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.

Coriander and chilli crusted fish

This week has been long and busy and it's only Wednesday. Oh gosh, help. My weekend was spent in the heart of the British countryside at one of my oldest friends wedding. What an amazing couple of days, happiness and love. That, was definitely the theme of the wedding!

So after a weekend of heavy eating (and drinking) it's only right to have something simple and clean to eat. This recipe takes such little time to prep and you can easily mix it up (see the end of recipe). It can be dressed up to look fancy for supper guests or if you're by yourself it will feel like something special.

I use any type of white fish I feel like. This particular one is sea bass  but, like I said. I use it on everything from sole to cod. I'm mainly trying to keep my recipes vegetarian (easily turned to vegan) and gluten free but sometimes a recipe comes into my brain that is too yummy. This is one of them.

I use coriander (fresh or dried) a lot, but I just love the stuff. Love it, love it, love it! Fresh is great but make sure you give it a good smell before you buy, don't worry about looking like a weirdo in the shop, as the more fragrant usually means it has a good flavour. If you can find it with it's roots still attached, even better. Used as a digestive aid for thousands of years, it's been found in Egyptian tombs and is most commonly thought of as indigenous to Mediterranean parts of Asia and Africa. It's a natural diuretic and helps purify the blood and strengthen the heart.

Parsley. Such a simple and over looked herb. Did you know that there are over 37 different varieties? I only knew about three or four until researching! This is one of those great purifying and protective herbs which is fantastic for digestive problems. In it's raw form it cleanses the blood, facilitates the dispersing of small-medium kidney stones and can treat deafness and ear infections. Pretty neat huh?! It also has a  high chlorophyll content which means it's good for that bad breath you may or may not get.

RECIPE:

3 medium fillets of fish

large handful of coriander, stalks and all

large handful of parsley, stalks and all

2 red chillies (use less if you're not sure about heat)

3 garlic cloves

good glug of olive oil

salt and pepper

options: good piece of fresh ginger, lemon grass, harissa, 

Clean fillets and lay them on baking parchment on a tray. Get the oven on at 200C. In a food processor blitz all ingredients (minus the fish) till a chunky sauce consistency. Split between three pieces. If using less fish then make the same quantity of sauce, blitz the remaining till smooth and you have a tasty and different pesto. Or if you have more fish but can't make more sauce, add more olive oil and spread it out.

Put into the hot oven till fish is cooked (more or less 15mins).

Serve with a refreshing salad.