Sea-trout served 2 ways Asian Style

Our fishmonger showed us nice big sea-trout fillets, skin on. Back home we turned to Rick Stein to see what to make of it. We decided on two preparations:
Japanese fishcakes made from the tail part, with ginger and spring onions and
fry the thicker part wth a soy, ginger and chili glaze

Sea-trout: 2 big or 2 small fillets
Ginger root: 4 cm, very finely chopped
Spring onions: 1, finely chopped
Chestnut mushrooms: 4 (2 finely chopped, the rest thickly sliced)
Garlic: 1 clove finely chopped
Chilli: 1 small, finely chopped
Egg
Soysauce
Balsamic vinegar
Sesame oil
Caster sugar
Coriander: some sprigs
Salad: for instance 4 green asparagus and rocket

Cut the fillets in half. Put the top, thicker halves aside and start with the tails and remove the skin. Pinbone them if necessary. Cut them lengthways into long, thin strips. Then cut across into very small cubes. Too small and you end up with pate, too big and it won't hold together.

Put the cubes in a bowl and mix with half the ginger, the sping onions, chopped mushroom. Whisk 1/2 egg and add to the mixture, with some salt and pepper. Wet your hands and shape into 2 patties about 8 cm in diameter. Or use 2 serving rings if you have them, so you can use a fork instead of your hands.

For the salad: cut the asparagus in 3 parts and cook them 4 or 5 mins in salted water. Wash and dry the rocket. Whisk 2 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp water and a pinch of caster sugar into a dresssing

Heat 2 frying pans, lightly oiled:
one to fry the fillets for 30 sec on each side, then take the pan off the heat.
Put the cakes in the other one, on medium heat. Fry each side for about 1 1/2 mins, untill golden brown and cooked through.
In the meantime add the garlic, 4 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, the other half of the ginger and chilli to the fillets.
Reduce the heat and cook for about 3 mins, untill the trout is just cooked through.

Warm 2 plates in the microwave.
A fishcake and a fillet on each plate, with
the salad of rocket, asparagus and ( if you
want, briefly fried) mushrooms. Drizzle the
dressing over the salad and the glaze over
the fillets.
Decorate with coriander
Enjoy!

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Mackerel, courgette and a pesto from parsley, pistache and sorrel

A recipe we found in The Guardian by Yotam Ottolenghi

Normally we do use mackerel, but today we made it with sea bass.

If you don't have any sorrel in your garden or                      growing wild nearby, you'll be hard pushed to get hold

it, so it's well worth ordering some in advance from a  

greengrocer. It's wonderfully sharp, in a non-citrussy

kind of way, and goes well with anything nutty. If you

can't get hold of any, just up the quantity of parsley in

the pesto and add a bit more vinegar. Serves four!

3 large courgettes (700g)
3½ tbsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper
2 tbsp lemon juice
8 small or 4 large mackerel fillets, pinboned
25g rocket leaves

For the pesto
75g sorrel
15g parsley
50g pistachios
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 tsp cider vinegar
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp honey
3 tbsp olive oil  

Put all the ingredients for the pesto in a food processor and blitz to a coarse, runny paste.
Put a ridged griddle pan on the stove to heat up. Cut the courgettes on an angle into 1/2 cm-thick slices. Toss them in two tablespoons of olive oil, season and grill for three to four minutes, turning once, until tender but not limp.
.
Brush the mackerel fillets with the remaining oil and season generously. grill them, skin-side down to begin with, on the griddle pan for three or four minutes, turning once. As soon as the fish is cooked, drizzle over the remaining lemon juice.

To serve, divide the courgettes like a flower between four plates and top with a few rocket leaves. Lay the warm fish on the rocket, drizzle over the pesto and finish with some more rocket.

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Trout 'Bondage', stuffed with mushrooms, pancetta, garlic and parsley

Sea trouts: 2
Butter
Pancetta (or bacon): a few slices
Chestnut mushrooms: 12 in thick slices
Garlic: 1 clove, finely chopped
Parsley: 2 tbsp, chopped
Flour: 25 gr
Lemon: 1 or 2

Another recipe from Rick Stein. Start with the sea trouts. Remove the heads, then using the tip of a very sharp thin knife start getting the top fillet away from the bones till 2,5 cm from the tail. Turn the fish over and repeat with the other fillet. Snip off the bone with scissors just before the tail (that will keep the two halves together).

Fry the garlic in some butter till they just start browning. Add about half of  the mushrooms and 1 tbsp parsley and fry another minute. Take out to cool a bit. Put the pancetta in the pan till nice and crisp.

Put the stuffing on the lower fillets and cover with the pancetta. Then cover with the top fillet and use string to tie around the fish

Dust the fish lightly with plain flour and fry about 3 minutes in some oil, without moving them
Warm the plates in the microwave
In the meantime brown the rest of the mushrooms in a second pan
Turn the fish and fry the other side
Put the mushrooms on the plates. Wipe the pan clean and melt 60 gr butter till it browns and starts smoking a bit, then add a tbsp lemon juice and the rest of the parsley. You've made beurre noisette!

Put the fish on the plates and pour the beurre noisette over them. Serve with half a lemon

Don't forget to bring scissors to the table!

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Strawberry Carpaccio

Wash and cut 12 strawberries. Slice a celery stalk. Arrange on a plate and put in the fridge. Keep 3 strawberries aside for the dressing. 

Prepare the dressing: mash the 3 strawberries with a fork, mix with 2 tbsp oil, 1tsp strawberry jam and 1 tsp sherry vinegar, 5 pinches sea salt, 7 turns of the mill black pepper and 2 pinches piment d'Espelet. Chop a small handful pistachio nuts. 

Get the plates from the fridge, sprinkle the nuts on top of the strawberries, add some rocket salad leaves and drizzle the dressing over it.

An easy and surprising........starter! Enjoy!

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