Lemon Caper Butter Sauce

A visit to the Wynyard Quarter and playground and Auckland Fish Market found me with some lovely fresh fish in a weekend when I had time to think about a new way to serve it.
I search Pintrest for a lemon caper butter sauce and this was what I found. It is really easy and really nice. Miss 6 had hers as a side dish and happily dipped her fish in it!











Lemon Caper Butter Sauce

Ingredients: 

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, in all 1 tablespoon finely minced garlic 4 tablespoons small capers, rinsed and drained ​6 tablespoons lemon juice 2 tablespoons lemon zest ​1 tablespoon finely minced parsley

Method: 

Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and heat, stirring, until fragrant. Add the capers and lemon juice and bring to a simmer. Stir in the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter one at a time, whisking to emulsify. Remove from heat, and add the lemon zest and parsley. Serve at once.

Baked Fish Parcels

I feel like a bit of a fraud writing this in because it is so easy, but I had a request for it to be included so here goes...
This is one of those dishes that can be prepared in advance and is pretty healthy - depending on what you add to it to flavour it. Because the fish is sealed within baking paper it is steamed to cook it.



This is simply fish fillets baked in baking paper. I do this as individual servings to cater for little people's tastes or as a dish for the family.

It's as simple as laying the fish on the paper (a big piece with lots of overlapping paper to fold up) then adding things to flavour it.


This could include a combination of some of the following:

• a slug of white wine
• little knobs of butter
• soft green herbs such as basil, parsley, chives 
• tomatoes
• capsicum
• mushrooms
• spring onion
• chilli sauce
• lemon or lime
• cheese

Twist up the sides of the paper so the fish steams then put in the oven.
A single serve will cook in about 8 minutes at 180 degrees C
A family serving will need abut 15 minutes.

It's important to remember that the fish will keep cooking after it comes out of the oven, so its ok to take it out when its not quite cooked through.

Fish With Parsley and Hazelnut Crust

I'd marked this recipe in the most recent Cuisine magazine...it was another of the quick weekday meals - the Chicken Pilaf I made last week was one of these too.

The recipe was for the fish and also included a vege dish to go with it. What a great meal.
Of course I substituted ingredients...for some reason hazelnuts are hard to find at the moment. I've tried a few places, so I substituted with cashews. My parsley supply has been gobbled by our chickens - ha! fixed them today by installing some new fencing and reclaiming our gardens. I substituted the parsley with coriander.  I also added a lime infused oil in the nut mix to bind it together adn then used this to cook the veges.

I really liked this dish. The layered potatoes and leek was really easy...in fact the whole dish was pretty easy. We will be eating it again.

Roasted fish with parsley & hazelnut crust

SERVES: 4
2 tablespoons olive oil 
4 red-skinned potatoes, washed, thinly sliced 
1 large leek, white part only, thinly sliced 
1 1⁄2 cups (375ml) gluten-free vegetable stock 
3⁄4 cup flat-leafed parsley leaves, finely chopped 
1⁄3 cup hazelnuts, roasted, finely chopped 
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest 
1 clove garlic, finely chopped 
4 (about 180g each) skinned and boned John Dory fillets 
300g brussels sprouts, thickly sliced 
1 cup frozen peas 

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Brush a roasting pan with 1 teaspoon of the oil. Layer the potatoes and leek in a thin layer over the base of the pan then drizzle with 1 cup of the stock. Bake for 20 minutes. 

Meanwhile, mix together the parsley, hazelnuts, zest, garlic and 1 1⁄2 tablespoons of the remaining oil. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Put the fish on a clean work surface. Spoon the parsley mixture evenly over one side of each fillet, using the back of the spoon to lightly press to secure. Remove the potato mixture from the oven and arrange the fish over the potato, crust side up. Return to the oven and bake for a further 6-8 minutes or until the potato is tender and the fish is just cooked.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the sprouts and fry, tossing, for 3-4 minutes or until lightly golden. Add the remaining stock and the peas and bring to the boil then cook, tossing, for 2-3 minutes or until the peas are heated through and the sprouts are tender. Taste and season. 

Spoon the potato mixture and fish on to serving plates. Serve with the sprouts mixture.

Green Tea Salmon and Coconut Rice

We watched this on Jamie Oliver's 15 minute meals several weeks ago and liked the look of it. After a trip to Auckland Fish Market today where we bought salmon it seemed like a good opportunity to give it a go.
While it took more than the '15 minutes' promised it is a good one to add to our repertoire.

When we saw it on TV Jamie only used a couple of tea bags. I used a lot...possibly too many.

The coconut rice was ok but not all of the family liked it so it probably wont be one we make again.

Green Tea Salmon and Coconut Rice

4 x 120g salmon fillets, skin-on

2 green tea bags

Olive oil

Salt / pepper

400g tin of coconut milk

300g basmati rice

½ lemon

method

1. Fill and boil the kettle
2. Place the salmon onto a plate, open the green tea bags and shake the green tea over the salmon. Season with salt and pepper and make sure the salmon is evenly coated on all sides.
3. Pour a small amount of olive oil into a frying pan over a medium heat and place the salmon in the pan, skin side down. Fry the skin side for at least four minutes then periodically turn the salmon until it is golden brown on the other sides.
4. Wash the rice thoroughly until the water runs clear then add it to a saucepan with the coconut milk, 400g water (refill the coconut milk tin) and half a lemon. Bring the water to a boil then place a lid on the saucepan and turn the heat all the way down. Cook for 10 minutes then turn off the heat.

Fish Pie with Slow Cooker Mashed Potato

I've had this mashed potato recipe pinned on 'Pintrest' for a while and was interested to give it a try.
It worked really well. I'm not sure it is a better option to boiling the potatoes but worth having as an option. The recipe said to leave the skins on. I decided not to as the mashed potato was topping a fish pie.
I used a Manuka smoke infused salt from Prenzel in the potato to bring a smokey flavour into the dish. I really like fish pie using smoked fish but today had fresh fish to use.
I let the potato cool a bit and the consistency changed a lot. I'd keep it hot int he future to keep the creamy consistency.

The fish pie recipe is from 'Food Gawker'...an Irish Fish Pie. Maybe because it had leeks in it? I added capscuim to increase the vege quota in the dish.

The final product was good. It took a while but I did it bit by bit over several hours while doing other things.

Mashed Potatoes in a Crock Pot 

• 1kg potatoes
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup butter, cut into chunks
• 1/2 tablespoon salt, plus
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup milk, warmed

1. Place the potatoes, water, and butter into a slow cooker.
2. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Cover, and cook on High for 4 hours.
4. Do not remove the excess water from slow cooker. This adds to the creamy texture.
5. Mash potatoes with a masher or electric beater, adding the desired amount of warm milk to achieve a creamy consistency.
6. Keep warm on low until serving.
7. Potatoes keep consistency for a couple of hours after mashing. Just keep the lid on the slow cooker and serve directly from there.

Fish Pie

Ingredients: 

750 gr white sea fish fillets 
2 large leeks ,chopped
2 strips orange rind 
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
6 peppercorns
2 bay leaves
6 parsley stalks
2 1/2 cups milk + extra 2 tbsp milk 
30 gr butter
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp flour

Use potato recipe above or...

1 kg potatoes
pepper, salt to taste
1 tsp ground sweet paprika 

Place fish fillets in a pan, add 1/ 2 of one leek, orange rind, nutmeg, parsley,bay leaves, peppercorns. 

Pour in milk and simmer over a low heat for about 15 minutes.  

Carefully remove fish fillets, strain liquid and reserve for a sauce. 

Melt butter in a pan, add garlic and rest of leeks. Cook over a low heat for about 7 minutes . 

Remove half of cooked leek mixture and reserve. 

Sprinkle flour over remaining mixture in the pan and blend unit smooth. 

Add reserved poach milk in a pan and stir until mixture comes to boil and thickens. Cut fish into chunky pieces and fold gently through the sauce. 

Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Use potato recipe above or...

Add reserved leek mixture and 2 tbsp milk  to mashed potatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Pour fish sauce into shallow casserole  dish. Top with potato leek mixture. Sprinkle with paprika. 

Bake at 200°C for 20 minutes or until potato topping is golden brown.
Enjoy!

Marinated Seafood, Avocado and Coconut Cream Salad

This recipe is one of my mothers that I have modified a bit. There are all sorts of variations to this dish from different cultures. If you use raw fish, it is essentially 'cooked' in the lime juice.
It is pretty quick to prepare and the bonus is that the majority of the preparation occurs in advance of serving it.
It is divine really cold on a hot day. It's great marinated for 30 minutes but even better overnight.
It could be served in avocado halves but I've just served it in individual bowls here.
I never stick to the exact recipe so it tastes a bit different every time but is always yummy!



Seafood, Avocado and Coconut Cream Salad 

Ingredients
2 firm avocados diced
2 cans coconut milk
1 large red red onion thinly sliced
2 red capsicum chopped
2 tomatoes (deseeded) chopped
2-4 chillies
1 tbsp honey
juice 2 limes (or more)
500g cold seafood - ideally uncooked (prawns, mussels, surimi/crab, raw white fish thinly sliced or salmon)
1/4 cup chopped coriander.

Method
Whisk together coconut milk, onions, chillies, capsicum, honey, lime juice and season with salt and pepper.
Fold in seafood, cover and marinate in fridge for at least 30 minutes
10 minutes before serving fold in avocados and coriander.