A Fishy Tale

(complete with RECIPE and PHOTOS)

My latest client fishes for fun in his spare time.

I told him that my record with fishing was fairly successful - I ask "you got any fish" and generally the monger does indeed have such viands available.

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As a result, I received a HUGE bag of frozen fish fillets from his weekend deep-sea fishing trip.  Definitely a job worth keeping, eh?

So anyway, with only a few ingredients bought, the rest from the garden and from my new client, I made something pretty special last night, and I wanted to share it with you all.

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Onion - I used one.  I chopped it.

Ripe Tomatoes (from your plentiful supply - nay, over-supply - on the brown thing in the living room)  - I used about 4 medium sized ones.  They get chopped, so it could be lots of littlies or some biggies - I am not going to be a dictator on this recipe, okay? 

Parsley - we have lots.  I went down to a large clump and grabbed a good handful.  A very good handful.  And then chopped.  Choppedy-choppedy-choppedy-chop.  Choose to use a good big blade so you can do the "chop-chop-chop-chop-chop-chop-chop" and get the rhythm really going.  Change the angle.  Enjoy the process.
 
Shallots - a girlfriend of mine refers to these as "Centrelink Onions".  What you do is buy a bunch, and then chop the green bit and use is - but keep a goodly bit of the white and roots.  It will keep for a few days in a glass of water, but it is best to plant it out and it can be reharvested often.  I went all U* on it and BOUGHT some seedlings a few months ago, but you only need the green bits for this recipe so why waste when you pick it?  Probably the green bits from three of them were used - guess what - chopped.

Thyme - about 3 good sprigs.  Fresh if you got it.  Baby, we got it.

Lemon Juice - I juiced what I had in the door of the fridge, so 3/4 of a lemon to be precise.

Butter - you know that knob that you have leftover from the cooking that you did last week?  About 1/3 of that amount - so probably a tablespoon?  Melt it.  **

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Okay, so mix all that up - don't go too spatula-crazy with the melted butter dish - use the remainder and brush four squares of baking paper on four squares of alfoil (large enough to enclose the fillets plus some).

Dump some of your salsa above in the middle of each paper.

Put a chilli on each pile.  I didn't chop it up - just topped it really.

Put a Red Emperor Fillet (or a quarter of your supply) on the mound.

How many ways can you say stack it?

The rest of the salad and another chilli or two.  Each one.  As if you would leave one of them out.  I mean, come on..  Fillet, I mean.  On top of each fillet.  Not Chilli. Come on!

Anyway, fold up your parcel, put them all in a tray (or don't - I didn't trust the parcel to not leak a little so erred (correctly) on the side of caution) and put it in the oven.  I had them in for 20 minutes in a 200 oven (ish - if you knew our oven, you would "ish" a bit on that too) and it may have been about 2 minutes too long.

The.  Taste.  Was.  Amazing.

And the juice?  Out of the world.

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* I once read a biography of the Mitford sisters.  It changed my world.

** You could probably use olive oil instead - we ran out.  I know, who runs out of Olive Oil?  Bad little housekeeper.  Don't give me all that "oh, but its Week Frugal of our current Fortnightly Housekeeping Roster and there is no justification for taking such a large percentage of the funds for a tin of the goodness and absolutely no justification for not being economically wise and buying a bottle and SURELY YOU can get through a week with the good FOUR TABLESPOONS of oil that was left there on shopping day so take your snippy attitude elsewhere" because it is TIRESOME being inside my brain when it gets to bickering.  Use the butter and get over it.