Smoked haddock endive cups

It's cold outside. That sentence will be appearing a lot in my future blog posts as winter comes hurtling towards us at a speed I've not been aware of. I dream of sunshine, white sand between my toes and turquoise water. Oh, how I have been spoilt for the last 5 years of my life living in Mexico.

This recipe is a little homage to sunnier climes and while the heating is on full whack gives me a little bit of a beach feeling!

Smoked haddock. There are two camps. The yellow dyed one and the natural coloured one. I'm the camp for the natural look {no surprises there!}. Not that I wouldn't eat it if served, but I just wonder what exactly that food colouring is doing to my body. Fish, as we know is full of good oils. Oils that help our joints stay limber, help our cells to keep re-building and help our brains to keep ticking over.

I find that endives get a bit of marmite reaction. You love them or you hate them. I'm a lover but it wasn't always so. Long ago as a child I remember a mouthful of salad with chopped endives, walnuts and bitter lemon. Ooof! My mouth still puckers at the memory of full on bitterness. A lesson to remember that flavours need to be mixed and complimented. There are many types of endives but in general you can count on them to provide a wide range of minerals {zinc, magnesium, iron etc}. Adding these leafy greens to your diet has been said to lower glucose levels which can only be a good thing!

RECIPE:

1 piece of smoked haddock

½ spicy sweet pepper cut into thin strips

1 celery stick finely sliced

1 bulb of endive, washed, trimmed and laid out in individual leaves

some radish micro-greens

Place the fish in the pan, sprinkle black pepper over, squeeze some lime juice and put in the oven for 15mins at 190C or till cooked. In the meantime prep all the veggies. When the fish is cooked, with two forks gently flake the fish and fill each endive leaf with some fish, sprinkle over some slices of celery, a couple of slices of pepper and some radish micro-greens. Drizzle some olive oil and serve warm.