Pan fried Sea Bass with baby capers & buttered new potatoes

I love Cornwall and make frequent trips throughout the year, there are many things I like about CornwallI but one of the things I love is how fresh the seafood is. When I visited Cornwall the last time I ate at a restaurant called "The St Tudy Inn" http://www.sttudyinn , St Tudy is run by the brilliant chef Emily Scott who I have been following for years because of her beautiful food, below is a picture of the Sea Bass dish I was served for my main which is also my inspiration for today's recipe, I don't expect mine to look as professional as Emily's but I'll do my best.

Ingredients 

2 x Sea Bass Fillets

4 x New Potatoes

Handful of Capers

Fresh Flat Leaf Parsley

Butter

Salt

Pepper

Method

1. Steam or boil some new potatoes until soft.

2. Heat a pan until hot on a medium heat

3. Season your Sea Bass with salt and cracked black pepper then add them to the pan skin side down

4. In the meantime cut your potatoes in half length ways and add them to a microwaveable bowl then add a good dollop of butter on the top and put in the microwave for 1 - 2 minutes.

5. When the fish starts to go white around the edges turn over in the pan for a further 1 - 2 minutes until cooked

6. Add the potatoes to the centre of the plate and drizzle some butter on and around the potatoes

7. Remove the Sea Bass from the pan and lay over the potatoes 

8. Garnish with freshly chopped parsley and add some salt and pepper.

9. Place a handful of capers over the fish

10. Serve & enjoy.

Pan Fried Haddock with a Pea & Mint Purée on a Bed of Samphire

Ingredients For 2 Servings

2 Fillets of Haddock

100g of Samphire

2 Medium Potato's 

1 Lemon

Plain Flour

Butter

Rock Salt

Olive Oil

For The Pea Purée

200g of Peas

Handful of Garden Mint

Water

Method

Cut the Potato's into thick chips with the skin on then add to a pan of boiling salted water for 10 minutes or when the potatos are soft but not falling apart.

Once soft add the chips to a baking tray with some vegetable oil and place on the hottest setting on the oven.

Place the peas & Mint into a food processor with a little water & lemon juice and blend together. Either boil your peas before this step or head them in the microwave until soft.

Dust the Haddok fillets in some flour seasoned with salt and pepper.Roll the fillets in the flour to make sure they are covered well in flour.

Now add the fillets to a hot pan with olive oil

Leave to cook for 3-4 minutes, add some salt & pepper and a small squeeze of lemon then turn and repeat.

Remove oil from the tray of chips and return back to the oven to crisp up.

Add the Samphire to a pan with butter and toss for 2-3 minutes

Now it's time to plate up. Using a spoon get a good dollop of the pea purée and sit it in the middle of the plate.

Next place the samphire on the purée.

Then add the fish on top

Grate some lemon and anc sprinkle on top of the fish.

Remove chips from the oven and add some rock salt on top.

Serve & Enjoy......

Monkfish Vindaloo

This is one of my favourite Indian fish dishes. Monkfish is such a lovely fish to eat, its really meaty and full of flavour.  This recipe is so quick and easy and perfect for a midweek meal when you do not have a lot of time on your hands.

"In Europe and North America, the texture of the tail meat of fish is sometimes compared to lobster tail and has been alluded to as the "poor man's lobster,"although today it commands prices equivalent to, and in some cases exceeding, lobster and other marine delicacies.

The Monkfish has to be one of the worlds ugliest fishes but also one of the best to eat with a curry & other dishes due to its flavor and texture.

Ingredients

1 Tablespoon Vegetable oil

1 Large Monkfish tail

2 cans of chopped tomatoes (400g per can)

1 Large onion chopped

2 Medium Chilli chopped

1 Lemon

Methi Leaves (If you have them)

4 Cloves of Garlic minced

Handful of Fresh Coriander + more for serving

Good curry paste (Madras/Vindaloo)

Tablespoon of Garam Masala

Hot chilli powder to taste.

Salt to taste

Method

* Method pictures to be added at a later date

1. Heat oil in a pan and add the onions  & cook for 5 minutes until soft

2. Next add the garlic and chilli and cook for a further minute or so

3. Add the Garam Masala and chilli powder for a further minute and mix together.

4. Add 2 tablespoons of curry paste and mix together with the rest of the ingredients in the pan.

5. Add the cans of tomatoes and the juice of one lemon and mix together (At this point you should have a nice chunky tomato curry sauce.

6. Add the methi leaves if you have some then add the fresh chopped coriander including the stalks and cook for 20 minutes on a low simmer.

7. Taste and add salt if required. 

8. Remove the bone from the monkfish tail and and chop into chunks.

9. Add the chunks of monkfish to your sauce for 5 minutes turning occasionally.

10.  Serve with plain boiled rice and some fresh chopped coriander.

The great thing with this dish is that you can can do all the prep work in advance like making the sauce then when you want to eat it its just a matter of heating the sauce and adding the monkfish.

Note - 

If you find the sauce is a bit dry or you want  more liquid just add some water but remember when you add the fish some moisture will come out of the fish into the sauce anyway.

The reason I use plain boiled rice instead of a pilau rice or another kind of rice is because there is some much aromatic flavour already in the curry you don't want to overpower it with a flavoured rice in my opinion.

The Vindaloo part of this recipe can be toned down to your liking, you can have it as hot or as mild as you want,  just change the paste from a madras/vindaloo paste to a mild/medium paste found at all good supermarkets or make your own,  and just don't add as much of the chilli powder.

Enjoy!