Simple Fish

Fish should be easy to prepare and enjoy.


I know that catching it, scaling it and filleting it are not that simple- I watched this poor little fella being landed on the port, then prepared for sale with brutal efficiency- but once you have your fillets, then the rest doesn't need a lot of messing about.
I've put together a few ideas this week that use prepared fish and other fishy things (and their leftovers) in easy recipes which I hope you will like.







I'm starting with whiting fillets en chapelure.
Chapelure is the fancy name for toasted breadcrumbs. I make mine by blitzing biscotte toasts into crumbs, but that's easy in France. If you don't have biscottes where you are, then toast stale bread or bake it until crispy when you have the oven on for something else and then blitz it and store it in an airtight container.

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees and lightly oil a baking tray.
Lay out three plates- one with seasoned flour, one with milk and one with the chapelure.

Dip your fillets first in the flour, then the milk and then the breadcrumbs. Coat both sides.

Lay the fillets on the baking tray and bake for 15 minutes until just cooked through.

Whiting Fillets en Chapelure

You can make this fancier by adding Parmesan to the crumbs - as here, atop salmon fillets.

Parmesan Crusted Salmon

Salmon of course, is one of the easiest and nowadays most reasonably priced fish to use. You can flake a cooked fillet into a quiche:

Salmon and Leek Quiche

Or make it into fishcakes- like these Salmon-Broccoli Galettes:

Slice 250g of salmon into small cubes

Finely slice 1 leek and 200g broccoli and soften in a pan with some crushed garlic

Mix the fish and the veg in a bowl with 2 beaten eggs, 1 tbsp flour, 1 tbsp chopped parsley, 1 tsp curry powder, a squeeze of lemon and plenty of salt and pepper

Place spoonfuls of the mixture into a pan with some hot oil and fry gently on one side for 4-5 minutes

The galettes will be easy to turn and cook on the other side.

Salmon-Broccoli Galettes

Every Friday in this part of Provence, cafes and bistros have Aioli as their Plat du Jour- a dish of poached white fish and prawns with veg with a pungent garlic mayonnaise which makes the simple ingredients sing.

The table laid with Aioli

I am grateful to blog follower laBarbe for both the recipe and the demonstration of how to prepare it:
First make your Aioli sauce.
Crush as many garlic cloves as you dare into a bowl. I suggest 3, but if you really like garlic and live alone then you can go up to 6.

Crush as many garlic cloves as you dare!

Beat in two egg yolks, a tablespoon of mustard and a thin stream of olive oil until the mixture becomes creamy. Add a squeeze of lemon.

Poach your white fish in water or milk until just starting to flake.

Boil your veg- potatoes, carrots, courgettes, cauliflower etc

Serve all the plain poached ingredients warm with the sauce.

Aioli

There were leftovers of course- and I put them into a Gratin Terre-Mer (Fish Pie to you and me):

Make a sauce from white wine, cream, a cooked leek and parsley gently heated and reduced slightly.
Mix in your leftover fish and shellfish
Top with mashed potatoes and some grated flavoursome cheese.
Bake in the oven at 170 degrees until brown and bubbling.

Gratin Terre-Mer

Finally, and I know my in-house Biologist takes issue with me as to the fishy nature of this- I'm making some mussel dishes.

My all-time favourite food- and desert island dish of preference- is Moules Marinieres- made simply with white wine, lemon, onion, garlic and parsley. Definitely no cream.
I like to clean, debeard and rinse the mussels then cook some onion and garlic in a deep pan until soft. Tip the mussels into the hot pan and add 1-2 glasses of white wine, a good handful of chopped parsley and a squeeze of lemon.
Cover and cook for 7-8 minutes or so, or until all the mussels have opened.

Moules Marinieres

Leftover mussels can be kept for up to 3 days in the fridge- so I used them up in a Seafood Risotto.
If you prefer, you can make this dish with pasta ( little rice-shaped stuff called orzo is good). The same methods apply. Cook it from dry like rice and add the liquid bit by bit until it is tender.

For the risotto you need 200g of risotto rice, 1 litre of hot fish stock - either fish bouillon enriched with a tbsp of tomato puree and a pinch of saffron, or (as I prefer) left over fish soup and hot water- 1 shallot and 1 clove of garlic, leftover seafood and some creamy cheese (I used Boursin).
Soften the shallot and the garlic in olive oil and then add the risotto rice and coat.
Ladle in the stock, bit by bit, stirring all the time and adding it as it becomes absorbed by the rice.
When the stock has all been absorbed, test to see if the rice is tender. If not, add more hot water or stock and keep stirring. Adjust seasoning to your taste.
Take the mussels out of their shells ( keeping a few for decoration) and mix into the rice. Finally stir in some creamy cheese and serve.

Seafood Risotto/Pastotto

And so here ends my fishy tale. I hope you like the sound of some of the recipes and make tonight Fish Night.

Here's looking at you!

Remembering Normandy

Yesterday was the 70th anniversary of D Day and the world's media was focussed on the Normandy beaches and what went on there 70 years ago.

Everyone had a story to tell- family members caught up in the conflict- in one capacity or another. My own family was no exception, with my grandfather there in his cargo boat, carrying fuel to the American landing craft. It was incredibly dangerous work- and the risks taken by our merchant seamen should not be forgotten.




It was not until 2000 however that the Merchant Navy Association was allowed to march with their Service comrades past the cenotaph on Rememberance Sunday. An injustice which was righted - but a little belatedly.

Normandy has been on my mind for other reasons too: the first week in June was when I spent my honeymoon in Normandy, gorging on cream sauces, seafood and apple liqueurs - and 32 years later my husband is just returning from a week long cycle tour of Normandy, so I look forward to many Calvados-soaked stories of his adventures.

A very young Leftover Liz in Dieppe market 1982

I thought I would put together a selection of Normandy inspired recipes on the blog this week, to commemorate all of these things.

First I made some unusual savoury muffins using black pudding, apples and cider. They are very rich but would make good picnic food or a starter with green salad.

Ingredients:
100g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
50 g grated cheese
75g of black pudding (I like Clonakilty as it is crumbly)
2 apples
1/2 cup each of cider and olive oil
salt and pepper
a splash of milk if needed

1. Fry the black pudding and cool it down in order to crumble it coarsely
2. Peel the apples, slice one into small pieces and grate the other.
3. Fry them in the pan too.
4. Put the flour, baking powder, grated cheese, salt and pepper in the bowl and mix well.
5. Beat in the eggs, black pudding and apple
6. Add the oil and cider and mix until the batter is spoonable. Loosen it up with a bit of milk if needed.
7. Spoon into muffin cases and bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes or so until risen and golden.

Apple and Black Pudding muffins

Next I made a blanquette de veau : veal in a cream sauce.

You will need:

2-300 g of veal (cubed)
2 sticks of celery
3 carrots
1 onion (chopped)
1 clove of garlic (minced)
1 glass of dry white wine
250 ml of vegetable stock
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon of cream

1. Fry the veal lightly until it has changed colour but not browned very much
2. Place it in a casserole dish then lightly fry the onion, garlic, celery and carrot and add to the casserole
3. Deglaze the pan with the white wine and pour over the meat and veg
4. Top up the casserole dish with vegetable stock, season and add the bay leaves.
5. Stew (either in the slow cooker for 4 hours)or a moderate oven for 1 1/2-2 hoursuntil the meat is tender.
6. Allow to cool slightly before stirring in the cream.

Blanquette de veau

Cream sauces feature heavily in Normandy cuisine. Here are a few more from the blog:

Chicken Printanier and Pork in Mustard and Cream sauce.

Pork with Mustard and Cream Sauce
http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/saucy.html

Chicken Printanier
http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/week-23-pick-your-own.html

Seafood is however what I love to eat, when on the Normandy coast. I would eat mussels forever- and gave over a whole blogpost to them:

Moules marinieres
http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/mouclade-and-other-shellfish-dishes.html

As a change though, here is a clam dish which I also love: Linguine with Clams
This dish has become a storecupboard standby for me since Waitrose have started stocking vacuum packed clams in the freezer aisle. Lovely if you use fresh ones too.

1 pack of clams
1 onion finely chopped
1 clove of garlic - minced
1 carton of chopped tomatoes with chilli
linguine

1.Boil a pot of water and put the linguine on to cook.
2. Meanwhile, fry the onion and garlic in a deep saucepan until translucent.
3. Pour in the clams wth their juice
4. Heat through until bubbling and add the chopped tomatoes and continue to heat.
5. Drain the linguine, pour into a big warm bowl and add the tomato-clam mixture
6. Toss together and serve immediately.

Linguine with clams

Finally- to finish off - Normandy apple tart.

This is a sweet shortcrust tart, baked blind first. Then spoon apple compote onto the base.
Finely slice 3-4 dessert apples and quickly fry them in butter.
Allow to cool, then arrange on top of the tart in neatly overlapping circles.
Brush either with more melted butter or a glaze of apricot jam.

Bake at 180 degrees until the apples are golden on top.

Normandy Apple Tart

Perfect with a glass of cider or Calvados!

Mouclade- and other shellfish dishes

I do love mussels. They would be my desert island food of choice (which is probably quite sensible really as they are likely to be swimming around somewhere close by wherever I am marooned.)

I love their smell, their texture, their taste, their versatility - and their price.

They are still an inexpensive seafood - that you can make into a variety of dishes. I bought a bag at my local fishmongers for £3.70- and this is what I did with them.

Firstly, I wanted to make a mouclade or mussel stew with a curry cream sauce. Normally, I prefer moules marinieres as I think the addition of cream often makes the sauce too thick and cools it down too quickly. I'm pleased to report that this didn't happen with this recipe.

For the mouclade you will need:

250g mussels per person
1 onion finely chopped
1clove of garlic (minced)
Parsley stalks (chopped) for sauce and parsley leaves (finely chopped) for garnish
1 glass dry white wine
2 tbsp single cream
2 tsp curry powder or paste

First, wash the mussels in several changes of water and then scrub them with a scouring pad to remove any grit from the shells. Discard any which are open (and don't close when you manhandle them) and any which are damaged.

Pull off their little beards and place the mussels in a colander.

Soften the onion and garlic in some olive oil in a large heavy based saucepan. (I use the pan of my pressure cooker). Pour in the wine and add the parsley stalks and bring to the boil.

A minute or two more on these

Shoot in the mussels and cover with a lid or plate.

Cook on a moderate heat for 4-5 minutes, then give the pan a good shake and open up to see if the mussels are all open. If not, give them a minute or two more.

Meanwhile, mix the cream with the curry powder or paste until all the grains are dissolved.

Ladle the mussels into bowls, pour over the cream and curry mixture and garnish with chopped parsley. Serve with bread and lime wedges to squeeze over.

Mouclade

Pour the leftover mussels into a plastic container and allow to cool before covering and refrigerating. They will need to be eaten over the next 2 days.

The next day- either have them as a starter with a drizzle of persillade over each one as here. (Persillade is a garlicky sauce made from garlic cloves, olive oil, parsley and a little salt pulsed together in a blender or smushed in a pestle and mortar- I'm not specifying how much garlic as that is entirely up to you.)

Heroes in a half-shell

Or make them into a seafood pastotto.

This is my own invention of a pasta risotto- using orzo or pasta shaped like rice/oat grains (called avoines in French).

You will need:
70g-80g of pasta per person
your remaining mussels pulled out of their shells (but keep a few in their shells for garnish)
any cooking liquor from the mussels
1 tin or jar of chopped tomato with chili
1 onion (finely chopped)

Begin, as usual by softening the onion in some olive oil. Add the pasta to the frying onion and stir to absorb the oil.
Add a good glug of tomato and the cooking liquor from the mussels.
Stir (and keep stirring) to absorb the liquid. Add more as you need to.

Taste the pasta- it needs to be the soft side of al dente before it is ready.
When it has reached this stage, stir through the mussels to warm them in the pasta.

Serve in bowls with the reserved mussels as garnish.

Seafood Pastotto

Other recipes on the blog featuring shellfish are shown below with a link to the blog pages where the recipes can be found.

                               

                                    http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/fritto%20misto

                                http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/smoked%20salmon                

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/crab%20cakes

                                    http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/veggie-makeover.html


So there you have it- seafood recipes that taste like a million dollars- but you won't need to shell out that much to make and enjoy them!