Spice up the Sea!

Browsing through some old recipes that I’ve successfully horded over the years, I managed to come across the most amazing seafood recipes by a Mauritian chef Mesh Boyjoonnauth.  His combinations of spices and seafood are absolutely phenomenal and a must try! So out with the aprons and lets get cooking!

Seafood Curry

150g kingklip fillet, cubed

150g Calamari steak, cubed

150g prawns, shelled

150g shrimps

10ml fresh grated ginger

1-2 Cloves garlic, crushed

4 Cardamom pods lightly bruised

2 Cinnamon sticks

4 Cloves

8 Curry leaves, finely chopped

5ml Fresh thyme

10ml Cumin powder

60ml Oil

1 Onion peeled and sliced

45-60ml curry powder

2 Tomatoes Cubed

2 Chillies chopped

300ml fish stock

Salt and black ground pepper

30ml Fresh coriander, chopped

To make:

1. Marinate all the seafood in the ginger, garlic, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, curry leaves, thyme and cumin for 15minutes.
2. Heat the oil in a large pan and sweat the onion until tender.  Add the seafood and fry for 3-5minutes before adding the curry powder, tomatoes and chili.
3. Finally add the fish stock and cook for 5minutes.  Season to taste.
4. Sprinkle with coriander and serve with basmati rice.

Grilled prawns with Cognac Sauce

1kg Prawns, largest available

Juice of 2 lemons

30ml fresh parsley chopped

100ml Olive oil

Cognac Sauce

30ml oil

100g Lobster heads

100g prawn shells

1 Carrot Chopped

1/2 Onion Chopped

1/2 Leek chopped

45ml Chopped Fennel

10ml Cognac

20ml White wine

30g Tomato paste

2Litres water

10ml butter

50ml Cream

Salt and ground black pepper

To make:

1. For the cognac sauce, heat the oil and fry the lobster heads and prawn shells together with all the vegetables until coloured.
2. Flambe’ the cognac over the vegetables and then deglaze the pan with white wine.  Add the tomato paste and water.  Bring to the boil and cook for 1 hour.
3. Strain the sauce, finish with the butter and cream and season to taste.
4. Clean the prawns and season with the lemon juice, parsley, a little olive oil, salt and black pepper.
5. Heat the oil and grill the prawns until cooked through.
6. Serve the prawns immediately with the spicy rice and the cognac sauce.

Roasted Kingklip with Roasted vegetables and a mushroom and tarragon sauce

800g Kingklip or firm white fish fillets

10ml lemon juice

15ml olive oil

15ml chopped fennel

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

ROASTED VEGIES:

1 Green pepper

1 Red pepper

1 Squash

200g Carrots

200g Turnips

4 Large mushrooms

100g Asparagus tips

30ml Olive Oil

MUSHROOM AND TARRAGON SAUCE

40g Butter

1//21 Onion chopped

3-4 Sliced mushrooms

15ml Chopped Tarragon

50ml White wine

500ml Cream

15g peeled and cubed tomato

To make:

1. Marinate the fish in lemon juice, olive oil, chopped fennel and seasoning for 15minutes.  Roast for 5 minutes at 220 degrees.
2. Seed the peppers and cut into quarters.  Cut the squash into segments.  Cut the carrots and turnips into long strips.  Clean the mushrooms.
3. Pan roast all the vegetables in olive oil and season to taste.
4. To make the sauce, melt 30g butter in a saucepan.  Cook the chopped onion, mushroom and the tarragon for 3 minutes.
5. Deglaze the pan with the white wine and add the cream.  Bring to the boil and reduce to thicken.  Stir in the remaining butter and season to taste.  Finally add the tomato cubes.
6. Place the roasted vegetables in the middle of a plate.  Top with the roasted fish and sauce. Serve hot.

Coriander Rice

5ml Salt

2 Litres water

200g Basmati rice

15ml Coriander seeds

1 Bay leaf

1 Bunch coriander leaves chopped

To make:

1. Add salt to the water and bring to the boil.  Rinse the rice and add to the salted water.
2. Tie the coriander seeds in a muslin cloth and add to the rice.  Add the bay leaf and boil until the rice is tender.
3. Drain and rinse with cold water.
4. Stir in the chopped coriander.

And on that note HAPPY COOKING!!

Beer Batter Fish, Roasted Vegies and Potato Rosti….

This evening my son decided he wanted to choose dinner…one thing I knew was that somewhere in the concoction there would be seafood. Not once did it cross my mind that between the two of us this is what we would come up with.

I love the use of fresh herbs and spices, as well as making food from scratch – I guess cutting out all the preservatives, msg and all the bad stuff!  So he reached in the freezer and pulled out the Hake cuts, wanted roasted veg and then I decided that instead of chips we could do a herbed potato rosti.

For the Beer batter we used:

salt and pepper to taste

95 g all-purpose flour

10 g garlic powder

10 g paprika

9 g salt

3 g ground black pepper

1 egg, beaten

265 ml beer

6 cuts fish of your choice

To make:

1. Heat oil in a deep fryer to 365 degrees F (185 degrees C). Rinse fish, pat dry, and season with salt and pepper.
2. Combine flour, garlic powder, paprika, salt, and  pepper. Stir egg into dry ingredients. Gradually mix in beer until a thin batter is formed. You should be able to see the fish through the batter after it has been dipped.
3. Dip fish fillets into the batter, then drop one at a time into hot oil. Fry fish, turning once, until both sides are golden brown. Drain on paper towels, and serve warm.

Then for the vegies:

3 Carrots cut into jullienne strips

1/2 cup cut beans

1 large clove garlic sliced

1/2 sml green pepper sliced

1 sml onion roughly chopped

1 tomato chopped roughly

10ml mediterranean mixed spice

1tsp ground black pepper

1tsp salt

1tbl spoon butter

To Make:

1. Combine the above ingredients in a small oven dish and cover with foil
2. Bake at 180 degrees for about 15min
3. Remove the foil and grill for 8min till nicely browned.
4. Serve!

Potato Rosti

4 large potatoes grated

1 lg clove garlic finely grated

1 tsp fresh italian herbs finely chopped

salt and pepper

1 egg

100ml parmesan cheese

To Make:

1. Combine the above, and form flat (crumpet sized) cakes
2. In a heavy based pan heat oil and lightly fry the rosti till brown turn once and fry.
3. Serve

What I did was serve the fish with a hot chilli salsa and a slice of lemon.  The vegies were bursting with the mixture of the herbs and flavours and the rosti just filled the gap!  Its light, quick and easy, all the makings of a good weekend supper.

Happy Cooking

Great texture, Awesome flavour!

Hello fellow foodies!

After the caffeine addiction, I figured what better way to remove some of that guilt by something a little more healthy.  Now what I love about these stuffed peppers, is the gorgeous flavour, the textures that come together so well, and more importantly they seem to just hit the spot without leaving you feeling heavy and in need of the nearest couch for a snooze!  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Bell Peppers Stuffed with Chicken and Mozzarella

Serves 4-6

The technique that elevates this recipe above the rest is boiling the peppers before stuffing them and then cooking the rice in the pepper flavoured water.

5-6 large red or yellow bell peppers
1 litre of boiling water
3 T (45 ml) Vegetable or Chicken Stock Powder
2 T (30 ml) lemon juice
1 cup (200 g) long grain rice
3 T (45 ml) olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 chicken breast fillets
1 T (15 ml) Garlic & Herb Seasoning
1 x 200 ml Sundried Tomato Coat & Cook Sauce
1 cup (250 ml) grated Mozzarella cheese
3 T (45 ml) roughly chopped fresh basil or marjoram
1 t (5 ml) Chilli & Garlic Seasoning
basil leaves for garnishing

Carefully cut a ‘lid’ off the top of each pepper, remove the pips and membranes. Bring 1 litre of water to the boil, add stock powder, lemon juice and prepared peppers. Cook for 5 minutes. Remove peppers and drain, cut side down, on a plate lined with kitchen paper. Add the rice to the same water in which the peppers were cooked. Boil for 18 minutes then strain. Discard cooking water.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Lightly brown the onion in the olive oil in a big fry-pan. Slice the breasts in 5mm slices across the grain.

Add the chicken to the onion in the pan and stir-fry until just firm but not browned. Add the Garlic & Herb seasoning and the cooked rice. Add the Sundried Tomato Coat & Cook sauce. Remove from the heat. Add two thirds of the grated cheese and all the basil. Taste for seasoning.

Place peppers, cut-side up, in a small ovenproof dish so they support each other. Spoon the stuffing into the peppers. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the tops of the stuffed peppers and dust with Chilli & Garlic seasoning.

Bake for 30 minutes until the tops are golden brown. Garnish with basil.

Serve with Italian bread and a green salad with onion rings and cherry tomatoes dressed with our Classic Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Bonappetit!