Seafood | Finding Feasts

Easy Prawn, Bug & Fish Pie

Easy Prawn, Bug & Fish Pie is exactly that. It’s a basic velouté sauce with seafood and herbs topped with a perfectly crispy lid.

On our annual Easter getaway with our families, the Easter Friday Fish BBQ is where our feast begins. Bella and I head to the Sydney Fish markets and get a wheelbarrow load of delicious seafood. With eyes bigger than our stomachs we, without doubt have a great amount of seafood to use and it’s always nice to change it up a bit so you aren’t eating the same dish for 2-3 days… plus we have the massive lamb roast to dinner to do during that week also!

This can really be made with any seafood, it’s especially great to have this recipe on hand to use with leftover seafood. If you feel there isn’t enough seafood to use you can pad it out with vegetables and then you will have a delicious Seafood and Vegetable Pie.

This is a rough guide recipe, so long as you have the velouté sauce you can use as little or as much seafood as your bowl can take.

You want a great fish stock so don’t throw anything in the bin till you have made the stock. You want lots of fish heads and carcasses. It’s important not to over cook a fish stock, which unlike a bone broth where your aim is to extract as much vitamins, mineral and antioxidants and more importantly the amino acids, proline and glycine over days of simmering, a fish stock will go bitter if left more than 40 mins or so. 40 minutes is all that is needed to extract the goodies without losing the flavour.

If you’ve read my other recipes using stocks/broths you will know that I don’t like to over flavour them with lots of herbs and vegetables. Keep this one clean so as to have the fish and the dill as the main flavours.

A stunningly crispy pie top with a delicious seafood medley filling… Blondie 🙂

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Sweet & Sour Sardines

Sweet & Sour Sardines is a dish I served while we were all away over the Easter break for the Friday Fish BBQ.

Before we head off for the holidays, Bella and I go for a massive shop at the Sydney Fish Markets, truly, so much fun! Prawns, oysters (which I now know I have a severe reaction to, but that’s another story) barramundi, sardines, whiting and morton bay bugs… a true feast.

We all head to a beautiful property near Oberon, which is on the other side of the Blue Mountains. The kids have a ball with the zip line and the animals that are there, while Bella and I enjoy a week of cooking and mushroom foraging. The hubbies enjoy eating and golfing…so everyone is catered for.

This is a dish inspired by Feast magazine April 2014, the Venetian recipe of Sarde in Saor. If I were in my own kitchen I would have had all the ingredients but since not, there were a few alterations to the original recipe. I used bay leaves instead of thyme. I didn’t have raisins or white wine vinegar so used Dill Pickle juice and pickles to get the acidity and sweetness.

This recipe sings on the tongue, with each bite a delicious blend of sweet, sour and fishy saltiness.

Enjoy the bounty… Blondie xx

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Pork & Prawn Stir Fry w/ Zucchini Noodles & Sweet Potato Sticks

Pork & Prawn Stir Fry w/ Zucchini Noodles & Sweet Potato Sticks is a simple stir fry dish that is flavoursome and textural, relying on great produce to make it a special meal. The only sauce addition is fish sauce and a pinch of sugar, everything else comes from the garden, pasture and ocean – love it!

If you haven’t got your vegetable slicer/noodle maker yet then what are you waiting for? It makes vegetables fun for kids but also opens up a whole new world in cooking. The zucchini noodles really do have a similar texture to normal noodles. They also do spirals, which are fantastic in salads!

Slop it up! Blondie xx

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Warm Kale and Quinoa Salad w/ Seared Salmon and Wild Mushrooms

Warm Kale and Quinoa Salad w/ Seared Salmon and Wild Mushrooms is the very first dish I made with this years first haul from the forest… although not really a haul as I came out with only 13 prized funghi specimens but pair them with a stunning salmon fillet and it’s a feast of a dinner.

It’s still a little too warm for the mushrooms at this point but the rains we have been having in NSW makes for a very promising season. There were lots of very little baby mushrooms poking their heads out, they will be just ripe for picking the following week.

As you can see from my basket there wasn’t too much around, a very small haul indeed but still a feast worthy of a delicious dinner.

FinSkis 2014 mushrooming trip — A small haul but still worthy of a dinner

This is a high nutrient rich meal with just a little indulgent use of butter and a sweet hit from the vino cotto.

Enjoy the forage and savour the feast – Blondie 🙂

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Moroccan Fish – Chut b’chi zyu

Moroccan Fish – Chut b’chi zyu… As with my below post – Teriyaki Mustard Chicken, this is the second dish, Moroccan Fish – Chut b’chi zyu I’ve made as part of my New Year’s resolution… that being, that any cookbook or magazine that enters my house during 2014 will have a recipe made from it.

This is from Feast magazine No.28 Moroccan Fish – Chut b’chi zyu

It’s a lightly spiced fish dish, which is gorgeous served over simple steamed rice…I did puree half of the ingredients and sliced the rest just to add a bit more oomph but it’s basically as written in the magazine. Oh and I added baby spinach, only because I like baby spinach – and I need to build up my iron stores so anything with vitamin c (carrots, capsicum) I add greenery.

Blondie 🙂

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Smoked Salmon Gratin with a Dry Salsa Verde

Smoked Salmon Gratin with a Dry Salsa Verde… This mouth-watering dish is adapted from Annabel Langbein‘s salmon and egg gratin. Originally made by one of Bella’s family members and served for lunch one beautiful summers day while in New Zealand, it was then made by Bella for one of our dinners over Easter away this year and now it is made by me for you…

Like Chinese whispers the original dish has altered a little, Bella included the potato wedges on top and it works so well to help mop up all of the white sauce and to pad it out for a more filling meal. I have added a dry salsa verde (once you make it you will see why I call it a dry salsa verde), which adds another complimentary layer of flavour.

There is actually quite a bit of white sauce for this recipe and you don’t need to use it all, but do make it to the recipe as it’s so handy to have on hand. Freeze the leftover to make mac’n’cheese at a later date – simply reheat, add parmesan or tasty cheese and mix with cooked pasta.

Smoked Salmon Gratin with a Dry Salsa Verde is luxurious dish and is one of only a handful of meals that hubby goes back to for seconds.

Truly scrumptious… Blondie

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Baharat and Panko Crusted Salmon Croquettes

I am on a mission to make the perfect Bitterballen, so far without much luck. I know what I’m looking for and the recipes I am experimenting with just aren’t cutting the mustard, but I will get there and will proudly announce my efforts when I do!

In the meantime, here is a gorgeous mid-week meal to serve with a crisp salad and a little yoghurt, Baharat and Panko Crusted Salmon Croquettes. Also works very well for finger food at a party!

How can anyone pass on these little deep fried little flavour bundles? Bite into the crispy outside with the beautiful flavours of the Middle Eastern spice mix then break through to the creamy salmon centre… Heaven!

Enjoy, Blondie 🙂

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