Category Archives: Fish

Prawn Cocktail

Posted on by

 

PRAWN COCKTAIL 1

In this prawn cocktail recipe, the prawns and lettuce are served separately.

Prawn Cocktail 1

INGREDIENTS

  • 400g cooked and peeled prawns
  • 2 baby gem lettuce, finely shredded
  • 1 spoon capers, chopped
  • 8 gherkins, sliced and chopped
  • 1 ripe avocado, diced
  • 150ml mayonnaise
  • 2 tablespoons ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • A splash of Tabasco sauce

METHOD

    1. Save 4 of the prawns back for decoration.
    2. Roughly chop the other prawns.
    3. Mix together the lettuce, capers and gherkins and season with salt.
    4. Arrange the lettuce in 4 serving bowls.
    5. In another small bowl, mix together the ingredients for the dressing (mayonnaise, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce.
    6. Arrange the prawns and chopped avocado on the lettuce.
    7. Drizzle over the dressing and place a whole prawn on each dish.
    8. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.

PRAWN COCKTAIL 2

This is a simple recipe for the classic prawn cocktail. This recipe combines together all the ingredients together.

Prawn Cocktail 2

This recipe is quick and easy to prepare and needs to be chilled for about 30 minutes or so before serving.

INGREDIENTS

  • 400g cooked and peeled prawns
  • 1 small lettuce, shredded
  • 4 ripe tomatoes, diced
  • 1 cucumber, diced
  • 1 ripe avocado, diced
  • 1 small red onion, finely chopped
  • 150ml mayonnaise
  • 2 tablespoons ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • A few dashes of Tabasco sauce

METHOD

    1. Save some of the prawns back for decoration. If the prawns are large, roughly chop the rest. If not, use them as they are.
    2. Mix together the prawns, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, and onion in a large bowl.
    3. In another small bowl, thoroughly combine the ingredients for the dressing (mayonnaise, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce.
    4. Pour the dressing over the prawn mixture and toss gently.
    5. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes before serving on a bed of lettuce and decorating with the reserved prawns.

 

Prawn and Garlic Pasta

Posted on by

prawn garlic pasta

 

PRAWN AND GARLIC PASTA

This prawn and garlic pasta dish is easy to prepare and takes about 15 minutes to make.

prawn and garlic pasta

INGREDIENTS

  • spaghetti or linguine
  • 360g frozen prawns
  • 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • a bunch of parsley with the leaves and stalks, finely chopped
  • 1 small tin of anchovies, finely chopped
  • a pinch of chilli powder
  • a can of tomatoes or 500g cherry tomatoes
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 glass of white wine
  • 2 tablespoons tomato sauce

METHOD

  1. Heat the water for the pasta in a large saucepan with a teaspoon of salt.
  2. Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil in a large, deep frying pan.
  3. Add the garlic, parsley and anchovies and grind in some black pepper.
  4. Fry for a couple of minutes and then add the tomatoes and tomato sauce and mash well to break up the tomatoes.
  5. Add the prawns, a splash of white wine and a knob of butter and mix well.
  6. When the pasta is cooked, transfer to a colander, saving back some of the cooking liquid.
  7. Put the pasta into the frying pan and mix well.
  8. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

Hake and Chorizo with White Beans

Posted on by
cortijoblog fried potato cake

HAKE AND CHORIZO WITH WHITE BEANS

If you are using dried white beans, this recipe can be cooked in a pressure cooker and it will take about 30 minutes. Alternatively, you can use canned beans and cook it on the stove top. This recipe works well with any type of white fish such as hake or cod. You can replace the dried cabbage with fresh, chopped cabbage.

fried potato cake

 Hake and Chorizo with White Beans

This fish dish can be easily and quickly prepared in a pressure cooker.

INGREDIENTS

  • 200g dried white beans, soaked for 24-48 hours
  • 80g spicy Spanish dried chorizo, thinly sliced
  • 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped1 glass red wine
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 2 hake fillets
  • 2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 2 tablespoons concentrated tomato sauce
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper

METHOD

  1. Put the beans in a pressure cooker, cover with water and cook for 15 minutes.
  2. Quick release the pressure and drain the beans.
  3. Heat some olive oil in the pressure cooker.
  4. Gently fry the onion until soft.
  5. Add the chorizo and fry for another couple of minutes.
  6. Fry the garlic for 30 seconds or so.
  7. Add all the other ingredients and the beans but not the fish to the pan.
  8. Mix well and season with salt and pepper.
  9. Pour over a cup of water and bring to the boil.
  10. Cover the pressure cooker and bring up to pressure.
  11. Turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
  12. Turn off the heat and leave for 5 minutes.
  13. Release the pressure and open the cooker.
  14. Check that the beans are cooked.
  15. Lay the fish on the top.
  16. Put back on a low heat.
  17. Cover and leave for 10-15 minutes.
  18. Serve.

Tuna and Egg Empanada Gallega

Posted on by

Tuna and Egg Empanada

Empanada is a Spanish pie which is typical of Galicia in the north of Spanish and is also called Empanada Gallega. The empanada is traditionally filled with meat, tuna, vegetables, and seafood or shellfish and usually is served cold. It is a great way to feed lots of people and also good for picnics.

You can make the pastry from scratch or you can buy a packet of pre-prepared dough which has already been rolled out.

It’s also a great recipe to prepare in the wood-fired bread oven after you have cooked pizzas for lunch and the oven has been left to cool down a bit. If you prepare some larger amounts of the pizza toppings (e.g. onion, green pepper, red pepper), then you already have your vegetables prepared for when you are going to cook it later.

Tuna and Egg Empanada Gallega
Print
Ingredients
  1. 1 onion, finely chopped
  2. 1 green pepper, finely chopped
  3. 1 red pepper, finely chopped
  4. 240g tinned tuna
  5. 4 hard-boiled eggs, roughly chopped
  6. 1 egg, beaten
  7. 200ml tomato sauce
  8. extra virgin olive oil
  9. salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and gently fry the onion, green pepper and red pepper until soft.
  2. Add the tomato sauce and continuing frying until the mixture is quite dry.
  3. Flake in the tuna and the hard-boiled eggs and stir well.
  4. Season with salt and pepper.
  5. Leave to cool.
  6. Meanwhile, unwrap the pastry and place the greasproof paper on a large baking tray.
  7. Place one of sheets of pastry on top of the paper.
  8. Spread out the filling to within an inch of the edges.
  9. Put the other sheet of pastry on top, matching up the edges.
  10. Using your fingers, create a rope-like effect by rolling over the edges.
  11. Brush the top with the beaten egg.
  12. Bake in a 180ºC oven for 4 minutes until the top is golden.
  13. Leave to cool before serving.
Cortijo de la Plata https://cortijoblog.com/

Smoking fish

Posted on by
Hot Mackerel Smoking

Mackerel after 10 minutes in the smoker.

Last year we found this Dutch bread tin at a flea market and thought it would make a perfect smoker:

Hot smoking box

The raw mackerel prior to smoking

The idea is to light a fire on the barbecue and put some sawdust in the base of the smoker. The choice of sawdust is important and some woods work better than others. We tried cedar wood last year and that was definitely not a good idea: it had too strong a flavour. So far, we’ve tried apple and almond and both worked really well. It is OK just to collect the sawdust from a chainsaw but if you are worried about traces of chainsaw oil an  electric planer works very well. Aparently softwoods such as pine should not be used.

The fish fillets are put in a weak brine solution for as long as possible. We were a bit short of time today so they were probably only in there for about 30 minutes. The fillets are then put on a mesh about 10cm above the sawdust and the smoker is put on the barbecue. Note: We also tried this using no salt and we could not tell the difference so from now on we won’t bother with the salt.

smoking-1

The apple sawdust is sprinkled on the bottom of the tin

Once the sawdust has reached a high enough temperature it will start to smoke.

The smoking process

A few burning sticks get a good heat all around the box

Once the smoke starts coming out of holes, the timer is set. We estimate that it will take about 10 to 15 minutes for the fish to be smoked and cooked.

Heating the smoking box

It takes about 3 minutes before the box heats up and smoke comes out of the cracks.