Spec me a fish dish?

Mr Jack

Mr Jack

Mr Jack

Caporegime
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Nordfriesland, Germany
I am entertaining a lady friend this weekend. I want to cook a nice supper that doesn't take too much preparing (so I'm not hiding in the kitchen for hours), unfortunately she's a pescetarian which rules out most of my usual options.

Can anyone suggest a good, fairly simple but impressive, fish dish? Other seafood is also an option but I've never cooked shellfish before.
 
I would stick to something simple that mostly takes care of itself (rather than need constant attention).
Any allergies or food she doesn't like? (Veg etc..)

Steamed salmon with a spicy sauce and sauteed potatoes. Simple and quick. (White wine too)
 
Scallops, girls love scallops.

Sole on the bone is also very easy to do well and is quite impressive if they don't mind it on the bone.

If she's into shellfish, I'd do a fruits de mer involving scallops, langoustine, mussel, oyster, smoked salmon and some other bits and pieces. Easy to do, and can be made to look really impressive. Nice bottle or two of Chablis and some Reisling to complete the table.
 
Baked sea bass

Make a parcel with foil lay a sea bass inside with bay leaves, lemon, salt and pepper and a glass of white wine. Loosly seal up then bake.

Easy and lovely and a bit of a table treat a steaming parcel of baked fish.
 
Quality fish is a prerequisite, go to the fishmongers and ask what is fresh.

This works for any good fleshy white fish generally, take whatevers cheap and plentiful.

In a foil parcel oil and season the fish, add a couple of smashed cloves of garlic (skin on, just bruise), some lemon zest, a little dry vermouth and some sundried tomatoes just torn. Crimp tightly and bake in the oven. Depending on the size of the fish and how good your oven is, use your best judgement but for average sized fillets I'd say 12-15 minutes in the top shelf of a 200c oven would be adequate.

I tend to serve with poleta fried in slightly garlicy butter or potato fondant and whatever seasonal green veg is in season, plate the fried polenta/ potatoes up in the centre of a white round plate (at most a gold or blue ring), fish on top, green beans at the edge and then dress with the remnants of cooking juice in the foil, not too much, just enough.

Generally I'll also put out some fresh baked sourdough, bitches love sourdough.
 
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I'd do a variation of the above.

Salmon en papillote. Salmon with bay leaf, salt, pepper, squeeze of lemon and glug of white wine, slice of lemon in there if you like. Slap that in a baking sheet parcel with enough air around it to steam it. Serve with fine beans, carrots and baby news. Clean and tasty meal. Nothing fancy, but won't take you a ton of time and it's lovely and fresh.
 
Make a sauce by gently frying some chorizo ring sausage to cook and release some fat and smoked paprika flavour, add passata and herbs and seasoning to taste.

Simply pan fry some gurnard or sea bream/bass fillets in a little olive oil until nearly cooked. Pour the sauce over the fish in its pan and heat together for a few minutes to finish cooking the fish.

Serve with steamed potatoes and a simple salad with baby greens, fennel tops, pomegranate and and a simple walnut oil vinaigrette dressing - all nice and light.
 
mussels? always go down well and fairly easy to cook
I also once made some fancy fish fingers with homemade ketchup for a young lady, wee bit of fun but still tasty (and was good when she asked what was for tea!)
fish tacos for something a bit different
bouillabaisse could be a shout if you can get decent fish (paella also)
 
Mr Jack said:
I am entertaining a lady friend this weekend. I want to cook a nice supper that doesn't take too much preparing (so I'm not hiding in the kitchen for hours), unfortunately she's a pescetarian which rules out most of my usual options.

Can anyone suggest a good, fairly simple but impressive, fish dish? Other seafood is also an option but I've never cooked shellfish before.
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Baked Sea bass (put in foil drizzled in butter, garlic and onion) with small roast potatoes chunks coated in olive oil and rosemary (take around 35-40mins at 200c), and asparagus. Easy to cook, looks posh, and tastes delicious.
 
In the end I made cod - baked in foil with lemon, bay leaf and garlic - in a lemon and parsley beurre blanc served with sautéed garlic and herb potatoes and some steamed veg. It did the job - ;) - although I burnt the potatoes slightly because I failed to par boil them for quite long enough and they needed a bit too long in the pan.
 
Mr Jack said:
In the end I made cod - baked in foil with lemon, bay leaf and garlic - in a lemon and parsley beurre blanc served with sautéed garlic and herb potatoes and some steamed veg. It did the job - ;) - although I burnt the potatoes slightly because I failed to par boil them for quite long enough and they needed a bit too long in the pan.
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Meh, I rarely ever parboil potatoes before roasting, never burn them either. :p

Glad all went well though... did you get a smooch? ;)
 
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