Light dinner of sable fish with green olive sauce

It was the day after boxing day and We were turkeyed out.  Boxing day I had turkey eaten straight from the fridge dipped in cranberry sauce, lunch I had turkey sandwich with all the trimmings and Dinner was heated up turkey and gravy served with fried up left over mashed potatoes and vegetables.  Don't get me wrong I love turkey but I was craving something different and lighter. So I went for a walk down to the local fish store to see what looked good, and I found sable fish (black cod)

That is all I bought as I wanted to use up what I had in the fridge.  What I had in the fridge was green olives, green onion, basil and 1/4 bottle of white wine so I used this to make a light sauce to go with the fish.

Serves two

2 pieces of sable fish or any firm white fish such as halibut.
1 tablespoon of olive oil
3 green onions
1/4 cup of green olives pitted and chopped
1/4 cup of white wine
juice of 1/2 lemon
3 large basil leaves shredded

lightly salt and pepper the fish.

Heat the olive oil up in a small frying pan and pan fry the fish.

Fishing in the Sea of Cortez

One day while staying in Mexico we chartered a boat to go marlin fishing.  This was not necessarily my idea, as I really do not like fishing that much, but I am always happy to go out on a boat so I happily went along.  We started early before it got too hot, boarding our boat at about 7:30 in the morning.

It turned out the marlin fishing was a bit of a non event, but we spent a very pleasant couple of hours sitting on top of the boat enjoying the view and listening to the crews music selection.

 The crew on the other hand were busy putting out all the lines and watching to see if there were any bites.  But there were no marlin to be found, so they took in all those lines and dropped different bait to catch bottom fish.

This was far more successful and within minutes a line was pulled in with two fish on it.  Then another and then another.

Before long there was literally a bucket load of fish.

I am not sure what they all were, the crew said the red ones were scorpion fish which had poisonous spikes, they carefully cut these off.  Then one of the crew very quickly and efficiently filleted and cut up the fish on the back of the boat.

Planked salmon

I was lucky enough to have Friday dinner over at my friends who live in Summerland on the Okanagan lake.  It was a beautiful evening and we sat outside catching up and enjoying a glass of wine or two with Pat while her husband prepared dinner. The light on the hills behind their house was spectacular and I could not help but take some photographs.

My friend had picked up a beautiful fillet of sockeye salmon for dinner and her husband was going to cook it on the barbecue on a cedar plank.  He did this differently than I have in the passed, so I was interested to see how it turned out.

First he soaked the plank in water for about an hour then placed the fish on top and topped it with some lemon and capers.

Then he pre-heated the grill to 350 and placed the salmon on the top rack.  In the past I have always placed it on the bottom rack, which chars the plank and gives the salmon a smokey flavour.  But in cooking it further from the coals the plank will live to be used another day.

Comfort food - Fish pie

Fish pie is a quintessential English dish that when it is done well is for me the ultimate comfort food.  Fish pie was almost ruined for me by the the diabolically bad fish pies they used to make at school.  In fact because of this I did not make it for years.  But watching a Jamie Oliver program a few years ago I decided to block out those bad school memories and make it my own.

I have an old school friend visiting from England this week and as we found ourselves down at Granville Island we decided to put the wonderful fresh fish to good use. I am giving the fish that we bought because it looked fresh that day, but really any mixture of seafood would do. You could use scallops, salmon or any other fish, but I really like it with a little smoked fish as this adds a wonderful slightly salty smoky addition.

Serves 3 to 4

1/2 onion chopped
1/4 cup of butter or margarine
1/4 cup of flour
1 1/2 to 2 cups of milk
handful of chopped parsley
6 large prawns (we used local spot prawns)
1/2 lb of smoked black cod
1/2 lb of halibut
1/2 cup of frozen peas.
4 large potatoes mashed with milk and butter.
2 oz of grated cheddar cheese

Cassa Fabesso - A Port Moody treasure

I had heard of Casa Fabesso last summer when a friend of mine told me about this very authentic Italian Restaurant down at Reed Port Marina just off the Barnet Highway. But I had not got around to going and my Father had been saying that he was interested in going, so last week in the last throws of Summer the two of decided to go try it out.

We were greeted by Anna and shown to our table, we had declared at the time of booking that we would have the seafood dinner and seafood we had.  There are no menus and each course arrives with a quick explanation by Anna, but I did not feel that I was being talked down to, like I sometimes do in these circumstances.  The first course was bruschetta topped with a home cleaned and preserved anchovy.

Bruschetta

This was just a couple of bites, but it was delicious and there were many more courses to come.  The next dish was perhaps my favourite tuna carpaccio.

Tuna carpaccio

We got a thin slice of tuna served with a wonderful fresh citrus dressing it was every bit as good as the tuna carpaccio I had in Sorrento last November.  Both of us loved this dish so simple but so fresh and good.

Halibut with peach salsa

Monday night of the long weekend found just two of us left at Pender harbour the remainder of  family and  friends had returned to Vancouver and Summerland so we decided we wanted to cook light and as we had not had fish all weekend halibut was on the menu.

We found a wonderful slab of halibut frozen at our favourite meat market at Pender Harbor The Oak tree market.  They also had some fresh looking rainbow chard and so we got some of that as well.

I made a peach salsa to go on the fish as we had all the ingredients in the house and peaches are abundent at the moment.

Peach salsa

2 large tomatoes chopped.
1 peach chopped
1/2 sweet onion chopped
1 jalapeno pepper chopped
Handful of chopped cilantro
Juice of one lime
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients together and let the flavours blend while the fish cooks

While Nancy cooked the rice I got the halibut on the barbecue.

Just barbecued until cooked through, not dried out.  You could also pan fry in olive oil or grill under the  broiler, but as the weather was still like summer barbecue seemed the best option.

Whilst the fish was cooking I quickly stir fried some rainbow chard in a tablespoon of olive oil with a clove of garlic thinly sliced.

Urban dinner downtown - Halibut cheeks with baby vegetables

My good friends daughter who is my adoptive daughter, just moved into an apartment on the 29th floor down town Vancouver. Her Mother and I decided to visit and cook dinner for her and her boyfriend.  First we went to Granville Island to hunt and gather, one of the best places in the world in which to do this.  Sadly I did not take any photographs, but here is the view from her brand new apartment.

Her apartment is brand new and very beautiful, but very small so we picked up some very small vegetables, actually we picked them up because the looked so cute and tasty. This picture really does not show the size as there is nothing for scale, but the zucchini were about the size of my finger.

Very tiny vegetables on very beautiful granite top

We were feeling like fish so we picked up some halibut cheeks at the market, the cheeks really are the best part of the halibut. She had some little potatoes as well so I decided to make a light warm potato salad with those, and to roast the vegetables.

Roasted potatoes and cauliflower

After an extravegant meal on Saturday night and substantial lunch provided by my son for Mothers day I was feeling something simple and uncomplicated for dinner on Sunday night.  There were some good potatoes in the cupboard, some salsa left over from the night before and a cauliflower that really needed to be used.  I added to this some fish I picked up at the fish store as I had a hankering for fish.

4 small potatoes cut in to quarters
1/2 a cauliflower cut in to florets
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
1 tablespoon of turmeric.
a pinch of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of chili powder.
a handful of chopped cilantro

Salmon Salad sandwich

I am not a big sandwich eater, I never pack one for lunch and on the weekend I would be more likely to make a quick soup than a sandwich.  But there is one sandwich I like salmon salad sandwich.  For me this has to be made with canned sockeye salmon and made on a good wholewheat bread.

The left over filling worked well on crackers with a couple more capers as a little pre dinner appetizer.

1 can of sockeye salmon
3 green onions chopped
Juice of one lemon
2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
1 teaspoon of dried dill (or fresh if you have it)
1 tablespoon of capers (sometimes)

Mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl.

Daring cooks challenge - food containers

Renata of Testado, Provado & Aprovado! was our Daring Cooks’ April 2011 hostess. Renata challenged us to think “outside the plate” and create our own edible containers! Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 17th to May 16th at http://thedaringkitchen.com/!


So we are to make food served in editable containers, it is wide open and we can make any food and any container and as many as we want.  She did suggest the food container should go well with the contents.

Fish taco served in corn tortilla cups

This is cheating a bit as I blogged this dish last month, See fish taco's but I also made some in corn tortilla cups with this challenge in mind.


First I softened the corn tortillas in a little oil in a frying pan.

This doesn't take much oil or much time just long enough to warm them up maybe 30 seconds.  Then I pushed them gently inside a custard cup and placed them on a cookie sheet

              

I baked them in a 350 oven for about 10 minutes until they were crisp and just turning brown on the edges.

Cooked tortilla cups

In the bottom of the tortilla cups I put in the fish which I cooked with a spicy rub on it and topped them off with home made salsa. I served them on a bed of spring greens with some lime wedges.

Finished fish tacos

I really liked the presentation and they tasted great. You could use the same cups for any mexican style filling such as shredded pork or taco fillings etc.

This challenge was a lot less work than others that I have done, but as usual made me do something new and I am always glad for that.

Had I not gone away for 2 weeks and worked killer hours at work the last month I would have tried another one, but oh well.

Fish taco's

On Saturday Nancy was busy working so I was sent out to hunt and gather, and I felt like fish tacos.  We were on the coast were there is lots of fresh fish so this seemed like a really good idea.

I went to the fish shop and bought some true cod (I hope that is a sustainable choice Connie) but any firm white fleshed fish would do or even prawns.

First I made the salsa

4 campari tomatoes (or equivalent) chopped
1/2 red onion chopped
1/2 avocado chopped
juice of two limes
1 chili pepper chopped very finely
1/4 cup of chopped cilantro
Salt and pepper (more salt than you think or need for that matter)

Toss all the ingredients together best when fresh but this is the same salsa that we had left over and I spooned over the chicken kebabs. Put in the fridge while the rest of the dish comes together.

Daring cooks challenge - Papas and ceviche

Kathlyn of Bake Like a Ninja was our Daring Cooks’ March 2011 hostess. Kathlyn challenges us to make two classic Peruvian dishes: Ceviche de Pescado from “Peruvian Cooking – Basic Recipes” by Annik Franco Barreau. And Papas Rellenas adapted from a home recipe by Kathlyn’s Spanish teacher, Mayra.


I was very excited to do this challenge, I know nothing about Peruvian cooking, so of course I had to do some research, and this is what I found. Potatoes are big in Peru this is where they came from, thank you Peru I am for ever grateful as they are really my favourite food.  Corn, quinoa and fish are also popular so this challenge had both potatoes and fish and added a salad with corn and quinoa.

The finished Papas rellenos

First a confession many potatoes lost their lives in the making of this dish.  The first batch of mashed potatoes were just too wet and we all decided it would be a train wreck if we tried to use them.  So as someone quoted "when life gives you soggy potatoes make potato scones"  so I did.  So after a traditional Scottish potato-scones for an appetizer we got right back on that horse after sending my very hungry and obliging son out for some more potatoes.

Seafood pasta

When the 10 women were polled about what they wanted for dinner, there were several people who wanted seafood  but as there were 11 of us and a couple allergic to seafood we decided to make a version of surf and turf Seafood pasta (plus a small pasta with cream sauce) and barbecued flank steak 

Unfortunately the fish store in Maderia Park was closed for the month (got to love a small town) so we were at the mercy of the IGA.  We bought two bags of large uncooked prawn, but there really was no other decent seafood. luckily there was some haddock fillets in the freezer left over from the summer so we defrosted them. This is what was available but it would have been great if we had some scallops as well and just about any other seafood would do.

Simple English dinner

I arrived in England mid afternoon and my school friend Jacky kindly picked me up at Heathrow. She and her family were abandoning me for the evening as they had a prior engagement. (this is something only a friend who has known you since were 9 could do.) So I was on my own for dinner

We stopped at waitrose to pick up my supplies, I wanted to have something not easily available in Canada as well as pick up some twiglets and scotch eggs. I found in the fish section something that I loved as a child that I called "yellow fish" this is in fact smoked haddock. So I decided on that and got some interesting looking potatoes (there are so many more varieties easily available here) There was also some purple sprouting broccoli which looked very interesting.

Brill with roasted tomatoes

Saturday night found Dave and I alone for dinner, a very unusual but relaxing circumstance. I was craving fish, which is not often the case. When I say fish I mean white not too fishy tasting fish. My favourite is halibut, or on the very rare occasion that fresh fish has been caught up at Pender Harbour big enough to eat, then it is really hard to beat fresh caught ling or rock cod. So I headed down to
Inlet Seafoods in Newport Village If I am going to cook fish I want it to be fresh and Oceanwise, and so I go to seafood specialists and stay away from supermarkets.

There were a couple of options available one of them being my favourite halibut, but there was also Brill, this is actually Petrale Sole, which is called Brill on the west coast, it is a type of flounder similar to sole.  I bought two beautiful looking fillets.

I like my fish cooked simply so as not to lose the mild fresh flavour but like a kick of something to compliment that mildness.  I decided to make a topping of roasted tomatoes.