Sunday 29 May 2011

Halibut baked with fennel and chorizo, and Jersey royals with samphire in mint butter

I didn't decide to cook this just because I wanted to use my new serving dish (a charity shop bargain purchased this weekend for just £3) though it was a bit of an extra incentive.

The dish actually started with the halibut, samphire and chorizo, and I'm so pleased with how the combination of flavours turned out I can see it making a regular appearance at our dining table.

The fennel and lemon base is a fantastic accompaniment to all kinds of baked fish, in this case I used halibut but you could use any other firm fleshed fish if you cant get hold of it. It's well worth hunting out the samphire, it tastes of the sea and has a succulent, crunchy texture that is complemented very nicely by the mint butter.

For two:
Two fillets of halibut
2 cooking chorizos (these are around 3 inches each in length) diced and dry fried in a pan until crisp, then set aside
One large fennel bulb, finely sliced on the mandolins finest setting
One large red onion, finely sliced on the mandolins finest setting
Juice of three lemons
150mls extra virgin olive oil
A small handful of fresh chervil, or if you cant get it, use the fennel tops
2 cloves of smoked garlic, if you cant get smoked then use regular, one finely sliced the other left whole and peeled
A handful of fresh mint leaves
A large knob of butter (unsalted)
100g fresh samphire, rinsed in cold water and drained
As many Jersey royal potatoes as you want to eat
Black pepper

Method:
- Preheat your oven to 200degrees
- Add the butter, whole clove of garlic and fresh mint to your food processor and blitz to create your mint butter, set aside
- To a roasting tin or pot with a lid combine your fennel, red onion, sliced garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and several scrunches of black pepper and combine together with your hands, put a lid on or cover it with foil and then place into the oven for 15 minutes
- Place your potatoes into a pan and cover with water and a bit of salt
- When there are 5 minutes left on the fennel and onion mixture turn the potatoes on to boil with the lid on the pan
- Remove the dish from the oven and take the lid off, mix together and add the chorizo to the pan, then lay the fish fillets over the top and put the lid back on, put back in the oven for 10 minutes
- Once the potatoes are done (they should be ready a good few minutes before the fish) remove and drain them and let them sit steaming in a colander
- Heat a frying pan on a high heat and add a small knob of unsalted butter, add the samphire and toss in the butter heating them through. Now add the potatoes to the pan and toss together with the samphire and add the mint butter to the pan, keep tossing the pan until the mint butter has melted and covered the potatoes and samphire, don't worry if the potatoes break up a little, it will help get the buttery flavour into them
- Remove the potatoes from the heat and then the fish from the oven
- Tip the potatoes and samphire into a serving dish, then carefully take the fish and fennel out and decant onto plates or a serving dish
- Top the fish with the fresh chervil or fennel tops and eat

3 comments:

  1. This looks great. I'd love to try samphire but i've never seen it for sale anywhere. Anything with chorizo in always attracts me though!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi there Corina, I managed to get it from a fishmonger but Ive not seen it in any supermarkets yet (though I heard a rumour it was in Asda?). I am the same re the chorizo, addicted to it especially when its diced and fried to within an inch of its life! x

    ReplyDelete
  3. I made this last night but as I'm on a health kick I didn't include the chorizo.I served with tons broccoli dripping with the mint & garlic butter (so not that healthy then!!). Would deffo try this again if I had friends over for super, as was easy to prepare and super tasty.
    Another fab one Hannah!

    ReplyDelete