Mum and Dad just arrived from the UK and post a very long long haul flight wanted to serve up something light, healthy and tasty. After all that time at 30,000 feet I always crave fresh and light food. Some fish fresh from the Auckland Fishmarket sounded perfect to me. I went with the intention of getting some snapper but they had some beautiful looking blue cod, so I went with that. Delicious simply pan fried with a little lemon juice or baked with some tomatoes and olives.
I decided to go with a herb bread crumb crusted fish with a few crispy rosemary potatoes and a fresh green salad. Light and healthy with just a little hint of indulgence...balanced I say. This is a super quick supper, the potatoes take the longest but they can be popped in the oven while you prepare everything else.
Herb Crusted Fish
Ingredients
Serves 4
Pre-heat oven to 190°C.
Enough Fish fillets for 4, I used blue cod and those fillets are huge, so 1 fillet is plenty for 2.
2 cups fresh bread crumbs, just whiz up some bread in a food processor. You could use bought bread crumbs or panko crumbs at a push but really just not the same with this dish.
50g butter melted
Bunch chives, chopped
Handful mint leaves, chopped
Zest of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper
Directions
Place the bread crumbs in a bowl with the herbs, lemon zest and melted butter. Season and mix everything together.
Place the fish in a shallow baking dish and top with the bread crumb mixture.
Place in pre-heated oven for 10 - 15 minutes depending on the thickness of the fillets. Place in the same oven as the potatoes for the last 10-15 minutes of cooking.
Crispy Rosemary Potatoes
These are a variation on Parmentier potatoes. Antoine-Augustin Parmentier is remembered as a vocal promoter of the potato as a food source. Thanks largely to Parmentier's efforts, the Paris Faculty of Medicine declared potatoes edible in 1772. Prior to this it was mainly used as animal feed and n 1748 the French Parliament had actually forbidden the cultivation of the potato on the ground that it was thought to cause leprosy among other things! Two dishes are named after Parmentier: Pommes Parmentier is 1 cm diced cubed potatoes fried in butter (bacon, onions garlic or herbs can be added), the potage parmentier, a pureed leek and potato soup. Unpureed the soup is referred to as potage parisien.
Ingredients
1 medium sized potato per person, diced to 1.5 cm / 1/2 inch cubes. If larger potatoes not a problem, these crispy little morsels are terribly moreish so any extra will likely be more than welcome.
2 tbsp Rosemary, finely chopped
Olive Oil
Salt and pepper
Directions
Place the potatoes on a baking tray and toss with the rosemary and enough olive oil to coat the potatoes. Season well with salt and pepper and place in a 190°C pre-heat oven for 30 minutes or until crispy and golden.
Serve with the herb crusted fish and a green salad. Lovely with nice chilled glass of pinot gris. The crust is really fragrant with the herbs and the lemon zest lifts it to that next level of citrus freshness. As of for the potatoes, I reckon it is pretty much impossible for any crispy golden type potatoes not to taste amazing.
Really a lovely Spring / Summer dinner.
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