) then roll out the balls of dough as thin as you can without being ridiculous

9. then put the base in to cook for about 3-5 min by itself (this prevents it getting soggy in the middle later so you can pile as much topping as you want on without having to worry, this is especially important when you are ben and as much topping is quite alot)

10. when it comes out, just spread your sauce on and get going! with all the toppings on + cheese on top, the pizza takes about another 12-15 min in the oven (:

topping suggestions:

fiorentina: tomato sauce, spinach, mozzarella, then crack an egg perhaps 2-3 min before the end of cooking

everything: peppers, mushrooms, chunks of pre-fried rump steak

simple: tomato sauce + bufala mozzarella torn up into pieces which beautifully melt into creamy white pools

anything you like!

for the tomato sauce: we used variously some specially made for pizza bases napoli brand sauce, a sainsbury's passata sauce, or you can make your own using mich's tomato sauce recipe!