Fish Friday - Fabulously Tasty

Catch of the Day

Too many are turned off the idea off cooking with fish - too bony, too smelly, too difficult, too samey.

This is a small collection of easy fishy ideas, without bones, off putting smells with flavours you're bound to enjoy.

Salmon, Dill & Tatties

Buy 300g of skinless salmon and cut it into large cubes. Pop it on a plate and into the fridge. Wash your hands - smells gone. Peel and cut about 500g of waxy potatoes (Charlotte or Anya) and set them aside.

Slice 1 or 2 leeks and 1 red onion and soften them in half and half butter and oil. Add 2 cloves of grated garlic, 2 good tsp of Stokes Cider & Horseradish Mustard and 2 tsp of our Mustard & Dill Sauce. After 5 minutes add the potatoes, gently pushing them about the pan to brown them without breaking them, then cover with Vegetable Stock, put the lid on and simmer for 20 minutes until the potatoes are just tender.

Add the salmon, cover and simmer for 5 minutes then rest for 5 minutes. This makes a lovely lunch or light supper with a juicy stock of leek and onions infused with mustard and dill - delicious.

Cod and Rich Tomato Sauce

Any meaty white fish will do for this but today we're using a lovely piece of cod loin, cut into portion sized steaks. As with the salmon, above, the fish is the last thing we worry about.

Now for the hugely tomatoey sauce: soften 2 finely diced shallots in olive oil for 5 minutes then add 2 grated cloves of garlic, a tin of chopped tomatoes, 125ml of red wine and half the empty tomatoes tin of water. Bring to a rapid boil and simmer to reduce the liquid.

Chop and add 100g (half a tub) of sun dried tomatoes, 1 tbsp of chopped thyme, 4 tbsp of Stokes Tomato (or Bloody Mary) Ketchup and 1 tbsp of our Brown Sauce.

[TIP: if you would like a bit of smoky heat, shake a little of our Chipotle Ketchup into the flavoursome mix too.]

When you are happy with the rich intensity of the taste, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer, put the fish steaks on top, cover and, in about 6 or 8 minutes (depending on the thickness of the fish), it will be ready to serve with some new potatoes.

Sea Bass with Mushrooms

Try this with fillets of Sea Bass, Sea Bream, Plaice or Tilapia (more on Tilapia - HERE).

To simply fry the fish, dry it all over with kitchen paper and season it. Lightly coat a frying pan with vegetable or rapeseed oil and, before it gets hot, add the fish, skin side down (if it's too hot when you put the fish in, it tends to curl up in shock - I know, I'd do the same).

Press the fillets down flat with a fish slice of spatula. As the pan gets up to full heat, the skin starts to sizzle, firm and crisp up. You'll see the fish cook from the bottom up. After 3 (or 4 depending on its thickness) minutes, flip it over and cook for a further 2 minutes, without touching it. Put the fillets on a warm plate as you finish the mushrooms.

Slice and fry mushrooms in butter. Stir in 125ml of white wine, 2 tsp of Stokes Dijon Mustard and a shake of our Bloody Mary Ketchup as you add double cream, sufficient to thicken a sauce.

[TIP: melting a knob of butter into the mushroom sauce will help it thicken and shine.]

Fish Tagine

Again, you can use any fish with this. Here, we're using Sea Bass fillets which steam on top of the tagine in the last minutes of its cooking. We don't have an actual tagine, so use a flame and ovenproof casserole dish with a lid.

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6. Soften 2 roughly chopped onions and a red pepper in the casserole for 6 minutes then add 2 grated cloves of garlic. Quarter 3 or 4 tomatoes and add them to the pot with, 4 x quartered preserved lemons, a roughly sliced bulb of fennel and 3 or 4 peeled, quartered potatoes.

For the fragrant spices use - 1 tsp of paprika, 1 of cumin and 1 of turmeric with 1 tbsp of Ras el Hanout powder or paste. Now the taste of Stokes - 4 tbsp of our Tomato Ketchup, 2 tbsp of Brown Sauce (for its rich date and Persian spices) and 4 tbsp of Stokes Spiced Apricot Chutney (for exactly what it says on the jar - it's a tagine must).

Add 200ml of vegetable stock, season, stir, simmer, cover and pop it in the oven for 25 minutes. When the potatoes are tender, put the fish fillets on top of the spiced vegetables, lid on and back into the oven for just 5 minutes, rest for 5 and serve.

The aromatically spiced stew is an intensely flavoursome base on which to steam the fish.

Great Taste for all Occasions

Order your 'Great Taste' - HERE

More foodie thoughts for the week:

 

Gorgeous with Guinness - 
Guinness as a marinade, Guinness as an ingredient and Guinness in a Chocolate Chilli Cake ... it's all - here.




 



Joyous with Jam - 
'What's in YOUR Jam' - discover the ins and outs of jam that fall somewhere between 'why' ... and 'wow' - here.



 




Meet Rick & Roo - 
Enjoy this and other Social Sharing - here.

If good food makes you happy
...adding Stokes will make you smile ;)

FOOD MADE BETTER 
www.stokessauces.co.uk

01394 462150