fish

Pan Fried Sea Bass and Prawn, Tarragon and Red Pepper Sauce

June 23, 2014 — Leave a comment

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With summer finally underway to some extent in London this is a great, light supper for those stuffy, stifling city evenings thats quick and easy to bang together. There’s nothing quite like a great piece of fresh fish simply cooked with a robust, zingy sauce to go with it – a really winning combination. The tarragon obviously adds a nice refreshing aniseed spice to the dish that cuts through those great, deep seafood flavours really nicely, finished off nicely with the tang and smoky flavours of a tasty, earthy, chargrilled fresh baby leek.

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INGREDIENTS
For the Prawn and Red Pepper Sauce:
  • 150ml/5fl oz extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 red pepper, diced
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 16 tomatoes on the vine, de-seeded and chopped
  • 24 fresh raw king prawns – peeled
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon
For the Sea Bass:
  • 4 Sea bass fillets
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 75g/2½oz unsalted butter
  • 4 baby leaks
Music I Cooked To:

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Preparation method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan180°C/gas 6.
  2. For the sauce, over a low heat fry the onion in a dash of oil for 20 minutes. Add the pepper and garlic and cook a further five minutes.
  3. Add the tomatoes and roast in the oven for 10 minutes.
  4. Boil some water and blanch the leaks for 2-3 minutes until just tender. Remove from the pan and quickly refresh in a colander under cold water.
  5. Drizzle with the balsamic vinegar, season and return to the oven for a further 10-12minutes
  6. For the sea bass, rub the fish with oil and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Heat a heavy-based frying pan and fry the fillets for four minutes on each side. Towards the end of cooking add the butter to the pan and baste the fish.
  7. To finish the sauce, add the prawns and tarragon to the pan and cook on the stove over a medium heat for another five minutes.
  8. Heat a griddle pan on a medium high heat and fry the leaks for 2 minutes each side, until nicely browned.
  9. Carefully remove the sea bass skins.
  10. Spoon the sauce onto a plate and place the Sea Bass carefully on top.

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Glazed Sea Bass & Sugared Asparagus with Sauce Vierge

March 15, 2014 — Leave a comment

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Staring at the contents of the fridge, and the sea bass fillets that were supposed to be used in yesterdays recipe, inspired me to come up with another quick, colourful and easy fish dish. The flavours here are really great, and work really well with each other – the sweetness and heat of the glazed fish softening the acidity of the sauce vierge and the saltiness of the anchovies within it. Then the slightly sweetened, glazed asparagus brings everything together in one blaze of tasty glory.

Glazing is a great technique to bring all sorts of foods to life and add a supreme, slightly smokey sweet flavour kick. Don’t worry if some of the fish looks a slightly blackened and “burnt” – this is supposed to happen (within reason), and is just some lovely caramelisation of the sugary glaze. Also Stripping the skin from the lower sections of the asparagus gives them a luscious tender quality, and also makes sure they soak up loads of flavour from the pan.  Similar to the previous salmon dish, this makes a great mid-week, after work dinner, or a light, lazy lunch in the spring and summer. The colours from this dish really leap out at you and somehow seem to make those intense flavours even more intense. The sauce vierge (or green sauce) from this dish also makes an awesome accompaniment to pretty much any grilled or pan fried fish dish, and can be kept, in an airtight container, in the fridge for up to 5 days afterwards. And remember people – the better the source of your fish and ingredients the better the dish will taste. Anyway – just cook this one… its frickin awesome.

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INGREDIENTS

For the chilli, lime and brown sugar glazed sea bass:

  • 2 large sea bass fillets
  • 4 tbsp soft brown sugar
  • 2 limes, juiced
  • 1 finely chopped chilli (you can cheat by using pre-chopped in a jar, but don’t)
  • 200ml red or white wine vinegar
  • 2 tbsp shaosing rice wine
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1/2 small glass cider

For the Salsa Verde:

  • 1½-2 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 1 small handful capers
  • 6 anchovy fillets
  • 2 large handfuls flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked
  • 1 bunch fresh basil, leaves picked
  • 1 handful fresh mint, leaves picked
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 8 tablespoons really good extra virgin olive oil
  • sea salt
  • freshly ground black pepper

For the Sweet Asparagus:

  • 8 asparagus
  • salt
  • butter
  • chilli/lime syrup (from fish) to glaze
  • 1 tsp sugar

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Preparation Method:

For the Salsa Verde:

  1. Finely chop the garlic, capers, gherkins, anchovies and herbs and put them into a bowl.
  2. Add the mustard and vinegar, then slowly stir in the olive oil until you achieve the right consistency.
  3. Balance the flavours with freshly ground black pepper, a bit of salt and maybe a little more vinegar.

For the glazed fish and asparagus:

  1. Preheat the grill to hot and put a baking tray under it (choose a good strong one that won’t buckle).
  2. Make the glaze by mixing all the ingredients together. If it tastes too sweet (some limes are sweeter than others), add a splash more of red or white wine vinegar.
  3. Heat, stirring frequently, until the sugar is completely dissolved, about 3 minutes. Pour the sauce into a small bowl.
  4. Rinse and dry the asparagus. Cut off the bottom 1/4-inch of the stalks. Using a vegetable peeler, or small vegetable knife, gently remove the tough green skin covering the lower third of each stalk. You can use the discarded parts and any other leftover asparagus as a base for a soup if you want.
  5. Cook in salted boiling water (10g salt per litre of water) for about 1-2 minutes. Once cooked, refresh in iced or cold water to ensure that the asparagus does not lose its colour. Do this as soon as you’ve taken the asparagus out of the hot boiling water.
  6. Brush the skin side of each sea bass fillet with olive oil.
  7. Brush the flesh side with the glaze, keeping 1 tsp back. Season well. When the tray is hot, carefully slide it out and put the sea bass fillets on it, skin-side down.
  8. Then slide back under the grill and cook for 4-5 minutes or until the fish is cooked through. The timing on this will depend on the strength of your grill and how far from the heat your tray is.
  9. While the fish is cooking, finish preparing the asparagus.
  10. Melt butter in a large skillet and add asparagus. Dip the asparagus in the chilli/lime glaze. Sautee over medium-high heat, sprinkle with a small amount of sugar – just enough to dust all the stalks. Sautee until the asparagus beings to blister, around 2-4 minutes (if you like it on the softer side, sautee it longer). Serve immediately.
  11. Transfer the cooked fillets onto warmed plates and top each with the sauce vierge, and place the asparagus beside the fillets to serve.

MUSIC I COOKED TO:

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Pepper Seared Salmon with Lemon and Spring Onion Vinaigrette & Chive Crushed Potatoes

March 13, 2014 — Leave a comment

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So this was a bit of mid-week inspriration and improvisation, but it seems to have worked. It is pretty quick and easy to put together in discreet stages which makes it good for people that hate multitasking. It also makes it a great mid-week evening meal, thats pretty light and healthy (apart from the copious amounts of butter in the potatoes). The dish has a multitude of great, strong flavours – though none to overpowering (go easy with the chilli though as adding too much will kill everything else). Make sure you don’t skimp on the butter and chives in the crushed potatoes as otherwise they’ll end up being blander than a party political TV broadcast. Also the vinaigrette gives this dish a nice sweet, acidic undertone and adds some much needed moisture, which stops the dish being too dry and stodgy. The Salmon in this dish could easily be swapped out for pretty much any other fish that does well being pan-fried… Just make sure you adjust the cooking times accordingly. Sea Bass and Mackerel were options I considered eventually being decided by what was in the fridge. So here it is, a slightly spicy, fresh, zesty, colourful  and easy Salmon dish to knock up should you wish –

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INGREDIENTS

For the Salmon:

  • 2 large salmon fillets
  • 1 bunch of spring onions
  • 1 handful of coriander leaves
  • 2 limes
  • 2 red chillies
  • olive oil
  • salt
  • fresh ground black pepper

Lemon, Spring Onion Vinaigrette:

  •  60ml red wine vinegar
  • 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 1 heaped tbsp dijon mustard
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 2 tbsps chopped chives
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 150ml extra vrigin olive oil
  • 50g of sliced spring onions

Crushed Chive Potatoes:

  • 8 new potatoes
  • 1 bunch chopped chives
  • 100 g butter (melted)

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Preparation method

  1. Cover the potatoes with salted water and simmer until cooked (approximately 30 minutes).
  2. Crush with a fork and add butter into the centre of the potato. Cover the butter with crushed potato and leave to melt. Once the butter has melted stir and crush the potatoes until the butter is evenly distributed. Add the chives and stir in, then set aside. Be carful when crushing the potatoes to not be too vigorous and to leave them some texture – these are crushed potatoes, NOT mashed.
  3. Whisk together the red wine vinegar, mustard, honey, lemon juice, chives, and salt and pepper, to taste, in a medium bowl until combined. Slowly whisk in the oil until emulsified. Stir in the spring onions and set aside.
  4. Just before cooking the fish, pick the coriander leaves from their stalks and chop them finely.
  5. Heat a non-stick frying pan on a high heat and add a generous film of olive oil.
  6. While waiting for the heat to rise, cut the limes in half, squeezing the juice over the chilli along with two tablespoons of olive oil.
  7. Toss well, adding the coriander and half of the spring onion.
  8. Season the fillets of Salmon with salt all over, then press into black pepper and place them in to the hot pan, skin side down.
  9. Sear the fish on the skin side until crisp, which should take about 2 minutes. Be careful not to burn them though.
  10. Squeeze a little lime juice over the fillets then turn them over carefully, be gentle and confident or you’ll break the fillet. Turn the heat down to medium and cook the fish for another 4 minutes.
  11. Add HALF the spring onion/chilli/coriander mixture and fry it off for 30 seconds, then carefully lift the fillets out on to a plate lined with kitchen paper.
  12. Place a salmon fillet on the plate then scatter the rest of the spring onion and chilli mixture over the top.
  13.  To serve, spoon potato into centre, sit Salmon fillet next to it, spoon over a little vinaigrette.
  14. You could finish with a good pinch of mustard cress as a garnish around the plate (but I forgot!). 🙂

MUSIC I COOKED TO:

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