Ranting at supermarkets

I'm starting today's Jamie Blog with a rant, because I fail to see why our two top supermarket chains are competing to be number one when they barely stock any food let alone good quality food and I'm not even talking about out there requests, I simply wanted fish with skin on for today's Jamie recipe. See not a strange request but unless it's processed to within an inch of it's life meat, you can not get it in WA, In fact do me a favour go in to your local supermarket count the number of aisle then minus all the aisles that don't sell actual food, so your two aisles of baby, shampoo, and deroant, the aisle deciated to coke and it's followers, the aisle of chips and assorted cookies, the aisle of kitchen stuff, magazine and the aisle of chocolate and candy... leaves every little actual food, or things that turn into food, not expecting there to be a range of gourmet options but more than one choice of mango chutney would be nice... oh and I give up on finding pancetta... looks like I'm making friends with the butcher and fish monger and baker and fresh green grocer and avoiding the supermarkets all together


Phew ok rant over, As you may of guessed today's recipe was a fish recipe, which considering I don't eat fish is weird, Sea Bass with Panchetta, on kumara (sweet potato for all you non Kiwi's) mash served with Asain greens, which is suppose to look like this

 

 

Remember when I said rant over, well I lied, kind of, as I said I couldn't get fish with the skin on, I wasn't expecting to get bass but why must we be reduced to boring white lumps of flesh on top of our mash. Which is one of the reasons I have no photo's for you, the other the dish was eaten way too quickly for any of that photo stuff, even my mother who complained about there being dressing on the greens went back for seconds.

 

I'm going to stop ranting now and give you the recipe

 

SEA BASS

• 8 thin slices of pancetta or Prosciutto
• 4 x 150g (8½oz) fillets of Hake without skin because it was all I could get (de boned skin on sea bass is what the actual recipe calls for)
• 1tsp fennel seeds or a sprinkle of crushed fennel seeds from the jar
• 1 lemon

MASH

• 700g (1lb 9oz) sweet potatoes
• A small bunch of fresh coriander
• 2tbsp mango chutney
• Soy sauce
• 2 limes

GREENS

• 1 fresh red chilli
• 1 clove of garlic
• Soy sauce
• 1 lime
• Sesame oil
• 250g (9oz) asparagus
• 1 head of broccoli

SEASONINGS

• Olive oil
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Sea salt and black pepper

BERRY ICE-CREAM

• 1 x 500g pack of mixed frozen berries
• 150g (5½oz) fresh blueberries
• 3-4tbsp runny honey
• 1 x 500g tub of natural yoghurt
• A few sprigs of fresh mint

LEMON GINGER DRINK

• Ice cubes
• 1 x 330ml can of fizzy lemonade
• A few sprigs of fresh mint
• A 2cm (¾in) piece of fresh ginger
• 1 bottle of sparkling water

As with all 30 minute meals, get everything you need out and make sure your bench is clear and free of clutter,

Mash: I found this part of the recipe kind of cool because other than the occasional re heat my microwave doesn't get used, so cooking the kumara mash in there was novel, place all the kumara in a microwave safe bowl, piece each on a couple of times add half a lime then cover in a double layer of glad wrap, then mircowave for 12 minutes, so easy

GREENS: De-seed and finely chop the chilli, we don't really use chilli in my house so I only used a quarter of a chilli so you get the flavour but no real heat, place it in a bowl. Crush the unpeeled clove of garlic into the bowl (I missed this ingredient out because I didn't read the recipe properly but hey it tasted good without) and add 2tbsp of soy sauce and 4-6tbsp of extra virgin olive oil. Squeeze in the juice of 1 lime, as I'm hopeless with sticking to recipes, thats way to boring I also added the zest and add a splash of sesame oil, which I'd never used and am now in love with, make sure you taste the sauce I had to add more lime, so it was balanced flavours
Trim the asparagus stalks. Quarter the head of the broccoli lengthways from the head to the base of the stalk.

Hake: Put the pancetta  or prosciutto if that's all you can get into the frying pan with a drizzle of olive oil. cook until crispy then I took it out and drained it on some kitchen towel
DRINK: Fill a large jug halfway with ice. Add the lemonade and mint sprigs. Peel and finely grate in 2cm (¾in) of ginger. Top up with sparkling water, mix with a wooden spoon and take to the table.

SEA BASS(Hake):  Add the fish to the pan, (skin side down). Shake the pan and use a spatula to press the fillets flat for a few seconds. Spinkle with fennel, salt, pepper, and lemon zest, then squeeze the juice over just before the fish is ready
MASH: Finely chop the coriander on a large wooden chopping board, I would use less coriander next time. Mix in the mango chutney, soy sauce, extra virgin olive oil, and the juice from ½ a lime and the reserved chopped chilli. I forgot to add the soy sauce, olive oil and as I said we don't really like chilli so I omitted that too, Jamie as you can see mashes his on to a board, and it looks pretty but I mashed mine and put it on a plate then dumped the cooked fish on top, not so pretty, but the flavours worked
GREENS: Fill the large saucepan with boiling water and add a large pinch of salt. Add the broccoli and asparagus, making sure they are completely submerged. cook until aldente. drain and stir through the dressing

Then you eat, I hope you like the lay out for the recipe it's the way it is in the book with my add ons so enjoy

 

Oh and Jamie, maybe we need a food revolution here so I can stop ranting at the supermarkets