Last Night's Dinner 30 (No paywall!)

A riff on Nigella Lawson's Fish Finger Bhorta, a pot of spiced rice and a lunchtime salad with the leftovers.

Hello everyone! I know Last Night’s Dinner posts usually have a paywall for the recipe method but as this is the second one I have felt the urge post this week - and because there is an extra bonus leftover recipe at the end - I’m making this one open access.

This was me having a bit of fun with dinner and planning a meal around a packet of fish fingers only to find that someone had opened the packet I knew to be in the freezer and there were only 3 and a half left. Yes, someone decided to cut a frozen fish finger in half and put one of the halves back in the packet. Incomprehensible, isn’t it? But I was by then so determined that was what we were having for dinner I went out to the cornershop for more.

Talking about the cornershop, I feel as though I am in advance mourning as I just can’t see how much longer it will last. It was a thriving business. It used to stock EVERYTHING. I could get organic milk, eggs, all kinds of things, their storecupboard sections were stellar and the fresh section not bad at all. They served the local community brilliantly. Barry’s Tea and Taytos. A huge selection of Polish jarred goods. Every bean, pulse, grain imaginable. A very useful baking section.

But over the past few months there has been a sad decline - now empty shelves are the norm, the variety is now vastly reduced. Why? I’m sure you can guess. A Sainsburys Local opened up a couple of hundred yards away, to be followed not long after by a Tesco Express. It is gutting. Their range of products used to be much better than either of these supermarkets and now every week it is more depleted. They are a Londis franchise, owned by a Sri Lankan family, and have been there forever. It’s the sort of shop where they would slip the kids sweets and crisps (just last week a few packets of well in date Scampi Fries, still generous in trying times), know us all by name (although they call Shariq “Daddy”). I was going to say I hope they weather the storm, but it isn’t a storm it’s a complete change in climate. I’m sad.

But anyway, dinner. Despite having a roast chicken in the fridge, and loads of potatoes, I gave in to a craving for curried fish fingers. This isn’t so unusual in my household. One of my favourite things is a fish finger sandwich with hot sauce and coriander chutney - but also usually with some kind of cheese (usually bog standard cheddar) melted over the fish fingers. I’ve made Nigella’s fish finger bhorta once before and followed it more or less to the letter. This time I messed around with it (Nigella’s was in turn a riff on Ash Sarkar’s Bird’s Eye Bhorta) - as well as converting it to the pressure cooker - not the frying/grilling of fish fingers obviously, I did those under the grill - an air fryer would presumably do the job more efficiently. But the vegetables were cooked in the pressure cooker and so was the rice I served with it. And because I can’t leave well alone, I made a cucumber, lime and mint raita too - this is especially good if you serve with bread rather than rice.

And actually, it is the kind of dish which is better stuffed into any type of flat bread - a soft, fluffy naan out of preference, but a paratha or a roti, a pita or even a decent farmhouse white. And we’re back to fish finger sandwiches again.

The origins of the word bhorta is the bengali word for “mashed” - a very popular version is made with mashed or squashed potato. But also seems to refer to anything that is fried and squished together. A “mash up” if you will. I kept mine a bit looser, but obviously, if served in bread, it would get well squished together - and actually I did mash leftovers together to make a salad dressing, see the recipe right at the end. And if you wanted to, you could really break up the fish fingers and broccoli (cook for 30 seconds instead of zero minutes so they are the soft side of al dente) so the whole concoction could be formed into clumps. I might try it like that next time.

A practical note - if you are a one pressure cooker household (I assume most of you are) and you want to cook both bhorta and rice, I would cook the rice first and transfer it to a warmed serving dish (a kettle of hot water will heat it up) and leave covered with tea towel and lid. You can always put it over a low heat too, but it should stay hot in the time it takes you to cook the vegetables as it is a very fast dish.

For the bhorta:

2 tbsp olive oil

2 small onions, sliced into wedges

1 pepper, cut into strips (I used two small orange and yellow ones)

2 chillies, finely chopped, OR 1/2 tsp hot chilli powder OR 2 tsp hot sauce

15g ginger, cut into matchsticks

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp medium curry powder

1 head broccoli, cut into small florets

2 tbsp English mustard

12 fish fingers, cooked according to packet instructions

A small bunch of coriander, roughly chopped

For the red onions:

1 red onion, finely sliced

juice of 1 lime

First make the red onions, in advance if you can, but I find that they will usually be pink within half an hour. Put them in a bowl with the lime juice and salt. Toss to combine and leave to stand.

While the fish fingers are cooking, get the rest of the bhorta cooking. Heat your pressure cooker and add the oil. Add the onion and pepper and cook for a couple of minutes on a high heat - you will find they start to collapse down almost immediately. Add the chillies if using (NOT the powder or hot sauce yet if using either of those) along with the ginger, garlic and mustard seeds. Stir for a minute, then stir in the curry powder and chilli powder if using. Season with salt and pepper.

Add the broccoli and stir to coat, then add a splash of water. Stir to deglaze the base of the cooker, then put on the lid. Bring up to high pressure and immediately remove from the heat and fast release the pressure.

Push everything to one side and add the mustard and hot sauce if using, along with another splash of water if the base is dry (it probably will be). Stir to combine all the contents.

Cut the fish fingers in half. Transfer the contents of your pressure cooker to serving dish (or serve from the pressure cooker). Top with the fish fingers, followed by the red onions and coriander.

Turmeric and Coriander Rice

This is twice the amount of rice we normally eat at dinner time, as Adam is the only one who eats it in vast quantities and Shariq no longer eats it at all unless it is prebiotic/resistant starch - ie., chilled and eaten cold or reheated. I think 200g is a good amount for your average family of 4. I do more because it is such a useful leftover (see final recipe).

300g basmati rice, well rinsed and soaked 10 minutes

1 tbsp coconut oil

1/2 tsp turmeric

A small bunch coriander, finely chopped

Drain the basmati rice thoroughly. Heat your pressure cooker and add the coconut oil. Add the rice and stir for 30 seconds, then add the turmeric and coriander. Season with plenty of salt and pepper. Add 450ml water. Close the lid, bring up to high pressure and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to drop pressure naturally.

Remove the lid, cover the pressure cooker with a tea towel and place the lid back loosely over the top. Leave to stand until you are ready to serve.

Cucumber, Mint and Lime Raita

1 small cucumber (around 15cm long), grated

250ml thick yogurt

zest of 1 lime plus a squeeze

1/2 tsp dried mint

Put the grated cucumber in a sieve or colander. Sprinkle over 1/2 tsp salt and toss. Leave to stand for around half an hour, then gently squeeze out the cucumber.

Mix the cucumber with the yogurt, lime zest, juice and mint. Taste and season with salt and pepper if necessary.

Spiced Rice and Chicken Salad

And as a bonus here is the salad I made with the leftover rice and bhorta. I started off making just one for Adam, then Shariq needed a pack lunch too and then when Lilly eventually surfaced (at leisure because A levels are DONE) and asked if she could have one too for a Hyde Park picnic later. Chicken for Shariq and Adam, halloumi for Lilly.

The amounts below are for roughly 2 portions, based on the fact that I think that 75-100g rice per portion is plenty for a light lunchtime salad, depending on what else you add to it. But you can add more or less to change the ratios as you like.

A note on frozen vegetables - when I am making cold salads for the children’s thermoses, I always add either frozen peas or sweetcorn, because it helps keep the salad cool. I’m planning a post on prepare ahead salad dos and don’ts which will be coming up soon, but that’s one of my most useful tips.

150-200g leftover Rice

A romesco pepper, diced

1/2 cucumber, diced

8 cherry tomatoes, halved

2 spring onions, finely sliced

1 small carrot, grated

A few broccoli florets, left over from the bhora, roughly chopped (or add any greens you like)

200g cooked chicken, diced (I did roughly 100g halloumi for the salad I made Lilly)

200g frozen peas, left frozen

A few sprigs coriander, roughly chopped

For the dressing:

3-4 tbsp leftover bhorta (the onion, pepper in sauce), chopped to a puree

3 tbsp olive oil (or your choice of oil)

zest and juice of 1 lime

2 tsp red wine vinegar

1 tsp mustard, English or Dijon

A large pinch curry powder (just to ramp up the flavours a bit)

First make the dressing. Whisk everything together and season with salt and pepper.

Put all the salad ingredients into a bowl and drizzle over the dressing. Mix thoroughly, then pile into chilled thermos flasks or alternative containers.

Serving note: for variety, you can serve with raita or maybe some kind of chutney (coriander is lovely) on the side. You could also make raita as part of the dressing. However, I don’t like mixing creamy dressings with salad ahead of time so if I can keep it cool (in a little lunchbox sized cool bag, say, which I also give to the children), I will put it in a separate pot for pouring over when I eat it.

Thank you all for reading! Please like, share, comment as I love to hear from you and it does drive more attention towards my newsletter. As ever, I am keen to convert everyone to the joys of pressure cooking….And don’t forget that the Substack reward programme exists. Shared posts which lead to people taking up subscriptions will give you paid subscriber access for a minimum of a month. Useful if you want to be able to view the paid subscribers back catalogue!