Baked fish on rosemary potatoes

From BBC GoodFood
Serves 6
Ingredients

1 large fennel bulb
6 medium sized potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
8 tablespoons olive oil
8 cloves garlic
8 sprigs fresh rosemary
2-3 whole fish, such as bream, bass or trout, total weight about 1.5kg, gutted and scaled
2 x 275g packs cherry tomatoes on the vine

Heat the oven to 190C, Gas 5.

Roughly chop the fennel and blanch for 1 minute. Put all the potato slices and fennel in a large shallow roasting tin and pour 6 tablespoons of the oil over them. Bash 4 of the garlic cloves, skins still on, with the flat side of a knife. Season the potatoes generously and tuck in the garlic cloves and 4 sprigs of the rosemary, broken up a bit. Toss the potatoes with the other ingredients to coat them in olive oil, then arrange in the tin and cook in the oven for 15 minutes.

Wash and dry the fish inside and out. Peel and slice the rest of the garlic. Make 3 slash marks across each fish on both sides with a sharp knife and push in some garlic slices and rosemary sprigs.

Season inside and out. Drizzle about a tablespoon of oil over the fish and rub it on. Take the potatoes out after 15 minutes and lay the fish on top of them with the sprigs of tomatoes.

Give a final drizzle of oil, then roast until the potatoes and the fish are cooked through, about 25-35 minutes.

Serve on a large flat dish with a green salad.

Simple pan-fried trout

From Jamie’s Ministry of Food
Ingredients
Serves 2

2 chunky trout fillets skin on, scaled, and bones removed
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
olive oil
a pat of butter
a few big handfuls of spinach
1 lemon

To prepare your trout:

Put a non-stick frying pan on medium to high heat. Sprinkle the trout fillets with some salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Rub both sides of the fish until well-coated.

To cook your trout:

When the pan is nice and hot, add your trout fillets, skin side down, and cook for 3 minutes until crisp. While cooking, shake the pan around a little. When the heat has crept up nearly to the top of the fish and you think they’re ready, flip the fillets over for 30 seconds to cook from the other side-this will give you a crisp skin and a soft flakiness to the insides. Remove from the heat and place on your serving plates, skin side up. Add the butter and the spinach to the pan with a sprinkling of salt and pepper and place back on the heat. Keep moving the spinach around for just a minute using a pair of tongs. When it has wilted it’s ready to come off of the heat.

Serve your fillets with the spinach and lemon wedges for squeezing over.

Sea trout with fennel and watercress

From Ramsay’s Best Menus
Serves 4
Ingredients

4 fennel bulbs, trimmed and tough outer leaves removed
1 tsp fennel seeds
sea salt and black pepper
5 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
1 1⁄2 tsp superfine sugar
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
4 sea trout fillets, with skin,
about 5 oz each bunch of watercress, about 4 oz, well washed and stems removed

1. Slice the fennel bulbs thinly. Crush the fennel seeds with a little salt using a mortar and pestle. Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a pan and add the sliced fennel and crushed fennel seeds. Sprinkle over the sugar and cook over high heat for 10 minutes, stirring well. Add the sherry vinegar and cook for another 5 minutes until the fennel is soft and caramelized.

2. Score the skin of the sea trout fillets at close intervals with a sharp knife. Heat the remaining oil in a wide sauté pan. Season the fish and cook, skin side down, until cooked two- thirds of the way through. Flip over and cook on the other side for 30 seconds.

3. Divide the fennel among four plates and sit the fish fillets on top. Garnish with watercress, drizzle with olive oil.

Roasted sea trout with onions, tomatoes and chorizo

James Martin – Saturday Kitchen

For the chorizo
2 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
100g/3½oz chorizo, cut into chunks
2-3 sprigs thyme
50g/1¾oz black olives, stones removed
8 cherry tomatoes
salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the sea bass
1 large sea bass, head removed, scaled and gutted
small bunch fresh thyme
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Preparation method
Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and chorizo.
Fry for 4-5 minutes until the oil runs out of the chorizo and the onions soften.
Add the thyme, olives and tomatoes and stir to combine.
Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper, before transferring the mixture to an ovenproof dish.
Using a sharp knife, slash skin of the sea bass diagonally along each side so that the flesh is exposed and place sprigs of thyme into the slashes.
Season the sea bass with salt and freshly ground black pepper and place on top of the chorizo mixture.
Drizzle over the olive oil and cook in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until the fish is tender and cooked all the way through.
To serve,take the cooking dish to the table.

Ah chorizo, one of the best things the spaniards have ever made. I probably mentioned this before somewhere in the multitude of posts in this blog that I first tasted chorizo at Borough Market when I had the chorizo, rocket and red pepper bab. Well, another one of the things I brought back from Barcelona is a nice fat chorizo sausage which I have just used in this dish.

Chorizo goes well with fish, and thats why this recipe works. I couldn’t find any sea bass at Tesco last night and so I used sea trout instead.

Salmon (trout) and broccoli bake

Serves: 4
From Waitrose Everyday Recipe
Ingredients

550g pack of 4 Waitrose Select Farm Salmon Fillets
1 broccoli crown, cut into florets (about 250g)
300g Yeo Valley Organic Fat Free Natural Yogurt
1 medium egg, beaten
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
Grated zest and juice of ½ lemon
3 tbsp white breadcrumbs
Method

Preheat the oven to 200C, gas mark 6. Place the salmon in a shallow pan and pour over enough cold water to cover. Bring to the boil then lower the heat and poach gently for 10–12 minutes until just cooked through. Remove from the cooking liquid and flake the flesh. Arrange over the base of a shallow baking dish.

Steam the broccoli florets for 4–5 minutes until just tender then add to the salmon. Whisk together the yogurt, egg, mustard, lemon zest and juice, season and spoon over the broccoli and salmon to coat.

Scatter with the breadcrumbs and bake for 20–25 minutes until the topping is set and golden. Serve with new potatoes.

Friend of mine has been telling me about her fish bake and when I saw the recipe at waitrose, I thought it was a sign. Anyway I’ve made it but with some modifications, I used trout instead of salmon (i had two fillets in the freezer) and I decided to use cheddar cheese instead of the breadcrumbs. I just wanted a certain richness to my food today and I didn’t think breadcrumbs would do the trick.

I love the creamy white sauce, slightly sour because of the lemon juice but excellent as a complement to the fish and the broccoli.

Granddad Ken’s (not my granddad) crispy grilled trout with parsley and lemon

From Cook with Jamie
Serves 2

ingredients

2 x 300g/10½oz whole trout, scaled, cleaned and gutted
olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a large bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and chopped
2 lemons, 1 zested and sliced, 1 halved
a few knobs of butter

Preheat your grill to full whack. Slash each trout with a knife, about ten times on each side. Each slash should be about 0.5cm/¼ inch deep. Rub the trout with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Stuff the cavities with plenty of chopped parsley and the lemon slices. Place the fish side by side on a baking rack over a roasting tray.

Put the lemon zest on top of the fish and place the lemon halves on the tray too. Dot the trout with the butter and place it 15cm/6 inches from the grill. Cook for around 6 minutes on each side until crispy and golden.

Squeeze the roasted lemon over the top of the fish and serve with a simple crunchy side salad.

Something simple and healthy for Sunday lunch. As you can see from the picture, I did not use parsley for the fish. Instead, I used up the leftover dill and rosemary in my fridge. Be careful with the lemon, if you are not into sour foods, might be a good idea to show some restraint in the squeezing of the roasted lemon.

Pan-fried red mullet (trout) with crispy breadcrumbs and a herby tomato salad

From Cook with Jamie
Serves 4

Ingredients

for the tomato salad
3 big handfuls of mixed tomatoes, chopped into irregular chunks
good-quality extra virgin olive oil
red wine vinegar
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a small bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked and finely chopped
a small bunch of fennel tops or dill, finely chopped

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 red mullet fillets, scaled and pin boned
flour, for dusting
olive oil

for the crispy breadcrumbs
olive oil
4 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked and finely chopped
200g stale breadcrumbs
2 dried red chillies, crumbled,
zest of 1 lemon

Put your chopped tomatoes into a big bowl with a couple of generous glugs of extra virgin olive oil and a splash of vinegar. Season generously with salt and pepper. Bow taste, tweak, taste, tweak…I usually add a bit more vinegar, salt or live oil until the tomatoes and their juices sing in my mouth. This is a normal thing to do, so just be confident! Add the basil and fennel tops or dill to your tomato salad and mix in.

Season the fish fillets, then dip them in a little flour to dust them on both side,s shaking off any excess. Heat a glug of olive oil in a medium hot frying pan and , once hot, place the fish skin-side down in the pan, lightly pressing the fillets down using a dish slice. Fry for 3 minutes or until the skin is bright orangey golden and crisp. Turn the fish over and fry for a minute on the other side until just cooked.

Remove your fish to a plate while you make your crispy breadcrumbs. Add a little extra oil to the juices in the pan, then add your thyme, breadcrumbs, chilli and lemon zest. Toss around and fry until lightly golden and crispy; this will take around 3 or 4 minutes.

Divide the tomato salad between four plates and ether lay 2 of your fish fillets over the top of each salad or break the fillets up and scatter over the tomatoes.

Sadly, I couldn’t find any red mullet at Waitrose; I had to make do with trout which I think works as well. I like his style of food, it’s recipes that one can easily cook at home. I like the combination of ingredients in this recipe, the fish is complemented by the sweet and sour flavours in the tomato salad and the crispy spicy taste of the bread. I prefer to use generous chunks of bread. Just remember to use a warm plate for the dish as the fish loses its heat really quickly.

Grilled red mullet (English trout) with bay leaves

From the Spanish Cookbook
Serves 4

Ingredients
4 red mullet about 225-275g each, cleaned and descaled
olive oil for brushing
fresh herb sprigs, such as fennel, dill, parsley, or thyme
2-3 dozen fresh or dried bay leaves

For the dressing
6 tbsp olive oil
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 dried chilli, seeded and chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp parsley

Preheat the grill with the shelf 15 cm from the heat source.

Brush each fish with oil and stuff the cavities with the herb sprigs. Season with salt and pepper. Brush the grill pan with oil and lay bay leaves across the cooking rack. Place the fish on top and cook for 15-20 minutes until cooked through, turning once.

To make the dressing, heat the olive oil in a small pan and fry the chopped garlic with the dried chilli. Add the lemon juice and strain the dressing into a small jug. Add the chopped parsley and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve the mullet on warmed plates, drizzled with the dressing.

No red mullet at the Waitrose seafood counter and so I settled for an English trout. I love grilling (broiling) food these days, and placing them on a bed of salad leaves. The warmth of the food and the juices, cooking the leaves to some extent. It’s the perfect summer food!

Sole (Trout) A La Basquaise

From Ginette Mathiot – I know how to cook
Ingredients

3 Dover or lemon sole, cleaned and skinned (I used a whole rainbow trout instead)
100ml white wine
1 tbsp chopped chives
2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
1 shallow
100g mushrooms, chopped
50g butter
200ml any stock
salt and pepper
juice of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Cut along the centre of the sole to remove and discard the central bones, and put the fish into an ovenproof dish. Pour in the wine and bake for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, mix together the chives, parsley, shallot, mushrooms and butter in a bowl to make the stuffing. Remove the fish from the oven and fill the cavities left by removing the bones with the stuffing, pour in the stock and season with salt and pepper. Reduce the oven temperature to 160 degrees, return the dish to the oven and bake for a further 10 minutes. Serve sprinkled with the lemon juice.

Instead of using 3 whole lemon sole, I swapped it with a whole rainbow trout. The recipe works well for this fish although I think you can reduce the amounts for the stuffing as the cavity for the trout is smaller. Alternatively, you can add the rest of the stuffing to the stock. In a way I prefer using the trout as it doesn’t require the removing of the bones for the sole. The total baking time for trout is 25 minutes at 200 degrees

Trout with cream

From I Know How to Cook – Ginette Mathiot

Serves 6

Ingredients

125g butter
6 small trout, cleaned
250g mushrooms finely chopped
150ml creme fraiche
2 egg yolks

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Melt half the butter in a large frying pan and fry the trout over a medium heat until browned, about 2-3 minutes each side. Transfer carefully to an ovenproof dish. Fry the mushrooms in the same pan for 5-10 minutes, then cover the fish with them. Beat the creme fraiche and egg yolks together in a bowl. Coat the fish and mushrooms with the mixture and bake for 10 minutes.