I like cooking filleted fish, it’s so quick and easy. Tonight we had smoked basa fillets. Usually I like to poach smoked fish in milk and then make a creamy sauce by adding crème fraiche and butter. This evening I was serving it with vegetables from the garden - French beans, baby broad beans and new potatoes so didn’t feel like a rich sauce. Instead I put the fish on foil, added some butter, a slice of lemon, parsley and a slurp of white wine, sealed the foil into parcels and baked for about 12 minutes. It was delicious and the fish came with their own puddles of ready made sauce.
The new potatoes were particularly good because I managed to snaffle some potatoes that Paul had rejected as being too small. We always argue about this. He likes to wait until they are a reasonable size. But to me they don’t taste like proper new potatoes unless they are really small.
I picked some freesias from the garden. I only grow them for the scent. Always takes me back to being a five year old bridesmaid with a posy of freesias.
I had Spam, chips and beans. It was delicious.
ReplyDeleteI don't like Spam!
DeleteYou would have had to have chips and beans then. When I was dishing up I was thinking it would be a good meal for hungry visitors. I love Spam.
DeleteI was thinking back to the Monty Python sketch and the old lady saying "I don't like Spam".
DeleteOr sorry. I remember the Spam sketch but had forgotten that bit.
DeleteI like the sound of your supper. Fresh veg from the garden is the best!
ReplyDeleteEspecially when it's picked young.
DeleteI agree totally with you about picking veg when they are small. I used to pick broad beans when they were about half finger nail size but had to wait until the farmer had gone off on the tractor as he thought that was a terrible waste. He liked to wait until they were really large and filled the freezer with raher tasteless and tough veg!
ReplyDeleteI really don't like broad beans when they are tough and bitter, I can remember hating them when I was a child.
DeleteIt's been more than thirty years since I ate vegetables that were just picked from the garden, I can not remember their taste anymore.
ReplyDeleteI am very lucky that Paul is so keen on his vegetable gardening. He does the hard work and I get to eat the results.
DeleteThat sounds like a deliciously simple and tasty meal but...
ReplyDelete"Basa is a species of catfish in the family Pangasiidae. Basa are native to the Mekong and Chao Phraya basins in Indochina."
The rest of this article will put you off basa forever! Now I know why it is the cheapest fish in Coles Supermarkets. I've never bought it for that reason. You get what you pay for!! Fish from ponds in the Mekong - I don't think so. However, that method of cooking is absolutely delicious - but put something better inside.
DeleteThat's a shame, it was such a tender, tasty fish, much nicer than the tough old cod I bought from the 'fresh' counter recently.
DeleteSome years ago fish from the Pangasiidae family was banned here because of the amount of effluent in the Mekong Delta. No idea if that is still the case, but I haven't noticed it in any of the supermarkets locally.
DeleteMost of the fish I cook is in a shrink wrapped container, so all I have to do is prick the plastic and whizz it around in the microwave for a short time. I've had some very tasty cod, salmon and hake meals.
I would think the fish is tested before it is imported into the UK but I might stick to cod, haddock and salmon in the future.
DeleteI often think I should make fresh fish, but never really know how to make it properly. Yours sounds like a good method. -Jenn
ReplyDeleteIf the fish is filleted then it's the easiest and quickest thing in the world to cook. A couple of minutes each side in the pan with a tiny bit of butter and olive oil or 10-15 minutes in the oven. Secret is not to overcook.
DeleteJenn, loose foil parcels is the easiest way to cook fish like salmon, with butter, lemon and pepper, in the oven. I usually open the foil for the final 5 minutes, going for a 20 minute total.
DeleteThat's exactly how I cook salmon and other fish. Quick, easy and it doesn't dry out or get overdone. I love freesias. They were my (long gone) Nan's favourite because she loved the scent as does my mum and as do I.
ReplyDeleteI've never grown them before so it's a real treat to pick them from the garden.
Delete