Fingers of fish and other ideas...

It's been a while between blogs, lots of life going on between town and farm!

FINGERS OF FISH in HERB CRUST with SWEET POTATO FRIES

Use a bought pesto to make the herb crust, and this rather stunning finger food dish is quick and easy to prepare. Alternatively make you own fresh herb paste, which takes more time but, as always, fresh tastes best!

Use fillets of a lower-end-of-the-budget fish, with the skin on. The skin cooks to a crispy base and holds the cooked flesh together. (In the photos – ocean mullet, an oily, strong-flavoured fish that will take a strong-flavoured Asian-style herb crust).

Use four fillets of fish, lightly dusted on both sides with flour or cornflour.

Ingredients for the fish and herb paste:
4 fillets fish, skin on
2 tbs pesto
2 level tsps flour (or 1 teaspoon cornflour)
2 tbs olive oil

1. Combine pesto with flour. Press this mix to the flesh side of whole fillets. Then slice fish into serving size portions. Fry in hot pan in a little oil, skin side down for 3 minutes with the lid on to partly steam the paste.

2. Carefully turn the fish and flatten slightly. Cook further 2 -3 minutes until paste has browned to a light crust. Lift out and arrange on serving plate with sweet potato fingers and dipping sauce.

For the dipping sauce:

1. Combine equal parts light soy sauce with lime or lemon juice. Add chopped hot chilli or chopped shallot tops.

For the sweet potato fingers:

1. Peel and cut yellow sweet potato into 2cm fingers.
2. Lightly pan fry in a smear of olive oil until golden, turning once ( ≈ 5 minutes total cooking time).

 

CHICKEN PIECES in HERB CRUST with SWEET POTATO FINGERS

Try the same herb crust idea on trimmed chicken drumsticks or wing drumettes.

1. Dust chicken with flour. Coat well with herb paste.

2. Cook on medium heat in frying pan for 10 minutes with lid on. Turn carefully, cook for 10 – 15 minutes more with lid off. Rest 10 minutes in pan to finish cooking in retained heat before serving.

Next: another fishy idea...

Simple seafood...

Nothing can beat standing in a vegetable garden full of lovely leafy greens and ripening tomatoes, but the next best fresh-foodie thing a person can do is take a trip to a local seafood market and pick up a bundle of just-caught prawns and a few cleaned whole fish.

Goldband snapper

So, on a sunny Spring Sunday, Country Frog slipped down to the seashore to visit the seafood store, stopping to see the seagulls at Scarborough boat harbour where the fishing boats pull in with the fresh catch.

PRAWN SALAD

Serve with crusty bread, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. No need to mess around with fancy dressings – let the fresh produce shine all on its own.

On a bed of fresh salad greens, toss down a combination of roughly chopped tomato, cucumber, avocado and mango or pawpaw. Top with a finely sliced salad onion if desired then add a double handful of fresh unpeeled cooked prawns. (The photo shows mango slices that were frozen from last summer’s crop, and so are slightly softer than fresh mango slices but just as tasty.)


SIMPLE POACHED WHOLE FISH
There is no simpler way to cook fresh whole fish.

Serves 2
Time: 5 minutes preparation; 10 minutes cooking; 5 minutes resting.
You will need: Large stovetop frying pan with lid; egg lifter


Ingredients:
1kg(ish) fresh whole white-fleshed fish such as snapper or squire (young snapper), gutted and scaled
Juice of 1 fresh lemon, and slices of lemon skin
½ teaspoon salt
½ - 1 cup water

1. Heat water, juice, sliced lemon skin and salt in pan until simmering. Lower the fish into the liquid, return to a slow boil and cook five minutes with lid on.
2. Carefully turn fish using egg lifter. Cook covered further five minutes, with lid on.
3. Turn the heat off and leave fish undisturbed in hot liquor for further five minutes.

To serve: Turn the fish again, very carefully and lift the fillet from the back bone in one piece. Lift away the bone, and serve the second fillet. Eat piping hot with salad, salt and pepper.

OPTIONAL EXTRAS – This makes a lovely light seafood dish to serve with fluffy white rice.

1 small onion, finely sliced
1 stick celery cut into fine strips
1 small carrot cut into fine strips
3 – 4 whole green prawns per person
fresh herbs to taste (basil, parsley or coriander)


1. Add onion, celery and carrot to cold poaching liquor, as above, and bring to boil.
2. Cook fish on one side, as above, then after turning, add green prawns and herbs to the pan. Increase the heat to keep the liquor at a slow boil. Cook for further five minutes, and rest five minutes.
3. Serve fish, prawns and vegetables onto a bed of rice, adding a little of the seafood stock as sauce/juice to moisten the rice.


Tip: Leftover rice can be added to leftover liquor. In a small saucepan, simmer 15 minutes with extra vegetables to make an excellent fishy congee (rice soup).

Back home on the farm, inspired by fish galore at the market, I found a couple of interestingly shaped stumps in the wood pile and painted them up to be outdoor coffee/beer tables. You’ve just gotta smile when you see a happy fish!

Next: More spring-season seafood – octopus and mussels