Recipe: Seafood at home
Recipes from an online fish market
Words Mitch Tonks
Hake cooked in the Basque style with garlic & sauce Romesco
San Sebastian is the place to eat hake. In Bar Ganbara we enjoyed a simple preparation of hake split throught the head and roasted over a fire, it was dressed with olive oil, vinegar and sliced dried peppers, a garnish we would see all along the coast at various fish restaurants and one which we now use at the seahorse a lot and has encouraged us with the use of more and more vinegar in our cooking.
Ingredients
4 x 180-200g Hake fillets
4 cloves garlic finely sliced
½ dried Nora/Choricero Chilles (soaked and deseeded)
100ml olive oil
20ml good agrodolce vinegar
1tsp chopped parsley
salt
Sauce Romesco
100g whole blanched almonds
4 dried Nora/Choricero chillies (soaked and deseeded)
6 cloves garlic, peeled
12 roasted pequillo peppers (or 6 roasted and peeled peppers)
1tsp sweet paprika
1tsp smoked paprika
¼ tsp hot smoked paprika
100ml olive oil
25ml sherry vinegar
salt
Method
Begin by making the sauce Romesco, put the almonds and soaked chillies in a food processor and pulse until roughly chopped. Add the garlic, peppers and spices and pulse again to combine.
Add the vinegar, olive oil and pinch of salt, pulse again to produce a thick sauce that is neither too chunky of too smooth.
Fry the hake fillets skin side down until lightly golden turn and transfer the pan to a hot oven. Roast the fish for about 5 minutes until just cooked through.
Whilst the hake is roasting put the garlic, olive oil, finely sliced dried chilli and pinch of salt into a small pan and put on a medium heat.
Cook gently stirring occasionally to distribute the garlic and chilli, as soon as the edges of the garlic begin to turn golden remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly, add a splash of sweet vinegar and the chopped parsley.
Remove the hake from the oven, put a fillet on each plate and peel away the skin, Immediately spoon a little sauce over each piece of fish and serve with a spoon of Romesco sauce.
Seared Scallops With Buttered Winter Cabbage, Champ And Parsley Sauce
Ingredients – serves 2
Half an onion
2 bay leaves
6 cloves
Few peppercorns
50g soft butter
2 tbsp flour
450ml milk
Handful of parsley leaf, finely chopped
500g potatoes, mashed
200ml double cream
6 spring onions, finely chopped
Sea salt and black pepper to season
8 scallops
1 small cabbage, finely chopped and blanched
Method:
Add the onion, bay leaf, cloves and peppercorns to the milk. (You can, if you wish, cut the onion, insert the bay leaves and then stick in the cloves thus making it easier to remove later.) Bring to the boil and leave to infuse for 15 minutes. Strain and set aside, discarding the onion and aromatics.
Melt 25g of the butter in the pan and sprinkle in the flour until you have a smooth paste – it should be of double cream consistency. Gradually pour on the milk until you have a sauce that coats the back of a spoon. Add the parsley and season to taste.
Warm the cream with the spring onions and then whisk into the mashed potato with the rest of the butter until luxuriously creamy. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside and keep warm.
To cook the scallops, brush lightly with oil and season with salt and pepper, and pan fry in a hot pan for 2 minutes or so on each side until caramelised and golden. Transfer to serving plates.
Finally, add a little butter to a pan, toss in the cabbage and swirl around and serve along with the champ, coating the dish with the parsley sauce.
Smoked haddock, potato, leek & egg salad
A really nice way of using smoked haddock. Always use the best quality you can and look for naturally smoked. The finest I have ever tasted comes from Grimsby, where the old methods have earnt them protected status; Alfred Enderby who in my opinion make the finest in the world.
Ingredients – serves 4
1 fillet of smoked haddock skinned and pinboned
200g jersey or salad potatoes washed and boiled and cool to room temperature
tablespoon fine chives
1 small leek very finely shredded, white part only
2 boiled eggs separated and finely chopped
6 tablespoons good mayonnaise
2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
1 tablespoon sugar dissolved in a tablespoon water
Method:
Warm some milk and poach the smoked haddock for 5-6 minutes until moist and cooked, flake the fish into a bowl and leave until just warm.
Place the leeks, potatoes & mustard in a bowl and stir together, lastly fold in the fish, and herbs and season.
Sprinkle with the chopped egg and serve
