Thai Baked Fish ©
Ingredients
1 Large Fish weighing 700-1000g
Cod, Bass, Red Sapper: Fagri, Lavraki, Tsipoura
6 tbs olive oil
1 small onion finely chopped
6 spring onions sliced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tbs grated fresh root ginger
2 tsp fish sauce
2 tbs or more light soy sauce
1 tsp light palm sugar or ordinary sugar
1 tbs tamarind water or a little lemon juice
1-2 red sliced chilli
freshly ground black pepper
NO extra salt, the soya is salty enough.
Garnish
Coriander sprigs and lime slices and whole fresh chilli to garnish.
Serve with Basmati rice.
Method
Choose a nice fresh fish from the Fishmonger. Don’t be worried to do your own check, he will then know you know about fresh fish. Firm to the touch, red gills, clear eyes.
Ask him to clean it for you, saves a lot of time and mess!
Take straight home, place straight in refrigerator, fish decompose very quickly and start your cooking process on the same day!
1. Choose your baking tray, or roasting tin according to the size of your fish.
2. Wash fish thoroughly under running water and place in baking tray.
3. Score fish with serrated knife on both sides, as in the picture. Notice the “Line” that runs down the fish. This is where you will be cutting it open to check for ‘readiness’ later.
4. Place all your ingredients in a bowl and pour over fish to marinade. Push some of the mixture into the belly and into the cuts of the fish. Cover loosely with tin foil.
5. Leave to marinade 2 hours minimum, in the refrigerator.
6. Half an hour before cooking take fish out of fridge to come to room temperature, ‘important’ and pre-heat your oven to 200.C.
With the tin foil still loosely on, (I leave a small gap either side,) bake fish for half an hour. Remove from oven, remove tinfoil and check if it is cooked by cutting a short incision, from the gills, downward and open to the bone. If the bone is opaque and flesh comes away easily, it is cooked. If it is in any way pink, leave in oven for another five minutes and check again. Check sauce is not too salty, if so add a little water, or extra soy sauce if baking tray starts to dry out.
7. Transfer with two large spatulas, to serving dish and decorate with lime slices, whole chilli and coriander leaves. Cover the small cut you made for “readiness” with coriander.
Serve with Basmati rice.
Eat straight away.
This is a really delicious recipe and not difficult.
Choose a nice firm, bright eyed, shiny, red gilled fish.
Get your fishmonger to clean it.
This is a good example of a nice fresh fish.
Score on both sides with a serrated knife, cutting about 3mm into the fish. This will enable the marinade
to soak into the flesh.
Chop spring onions.
Peal and finely grate, using smallest holes of grater, your fresh ginger. ( This is not replaceable by using
powdered ginger. )
Slice chilli, removing the seeds, if you do not want the end result too hot.
Ingredients ready for marinade. Add Soy Sauce and rest of ingredients.
Pour marinade over fish and place a few spoonfuls in the cavity.
Cover roasting tin with tin foil, leaving a gap either side for steam to escape. If you close it completely the fish opens up during cooking. Pre-hat oven to 200.C.
Towards the end of the cooking time, take fish out of oven and check for readiness. Make a small incision
at the thickest part of the neck, as in the above photograph. The fish is only cooked when the flesh is white,
any veins are dark, not red and the flesh should come away from the back-bone easily. The bone should be
opaque.
In the above photo you will see the flesh is not cooked through at the right part of the incision, the flesh is
see through. In this case leave in oven for another five minutes and check again. Fish is not nice raw, unless
it is Sushi!
Final result. Here the sauce is a little dark due to the type of soy sauce I used.
Scordalia. Greek Garlic Sauce.©
4 Persons
Ingredients
2-3 Cloves of Garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs walnuts
1 tbs vinegar
3 slices brown or white bread
1/2 cup of olive oil, or as much as it will take
walnut halves and parsley to decorate
Method
1. In a wooden pestle add your garlic and salt.
2. Pound until creamy.
3. Add walnut halves and vinegar pound together.
4. Place bread in bowl of water, leave 2 mins to soften, remove crusts and squeeze out water.
5. Add to pestle, mix well and add olive oil, little by little, mixing all the time.
6. When all the oil is absorbed, don’t hurry this process, place in bowl and decorate.
N.B. Walnuts must be of good quality, recently bought. Try them first, they should be sweet and NOT have a rancid taste. Good quality olive oil is important and your garlic should be fresh looking.
If you add too much oil and it separates, add separated mixture bit by bit to more bread.
This is a strong sauce, but delicious. It is traditionally eaten with fried Cod, fried aubergines and courgettes or beetroot salad.
This recipe can also be made with potato and lemon , instead of vinegar.
This sauce is traditionally made in a wooden Pestle.
Pound garlic and salt in wooden pestle until creamy.
Creamy garlic.
Add walnuts and pound until smooth.
Soak brown or white bread in water for two minutes. Squeeze out water and remove crusts.
Add to garlic and mix well.
Slowly add olive oil, mixing continuously until each addition of oil is absorbed. Don’t hurry this, it is a similar
process to making mayonnaise. If it does separate, add the separated mixture to a fresh piece of water soaked bread
in a new bowl, together with a drop or two of boiling water.
Scordalia is traditionally eaten with fried Cod and or Beetroot Salad and fried Aubergines and Courgettes.
This was made with brown bread. Usually in Tavernas it is made with white.
Artichokes Alla Polita ©
For those that love Globe Artichokes.
This recipe is for the “Diligent Cook! ”
Ingredients For 4-6 persons
12 “Globe” Artichokes
12 Spring onions sliced
10 small potatoes turned
6 med sized carrots turned
1 bunch Fennel, stalks chopped separately
Juice of 3 lemons
2-3 tbs olive oil
Salt Pepper
Artichoke Soaking Water
1 large basin of warm water
4 tsp salt
Juice of 4 lemons
2 tbs Flour
Method
From your local Market choose fresh plump firm and closed “Globe” Artichokes. Feel them for firmness, insist on the closed leaved ones and test freshness by swaying the artichokes from the stalk! March in Greece is the best month to find good artichokes at the market, later on they become woody. You need to find the ‘Large’ kind, not the smaller Purple ones, used in “Artichokes alla Romana”
1. Prepare the “Artichoke Soaking Water”, by filling a basin with water and adding the above ingredients.
2. Next peal and ‘turn’ your carrots and potatoes into 2-3 cm oblongs or rounds. Wash and trim the spring onions and Fennel. Leave to soak briefly in cold salted water.
3. Lastly peal your artichokes. Take the leaves off one by one, until the leaves are completely yellow in color and tender.Now cut top off artichoke, along the line of indentation, as in the picture. This is important, as the artichoke hearts are what we are aiming for and should melt in the mouth. So don’t feel you are waisting the artichokes by discarding so many leaves.There is nothing worse than chewy artichokes, the hearts should melt in the mouth!
4. With a sharp serrated knife, trim away the green outer layer around the base of the artichoke and cut back the long stalks to leave only 2 cm. The final result should be all pale yellow in color.
5. Using a sharp pointed knife initially and then with the aid of a sharp tea-spoon cut away the “choke”, leaving the center of the artichoke hollow. This part which remains is called the ” heart.”
All this process is quite labour intensive, but totally worth the trouble!
6. As you finish each artichoke, rub thoroughly with a half cut lemon, squeezing the artichoke with lemon juice at the same time. This prevents the artichoke from going black.
7.In a wide based saucepan, add olive oil, sliced spring onions, ( Only the white parts ) and only the stalks of the fennel finely chopped. Reserve the leaves in water, for later.
8. Saute for 2 minutes and then add your ‘turned’ vegetables, ( Potatoes and Carrots.) Saute over a medium heat for another 2 minutes. On no account let the vegetables brown at any time.
9. Add boiling water to cover carrots, see photograph and with the lid on, leave to gently simmer until tender, 15-20 minutes. Test with the point of a sharp knife for readiness.
10. Remove vegetables, leaving the liquid in the saucepan and keep warm in a covered dish.
11. Now add your artichokes, ( reserve soaking water,) cover with GPP and seal with lid. The paper also helps them from becoming discolored.
12. Boil on med-heat, checking and shaking the pan, to make sure they are not sticking. You may need to add a little of the “Soaking Water” during cooking.
13. After 1/2 an hour, test with a knife for tenderness and if nice and soft, turn heat off.
14. Add vegetables to saucepan carefully and heat through just before serving on a very low heat. Check sauce for seasoning and lemon juice. It should be really tasty.
15. Arrange on warmed serving dish and sprinkle with finely chopped fennel, just before serving.
N.B. Should you be keeping the artichokes warm in the oven while eating the first course, have the oven very low, 50.C, you don’t want the oil in the sauce to separate out.
New Cooking Term : To ‘Turn’ vegetables, is to peal them and then shape them with a sharp knife into mouth sized smooth oblongs or rounds.
Meaning :” Choke” is the centre hard fibrous part of the artichoke.
I am so happy to have this traditional Greek recipe recorded for my family and you all!
Choose round firm closed leaved artichokes.
Remove leaves until you reach yellow leaves.
Having reached yellow leaves cut off about half the artichoke with a serrated knife.
It should end up looking like this. remove green outer shell of stalk too.
Now remove “Choke” with a sharp knife and tea spoon.
Rub immediately with lemon juice.
Place artichokes in soaking water so that they do not discolor.
Turn vegetables, chop spring onions and fennel stalks. Reserve leaves.
Spring onions chopped.
Reserve fennel leaves in water.
Saute fennel stalks and spring onions in olive oil.
Add vegetables and saute for five minutes.
Add enough water to almost cover vegetables. Simmer until cooked, 15-20 minutes. Test with tip of knife.
Remove from saucepan, leaving liquid.
Add artichoke hearts. Cover with grease-proof paper and lid. This also helps them not become discolored.
Arrange artichokes in center of warmed serving dish. Arrange the vegetables around the artichokes. If you
are not serving straight away, keep warm in oven, covered with grease proof paper. Pour over the sauce just
before serving and sprinkle with chopped fennel leaves.
Final result ! Serve straight away.
This is a unique and delicious vegetarian meal.
What's Cooking In Jane's Kitchen 