Fish – Page 2 – Chica Andaluza

Shallow Fried Cod with Vegetable and Saffron Risotto

July 9, 2014July 9, 2014 Chica Andaluza56 Comments

Ok, so the photo doesn’t do this dish much justice but I’m an honest Chica and I don’t have photoshop. We also eat ridiculously late so there’s no natural light. But what I show you is a delicious meal which would also be an amazing light vegetarian lunch or supper without the cod.

The risotto is creamy and delicately flavoured and, as a bonus, pretty healthy and low in fat too as it contains no cream or cheese. Granted, coating cod in flour and frying it in olive oil sort of cancels that out, but fish and olive oil are good for us, we all know that, so not only does this taste great it’s good for you too!

Ingredients to serve 2 hungry people (and we’re always hungry)

1 large piece of cod cut into about 6 large chunks and lightly coated in seasoned flour
About 150g risotto rice (I used carnaroli)
Approx half a litre of hot vegetable stock into which you dissolve about 5 strands of saffron
One roasted red pepper peeled and finely chopped
Half an onion finely chopped
4 cloves of peeled and crushed garlic
1 small courgette cut into fine dice
1 large ripe tomato, peeled and finely chopped
About a dozen mangetout beans, finely shredded
Olive oil
Seasoning
Lemon to serve

The risotto is made in the usual way – start by softening the onion and garlic in a few tablespoons of olive oil, then add the pepper, tomato and courgette and cook until the courgette has softened. Add the rice and make sure it is coated in oil before gradually adding a ladleful of hot stock. Cook until the stock has been absorbed then add the next ladleful. Continue in this way until the rice is just starting to lose its bite.

At this point heat olive oil in a deep frying pan to a depth of about 1cm (you can also either deep fry or use less oil if you prefer). When the oil is very hot, gently lower in the cod pieces and cook on each side for 2-3 minutes until golden brown.

While the cod is cooking add the shredded mangetout to the rice and a final ladleful of stock. Taste and season then place the cod on top of the rice. Turn off the heat and leave the rice to rest for a few minutes before serving with wedges of lemon to squeeze over.

Monkfish and Prawn Curry

June 11, 2014June 10, 2014 Chica Andaluza57 Comments

Monkfish is an “oh so ugly but oh so good” fish. If you’ve ever seen it at the fishmonger before it’s been prepared it’s the one with the enormous gargoyle mouth and scary teeth and a body that looks a bit out of proportion with the head. It can also be an expensive fish, but like other luxuries such as fillet steak, you don’t need much.

My lovely Bexhill fishmonger had some beautiful monkfish recently and I bought a tail. From this I made two separate meals for two people, so I really managed to make the most of it!

First up is a curry recipe I came across which I think is now going to be my “go to” curry recipe. It was so easy, it didn’t have a huge long list of ingredients and the flavour was amazing. If, like me, you’re a curry fan (and if you’re not, perhaps I can convert you – this one is about balancing delicate flavours rather than smacking you around the chops with burning hot chilli), do give this a try!

INGREDIENTS

About 250g monkfish cut into bite size pieces and about 10 raw, peeled langoustines or large prawns
The juice of two limes
Pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon turmeric
3 Tablespoons ghee or clarified butter (or use a light vegetable oil)
1 onion finely chopped
5 cloves garlic smashed into a fine paste
2 inch piece of ginger smashed into a fine paste
1 chilli pepper finely chopped
1 chilli pepper halved
1 Tablespoon cumin powder
1 Tablespoon coriander powder
12 cherry tomatoes – halved
1 small bunch fresh coriander – finely chopped
400ml coconut milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Place the cubed monkfish and peeled prawns into a bowl with the lime juice, salt and turmeric. Allow to marinade for about 30 minutes.

In a large pan or wok, melt the fat or heat the oil. Add the chopped onions and fry until translucent and lightly browned. Now add the garlic and ginger pastes along with the chopped chilli pepper and fry for a couple of minutes.

Pour in the coconut milk and bring to a bubble then add the cumin and coriander powder and stir to combine then add the halved chilli. Finally, add the marinated monkfish, prawns and the tomatoes. Stir it all into the mixture. Allow the monkfish to cook gently in the sauce for about 5 minutes. Taste and season if necessary and sprinkle over the chopped coriander to serve. Perfect with plain boiled rice and/or naan bread.

Smoked Haddock and Prawn Chowder

March 24, 2014March 23, 2014 Chica Andaluza57 Comments

Oh the deliciousness of a beautiful piece of perfectly smoked fish, haddock in this case, a dish I cooked in England before we headed back to Spain. Simple, quick to cook and oh so satisfying.

Ingredients (to serve 2 as a main course or 4 as a starter)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
600ml milk
400ml fish stock (can be made with 1 Fish Stock cube)
2 medium potatoes, peeled and finely diced
450g traditionally smoked haddock fillet, skinned
225g raw peeled prawns
About a cup of creamed sweetcorn (I used tinned corn which I blended with the stick blender)
Lemon juice, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
1tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Heat the oil in a large heavy pan. Add the onion and cook gently for 10 minutes until soft. Add the milk and stock and bring to simmering point.

Add the potatoes and simmer for about 10 minutes or until they are soft. Keep the heat gentle as you do this.

Cut the haddock into bite-sized pieces and add to the pan. Cook very gently for 2 minutes, then add the prawns, creamed corn, lemon juice and pepper. Cook for a further 2-3 minutes, taste and season, stir in the parsley and serve.

If you enjoy chowder, take a look at my Smoked Prawn and Bacon Chowder recipe.

Sopa de Bacalao – Cod and Spinach Soup

September 24, 2013September 24, 2013 Chica Andaluza52 Comments

If you do an internet search for a typical Spanish soup called Sopa de Bacalao, you’ll find many versions of a firm favourite. I don’t lay claim to my version being authentic, especially as it uses a very non Spanish ingredient – Ras El Hanout – but as the spice mix comes from North Africa and there are such very strong connections between Africa and Andalucía, I feel no one will be up in arms.

The ingredient list is short and simple, the preparation too. But the taste, oh the taste, your friends and family will think you’ve spent hours reducing stock to achieve the intensity of flavour.

Ingredients (to serve 2-4 as a main or starter)

1 large cod fillet, skinned and cut into bite sized chunks (use either fresh cod or desalted salt cod)
1 medium onion finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into bite sized chunks
About 2 cups of chopped fresh spinach
Salt
1 teaspoon of Ras El Hanout
About 1.25l of either fish stock or water (if you use a cube to make your stock, I won’t tell!)
A little olive oil

Start by sweating the onion and garlic until softened then add the potatoes. Toss them around in the oil until they are all coated in oil then add the Ras El Hanout and mix in. Pour over the stock and cook until the potatoes are almost done.

Add the cod and cook for a minute or two until the fish is cooked. Taste and season if necessary and then add the spinach. Turn off the heat, cover with a lid and wait for the spinach to wilt before serving with plenty of fresh lemon to squeeze over.

Griddled Cod with Oven Braised Potatoes

June 23, 2013June 23, 2013 Chica Andaluza51 Comments

I’m surprised I don’t post more cod recipes, considering how much of it we eat. Typically here it’s salt cod, but sometimes we can now get hold of fresh too. Fish Lady surprised me yesterday with some beautiful (and huge) fillets of cod. Perfect for lunch in the garden.

Often cod or bacalao is served over patatas a lo pobre here (slowly braised in olive oil) but it was too hot to stand over a pan of hot oil and my waistline, I knew, would thank me for cooking the potatoes another way. The oven was on as I was baking bread, wisely I was keeping cool outside. I decided to cook the potatoes in the bottom of the hot oven and then to cook the cod in my griddle pan at the last minute.

Ingredients (no measurements here, you know how much you can eat!)

Cod Fillet cut into portion and lightly oiled and salted on both sides
Potatoes cut in half then into thick half circles
A large onion quartered and cut into thick slices
About 2 tablespoons of olive oil
A cup of stock (I used chicken but you can use vegetable or water)
Half a sliced red pepper (or use some slices of tinned roasted peppers)
Seasoning

Mix the potatoes, peppers and onions with the oil and season. Put into a deep ovenproof dish, pour over the stock and cover tightly with foil (or a lid). Cook on high for about 40 minutes and then for 20 minutes with the foil removed.

10 minutes before the potatoes are ready, heat a griddle pan until smoking hot and then cook the cod filler starting with the skin side down. A couple of minutes on each side is probably fine, depending on how thick they are.

Serve the cod on top of the potatoes with some fresh lemon. I also had a bowl of home made tomato sauce which we spooned over the top. Filling but not too heavy, and only a few minutes spent in the hot kitchen….perfect!

Baked Sardines with Oranges and Mint

June 1, 2013June 1, 2013 Chica Andaluza47 Comments

Summer keeps taunting us here Up the Mountain. And then the grey and dismal part of Spring rears its head again. A bit like me, the weather has been neither here nor there.

Time for some summer cooking, we dragged out the barbecue ready to grill some sardines and pretend we were on the beach. Of course, in typical English weather fashion, the wind whipped up, the grey clouds sailed overhead and it all went pear shaped. Oh well, we turned on the oven which also took the chill off the house and all was well.

Ingredients to serve 2 as a main course or 4 as a starter

About half a kilo of sardines, descaled and gutted
One orange halved and thinly sliced
Sprigs of mint
Salt
Olive oil
Smoked Pimentón

Simply place your sardines (or you could use herring or mackerel) in an ovenproof dish and place slices of orange and sprigs of mint between them. You could stuff them if you prefer. Sprinkle with salt and pimentón, drizzle a little oil over and any juices from the orange.

Bake on high for about 15 minutes until the juices from the sardines run clear. And at least you won’t have to worry about sand in your shoes….

Pan Fried Sea Bream with Asian Style Noodles

March 16, 2013March 16, 2013 Chica Andaluza54 Comments

Is it because it’s Lent, or I’m Down By the Sea, or because Spring keeps teasing me that I am cooking and enjoying lots of gorgeous fish? Who knows, who cares….!

The recipe is more for preparing the noodles than the fish which was simply lightly pan-fried in olive oil and sprinkled in sea salt and then drizzled with a little extra olive oil and a squeeze of lemon. I haven’t given many details for quantities, you know how much you can eat!

Ingredients

Fresh or dry noodles
A mixture of chopped, sliced, slithered veg….I used chopped broccoli, sliced peppers, finely chopped spinach leaves and thin slithers of carrot (I used my peeler)
About a teaspoon of fresh ginger, grated
2 or 3 fat cloves of garlic, crushed
Half a teaspoon of Chinese five spice powder
A few splashes of fish sauce (go easy, it’s strong)
Soy sauce to taste
Sesame oil for stir frying
A couple of fresh chillies, thinly sliced

This is a three pot cooking session, sorry, but it’s quick! Put the water on for your noodles and heat the oil for the fish in a large frying pan. Now add a little sesame oil (you may want to do half vegetable or sunflower oil as it has a strong taste) in a wok or frying pan.

Using all three of your hands and arms, drop the noodles into the boiling water and cook until almost done. Turn the heat off at this point and give one of your arms a rest. At the same time fry the bream lightly on both sides and stir fry the veg, spice, garlic and ginger for about 4-5 minutes. It all comes together at once.

Drain the noodles and add to the vegetables, adding the fish sauce and soy sauce and stir fry for another minute. Plate the noodles and vegetables up, artistically place your fish on top and sprinkle with chilli if using. Use two hands for your cutlery and your third for drinking wine and dabbing genteelly at your mouth. Or you could just give yourself a pat on the back.

Smoked Cod & Butterbean Stew

March 11, 2013March 18, 2013 Chica Andaluza60 Comments

Lent is a time in Catholic countries of preparation for the celebration of Easter. Believer or not, it also means a few changes to diet in Andalucía with a reduction in meat heavy meals and a focus on vegetables, pulses and fish. A typical dish during this period is Potaje de Semana Santa, Holy Week Stew, which is typically made with chick peas (or a mix of chick peas and giant white beans) and salt cod. I was sure I had previously given you a recipe for this, but alas I have been remiss. Fortunately, Giovanna over at Blue Jellybeans, has done the honours, do check it out!

As we’re still in the UK, and the weather has turned icy again, it was time to reinterpret this classic dish using ingredients available locally to me here. We were pleased with the results and it’s definitely a dish that can be eaten any time of year, not just Lent.

The ingredient list is simple, but the slow cooking turns this into a beautifully flavoured dish.

Ingredients (to serve 4 as a main course)

2 cups of dried butterbeans
1 head of garlic
A bay leaf
1 large fillet of fresh cod (I used smoked but unsmoked would also be good) flaked into chunks
2 cups approx. of finely chopped fresh spinach or kale
A pinch of saffron (or half a teaspoon of turmeric)
3 cloves (optional)

Start by soaking the beans in water with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda overnight. The next day drain them, cover well with water, add all the ingredients except the fish and spinach and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for a couple of hours (or cook in a low heat in the oven for about 4 hous as I do) until the beans are really tender. Just before serving remove the garlic, bay leaf and cloves (if using), add the cod and spinach and cook on a medium heat. Stir a little to break up some of the beans and thicken the soup. Season with salt to taste.

Serve with a drizzle of fresh olive oil.

If you want more Lenten recipes, take a look at Chgo John gorgeous Grilled Salted Cod recipe or my Parpuchas (Salt Cod Fritters) from last year.

PS. I have jsut come across a company that supplies (in the UK) some Spanish ingredients. Here’s the link (they haven’t paid me for this) but have just ordered the ingredients for Fabada Asturiana from them, so am hoping they’ll be good.

Baked Skate with Oven Roasted Vegetables

March 1, 2013March 1, 2013 Chica Andaluza52 Comments

Regular readers of this blog may well know that at home Up our Mountain or in our (now soon to be) second home Down by the Sea (well, I’m working on that phrase…give me more time) we have a passionate love for eating fish. Fish Man provides for us Up the Mountain and Fishmonger does the job Down by the Sea.

Skate is also a regular favourite and it’s usually pan fried in my biggest pan possible. The other day I was busy glossing paintwork but wanted to get dinner on the go. Not wanting to stand over a pan for all of ten minutes, I decided to turn on the oven and get cooking.

Ingredients for 2 people

1 skate wing cut into two pieces
1 large lemon thinly sliced
A selection of vegetables for roasting (I used courgettes, peppers, onions, tomatoes and garlic)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Set the oven to about 180C degrees or medium. Start by coating your vegetables (cut into chunks or strips) in a little olive oil and season them. Put into a deep baking tray. Add a favourite herb if you like – I used thyme. Roast for 20 minutes then lay the skate on top, season it and then drizzle a little more oil over and lay the lemon slices over the fish. Cover with foil and continue to cook for another 20 minutes.

Check that it is cooked by prodding with a sharp knife in the centre (the flesh should be cooked all the way through in the thicket part). If it’s still a little raw (this will depend on the thickness of your fish) put it back in for another 5 minutes and check again.

You will have a lot of delicious juices in the pan which you can drizzle over but you will have extra which can be saved (freeze if not using within 2 days) and used another day for cooking with rice to make a delicious paella or as a stock for a fish soup.

Healthy, low fat, delicious. And plenty of time to jump under the shower and wash that paint out of your hair.

One Dish, Two Ways. Trout and Prawns Go Asian and Mediterranean.

February 19, 2013February 19, 2013 Chica Andaluza54 Comments

I have to confess, I’m not a fan of cooking different meals to accommodate different tastes. Maybe I’d have been a horrible mum if I’d had children. I can imagine them all demanding their favourite meals and me refusing point blank and screaming something along the lines of “this is not an a la carte restaurant you know”. But sometimes, just sometimes, I go all contrary and make something different for me and Big Man. As long as it doesn’t involve anything too stressful in terms of extra work.

We were in the mood for fish and I had bought some gorgeous trout steaks and langoustines from the fishmonger. Having made a recent trip to a wonderful Chinese Supermarket I had been dreaming all day of oriental flavours. Big Man was coming down with a cold and feeling in need of a taste of home. No problem – this was an easy fix and we would both be happy.

Asian Style Dish

1 trout steak and 2 large langoustines marinated for 30 minutes in a little freshly grated ginger, a large clove of crushed garlic, a tablespoon of soy sauce, a teaspoon of sesame oil and a splash of fish sauce

Mediterranean Style Dish

1 trout steak and 2 large tiger prawns/langoustines marinated for 30 minutes in the grated zest of half a lemon, the juice of half a lemon and a tablespoon of olive oil

Both dishes

Steamed pak choi and sautéed sliced mushrooms

Griddle or grill the trout and langoustines on a high heat until the trout is almost cooked through (I like it a little pink in the middle but cook for longer if you like) and the langoustines turn from black to pink.