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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Saffron & pepper fish stew

Well, I can't bleat on about not being able to source fresh fish any more.  Not with a neighbour like Frank, who goes out sea fishing in his little boat and comes back to present us with Plaice and a huge Cod!  It's just as well we had room in the freezer, because it took me a few days to work out what to do with everything!

(It's also just as well that I have a hubby who will gut fish and lop the head off anyone who needs it.  Fish, that is .. not neighbours.  Although there have been moments .. but I digress).

The Plaice - isn't it gorgeous?

Now I have some small experience with filleting a Plaice (two goes, to be exact), so I was pretty much okay with that.  However, filleting a whopping great Cod?  Never done that before.  Well, I can't say that any more and it was actually surprisingly easy.  Thank you Mr Cod, for making it easier than I thought.

I was quite proud of my filleting efforts, even if my second Cod fillet wouldn't have passed Monica Galetti's critical eye.

Beautiful fat and chunky Cod

I had spent some time contemplating what to do with this fish and, rather than a recipe that demanded fillets to be kept whole, I decided to go with a "chunks of fish" recipe, just in case my filleting left a lot to be desired.  As it was, I could easily have gone for a "full fillet" recipe - but I'll know for next time (if there is one!).

I decided to go with a fish stew, as a very good way of making use of randomly shaped pieces of fish - and anyway, I've always wanted to make a fish stew or a fish curry.  I took hubby's advice in the end, and plumped for the stew.

I put the Plaice on top of the thicker Cod so that it wouldn't cook too quickly

I could see in my mind's eye what I wanted - and I got fairly close to it, I think.  The flavour was great - the fully flavoured ingredients didn't overpower the gentle flavour of the fish and the sauce/broth was an intriguing mix of richness and sweetness, with the wine preventing it from going too far into the sweet.

The colours were beautiful and, with some of hubby's delicious home made bread, it really was something out of the ordinary and truly memorable - for all the right reasons.  I knew it was good, when I heard our son comment "Mum, this is SO good!".  Thumbs up, that's the kind of reaction I like.

Not too many Cook's Tips for you with this one, just :


1.  I used a wok to make it in, as I felt it gave more control than a deep saucepan.

2.  Make sure not to allow the garlic to burn, so as not to make it bitter.

3.  Once the fish has been added, make sure to stir gently so as to keep the fish chunks as large as possible.  You don't want fish mash!

I can't recommend this one highly enough.  Quite apart from being exceptionally good for you, it tastes amazing and is fun to eat with the dippy bread.  I suspect that even people who are a bit leery of fish, would like this one - so long as they like saffron!

SAFFRON & PEPPER FISH STEW    (serves 4)

Ingredients :

2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, half chopped finely, half sliced, then quartered
2 large garlic cloves, chopped finely
1 red pepper, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
a pinch of sea salt
a half a tsp of ground black pepper
half of a butternut squash, diced
1 fennel bulb, sliced
1 large vine ripened tomato, diced
a good pinch of saffron threads
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme
half a tsp dried parsley
4 strips of orange zest
250ml white wine
250ml water
2 tsp fish stock powder (or sufficient cubes for 500ml liquid)
80g sliced black olives
500g cod fillets, skinned
300g plaice fillets, skinned
lemon quarters for garnish.

Method :

1.  Heat the olive oil in a deep saucepan or large wok.  Once good and hot, add the onion, garlic and both peppers with the sea salt and black pepper.  Stir fry over a moderate heat until the onion is transparent and the peppers have softened.  Don't allow the garlic to burn.

2.  Add the butternut squash, fennel and tomato and continue to stir fry until the fennel appears slightly softened.

3.  Add the saffron, bay, thyme, parsley and orange zest and stir to combine.

4.  Add the wine and allow it to frizzle and reduce to around half, stirring throughout.

5.  Add the water and stock powder/cube(s) and stir to combine.  Bring to a lively simmer and cook with a lid on but stirring occasionally, until the saffron colour is well established and the flavours have combined nicely.  Keep tasting the sauce - you will know when it is ready.  Adjust the amount of black pepper, if it requires it.

6.  Remove the lid, add the black olives and stir through.  Continue to simmer until the sauce has reduced significantly and intensified.  Do not allow it to run dry, however!  Taste for seasoning - particularly salt at this stage.

7.  Place the fish on top of the mixture and replace the lid.  Cook on a gentle heat until the fish is almost done, then break it into large chunks and stir in the liquid that it will have produced, taking care not to break up the fish too much.

8.  If the stew is still rather dry, add a little more hot water - bit by bit - until it reaches a nice saucy consistency.

9.  Serve in warmed bowls with chunky bread for dipping and a lemon quarter to squeeze over.

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Sicilian Salmon - getting our fish in!

Well, it's a new week but the alternative carbohydrate experiments continue.  It was the turn of couscous today, however, the first consideration was what type of protein to have.

We had the other half of our bag of individually frozen salmon fillets to use as I don't like to leave fish in the freezer for very long.  It tends towards getting freezer burn so quickly, to make the best of its best, I wanted to use it fairly rapidly.

So, salmon.  We've not been the greatest eaters of fish in the past - although we would have been, given the chance!  Fresh fish is so flipping expensive that it often renders itself out of the equation for my dinner considerations.  However, Asda have recently been selling a greatly improved range of frozen fish - and for an affordable price.  This salmon has been our first foray into sampling some of it and we've been really pleasantly surprised.  Naturally, it's nothing like the quality of fresh salmon - it really doesn't have a chance of being - but it isn't half bad, for frozen.

We have had two meals from the bag and there are two fillets left - which I imagine will go into a fish pie.  It cost around £8 and at £4 for a meal didn't seem too expensive.  That was, until we realised there were 11 (albeit small) fillets in the bag which meant two meals plus a bit!  Even better.

So, what to do with this salmon?  I'd grilled it in a marinade previously, so didn't want to repeat that.  I hadn't really come to any conclusions, other than I knew that I wanted to keep the fish in its fillets and not break it up into pieces.  Historically, we've had "broken into pieces" fish because that's all we could afford, so to have a fillet on your plate was quite a treat.

I was browsing through this month's BBC Good Food magazine and saw a recipe for Sicilian Cod, i.e. cod fillet with a thick tomato and herb sauce drizzled over.  Now that had promise - as the acidity of the tomato sauce would work very well with the oily salmon.

What to serve the fish and sauce with, then?  Potatoes immediately came to mind (I have to get out of that habit!) and got abandoned.  I wanted something a bit more creative and something a bit more exciting.

In this rehash of our diet, I've tried - with every new recipe - to create a meal that has balance across all the food groups without creating huge portions.  There's no doubt we've been eating too much (portion-wise) just lately and I was keen to bring the size back down again.  Portion size is another of my problems, you see.  I can't help it, I seem to channel some Jewish mother somewhere, who just wants to feed the family until their eyeballs pop.  Hence, this portion control was in the back of my mind too.

I'm really not sure what made me think of the Ottolenghi Green Couscous, but I'm jolly glad I did.  We really like this form of couscous - hubby says it's because you can't taste the couscous for all the herbs, onions, chilli and other loveliness that is in there.  I love the interaction between the herbs, fried onion and sea salt that just teases the tongue.

I've made the Ottolenghi Green Couscous a couple of times in the past, but it has been a while since I made it last.  The recipe is on Rhubarb & Ginger, just click on the link on the name above.

I reckoned the fish would go with the couscous with no real problem and the big flavour of the tomato sauce would complement the freshness and richness of the couscous.  Decision made, Sicilian Salmon with Green Couscous was officially on the menu list.

None of the three components are difficult to make, the couscous is really just a matter of preparing the onions and herbs to mix into the couscous, the sauce is simplicity itself to make and the fish couldn't be easier, as I simply grilled the fillets.

It would have taken a bit longer if it wasn't for hubby who jumped into the role of sous chef and fried up the first batch of onions for me.  Well, he had sidetracked me earlier when we were having fun translating various Polish phrases - most of which involved the word "doughnut" - from English to Polish and back again.  I will have to tell you more of the Polish Delicatessen we visited today - but that's another story!

As I suspected, the three component parts - fish, sauce, couscous - went together really well and the flavours were really interesting.  Even son & heir enjoyed his meal, saying that the tomato sauce went really really well with the couscous - and went back to the kitchen to get more!  Now that really IS a vote of confidence.  Hubby was very happy to have another meal that was not only a little bit different, but completely devoid of potatoes.  *chuckle*  It's not going to last - but if I can include a potato every now and then, just to soothe son & heir's and my own potato lust, that'll do.

A little "cooks note" that is worth mentioning, is that both the tomato sauce and the Green Couscous can be made well in advance.  So if you're going to be tight for time one evening - it makes a very good choice!

February 2016 : This time, I paired the salmon up with some spinach fettucine and a side salad, which worked really well.  I also made the following changes to the recipe :

-  swapped a sweet white onion for the red one, which looked better;
-  added 2 rashers of finely chopped bacon to the onions & garlic, all of which I cooked together instead of separately;
-  added 3 sliced chestnut mushrooms and a chopped tomato to the pan once the onions etc were softened
-  added 1 heaped teaspoonful of tomato puree;
-  swapped out the oregano for 1 big teaspoonful of chopped dill;
-  swapped the sugar for 1 teaspoonful of runny honey.

Recipe development in action!  I think the changes and additions make for a more rounded, deeper flavour in the sauce and I'll be making it this way in future.  I have reflected the changes in the recipe below.

31 March 2017 and this time I think I'm getting the hang of cooking salmon!  Served on mushroom couscous, this was by far and away the best incarnation of this dish so far.  :)

SICILIAN SALMON   (serves 3)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
2 rashers smoked back bacon, chopped small (optional)
a small red onion (or white sweet onion), chopped finely
a clove of garlic, chopped finely
3 sliced chestnut mushrooms (optional)
1 chopped tomato (optional)
400g tin of chopped tomatoes - the best you can get
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 heaped tsp tomato puree (optional)
1 tsp dried oregano (or dried dill)
a pinch of sea salt
half a tsp of freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp sugar (or honey)
100ml water
3 salmon fillets, skinless and boneless.

Method :

1.  Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the bacon, onion and garlic.  Fry until the onion is softened but not coloured in any way and the bacon is cooked through.

2.  Add the mushrooms and tomato and continue to fry until the mushrooms are beginning to soften.

3.  Add the rest of the ingredients (except for the salmon) and stir to combine.  Simmer over a low to medium heat, stirring regularly, until thickened.

4.  Place the fish fillets - upside down - onto a flat roasting tray, season and drizzle with olive oil.  Place under a pre-heated grill for 2-3 minutes.  Turn the fish carefully and replace under the grill for as long as it takes for the fish to change from translucent to opaque.

5. Taste the sauce for seasoning and adjust if necessary.

6.  Serve the fish over couscous or fettucine pasta, with the sauce drizzled over.

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Cheesey Seafood Gratin - fish is delicious on a budget!

Now, don't go looking at the title of "Cheesey Seafood Gratin" and immediately think "oh, I can't afford that".  I know that there are people out there for whom the price of this dish would be prohibitive, lord knows I've been one of them, but it really is about the cheapest way short of having a friendly fishmonger nearby or going out and catching your fish.

Most supermarkets, these days, are selling what they call "Fish Pie Mix" in their frozen food section.

These fish pie mixes contain a selection of fish - mine had smoked haddock, salmon and cod - and are obviously there to catch all the little bits of fish that are offcuts from making bigger chilled dishes.  They also provide an outlet for all those tiny fish that are caught along the way.  You only have to look at a cross section of one of the fish pieces to realise that it had to have come from a teensy fish.  Well that's fine, because at the price they're offered - mine was £3 for 300g - they aren't exactly cheap, but then they're not exactly THAT expensive either.  Now, across 3 people, 300g of fish isn't that much, so I added one of Asda's "cheap as chips" 200g bags of coldwater prawns - which at £1.50 made the price of the fish up to £4.50.

Once upon a time, I'd have been looking to spend no more than £3 on meat or fish for a meal - but no longer.  The upper limit has had to be moved to no more than £5 these days, so this just fitted.  The only thing you have to remember, when using frozen fish of any kind, is to squeeze it gently between some kitchen paper before adding it to your dish - otherwise you'll find it releases a ridiculous amount of water and turns your lovely sauce to soup.

I found this particular recipe in the BBC Good Food magazine for September and don't seem to be able to find it anywhere else online at the moment, otherwise I'd send you there.  So, just for the moment, this is about the only place you'll find this particular recipe!

Just out of the grill and as hot as the surface of the sun!

I was immediately attracted to the photograph - I'm a total sucker for anything remotely gratinated.  Show me a cheese sauce, white sauce, seafood sauce - you name it, if it's with a roux style sauce, I'm interested.  The combination of cheese and fish was attractive too, not least because so many of the t.v. chefs who cook Italian style food are adamant that cheese and fish should not appear on the same plate.  Oh, I'm just a little rebel at heart, you see.  What?  That's news to you?  Just ask my Mum, she'll tell you.
 

What you can't see in these photographs, though, is that hiding under the fish and prawns (which I do accept, you can't see those either) is a layer of sauteed leek.  Now for me, that little layer of soft green leek really made this dish.  Without it, the texture would have been too squishy.  However, with the addition of the leek, they gave the texture a lovely soft crunch that, along with the wholegrain mustard, brought the dish together beautifully.

As for the mechanics of making the dish, well it couldn't have been easier.  I opted to make my own cheese sauce because I find making a roux based sauce extremely easy, but if you were in the market for a quick meal or have physical challenges in the kitchen, just buy a pot of cheese sauce.  Yes, it adds to the price - but it will speed things up.  I simply made the sauce, sauteed the leeks, assembled the dishes (I made it in three individual dishes as you can see from the photographs) and while it was in the oven, put together the simple salad and buttered some bread.  I even had time to do the small amount of washing up that had accumulated.

A word must be had about the type of cheese you use.  I used an extra mature cheddar because I like the way it behaves in a cheese sauce and we like our cheese sauces to be really, really cheesey.  However, there is a slight problem with extra mature cheddar in that it really doesn't like being grilled.  Doesn't like it at all.  So when it came to grilling the tops to provide a nice baked crust, as you can see, it didn't really work.  What I should have done, was buy a less mature cheese to use in grating over the top - but for the sake of a few moments grilling, it seemed an unnecessary expense.  However, if you aren't so bothered about a REALLY cheesey sauce and like the baked top, opt for a medium cheddar and that should work better for you.

The mustard is a must-have in this dish.  Without it, the sauce wouldn't have that piquancy that stops it from becoming sickly.  I dare say it doesn't have to be wholegrain mustard - I should think that a good slug of English would do nicely and at a pinch maybe Dijon, but I'd be careful about the Dijon making the sauce a little bit too piquant.

The original recipe required 10g of fresh parsley to be chopped and half added to the sauce and half reserved to sprinkle over at the end.  I, stupidly, had forgotten to order the parsley so we did without.  I didn't miss it, although it would have made the end photograph a bit prettier!  So, it's up to you whether you include it or not.

I should also think that this is one of those dishes that could transcend the seasons.  In the spring and summer, serve it with salad - and in the autumn/winter it would be lovely with mashed potato, carrots and peas.  You could also jazz it up with lovely things like lobster (yes, I know, I'm laughing at the very idea too) and scallops (sometimes you can find some affordable scallops, depending on the time of year).

In short, this is a really flexible but truly delicious meal that everyone here enjoyed.  Son & heir liked it so much he even bothered to stop long enough to wipe his dish clean with a crust of bread.  Now that's a seal of approval, if ever there was one.

CHEESEY SEAFOOD GRATIN   (serves 3)

Ingredients :

50g unsalted butter
3 dessertspoonfuls of plain flour
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 pint of whole milk
2 tsp wholegrain mustard
200g cheddar cheese, with some held back for sprinkling
2 tsp rapeseed oil (or olive oil)
2 large leeks, cleaned, halved and thinly sliced
300g frozen fish pie mix, defrosted
200g frozen prawns, defrosted
salad and wholemeal bread slices, to serve.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 200degC/400degF/Gas 6.

2.  Skip this bit if you've bought yourself a pot of cheese sauce - except to add the mustard to the sauce, then go to stage 4.

If you haven't bought cheese sauce, take a small saucepan and melt the butter in it.  Once melted, add the flour and stir to combine.  Let it cook for a few moments, but without turning brown.  Add a teensy tiny pinch of salt (there's loads of salt in the cheese and the fish, so go carefully) and a good twist or four of black pepper.

3.  Reduce the heat and add the milk in instalments, stirring like a mad thing in between instalments so as to remove the lumps.  However, don't stir too madly or you'll be washing floury milk off your walls.  Once you've added approximately half the milk and the lumps are (hopefully) all gone, increase the heat and stir until the sauce thickens.  I was left with just a touch of milk in the bottom of the pint container, but it all depends on how much flour you put in as to how much milk you will need to achieve the right consistency.  You're looking for a really quite thick sauce, as the addition of the cheese will let it down a little.  So, remove the sauce from the heat and add the mustard and cheese.  Stir to combine them through the sauce while the cheese melts.  Once it has all melted, set it aside while you take care of the leeks.

4.  If you're clever at multi tasking, you could do this stage at the same time as the sauce.  I can't - I'm rubbish at multi tasking and generally only have one hand to stir with as the other is holding myself up.  Ooh, arthritis is such fun!

So, gently heat the rapeseed or olive oil in a frying pan and add the leeks.  Cook them slowly, stirring often to prevent any from going brown, until they are softened but still have a soft crunch to them.  Remove from the heat and begin to assemble the dish.

5.  Decide whether you are going to make this in one big dish, or in individual dishes.  I'll assume that you've gone with the individual dishes route, for the sake of this recipe.

6.  Take the leeks and divide them equally between the dishes.

7.  Take the fish pie mix and drain off the water.  Drop the pieces of fish onto several pieces of kitchen paper and lay another couple of sheets on top.  Squeeze gently, to remove the bulk of the water from the fish.  Then divide the fish equally between the dishes.

8.  Do the same process for the prawns - drain, kitchen paper, squeeze, divide equally.

9.  Take the cheese sauce and again, divide it equally between the dishes, making sure all the contents are covered and the top is levelled.

10.  Sprinkle with the remaining grated cheese and place the dishes into the oven for 15 minutes.

11.  To achieve the baked cheese effect on the surface of each dish, place under a hot grill for a few minutes, or even give them a blast with a blowtorch.  However, take note of the fact that an extra strong cheddar just won't bake in the way that a medium cheddar will.

12.  While the dishes were in the oven, assemble some salad ingredients on each plate and butter some wholemeal bread.  Once the dishes are done, add one to each plate and serve amidst dire warnings as to the temperature of the gratin, which is something akin to the surface of the sun at this stage.  Blow a lot on the first few forkfuls!

Printable version

Baked cod on pea puree with beurre blanc sauce

Now here's something a little bit different for Jenny Eatwell's Rhubarb & Ginger - a fish dish!

We really enjoy eating fish.  Let me say that straight away.  However (and you knew one of those was coming, didn't you?), we just don't get the opportunity very often.  Which is completely ridiculous, considering that a) we live 2 minutes (literally) from the sea and b) we'll give a go to pretty much anything that came out of it!

Hubby has a few issues with river fish - he doesn't like the muddy flavour of River Cobbler, for instance.  Bottom feeders aren't his bag, at all.

However, if we could only find a supplier of affordable sea fish - you'd see it on the blog far more often than you do.

So, if anyone out there in blog-readership-land knows of a reliable and affordable fishmongler (both in the Bournemouth/Poole area and online - I don't mind either or both), let me know.

The only fishmonglers I've found locally, are in the "monied" areas of town and so their prices are astronomical.  The only one who isn't, is fabled as not selling truly fresh fish - so he's a non-starter.

It really annoys me that we live so close to the sea, yet cannot source fresh fish unless we go to the supermarket - and then it's likely to have been previously frozen.  I don't want supermarket fish - I want fish that's come straight off the boat!  Grrrrr!

Having said that, I now have to admit that the fish we used here was from our local Asda.  It was on special offer and looked particularly nice.  In fact, hubby was planning to make some fish cakes with it, but came to the conclusion that it would be criminal to munch up such a beautiful piece of fish - so this was what we wound up with.

I reckon he was quite right!

Anyway, I'll hand over to hubby, to talk you through the recipe :

See that photo up there?  Looks nice doesn't it?  Maybe even classy.  Pea puree, buerre blanc sauce, blimey!  Well, let me tell you a little secret - it's easy.  Almost unbelievably easy, and the results, well, just ask the lovely Ms Eatwell or the infamously hard to please, son and heir.  Oh, and by the way, a little veggie chopping aside, this whole dish takes only 25 minutes to prepare - honest!

The method described for for the buerre blanc sauce is the basic method.  There are probably more variations than you can shake a pointy baguette at.  For instance, rosemary, thyme and tarragon would transform it into a perfect sauce for chicken.

19 April 2013 : Every week when we do the menu plan for the coming week, we ask son & heir whether he has any special requests.  For the last four or five weeks, he's been asking for this cod on pea puree with buerre blanc sauce.  Now unfortunately, it's not that easy to achieve as the situation hasn't changed much with regard to fishmonglers over here (I have heard of one possibility, but have yet to get over there when they are open.  We've been twice (so far) and they've been shut both times - so we're not doing very well).  Aaaanyway, we waited until we could afford it - Asda had some nice cod fillets in again and we swooped upon them quickly.
 

Nothing has changed - except the Dill .... lol

Hubby made the recipe as per his instructions below (which he was glad of, because he'd forgotten how to do parts of it, it'd been so long!) but made a couple of changes to the buerre blanc sauce.  In the first instalment, he'd used salted butter but hadn't felt that was quite right, so used unsalted this time.  I have to admit, the buerre blanc was so much smoother and utterly delightful, so he obviously was quite right about it.  He also reduced the cream quantity to one tablespoonful, but added a little tarragon to the sauce at the very end, which was a very good addition that went really well with the pea puree.  Also, who knew that buerre blanc is so scrumptious on plain steamed carrots?  ~shrug~  Amazing.

I can understand why son & heir loves this dish so much.  The fish is just such a treat - to have large flakes of white fish on your fork, with your own choice of accompaniment from the plate, is something that doesn't happen often.  Usually, our fish is in a mungle with some other ingredients - such as Tuna Pasta Bake, or Kedgeree - all of which are perfectly nice, but they just don't compare with this cod dish.  The message is clear, therefore - if you can, when you can, have a go at this.  You won't regret it.

BAKED COD ON PEA PUREE WITH BEURRE BLANC SAUCE    (serves 3)

Ingredients :

150g frozen peas
3-5 fresh mint leaves (depending on how big they are)
50ml double cream
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp plus 25ml lemon juice
500ml good fish stock  (I used Essential Cuisine's fabulous fish stock powder)
6 & 4 whole black peppercorns
3 bay leaves
600g unsmoked cod (or other firm fleshed fish)
a small bunch of fresh dill
100ml white wine
2 banana shallots, very finely diced
150-175g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes.

Method  :

For the Pea Puree

Place the frozen peas and a splash of water into a high sided bowl and microwave for five minutes.  Drain the peas and then return to the bowl along with the mint leaves.  Puree the peas using a hand blender, adding a tiny amount of double cream (or milk) until the desired consistency is reached.  Season to taste with salt, pepper and up to 1 tsp lemon juice if needed.  Cover the bowl and set aside to stay warm.

For the fish

Pour 300ml of the fish stock into a deep roasting dish and add a few peppercorns, and two of the bay leaves.  Lay the fish into the stock, adding more stock to almost cover the fish. Sprinkle the fish with dill fronds and then place the dish into an oven, pre-heated to 325degF/170degC/Gas 3 for 20 minutes.  This cooking time is recommended for chunky cod fillets but may need to be reduced for thinner pieces of fish.
 
For the buerre blanc sauce

1.  Place the white wine and lemon juice (white wine vinegar can be substituted) in a saucepan over a high heat.  Add the shallots, the remaining bay leaf and a few whole peppercorns and bring to a fast boil.  The liquids in the pan need to be reduced by about three quarters or until they become syrupy.

2.  Add the remaining 30ml of double cream to the pan and continue to cook and stir on a high heat until the emulsion reaches coating consistency.  Remove the pan from the heat and reduce the heat to very low.

3.  Now add a cube of cold butter to the pan, keeping it off the heat.  Whisk until the cube of butter has almost dissolved before adding the next cube.  Repeat this process for the rest of the butter, returning the pan to the heat when the butter's melting slows down.  This process is a critical one.  The sauce must not be allowed to get hotter than about 60degC otherwise it will split.  This is why the cubes of butter must be cold when added.  Conversely, the sauce must not be allowed to cool too much, so returning the pan to a low heat every so often is essential to warm it back up.  Continue this process, whisking continuously, until the sauce is glossy and reaches the consistency that you require. It can then be left in a warm pan, taking care not to let it come to the boil. 

4.  Season to taste and add a little lemon juice if the sauce tastes at all 'flat'.  The sauce can be served as it is or, for a more refined finish, can be passed through a fine sieve to remove the shallots and peppercorns.

To serve

Smooth as much or as little pea puree as required onto a warmed plate.  Place a fillet of drained fish on top of the puree and serve with a selection of steamed vegetables.  Pour a generous amount of the buerre blanc sauce over the fish and vegetables and serve with a well chilled, crisp white wine.


Printable version

Smoked Cod Koulibiac

First of all, what is a a Koulibiac?  Well, in my Mum's time, it used to be known as "Russian Fish Pie" and is a combination of fish (most recently, involving salmon) in a sauce, encased in flaky or puff pastry.

I have seen photographs of what purports to be a Koulibiac, but which looks more like a Salmon En Croute.  For me, what defines a Koulibiac is that the pastry is used to create a pyramid shaped pie, rather than simply being rolled around the piece of fish.  I've certainly never seen an En Croute dish that ever looked like a Koulibiac!

In my view - and I accept, I might be in error in this belief - smoked fish is integral to a Koulibiac.  Certainly the only ones I've ever made have included smoked cod or haddock.  Other ingredients after that depend entirely upon whatever you fancy including - although a choice of either prawns or hard boiled eggs also seems to be traditional.

All sealed and ready to bake

The Koulibiac which hubby made for us last Sunday, involved smoked cod, king prawns and queen scallops.

You would be forgiven for wondering how we managed to finance such an exotic mix of fish - but in truth, you don't need a huge amount of the smoked fish (especially if you're including other seafood), we had half a bag of king prawns left over from another dish - and four queen scallops isn't very expensive at all.

It was hubby's first ever go at making rough puff pastry and he'd be the first to admit that it didn't go exactly to plan.  He is is own worst critic however - and I can tell you that it was so close to being perfect that I'm sure another go would have the method down pat for him.  Hence, if you are looking at the photographs and wondering about the pastry - well that's what happened.

See that teensy piece of scallop coral?  Gorgeous!

However, if you want to have a go at cooking this recipe - and why wouldn't you, it's gorgeous - I am quite sure that shop bought puff pastry would do an admirable job for you. 

It is important with this recipe to make the sauce ahead of time, so that it has time to cool.  Believe me (because I've tried), it is not easy to encase hot sauce in rapidly melting pastry.

There's just something so moreish about smoked fish in a softly flavoured white sauce - let alone finding luscious king prawns and a scallop along the route - that just floats my boat.  Russian fish pie or Koulibiac - call it what you will, it will always be a favourite for me.

SMOKED COD KOULIBIAC  (feeds 4)

Ingredients :

500g pre-prepared puff or flaky pastry

1 egg, Beaten
2 eggs, hard boiled (optional)
300g smoked cod or haddock fillets
200g king prawns
4 queen scallops , corals removed and chopped

60g unsalted butter
60g plain flour
1 onion, halved
2 bay leaves
a pinch of nutmeg
1.5 pints semi skimmed milk
handful of chopped parsley.

Method :

1.  For the sauce :

Place the milk, onion, nutmeg and bay leaves in a saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer.

 

Cut the smoked fish fillets in half so that they fit the pan easily and then poach them in the milk for three minutes.

Carefully remove the fish and the bay leaves from the milk and place into a bowl before covering and setting aside.  Remove the onion from the milk and discard.

Next, melt the butter into a saucepan before adding the flour.  Incorporate the flour into the melted butter with a wooden spoon, to form a thick roux paste.  Allow the flour to cook out for a few minutes, taking great care not to let it stick to the base of the pan.

Once the roux has turned a nice pale golden, add a little milk and stir vigorously to mix.   The milk will vanish almost instantly into the roux, at which point, more milk should be added.  Continue this process until the mixture resembles a very thick (and probably fairly lumpy) sauce.

At this stage, add the chopped scallop corals and swap your wooden spoon for a balloon whisk and continue adding more milk to the sauce.  Keep whisking and adding more milk until you have a smooth, velvety, but thick white sauce.  Remember that the seafood will release liquid into the sauce during cooking so take care not to make the sauce too thin.

Carefully fold the bay leaves and smoked Fish into the sauce, trying not to break the fish up too much, before leaving to cool to room temperature.  Once cooled, add the cooked prawns and the chopped, hard boiled eggs (if you're using them) to the mix before assembling the Pie.

2.  For assembly of the Koulibiac.
 

Roll the pastry into a square, roughly 7mm thick.  Lay the rolled pastry onto a sheet of baking parchment and brush the edges of the pastry with beaten egg.  Now form your saucy fish mixture into a high pile in the middle and place the four scallops on top in such a way that each quarter of pie has a scallop in it.  Now draw the four points of the pastry square to the middle, forming a four sided pyramid shape. Crimp each pastry seam shut before egg washing the whole pie and transferring to a large baking sheet, parchment and all.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180degC/350degF/gas4 for 45 minutes and then allow to cool for five minutes before serving.

Printable version

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Pesto crusted cod with roast vegetable giant couscous

As you no doubt know, I've been looking for low calorie, healthy recipes with a view to us all trimming a little of the Christmas-induced waistline width.

I am also very keen to include more fish in our diet.  Amazingly, we all like fish - and we just don't make as much of it as we could do, because of the price in the supermarket.  We do have a fishmonger down in Lower Parkstone that we've spotted, but disabled access to the shop is quite difficult.  I think I'm going to have to send hubby in there to have a recce before I try staggering across the road and standing up long enough to view all the fish on offer (and absorb some of the prices!) before attempting to stagger back to the car, without bursting into tears or hyperventilating.  It'd be great to find a fishmonger (or fishmungler, as they're known in this house) because then I won't be restricted to cod, haddock or river cobbler.  I'd absolutely LOVE to get my hands on a crab or two, plus sardines - well, all manner of fish and shellfish!

In the meantime, however, I've been attempting to make something of the frozen fish on offer at the supermarket.  It is, at least, almost affordable in price even if it does require copious amounts of kitchen paper in order to squeeze the water from it!

I had decided to make some oven-baked fish - and cod won the toss, in this instance.  You could just as easily use any other type of firm fleshed white fish - haddock is perfect.


The preparation is really easy - just take a nice pesto and spread a teaspoonful across the top of each fillet or piece of fish.  Then, mix together some grated parmesan and breadcrumbs with a little black pepper and pat onto the top of the pesto.


After some 20-25 minutes in the hot oven, the fish was opaque and the crust crunchy.  Delicious!


I'd originally decided to make a roast vegetable couscous, however during the week I'd found some Mograbiah (or giant couscous) and decided to use some of that instead.

I had diced some parsnips, carrot, onion, courgette, red pepper and a baby aubergine which I roasted in olive oil, together with some thyme and garlic.  I cooked the Mograbiah in vegetable stock and simply tossed it together with the vegetables, a little lemon juice and some chopped mint and parsley.  Of course, you don't have to use Mograbiah - normal couscous would do just fine.  As such, I've written the recipe for normal couscous as it's more easily found in the shops.


The two recipes worked very well together.  Hubby found that the mint was a bit too heavy, however I was perfectly happy with the flavours - but then, I love mint!


Considering that the two recipes were either conceived on the spur of the moment, or with fingers crossed (as to whether the fish would be soggy), I was very pleased with how it came out.  Son & heir ate all his fish but was selective about the couscous.  Hubby would eat it again, but with less mint.  I would eat it again, just as it was!

PESTO CRUSTED COD with ROAST VEGETABLE COUSCOUS   (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

3 fillets of firm fleshed white fish
3 tsp pesto
a handful of breadcrumbs
a handful of grated parmesan
freshly ground black pepper
150g couscous
120ml vegetable stock, boiling
1 parsnip, peeled and diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced 
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 courgette, diced
1 baby aubergine (or another courgette), diced
1 red pepper, cut into 2cm squares
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp dried thyme
small handful of parsley, chopped finely
2-3 sprigs of mint, leaves removed and chopped
sea salt.


Method :


1.  Pre-heat the oven to 200deg C (fan)/400deg F/gas 6.


2.  Place the parsnip and carrot cubes into a bowl with the garlic and thyme.  Drizzle with olive oil and add a pinch of sea salt.  Toss to mix thoroughly, then turn out onto a baking tray and put in the oven for 15 minutes.


3.  Add the remaining vegetable cubes to the bowl you've just used (which should still be a little garlicky) and drizzle with olive oil, to wait its turn in the oven.


4.  Place the fish into a baking dish, allowing a little space between the fillets.


5.  Spread a tsp of the pesto over each fillet, then in a small bowl mix the breadcrumbs, parmesan and pepper.  Pat the breadcrumb mix into the pesto, taking care to leave the crumbs loose enough that they will crisp in the oven.


6.  Remove the carrot & parsnip from the oven and add the remaining vegetable cubes to the tray, spreading to an even layer.  Replace to roast for 20-25 minutes.


7.  Put the fish in the oven for the same 20-25 minutes.


8.  In the meantime, in a deep bowl, add the boiling vegetable stock to the couscous.  Cover with cling film and leave to absorb the stock for 10-15 minutes.


9.  Uncover the couscous and fluff up with a fork.

10. Remove the fish from the oven and keep warm whilst you finish off the couscous.

11.  When the vegetables are fully roasted, browned and lovely, add them to the couscous and gently stir through.


12.  Add a squeeze of lemon juice and the chopped parsley & mint.  Taste and add a pinch of sea salt, if necessary.


13.  Serve.