Halibut baked in salt crust

Seabass baked in salt is a Sicilian speciality. It was seabass that I cooked in the salt crust for a family last December near Chipping Norton - they were celebrating Chanuka at the same time as a 70th birthday. The family were originally from Italy, hence the Italian theme.

As it was their father's birthday, his sons were hellbent on revenge and played a blindfold wine tasting session. Their father was given glasses from his wine cellar (he had visited the vineyards where he had brought his wine from), and glasses from various budget supermarket plonk. Could he tell the difference blindfold? The result? Well that would be telling, but it certainly made the sons' night!

The idea of this dish is you make a verrrrrrrrrrrrrry salty dough which you bake the fish in. You can add herbs, lemon, capers, peppercorns of various colours etc to flavour it. The fish bakes in the steam created inside the salt crust and takes a little of the salt seasoning like you would expect - it's just enough salty twang, not overpowering like you would think from that much salt; instead it's delicious and very moist.

Raddichio braised in red wine and balsamic. By the time the wine and balsamic has reduced to a glaze the raddichio is ready. You can also sprinkle them with parmesan and flash them under the grill. Something I discovered on holiday. 

It's a bit of food theatre - you take the fish in salt crust to the table and let the guests break it open, warning them not to eat the crust! They have another plate with the accompaniments in front of them, and aioli to go with it which is the traditional sauce. Real Italian food is about big flavours done simply - and it doesn't get better than this! Why complicate everything?

You bake the fish skin side up so the skin sticks to the crust and comes off when you remove the top crust. It's always good trying something out for the first time at an event - it has to work, there is no room for error. It did too! Worked in the one above too, which was a halibut version I cooked the night that my Mum and I were planning her 70th birthday road trip around NZ.

What a fun dish - why don't you try it!? I used this recipe, with a little adapting along the way.....

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Meat Free Monday #23 - Courgette and wild nettle fritters with balsamic roast cherry tomatoes and nettle pesto

So I posted that on Sunday in between loads of washing tea towels and chef jackets - and got the following response - always good to hear from guests after the event.
A little walk from the kitchen down the old railway line is a great long nettle patch. This is just a small part - much more grown up now. From growing in the ground to cooked in c. 20 minutes - can't get fresher.
Grated courgettes, cooked nettles, bit of nigella's pancake mix (no sugar) to bind, ground cumin, coriander and chilli.
On roasted celery and peppers.


Related posts

Cooking with nettles
Other nettle dishes

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Meat Free Monday #7 - Pepper, mozzarella and basil tart

So fast food can be good food - when you make it yourself!And it doesn't come much faster than this. After a week working in Portugal I flew back last Monday (now writing a few days later). Touched down at 1:30pm and was back at work by 3. 122 emails awaited (and they didn't stop coming - as fast as I answered more were coming in) and there were 4 parties to organise for the Saturday.

So when it came to eating it had to be fast, and looking through the fridge for left overs I came accross homemade tomato sauce, peppers and mozzarella.... and this is what it became, using the same idea with puff pastry as the asparagus and gruyere tart from last year. As I have basil growing in a few pots it was still going strong, and some larger leaves went on top of the tomato sauce. The peppers were fried in a little olive oil and balsamic added at the last minute and you cook for 20 mins. The puff pastry pizza - how can you go wrong?

More info on Meat Free Monday here.

Related posts

Other Meat Free Monday dishes
Asparagus and gruyere tart

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Wild strawberry and coriander sushi

Strawberries and coriander - who would ever think of putting those two ingredients together?

Mr Brooks might. And did - that's where I got the idea for doing this. I was going to use normal strawberries, but as I went through the garden this morning in search of rosemary and sage to go on top of foccacia I saw the recent sun had ripened up all the wild strawberries so I just had to pick them......

As this is a sweet version of sushi I used coconut milk to cook the rice rather than water. I'm not sure this is quite authentic - maybe in malaysian cuisine, but it tastes good. If you want a savoury version (with normal sushi rice) tuna and strawberry sushi is a classic.

No nori on this one - though if you google strawberry sushi - you can see some quite interesting versions and some 'interesting' ones too.

Rolled in toasted dessciated coconut. Best to toast it in a frying pan - if you put it in the oven you'll remember it's in there only when black smoke is wafting through your kitchen.......

Let it cool down too before you roll. Roll tightly in cling film - this helps you cut the round shapes easily.

Balsamic syrup makes a nice accompaniment (as above), but you could also sieve some strawberries to make a coulis as a dip.

This has been submitted to the Strawberry Feast at My Kitchen Treasures.

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Roast tenderstem broccoli

I had previously sauteed broccoli, but with the success of the roasted cauliflower tried roasting it instead. Crispy florets. Very nice.

I don't have anything against boiled or steamed vegetables, I just find other ways of cooking keep in the flavour instead of it being lost in to the boiling water which invariably is thrown away.

The stems being thicker take longer to cook, so I cut those into rondels and roast them seperately.

Tossed in a little olive oil and maldon salt.

Don't cook it too long or you loose the colour and the florets will be too crispy (like deep-fried). You want it still al dente.

You can finish with balsamic and toasted pine nuts (toasted in the same way as the sesame seeds) to give an extra flavour.

Related posts

Sauteed purple sprouting broccoli with creamy polenta and nettle vinaigrette

Toasting pine nuts (or sesame seeds)

Roast cauliflower in Cotswold Way ale sauce

Sauteed broccoli with balsamic and pine nuts

The best balsamic vinegar

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Parma ham with rocket, parmesan, caper berries and balsamic dressing

Less is more when you have a collection of the best ingredients. It makes a nice light bistro starter.

Served at Hill House near Shiptson on Stour last Saturday as part of a bistro meal.


Related posts:

Other dishes we have serve at Hill House before
Balsamic syrup


Bistro menu: http://www.bensonofbroadway.co.uk/autumn_and_winter_bistro_menu.html

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Salad of parma ham, pears and goats cheese

Pears are poached in a light syrup (more water than sugar because this is a savoury dish) with a cinnamon stick, cloves and star anise. Once cooled, and just before serving they are wrapped loosely in the parma ham - any earlier and the poaching liquid leaks into the parma ham and it takes on a rubbery concistency.

Goats cheese is glazed as explained in a previous entry. For more info on the balsamic see this kitchen tip.

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Time to cut the 'gras/ Salmon provencal

With the smell of the approaching summer drifting off the oil seed rape fields all over the Cotswolds, it can mean only one thing - it's almost time to cut the ‘gras.

Sightings had been reported on several local menus, and as I stopped at Collis, the market garden just before Evesham on the Broadway road, there were several bunches on the shelves in the shining sun and I couldn‘t resist.

In the vale of Evesham, home of English asparagus it’s time for the early crop already.

While on holiday in Venice, some 6 or 7 years ago I picked some asparagus up on the rialto market (we‘ve since found the market on St. Margherita‘s Square, or the veg barge) and wanting to try something new (yes, chefs do cook on holiday as well) rolled it in olive oil, stuck it under the grill till soft then, looking in the fridge, found some parmesan, as you do, and gratinated it, thus starting my obsession with asparagus and parmesan.

Last Friday I grilled it again. Though this time without parmesan - it accompanied a bistro style dish of Salmon provençal with dauphinoise potato, pepper coulis and balsamic.

The salmon is marinaded in and grilled in tomato sauce. If you grill it (on a conventional grill) skin side up the skin turns crisp and becomes the best part of the whole dish. If the skin is burning before the salmon is cooked, you just need to reduce the heat of the grill. If you are chargrilling dip into flour as explained earlier to avoid it sticking. In season you could use wild salmon. I did last year and it was a complete revelation. Worth every penny.

Ref: Asparagus and parmesan

Grilled asparagus with king prawn and scallop fricassee

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Kitchen tips #15 - The best balsamic

Onions, anchovies, peppers - all the elements of Worcestershire sauce are fermented individually for a year before being blended to make the store cupboard staple that is the answer to anything in the kitchen that needs a bit of je ne sais quoi. Or it was, before balsamic syrup came along.

I had my balsamic revolution at Claridges where we used Olive Tree Company balsamic in glass bottles. Very expensive, but the best things always are. In these days where friends and family put unwanted gifts on eBay I find food gifts (if you can’t eat it, drink it or soak in it, you’re not getting it) are the way forward, and there can be no better way to give a friend a mini revolution in their life than giving them a bottle of real balsamic.



Move along malt vinegar, balsamic syrup is great with chips. Leave the vinaigrette in the fridge, just drizzle balsamic syrup over your salad (it takes buffalo mozzarella and plum tomatoes on the vine into a whole new league). Fat free sauce? Drizzle your salmon with balsamic. And the gravy to go with your Sunday roast - it’s OK, but it’s missing a certain something…. Squeeze in a little balsamic syrup, and it‘s the best gravy they‘ll ever be served.

It’s not to be confused with cheap thin balsamic vinegar. This is a gloopy, sweet-sour confection - a good claret to cheap vin de table. I did see a chef’s cheat recently (it seems to be the latest celebrity chef thing) which involved cheap thin balsamic and cornflour. I didn’t read any further. Others take normal thin balsamic and boil it till it’s reduced. It may look the same, but there is no match in taste. There are some things that are just wrong.



If you don’t shop at Selfridges food hall, Fortnum and Masons, or in a Stow on the Wold deli all places where I‘ve found the Olive Tree Company version, you can also <have to> find the Merchant Gourmet version in Waitrose and the rest of the big four, normally on the specialist ingredients shelf. But for the most exquisite flavours you have to turn to the Womersley range of flavoured balsamics made with white balsamic.

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