Category: Fish and Seafood

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Dinner Fish and Seafood Quick and Easy Suppers Uncategorized

Cod with Tomato & Black olive Dressing and a Cannellini Mash

Serves Four

Four pieces of boneless cod (about 150g each)
50g butter
Four tomatoes
One red pepper, chopped.
Olive oil
Thyme
Two tablespoons good quality black olives, pitted and chopped
Extra virgin olive oil
A little balsamic vinegar (white if possible, or sherry vinegar)
Fresh basil
Two tins cannellini beans
1 large shallot, finely chopped
Clove garlic (optional)
2 tablespoons olive oil
100ml chicken/veg stock
Lemon juice
Salt & pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 220C (top aga)

Cut the tomatoes in half and remove the core. Sit on a baking sheet with the peppers, drizzle over olive oil, season and sprinkle with thyme. Roast for about 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and roughly chop. Put into a small saucepan with the olives and add enough extra virgin oil to make a sauce. Add a few drops of balsamic vinegar to taste and stir through some shredded basil. Set aside while you cook the fish.

Rub a baking sheet with some of the butter and sit the cod on it. Season the fish and dot with the remaining butter. Add a tablespoon of water to the pan and put into the oven for six to ten minutes. The cod is cooked when the tip of a knife that you have pierced through to the centre feels warm. It will continue cooking after you have removed it from the oven.

Meanwhile, fry the shallot for the mash. Add the garlic if using and cook for a couple more minutes. Add the drained beans and half the stock. Heat through and then season and mash with a hand held blender or potato masher. Add the rest of the stock if you need it.

Remove the fish from the oven and rest for a couple of minutes. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon over it. Heat the tomato and olive mixture. Serve the cod on the mash with some of the sauce spooned over.

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Dinner Fish and Seafood Lunch Quick and Easy Suppers Uncategorized

LIGHTLY SMOKED SALMON FILLET with SPICED ROAST VEGETABLES & TAHINI YOGHURT DRESSING

Sometimes you want some delicious and healthy but without having to spend hours in the kitchen. I often use those lovely, flavoursome salmon fillets that have been lightly smoked, adding another layer of interest to a weekday favourite. Always buy the best salmon you can afford – organic if possible but at the very least from a quality supplier. Check the skin has been properly scaled. Many supermarkets these days don’t bother to scale their fish which I find deeply irritating – no one wants a mouthful of scales and it is really very easy to do, if a little messy! The pesky little things seem to fly all over the place but if you want to eat the skin I do feel that it must be scale free.
This recipe involves roasting the veg in a spiced oil and anything will work well, particularly root vegetables and cauliflower. I love beetroot with this for the colour but you could use potato, celeriac, squash, sweet potato, carrots, cauliflower etc. A little cooking spinach wilted in at the end adds colour and an ironey burst of green leaf but is not essential. Make your tahini dressing how you like it – maybe more or less yoghurt depending on how much you live sesame (a lot, in my case).

For Two

2 lightly smoked salmon fillets
1 large or 2 small beetroot
Six florets cauliflower
3 medium carrot
1 teaspoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon cumin seed
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon rapeseed oil plus a little extra for the salmon
Spinach (optional) a handful
Sea salt & black pepper
2 tablespoons tahini
1 tablespoon natural yoghurt (I use yeo valley green)
1 lemon

Pre heat the oven to 200c

Make the dressing. Combine the tahini, yoghurt and a squeeze of lemon juice. Add about two tablespoons of cold water and whisk well together. Season. It should be about the consistency of double cream.

Grind the fennel and cumin in a pestle and mortar. Put all the vegetables that you have chopped into even pieces, about 2cm diameter into a roasting pan. Sprinkle with the ground spices and the turmeric. Add one tablespoon of the oil and toss to coat. Season well and then roast in the hot oven for about twenty minutes, tossing occasionally until very tender.

Take a frying pan that can go in the oven and drizzle with a little rapeseed oil. Heat gently and then season the salmon fillets. Put skin side down in the pan and cook for about three minutes, without moving the fish. Put the pan in the oven for a further two minutes and then remove an leave to sit in the pan while you take the vegetables out.

Stir a handful of spinach through the hot vegetables. Divide between two plates an sit the salmon on top, skin side up. Drizzle the tahini dressing around and serve.

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Dinner Fish and Seafood Lunch Soups Uncategorized

MEDITERRANEAN FISH STEW with AIOLI

This is just the most delicious, rich, fragrant fish stew imaginable. It takes a bit of effort, especially if you make your own stock but it really is worth it and once you sit down to enjoy your bowlful of piscatorial goodness all your hard labour will be forgotten.
Just adding even a few prawn shells will make a difference to this so it is worth using what bits of shellfish you can, even if you can’t get hold of the crab and it does make flaming the Pernod (essential!) a lot easier. If you haven’t that many crustacean shells then buy some ready made shellfish stock to add along with the fish stock. As long as you keep roughly to about 800ml of liquid.
Crusty bread and a good bottle of wine are all you will need with this; perhaps just a green salad to follow but I find the soup alone is enough

Serves Eight

FOR THE SHELLFISH REDUCTION

Olive oil
A few crab bodies (underside)
A few prawns/any white fish bones or heads you have
One onion or two shallots
One bulb fennel or one leek
Piece of celeriac if you have it
400g passata
Handful parsley stalks
Two celery stalks
Pinch saffron
A couple of anchovy fillets
Pinch chilli flakes (optional)
Two bay leaves
200ml pernod
800ml fresh fish stock or water
Two tablespoons Arborio rice
Sea salt & black pepper

Four large tomatoes, halved and roasted
Two shallots, finely chopped
Two large cloves garlic, crushed
Fresh thyme
Olive oil
Pinch saffron
250ml white wine
Mixture of white fish eg gurnard, pollock, cod, bream, monkfish, sea bass
About 40 mussels
About 24 clams
Eight large raw prawns
Handful finely chopped fresh parsley

First make your reduction. Saute the onion, saffron and chilli with all the crab, prawns and any fish bones you have. It doesn’t matter if it singes a bit. Add the vegetables and anchovy and then pour over the pernod. Set alight and once the flame has gone simmer for a couple of minutes before adding the bayleaves and stock. Add the rice and the passata and leave to simmer gently for about half an hour. Pass through a conical sieve and press to get all the juices through. Season to taste and set aside.

Using the pan in which you will be serving your stew, heat a couple of tablespoons or so of olive oil. Gently cook the shallot, adding the garlic after a few minutes. Add the chopped, roasted tomatoes and a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme and then pour over the wine. Reduce the wine until almost no liquid is left in the pan. Add the reserved reduction and simmer for a few minutes. Check the seasoning. Just before you are ready to serve, bring the pan up to a simmer and add all the fish and seafood. Cover and simmer very gently (hardly bubbling) until the mussels and clams have opened and the fish is cooked through.

Serve in shallow bowls scattered with parsley with toasted ciabatta or sourdough spread with a generous helping of aioli.

AIOLI

2 – 4 cloves garlic
Good pinch of salt
2 egg yolks
Squeeze lemon juice
300ml sunflower oil
75ml extra virgin olive oil
White wine vinegar

Mash the garlic to a puree with the salt. Add in the egg yolks and a squeeze of lemon and then gradually add the oil, whisking all the time until you have a thick mayonnaise. Check seasoning and adjust with salt, pepper and a little lemon juice or white wine vinegar.

If very thick you can add a little boiling water.
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Dinner Fish and Seafood Lunch Meat Starters and Salads Uncategorized Vegetarian

WATERCRESS SALSA VERDE

Serves Six

30g watercress leaves (removed from the thicker stalks)
10g flat leaf parsley
10g fresh basil
5 – 10g fresh mint
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
1 heaped teaspoon sea salt
Black pepper
5 cornichons
2 teaspoons small capers
100ml rapeseed oil (or extra virgin or half and half)
Good squeeze lemon juice

You need a mini chopper for this or the smallest bowl in our food processor. Or you can do it by hand in a big pestle and mortar but you will have to finely chop everything first.

Put all the ingredients except the oil and lemon into your chopper. Add a quarter of the oil and whizz to blend. Add more oil and blitz together until you have a good consistency. Check the seasoning and add lemon juice to taste. Finally add the rest of the oil, depending on how thick you like your salsa verde.

Keeps in the fridge in a jar for just under a week as long as you cover the top with a fine layer of oil.

Serve with baked or pan fried trout or salmon. Wonderful with new potatoes, puy lentils or dunk some sourdough in it.

If serving with beef then some sharp little finely chopped shallot would make a nice addition.

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Dinner Fish and Seafood Lunch Quick and Easy Suppers Soups Uncategorized

CRAB CHOWDER

Crab says Summer like nothing else. After the recent blistering week that lulled us all into a false sense of weather security things have gone somewhat downhill in that department, but the evenings are light, leaves are unfurling and warm days suddenly don’t seem so far off.

One summer expedition that has been a long time in the planning started on Sunday, when our great friend Julian Jackson set off from Lands End to make the epic journey all the way up the British Isles to John O’Groats. What makes this even more special and challenging is not just that he is going on foot, but that he is blind. The aim of the ‘Big Blind Walk’ as he has so aptly christened his adventure is to raise awareness of sight loss and to support research into prevention and cure.

I thought I would post a recipe for each county he travels through. Cornwall is obviously first and what better Cornish ingredient to choose than my favourite crab. Nowhere does a crab sandwich taste better than on a windswept Cornish beach but the weather being as it is, I thought a warming chowder might hit the spot and I hope you will try this delicious, luxurious but very easy recipe that is a big favourite in our house when crab is at its British best.

Should you enjoy this recipe and would like to donate in support of Julian’s Big Blind Walk please visit bigblindwalk.com or follow the link on Instagram #bigblindwalk

Serves Four

2 tablespoons olive oil or rapeseed oil
1 fennel bulb, finely chopped
1 leek, finely chopped
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
30ml of pernod
100g tub white crab meat
100g tub brown crab meat
OR meat from 1 medium sized crab
1 litre vegetable/chicken stock
300ml double cream
4 ripe red tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and chopped
Fresh flat leaf parsley, dill, chervil, chives, any or all finely chopped
Salt & pepper

Gently heat the oil and fry and fennel, leek, shallot, garlic and chilli until softened. Add the pernod and simmer to cook off the alcohol for a minute or two.

Add the stock and simmer for a few minutes. Add the brown crab meat, stirring until well combined. Stir in the cream, white crab meat, tomatoes and parsley. Check the seasoning and serve in warm bowls.

Crusty bread is all you need for a nice lunch, with maybe a green salad to follow.

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Dinner Fish and Seafood Lunch Quick and Easy Suppers Uncategorized

COD LOIN with COURGETTI, WILD GARLIC and WILD GARLIC PESTO

Everyone needs a go to quick supper recipe that is light, healthy, easy to make and preferably using as few pans as possible. I am currently loving using all the wild garlic that is growing rapidly in my garden. I can hardly keep up with the supply! Pesto is one obvious use for this delicious leaf but I also love to use it where I might otherwise have reached for some spinach. Here it is a natural fit with a spanking fresh piece of cod loin. Pesto over the top, wilted leaves underneath and the courgetti just adds that bit of necessary mildness that calms the who thing down. The tomatoes are something that you could leave out but I love the extra splash of colour that they give. If you need more, a side of some crispy fried potatoes is perfect.

For Four

4 pieces of cod loin (about 150g – 175g each)
Rapeseed oil for frying
3 medium sized courgettes, spiralized or shredded with a julienner
Two handfuls of washed wild garlic leaves (or use spinach)
Four heaped tablespoons of wild garlic pesto, made with dill as well
Four small tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and black pepper
Dill and extra pine nuts to garnish

Heat a frying pan with some rapeseed oil and have four plates ready warming in the oven.

Season the cod well and fry until golden on each side and only just cooked through. Remember that they will keep cooking whilst you keep them warm. How long very much depends on the thickness of the fish but approximately two to three minutes on each side should be about right.

Keep the fish warm on a plate in a VERY low oven. Quickly heat more rapeseed oil (about a tablespoonful) and add the courgette and tomatoes. Stir around fpr a minute or so and then add in the wild garlic to just wilt. Season and add a squeeze of lemon juice.

Take your plates and divide this mix between them. Sit the cod on top and then drizzle the pesto over and around. You may want to loosen it up with more extra virgin oil. Garnish with dill and squeeze more lemon over the whole thing, along with a final dusting of sea salt and black pepper. Serve at once.

If you are making this for lots of people you could of course bake or roast your fish in the oven, about 200c for six to eight minutes. Sit on a buttered baking tray, dot more butter over the top of each piece of cod. This will help get it a little bit golden. You could of course use oil but harder to get any colour on the fish.

PS This is also lovely with salmon, hake, pollock, haddock etc

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Dinner Fish and Seafood Lunch Quick and Easy Suppers

Salmon roasted with Tumeric & Cumin Cauliflower

Poor old January. Not only does it have to compete with its arguably more glamorous neighbour, December but is also the month of resolutions, serious denial and short dark days. Best look upon it as a time of renewal and to help that thought along, try this delicious marriage of spiced up cauliflower and salmon. It goes marvellously well with some lightly dressed, herby quinoa and for your halo to shine even more brightly some steamed courgette adds a pleasing green finish with barely another calorie to worry about.

Serves Four

4 fillets of salmon (skinned)
1 small cauliflower
2 heaped teaspoons ground turmeric
1 heaped teaspoon freshly ground cumin
Rapeseed oil
Sea salt and black pepper

Heat the oven to 200c

Break the cauliflower into florets and put into a roasting pan, big enough so that they are all in one layer.

Sprinkle over the turmeric and cumin. Drizzle over two or three tablespoons of rapeseed oil and toss well so that the cauliflower is well and truly coated. Season very well with sea salt and black pepper.

Roast in the hot oven for ten to fifteen minutes until the cauliflower is beginning to feel tender when pierced with a knife. Then take the salmon fillets and roll them in the resulting spicy oil before sitting on top of the cauliflower. Season. Return to the oven for five minutes until just cooked through, but slightly rare in the centre.

Serve with quinoa and steamed courgette. Toss your quinoa (or you could use a bulgar/quinoa mix) with olive oil, lemon juice and lots of freshly chopped herbs.

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Fish and Seafood Lunch Quick and Easy Suppers Uncategorized

SMOKED COD & CELERIAC FISHCAKES with SPINACH and TOMATO & CAPER DRESSING

Fishcakes can hardly be described as cutting edge in the culinary world. But they are a versatile and useful way of using any sort of fish, smoked or otherwise and a wonderful alternative to a more pie.

With a little imagination, a good fishcake can rival even the most sophisticated of dishes if presented well and with a delicious sauce or dressing to complement the harmonious mix within a golden crumb. This recipe is a little different and uses celeriac alongside a smaller amount of potato. Celeriac goes beautifully with the punchy flavour of the smoked cod and is arguably lighter in texture. A little potato is essential to ensure the fishcake has enough body to hold it’s shape but it is the celeriac that shines here and is a star player in the autumn kitchen. Mash it, blend it, puree it, use it raw – it is wonderfully versatile and this is a great way of bringing new life to an old favourite.

I never fry my fishcakes. It is so much easier and much less messy to simply toast your crumbs in oil first and then bake the finished fishcake in the oven before serving. You also get a much more even colour and no burnt bottoms! I like this cannonball shape – it looks lovely on the plate, especially propped atop a pile of vibrant spinach but kale or chard would work well too. If you prefer a creamy sauce, then just use whatever your favourite is or whisk creme fraiche, stock and lots of chopped dill and parsley together over a gentle heat.

Serves Six

700g celeriac (peeled weight)
300g potatoes (eg maris piper, king edward)
500g smoked cod
whole milk
Six spring onions
Grated zest of one lemon
Flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
Dill, finely chopped
150g white breadcrumbs
Rapeseed oil
2 small eggs
Plain flour for dusting

One big spinach leaves, washed
1 large shallot
4 tomatoes, skinned and cored.
50ml Extra virgin or rapeseed oil
Juice of a lemon
tablespoon capers, chopped
Finely chopped flat leaf parsley and dill
Salt & pepper

Heat the oven to 180c. Put the breadcrumbs into a baking dish and drizzle over a couple of tablespoons of rapeseed oil. Toss well and bake, stirring occasionally for about ten minutes until golden brown. Season.

Cut the celeriac into pieces and also the potato. Simmer both separately in salted water until tender. Drain well and put into a bowl.

Cover the cod with milk and add seasoning and a bayleaf. Bring to a simmer and then immediately remove from the heat and leave to cool with a lid on. The cod will cook as the liquid cools down. Flake the fish into the celeriac and potato. Finely chop the spring onions and add these in with seasoning, the grated lemon rind and lots of finely chopped herbs. Check the seasoning and adjust.

Whisk the eggs and have the breadcrumbs ready. Take a big spoonful of the mix and roll in your (clean!) hands into a cannonball shape. Do this until you have used it all up. You can chill the mixture at this stage or even put in the freezer for a few minutes to make it easier to handle. Dust with plain flour and then dip first in the egg and then the breadcrumbs, making sure they are well covered. Put onto a baking sheet. You can freeze them at this stage or keep ready in the fridge.

When ready to cook, heat the oven to 180c. Put the fishcakes in the oven for about twenty minutes to heat through. Check they are piping hot using a skewer and if not leave them for longer. Meanwhile, roughly chop the tomatoes. Put the shallot into a pan with the oil and gently saute without colouring until the shallot is softened. Add the tomato and capers, the lemon juice and seasoning. Add a splash of water and swirl around to heat the sauce through. Add in the finely chopped herbs.

Heat a little more rapeseed oil in another pan and add in the spinach. Quickly wilt over a high heat and squeeze off any excess water.

Have heated plates ready. Sit the fishcake on top of a pile of spinach and surround with the tomato dressing. Garnish with a little rocket or watercress.

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Fish and Seafood Lunch Starters and Salads Uncategorized

CRAB SOURDOUGH TOASTS

One of the wonderful things about our admittedly variable British summer is the fabulous produce available, harvested not only from the land but also the sea. Crab is for us one of the highlights and there is nowhere in the world that can better the sweet, delicate crabmeat that is found in the waters off our coastline.
Some people adore both the white and brown meat, others like me are more inclined towards the white. They are very different, the brown intense, rich, strongly flavoured and with a much softer texture. I find it useful in pate or a crab tart. The white, however is just so light, fragrant, flavourful and sweetly delicious. It is wonderful with asian flavours; equally good with just a squeeze of lemon and a little salt and pepper. Here I am making the most of it but combining it with a small amount of mayonnaise (more for the sticking quality than anything else!), enhancing it with a little chilli and marrying in some herbs that partner the crabmeat beautifully without in any way overpowering it. The crab must and does remain the star of the show.

Try these little toasts for a simple but spoiling lunch alongside your favourite chilled summer soup or they are great with my garden gazpacho.

Serves Four

3 slices of white sourdough bread, a classic loaf shape if you can find it
2 tubs white crabmeat
1 red or green chilli
Handful of chives, finely chopped
Fennel fronds, finely chopped
1 lemon, rind and juice
4 teaspoons mayonnaise
Salt and pepper

Finely chop about half of the chilli. Put the crabmeat into a bowl and add all the other ingredients. Go easy on the lemon juice, add it to taste. Check the seasoning.

Just before serving toast the bread. Pile on the crab and cut off the crusts. Slice into fingers, about three from each slice so you can adjust the amount on the last piece as you want to end up with eight pieces.

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Dinner Fish and Seafood Lunch Quick and Easy Suppers Uncategorized

SEARED FILLET OF SALMON with a TOMATO SAUCE VIERGE and COURGETTI

Quite often, an awful lot of time and effort needs to be spent in the kitchen to create something rather beautiful, extremely delicious and very elegant. For those of you who simply do not have the time, inclination or energy to spare then look no further than this gorgeous recipe. I am using a fillet of salmon here but any fish will work well. The sauce is a simple warm dressing that originates in France – perfectly diced tomato concasse combine with the best olive oil and piquant shallots that bring the fish and vegetables to life and looks so pretty against the green courgette and pale pink salmon. If you can find fresh chervil then that is lovely here, either on its own or with the basil but it isn’t that easily available.

I often finish this with a little spoonful of fresh pesto but it looks lovely unadorned. For those with heartier appetites, some crushed new potatoes under the courgetti will make it more substantial but for a summer lunch or supper I find this carb free version is enough.

Serves Four

4 fillets of salmon (approx 160 – 180g) skinless
4 small firm courgette
2 handfuls swiss chard
2 shallots (approx 50g)
A couple of sprigs of fresh thyme
Four medium tomatoes, very good quality
1 large clove garlic
100ml good extra virgin olive oil
2 lemons
2 tablespoons of shredded fresh basil/chervil
Rapeseed/light olive oil
Sea salt & black pepper
Fresh pesto (optional)

Pre-heat the oven to 200c

First finely shred the chard, leaves only and either use a spiralizer to create your courgetti or finely shred them with a julienne peeler. Set aside.

Make the sauce vierge. Finely chop the shallots and garlic. Skin and deseed the tomatoes. Finely chop the flesh into small dice. Heat the extra virgin oil in a small saucepan and add the shallot, thyme and garlic. Cook for a couple of minutes over a gentle heat and then remove and keep to one side. Stir in the tomato and season well with salt and pepper.

Heat a medium sized saucepan and also a frying pan for your salmon. Season the salmon. Pour a little rapeseed or olive oil into each and once hot put the salmon, presentation side down into the frying pan and the chard into the saucepan. Cook both for a couple of minutes, then flip the salmon over (it should be a pale golden colour) and put the pan into the oven for a further three minutes (maybe four if it is very thick). Add the courgetti to the chard, season and stir over a high heat for a minute or two. Remove from the heat and add a squeeze of lemon. Check the seasoning. Remove the salmon from the oven and leave to rest for a minute or two. The tip of a sharp knife should feel warm when pushed right into the centre. Squeeze a little lemon over each piece.

Have ready four warm plates. Divide the courgette and chard between the plates sit the salmon on top. Add juice of a lemon and the basil to the sauce vierge and warm it through gently. Check and adjust the seasoning. Spoon the sauce around the fish and courgette. If you like and have some fresh pesto to hand, a little teaspoonful on top looks pretty and goes well. Alternatively you could stir a little through the sauce.

Serve as soon as you can, although it is not a dish to be served piping hot and therefore quite useful if your guests are slow in coming through to the table!

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