Yoghurt-baked fish with walnut-herb crumbs

This recipe came from a fascinating dinner at which chef Greg Malouf cooked a selection of Iranian dishes from his book Saraban which he wrote with his former wife Lucy with whom he still collaborates. This unusual and simple fish dish in yoghurt particularly appealed to me and I thought it would to you too.

Mahi-e mast-gerdu
YOGHURT BAKED FISH WITH WALNUT–HERB CRUMBS

Greg writes: Although it might at first seem a little strange to bake fish in yoghurt, I guarantee that this wonderful dish from the north of Iran, with its crunchy walnut and herb topping, will surprise and delight you. You’ll need to select a firm white fish that becomes succulent and tender as it cooks – I find rock ling (a south Australian fish) ideal.

SERVES 6
unsalted butter, for greasing
1 kg firm white fish fillet, skin removed
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
rice and fresh herbs, to serve

WALNUT–HERB CRUMBS
150 g fresh breadcrumbs
150 g shelled walnuts, coarsely chopped
and sieved
1/4 cup shredded flat-leaf parsley leaves
1/4 cup shredded tarragon leaves or
dill sprigs
90 g unsalted butter, melted

YOGHURT SAUCE
250 g thick natural yoghurt
1/2 teaspoon cornflour
1 large egg
1 small shallot, finely diced
2 tablespoons finely snipped chives
juice of 1/2 lime
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Lightly butter a baking dish just large enough to fit the fish comfortably.

To make the walnut–herb crumbs, combine the ingredients thoroughly in a bowl.

To make the yoghurt sauce, whisk the yoghurt with the cornflour and egg. Stir in the shallot, chives, lime juice and oil and season lightly with salt and pepper.

Remove any stray bones from the fish, then cut the fillet into 6 even pieces. Season the fish lightly all over with salt and pepper and arrange in the baking dish. Pour the yoghurt sauce over the fish. Pack a generous layer of the walnut–herb crumbs on top of each piece of fish. Season lightly again and bake for 15–20 minutes, or until the topping is golden and crunchy and the fish is cooked through.

Serve straight away with your choice of rice and fresh herbs. (Greg served this with a simple pilau and the very pretty fresh herb and flower salad in my rather blurry picture, right)

What to drink: We actually drank a rather grand Chablis premier cru with this but I think a simple crisp white like a Picpoul de Pinet or an Albariño would work just as well.

Saraban is published by Hardie Grant at £30.

Risotto of smoked haddock, leeks and cauliflower with a vadouvan dressing

An unusually complicated recipe for this site but one which should be absolutely worth the effort. It comes from Phil Howard's fantastic The Square: The Cookbook volume 1 which I suspect is already well-thumbed in many restaurant kitchens.

When you look at it in detail, it's not that daunting either. Howard, a natural teacher, patiently talks you through the recipes, explaining the thinking behind each dish and what to focus on to make sure it's successful including - critically - the timing of the various components.

If you cooked one a month you'd have an impressive repertoire.

Serves 8

Smoked haddock is the primary ingredient of many great dishes and they all possess a similar comforting nature. It has a wonderful strong flavour, rounded, smoky and somehow very homely. Not only is it delicious in itself but it also imparts its flavour effortlessly to its surroundings. It is this quality that makes it so well suited to a leading role in a risotto, and on a cold winter’s day this mellow risotto, lifted with the curry-like flavour of the vadouvan dressing, is a perfect starter.

Overview

The smoked haddock is skinned and trimmed and the skin off-cuts are used, along with onion, leek, celery and cauliflower, to make the risotto’s base stock. The haddock is poached in milk, flaked and folded through the rice towards the end.

The risotto is finished with softened leeks, cauliflower, grated hard-boiled egg and butter and is drizzled with a vadouvan dressing – a curry-like emulsion of onions, vadouvan, vegetable stock and butter.

Focus on

-- Source large fillets of undyed smoked haddock, not the bright-yellow variety so often seen.

-- The quality of the finished risotto is reliant on the flavour of the base stock. Do not compromise on the quantity and quality of its ingredients and ensure you season it fully once made.

-- Vadouvan is a French take on curry and has a phenomenal flavour. It should be available through specialist shops but if all else fails, use a top-quality mild curry powder.

Key components

Smoked haddock

Smoked haddock stock

Vadouvan dressing

Timing

-- This is a simple dish but all its preparation needs to happen on the day. The stock can be made up to 4 hours in advance. The vadouvan dressing can be made then too. The leeks and cauliflower can be blanched 2 hours or so before the risotto is cooked and the vadouvan dressing should be made an hour before.

-- The smoked haddock should be poached 30 minutes before the risotto is finished. The risotto can be part cooked an hour before serving, thereby requiring only 5 minutes’ completion. It can of course be cooked in one continuous process, in which case simply omit the ‘break’ outlined in the method below.

INGREDIENTS

Smoked haddock

2 x 250g fillets of undyed smoked haddock, skin on

Smoked haddock stock

50g unsalted butter

2 white onions, sliced

2 leeks, sliced

50g cauliflower, sliced

2 celery sticks, sliced

the skin and off-cuts from the smoked haddock, above

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon peppercorns

Vadouvan dressing

1 white onion

50g unsalted butter

½ teaspoon celery salt

15g vadouvan powder

Other ingredients

4 large eggs

1 long, slim leek

4 cauliflower florets

2 celery sticks

90g unsalted butter

2 shallots, finely chopped

300g Carnaroli rice

500ml milk

50g Parmesan cheese, grated

 

METHOD

Smoked haddock

Skin the smoked haddock fillets. Run your fingers along the front end of each fillet to check for residual bones and remove any that you find. Trim away 1cm of the thinnest part on either side of the fillets and remove 3cm from the tail end. Reserve the skin and trimmings. Cut the haddock fillets in half and set aside, covered, in the fridge.

Smoked haddock stock

Place a large, heavy-based pan over a medium heat and leave for 1 minute. Add the butter, swirl the pan to melt it and then stir in the onions, leeks, cauliflower and celery. Add a pinch of salt and sweat for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the vegetables have softened. Add the smoked haddock skin and trimmings, the bay leaf and peppercorns and cover with 1.4 litres of water. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and cook at a bare simmer for 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave to rest for 15 minutes. Pass the stock through a colander into a bowl, discarding the solids, and then through a fine conical sieve. Taste the stock and season if necessary. Set aside to cool, then cover and chill.

Vadouvan dressing

Cut the onion in half through the root and cut each half in half again. Break the resulting quarters down into individual layers, methodically cut each layer into 3mm wide batons and then cut across into 3mm dice. Place a heavy-based pan over a medium heat and leave for 1 minute. Add 20g of the butter, swirl the pan to melt it, then add the onion and celery salt. Cook for 2–3 minutes, until tender. Add the vadouvan powder and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add 100ml of the smoked haddock stock, bring to the boil and cook at a bare simmer for 5 minutes. Add the remaining butter and turn off the heat. Briefly whisk to incorporate the butter and set aside.

Other ingredients

Bring one small and one medium pan of water to the boil and generously salt the small pan. Boil the eggs in the medium pan for 8 minutes, then lift them out, refresh under cold running water for 2 minutes and peel. Set aside, covered, in the fridge. Once they are cold, grate them on a coarse grater.

Remove the outside layer from the leek and cut the leek on the diagonal into 5mm-thick slices. Plunge into the pan of boiling salted water for 30 seconds, lift out and place on a tray lined with a kitchen cloth. Transfer immediately to the fridge. Do not refresh.

Break the cauliflower down into tiny florets and blanch them in the salted water for 1–2 minutes, until tender. Lift them out and set aside with the leeks.

Peel the celery sticks, cut across into slices 2mm thick, blanch in the salted water for 30 seconds, then refresh briefly in iced water and set aside with the other vegetables.

To part-cook the risotto

Place 700ml of the smoked haddock stock in a pan and bring to near boiling point. Place a large, heavy-based pan over a medium heat and leave for 1 minute. Add 50g of the butter, swirl the pan to melt it, then add the shallots and a pinch of salt and cook for 2–3 minutes, until softened. Add the rice and cook for 2 minutes longer, stirring frequently. Add a ladleful of stock, turn the heat down and cook, stirring frequently, until the stock has been absorbed. Add a little more and continue this process until you have no stock left. This should take about 12 minutes and the rice should be very much al dente. Tip the rice out on to a tray, leave to cool for 5 minutes and then cover with baking parchment.

Half an hour before finishing the risotto, pour the milk into a pan, place it over a medium heat and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, add the smoked haddock and leave it to poach for 2 minutes, then turn it over in the milk. When it is cool enough to handle, lift out the smoked haddock, gently break it into succulent flakes and set it and the poaching milk aside.

To serve

Pour 600ml of the stock into a pan and bring it to near boiling point. Put the rice into a large pan and place it over a medium heat. Add 100ml of the haddock poaching milk and stir continuously while it heats up. Continue to stir until the rice has absorbed the stock, then add a bit more and continue this process, tasting the rice as you go, until all but a small amount of stock has been added and/or the rice is nearly cooked – it should still be just al dente. Stir in the smoked haddock, leek, celery, cauliflower and egg. Add the remaining 40g butter and the Parmesan, remove from the heat and stir gently until the butter has melted and mixed in.

Place the vadouvan dressing over the heat until just warm. Lay out 8 preheated shallow bowls and divide the risotto between them. Drizzle a spoonful or two of vadouvan dressing over the top.

This recipe comes from The Square, The Cookbook Volume One: Savoury' by Philip Howard with photographs by Jean Cazals (Absolute Press £40) And online roughly what you'd pay for a main course at the Square or any other top London restaurant which makes it an absolute bargain in my book.

What to drink: The smoked haddock and vadouvan dressing are the key to the wine match here. I'd suggest a Pinot Gris or a Viognier or maybe an old-style white rioja like Muga's.

 

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

A Champagne (or sparkling wine) tasting and Russian-style smoked salmon and 'caviar' feast

In the run-up Christmas there’s not much time for time-consuming dinner parties so this tasting and light supper is a fun and indulgent way to entertain good friends. Ask each of them to bring a chilled* bottle of bubbly - Champagne or otherwise - provide a couple of your own, cover up the bottles and taste them ‘blind’. Great fun for a start to see who can spot the ‘real’ Champagne (don’t worry if you can’t - many professionals are fooled by these kind of exercises) and a delicious way to get into festive mood.

I’d include a well known brand such as Moet et Chandon or Veuve Clicquot, a ‘grower’s’ Champagne (I like Serge Mathieu in the Aube), a supermarket own brand Champagne, a good quality Californian sparkling wine such as Roederer Quartet (Anderson Valley Brut in the US) and a quality Australian sparkler such as Green Point but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t pop an easier-to-spot Prosecco or a Cava into the line-up.

Follow your tasting with a Russian-style smoked salmon and ‘caviar’ feast followed by a light grape and lemon tiramisu tart. Totally simple but none the less impressive for that.

* sparkling wine should always be chilled prior to opening otherwise the pressure in the bottle can create an explosive release of the cork

A Russian-style smoked salmon and ‘caviar’ feast

I once had a meal like this in St Petersburg with real caviar and fake Champagne or champanskya as they call it in Russia. I suggest you reverse that and serve real fizz and a caviar substitute.

For eight people you will need:

About 1 kg good quality finely sliced smoked salmon
3-4 x 50g jars of a caviar substitute such as Onuga (or, of course, caviar if you’re feeling wildly extravagant!)
1 x 284ml carton sour cream
1 mild, sweet white onion, peeled and finely chopped
4 large hard boiled eggs, peeled and finely chopped
3 lemons, cut into wedges
Black pepper
A selection of breads and crispbreads such as Irish brown soda bread, light rye bread or rye crackers and/or some blinis

All you need do is lay out the smoked salmon and put all the accompaniments in bowls or on serving dishes for people to help themselves. It really couldn’t be easier.

Recommended wine match: Champagne or dry Champagne-style sparkling wine (see above)

Grape and lemon tiramisu tart

This is an unbelievably easy and impressive looking tart with a tiramisu-style topping that goes wonderfully well with a sparkling moscato. The quantities given will serve 4-6 so make two tarts for 8.

230g pack of ready rolled puff pastry or 225g home made puff pastry rolled thinly into a 28cm (11 in) circle
2 large eggs, separated
2 level tbsp caster sugar + 1 tsp for sprinkling on the pastry
1 x 250g tub of mascarpone
2 1/2 tbsp Limoncello liqueur
250g/ 9 oz white seedless or halved and seeded grapes, rinsed and dried
250g/9 oz red seedless or halved and seeded grapes, rinsed and dried
1 level tsp icing sugar

You will need a large square baking sheet (about 31 x 33cm), lightly greased

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6. Take the pastry out of the fridge and let it rest for 10 minutes before you use it. Unroll it carefully onto the baking sheet, removing the greaseproof paper and cut about a 1 1/2 cm strip off round the edge to leave you with a 28cm circle. Lightly whisk the egg whites and brush a thin layer onto the pastry. Sprinkle with 1 tsp of sugar then prick the base all over with the prongs of a fork and bake for 10-12 minutes until puffy and brown. Leave on one side to cool while you make the topping. Tip the mascarpone into a bowl and gradually work in the Limoncello. Whisk the egg yolks with the remaining caster sugar until pale, thick and creamy. Gently fold the mascarpone mix into the eggs until thoroughly blended. When the pastry base is cool transfer it to a large serving plate or tray and spread over the creamed mascarpone with a spatula, taking it almost up to the edges. Scatter the grapes randomly over the surface so you get a nice mix of colours. Sift the icing sugar over the top and serve straight away or chill the tart for a couple of hours then sprinkle with icing sugar.

Note: this recipe contains raw eggs

Recommended wine match: great with a gently sparkling, sweet Moscato d’Asti or Asti