Category: Seafood

Crab Canapes

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: Plenty

This is a canape my mother used to serve whenever anyone came over for a lunch or a dinner, a quintessential 80s-style French number that I used to hoover down every time it was presented.

Indeed, I warmly remember going out on my parent’s boat – Whatthehell – and chowing down on dozens and dozens of these as we back-anchored to the beaches of Middle Harbour. I’m not sure if it was noticed that I consistently ate a third of them though if I had noticed I would have been annoyed. They’re that good.

The memories.

Bring forward the mid 2010s and they’re back, courtesy of Nat’s complete love for them and our collective agreement that no picnic is a picnic without this wonderful crab number.

You will never look back if you prepare these. Seriously… never… look… back.

(I seriously recommend you double the recipe which I have never not done!)

Ingredients

1 cup crab meat
¼ cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped chives
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
Tabasco sauce to taste
Pepper to taste
Melba toast

Method

  1. 1. Combine all the ingredients (except the toast).
  2. Spread on the toast and serve immediately.

Simple (wonderful) fish stew

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Simple (wonderful) fish stew

Serves: 6

Nat and I had lunch at Rick Stein’s restaurant in Mollymook NSW over the weekend and what a treat it was. Just as good as the first time we visited a few years back.

The highlight was a brilliant fish and shellfish soup with rouille and croutons, something I have promised to recreate. A wonderful fish stock, infused with saffron, chilli and orange, it was just excellent.

The only problem – returning early Monday morning to work after a long drive back up the South Coast – being that a fish stock isn’t the sort of thing you can quickly whip up on a Monday night. All we had in the fridge was some Parmesan cheese, bacon and assorted vegetables!

We also needed something healthy for dinner on account of a long weekend consisting of several late dinners remit with red wines, slow cooked meats and more than a handful of desserts.

This simple, wonderful fish stew is your Monday night cheater’s recipe and an adaptation of something I found online.

It is incredibly healthy, super simple and packing flavour if you can find the time to caramelise the vegetables and let the stock and tomatoes simmer.

Finish with some chopped parsley and some croutons and you are getting very close to something you’d be happy to have in a good bistro. Seriously, with a cold beer and a good show on the TV, it just made our night.

I’ll do Rick’s wonderful soup one weekend coming up, though for your Monday night fix, this just cannot be beaten.

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp fennel seeds
1 onion, diced
4 carrots, diced
4 celery sticks, diced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
4 leeks, white part only, thinly sliced
2 cans, tomatoes
1 liter, good quality fish stock
600gm firm white fish, cut into pieces
250gm raw prawns
Flat leaf parsley, chopped to serve

Method

  1. Heat the olive oil over a low, medium heat in a large saucepan and saute the fennel seeds, onion, carrots, celery and garlic. Cook as slowly as you can until softening.
  2. Add the leeks, tomato and stock and season. Bring to the boil and then simmer on a low, medium heat for around 20 minutes.
  3. Add the fish and prawns and cook for a few minutes. Check the seasoning and serve with the parsley (and croutons if you have managed to avoid the the wines the weekend prior!).

Fish tagine with saffron & almonds

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

Nat cooked this number last week and it was awesome.

Low calorie – 299 per serve to be seriously precise – and packing so much flavour, we had it with cauliflower rice remit with toasted cumin and coriander: some currants mixed through – as Nat pointed out – would have sealed the deal.

To think you can eat dinner like this on the couch mid-week, with a glass of vino and some catch-up TV actually makes the weekday slog OK. These are the moments to look forward to.

There is nothing not to like about this one and plenty to love. Do a kilo of fish like we did and toast the goodness into lunch at work as well.

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
Good pinch, saffron
500ml hot fish or chicken stock
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated
Green chilli, sliced (de-seed if you don’t want it too hot)
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp tomato puree (passata)
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp ground almond (almond meal)
Zest of 1 orange, juice of ½
1 tbsp honey
700gm white fish, cut into chunks (make it a kilo and call it lunch)
Small bunch coriander, chopped
Handful flaked almonds, toasted
Couscous and natural yogurt to serve

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a large pan; add the onion and cook for a few minutes until soft. Meanwhile, put the saffron in the hot stock and allow to steep.
  2. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli to the pan and cook for a few minutes more. Add the spices and tomato puree, stir for a few minutes and then add the tomatoes, ground almonds, orange zest and juice, honey and saffron-scented stock. Simmer until thickened a little and the tomatoes have broken down.
  3. Add the fish to the pan; stir in softly and cover with a lid; simmer for a few minutes until just cooked. Check the seasoning.
  4. Serve scattered with the chilli along with the couscous and a blob of yogurt. Or cauliflower rice if you are a genius like Nat.

Blue-eye baked in a bag

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

I love fish baked in a bag.

Easy, full of flavour, fun and generally, really healthy.

This particular number from Tobie Puttock is especially good. As far as weekday dinners go, it is a complete win. (A 240 calories per-serve win.)

We served this with steamed beans and twice cooked and roasted baby potatoes: steam your potatoes, lay them flat on a baking-paper lined tray and half-flatten them with a large spoon, drizzle with olive oil, season and cook until golden.

You will enjoy.

Ingredients

4 blue-eye cod fillets or similar (we used ling)
100ml white wine
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Long strips of the zest of 1 lemon
2 birdseye chillis, cut in half and partially seeded
Small handful of dill sprigs
Sea salt and pepper

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200c.
  2. Tear off 4 pieces of foil, about 30cm long, then 4 pieces of baking paper, 25cm long. Lay the baking paper on-top of the foil. Fold and crease into wells with walls all around to hold the fish and liquid.
  3. Combine the wine, olive oil, lemon zest, dill, chilli and a good pinch of salt and peppe. Stir to combine and then carefully add the fish fillets and turn them to coat with the marinade.
  4. Place a fish fillet into each well; share the dill, chilli, lemon zest and remaining liquid with each fillet. Close and seal the foil bags.
  5. Place the bags on a baking dish and cook for 15 – 20 minutes or until the fish flakes easily. Let sit for a few minutes, transfer the bags to serving plates and open carefully at the table.

Prawn Molee

.Reading time 2 minutes.

 

Serves: 4 – 6

This is a beautiful curry.

Beautifully delicate and mild, so much so, you could be eating a contemporary French starter.

The lightness of it of course allows the prawns to sing rather than smothering them as merely a protein as so many curries do.

It is a Rick Stein number and the recipe from Kerala.

With some boiled basmati rice – and coriander – this will make your night.

Wow.

Ingredients

2 tbsp coconut oil
¼ tsp ground black pepper
3 cardamom pods, lightly bruised with a rolling pin
6 cloves
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
5cm ginger, finely shredded
2 green chillis, slit lengthways, deseeded
1 tsp salt
Small handful fresh curry leaves
Small pinch turmeric
400ml coconut milk
1 ½ tsp white wine vinegar
500gm large tail-on raw prawns
2 tomatoes, thinly sliced for garnish
Boiled basmati rice to serve
Coriander leaves to serve (us, not Rick)

Method

  1. Heat coconut oil in a heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat. Add the pepper, cardamoms and cloves and fry for 1 minute until fragrant. Add the onions and fry for 5 minutes until translucent. Stir in the garlic, ginger, chillies, salt and curry leaves and fry for 1 minute.
  2. Add the turmeric, coconut milk and vinegar. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 5 minutes until reduced slightly. Add the prawns and simmer for a further 4 minutes until the prawns are cooked through. Scatter the tomatoes on top, turn off the heat, cover the pan and set aside for 4 minutes.

Smoky Barbecued Salmon with Paprika and Cumin

.Reading time 1 minute.
FullSizeRender (16).jpg
Lordy!

Serves: 4

This would be a really fun dish to share; whole piece of salmon flaked on a big board, some salads and potatoes at the side.

Yum.

Cooked this on a grill plate inside on account of the 9c outside weather, though on a BBQ in summer, it would be a real winner.

Easy, healthy, tasty and dramatic to look at.

Another salmon number that you’ll love.

From Tobie and Georgia Puttock’s The Chef gets Healhy.

Ingredients

2 tbsp hot smoked paprika
1 tbsp ground cumin
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 salmon fillets skin on (160gm each) or 640gm piece, skin on
Rocket leaves to serve

Method

  1. Preheat the BBQ, grill plate or a chargrill pan to high.
  2. Put the paprika, cumin and olive oil in a small bowl and stir to combine. Rub the spice mix all over the salmon
  3. Cook the salmon on the grill for a few minutes each side until cooked though still pink and starting to flake.
  4. Remove from the pan, rest for a few minutes and serve with the rocket alongside.

Mussels in Tomato Basil Wine Sauce

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4

This is a pretty classic dish and I put it up mainly to remind you that you do not cook nearly enough mussels and should rectify that.

Mussels are cheap, healthy, tasty (well, the sauce) and easy to cook.

Mussels also look pretty fancy and give the impression you have gone to some effort with some level of skill to boot.

We didn’t have these with crusty bread which would have been awesome; though we did make a cracking green salad (asparagus, avocado, cucumber, butter lettuce and a great dijon/white wine vinegar vinaigrette) and some simple, twice cooked potato wedges.

Really fun and really tasty.

Ingredients

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup dry white wine
2 large tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1.5kg fresh mussels, scrubbed and debearded
¼ cup chopped fresh basil
Warm crusty bread to serve

Method

  1. Heat olive oil in a large pan over a low-medium heat and gently cook the onion and garlic for 10 minutes until coloured. Turn up the heat and add the wine and tomatoes, bring to the boil and then simmer for another 10 minutes.
  2. Add the mussels, cover and cook for 3 – 5 minutes or until mussels open.
  3. Remove the mussels into serving bowls and stir the basil through the tomato sauce. Season and ladle over the mussels.
  4. Enjoy.

Glazed Salmon with a Cucumber Sesame Salad

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

My fourth Bill Granger dish from his book, Everyday Asian.

And with a ‘great’ recipe strike-rate of three out of four and an easiness factor of ten out of ten, Bill Granger is officially no longer the suspect cook I had him for prior to cooking from this book. Going forward, i’ll trust him at his word and cook his recipes without worrying.

Donna Hay on the other hand…

Anyway, this is another really healthy, really tasty weekday number. The salad is really fun and served with some rice and a glass of white, this is a great couch/dinner/TV dish.

Ingredients

4 tbsp mirin
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp soft brown sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 salmon fillets, skin off

Cucumber Sesame Salad

1 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
2 Lebanese cucumbers

Method

Salmon

  1. Combine the mirin, soy sauce, sugar and lemon juice in a bowl. Put the salmon fillets in a shallow dish, pour the mirin mixture over and set aside in the fridge for 15 minutes or more.
  2. Heat a pan on high heat and cook the salmon until nice coloured and pink inside.
  3. Meanwhile, pour the marinade into a small pan and heat over a high-heat for 4 minutes until it has reduced to a glaze. Pour over the cooked salmon and serve with the salad.

Salad

  1. Whisk together the mirin, vinegar and sesame oil.
  2. Use a vegetable peeler or mandoline to peel long ribbons from the cucumber.
  3. Toss the cucumber ribbons with the dressing.

The Boathouse: Salmon Roe & Potato Blinis with Wasabi and Crème Fraiche

.Reading time 4 minutes.

 

IMG_0301
Amazeballs.

Serves: 8 – 10 as a starter

The Boathouse – that wonderful restaurant right on the water at Blackwattle Bay in Glebe, Sydney – is famous for its snapper pie.

And it is a truly wonderful dish; sweated onions, cream, truffle oil, snapper and amazing pastry served with a smoked tomato and a simple mash. Yum.

Though they have another classic and one that Nat and I have ordered the two times we have had lunch there: the Salmon Roe & Potato Blinis with Wasabi and Crème Fraiche.

They are just awesome. And the presentation is like theater.

A bowl of the roe, chilled on ice; the small blinis, fluffy pancakes, served hot to allow the crème fraiche to melt. The wasabi and then the roe.

Eaten whole, the sensory experience is everything. Ditto the taste experience.

So set the task of doing the amuse bouche for a lunch at my parent’s place, I asked Nat what she thought we should do and immediately she answered this recipe.

Easier said than done right?

I pushed back on the basis that we didn’t have a recipe etc. though I should have known that it wouldn’t be that simple.

Shortly thereafter – pretty much on schedule – Nat had tracked down the blini recipe on some chef’s recipe organiser website and the rest was pretty straightforward.

It is in fact a simple dish and I promise that the recipe below perfectly recreates the dish at The Boathouse. Stunning.

You should make around 40 or so blinis and then factor in a teaspoon of crème fraiche and roe for each, with just a dash of wasabi.

Casually pull these out at your next dinner party and people will think you’re some kind of cooking prodigy.

Ingredients

1.2kg potatoes
3 whole eggs
500gm crème fraiche
175gm plain flour
175gm egg whites (whipped to a firm peak) (about 7 – 8 eggs in my experience)
100gm wasabi
300gm salmon (or trout) roe
4 lemon halves, tied in a muslin cloth to serce

Method

  1. Peel and cook the potatoes. Puree, ideally through a ricer and allow to cool.
  2. Whisk the whole eggs and 100gm of the crème fraiche into the potato puree.
  3. Once smooth, fold in the flour.
  4. Gently fold in the firm egg whites.
  5. Heat a non-stick pan (you don’t really need to oil it and you don’t want your blini to be greasy) over a medium heat. Form the blini into small discs – small pancakes – around 4cm in diameter. Cook for three minutes each side and then set aside.
  6. When ready, heat the oven to 180c and reheat the blini so that they are hot through.
  7. In separate bowls, serve the wasabi, the remaining crème fraiche and roe and then serve a dollop of each  on the blini. A dash of lemon juice and serve to your amazed guests.

Pad si-iew prawns

.Reading time 4 minutes.
Vegetables in the markets,
Curry pastes!
Meat. Lot’s of meat.
The outdoor kitchen.
Some of the fresh vegetables.
Ingredients for the Pad si-iew.
Cooking the prawns.
And the rest.
Plated.

Serves: 4

We are currently on a wonderful holiday in Koh Samui.

As you would expect, pretty much everything is planned around and hinged on food; and a few stops into a local tailor who is expertly – and inexpensively – working me up two suits.

We had one of the best pizzas either of us had ever had at a place near Bophut called Dr Frogs: the thinnest Rome-style pizza ever, one with parma ham and mozzarella, the other with this incredible beef sauce, mozzarella, rosemary and parmesan called ‘Dr Frogs Evolution’.

We had a really memorable – and Italian again – meal at a place called Pepenero, where the chef added me to Facebook after the three of us swapped stories of pasta, cooking, wine and the good life. The guy was a genius and you really should try if you are ever in this part of Thailand: his pasta and love for the good life are just awesome.

In fact, whether it has been grungy Thai or an exquisite Beef Wellington (old school, right!) at The Larder, the food has been amazing.

The highlight however was today when we did a cooking school with Smiley Chef, a warm, simple and really authentic collection of cooks who start at the markets, cook in an outdoor kitchen and finish with plates of hot, spicy, beautiful Thai food.

Yum!

We did four dishes; the four of us – Nat, myself and two ladies from Hong Kong and Vancouver respectively – chose a dish each and Pas si-iew being Nat’s go-to Thai noodle dish was her choice. She is no fool!

It was a classic, classic interpretation.

The fear when ordering from a new Thai restaurant in Sydney (and really anywhere) is how they will do – or not so well do – the Pad Thai and Pad si-iew. Stick to this recipe and you will have the most down-the-line, no questions asked version you could want.

This will definitely become one of our future staples.

(I have adapted the recipe to suit four people… just make sure you serve it hot!)

Ingredients

Sunflower oil
4 good handfuls of Pad si-iew noodle, fresh
8 stems of Chinese kale, cut into 4 cm pieces
8 baby corn, quartered
12 slices – thin – of carrot
8 clove garlic, chopped
4 eggs, beaten
12 prawns, peeled
Chilli flakes
White pepper
Lime slices

Seasoning

4 tbsp Oyster sauce
2 tbsp Soy sauce
2 tbsp Black Soy sauce
2 tbsp Light Soy sauce
2 tbsp Fish sauce
2 tbsp sugar (palm or coconut sugar if you have it)

Method

  1. In a wok or frypan, heat two tbsp sunflower oil over a medium-high heat and fry the garlic for a minute or two. Add the chicken and when the chicken is cooked, add the egg, scrambling until cooked.
  2. Add the noodle, seasoning and the vegetables and stir fry over a high-heat for 1-2 minutes until the vegetables are cooked through.
  3. Serve on a plate with fresh lime, chilli flakes and a sprinkling of white pepper.