Monkfish Medallions with New Season Potatoes and Asparagus

I was walking by my favourite fishmongers the other day and as I always do, stopped by to browse in their shop window. Sometimes they have pretty interesting stuff. I love to buy, prepare and eat freshly caught fish, and their fish is really fresh.

Being a Kiwi fish shop, they have items which might be considered unusual elsewhere - seasonal sea urchin roe - called kina by the Maori - and uni by the Japanese who make it into delicious sashimi and sushi. Occasionally they even have mutton birds - a curious sea bird which comes from the South Island which has been preserved in brine. They belong to a order of sea birds called petrels and perhaps the "mutton" part of their local name comes from early settlers who thought the meat reminded them of mutton. More information on this when I have actually cooked one.

This time, what caught my eye was a particularly ugly fish. It couldn't be, I thought, a whole monkfish? Sure looked like one. The guy in the shop said, it's a Stargazer - local name for Monkfish and happily filleted it for me. This whole fish about 40cm long cost the equivalent of 2 Big Mac meals and yielded 2 large fillets of firm white flesh and a frame to make super duper fish stock.

Thought I'd make a variation of a Rick Stein recipe.

Ingredients:

• Monkfish fillets, cut into 1 inch thick medallions
• 1/2 cup Roasted buckwheat
• 1 clove fresh garlic
• 1 bunch Fennel fronds
• sea salt
• white pepper
• new season potatoes
• asparagus

Method for the fish:
1. in food processor or mortar, crush up buckwheat with garlic, fennel and sea salt.
2. coat one side of the fish with this mixture
3. fry in olive oil, crumbed side down first, for about 2 min, then turn over and fry till just cooked and brown on the other.

For the veges:
Peel and cook the potatoes in a pot of well salted water, drain and keep warm
prepare and steam the asparagus (or blanch them in the same salted water for about 2 min)

To serve:
Plate the potatoes and asparagus with generous amount of butter or saffron mayonnaise
Place fish alongside..

Eat and enjoy!

Corn & Zucchini Fritters

Spring is here - or trying to establish a foothold in any case. We've had some really lovely warm days followed by a couple of blustery days with wind blowing right up from the Antarctic.

However, today is a beautiful day, the wind has died down, the sun is out and the birds are singing. And the grass needs mowing. Before getting onto that task, I thought I'd make myself a nice light, healthy lunch of corn & zucchini fritters. How can fritters be healthy, you may ask. Aren't they deep fried? Well, these are full of fiber and practically fat free too!

Ingredients:
2 cups fresh corn kernels
2 cups finely julienned zucchini (grated is OK)
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
2 eggs
1 cup water
1 finely chopped red chilli
1/2 cup finely sliced spring onions
1 cup self raising flour
1/2 tsp ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, cumin and freshly ground black pepper. Add a bit of salt (depends on how salty your feta cheese is). Mix well.
2. Add the vegetables and cheese to the flour
3. Beat the eggs well
4. Add the eggs and water to flour and veg mixture and mix well. It will be a stiff batter.
5. Heat a non stick skillet (you can add some olive oil for frying but it is not necessary). Drop 1 large tablespoon of the fritter mixture on the the skillet and fry over medium-low heat for about 3min on each side, till well browned. You'll know when it is time to turn over when small bubbles appear on the surface.
6. Serve with sweet chilli sauce / chilli mayo / alioli

Makes 12 fritters.

a colourful diet

We've been encouraged to add colours to our diet. Websites, healthy living magazines... TV programmes... So I decided to make a salad (salads are healthy.. right?) and include the colours red, green, yellow and white. Let's look at each of the colours.

Red: fruits and veggies that are red have lycopenes (think tomatoes) or acanthocyanins. Lycopenes are thought to protect against several types of cancer, especially prostate cancer. Acanthocyanins on the other hand are found in red berries are powerful antioxidants. Beetroot, another beautifully red vegetable has a pigment called betanin which is a betalain pigment, which may also exhibit anticancer activity.

Yellow (and orange) fruits and vegetables are often coloured by natural pigments called carotenoids. Beta carotene in carrots, sweet potatoes and pumpkins are converted to Vitamin A by the body which is good for the eyes and the heart. Citrus fruits (although yellow or orange) are not a good source of Vitamin C but have plenty of Vitamin C, which is good for the immune system and if you eat the pulp, then, fibre as well.

Yellow / Green leafy vegetables are coloured by chlorophyll. They also contain lutein, which is good for prevention of macular degeneration in the eye as well as reducing the risk of cataracts. Good examples are spinach, green peas, mustard greens, avocado.

Dark Green - vegetables such as brocolli, cabbage, kale - cruciferous veges contain the chemicals sulforaphane and isocyanate and they also contain indoles, all of which help ward off cancer by inhibiting carcinogens.

White / Green : leeks, onions, garlic, chives. The onion family contains allicin, which has antitumour properties, other members contain antioxidants such as quercetin.

Now, that's quite a mouthful of information. But most importantly, is to make this all palatable. (which is pretty easy), so here's a colourful tasty salad to perk anyone up during wet days that are Winter trying to become Spring.

Beetroot, Couscous and Feta Salad
Ingredients:
1 medium - large beetroot, boiled in its skin
1 cup couscous, rehydrated with hot water / vege stock and fluffed up
1 small lemon
1 cup feta cheese, cut into 1cm cubes
bunch of greens (we used miner's lettuce from our garden), rocket does very well
generous bunch coriander - roughly chopped
1-2 cloves garlic finely chopped salt pepper
1/2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and ground drizzle of olive oil

Method:
1. peel and cut the cooked beetroot into small 1 cm cubes, keep warm
2. lemon: cut half into thin slivers and juice the remaining half - mix with beetroot
3. toss all ingredients together in large bowl - you can add as much olive oil / lemon juice as you like (I use less oil, just to reduce the calories)

Serve with toasted crusty bread, such as sourdough.