Recipes

Fish in coconut milk (Macher Malaikari)

Fish in coconut milk (Macher Malaikari)

I don’t always think of using fish in a curry but it takes such a short time to cook it makes a brilliantly quick meal.

This recipe comes from Asma Khan’s Asma’s Indian Kitchen which features the same traditional Indian Home cooking she serves at her London restaurant Darjeeling Express.

Asma writes: “For a long time I was under the impression that the name of this dish derived from the Hindi word ‘malai’, meaning cream. Recently, however, I discovered that the origin of this creamy, coconut-based fish curry may be a little more ‘foreign’. During colonial rule, this dish was made in the Malay Peninsula by Bengali labourers who were sent there by the British to build the railways. Coconut milk is frequently used in East Asian cuisine, but rarely in Bengali dishes. The fact that this dish was once called ‘Malaya-Kari’ explains the use of coconut milk, as opposed to mustard and mustard oil, which is the more common base for fish and seafood dishes in Bengal.

Serves 4

4 halibut, plaice or tilapia fillets (approximately 750 g/1 lb 10 oz)

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp vegetable oil

2 large white onions, thinly sliced into half moons

1 tbsp garlic paste

1½ tbsp fresh ginger paste

¼ tsp chilli powder

1 tbsp tomato purée (tomato paste)

1 x 400-ml/14-fl oz tin full-fat coconut milk

A pinch of sugar

To garnish

Green chillies, finely sliced

Coriander (cilantro) leaves, chopped

Place the fish fillets on a plate, sprinkle over half the ground turmeric and half the salt and rub into the fillets. Leave for a minimum of 10 minutes but no longer than 30 minutes.

In a heavy-based frying pan (skillet), heat the oil over a medium–high heat.

Add the sliced onions to the pan and fry gently, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and caramelized. Using a slotted spoon, remove the onions from the pan, leaving as much of the oil in the pan as possible to cook the other ingredients, and place on a plate to drain. Spread the onions across the plate so they crisp as they cool.

You should have enough oil left in the pan to fry the fish; if not, add another 1 tbsp vegetable oil. In the same pan, flash-fry the fish fillets for 20–30 seconds on both sides to seal. Do not allow the fish to cook.

Remove the fish from the pan and set aside on a plate.

Keeping the heat at medium–high, add the garlic and ginger pastes to the pan and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the remaining ground turmeric and the chilli powder. If the pastes stick to the base of the pan, sprinkle over some water. Add the tomato purée, 4 tbsp warm water, the remaining salt and the fried onions, then cook for few minutes until the oil has seeped to the edges of the pan.

Return the fish fillets to the pan and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add the coconut milk, then immediately remove the pan from the heat and carefully turn each fillet over. Taste the coconut milk and adjust the seasoning with sugar or salt as necessary. Before serving, garnish with sliced green chillies and chopped coriander.

What to drink: I’d go for a crisp dry white wine like an albarino with this or a dry riesling.

This recipe comes from ‘Asma’s Indian Kitchen: Home-cooked food brought to you by Darjeeling Express’ by Asma Khan, published by Pavilion Books. Image credit to Kim Lightbody.

White onion and bay leaf soup with Ogleshield and hazelnuts

White onion and bay leaf soup with Ogleshield and hazelnuts

I ordered this amazing soup at one of my favourite local Bristol restaurants Wallfish (now Wallfish & Wellbourne) and begged the recipe from the chef, Seldon Curry. It's tastes like the sweetest of oniony fondues and is soooo delicious.

Serves 6-8 (it's rich so you only need a small bowl)

125g butter

1250g white onions, peeled and finely sliced

5g salt

2 bay leaves

25g plain flour

600ml full cream milk plus extra if you need it

175g grated Ogleshield or Raclette cheese

For the garnish

3-4 tbsp rapeseed oil

75g roughly chopped roasted hazelnuts

2-3 tbsp finely chopped parsley

Melt the butter in a large pan and tip in the onions. Stir thoroughly to coat with butter then add the salt and bay leaves. Put a lid on the pan and cook over a low heat for about 45 minutes until deliciously soft and sweet.

Sprinkle over the flour, stir and cook for 5 minutes then gradually add the milk, stirring until smooth and continue to cook over a low heat for about 15 minutes. Remove the bayleaves, add the Ogleshield then take off the heat and pass in batches through a blender until smooth. (You can sieve it for extra smoothness if you want). Return to the pan, check the seasoning, adding a touch more milk if you need to thin it down.

To serve ladle the soup into warm bowls, drizzle over the rapeseed oil and sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts and parsley.

What to drink: You could either drink a crisp white wine like a chablis or an albarino or a dry cider.

Smoked trout with griddled lemon, cucumber & sourdough croutons

Smoked trout with griddled lemon, cucumber & sourdough croutons

A fresh, simple, clever recipe for two from one of the most charming of last year's cookery books, Rosie Birkett's A Lot on her Plate

Rosie writes: "This dish, Scandinavian in tone thanks to the pickles and smoked fish, takes ingredients that you may have lying around – lemon, cucumber and bread – and transforms them into something special, by charring them to add a smoky dimension and intensify their natural flavours. I get my smoked trout from Mike Scott, the chef at Hackney’s wonderful Raw Duck restaurant, who smokes it himself at home, but this would work with any good-quality smoked fish, be it trout, mackerel or hot-smoked salmon.

Serves 2

1 tablespoon caster (superfine) sugar

1 tablespoon cider vinegar (get the good unpasteurised stuff if you can)

2 radishes, finely sliced

sea salt

2 baby or Lebanese cucumbers, cut in half lengthwise and halved across the middle

1 lemon, cut in half

1 slice of sourdough bread

6 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for grilling

2 tablespoons roughly chopped dill

2 smoked trout fillets, skin removed

borage flowers, to garnish (optional)

4 teaspoons plain natural yoghurt, to serve

Dissolve the sugar in the vinegar in a small bowl and quick-pickle the radish slices in the mixture.

Heat a griddle pan over a high heat until it’s stinking hot. Scatter with a pinch of sea salt. Brush the cucumber pieces, cut sides of the lemon and sourdough bread with olive oil and griddle for about 8 minutes, until there are black grill marks on them, turning the bread and cucumber over once.

When the ingredients are grilled, remove from the heat and squeeze the lemon juice into a bowl with the olive oil. Whisk with a fork, add the dill and a pinch of salt, and whisk some more, until well combined. Cut the sourdough into croutons.

Drain the radishes from their pickle liquor and place on kitchen paper to absorb the excess vinegar. Divide the cucumber between two plates and flake over the smoked trout. Top with the radish slices and drizzle over the dill and lemon oil.

Scatter over the sourdough croutons and borage flowers, if using, and finish eachserving with a couple of teaspoons of natural yoghurt.

What to drink: I think you want something equally fresh-tasting with this. A crisp dry white like a Picpoul or an Albarino would be good or try a (genuinely) dry young riesling

From A Lot on her Plate by Rosie Birkett (Hardie Grant, £25.00) Photography: Helen Cathcart. For more recipes see Rosie's website.

Barbequed brochette of prawns, squid and courgette with sauce vierge

Barbequed brochette of prawns, squid and courgette with sauce vierge

A stunning recipe from Bruce Poole's cookbook Bruce's Cookbook that shows barbeques don't have to be all about burgers and ribs.

Bruce's restaurant Chez Bruce in Wandsworth in south London, is a place where chefs - and food writers - like to go when they're off-duty. This is one of the simpler recipes in the book which by and large isn't one of those 'quick'n'easy' volumes but a serious collection of recipes for people who want to turn out Michelin-standard - but not fiddly - food. A must-buy for any cookbook collector.

Serves 4 as a main course or more in smaller form as part of a bigger barbecue offering

2 large courgettes, topped and tailed
salt
8 fresh baby squid, each one no longer than 10cm, cleaned by the fishmonger
12 large, raw prawns, thawed if frozen
1 lemon
For the sauce vierge
6 large ripe plum tomatoes, blanched and skinned
2 large shallots, peeled and finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and minced
salt and freshly ground black pepper
your best olive oil
1 small bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked and torn

Light the barbecue. Slice the courgettes lengthways on a mandolin into thin, 2mm-thick slices. Sprinkle with salt and leave to disgorge in a colander for half an hour or so.

To make the sauce vierge, separate the tomato flesh from the seeds and pulp and discard the latter. Cut the flesh into neat 1cm dice and combine with the shallots in a mixing bowl. Add the garlic and season with salt and pepper. Leave for 15 minutes to encourage the salt to get to work with the toms. Add a good slug of olive oil and the torn basil. Adjust the seasoning and reserve at room temperature.

Dry the courgettes on absorbent kitchen paper and roll them up into tight coils. Fold each squid in half. Thread the folded squid, the courgette coils and the prawns on to the skewers evenly. Don’t worry unduly if there is an uneven number of courgettes.

Season the brochettes with salt and pepper just prior to grilling. Place them without any oil on to the barbecue and cook until pleasantly charred all over – about 5 minutes in total. Transfer to a plate and sprinkle with olive oil and lemon juice. Serve with the sauce vierge and perhaps some couscous, or a cold rice or pasta salad.

What to drink: Plenty of possibilities - a crisp, elegant Sauvignon Blanc, an Albario or a dry Italian white like a Vermentino would all be good. Or - and I suspect Bruce might well go for this himself - a bone dry Alsace grand cru Riesling.

 

Zarzuela

Zarzuela

A robust Spanish fish stew from Stevie Parle's fabulous new Dock Kitchen Cookbook. Stevie is one of the best -travelled and most original chefs in London with a well-honed magpie tendency of picking up ingredients and techniques from every country he visits. He also writes a weekly column in the Daily Telegraph.

Catalonian fish stew with mussels (zarzuela)

Serves 6

This Catalonian recipe first caught my eye because of its extraordinary name. A beautiful saffron-laced fish stew, it is baked in the oven with a picada of almonds, garlic, saffron and parsley. Picada is a useful tool, a way to add punch, usually with raw garlic, sometimes paprika or almonds.

Zarzuela is also the name of an operetta or a variety show in Spain; I imagine the name comes from the many kinds of fish in the stew.

500g monkfish tail

1 small red onion, roughly chopped

½ small heart of celery, roughly chopped

olive oil

2 bay leaves

2 sprigs of thyme

1 tsp paprika piccante

400g can of whole plum tomatoes, washed of

their juice

200ml white wine

50g coarse breadcrumbs

2 garlic cloves, green sprouts removed

sea salt

a few sprigs of parsley

pinch of saffron

50g blanched almonds (preferably Spanish)

1 red mullet, filleted

400g wild bass fillet, cut into 4 pieces

200g small, clean rope-grown mussels

If it hasn’t already been done by your fishmonger, pull the skin from the monkfish: you should be able to do this with your hands and the occasional nick with a sharpknife to help you on your way. Cut the fish through the central bone into four pieces.

Fry the onion and celery in a heavy-based pan in olive oil with the bay leaves, thyme and paprika. After about 10 minutes, once the vegetables are soft, add the tomatoes, increase the heat and add the white wine. Simmer for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.

Meanwhile, make the picada. Fry the breadcrumbs in a generous splash of olive oil until golden and crunchy. Crush the garlic with salt, parsley and saffron, add thealmonds and pound until coarsely ground. Add the fried breadcrumbs and set aside while you assemble the dish.

Place the monkfish, red mullet and bass in an earthenware oven tray and pour over the tomato sauce. Add a little water and the mussels, then sprinkle over thepicada. Bake in the hot oven until the fish is easy to flake apart and the mussels open (about 15 minutes).

Serve with a plate of greens or potatoes liberally dressed with olive oil and sherry vinegar.

What to drink:
There are several ways to go with this robustly-flavoured dish. My own preference, I think, would be for a dry Spanish rosado from Rioja or Navarra but you could drink an Albarino or even a young red like the increasingly fashionable Mencia or a young (joven) Rioja. Chilled manzanilla sherry would be great too.

You can visit the Dock Kitchen website here - it's a little out of the way but has a great atmosphere and fabulous food. Well worth a visit.

Photograph © Toby Glanville

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