Salmon by Request

Over the Christmas period we were joined at Holly Grove by the Handyman's children, T and S.  T is a burgeoning cook and was keen to help me out in the kitchen on Christmas Eve.  The joy of cooking with an enthusiastic young cook is about sharing all you've learnt over the years and learning from their experiences and thoughts on food and cooking.

During our epicurean chatter T was keen to find out a bit more about cooking fish.  He's lucky enough to have a daily market close to his student flat and had seen the variety of fish on offer but was wary of buying any until he has mastered a few simple recipes.  So I promised a simple and tasty fish recipe for him to try, and here it is:

Baked Salmon with Thread Noodles and Broccoli
Serves 2
Ingredients
2 salmon fillets
2 small knobs butter or 1 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
quarter tsp ground coriander
couple of glugs dry white wine or fresh orange juice
couple of twists of black pepper

Method
Cut 1 piece of cooking foil, large enough to create a parcel for 1 piece of salmon.  Lightly butter or oil the foil.  Place the salmon skin side down on the foil and fold up the edges of the foil.  Add a knob of butter, half of the garlic, half of the coriander and a glug of wine or orange juice to the salmon and close up the parcel.  Repeat with second salmon fillet.

Place parcels on a baking sheet and bake in the oven at 180C for 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile cook the noodles and broccoli and serve the salmon on top of the noodles with the juices from the parcel drizzled over the top and the broccoli on the side.

A quick, simple, healthy and tasty meal for two.  Go on T give it a try!

Fishy Friend

On Friday with the prospect of a few days off from work I decided to treat myself with a visit to a local rose garden - more of that at Holly Grove Garden - on the way back home I took a detour via the Handyman's brother's house and stopped for a coffee and a gardening chat - C has just built a fruit cage; the subject of much conversation and another reason for my impromptu visit.

Unexpectedly we moved on to the topic of fishing, coarse or game?  Now I know little or nothing about the sport but have spent a few sunny afternoons with a good book on a riverbank in a previous life whilst my then in-laws did a spot of coarse fishing - lovely memories!

ready for the oven

C, on the other hand prefers game fishing, as he says you can eat what you catch!  And lucky us, he produced from his freezer two beautiful freshwater trout that he had caught a couple of days before from a fishing trip to Wales and gave them to me.  C prepares the fish, gutted and scaled, before freezing so all I had to do on Friday was pop one back into our freezer and let the other defrost whilst I found a suitable way of cooking it.

Jamie to the rescue...an unbelievably simple, quick and tasty way to prepare such a thoughtful gift for the table.  The Handyman and I shared the trout, more than enough for two, and are looking forward to the one left in the freezer!

Trout Roasted with Thyme and Lemon
Serves 2
Ingredients
1 large (or 2 small) whole trout
1 handful of lemon thyme (ours came from HG kitchen garden)
1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon, cut into halves
2 bay leaves

Method
Heat the oven to 230C.  Line a roasting tin with foil.  Then wash the fish inside and out and dry with kitchen paper.  Put the thyme with the olive oil in a pestle and grind together.  Spread the thyme mixture on the inside and top of the fish and place in the prepared roastng tin.  Cut a small slit in the lemon halves and insert the bay leaves.  Add to the roasting tin.  Place the fish in the oven and roast for about 15 minutes (10 minutes if using 2 smaller fish).  And that's it!  The fish will lift easily off the bone and has a lovely delicate flavour; for those who don't like salmon, just try trout...much more subtle.

ready to eat

I made saute potatoes with garlic and red onion and a plain green salad to go with the fish, de..lic..ious!!!

HFW's Fish Fight

Having watched Hugh's Fish Fight programme on television the other evening I was so saddened by the damage and waste that I've signed up to the fish fight; as fellow food bloggers why not have a look at the issues and sign up to put pressure on the EU to stop these wasteful practices...

Loaves and Fishes

A second order from fishinabox has landed me some lovely hake fillets. I've wanted to try hake after seeing Hugh FW cook with it as an alternative to cod. Seemingly hake is much more sustainable than cod so worth a try.

My impression on looking at the fillets was how 'meaty' they looked and a lovely colour, more creamy coloured than cod.  I had an urge to make a fish pie, lovely comfort food to mark the changing of the clocks.  

Earlier in the day I'd bought a delicious rosemary and walnut granary loaf from the baker at our local market, so a simple supper of fish pie and rosemary and walnut bread for a late autumn evening.  The sweetness and crunch of the walnuts went beautifully with the delicate fish flavour and soft texture of the pie.

Simple Fish Pie
Serves 4
Ingredients
400g hake fillets or other white fish
300ml milk
half an onion, peeled and sliced
5 black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
50g butter
3 tbsp plain flour
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
1 small leek, washed and sliced
half an onion, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped
half a glass of dry white wine
potatoes mashed with butter and yoghurt to cover the pie
grated parmesan

Method
Dry the fish with kitchen paper and place in a frying pan.  Pour over the milk and add the peppercorns, onion slices and bay leaf. Cover with a lid and bring to a simmer.  Simmer for 8-10 minutes until the fish flakes.  Remove the fish and place on a plate. Strain the cooking juices through a sieve and reserve, discard the peppercorns, onion slices and bay leaf.

Whilst the fish is cooking add the chopped carrot, onion, leek and garlic to a saucepan with a glug of oil and gently heat to soften the onion. Add the wine and the parsley and simmer gently for about 10 minutes.

Using the reserved cooking juices from the fish make a white sauce as follows. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the flour and stir well to remove any lumps and cook gently for a minute or two. Gradually add the cooking juices, stirring constantly. Bring to the boil and then simmer for a few minutes.

Now make up the pie by adding the flaked fish and the winey vegetable mixture to the white sauce. Put the combined ingredients into a pie dish.  Cover with the creamy mashed potatoes and sprinkle over the parmesan.

Put the pie dish on a  tray and bake in the oven at 200C for about 30 minutes. Then serve in wide bowls (pasta bowls are good) with a couple of chunky slices of buttered rosemary and walnut bread...yummee!

My First Veg Box

On Thursday my first organic veg box from a local farm arrived.  The variety of veg was not bad given the time of year - there were a few potatoes (glad there were not too many as we still have a lot of our own potatoes), four large leeks, some carrots and onions, a handful of runner beans, a cauliflower, a cabbage, a very large swede and some curly kale.

We like our vegetables but this is quite a lot to get through before the veg starts to deteriorate and our freezer is already full to bursting with Holly Grove produce, so I had to make things that would use the maximum amount of veg in the shortest time.

First on the list was something to accompany fillets of trout that I had bought for our supper on Thursday.  The runner beans were an obvious choice and something using some of the lovely leeks, but what?  Then I remembered a dish that my Mum used to make when I was a child - stovies!  Any Scots reading this may need no further explanation, though from my experience family recipes vary.  The stovies my Mum made used potatoes, onions, butter and milk and it was cooked in a saucepan on top of the stove; this delicious concoction would be served in bowls with crusty, well buttered bread - real comfort food.

My interpretation is really a variation of dauphinois and uses leeks instead of onions - posh stovies.  The dish was perfect with the simply cooked trout and runner beans, the richness of the stovies went so well with the lightness of the fish - lovely!

A vegetable curry was next on the list and delicious it was too - that was Friday night's meal served with naan and vegetable pakoras.

Then using some beef from the local butcher and leeks, carrots, onions and swede I made a large slow cooked casserole - some eaten last night and the rest for a pie filling for tonight's supper.  The pie I'll serve with creamed potato and swede and some of the dark curly kale.

After all of this there is still enough veg left to make a warming soup and some vegetable stock that I may just be able to squeeze into the freezer - phew!  To be honest I'm not sure veg boxes are for me, I think I'd rather select my veg myself and probably buy smaller quantities more often, but it has been an interesting experience and reminded me of a childhood dish long forgotten - oh, and here's my recipe...

Posh Stovies

Serves 2-3
Ingredients

125ml double cream

125ml milk

2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced

1 bay leaf

good grating of nutmeg

salt and pepper

2 good sized potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced

1 large leek, cleaned and thickly sliced

leaves stripped from a few sprigs of fresh thyme

a handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese

Method

Put the first five ingredients in a saucepan and simmer together for 5 minutes to infuse the milk/cream mixture.  Remove from the heat and remove the bay leaf and season with salt and pepper.

Take an earthenware ovenproof dish and grease generously with softened butter.  Lay a layer of potatoes in the bottom of the dish and sprinkle with some of the thyme, add the leek slices in a layer over the potatoes and then cover the leek with another layer of potatoes, sprinkle the remaining thyme over the potatoes.

Pour the milk/cream mixture over the layered potato and leek.  Oil the inside of a piece of tinfoil and then use this to cover the dish, oilside down.  Put the dish on a baking sheet in the oven 200C for about 40 minutes or until the potato is soft.  Remove the foil and press down the potatoes with the back of a serving spoon then sprinkle over the parmesan and return to the oven for about 10 minutes until the top is golden.

Delicious Halibut

As promised here's my review of our first taste of the produce from fishinabox.  On opening the box I was impressed by the lack of fishy smells - a good sign of really fresh fish - and the way the fish was filleted and packed, so a good start.

Lovely fresh fillets

The halibut fillets were large, meaty, a lovely creamy colour and smelt of the sea - gorgeous!  This fish was one of the best tasting and, I think, best value for money products that I've had in my kitchen...425g for just over £8.  Well done fishinabox, I'll be back for more...I've just got to finish the Craster kippers and Cornish sardines...yum!  

Roasted halibut on a spring onion rosti with tarragon buerre blanc served with Holly Grove french beans

The recipe I had chosen was a little time-consuming to prepare but worth every minute when we tasted the results.  The halibut tasted divinely of the sea and the flesh remained moist, creamy and meaty, gently flaking off with a fork.  The recipe can be found on BBC Food - I replaced the sorrel in the recipe with dried tarragon (about 1 tsp) as the sorrel in my kitchen garden wasn't up to scratch.

A Box Full of Fishes

My first 'fishinabox' order has arrived!  It was delivered in a polystyrene box filled with crushed ice and came complete with a recipe suggestion for the kippers.  There was more fish in my box than I had visualised when I ordered it, I must get a handle on metric weights! 

How exciting!

So halibut, kippers and sardines - the fish looks and smells lovely and fresh and I can't wait to cook and eat it.  We'll start with the halibut fillets...

I've spent the last hour on the web looking for a suitable recipe.  The one chosen came from the BBC Food site (not to be confused with the BBC Good Food site): roasted halibut on a spring onion rosti with sorrel beurre blanc.  

The joy of this recipe is that the early stages can be carried out in advance and then the finishing stage takes only 15 minutes.  This means that I can have everything prepared and then finish off the dish when the Handyman comes in from the garden (which is pretty late in the evening whilst he's engrossed in his latest project)...so I'm off to start cooking.  I'll post the recipe and some photos of the finished dish tomorrow...wish me luck!

Fresh Fish

I've just found a local supplier of fresh fish and have placed my first order to be delivered on Thursday. I've yet to test the quality of the service and, of course, the products but the good news is that delivery is free in Shropshire and surrounding counties (check out their website for details).

I'll update with a fishy recipe and comments regarding the fish sometime over the weekend when we've received the order and had time to prepare the fish dish.

I've ordered kipper, halibut and sardine fillets - so if anyone has any good fishy recipes please let me know.