Pan-fried Sea Bass on Griddled Watermelon [Redux]

I made up this dish the other day repeated tonight with purpose and refined a little.

30 Minutes

Peel and slice some squash pieces, committing them to the oven set to 200C, cooking off in your favourite paleo fat: goose fat, for me.

Prepare the watermelon steaks. Two each is good, maybe a couple of inches square.

20 Minutes

Place the watermelon steaks on a griddle for ten minutes (each side).

10 Minutes

Turn the watermelon.

Prepare a plate - lettuce leaves, black pepper, salt, some salad ingredients, perhaps some balsamic vinegar, maybe Tabasco, maybe olive oil.

Gut, scale, clean and fillet a sea bass. One fillet each, cut in half to give a couple of pieces each.

3 Minutes

Warm some butter in a frying pan.

Cook the sea bass fillet pieces skin side down.

0 Minutes

Turn the sea bass over to cook on the flesh side in the heat of the pan. Pan off.

Dish up, squash pieces on the plate, pouring over the fat if you like.

Watermelon steaks pushed in and amongst, sea bass pieces over.

Garnish.

Eat, enjoy ...

Tilapia, Garlic Crush Potatoes & Egg Salsa

I saw this idea for an egg salsa on the BBC's 'Saturday Kitchen' yesterday. I can't remember what it was put with, but a few potatoes and a piece of fish sounds perfect.

Get a couple of eggs and some salad potatoes boiling ... different pans, naturally.

Meanwhile, dress a couple of plates with salad leaves.

Drop some asparagus into the boiling potatoes and retrieve after a couple of minutes. Cut in half through the stem if they're really large, and spread them about over the salad leaves.

The eggs should be ready after about 10 minutes, so immerse under running cold water, peel and leave to cool in cold water for a couple of minutes.

Make up the base of the salsa with lemon juice, olive oil, black pepper, sea salt, chopped pickled gherkins, chopped capers and then chop up the egg well and add. Stir together.

Take a couple of cloves of garlic, skin them and crush them well.

When the potatoes are soft, drain and set aside for the last of the water to evaporate off. Drop in a generous knob of butter and crush roughly with a fork, stirring in the garlic after.

Scatter the potatoes over the salad, topped with the egg salsa.

Now, fry off the tilapia in a frying pan with a little fat. The fillets take little more than a minute, or so, each side.

Lay the fish onto the plate and garnish.

I had a little puréed beetroot, red wine vinegar and olive oil in the fridge, so that went over the top. Herbs will do just fine.

Salmon Consommé

You're right ... posh French cuisine.

Reputed to be a royal pain to make, involving culinary skill gleaned only in the finest kitchens of the finest restaurants, Consommé is the reserve of gastronomes and the rich.

But, it's just stock ...

No, really ... it's just stock.

Sure, it's clarified and elevated to some lofty height, as is all French cuisine, but it's still just stock.

Wanna know how? It ain't that fancy, either ...

So, quick cruise through the supermarket while picking up some cider and I happened upon four decent salmon fillets for £1.89! They're at their "sell by" date, but by no means past their best and at under half price, it was in my basket like a flash!

They'll do for lunches next week.

Home, simply drop the fillets into sufficient water to cover, add a little bouillon in (just buy it powdered and leave all the heavy techniques to those French Chefs, eh? Check the ingredients, mind) and simmer very gently for about 20 minutes.

That's the fillets done. Remove from the liquor, let them cool, cover and place in the fridge until required. They're fine like that for a couple of days.

We have the liquor left ...

Easy enough just to add some veggies and serve as soup. Very good, very flavoursome, very micronutritious!

Better, and so easy, simply sieve the large bits out then pass the liquor through a sieve with a piece of kitchen towel. Pass it again through two sheets and again if you want it really clear.

There you have it: Consommé! No complex, faffy processes ... just Consommé, done well enough.

To serve, you're supposed to pour it really gently over a bowl of perfectly cooked bits and pieces - mushrooms is a popular choice, and if I'd had the foresight to pick up a box of exotic mushrooms, this would have been especially spectacular ... but I didn't, so a bowl of simple Consommé it is.

Naturally, you can do the same thing for bone broths or any boiled, or poached meats.

Voilà! C'est tout.