Category Archives: Fish

Market Day Salad Nicoise

12 Tuesday Oct 2021

Posted by in Fish, Main Courses, salads, Shopping, Vegetable Dishes

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Sometimes when food shopping most of the elements of a great recipe just happen to appear before you. In this case, picked this morning french beans, bright green little gem lettuce and fresh from underneath the hen free range eggs. A salad Nicoise is asking to be made. There is no fresh tuna, which I would normally use, but lovely big prawns will do nicely for the fish element. Southern Spain is the land of the tomato, so super tasty tomatoes are always plentiful.

I prefer poached eggs to boiled, I like warm yolks to dribble over the salad, and a vinaigrette dressing to mayonnaise, so here is my version of Salade Nicoise.

Per person

lettuce leaves

1 or 2 tomatoes – chopped

French beans – top and tail them and cut them into about 3cm lengths, then blanch them in boiling water for two or three minutes. Drain and leave to cool.

1 tablespoon corn kernels

1 clove of garlic – chopped

olive oil

7 large prawns – peeled

2 large free range eggs

For the dressing

1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon white wine/cider vinegar

pinch of sugar

Firstly mix all the dressing ingredients together thoroughly. You can put them all in a little jar and give it a good shake. Put to one side while you assemble the salad.

Lay the lettuce leaves on a dinner plate to make a bed for the rest of the ingredients. Strew over the tomatoes, beans and corn.

Heat water in a small pan for poaching the eggs.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a small frying pan and add the chopped garlic, fry for a minute then add the prawns. Fry gently until just cooked through. Add to the salad with the cooking juices and garlic.

Poach the eggs, drain and lay on the salad.

Spoon over the dressing, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Serve with fresh crunchy bread.

Fish Cooked in Coconut Milk with Spices

25 Tuesday May 2021

Posted by in Fish, Main Courses, Sauces

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I made the sauce for this fish dish first, and then slowly poached the fish in it. I’ve used fillets of Mackerel as they are in season here right now, so superbly fresh and a good price, but any firm fleshed fish fillets can be used. I haven’t tried it, but it could be a good sauce to cook prawns in as well.

For 2 portions

500 grams fish fillets

1/2 red onion – sliced

2 cloves garlic – finely chopped or green garlic sliced

1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger

1/2 fresh red chilli – finely chopped

oil or butter for frying

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

200 ml coconut milk

1 teaspoon ground rice

juice of a small lime

salt and pepper

Heat the oil or butter in a deep frying pan or wok. Add the onions and cook on a low heat until starting to brown a little.

Add the garlic, ginger and chilli. Stir in and fry for a few minutes.

Add the mustard seeds and fry until they begin to pop, then add the turmeric and coconut milk.

Gently cook the sauce for five minutes.

If the sauce is thin, then thicken with the rice flour.

Add the fish and poach gently until the fillets are just cooked.

Season with salt, pepper and the lime juice.

Serve with rice. I made a Red Rice, Cauliflower and Green Bean Biryani, which went very well. I’ll post the recipe for that next.

Kerala Coconut & Pineapple Sauce

23 Monday Nov 2020

Posted by in Fish, Main Courses, Sauces, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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Roasted coconut gives this sauce a deep richness, fresh pineapple a sweetness and tamarind a sourness which combined with spices create a complex sauce with layers of flavour. Fish can be lightly poached in it, nuts can be added for a vegan dish or little cubes of paneer for a vegetarian version.

I’ve cooked some big chunks of salmon in the sauce this time, but any meaty fish works well as do prawns.
The tamarind that comes in a block, which you can buy online if it’s not available in your local shops, has far more flavour than the ready made tamarind sauces. You just break off a chunk and pour a little boiling water over it. Once it softens you can mash it removing any seeds and then add it to your dish. The block keeps for months in an airtight container in the fridge.

For 4 portions

1 onion – finely sliced

2 tablespoons olive or peanut oil

40 grams fresh coconut – finely grated and toasted slowly in a thick bottomed pan until lightly browned.

Tamarind – piece 2 cm square soaked in 2 tablespoons boiling water or 2 tablespoons tamarind sauce.

Fresh ginger – piece 2cm square

4 cloves garlic

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1/2 fresh red chilli – finely chopped / 1/4 teaspoon chilli powder

100 ml chopped tomatoes / passata

2 x 1 cm thick slices fresh pineapple – core removed and cut into small cubes

salt

400 grams salmon – cut into large chunks

Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onion sliced slowly stirring from time to time until slightly caramelised. This will take 10 to 15 minutes.

Put the ginger, garlic, coconut, tomato and tamarind in a small food processor and blend to a paste.

Add this paste to the caramelised onions together with the turmeric, coriander and chilli. Add the pineapple and 100 ml water.

Bring to a simmer and cook slowly, covered for 15 minutes.

Add salt to the sauce as needed. The sauce can be made in advance up to this point and will benefit from having time for the flavours to develop and meld.

If using fish, add the chunks to the hot sauce and cook for only about 5 minutes until the fish is just done.

If using nuts or paneer, likewise add them to the hot sauce and let them heat through.

I served my dish with plain boiled basmati rice and Carrots and Peas with Fresh Green Coriander.


Malaysian Steamed Fish

25 Sunday Oct 2020

Posted by in Fish, Main Courses

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Sea bass cooked in coconut milk flavoured with ginger, garlic, chilli and tamarind. To accompany the fish I made Rice Noodle with Mushrooms and a Seaweed Salad, I’ll post those recipes to follow.

For 2

2 seabass

peanut oil for frying

4 cloves of garlic – peeled and sliced

piece of fresh ginger – cut into little julienne

1 green and 1 red birds eye chilli – the green finely chopped and the red sliced

1 stick lemon grass – white core only – finely sliced

1/2 onion – sliced

50 ml thin tamarind sauce / tamarind paste in 50 ml boiling water

100 ml coconut milk

1 tablespoon fish sauce Nam Pla

1 tablespoon Ketjap Manis / soy sauce and 1 teaspoon sugar

fresh coriander

Heat the oil in a large shallow pan or wok into which the fish can fit.

Add the ginger and fry for a few minutes until starting to brown.

Add the onion, garlic, chilli and lemon grass. Fry for five to ten minutes to soften.

Now add all the liquids, stir well to blend and bring to a simmer.

Add the fish, cover and turn the heat down. Leave to cook for seven minutes.

Turn the fish over, cook this side for seven minutes.

Serve the fish with the sauce spooned over and garnished with red chilli slices and fresh coriander.

Sajur Lemeng

16 Saturday May 2020

Posted by in Fish, Main Courses, Vegan

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This Indonesian vegetable curry is adapted from one of my old cookery books, South East Asian Food, written by the Australian academic Rosemary Brissenden who fell in love with Indonesia and its cuisine as a student in the 1960’s.

I made this as a vegan curry which was delicious, the original recipe was with prawns and prawn paste so I will give amounts of those for making the non vegan version.

For 2

about 250 grams in total of various vegetables. You can choose between red and green peppers, green beans, aubergine, bean sprouts and the following that I used on this occasion –

asparagus

leeks – cut into thin strips

courgette – Cut into bite sized chunks

mange toute peas

small green peppers

mizuna and Pak Choi

1 red fresh chilli – chopped

2 cm square, more or less, fresh ginger or better still galangal – chopped

2 garlic cloves – cut in half

1 small sweet onion – roughly chopped

5 macadamia nuts / 10 hazelnuts

1 teaspoon / 5 ml ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon shrimp paste – if making a vegan curry omit this

1 tablespoon / 15 ml coconut oil

400 coconut milk

First make a curry paste. In a small food processor whizz together the chilli, ginger, garlic, onion, nuts, shrimp paste and coriander together with the coconut oil.

Gently fry the curry paste in a large wok for 5 – 10 minutes until it is cooked.

Add the coconut milk and heat to a simmer.

Add the vegetables that need the longest cooking first, then after a few minutes the more tender vegetables and the prawns if using. Simmer until the vegetables are just done with some bite remaining and the prawns cooked through.

Serve with jasmine rice or sesame sprinkled rice noodles.


Baby Squid with Garlic & Chilli

13 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by in Fish, Food for One, Main Courses, Starters

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Whenever I go to look at the fresh fish at my local market, everything is so fresh and glistening that I just want to buy it all. This week I limited myself to some small and tender squid and the last of the crabs. The crabs that we get here are small but very tasty, so will make a fantastic soup.

The squid was quickly fried with garlic and chilli for lunch.

SMALL SQUID WITH GARLIC, CHILLI AND PARSLEY

This is so simple it is almost not a recipe.

For 2 as a main course, for 4 as a starter

500 grams small squid
Olive oil
3 cloves garlic – finely chopped
Fresh red chilli – to taste
Small bunch flat leaved parsley – roughly chopped
Juice of half a lemon

The cleaning of the squid is the most time consuming job in preparing this dish.

Cut the tentacles off just above the squid’s eyes, and then remove the sharp beak type mouth in the centre of the tentacles. Pull the innards out of the squid and discard. A cat will love you if you send these their way.

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Put the empty bodies and tentacles into a colander and wash thoroughly.

Leave to drain while you chop the garlic, chilli and parsley.

Heat the oil in a shallow pan and add the garlic and chilli. Fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the squid and keep frying on a medium heat, turning from time to time.

The squid are cooked once they are opaque and a bit pink, which should take about 7 minutes. Add the parsley and lemon juice. Stir to blend and to moisten the tasty bits at the bottom of the pan.

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That’s it!

Serve with a simple tomato salad and some fresh bread.

Nicoise Salad

09 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by in Fish, Food for One, Main Courses, Starters, Vegetable Dishes

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Composed salads with their mixture of textures, tastes and colours are very close to being perfect food, and a Nicoise Salad is one of the great classics in this category. Its mixture of green leaves and French beans, red tomatoes and peppers, black olives, white and yellow egg and the pinky brown of tuna make it a delight to look at.

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At the market today, my favourite fish stall had some superb fresh tuna, so I decided to sear it fairly rare and have it as part of a Nicoise Salad in place of the usual tinned tuna. Without losing the elements that make a salad a Nicoise, ie Tuna, Egg, French Beans, Tomatoes and Black Olives, there is room for you to make the salad your own. I prefer a poached egg to boiled as I like to mix the runny yolk into the salad. I also like to thin down the mayonnaise with a little water before pouring it over the salad. And I do love Chilli Jam with tuna, so although it is not traditional…..

Arroz Negro – Black Rice

21 Saturday Jun 2014

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Continuing on the rice theme, here is my favourite seafood and rice dish. It is fairly simple to make and does not have many ingredients, but the flavour of the squid ink and seafood mixed with that of the chilli and onion makes for a rich tasting dish. I regularly cook it just for myself.

FOR 6
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion – finely chopped
1 red pepper – chopped into small squares
1 green pepper – chopped into small squares
Half a red chilli – finely chopped
500 grams squid
500 grams mussels
500 grams prawns
250 grams rice
500 ml fish stock
500-750 ml chicken stock
Salt and pepper

Let’s start by preparing the fish.

Remove the innards from the squid and carefully remove the ink sacks into a small bowl. Cut the tentacles from the innards and save discarding the rest.

With the ink sacs, you need to break them open to release the ink and press them with the back of a spoon to make sure that it is all out before discarding the sac. In some places it is possible to buy the ink frozen in little sachets which saves on the fiddle of extracting the ink.

Wash the squid bodies and tentacles and dry them on kitchen paper. Cut the bodies into thin circles. If the tentacles are small leave them whole, but if large cut them smaller.
Clean the mussels and steam them open.

A lot of cooks like to cook the mussels in the rice, but I find that there is often grit in the mussel shells and so prefer to open them separately and then sieve the liquid. Also some mussels are extremely salty, so if you have their liquor apart, you can taste it for saltiness before deciding how much to add to your dish.

If I am making this rice just for myself, I use ready cooked and shelled mussels that I buy frozen and keep in the freezer for these sort of mixed fish dishes that only require 5 or 6 mussels.

The prawns can be left in their shells to be opened at the table, but if you prefer for easier eating, they can be de-headed and peeled now.

Heat the oil in a large shallow pan and add the onions. Fry gently until translucent.

Add the peppers and chilli and keep cooking gently for five to ten minutes.

Add the squid and and continue frying gently for another five minutes.

Add the rice and stir well to coat with all the other ingredients in the pan. Fry for about five minutes.
Mix a little of the fish stock into the ink to dilute it and add it to the pan with the rest of the fish stock. Mix well.

Cover and leave to simmer for about five minutes. If it is starting to look dry add some of the chicken stock.
After another five minutes add the prawns if they are in their shells and the liquor from the mussels. Check the seasoning in the liquor in the pan and add salt and pepper as required. Add more chicken stock if needed.

Continue cooking until the rice is at the al dente stage – cooked but with firmness in the centre.

using unshelled prawns add at this stage and then a couple of minutes later add the mussels and let them warm through.

Let the rice rest for five to ten minutes.

Serve with Alioli and a tomato salad.

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Polenta………& learning to love it.

01 Thursday May 2014

Posted by in Fish, Main Courses, Techniques, Vegetable Dishes

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I know that there are plenty of you out there who are as I previously was with Polenta. You started off curious so tried it in various restaurants and found yourself underwhelmed. It was allright, but you couldn’t see what the fuss was about.

Not types to give up, and armed with the opinion that Italians know about food, so it would be worth giving it another chance, you have a go at cooking it at home. Armed with an authentic Italian recipe from a reliable source you boil, and stir, and stir, and cool, and cut and reheat with a sauce………and still find yourself unexcited.

So you abandon Polenta for a number of years…..

…….then when you have forgotten all about it you are served in a restaurant to accompany the meat, a golden cake lightly browned and crisped on the edges and creamy in the centre. Filled with tiny strips of fried bacon and diced vegetables, flavoured with garlic and chicken stock. It is absolutely delicious. It takes you some time to realise that the main ingredient is the polenta that you have up to now been unimpressed by.

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A re-evaluation is obviously in order. This is where the path to loving Polenta starts, let me lead you through my trials to success and enjoyment.

Firstly the Polenta itself. I read somewhere that it is only good during the first six months after it is milled. I have tried fresh and It does have a slightly more corn flavour, but not so much that it makes that much difference. Having said that any dried goods – beans, lentils, quinoa, rice, flour, and polenta should not be kept for more than a couple of years and preferably used within a year. These are products where the use by dates should be taken note of, you won’t get food poisoning but the grains lose their ability to reconstitute and stay dry and hard and of course the flavour of them slowly fades.

Cooking liquid. I have read debates as to whether water or milk are the best and most authentic cooking liquids, but I am not impressed with either. Let’s face it, polenta is a pretty bland grain, and so any extra flavour that can be added should be. I like to cook the polenta in a light stock, either chicken, veal, or if you are vegetarian, a vegetable stock.

Stirring. Every recipe I have come across, and the instructions on the polenta packet, tell you to bring the liquid to the boil, whisk in the polenta, stir until boiling again and then keep stirring for forty minutes with the heat turned low. Well, I haven’t got the time or patience to stand around stirring for forty minutes and I suspect neither do Italians or you. I find that stirring from time to time during the first ten minutes will do, then turn off the heat, cover with a well fitting lid and leave it to continue cooking in its own steam for forty minutes. Alternatively once it is back boiling after adding the polenta, pour into a slow cooker and continue cooking on a low setting for half an hour, then turn of the cooker and leave the polenta to cook in the residual heat for another half hour.

BASIC RECIPE – for 8-10 servings

350 grams polenta

1.75-2 litres light stock

salt and freshly ground black pepper

If you want a very firm polenta for leaving to cool and form into a cake, use the smaller amount of stock, and if you want a softer puree consistency for eating immediately, then the larger amount of stock.

Put the stock in a thick based saucepan with half a teaspoon of salt and bring to the boil.

Pour in the polenta in a steady stream stirring continually. Turn down the heat and keep stirring as the polenta thickens, this should take about 10 minutes.

Either put a lid on the polenta and turn of the heat leaving the polenta to continue cooking in its own steam or transfer the polenta to a slow cooker on the lowest setting and leave to cook for 30 minutes before turning off the heat and giving it a stir.

Continue with your chosen recipe.

POLENTA AND VEGETABLE CAKE – Pictured above

I make this when I have a lot of people to feed as almost all can be prepared the day before, all that has to be done on the day is slicing the loaf and putting it onto a hot tray in the oven. Plus it is the vegetable and starch all in one.

It is great with something saucy like a stew. Last time I made it was to go with Pork Bourgignon – see previous post on Pigs Cheeks.

If you want to make a vegetarian version of this substitute nut pieces for the bacon and use olive oil for the frying

100 grams streaky bacon – cut into small dice

30 grams bacon fat – cut into small dice

1 clove garlic – finely chopped

1 small onion or half a large one – finely chopped

200 grams vegetables – cut into small dice – choose three or four from the following – carrots, parsnips, peppers, mushrooms, sweet peas, Florence fennel, broccoli, celeriac, butternut squash. Try to mix the colours to make it interesting.

Thick polenta as master recipe – cooked in vegetable stock if making the meatless version.

Heat a thick based frying pan and add the dice bacon fat. Cook on a low heat until it has rendered down and released its fat.

Add the bacon and cook for five minutes.

Add the onions and garlic, stir in and fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the diced vegetables and fry for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are about half cooked and have lost some of their moisture.

Add the vegetable and bacon mix to the polenta while both are still warm and gently mix the whole together. Season with plenty of freshly ground black pepper and check if it needs more salt.

Turn into a small loaf tin lined with cling film. Gently flatten to make sure that there are no pockets of air and smooth out the top. Fold the cling film over the top and put the loaf in the fridge to cool and firm up.

About 45 minutes before you need to serve the loaf, heat the oven to 180 centigrade. When the oven is hot, put in a shallow baking tray containing a couple of tablespoons of tasty dripping or olive oil.

Take the loaf out of the fridge and remove from tin. Peel off it’s cling film and cut into slabs about one and a half centimetres thick.

Put onto the now hot fat in the baking tray. Put back In the oven and roast for about 15 to 20 minutes until browned and crispy at the edges.

WHITE POLENTA PURÉE WITH FENNEL AND ORANGE.

Salmon, White Polenta, Saffron Sauce

White polenta is traditionally eaten with fish in Italy. It has a slightly softer smoother texture. Don’t worry if you can’t find white polenta, this is still good with the more easily available yellow.

Master recipe soft polenta made with white grains.

100 grams Florence fennel – cut into small dice

25 grams butter

Grated zest and juice of one orange

Salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Fry the diced fennel slowly in the butter until cooked but still with a little firmness.

Cook the polenta as the recipe. Add the orange zest and juice. Stir well to mix in.

Add the fennel and stir gently to mix in.

Serve with fish of your choice.

SOUFFLED POLENTA

Use either white or yellow polenta

Firm polenta as master recipe

3 eggs

50 grams finely grated Parmesan cheese

Cook the polenta as recipe and leave to cool a bit.

Heat the oven to 170 centigrade.

Grease an ovenproof dish about the right size to take the soufflé, individual ramekins can be used if you like.

Separate the eggs. Add the yolks to the polenta and beat to mix in.

Add most of the cheese to the polenta keeping back enough to sprinkle on the top of the soufflé. Mix well.

Beat the egg whites until very firm and white.

Fold into the polenta mix trying not to lose too much air about of the egg whites.

Turn into the greased dish and bake for about half an hour until risen and golden on top.

Serve immediately.

 

Bodega Aranda – Almeria City

11 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by in Fish, Food for One, Snacks and Tapas, Starters, Sweet Things, Vegetable Dishes

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After visiting the central market in Almeria we had worked up an appetite for lunch, and remembered that this ancient tapas bar was not far away.

Having installed ourselves at a table we asked the waitress to bring us a selection of what was good at the moment. She suggested the house salad, a couple of plates of fish and fried potatoes topped with broken eggs and the local made chorizo and morcilla. Perfect we said, not realising what culinary delights lay behind these simple descriptions.

The house salad arrived. Rich green corn salad, walnuts, pine nuts, raisins, and a halo of tomatoes surrounding a mound of blue cheese ice cream. The waitress had a small bowl of dressing – olive oil and sherry vinegar with seasonings – which she poured over the salad, then she cut the ice cream into pieces and gently mixed it with the salad.

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It was heavenly. I am working on a recipe for the ice cream – maybe have it perfected for the next post.

The fish course was next –

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Fillets of baby Cod and Smelts in light batter and fried served with the best Ajo Blanco I have ever tasted. You could taste the slight bitterness of the almonds, a hint of garlic that was not overpowering, the sauce was made smooth with bread and olive oil and balanced with white wine vinegar.

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Jureles en Escabeche. Escabeche is a way of mildly pickling fish. It is gently poached in a broth of olive oil, white wine vinegar and water which is flavoured with onions, peppercorns, saffron and bayleaves. Frequently smoky Pimenton is added as well, but in this dish of small fish it wasn’t needed.

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Next was the Potatoes with Chorizo, Morcilla and broken eggs.

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To finish the meal a succulent large date each, dark chocolate covered raisins and mint tea.