'Poached' salmon

We have this probably once  a month.  It is quick and the only messy bit is lifting it out of the foil.

Tesco and Aldi sell frozen blocks of salmon individually wrapped, so you only need to take out those you need.

For each salmon fillet, prepare a piece of foil (go for decent stuff, rather that you use to wrap the kids' sandwiches!) about a foot square.

Cut off the plastic wrapping and place the salmon in the middle of the foil square.

Add one tablespoon of water and one tablespoon of olive oil, and wrap the salmon up well.

Place on a baking tray and cook for the stated time, we go for 24 minutes.

Once the time is up, take the tray out of the oven and unwrap one piece at a time.  Using a fish slice lift the fish carefully onto a plate - beware it is likely to drip.

I tend to throw the foil into the sink until we have eaten, and this is one time we just throw the foil away.

You can serve it will hollandaise sauce,but I haven't had time to experiment with that yet.

Spice it up Salmon

I use packets of frozen salmon from Aldi, but I know that Tesco do them as well.  They come individually wrapped, so you can use as many as you need.

Mix together:
1/4 tsp seasalt
1 tsp mxed herbs
1/4 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp cumin
Add enough olive oil to make a paste - about 1 tbsp
[If you are putting this onto frozen fillets, you can make it a little more 'sloppy', as it freezes onto the fish]

This covers 3-4 salmon fillets.

Cook as the instructions on the packet

Fish cakes

We have tried different fish cake recipes that don't contain the usual bulking from potatoes, but to be honest they all seem to be missing something.  On the whole they all seem to be dry.

Today we used the Crab cakes (using tinned salmon) from Everyday Paleo, but did not follow the recipe completely, as to make this dish would need a dozen eggs to make them for the four of us, as well as the tinned salmon, which does not makes them a sensible price.

I made up the fish cakes as the recipe says, but used a packet of hollandaise sauce - I'm not entirely happy about this, but I have to be realistic when I have to balance time against what my family are prepared to eat.  They haven't chosen to eat paleo, and forcing them is not likely to make them what to do it.

I will continue looking for a moister mixture.

Birthdays, snow and fish

I have found that birthdays and snow - both being cold and being restricted to how far you can go - lead to eating things that you shouldn't.  Whether it's the chocolates bought for birthdays, the cake made to pass the time when the children can't go out or the whole 'being kept at home, so I'll raid the cupboards', it has not been a good time for avoiding the bad things.  The one benefit has been that, once they've gone, they are not likely to be replaced.  Although I do still find it hard not to buy 'goodies' for the children when they are on special offer.  I know that it is unlikely they would choose to stick to a paleo diet when I am not feeding them, but I don't want to bend my principles too much!

However, today we had a fish dish that is fairly simple and because it is finished in the oven, the kitchen can be cleaned up as it's cooking.

Fish with Chilli

15g butter
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 chilli pepper, very finely chopped
1 kg fish fillets, defrosted if frozen
1-2 large carrots, peeled, diced and lightly steamed
1-2 courgettes, diced (peeled if prefered) and lightly steamed
115g fresh or frozen peas, lightly steamed
30g butter

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.
2. Melt the butter and saute the onions until transparent.  Add the garlic, cumin seeds and chilli pepper and saute briefly.  Remove from heat.
3. Cut the fish fillets into cubes and mix with the onion mixure in an ovenproof dish.
4. Arrange little mounds of carrrots, courgettes and peas around the dish, add 2 tbsp water, dot with butter and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, until the fish is cooked and everything is piping hot.

It looks good in the dish

Not quite so good on the plate!

Curried fish chowder with paleo croutons

We tend to eat fish a couple of times a week, but the limitation on making this fish stew is I have only found one place in Swindon that I can buy plantains.  In fact, when I asked in Sainsbury's, you would have thought that I was asking for ostrich or octopus (actually, I think you can buy that there).  Anyway, it seems that only the large Asda stores stock plantain.

My only concern of eating Curried fish chowder is the shortage of vegetables, so you may want to serve it with a salad or fruit.  We had previously had a large pot of vegetable soup, so I felt it balanced out over the day.  It is quite quick as long as you remember to thaw the fish.  I buy big one kilo bags of pollack, which are just right for this.  I start frying the crou-tains at the same time as I put the fish in the pot, and it all seems to come together.

[Edit - I now shred cabbage, cook quickly in the microwave and add to the chowder to add extra vegetable]

Cheesy fish fillets

A simple fish dish that is quick to prepare.

This is best done using the fish fillets that come frozen in a box.  Unfortunately, they come with six in a box, and we need eight, so we have to buy two boxes.

This will serve four people, although you need to be generous with the veggies as fish is not hugely filling.

8 x 100g fish fillets - defrosted
sea salt
lemon juice
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp dried sage
butter
sliced or grated cheese (use real cheese not those horrible processed slices)

Preheat the oven to 180C, 350F
Sprinkle fish with salt and lemon juice, and place in a buttered dish that just accommodates them.
Sprinkle with onion and sage and bake for 10 minutes.
Place cheese over fish, dot with butter and bake for another 10 minutes, until cheese is melted and the fish flakes easily.