I just realised that I never posted my Fish Pie here - how could this happen? It's the dish I have probably cooked most. It's a simple dish but it never fails to impress our guests and it's probably our favourite dish too.

We just came back from a 2 week trip to Ireland with our camper van. To me fish has never tasted better than up there. We found a lovely fishmonger who sold the freshest fish ever. He also sold homemade fish cakes and fish pie. Paradise! Eaten in the van looking out to the sea was just divine.

I have about 3 variations of the fish pie. I will post them all here, starting with the very classic fish pie in a pot.

The main ingredient is the smoked haddock. Unlike in France or England it's not easy to get in Switzerland. The fishmonger at Globus always has some frozen if you ask. If I go to Globus I alway buy a big stash full - our freezer is usually full of frozen haddock.
Since all the other ingredients can be frozen too it's the perfect dish for a Sunday night when you had no time for shopping.

Slice the onion thinly. Fry half of it in some butter and add the frozen or fresh peas. Stew them for a while then drench with white wine and stock. Cook till done, season and set aside.

Take the skin off your haddock and cut the fish into big chunks. Fry the rest of the onion when they turn golden, add the fish and fry for some more minutes.

Since the fish is already smoked it does not need to be cooked long. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

To be honest I always use ready made mash but obviously freshly made mash would be nicer.

Layer in a ovenproof dish or a dutch oven. Start with the fish then the peas. If you like you can now add a bit of cream. Cover with the mash. Sprinkle on some butter flakes and put the dish in the oven. Bake for 40 minutes or so, until it turns slightly brown on top.

Serve with salad.

This is the very basic version. Feel free to add fresh herbs or use thinly sliced potatoes instead of mash or whatever you fancy.

Pesca di Spada con Risotto and Fava

Not that my son son would suddenly eat fish but risotto is on of his favorites and sometimes he even likes fave beans.
Risotto is a dish that my son always likes to help because stirring is the only thing he has to do - perfect for the lazy cook.
The only problem is that one has to be careful not to get hit by splashes of the bubbling risotto, they can really burn your hands.

I always make my Risotto like THIS.

We used red onions for this risotto which gave it a really funny rose color which my son loved.

It's the first time I actually made Pesca di Spada and we were quite happy. I just had it cut really thinly at the fishmonger then marinated it with salt and pepper.
Then it went into the very hot  grid pan for less 1 minute on each side.  Then drizzled with some lemon.

I fell in love with the fishmongers wrapping paper.

I'm finally old enough to see it all coming, the days around xmas and new year were once again filled with dinner parties plenty of delicious food and as always a bit too much red wine. But this year I planned ahead ! While some were already out for these sometimes very dangerous company christmas dinners I made a night shift in the kitchen experimenting with something that should save me on these hangover mornings that were bound to follow - la rillete de maqueraux.

Rillete is something like a paté originally made with pork, the meat is salted heavily and cooked slowly in fat and then processed into a paste.
I came a cross fish rillete several times while traveling in france and always wanted to make my own version of it. As I said before it's the perfect hang over breakfast but it's also lovely served with toasted bread to accompany a soup dinner.

Slowly fry the shallots in butter. Add the Flesh of the mackerel and the chopped rosemary. Quench with the pernod, season with salt an pepper.

Cook for 2 minutes then take of the heat. Put into a food processor ( or blender) you want it to be soft enough to be spread on toast but not to mashy.
Add fresh lemon juice and the lemon zest. Add the chopped capers and some thyme leaves. Season with nutmeg and more salt and pepper is needed.

Fill into a glass and press it in tightly. Meanwhile make the clarified  and the spiced butter :

Melt the butter in a pan over a gentle heat, and then allow to simmer until you spot the first dark flecks – watch it carefully, or it will burn. Strain through some butter muslin, or two sheets of kitchen roll, into a jug.
Wipe out the pan, and pour in two-thirds of the butter. Add the lemon juice, nutmeg, pepper, anchovy paste or Gentleman's Relish and a pinch of salt and simmer very gently for five minutes, then take off the heat and allow to cool but not set.
When just warm, but still liquid, pour over the fish and put in the fridge to set. Once solid, pour over the remainder of the clarified butter and return to the fridge to set.

Serve on toasted brown bread. The rillete can be kept in the fridge for 2 weeks.
With this technique one can experiment I also made a white tuna rilette with plenty of chopped dill.
If this does not help to cure your hangover why not try something stronger like kevins favorite breakfast toast:

Happy 2012!

I love the time around christmas. For a short while it's seems there is no other task but cooking, eating , drinking and be together with friends. We cooked several christmas dinners this year, for family and friends ( luckily we've also been treated with some :-)  ).
The quintessence of all the cooking over these days probably is this recipe for scallops which kevin came up with. We probably made it 3 or 4 times this december, always variating a bit - so here is our final version, together with some coeur de sel christmas impressions :

Scallops served on breadcrumbs with thai basil:

Start with baking the garlic. Preheat the oven to 220° chop off the top of 2 whole garlics, place in a ovenproof dish, add some olive oil, salt and pepper and bake in the oven till soft ( 1- 1.5 hours).

Sweat the spring onions till soft. Season with salt.

Prepare the plates. Put some crumbs of a crisp bread on the plate. Spread some of the baked garlic on.
Lay the washed basil leaves on top ( approximately 6 per plate).

Fry the garlic and the chillie and the cumin seeds in some olive oil. Add the scallops and fry on each side for 2 minutes. Take out of the pan and place on top of the breadcrumbs.
Season with fresh lemon  juice, fleur de sel and ground black pepper.

Fast and delicious. This was one course of our christmas eve dinner.

Bring salt water to boil. Add the black noodle and cook according to the package instructions. Meanwhile quickly fry the crabmeat. Season with salt, pepper and a good dash of fresh lemon juice. Drain the noodles keep some of the pasta water, and but them back into the pan. Add the pasta water and the Pernod. Season with salt and pepper and heat again. Add the cream and mix well. Serve with the crabmeat on top and some bitter green salad leave for decoration.

I came up with an other variation of fish pie. This time with a Puff pastry and sliced potatoes. To me fish pie is the ultimate comfort food.

Lay out the dough and sprinkle with the chopped dill. Saute the onion add the fish and cook for 2-3 minutes. Season. Set aside. Meanwhile peel the patatoes and cut into fine slices. Boil in salty water for 1-2 minutes. Drain. Add the cream and season with slat, pepper and nutmeg.
Slice the fennel very finely.
Layer the pie starting with the fish followed by the fennel and the roughly chopped tarragon. End with the potatoes.
Bake in the oven ( 200 °) for 15 minutes or until the pie starts to turn golden.

Serve with a nice green salad.

This world can be utterly crazy!  While it seams everybody is talking about how we can protect our fish stocks and how to consume reasonably this is the EU strategy to solve the problem?

Half of all fish caught in the North Sea is thrown back overboard dead due to the current quota system imposed by the EU Common Fisheries Policy.

The problem is that in a mixed fishery where many different fish live together, fishermen cannot control the species that they catch. 

Fishing for one species often means catching another, and if people don’t want them or fishermen are not allowed to land them, the only option is to throw them overboard. The vast majority of these discarded fish will die.
Because discards are not monitored, it is difficult to know exactly how many fish are being thrown away. The EU estimates that in the North Sea, discards are between 40% and 60% of the total catch. Many of these fish are species that have fallen out of fashion: we can help to prevent their discard just by rediscovering our taste for them.
Others are prime cod, haddock, plaice and other popular food species that are “over-quota”. The quota system is intended to protect fish stocks by setting limits on how many fish of a certain species should be caught. 

Fishermen are not allowed to land any over-quota fish; if they accidentally catch them – which they can’t help but do - there is no choice but to throw them overboard before they reach the docks.
Please sign the petition now. More information you can get at fishfight.net.

It's always the same, after a day at the office I ran into the closest grocery shop stressed once again because I'm to late to pick up our son from the nursery. I'm tired, hungry and I totally lack inspiration. Yet I wan't a proper dinner and I want something nice !  While rushing through the supermarket trying not to forget to buy coffee, cornflakes and milk our bare necessities I try to come up with a plan for supper. Something delicious but not to complicated usually I buy for several different menus because I'm to stressed to make up my mind but forget the essential ingredient ...Yesterday was one of these rare evening when I actually had an Idea an could focus on it.
The result was a delicious and fast dinner.

A stake of tuna on a bed of shiitake mushrooms and tomatoes served with glass noodle salad.

Marinate the tuna in a mixture of lime juice, soy sauce, grated ginger and chili. Melt the butter, slice the onion and the mushrooms and slowly fry them over medium heat. Add the tomatoes season with plenty of salt and some pepper. Take of the heat. By the way I think shiitake and tomatoes is a combination made in heaven!
Cook the edamame in plenty of salt water.
Cook the glass noodles according to the package instructions. With with the edamame and season with say sauce, pepper and some ginger.

Briskly fry the tuna on both sides.
Assemble on the plate and enjoy.

It looks like this was the ultimate beetroot weekend. We had our annual coeur de sel xmas dinner and even though 2 people claimed they don't like beetroot my part of the menu planning involved nothing but beetroot. Lucky me, both dishes very so  delicious them people forgot they din't like beetroot.
After yesterdays Mackerel with caramelized beetroot we today had salmon marinated  ( overnight ) in beetroot and orange zest accompanied with caramelized beetroot salad and a beetroot and port-wine dressing.
The dish is also from Aikens fish book It's not difficult at all but the salmon needs to be marinated over night and the kitchen get quire messy with all this different beetroot dishes.

I'm not gonna write down the recipe it's to0 complicated and by now you should know that you need the book,  it's worth every penny!

The bast way of eating pulpo for me is with nice with bread and a good glass of red wine but this is a nice variation.
Cook the pulpo. Cook the black noodles,  when al dente drain them and mix with the pulpo and all the juices that are left in the pan.
Sprinkel with some finely cut celery stalks and italian parsley.