I found a couple of fantastic pieces of swordfish at the supermarket, really thick steaks with a great texture.
Swordfish doesn't have a lot of perfect partners, but it does seem to like subtle sweetness ... before, I've partnered with dragon fruit, sometimes mango and chilli even kiwi fruit.
That subtle sweetness could also come from peppers; capsicum, I believe our friends over the pond would call them. Roasted, to be precise.
I had intended to make up an Ayvar Sauce (Ajvar, in alternative spellings), a central European condiment of roasted red peppers and aubergine. Billed as Serb/Croat, you will also find this in neighbouring Hungary, where they pep it up further with paprika, even spiced paprika. Ayvar is caviar.
I say intended, because I was certain that I had an aubergine in, but at dinner time ... it could not be found. What's the betting I'll find it tonight?
Anyway, from work, I popped across the road at lunchtime to the Polish Shop (Polski Sklep) and found a large jar of roasted red peppers. Yes, I could have done it myself, but come on ... our central and eastern European cousins are the masters at this kind of thing; preserving seems almost instinctual to them. I also found a jar of shredded celeriac. Cool!
Upon googling the ingredients, since they're in a number of presumably European languages but not English, I found sugar in the celeriac. Shame, but no drama - once home, I soaked it in water for an hour, changing the water a couple of times. The roasted red peppers were good to go.
So, home and ready to make dinner ... no aubergine.
Okay, so I have roasted red peppers, combine with a small onion, chopped, some garlic, some paprika and a squirt of tomato purée: Red Pepper Sauce. In a frying pan on a low heat, just warm it through in a little olive oil.
Griddle pan on, swordfish on and cook it through.
I'm also having something green. Spinach or collard would be perfect here. I went with samphire. Broccoli would also be a good choice. Samphire needs nothing more than immersing in boiling water for a couple of minutes, which I did at the end while plating up.
Swordfish done, plate up ...
Swordfish down, red pepper sauce over, samphire and that shredded celeriac alongside.
Gorgeous! I'll do this Ayvar Sauce another time ....
