Fish Dishes

I'll start with one that's really quite easy to do but can really impress your other half and is one I often do for Mrs Hero.

Tuna with wasabi and sesame seeds

Ingredients:

2 x decent sized Tuna Steaks (about 3/4 inch thick)
Wasabi paste (dependant on both the strength of the paste and how hot you like it)
3 tablespoons white sesame seeds
2 tablespoons black sesame seeds
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons veg or olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped spring onions to garnish

Marinade:
2 tablespoons Dark Soy Sauce
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 teaspoons fresh juice
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

Preparation

Combine all the ingredients for the marinade together, put aside a small pot of it to add as a dip.
Immerse the tuna steaks in the marinade and stick in the fridge for 30 minutes
Bring the steaks out and cover all sides with the wasabi paste, use as sparse or as liberal as you like dependant on how hot you like it.
Cover the steaks now in a mixture of the 2 types of sesame seeds, try to ensure that all the meat is now hidden (you will probably have to hold them gently to avoid the seeds coming off).
Heat oil in a frying pan/wok to a high tempature and place the steaks in, some seeds may fire off, be careful!
Turn the tuna over after around 3 minutes and cook the other side, leave for longer if you prefer the tuna well done. Turn the heat down if the seeds appear to be burning.

Garnish with the spring onions and serve with the dip.

Cool one Hero, will try it over the weekend.

And while on a Tuna theme, here's a comfort-food one (quantities of the various ingredients can be varied quite a bit without affecting the overall result too much).

Tuna & rice bake:
1 tin tuna (ie around 1/2 a cup), drained
1 cup cooked rice
1 cup frozen peas
2 or 3 hard boiled eggs, sliced
tomato, sliced
1/2 cup grated cheese
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 cup milk
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp paprika
1-2 handfuls sliced spring onion (or diced onion)
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a pan and stir in the flour and mustard. Then slowly add the milk, stirring as you go to make a white sauce. Simmer briefly until it starts to thicken.

In an oven dish mix together the rice, tuna, white sauce, egg slices, onion peas, salt and pepper. Top with a layer of sliced tomato, then a layer of mixed cheese, breadcrumbs and paprika.

Bake at 180-190c (gas mark 5) for 20-25 minutes until the topping is golden grown.


PS, 1 cup = 250ml, or around half a pint

This is a quick starter that I have used and is really nice. Goes well with a leafy salad and a little balsamic vinegar. It may have been me, but I was unable to cut the brie to the right size, it works just as well adding smaller pieces to cover the salmon!


Ingredients:

Good quality baguette
3 oz. packaged smoked salmon
1 oz. brie
1 tsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. finely chopped red onion (optional)

1. Turn oven on to grill.

2. Slice baguette on a diagonal into 6, 1/2-inch slices. Cut salmon on a diagonal into 6 thin, 1/8-inch slices. Cut brie into 6 slices. (The brie and salmon should be about the same size as the bread)

3. Brush one side of baguette slices with olive oil, arrange on a baking sheet, and toast until they just begin to brown, 3 - 5 minutes.

4. Turn slice of bread over, add a slice of salmon, a slice of cheese, and sprinkle with a bit of red onion.

5. Return to grill and cook until cheese begins to melt, 3 - 5 minutes.

Just got back from Costa Rica and one of the traditional dishes/local specialties is Ceviche. It's very simple and basic and often eaten almost like a pre-starter or with some nice salty tortilla chips/

Basically it's a dish of raw fish heavily marinated in citrus juices which 'cook' the fish proteins whilst leaving the meat fresh and zingy.

Use good very fresh fish, mahi mahi and red snapper most popular in CR, have seen bass recommended for these shores.

Marinade in lemon and lime juice (again fresh, not the bottled crap).
[NB: when I say marinade, I mean the fish should be swimming in the stuff, not just 'dressed' in it like a salad]

Add a little finely chopped green chili, some red pepper, a little chopped red onion and season with salt.

Marinade time depends on how small you cut the fish, if it's very finely sliced then 10-30 mins will do, if it's small chunks (think grape size) then 1-2 hours, don't marinade more than 6 or so hrs though as the fish proteins will begin to breakdown to much and the meat disintegrate.

Serve in a bowl with salty tortilla chips and a small handful of chopped coriander.

Having typed all this I've now found this!!:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/sep/13/how-to-make-perfect-ceviche

Creamy fish pie

Ingredients
800 g mixed fish fillet selection: undyed smokedhaddock, whiting, salmon etc
300 ml semi-skimmedmilk
1 bay leaf
20 g butter
20 g flour
75 g Philadelphia Lightcream cheese
handfuls choppedparsley
salt and black pepper

For the topping
500 g sweet potatoes
olive oil, for finishing


Method
1. Remove the skin from the fish and cut into 4cm cubes.

2. Pour the milk into a deep frying pan and put in the bay leaf. Add the fish; bring to simmering point and cook for 7-8 minutes – until just cooked. Remove the fish from the milk, strain the liquid, and leave on one side.

3. Transfer the fish to the bottom of a 1.75-litre shallow ovenproof dish.

4. Melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour, and cook for about a minute, stirring constantly until you have a smooth paste. Gradually add the warm poaching liquid and bring to a simmer. Once the sauce has thickened, turn the heat off and stir in the Philadelphia Light followed by the parsley. Pour over the fish and leave on one side to cool.

5. Heat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Thinly slice the sweet potatoes and finish with a little olive oil. Arrange in an overlapping layer over the fish. Bake the pie for about 25 minutes until the top is golden and the filling hot.

I like fish than pork

Tuna and Cucumber Sarnie

1 can of John West Pole Caught Tuna in Spring Water
1 Cucumber
Dash of white wine vinegar
Dash of cracked Black Pepper
1 good quality loaf of white bread

Open can of Tuna and rinse under tap. Squeeze Tuna in sieve to remove all juices. Add the vinegar and pepper to Tuna in a bowl and rest. Peel cucumber and slice to preferred size - 5mm slices work well. Butter bread well then construct sandwich with a layer of tuna and a layer of cucumber. Cut sandwich into halves not quarters. Enjoy.

No mayo?

Controversial.

'dish'  #controversial

just a sandwich..

Saw some bird cook sea bass on a bed of cooked cucumber with samphire on Masterchef last night. Don't eat fish but it looked amazing.

"Canard et la surprise" .....(Duck surprise)..

Go to your local pond shoot an unsuspecting mallard .......Barbecue it and wolf it down...

Great dish !!

Pan-fried salmon with lemon and white wine

A classic dish, very easy to make, but I find that with salmon you don't want to overcomplicate things, as salmon is delicious enough not to warrant it.

Salmon fillets without skin if possible (one per person)
white wine
lemon (quantity depending on how lemon-y you like your food)
dill (parsley works too)
butter, salt & pepper

Heat up some butter in a frying pan on a medium-high heat. Meanwhile, prepare the salmon fillets: sprinkle some salt, pepper, and some (chopped) dill (or parsley) on each side.
A note on herbs: you should, whenever possible, use fresh herbs for quick dishes, as dried herbs take longer to release their flavours. Fresh herbs freeze fine, so don't be bothered by buying a bunch (if you can't grow them - I certainly don't), use what you need on the day (or in the next day or two) and freeze the rest.
When the pan is hot, put in the salmon fillets and brown quickly on each side. Reduce the heat slightly and add the wine (be generous, the steam from the wine is what will cook the fillets through), and lemons juices. You may also wish to add some butter at this point if you fancy a more buttery sauce (add a couple of small slabs). Let it simmer away for a while, the length depending on how you like your salmon (I like mine quite pink in the middle still). Taste the sauce, and adjust seasoning if necessary.
Serve with whatever you like eating salmon with (I usually go with rice and peas).

Ceviche

This isn't really the traditionnal ceviche dish, but it's loosely based on it (ie raw fish "cooked" in lemon or lime juices), hence the name. The ingredients are very flexible, you can adapt to what suits your personnal palate. You will need:

Some fish fillets. You should choose a reasonably fleshy white fish, I like to go with cabillaud (cod) or flétan (halibut). While you don't want the taste to be overpowering, it still nees to be there, so avoid anything too bland. The fish is at the centre of the dish, so you want a decent chunk of it, aim for 150g per person (or more if you like).
Limes. Plenty of. At least 5 for 300g of fish. Try to get them ripe so they release their juice more easily. While you can make this dish with lemons instead, I find lime gives that bit of additionnal freshness and makes it more enjoyable.
Fresh ginger. Cube of about 2.5 cm by 2.5 cm with a height of about 3mm.
A branch of celery. This will bring in the crispy element. If you don't like celery or can't get it, a red onion works as well.
A bit of red chili pepper. This will add some spice, and also a nice bit of colour to your dish: you have the yellow ginger, the green celery and the red chili, which blends in with the white fish. If you've gone with red onion you can choose a green chili instead.

Cut the fish into bite-size pieces (you want these to be large-ish, this is meant to be a generous dish, no small slithers please). Dice the ginger into small cubes (about 3 mm). Dice the chili into even smaller cubes (1.5/2 mm). Chop the celery into small-ish pieces (about 1cm cubes). Squeeze the lime to get the juices, and you may get the zest also of one or two of them.
Mix in all the ingredients together and mix (the juices should cover the ingredients). Let it marinate for a while (20-30 minutes: no longer or the fish will start to fall apart).
The traditionnal recipe calls for it to be served with sweet potatoes, but I have found that rice works well too. I've also on occasion added half a tablespoon of mango chutney to the mix (usually when I don't have any chilies), and while this somewhat spoils the colour, it's not bad at all.

Love ceviche. Bit debate over how long you leave it to marinade though, some say hours.....

TopHat24/7 wrote:Love ceviche.  Bit debate over how long you leave it to marinade though, some say hours.....

interesting. I always find that if you let it marinate too long the fish tends to dislocate a bit, and I prefer to have a decent bite of fish. However, the way I make it the fish isn't "cooked" through, it's still raw on the inside a bit, so maybe that's why people let it marinate longer. I find 1/2-hour sufficient for it to infuse with the flavours, so that works for me.

It is delicious though, no doubt about that

Yeh, had it for the first time when I went to Costa Rica (and plenty of times since!) and loved it.

Great served as they do over there with pieces cut fairly small and it almost eaten like a salsa with tortilla chips. Soft and sour fish with crunchy and salty chips = match made in heaven!!