Slow Cooking on Sunday - Fish and Potato Bake

Today was a fun day. There was ferry rides, fish and chips for lunch and while the sun was out, the wind had some ice. A hot dinner was definitely needed!

Tonight was a Fish and Potato Bake. The inspiration came from this recipe at The Organised Housewife, and also a lovely recipe in the current issue of Australian Healthy Food Guide magazine. 

Sauté leek, carrot, fennel and celery in olive oil and butter.

Add mushrooms, peas, dried mixed herbs, sweet paprika,
wholegrain mustard and a splash of lemon juice.

Add some white fish, milk and cornstarch.

Top with sliced potato, spray with olive oil and bake.

All done!

What's on your meal plan for this week? We're having Sausages with Mushy Peas, Macaroni Cheese with Pumpkin, Spanish Omelette with White Beans and Chicken crumbed with Quinoa and Chia.

Pink Dips for a Baby Shower

Yesterday I went to a baby shower. The mum-to-be is due very soon, so all the guests helped out by bringing a plate to share. The theme was pink, so I made a magenta-pink beetroot hommus, and a pale pink salmon pate.

Smoked Salmon Pate

This was adapted from a recipe in Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals, but with hot smoked salmon instead of smoked mackerel.

250g hot smoked salmon fillets*
1 packet of light cream cheese
Juice and zest of ½ lemon
1 handful of parsley (or another soft herb such as dill or basil)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp of horserdish
salt and pepper to taste

Remove the skin and any bones from the fish. Place all the ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Taste and adjust with extra salt, pepper, lemon or horseradish.


*Hot-smoked salmon is available in the deli section or from fishmongers. It's been cooked, so it's safer to eat in pregnancy than cold-smoked salmon. You can even make it yourself at home on the bbq (here's a recipe for Tea-Smoked Salmon).

Beetroot Hommus

100g roasted and peeled beetroot (or tinned beetroot)
2 cups cooked chickpeas (1 cup of dried chickpeas or 1 can of chickpeas)
Juice and zest of ½ lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
1 handful of mint leaves
1 tbsp tahini (I prefer unhulled tahini)
1 tsp honey (omit if using tinned beetroot)
½ tsp salt (omit if using tinned chickpeas)

Place all the ingredients into the food processor and blend until smooth. You can add some greek yoghurt for a creamier version. Taste and add extra salt or lemon if needed. You can use tinned chickpeas and beetroot if you're in a hurry, but it's worth cooking everything fresh.

Trevally with Rosemary and Chilli

You might be like me, and feel like you haven't been eating enough fish lately.


I was sitting outside the fish shop in the Mall today, and suddenly felt like cooking a fish dinner! I remembered that there's a sustainable fish guide that you can download. So I Googled "sustainable fish australia" and found the Australian Marine Conservation Society. They publish the Sustainable Seafood Guide. You can buy the full guide for $10, download a mini-guide in pdf form, or lookup individual species to see if they're good to buy. 


They make their recommendations based on research regarding fish stocks, fishing methods and farming methods. They have a simple traffic-light based system to help you decide. Red means that the species is over-fished, or uses fishing methods that are harmful to other species. Orange means you should think twice - this seems to apply to a lot of farmed fish, where there's concern about the impacts of the farming practices on the marine environment. Green means it's a species that you can buy because the animals are fished or grown in a sustainable fashion. They also give all the common names of fish and where they come from, so you can buy Australian fish. 


So I was able to download the mini guide onto my phone and it recommended Trevally as one of the species that was good to buy - and I happened to be staring at some whole trevally in the window. Better still, the fish shop had a free cleaning and filleting service. While I had to wait 10 minutes or so for the fish to be cleaned and cut, I was able to get 2 whole fish, including heads and bones for stock, for just $16.50 (it was $10.90 a kilo - bargain!). The guide also recommends calamari, blue swimmer crab, mussels and oysters!


I've never cooked with Trevally before. I'll confess that I've been lazy with seafood and tended to default to salmon or trout as my fish of choice. I found this recipe for Trevally with rosemary and chilli. Not that there's much of a recipe, but being an oily fish, trevally can be cooked with stronger flavours. There was a dark red line running down the middle of the fillets that seemed to hold all the bones. I just sliced down either side to get some lovely little fillets. I popped them in the fridge with the rosemary, garlic, pepper, chilli flakes and olive oil. Just before cooking I added the lemon and salt. The fish is served with some roasted chunks of sweet potato and grilled zucchini, with some grilled lemon to squeeze over. I use Jamie Oliver's advice for making roast root vegetables in a hurry - parboil, microwave or steam the vegies first, then finish in a hot oven with a drizzle of olive oil. You'll get crispy vegies with a soft centre in about 20 mins.