Tag: fish

Pan-fried swordfish with celeriac purée by Neil Perry

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

We did this dish twice we loved it so much. The brown butter on the swordfish brings out the flavours of the fish and the thyme literally gets chucked in the pan to infuse. The celeriac puree works so well as it lightens the dish against the butter. 

Ingredients

4 x 200g skinless swordfish steaks
sea salt
100ml olive oil
60g butter
½ bunch thyme
lemon wedges, to serve

Celeriac puree

300g celeriac, peeled, roughly chopped
200g pink-eye potatoes, peeled, roughly chopped
1 granny smith apple, peeled, roughly chopped
100ml extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
sea salt and black pepper

Method

  1. To make the celeriac purée, place the celeriac and potatoes in a steamer over simmering water and steam for 20 minutes. Add the apple and steam for a further 10 minutes. Remove when they are soft. Pass the celeriac, potato and apples through a food mill, or press through a sieve. Place in a bowl and slowly stir in the extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Keep warm.
  2.  Season the fish to taste. Place a heavy cast-iron pan large enough to fit the 4 steaks on medium heat. Add oil, butter and thyme. As soon as this starts to foam add the swordfish steaks and cook, spooning the foaming butter over the fish from time to time. Cook for about 4 minutes, until golden brown. Turn, cooking for a further 4 minutes until golden brown. Cook a little longer if you don’t want the fish medium-rare. 
  3. Spoon the celeriac purée onto four plates, top with swordfish, then spoon the thyme-flavoured burnt butter over the fish and garnish with the thyme sprigs. Serve with lemon wedges.

Jamie Oliver’s Portuguese Fish Stew

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 4 – 6

We’re all told that the answer to long life is in the Mediterranean diet.

We all also know that being middle-aged means an endless battle with calories: that is, don’t waste your calories during the week. Leave the bread and pasta for Saturday night.

And finally… if you’ve cooked Jamie Oliver’s recipes, you’d be across that pretty much everything he publishes is fun and a cracker.

Back to our diet, we decided to make it interesting by only cooking Jamie’s recipes for the week. At 312 calories a serve, this Portuguese Fish Stew was the first up.

A quick scan through the ingredients and you’ll probably have an idea of how this will taste: simple, clean and amazing for it. Right.

Our go-to, simple weeknight dinners are tray bakes with fish or chicken and lots of vegetables.

This dish goes a level above with the sliced potatoes. Use a mandolin for the slicing of it all if you have one, or pour a glass of wine and get your sharpest knife to work.

Add in a few cloves of fresh garlic like we did and a side of sautéed broccolini and you’ll have yourself have a wonderful weeknight dinner.

Setting you in good stead for when the Spaghetti Carbonara and red wine rolls in on Saturday night!

Ingredients

2 onions, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, deseeded and thinly sliced
1 yellow pepper, deseeded and thinly sliced
2 medium potatoes, skin on, thinly sliced
3 ripe tomatoes, thinly sliced
Olive oil
500gm white fish fillets, cut into 2cm pieces
1/2 bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley, stems and leaves finely chopped
500gm white fish, cut into 2cm pieces
1 pinch dried chilli flakes
5 fresh bay leaves

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 190c.
  2. Prepare the vegetables and heat oil over a low heat in a 30cm heavy, oven-proof pan. Add the onions, garlic and a good pinch of salt and slowly fry until light golden. Meanwhile, parboil the potatoes in a pot of boiling salted water and then drain well.
  3. Remove half the onions from the pan, spreading the remaining onion out into a nice layer. Top with a layer of half the tomatoes, peppers and potatoes. Next, layer the fish and season.
  4. Sprinkle most of the chopped parsley on top with the chilli flakes. Drizzle with oil and repeat the layering of the vegetables – onion, peppers and tomatoes – finishing with a neat layer of the potatoes.
  5. Poke in the bay leaves, season and drizzle with a bit more oil.
  6. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, and place under the grill for 5 minutes or until the potatoes are golden and crisping up.
  7. Sprinkle over the remaining parsley and enjoy.

Firecracker Salmon

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4 

By Nat Beerworth

This recipe is a cracker. As salmon is quite high in calories it doesn’t leave much room for sides – enter broccoli! Its a really fun dish that is hot and warm.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon minced ginger
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoons low sodium low soy sauce
2 tablespoons Heinz chili sauce (substitute with Buffalo sauce or hot sauce to suit your heat preference)
1 teaspoon brown sugar (or brown sugar substitute) — OPTIONAL
pinch of crushed red chili flakes
1-2 teaspoons sriracha (adjust to suit your heat preference)
4 skin off salmon fillets
Salt and pepper to season
1/2 teaspoon paprika (mild, smoky or spicy)
1/4 cup chives chopped
1 bunch broccoli

Method

  1. In a shallow bowl, whisk together the minced garlic, minced ginger, olive oil, soy sauce, chili sauce, brown sugar, red chili flakes and sriracha to combine.
  2. Season salmon with salt, pepper and paprika. Add salmon fillets to the marinade, turning each to evenly coat in the sauce.
  3. Cover with plastic wrap and let marinate in the refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight (if time allows).
  4. Preheat oven to 190C. Heat an oven proof skillet over medium heat with a small drizzle of oil.
  5. Sear salmon for 2-3 minutes on both sides, undisturbed, to get nice crust. (You may need to sear in batches depending on the size of your skillet.)
    Transfer to plate and repeat with remaining salmon.
  6. Return all salmon fillets to the skillet. Alternatively, transfer to baking dish. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until cooked to your liking.
  7. Serve warm with chopped chives and boiled broccoli.

 Calories: 286

 

Meen Molee (Fish curry cooked in coconut)

.Reading time 1 minute.

Meen Molee (Fish curry cooked in coconut)

Serves: 2 – 3

I’ve done a few Molee and this recipe is a wonderful, rustic and rather simple fish version.

It isn’t as complex or subtle as some I have done, though it is the simplicity factor that earns the write-up; and it tastes just awesome too.

Weekday, Saturday lunch, this is a great number.

Ingredients

3 garlic cloves
3 green chillies
5cm piece of ginger, peeled
3 tbsp sunflower oil
1 small onion, finely sliced
6 curry leaves
¼ tsp ground turmeric
¼ tsp salt
200ml coconut milk
160ml boiling water
500gm firm white fish, cut into 3cm pieces
2 medium tomatoes, coarsely chopped
Basmati rice and coriander to serve

Method

  1. Place the garlic, chillies and ginger in a food processor and process until smooth.
  2. Heat the oil in a large frying pan to a medium-heat and fry the onion with the curry leaves for 4 minutes until softening. Stir in the garlic, chilli and ginger mixture together with the turmeric and salt. Fry for 2 minutes and then add half the coconut milk and the boiling water.
  3. Simmer for 2 minutes and add the fish; gently simmer for 5 – 6 minutes. Add half the tomato and remaining coconut milk and simmer for another 3 – 4 minutes.
  4. Garnish with the remaining tomato and serve on basmati rice with plenty of coriander.

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 (or Prawn) Polkiri Thiyal

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

I had this very skillfully cooked for me last night by master curry chef Rob Ashes… and it was as fantastic as it was unique.

Recently returned from Sri Lanka and with a pretty seriously traditional looking cookbook in hand, this recipe is Sinhalese cuisine which I suspected meant ‘tasty tasty’ but instead effectively means the cuisine you eat if you are not Tamil.

I’m not sure what Rob did for the rampe (pandanus leaf) except to leave it out; according to Google, it should be available from Indian food stores or flip a coin and either leave it out or try anything from coriander to lime leaf to rose water.

Enjoy this curry which Rob adapted and I have further adapted. It is definitely a keeper!

Ingredients

500gm firm white fish, 3cm cubes (or prawns, shelled)
1 onion, chopped
Punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved
2 green chillis, thinly sliced
Cinnamon stick
1 tsp turmeric
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp butter
3cm rampe (pandanus leaf)
1 tsp lime juice
½ c coconut milk
10 curry leaves
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
A few grinds of pepper
Salt to taste

Method

  1. Heat the butter in a large pan and saute the onions, curry leaves, cinnamon and rampe.
  2. Mix in the garlic, ginger, turmeric and salt. Add 2 tablespoons of water and then place the fish (or prawns) in the pan. Coat with the mixture, add the coconut milk and bring to the boil.
  3. Turn the heat down and cook for 5 minutes remembering that you want the sauce to be thick. Add the pepper, green chillis, tomatoes and lime. Cook for another five minutes and serve.

Moroccan fish tagine with almond couscous

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4 – 6

As much as anyone loves a three hour slow-braise tagine, there isn’t time on Tuesday night for such extravagance.

Which is why we have some fabulous tagines like this one.

To reduce the calories even further, skip the butter and add a little chicken stock to your cous cous.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
½ tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground coriander
250gm cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
2/3 cup fish stock
½ preserved lemon, flesh discarded and rind sliced finely
16 pitted Kalamata olives
4 x 180gm skinless, deboned gemfish (or blue eye cod) fillets
Sea salt
Black pepper

Cous cous and to serve

2 cups couscous
30gm butter
1/3 cup flaked almonds, toasted

Handful coriander leaves

Method

  1. Heat oil in tagine (or saucepan) over medium heat. Gently fry onions for 5 minutes until beginning to soften. Add garlic and spices and cook for a further 2 minutes.
  2. Stir through tomatoes, stock, lemon rind and olives. Remove half of mixture and place in a bowl.
  3. Season fish with salt and pepper and lay it over the mixture still in the tagine. Top with remaining mixture from bowl. Cover with lid and reduce mixture to medium-low and cook for 12 minutes until fish is just translucent. Scatter coriander leaves on top.
  4. Meanwhile, boil kettle. Pour couscous into large mixing bowl and top with knob of butter. Seasons with salt and pepper. Pour two cups of boiling water over couscous and cover bowl tightly with cling wrap. Allow to stand for 3 minutes.
  5. Fold almonds through couscous and serve the tagine on the couscous with the coriander.

Vietnamese Fish with aromatic sauce and noodles

.Reading time 4 minutes.

Serves 4

Let’s cut to the chase about this dish:

  1. It was titled ‘Cha Ca’ which means ‘Vietnamese Grilled Fish’. Which it isn’t. There is no grilling. Not sure how it gained that title. (The recipe is from Damien Beaumont; I found it in Delicious magazine).
  2. I cooked this after a long day out in the sun with the boys. It isn’t a quick Tuesday night number (unless you prepare it in advance) though it certainly works if you have two hours… and your boys can be trusted to get the sand out of their towels, run themselves a bath and pour you a glass of wine. Trust me; you really will deserve a wine it if you’re in the kitchen for two hours after a long day of bike riding, swimming and bush-walking!
  3. It is a wonderful dish. It isn’t light, though it isn’t heavy. It isn’t spicy though it is not without its quirks. It is very satisfying and given that you should be on your third glass of white by the time you serve, it is just what you need to nurse slight sunburn and exhaustion.
  4. The dill really surprised me in this dish. It is an excellent accompaniment and should not be skipped.
  5. As usual, I have slightly adapted the dish.


Ingredients

3 garlic cloves, chopped
5cm piece of fresh garlic, peeled and chopped
3 long chillies, chopped plus 1 thinly sliced chilli to serve
2 tbs fish sauce
2 tsp ground turmeric
1 red onion, thinly sliced
2 tbs sunflower oil
½ cup chopped dill. Plus sprigs to serve.
400ml coconut cream
500gm skinless firm white fish fillets cut into 3cm cubes. (I used Barramundi which was great)
Juice of 2 limes (I used about 1 ½ of lime juice, though it is not overpowering)
250g rice vermicelli noodles
Cup each of coriander and mint sprigs to serve
6 x sliced spring onions to serve
Half cup chopped peanuts to serve (I used cashews which were fine)

Method

  1. Combine the garlic, ginger, chilli, fish sauce, turmeric and half the onion in a small food processor. Add 2tbs of water and process to form a smooth paste. Set aside.
  2. Heat oil in a pan over medium-low heat.
  3. Cook remaining onion for 5 minutes, stirring, until soft a slightly golden.
  4. Add chopped dill and past, then simmer, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes.
  5. Add coconut cream and simmer for 20/25 minutes, stirring occasionally until thickened and reduced by a third.
  6. Stand at room temperature for 1 hour to allow the flavour to develop. (Leave overnight if doing the day before.)
  7. Return the paste to a frying pan over low heat and cook, for 3 – 5 minutes, stirring until heated through.
  8. Add the fish, stir gently to coat, then cook for 5 – 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until fish is cooked through.
  9. Add the lime juice, combine and test for seasoning. (I added a pinch of salt.)
  10. Meanwhile, prepare the noodles.
  11. Serve the fish and sauce on the noodles (4 bowls). Garnish with the herbs (including the extra dill), extra chilli, peanuts and spring onion.
  12. Have that third glass of wine. You survived a whole day in the sun and you cooked this. Leave the washing up till later.

Tomato and Thyme Cod

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4

Simple. Healthy. Tasty.

172 carbs tasty!

I added a chilli and a good crack of pepper (and coriander) and served with some steamed baby potatoes and steamed green beans, this is such a simple dinner. And nobody would know it was particularly healthy except that you would be remiss not to boast about it after they finished.

You could eat ten servings of this and still be on a contemporary diet! And of course, the recipe is easily halved though stick with it and you have lunch for the two of you the next day.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
400g can chopped tomatoes
1 tsp heaped light, soft brown sugar
Few sprigs thyme leaves, stripped
1 tbsp soy sauce
4 cod fillets (or similar; I used Ling)
Baby potatoes, steamed (season, some chopped parsley, no need for butter etc.)
Steamed green beans

Method

  1. Heat the oil in the fry pan, add the onion for 5 – 8 minutes until soft and starting to golden. Stir in the tomatoes, sugar, thyme and soy and bring to the boil.
  2. Simmer for 5 minutes and then slip the cod into the sauce. Cover the pan and cook for 8 – 10 minutes until the cod flakes easily. Season with pepper (and salt as necessary).
  3. Serve with potatoes and beans or…