fish – Page 2 – luxlifefinn

Sea bream with mango and crab salad

This plate of food is like sunshine on a plate. It’s so fresh and colourful, and all the flavours just simply work really well. Even though raw garlic and chilli are used, when eating this you don’t notice it. It’s also a quick dish to make.

1 mango

1 avocado

2 large red chillies (mild, or to your liking), finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

3 spring onions, chopped into thin slices

100g cooked white crab meat

100g king prawns (I tend to use raw and cook them myself, but cooked are ok too)

1 lime (juice)

1. Cut the mango and avocado into cubes.

2. Add finely chopped garlic and chilli (deseeded). Add all the other salad ingredients.

3. I usually use raw prawns so I put the mixed salad into fridge, and pan-fry the prawns. I then let them cool, while cooking the fish (pan-fry for about 5 minutes, then finish under a grill in the oven for another 5 minutes). Then mix the prawns into the salad, and serve with the fish.

Sea bass with Greek salad

This simple, healthy meal is perfect for those evenings when you get home from work very late, and don’t really have that much energy for cooking, as it requires minimum amount of effort and cooking. Greek salad itself is very simple, with only a few ingredients, and there are many variations of this basic salad. You can always adjust it with additional ingredients to suit your taste. I served my dish with boiled baby potatoes and samphire. The below Greek salad recipe may be salty to some tastes, you can reduce the amount of feta and olives, or increase the amount of other ingredients to change the ratio of ingredients.

serves 2
2 sea bass fillets
splash of olive oil
salt
black pepper
~~~~~
2 leaves of romaine heart lettuce
few handfuls of cherry tomatoes
half a cucumber
red onion
200g feta cheese
200g olives
2 tbsp capers
1/2 dl olive oil
1-2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp white wine vinegar
2 tsp dried oregano

1. Cut the tomatoes, salad leaves, cucumber, feta, and onion, and add the olives and capers.

2. Mix the olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar and oregano together, and pour over the salad. Mix well, turning the ingredients so that all are coated with the oil mixture. Rest in the fridge whilst cooking the fish.

3. Heat a splash of olive oil in a pan, and place the fish in the pan, skin side down. Season the flesh with salt and pepper, and cook for 3-5 minutes, to crisp the skin up.

4. Place in a preheated oven 180°C / 355°F for about 7 minutes.

Hake with scallop, brown shrimp and samphire

When I planned for this dish, I didn’t have anything in particular in mind. I chose hake because I try to alternate fish I use. I normally use smoked hake and make the same dish with it, so it was perfect time to experiment with unsmoked and cook it like I would normally cook cod, pan fried. For the accompaniment, I was just browsing throught the seafood section (I do my food shopping online and have it delivered, to save my precious time after work), and when I saw the small scallops and brown shrimps they sang out to me, wanting to be part of this dish. My husband would like me to get samphire more often than I do, so I decided to get that too. This recipe makes big portions, so you could probably also make this for 3, maybe even 4 people. I had some leftover puy lentils and quinoa, so I served the fish with that.

serves 2
400g fillet of unsmoked hake, cut in two pieces
70g brown shrimp
180g small scallops
90g samphire, washed
2 shallots
50g butter
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 dl frozen peas
1/2 dl cream
salt
white pepper

1. Melt the butter in a frying pan, and add the hake fillet pieces. Season both sides with a little bit of salt and pepper, and fry for about 3-4 minutes on each side. Move to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.

2. Add finely chopped shallots to the same pan, fry for a minute or two, and add the scallops and lemon juice. Fry for few minutes, stirring.

3. Add the peas, followed by samphire and shrimp. Season with a dash of pepper. You probably won’t need much salt, as the samphire itself is quite salty. Fry, stirring, for couple of minutes, until all ingredients are warmed through.

4. Add the cream, and warm through.

Marinated oriental salmon

This salmon dish is something I make very regularly. The salmon itself can be steamed, pan fried, grilled or oven cooked. Today I added roasted bone marrow (which I’ve never cooked before) to this dish. In terms of flavour, it doesn’t really contribute much, but it’s supposed to offer some health benefits. I marinade the salmon, and then use the same liquid for the fried vegetables. I tend to use plain basmati rice for this, as the marinade mixture is full of flavour.

serves 2
salmon fillets
(beef bone marrow)
3/4 cup of basmati rice
~~~~~
Marinade
20ml light soy sauce
30ml dark soy sauce
10ml rice vinegar
50ml sesame oil
10ml fish sauce
20ml lemon juice
2 garlic cloves
thumb size piece of root ginger
1 small green chilli
1 shallot
~~~~~
2 mushrooms
1 carrot
1 courgette (zucchini)
handful of mangetouts
handful of baby sweetcorn

1. Finely chop ginger, garlic, chilli and shallot. Mix all marinade ingredients together. Put the salmon fillets in a re-sealable bag, and pour the marinade in. Marinate for 30 minutes, turning over half way through, so that both sides marinate.

2. Chop the vegetables, to be ready for frying later.

3. If using bone marrow, season with salt and pepper, and roast in an preheated oven 180°C / 355°F for 20 minutes. Cooked marrow will easily come off the bone with a spoon.

4. Measure 3/4 of a cup of basmati rice. Wash the rice in a bowl or sieve, until the water doesn’t get cloudy anymore (this washes off the starch). Put the washed rice in a pan, add a pinch of salt. Add 1 1/4 cups of boiled water (use same cup /measure you use for the rice). Bring to boil, stir, then reduce to simmer. It should take about 15 minutes until all water has been absorbed.

5. Salmon cooks quickly, which ever way you cook it. I think gentle steaming is a great way to keep the salmon juice and moist. You’ll only need about 7 minutes on a low heat, cover with a lid.

6. Fry the vegetables in hot oil (I used ground nut oil for this, but you can also use other vegetable oils) for about 5 minutes. Pour the salmon marinade liquid into the pan, and fry for another few minutes.

Salmon soup

I would probably go as far as to say this is my all time favourite Finnish food. My husband and I have been together for nine years, however he still hasn’t bought into the Finnish style soups of thin liquid base with chunky pieces. He does enjoy the flavour of this soup, so I’ve added a step to make this soup (step 1) slightly thicker. It does actually make it richer, so this has now become part of my recipe.

500g salmon
150g cooked prawns
5-6 large potatoes
1.5 liters water
100g fine green beans
3 large onions
bunch of dill
celery stick
2 dl frozen peas
2-3 dl double cream
2 tbsp bouillon powder
sea salt
ground white pepper

1. Peel and cut half of the potatoes into small pieces. Put the pieces in a large pan, with 1 liter of water. Boil for about 30 minutes, until soft, and mash the potatoes.

2. Whilst stage 1 is cooking, peel and cut the remaining potatoes. Finely chop celery. Add both ingeriendts to the mashed potatoes.

3. Cut the green beans to about 2.5cm (an inch) length pieces and add to potatoes.

4. Slice all onions, and add to the soup. Pour the remaining 5 dl water into the pan, and add the bouillon powder, pinch of sea salt and pepper.

5. Cut the salmon into bite size pieces. I usually buy salmon with skin on, so once I’ve removed the skin I have to wash the pieces, to make sure none of the large scales end up in the soup.

6. Add the salmon to the soup with the peas and prawns (as long as the potatoes and beans are cooked through). Pour the cream in. The soup won’t need any more cooking after this, as they are pretty much cooked as soon as they touch the hot liquid. Just heat it up (adding cream and frozen peas may have cooled it). Add couple of more pinches of salt and some pepper, to taste (because of the cream you can be quite generous), and add chopped dill. I tend to use scissors to cut the dill straight into the soup.

Marinated pan fried tuna steak with salsa verde

I can’t remember exactly when I had fresh tuna steak for the first time, but what a magnificent find it was. It’s now a regular visitor on our table, and so different from the tinned version, it’s like they are just distant relatives. It is usually served very pink, but even if you want it cooked through, it should still be lovely and juicy. To bring out all the glory it can offer, I would recommend marinating it. I also make salsa verde to accompay it, and it works beautifully with the tuna. I can’t wait until the next time!

Marinade
1 small green chilli
1 garlic clove
1 shallot
1 tbsp capers (in water, drained)
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp olive oil
handful of parsley
salt
black pepper

1. Finely chop chilli, garlic, shallot, capers and parsley. Mix all marinade ingredients together.

2. Place the tuna steaks in a re-sealable bag, and pur the marinade in. Make sure fish is coated with the marinade all over. Close the bag, and place in the fridge for 1/2 – 1 hour. Half way through, turn the bag with the fish inside upside down, so that it’s marinating more evenly.

Salsa verde
1 small green chilli
2 garlic cloves
1 shallot
1 tbsp capers (in water, drained)
large handful of parsley
large handful of basil leaves
tarragon leaves ( from 3-4 stalks)
2 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp olive oil
pinch of sea salt
pinch of black pepper

1. Mix all ingredients in a blender.

Tuna steak

1. I don’t add any oil onto my griddle pan for frying the tuna steaks, as the marinade have oil in it.

2. My steaks were quite thick. If you want them pink I would recommend frying them 4-5 minutes on each side on medium to high temperature. Alternatively, if you would like them cooked through about 6 minutes on each side should be enough.

Grilled mackerel with wasabi potato mash, cooked beetroot and pickled cucumber and radish

As I was driving home this evening I was contemplating what to serve with the star of today’s show, mackerel. Beetroot is always a good friend with this oily fish, as well as pickled cucumber. As I hadn’t planned for the pickle in advance, mine didn’t have enough time to work it’s magic, however I still wanted to go for it. You would normally give the pickling process several hours, or even a day.

Pickle
250ml apple cider vinegar
250ml water
150g sugar
1 tsp salt
4 juniper berries
2 bay leaves
fresh dill

1. Add all ingredients into a pan, and heat, stirring, until all sugar and salt have dissolved. Take off the heat.

2. Thinly slice the radishes, and cut cucumber into small cubes. Pour over the cooled liquid, and put in a fridge.

Beetroot
1 medium beetroot

This versatile vegetable can be cooked in many ways. Today I used boiling as the cooking method of my choice. Boil in water for about an hour, with the skin on. Once cooked, pour hot water away, and cover with cold water. Whilst in the water, you can rub the beetroot with your hands, and the skin will fall off very easily.

Wasabi potato mash
5 medium potatoes
wasabi powder
50g butter
milk
salt

1. Peel and half the potatoes.

2. Boil until soft.

3. Prepare the wasabi, by mixing the wasabi powder with a small amount of water.

4. Once the potatoes are cooked, drain and mash. Add butter, salt and milk, as well as the wasabi mixture.

Mackerel
4 mackerel fillets
salt
black pepper

I used frozen mackerel fillets today. Cook under high temperature grill, first flesh side up, seasoning with salt and black pepper. Cook for 10 minutes each side. Cook skin side up last, to end up with a nice crispy skin.