Fish Willies - yes, you read that right

Yes, you read correctly - Fish Willies. *chuckle*  Now I haven't a clue what this used to be called by Antony Worral-Thompson when he first conceived the idea, but in the intervening years and within our family, it has come to be known as "Fish Willies" and so it shall stay.

A very simple confection of citrus, bacon and fish, it's as easy to assemble as it is to cook and will go with any number of different accompaniments.  I've served them with steamed vegetables, new potatoes and a parsley sauce through salad to couscous and they were as good with them all.

Fish Willies, but this time with Prosciutto instead of bacon

When I came to make the Fish Willies this time, I couldn't believe my eyes that the recipe wasn't up on Rhubarb & Ginger yet.  This dish has been part of the family's favourites for quite literally years, so why I haven't blogged it before now is anyone's guess!  As a tried and tested favourite, this definitely makes the grade.

Quickly into the COOK'S TIPS, it is much better to buy a big chunky piece of cod loin that you can cut into fingers, than try and cobble together two thinner pieces. Trying to keep two slippery pieces of fish together while you wrap them in bacon, well, there are easier ways to waste your time.   Anyway, make sure not to wrap any more than one layer of bacon around the fish or you will find the bacon doesn't get time to cook as the fish cooks so quickly.

The original recipe used lemon in the marinade, but I prefer lime.  However, if you have lemon and don't have lime, then fear ye not - either will work!

As something a bit different to do with some cod, this really hits the spot.  So, without any further ado, onwards!

FISH WILLIES   (serves 3)

Ingredients :

500g skinned cod loin or haddock fillet, cut into 12 fingers
6 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, cut in half to make shorter pieces
zest of half a lime
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
a pinch of ground black pepper
1 tbsp fresh dill, chopped finely.

Directions :

Pre-heat the oven to 180degC/350degF/Gas 4.

Mix the lime zest and juice, olive oil, black pepper and fresh dill together in a large bowl.

Add the fingers of fish and turn them until they are liberally covered in the marinade. Set aside for 10-15 minutes to allow the flavours to penetrate the fish.  Don't leave it too long to marinade, as the citrus will start the fish cooking.

Wrap each fish piece in one of the halved slices of streaky bacon. Place on a wire rack, leaving a little space between each, over an oven tray.

Once all the fish is wrapped, spoon the remaining marinade over each Willy and place into the oven for a minimum of 15 minutes.  Check them after this to make sure the bacon is cooked.  You'll have to gauge this for yourself, but make sure not to over cook the fish!

Serve with your choice of accompaniment.

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Salmon Fish Cakes with 805 Foods' Hot Monika Sauce

There's a bit of a long story attached to these 'ere fishcakes.

You see, I love fishcakes.  Son and heir quite likes fishcakes.  Hubby hates fishcakes, unless they're 10% potato, 90% fish.  As a result, any fishcake experiments I may have made in the past, were entirely too much potato for him.  He also prefers his fishcakes to be egged, breadcrumbed and fried, whereas I used to make some tuna fishcakes which were oven baked.

It's true that my fishcakes were more like potato cakes with fish - and it is also true that they were the size of foot stools.  Hubby takes a more refined approach to his fishcakes and makes "dipping" sized cakes.

All of which is why hubby is now the official fishcake maker for the house.

So, when 805 Foods got in touch with me and offered to send me some of their Hot Monika Sauce, after some lengthy consideration, hubby was volunteered to make some Salmon Fishcakes, to eat alongside the (then) relative unknown that was "Hot Monika Sauce".

Somehow or another, I'd completely missed the fact that the Monika Sauce was a hot one.  The "Bell & Scotch Bonnet Hot Sauce" had registered as just that - well, it couldn't be anything else, with Scotch Bonnets in it - but the amazing aroma of the Hot Monika Sauce took me by surprise when we prised the lid off.

Now I'll come clean and say that I - much to my regret - have only had the tiniest of tastes of this sauce.  I've been afflicted by a tendency towards dreadful heartburn just lately - and eating hot sauce definitely wasn't on the cards for me.  So you'll have to take hubby's word for it, that the Hot Monika Sauce is just a-mazing.  Since he's been eating his way through the pot, he's dubbed it - variously - "calamity sauce", "murder sauce" and "catastrophe sauce", from which you might gather that it lives up to its name as "hot sauce".  That aside, however, the flavours are just immense and beautiful, all at the same time.


There is some indefinable quality to this sauce that I've not come across in any other hot sauce - certainly not one of this type, with chunks of fresh vegetables in it.  It is very different to the "hot sauces" that you see coming out of the States, for instance.  One thing that is worth mentioning, is that this is a sauce of African origin - so you can expect to find yummy ingredients like okra and plantain featuring highly.

We used the sauce as an accompaniment to the Salmon Fishcakes - and it did the job perfectly.  Son & heir was a tiny bit over-faced by the heat of it, but persevered, taking smaller and smaller amounts until he found a bearable level.  Hubby just simply got lashed into his!

As for the Salmon Fishcakes, well, it was another opportunity to break out the beautiful Essential Cuisine Fish Stock that really should be re-labelled "Seafood Stock", as it tastes far more of shellfish than plain old fish.  Hubby used the stock to poach the fish and lost none of the salmon flavour, being enhanced as it was by the stock, not washed away by poaching water.


If you are considering making these fish cakes, bear in mind that there are a huge number of other ingredients that could be added to the fishcake mixture.  Thai basil, mint, spring onions and parsley spring immediately to mind (though not all together perhaps).  Hubby kept this particular recipe relatively simple as he wanted the flavour of the salmon to be right in the foreground.
 

Little fishy beauty, all ready to be fried

Incidentally, a good tip for the egg & breadcrumb process is to use one hand for the flour and egg, the other for the breadcrumbs.  This helps to keep one hand dry and the mess to a manageable level.

As you may have gathered, I'm not entirely fussy over my fishcakes - but these really were classy little morsels of delectably delicious salmony loveliness.  Yes, I think he's earned the badge of Fishcake Maker - along with his risotto, bread, chilli con carne and ice cream badges!


SALMON FISH CAKES    (makes up to 12 small)

Ingredients :

300g salmon (I used frozen - defrosted - as there wasn't any fresh available)
300g good mashing potatoes (I used Maris Piper)
small bunch of dill
500ml fish stock
zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
1 egg, beaten
3 heaped tablespoons of plain flour
day-old crusty bread, converted into breadcrumbs
a small pinch of paprika
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
sunflower oil.

Method :

For the Breadcrumbs :

Tear the bread into chunks and then whizz into breadcrumbs in a food processor.  Evenly spread the crumbs onto a shallow baking tray and place into a low oven at 90 to 100degC. The crumbs should be dry and crisp after about five minutes, but watch them like a hawk to prevent over-browning.

For the Fishcakes :

1.  Cube the potato and boil in salted water until tender.  Mash the potato thoroughly and then set aside.

2.  Meanwhile, place the defrosted salmon in a pan and cover with fish stock.  Bring the pan to a gentle simmer and poach the fish for five minutes.  Drain and discard the fish stock - or retain for soup - and flake the salmon before adding to the potato.

3.  Finely chop the dill and then add this, along with the grated lemon zest.  Mix thoroughly and season well, taking great care not to add too much salt.  Put the entire mixture into a covered bowl and then place in the fridge to completely cool.

4.  Take two shallow bowls.  Beat the egg into one bowl and then heap three tablespoons of flour into the other.  Season the flour well with milled sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and a pinch of paprika.  Line the bowls up along your worktop, with the tray of breadcrumbs at one end - flour, egg then breadcrumbs.

5.  Take the fishcake mixture from the fridge and then shape into patties.  The size and thickness of these is entirely up to you.  For a 'dipping' fishcake I like to keep them quite small, something like 2-3cm in diameter.  The quantities given above should make between 15 and 20 small dipping fishcakes.

6.  Now take a patty and toss it gently in the bowl of seasoned flour.  Take care that the entire fishcake has a covering of flour before tapping gently to remove any excess.

7.  Now put the fishcake into the beaten egg, once again ensuring a good coating before dropping onto the tray of breadcrumbs prepared earlier.  Turn the fishcake in the crumbs, ensuring that both sides and all of the edges are well covered before placing onto a flat baking sheet covered with a sheet of greaseproof paper.  Repeat this process until all of the fishcakes are coated.  The cakes can now be put back into the fridge until ready for cooking or carefully packaged for freezing.

8.  To cook the fishcakes, gently shallow fry in sunflower oil, turning frequently until golden on both sides.  Fry the cakes in batches of four or five to avoid crowding the frying pan, keeping the cooked ones warm in the oven until ready to serve.

A bowl of your preferred dipping sauce and a lightly dressed green salad make perfect companions.

Printable version

 

Smoked Salmon Mousse

The one dish from the Christmas Buffet we produced that took any "cooking", as opposed to simply assembly, was the Smoked Salmon Mousse.

However, it was so simple to make that I hesitate to call it "cooking".  More a case of understanding balance of flavours, plus the ability to operate a food processor!

I dithered (for an astonishing length of time) over whether to include cream cheese as well as the double cream - and then wound up using them both, but in smaller quantities.  I figured that they both had a part to play in the texture and flavour of the mousse - and I was right.

As for the horseradish, even if you are not a horseradish fan, do include it.  It isn't obvious - and adds that little bit of tang that it is apparent isn't lemon juice, but you can't quite work out what it is.

Between the fish itself, the horseradish, the lemon juice and the dill, this is a mousse of extraordinary dimensions - so take care as to what you serve it on.  It can cope with being served on something like the rye bread we used, as the bread has a flavour that is very different to that of the mousse.  However, served on something like a Blini, I can't help but think that the overpowering flavour would become cream.

I know that the supermarkets are selling small packs of smoked salmon offcuts - Asda do one for 90p - which would be just perfect for this mousse.  After all, there's no need to chop up a perfectly lovely piece of smoked salmon!

The recipe below makes double the amount seen in the ramekin above.  I only made half because I was just using it for canapés and didn't want any left over, but it just goes to show how easy it is to make the amount that you are going to require - which is incredibly useful if you've spent a lot on a little!

Thank you to Knorr for supplying us with the majority of the ingredients for this dish.

SMOKED SALMON MOUSSE

Ingredients :


120g smoked salmon
2-3 tbsp double cream
1½ tbsp cream cheese
½ a tsp of creamed horseradish 
½ a lemon, juiced
fresh Dill, to taste.

Method :

1.  In a mini food processor, or a bowl suitable for using a hand blender, place the smoked salmon and whizz to chop into small pieces.

2.  Add the cream, cream cheese and horseradish, then slightly less than the stated amounts of lemon juice and dill.  Whizz to combine, and taste.  Add more cream, lemon juice or dill as required and whizz & taste until it suits your palate and the desired consistency is reached.

3.  Decant into a bowl, ready for use.

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Springtime Prawn Pasta

I have said how I want to move us along from eating heavy stews and cream-laden this that and the others - which is okay during the winter (to a certain extent), but doesn't do for spring or summer.

As such, I found a recipe on Yummly that got my brain ticking over as regards a pasta dish.  I was looking for a lighter pasta dish anyway and although the one in question (Creamy Shrimp & Mushroom Pasta) didn't really fit the bill owing to its use of linguine (which hubby has requested we steer clear of for a while) and mushrooms (which Son & heir can't abide), it only needed a change in ingredients to make it a viable proposition.

The trouble was, I then had a bit of brain-fade about what to use instead of mushrooms, that would make it "spring like".  Owing to said brain-fade, I wound up using baby corn and sugar snap peas.  Which were fine - but it required something else to give it another dimension.  As I was cooking it, I was wishing I had a bunch of spring onions in the fridge.  I'm sure they would have done the trick. 

I was also aware that a whole pack of cream cheese wasn't exactly following the "steer clear of creamy stuff" brief, but having changed the recipe to include a low fat cream cheese, figured that was enough of a compromise.

The end result was nice, but requires some work.  When I do it again (and I will, because I am convinced there's a nice dish in here somewhere), I'll change the low fat cream cheese to low fat creme fraiche, lose the garlic (as it didn't sit very well with the "spring" theme) and add spring onions and maybe some dill or tarragon along with a good scrunge or four of freshly ground black pepper.  (A "scrunge", for those not in the know, is a turn of the peppermill.  "Scrunge" is our description of the sound it makes!).

So, unusually, the recipe you have here is the untried and untested, mark II version.  Do let me know what it's like, if you try it before I do!

SPRINGTIME PRAWN PASTA  (feeds 3-4)

Ingredients :

Enough Fusilli pasta for the assembled throng.  I usually use around 4-500g for 3 of us.
a knob of butter
a bunch of spring onions, trimmed and chopped quite fine
300ml pot of creme fraiche
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped dill or tarragon (not both!)
1 tbsp chopped basil
300g prawns (I used frozen cooked peeled prawns, defrosted)
100g baby corn, broken into quarters
100g sugar snap peas
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper.

METHOD :

1.  Put a large pan of salted water on to boil.  Once boiling, add the pasta to it and cook as it says on the packet.  However, seven minutes before it is ready, add the baby corn and four minutes before it is ready, add the sugar snap peas.  It is best if they are at room temperature before adding, so as not to cool the water too much.

2.  In a frying pan, melt the knob of butter and add the spring onions.  Cook them gently until they are beginning to soften.

3.  Then, add the creme fraiche and warm through gently, stirring all the time.

4.  Add the herbs and stir through, along with a good quantity of the black pepper.

5.  Making sure that the creamy mixture is quite thick (reduce it a little further, if not), add the prawns and stir them through.  Allow the mixture to come to a simmer, then check for seasoning and adjust if needs be.

6.  When the pasta is done, drain in a colander and replace into the pan.

7.  Add the prawns to the pasta and stir through, then serve immediately.

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