One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Baked Fish

Attention, graduate students! You, too, can cook fish.

I know, I know: but money, but time, but technique, oh my!

Fear not. It has been a humdinger of a week with a d-day of another sort looming (submission of master’s dissertation on June 15th!), yet these two fish dishes came through for meals with friends this week. Both use a limited number of ingredients that are variable and easy to find —perfect for a last-minute creation using whatever happens to be loitering in the back of the fridge.

One hint for the grad student budget: get to know your local fishmonger and find out their delivery schedule. If you tend to cook salmon, for example, find out on which days the catch is delivered and try to stop by towards the end of that day, when the demand to move the produce is greatest—sometimes there are really good deals to be had! For both the haddock and the (organic, farm-raised) salmon used in the recipes below I was able to keep to a budget of 4-5 GBP/person.

The first recipe is an adaptation of Ina Garten’s ‘Mustard-Roasted Fish’ from her book Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics.

This is the original list of ingredients for 4 servings:

4 (8-ounces) fish fillets
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 ounces crème fraiche
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard
2 tablespoons minced shallots
2 teaspoons drained capers

My haddock fillets came in two, approximately 16 ounce fillets, and I thought it best to keep them large and whole rather than cut them into smaller portions. This seemed to keep the fish more moist. The first ingredient substitutions were necessitated by the fact that, for some reason, Marks & Spencer’s had a run on capers and shallots. So, I substituted a 2/3 red onion to 1/3 minced garlic combination for the shallots and finely chopped gherkins for the capers. Oh, and we also opted for half-fat crème fraiche… This all worked surprisingly well! Our container of crème fraiche was 10 ounces, so I admit to having increased the amount of whole-grain mustard, ‘shallots’ and ‘capers’ by about 1-2 teaspoons each.

The recipe for this baked fish is incredibly simple. Just mix all of the ingredients together and cover the fish with a thick, generous layer of mustard cream. Bake at 200 C for 15-20 minutes and serve immediately. Our dinner was a bit of a pot luck and E. and D. came forth with wine, delicious bruschetta with diced tomatoes, grilled vegetables, and sundried tomatoes and a rocket salad. Yum! All in all, dinner was done in under 45 minutes, including preparation time.

The second fish recipe, which most friends have been subjected to at least once, is my salmon with chili jam, an adaptation of America's Test Kitchen's 'Sweet and Saucy Charcoal-Grilled Salmon with Lime-Jalapeno Glaze'--an oddly elusive recipe to track down!

Again, some substitutions were necessary. 'Sweet Chili Jam' stood in for the jalapeno jelly, and I added 2 tsp. soy sauce:

2 salmon fillets
Salt and pepper
4 Tablespoons toasted sesame oil
¼ cup sweet chili jam/jalapeno jelly
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press
1 lime; 1 teaspoon grated zest/ 2 Tablespoons juice
1-2 green onions, finely chopped
2 teaspoons low sodium soy sauce

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
Tinfoil

Rinse the fish in cold water and pat dry with kitchen roll.

Use tinfoil to create a large ‘boat’ for the fish; this does not have to entail symmetrical, 90-degree corners by any means—just make sure there is an ample lip running around the edge to hold in juices and bubbling, excess glaze. Nor does this need to be a large boat; in fact, the fish will stay nice and moist with a margin of about 1-2 cm.

Combine the jam, garlic, lime zest and juice, green onions and soy sauce in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. The sauce should simmer and thicken on the hob, about 2-3 minutes.

This is another divergence from the Test Kitchen recipe, but seeing as there was no grill available, improvisation was in order. To seal the fish and get that slightly caramelized surface colour, I first seasoned the fish with salt and pepper and then seared the salmon with a bit of toasted sesame oil in a red-hot skillet for a matter of seconds—just to crisp up the skin a bit and add some colour to the flesh (no more than 10 seconds per side).

Transfer the fish to the tinfoil ‘boat’, skin-side down, and spoon over 2/3 of the jam glaze.

Bake at 190 C for about 15-18 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fillets.

Take the saucepan with the remaining glaze off the heat; add 2 Tbs. butter, stirring until it’s incorporated; cover the pan and set it aside until the salmon is done.

Serve the fish right away while it’s hot, spooning some of the remaining, buttery glaze over the top. I served mine with jasmine rice and cucumber carrot slaw (just let thinly sliced cucumber and carrot sit in some rice wine vinegar, two pinches of sugar, salt, ginger, and a few chilis).

It’s simple, posh protein that everyone will love—and it takes no time at all!

For any fish or chicken recipe I tend to follow a glaze rule that includes: one part sweet, one part hot, one part citrus, one part savoury. It’s hard to go wrong. Another great combination is sweet mango or Major Grey’s chutney with the juice of one Clementine, red chili paste, shallot, garlic, and soy.