Roasted cod with a coriander crust

The cookbook I've probably cooked most from in the last couple of years is Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley's fabulous Falastin which is all about the food of Sami's Palestinian childhood together with some more contemporary recipes of which this is one.

"The combination of fish and tahini is one we find hard to resist, but this works just as well without the tahini sauce if you’re looking for a shortcut or want to keep the focus on the lemon. Either way, this is as close to fast food as you can get. It’s a 15-minute meal to make, beginning to end. Possibly even less time to eat.

If you are using the tahini sauce, make the whole quantity below. . It keeps in the fridge for about 4 days and is lovely to have around to drizzle over all sorts of roasted vegetables, meat, fish and salads."

Playing around: Any other meaty white fish works just as well here: sea bass and halibut, for example. Salmon also works well.

Roasted cod with a coriander crust
Samak mashew bil cozbara w al limon

Serves 4

60ml olive oil

4 garlic cloves, crushed

50g coriander, finely chopped

2 1/2 tsp fish spice mix (see below)

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

4 large cod loin (or another sustainably sourced white fish), skin on (about 700g)

4 large fresh bay leaves (optional)

2 lemons: cut one into 8 very thin slices, and quarter the other lengthways, into wedges, to serve

About 4 tbsp/65g tahini sauce (optional) (see below), to serve

Salt and black pepper

Preheat the oven to 250°C fan

Put 2 tablespoons of oil into a small saucepan and place on a medium-low heat. Add the crushed garlic and cook for 10 seconds, then add the coriander, fish spice mix, chilli flakes, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and a grind of black pepper.

Cook for 4–5 minutes, stirring frequently, for the garlic to really soften, then remove from the heat.

Place the cod in a parchment-lined roasting dish, skin side down, and brush with the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Season lightly with salt and pepper then spoon the coriander mix on top of each fillet. Spread it out so that the whole top is covered, then top each one with a bay leaf, if using, along with 2 slices of lemon. Roast for 7–8 minutes, or until the fish is cooked through.

Serve at once, with about a tablespoon of tahini sauce drizzled over, if using, and a wedge of lemon alongside.

Fish spice mix

2 tsp ground cardamom

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp paprika

2 tsp ground turmeric

Place all the spices in a bowl and mix well to combine. If making more than you need transfer to a sealed container where it will keep for a month

Tahini sauce

150g tahini

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 garlic clove, crushed

Salt

Mix together all the ingredients along with 120ml of water and 1/4 tsp salt. If it is too runny add a bit more tahini. If it is too thick, add a bit more lemon juice or water. You want the consistency to be like that of a smooth, runny nut butter. It will thicken up when left to sit around so just give it a stir and some more lemon juice or water every time you use it. It keeps in the fridge for 3-4 days.

What to drink: Any crisp dry white such as Picpoul de Pinet or an albarino will work

Extracted from FALASTIN: A COOKBOOK by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley (Ebury Press, £27) Photography by Jenny Zarins.

I paired one of Sami and Tara's other recipes - lamb koftas with tahini - in my Match of the Week slot

Scallop Ceviche

If you're looking for an impressive dish for Valentine's Day try this delicious scallop ceviche from Rick and Katie Toogood's Prawn on the Lawn: Fish and Seafood to Share. (It feeds 4 but I'm sure you can manage it between you!)

Prawn on the Lawn started in London as a seafood bar and fishmonger and now has an outpost in Padstow, Cornwall.

Rick writes: "Martin Morales, owner of the amazing Ceviche restaurants, really opened my eyes to the process of ‘cooking’ fish by using citrus. It was just before we opened the Islington branch of POTL that Katie and I at at his awesome restaurant on Frith Street, London. For us, not having any cooking facilities in the original POTL, this was the perfect way to enhance the flavours of our fresh fish and shellfish without using any heat.

‘Tiger’s milk’ is the Peruvian term for the citrus-based marinade that cures the seafood in a ceviche. In Peru, this invigorating potion is often served in a small glass alongside the ceviche and is believed to be a hangover cure as well as an aphrodisiac."

Serves 4

For the tiger’s milk:

1 stick of celery, roughly chopped

1 garlic clove

1 fresh green chilli

juice of 3 small limes

½ a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled

9 sustainably sourced scallops, roes removed, thinly sliced into discs

seeds of 1 passion fruit

1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely diced

a handful of coriander (cilantro) leaves (use micro-coriander, if you can find it)

Using a food processor or blender, blitz all the ingredients for the tiger’s milk thoroughly. Pass through a sieve, to remove the pulp, and set the liquid to one side.

Lay the scallop slices out on a serving plate and pour the tiger’s milk evenly over the top, making sure each slice is covered. Drizzle the passion fruit seeds over (try to get roughly 1–2 passion fruit seeds on each scallop), sprinkle with the red chilli and garnish with the coriander leaves. Serve immediately.

What to drink: Peruvian wines are few and far between so I'd go for an aromatic Argentinian Torrontes with this dish. Rick and Katie suggest champagne or sparkling albarino.

Extract from Prawn on the Lawn: Fish and seafood to share by Katie & Rick Toogood, published by Pavilion Books. Image credit: Steven Joyce.

Salted Salmon with Tarragon Butter

This recipe comes from a fascinating book by award-winning food writer Sybil Kapoor called Sight Smell Touch Taste Sound which reveals the role our senses can play in the way we cook and eat.

This simple delicious recipe from a chapter on taste shows how salt can highlight taste and texture of fish like salmon.

Sybil writes: "Fish and meat in European cooking are traditionally salted to help preserve them – for example, smoked salmon or duck confit. In countries such as China and Japan, salting is also used to change the texture of food and, equally importantly, to remove fishy or meaty odours, partly by extracting blood and bitter juices.

Dry salting, such as here, is used for oily fish such as mackerel, herring and salmon. The longer any ingredient is salted, the more liquid is extracted and the saltier the ingredient will taste. The art is to allow just enough salt to develop the umami tastes, but not so much that all the tastes are submerged beneath the salt. The tarragon butter adds a tempting rich texture and depth of flavour."

Serves 6

6 x 175 g/6 oz salmon fillets with skin

3 tsp fine sea salt

2–3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

For the tarragon butter

1 tbsp finely chopped tarragon leaves

1 lemon, finely grated, plus 1 tsp juice

55 g/2 oz/scant 4 tbsp

unsalted butter, softened

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place a plate or tray large enough to hold the fish on the work surface. Evenly sprinkle the surface of the plate/tray with half the salt. Lay the fillets skin-side down on the plate/tray, then sprinkle the remaining salt over the fish. Chill for 40 minutes.

Make the tarragon butter by beating together the chopped tarragon, lemon zest and juice and butter in a small bowl. Very lightly season to taste, as the fish is already salty. Spoon the butter onto some greaseproof (wax) paper to roughly form a sausage shape – roll up the paper and gently roll it under your fingers until it forms a smooth cylinder.

Chill until needed.

Preheat 2 non-stick frying pans (skillets) over a medium-high heat. Once hot, add 1–1½ tbsp olive oil to each pan, then add 3 salmon fillets, flesh-side down, to each pan. Fry briskly for 3 minutes, or until seared and golden, then turn and cook for 3–4 minutes, or until the skin is crisp and the salmon is just cooked through. Plate the salmon, topping each fillet with a round slice of tarragon butter. Serve immediately.

What to drink:

I particularly like chardonnay with tarragon (see What wine should you pair with herbs) so I'd probably go for a Chablis or other subtly oaked chardonnay but a crisp sauvignon blanc from the Loire such as a Sancerre or Pouilly Fumé would also work well.

For other salmon pairings see 10 great wine pairings with salmon

Recipe from Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste, Sound: A New way to cook by Sybil Kapoor, published by Pavilion Books. Image © Keiko Oikawa

Yogurt & spice roasted salmon

A new Sabrina Ghayour book is always a treat, especially her most recent one Simply, which is packed full of her trademark flavourful recipes. I've tried a couple of them now but particularly liked this ridiculously easy, tasty salmon dish.

Sabrina writes: I love to cook salmon in the oven. It’s lazy, quick, works really well and you don’t need any oil, as salmon is naturally fatty and delicious.

These little salmon bites are something I’ve made time and time again over the years and this method of roasting them at a high temperature ensures you get a little charring on the outside yet perfectly cooked salmon on the inside. Leftovers also make a great addition to your lunchbox the next day.

Serves 4

500g skinless salmon fillet, cut into 4cm cubes

For the marinade

4 tablespoons Greek yogurt

1 tablespoon garlic granules

1 heaped tablespoon rose harissa 1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon paprika

finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lime and a good squeeze of juice

1 teaspoon olive oil

generous amount of Maldon sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper

To serve

tortilla wraps

sliced tomatoes

finely sliced onion

coriander leaves

Greek yogurt

Preheat your oven to its highest setting (with fan if it has one). Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Add the salmon and turn until well coated in the marinade.

Spread the salmon out on the prepared baking tray and roast for 10 minutes until cooked through. Remove from the oven and serve immediately with tortilla wraps, tomatoes, finely sliced onion, coriander leaves and Greek yogurt.

What to drink: A crisp zesty white like a Rueda or New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc would be perfect with this or a lime Australian riesling

And for other salmon pairings see 10 great wine pairings with salmon

Simply: Easy Everyday Dishes from the Bestselling Author of Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour is published by Mitchell Beazley, £26.00,www.octopusbooks.co.uk. Photography: Kris Kirkham