Topic: Fish with Salsa and Welsh Rarebit.

[GillE]

First, make Salsa!

4 large tomatoes
Small red onion, peeled
1 fresh green chilli, halved and de-seeded
small bunch fresh coriander, washed and finely chopped
Small garlic clove, crushed
Juice and zest of a lime
Salt and pepper

Chop the tomatoes into 5mm dice (removing the seeds first stops the salsa becoming too watery) and place into a serving bowl.  Finely dice the red onion and add it to the tomatoes.  Chop the chilli very finely then add it to the mixture together with the rest of the ingredients.  Stir thoroughly.

Allow the salsa to stand for at least an hour to let the flavours develop.  Alternatively, refrigerate in an airtight container for up to two days.



Lightly oil a baking sheet and put your fillets of fish on it.  Cover each fillet with salsa, then top with a layer of Welsh rarebit about 2-3mm (1/8") thick.  Place under a hot grill for three or four minutes then serve.

This recipe is superb with smoked haddock and mackeral.

[Simon]

Sounds great, Gill! 

[Clive]

Thanks Gill.  I was looking for a nice plaice recipe last week but ended up lightly dusting it with flour and frying it.  I then cheated big time and opened a jar of white sauce and melted cheese into it.  Everyone enjoyed it anyway!  We are lucky enough to have a fish lady who sells freshly caught fish at the door each week so the fish is guaranteed to be really nice. I hate mackerel but I will make a note of your recipe for next time I buy haddock.

[GillE]

I wouldn't use thicker fillets of white fish in this recipe as it stands, Clive, unless they've been smoked.  Smoking draws out moisture so the fish cooks more quickly and the rarebit doesn't have time to burn.

That said, the reason I posted this recipe was that I used it with coley fillets tonight.  They were thick, like cod, and unsmoked so I gave them 12 minutes in a hot oven (gas mark 6) before slamming them under the grill for the rarebit to brown.  They were cooked perfectly - there's always a work-around, isn't there ?

Do you know the trick for removing the pin-bones that run down the centre of a mackerel fillet?  You can either pull them out individually with a pair of tweezers (which takes ages) or you can run a sharp kitchen knife on either side of the bones, just helping the weight of the knife to cut the flesh.  Then grasp the flesh that you've just separated from the rest of the fillet and pull it off the skin.  It will come away, taking all the pin-bones with it and leaving a channel which will hold the salsa in this recipe.  Even if you hate mackerel, it's got to be worth trying it now I've told you about this technique .

[Clive]

Thanks very much for that information Gill.  But I really can't stand the smell of mackerel so I'm very unlikely to buy it.  I like all white fish - oh and today's the day my fish lady will call!   

[Simon]

Leave it! 

[Clive]

Today we bought Dover Sole.   

[GillE]

Isn't Dover sole posh plaice?

We eat a lot of mackerel.  For decades His Lordship refused to eat fish or cheese.  He used to say, "There's a good reason why The Lord put us on the land and the fish in the sea".  I love fish, so I tried to tempt him with delicate white fish which wasn't too strongly flavoured.  He hated it.  Then one day we were in a restaurant and he surprised me by pinching a king prawn that was garnishing a plate of noodles I was trying to eat.  "This is actually quite nice," he said, "It's got some flavour".  Shocked, I realised that serving him the mildly flavoured fish had been exactly the wrong thing to do.  So I tried him with mackerel fillets and he loved them!  Later I devised this recipe which is based on something I ate once in a cafe when I was on holiday in Fleetwood.  He loves this too!

So now he's eating fish and cheese in the same meal and enjoying every mouthful.  I'm such a bad influence  .

[Rik]

I'm a recent convert to fish, Gill. The smell of school dinners put me off, but now I really enjoy a good piece of cod, plaice or haddock - the latter being my favourite. Being contrary, I've always liked smoked salmon and prawns.

[Clive]

I have to say that I am also a late convert to fish. The nicest fish I have ever tasted is called
Black Scabbard or Espada fish which is a speciality in Madeira.  ESPADA FISH  I can assure you it tastes much better than it looks!     The only shellfish I like is prawns but I dislike herring, pilchards, mackerel, sardines and any other pongy smellers.     I think you are correct about Dover sole being posh plaice Gill.  When I turned to the "Blessed One" for an interesting recipe for plaice, she said to cook it the same way as sole. 

[Simon]

I prefer fish in batter. 

[GillE]

That's nice too, but there are so many ways to make fish even tastier.  I presume it's common knowledge that people used to throw the batter away in the old days?  It was just used to protect the fish as it steamed in its own juices inside the batter.

[Simon]

No, I didn't know that, Gill.  Presumably, steamed batter would have been rather soggy, though, as opposed to deep fried?

[GillE]

Sorry, it would appear I didn't explain that very well.

The idea was that the heat from hot fat penetrated the batter and generated steam from the juices of the fish; that steam cooked the fish.  However, the batter encasing the fish protected it against the oil, so when the batter was broken the fish was perfectly steamed without any trace of fat.  The batter, which had absorbed fat, was discarded.

[Clive]

A method I have always practiced Gill.  Batter cannot be very good for you!