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| Recipe of the week... ... Grilled Seabass & Heritage Tomato Salad |
Ingredients: 2 fillets seabass, 400g mixed heritage
tomatoes, 1 shallot, 2 tablespoons small capers, 1 tablespoon sliced black
olives, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, ½ teaspoon pimenton, 1 teaspoon honey, 3
tablespoons good quality olive oil, a small handful of fresh mint and basil
leaves, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Serves: 2 platefuls of good Spanish grub
Time taken: 10 minutes prep then 25 mins cooking time
Hi readers,
How are you
all?? Are you well? And wonderful? As I write, it’s a cold and dark November
night in Sheffield. Pretty chilly out and cosy inside! I’ve just eaten a
delicious dinner (recipe to follow…) and am steeling myself to head out into
the night for the pub quiz. How about you, readers? I hope you have lovely
evening plans, or – blissfully – no plans at all!
It’s been a
shock coming back off holiday to this cold, readers. I spent 5 nights last week
in the lovely, sunny Barcelona. And I was ready to come home for my own bed,
and a return to normalness, and crumpets and all that… but – what am I saying??
Take me back!
Take me back
to the warm sun on my skin, and a total lack of an alarm clock, daylight in the
morning and daylight in an evening, too. Take me back to warm croissants and
freshly squeezed Spanish orange juice, bustling markets and sizzling paella,
cracking open a cool Estrella on the hot sandy beach. Take me back to crazy Gaudi
architecture and little winding Gothic streets, with Catalan flags proudly
strewn over every balcony.
SIGH sigh
sigh sigh… oh well, readers. I miss Barcelona but most good things do tend to
come to an end. It was a welcome break from the everyday, and I have some
holiday spirit still brightening my November. And I’m still telling the grand story
of my holiday, featuring all the most exciting moments from my solo adventure abroad, the wonder that is Find My iPhone, and surprising kindness
from strangers…
I will stop
now, readers. Going on about my holiday and ever so SLIGHTLY rubbing it in, for
anyone who hasn’t also escaped abroad for some November sunshine. But, I will
say – if you get the chance to go to Barcelona, definitely do. There’s the
beach, there’s the food, and culture, and history, and anything more you might
ever want from a holiday… with EXCELLENT tapas and sangria. Not to be missed. And
I’m DONE gloating!
This week, readers, our recipe of the week is one inspired
by my recent trip to Barcelona. This is a recipe I found within a menu at my
hostel, the Generator Barcelona. I didn’t actually eat at my hostel – per se – mainly I was just drinking sangria. But
I was merrily leafing through a menu at one point and happened upon this
colourful-looking Spanish recipe, for Grilled Seabass & Heritage Tomato
Salad, which I vowed I would defo recreate when I made it back home.
Now I must confess, readers, despite my absolute determine
to recreate this recipe… I did fall short on a weekday evening shop with
sourcing all the right ingredients. So, my first attempt at this Grilled
Seabass & Heritage Tomato Salad does feature seabream instead of seabass, paprika
instead of pimenton, and cherry
tomatoes instead of heritage. Not my best effort! But tasting great all the
same.
If you fancy a taste of the Barcelona sunshine, on a cold and
dark evening, then this light summers dish could be just the perfect antidote
to your wintery world. Here’s the recipe, readers, in just ten simple steps…
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Recipe: Grilled Seabass & Heritage Tomato Salad
1.
Set the scene… I’m thinking a few candles lit, a
glass of Spanish wine in hand (maybe a rioja? or a tempranillo?), some traditional
Spanish flamenco music playing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0hpxQ9H87M).
2.
Begin by trimming the sea bass (or bream) so the
edges are clean and tidy and the fillets are both the same shape. Pat the skin
dry, and then use a sharp knife to score the skin every centimetre.
3.
Slice the tomatoes randomly into halves and
quarters. Don’t worry, different shapes and sizes look nice for variation. Rinse
and roughly chop the capers, then finely dice the shallot, and roughly chop
your mint and basil leaves.
4.
Add the olive oil, honey, lemon juice and pimenton
to a large mixing bowl. Mix and season to taste.
5.
Then, add the shallots, capers, black olives,
sliced tomatoes and ¾ of the mint and basil leaves. Stir together your salad.
6. Heat a non-stick frying pan – or, even better, a grill pan – until very hot. Meanwhile, season the fish with a little salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil on both sides.
ChefBeHere Top
Tip: Randomly, I decided to use my George Foreman grill instead of a grill pan…
and it worked! I definitely got lucky there, readers. Could have gone terribly
wrong. But, if you have a George Foreman, I say go for it!
7.
Add a couple of drops of oil to the pan and
place a square of greaseproof paper on it. Lay the fish fillets on the paper in
the pan, skin-side down. As soon as they go in, press each fillet down with
your fingers to stop them from curling up.
8.
After a few minutes, once your fish looks to be
around 75% cooked, carefully turn it over and cook for a further minute. Then
remove from the pan and set aside.
9.
Dish up your tomato salad in the centre of two
dinner plates and place the sea bass, skin up, on top.
10. Drizzle
with some olive oil and the rest of the chopped mint and basil leaves… then
serve up! Enjoy a fine tasting Spanish tea.
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| Mmmmmmmmmm yeah! |
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And that’s all there is to it, readers! Not too tricky, I
don’t think? If you’re a better chef than me and you manage to actually get all
the ingredients then who knows maybe
this tastes even better than my first attempt tonight! I certainly plan to give
the recipe another go with the full roster of ingredients soon.
Let me know what you think, readers. Is this dish something
you’ve tried before? Something you’ve ordered in Spain while holidaying,
maybe?? Does this look like the kind of food you’d like to try? I’d love to
hear your thoughts! I’m still new to the world of fish eating, having only
started up eating fish very recently, so I’m easily pleased and thought this
was a simple but exciting tea – would you agree?
Shout out with your thoughts on this Grilled Seabass &
Heritage Tomato Salad, readers, and please do let me know how you get on in the
kitchen! Did it all go to plan? Any disasters to speak of? Is there anything
you’d do differently? Can you improve on this recipe at all??
Until we meet again – have a great weekend, everyone!
Salad safely,
Hayley
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| And GO TO BARCELONA! |
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