A non blogger's entry to Paper Chef 31 - Swordfish Steak/Walnuts/Fresh Oregano/Chickpeas or Chickpea Flour

One of my most faithful commenters on Lucullian is Murasaki Shikibu (an alias that I keep as I forgot to ask her if she wanted me to do that or not) and I was delighted to find a mail from her this morning announcing that she had created an entry for this month's PC and I am therefore proudly presenting.....


Swordfish Steak/Walnuts/Fresh Oregano/Chickpeas or Chickpea Flour

2 Thick Swordfish Steaks (I recommend much smaller ones than the ones we used)
1/2 Cup Chopped Roasted Walnuts
2 Large Potatoes
2 Tablespoon Dried Oregano
1/2 Cup Fresh Oregano
1 Cup Fresh Parsley
1/2 Cup Fresh Chives
1-2 Cups Boiled Chickpeas
1/2 Cup Button Mushrooms (Champignon)
Coarse Sea Salt
Black Pepper
2-4 Cloves Garlic
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Medium Red Ripe Vine Tomato
1/2 Lemon
3-4 Tablespoons of Parmigiano Reggiano (please grate freshly)
3 Tablespoons Whole Milk (if you skip the cream, use more milk)
100 ml Fresh Cream (if you prefer a lighter version or want to be healthier you can skip this)
25 g Unsalted Butter (or however much you dare to use)

1. Preheat oven to 200 C.

2. Soak chickpeas overnight and then boil them for 2.5 hours or so until soft.

3. Get a casserole dish whatever size you have and put a single layer of chickpeas on the bottom of the dish to cover it completely.

4. Sprinkle coarse sea salt over the chickpeas.

5. Slice button mushrooms and put a layer of that over the chickpeas.

6. Put roasted chopped walnuts on top of this layer. (You can roast them in a steel pan)

7. Slice about 2-4 garlic cloves (depending on how much you like garlic) thinly and scatter over the layer of mushrooms.

8. Sprinkle chopped oregano over the mushrooms (we had to use dry herbs here because we didn’t have enough fresh oregano).

9. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil over this.

10. Salt both sides of the sword fish steaks with coarse sea salt and place them on top of the oregano.

11. Slice ripe red tomatoes thinly and place on top of sword fish steaks.

12. Squeeze lemon juice over tomato slices.

13. Sprinkle oregano, coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper over the tomato slices.

14. Drizzle more extra virgin olive oil over this.

15. Put the casserole dish inside preheated oven (200C) and bake for 25 – 30 minutes.



Herbed Mashed Potatoes

1. Peel,quarter and boil 2 large potatoes for about 25 minutes.

2. Drain and mash with 25 g unsalted butter.

3. Mix in100 ml fresh cream.

4. Mix in a little fresh whole milk (just to adjust the consistency of the mash which should be pretty soft)

5. Throw in a generous amount of chopped chives, Italian parsley and fresh oregano.

6. Grate in Parmigiano Reggiano (we put around 3 heaping tablespoons)

7. Salt & pepper to taste.

Make a bed of the herbed mashed potatoes, make a smaller bed of chickpeas/mushrooms/walnuts in the center and put the swordfish steak over this...