fish

Grilled Fish Fillet on a sweet Coconut Rice, topped with a fresh salsa tropical with a touch of heat to bring you right under the tropics sun! A decade ago… I was travelling with my now husband and my little black cocker throughout South America and we ended up in beautiful Cartagena, Colombia. I believe one of my top places in the world! We loved it there, and after living for a year in Peru everything seemed so different on the other side of the continent. Starting with the first meal we’ve got… coconut rice and grilled fish! Sooo simple and sooo unforgettable. Although in Colombia they make a “sofrito” (a reduction until paste) with the coconut milk first to give it extra taste and a brownish color, here I’ve skipped this step to simply cook the rice in coconut milk. The coconut flavor is all there though, plus it’s…

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Fish & Sea Food

Salmon on a white bean, fennel, orange salad and spinach sauce

By thefoodolic July 9, 2016

Salmon on a bed of white beans, fennel and orange salad accompanied with a spinach sauce is an attempt to make a crispy skin salmon dish… sadly, the skin wasn’t a success… I’ve burned it. Although the rest of the recipe turn out pretty good, maybe a little excess of sauce… This is the same spinach sauce I’ve used from the prior post; the gnocchis on spinach sauce recipe. This element is optional, of course, the original dish idea was actually without it. Fennel have a quite particular taste to it, a delicate anise flavour. I find raw fennel to be great vegetable to crave on, in summertime, there is a certain refreshing feeling to it, similar to mint. This mediterranean veggie is actually one of the primary ingredient to absinth and is filled with health benefits. When eaten raw, the fennel bulb needs to be cut finely, otherwise its taste can be overwhelming. I’ve used the mandolin…

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Fish & Sea Food

Beer battered Fish and Chips

By thefoodolic June 26, 2016

I’ve decided to say farewell to our old European companions with a traditional dish of theirs; the famous Fish and Chips. More precisely, a Brown Ale Beer Battered Fish and Chips. Since the whole Brexit thing is bitter to most, I wanted to use they own “bitter beer” to make the batter, but could not find any, where I live… sadly. It would have been the perfect Brexit dish. I was surprised to learn in wikipedia, while doing my research for the dish, that this meal was imported to England by Spanish Jews in the 17th century… well the fried fish part. It makes total sense, since the “pescado frito”, floured fried fish, as a long history as a tapa in Spain. For this dish, I’ve used hake fillets, another popular choice is cod or haddock. Another particularity is the mushy pea dip on the side, which is eaten with the fries/chips. A healthy side…

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Fish & Sea Food

Salmon on quinoa and bean salad

By thefoodolic June 8, 2016

Salmon on quinoa and white bean salad is a great summer dish. The beauty about salmon; it doesn’t contains Mercury like in tuna, swordfish,etc. Mercury as we know is hazardous for our health. Wild salmons on the other end, they eat mainly krill or underwater vegetation, which contains no mercury. That is when they are coming from the wild, but most of salmon you’ll find in markets comes from fish farms and eat soy and corn. Salmon is also fully packed with vitamins, omega-3 and so much more, to keep our brains and nerves on a good path. Salmon is considered a “fatty” fish, do not worry… the “good” kind of fat; meaning, it’s way easier to cook, it will keep moist more easily than a lean fish, which make the fish suitable for high heat cooking methods like BBQ, grill, searing in a pan, oven, etc. The salad is a delicious lukewarm red quinoa, white…

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Fish & Sea Food

Sole en Papillote

By thefoodolic May 28, 2016

Fish en papillote is such a flavourful and healthy way to eat fish. It’s mainly used to cook those really lean, flaky fishes because it keeps all the humidity that the lean fish would lose by other ways of coccion, like pan frying, simple oven, etc. It’s simply an aromatic vapor that cooks you fish, and when the time come to open those little puffy bags, all that aromatic vapor hits your nose, no better way to start a nice light diner. For this dish, I’ve used a beautiful small soles. This fish really gain from the papillote humidity, simply add some aromatics of your choice; here, I’ve used a bed of bell pepper slices, then topped with tomatoes, olives, thyme and garlic with a touch of olive oil and white wine. You can also make those papillote with aluminium foil, it’s easier to close up hermetically, but be careful… if you use…

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Fish & Sea Food

Tuna tataki with crunchy wasabi

By thefoodolic April 15, 2016

I know… I know… It’s wasabi and it’s too strong you would say… But the truth is: nah! Just need to balance the wasabi vinaigrette with some vinegar and honey and you’ll be surprised by the result. Sure, it’s gonna be a bit spicy, especially if you add the wasabi crunch on the sides of your tuna, but it’s not too strong, believe me. I use to dislike wasabi, strangely I’ve changed. I remember the recipe that made me switch from dislike to loving it. It was not even an asian dish, like sushis, but a recipe from an Australian chef, that made a “sweet mashed potato” with wasabi! Sometimes, it just takes a different take on a disliked product to start loving it… Although… sometimes it never comes. Or an other example; goat cheese. Most people dislike goat cheese at first, but then they try it in a bruschetta and then add some more…

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