Since there's more and more foodie threads, here's something I rustled up earlier: Oven-steamed hake on fresh leek & celery bed. Summer lightness on a plate - with hardly any calories.

How to:

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C or 180°with fan. The preperations are really quick so no energy wastage here. Nice.
Get two to three large leeks, trim and rinse. Peel off first few layers of the leeks, they are used as a kind of bed. You may know this system from recipes using banana leafs... works the same way.
Layer the leek leafs on some aluminium foil (tin foil) in a smallish baking tray, leaving a tin foil overhang of the same size to later fold over & close up the parcel. Drizzle lightly with some olive oil. Add some chopped spring onions.



Add your hake fillets. In my case they were frozen. If you have fresh fillets, I would suggest reducing the cooking time by ten minutes.



Chop the leeks & add to the fish. Now chop 3 to 4 celery sticks and add to that.



Sprinkle with sea salt, freshly cracked black pepper, some more olive oil and *special ingredient!* some hearty splashings of green Tabasco. This will join nicely with the other flavours and not overpower the fish. Use some of the celery and leek to cover the fish a bit.



If you like you can add one or two tablespoons of water to help get the steam going. Close up the tin foil around the edges and make it as air tight as possible. This prevents steam escaping and keeps in the flavours.
Stick in the oven for 30 mins or until the fish begins to flake when pressed lightly with a finger. I like the veg to still have a bite & colour, so I don't leave it in too long. Try not to check too often before the time is up, as steam may escape. We don't want that!



Check after 30 minutes. This was perfect for me:



Get some dark rye bread into the toaster & then butter lightly. While the bread is in the toaster, thinly grate some parmegiano over the now opened tray and return to the oven for as long as it takes the bread to toast & butter. Time to plate up!



I like a sprinkle of sea salt & fresh pepper on the plate. You can of course get all chefy and drizzle some olive oil over this delightfully light dish. Up to you!

Enjoy!

Nutter

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Nutter is really Jamie Oliver

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

I see a face in the back of your oven:


Kinda reminds me of this guy:

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Not to take anything away from your recipe. It looks and sounds delicious.
I do much the same with Salmon. I also sprinkle a little Dill on my fish for a little extra kick. A little Asparagus is always a good thing to serve with, and maybe a little white wine.
----Danny,

Ummmm, that looks good.

I smoked a whole wild salmon and just took it out of my Weber, a friend in Alaska sent it to me via overnight.

What you see is that I cut slits in the top and put in lemon & orange slices with rosemary sprigs. I also seasoned the fish with salt & pepper, and rubbed with olive oil. You would think that this combo would overwhelm the flavor of the salmon, but the aromatics enhance the fish.

I made a in-direct fire with about 20 coals on each side with a drip pan in the center, I also add a hand full of wet apple chips to the coals. Cooking time was a little over an hour at around 300F. I use a wireless thermometer, and the 'fork' test to see if the fish is done.

My honey is going to make scalloped potatoes, buttered peas and yeast rolls (they're raising now) for dinner. I got a bottle of Castle Rock Pinot Noir ($9.99) to go with our meal as well.

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Tony Houston

Tony, can I have the Tail piece? It's my favorite.
----Danny,

Danny, sorry my honey told me that I get the piece of tail for smokin' the fish .

We just finished dinner, and it was good. She's never had a whole salmon that's been smoked, only fillets that I've grilled for her.

I used a spatula to separate the flesh from the main backbone and she's separating the flesh into 1qt baggies for freezing. She's going to make salmon croquettes using panko breading for dinner one day next week. I can't wait, she makes great salmon croquettes.

We'll also have a salad with salmon mixed in with the veggies, and salmon burgers topped with grilled pineapple and spicy mayo.

Life is good .

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Tony Houston

Ha! Thanks! I'll take that as a compliment, even though I am in fact Raymond Blanc! ;-D

Actually, the movie "Scream" was scheduled to be shot inside my oven, but they discovered their budget was too small...

Danny your classy classic fish+dill combo sounds fantastic! I left the dill out this time because it would conflict with the Tabasco I think… next time perhaps!

Congrats on the granddaughter by the way. Can't remember which thread I read that in. All the best!

Tony that's a fine fish you have there! And all the dishes you are making from it- sounds delicious! now tell us what you like more, salmon or gumbo?

And, forgive my ignorance, what are yeast rolls? Are they like normal bread rolls with a yeast dough?

Cheers -

Nutter

I'm starting to wonder if there is a far away relation to The Gallopin Gourmet..

I'm heating up leftovers at the moment...... Thanks A Lot......

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

Blimey, the Galloping Gourmet. That takes me back! A lo-o-o-ong way. Unless there were different galloping gourmets in different places, that is?

Meantime. Nutter, that looks yummy. Exchange the tin foil for paper and you have peche en papillote, which I sometimes do with whole sea bass or some such. Most tasty. I also heartily endorse the green Tabasco: excellent with almost any fish dish.

You did say; "Try not to check too often before the time is up, as steam may escape." I'd suggest not checking at all. Just seal it up and wait till it's done. Gotta keep that flavour developing inside the package undisturbed.

Anyway. I'm off to the country for the weekend, will be seeing what arrived off the morning trawlers locally and will be firing up my smoker:



That's my idea of Un Dimanche à la Campagne.

Cheers - C

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Yeah, I agree Ceri, I didn't open it at all; I just wanted to make sure whoever tries this out doesn't open it as well, that's all.

Which sort of paper do you use? Should be some unbleached product, no?


This R2-unit seems to be faulty, what with all the smoke and all that. Also since you are a serious kind of Luthier I thought there was no shimming allowed? ts ts ts!



Enjoy la campagna Ceri. Bellissima!

Nutter