Red Mullets In Tomato Sauce (Redd Mulits In Tomatow Sas) Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 Red mullets - in this recipe I used two big mullets, weighting 300 g (10 oz) each
• 80 ml (3 fl oz) Extra virgin olive oil
• 2 Cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
• 1 Small celery stalk (finely chopped)
• 400 g (Just a bit less than 1 lb) Chopped tomatoes
• A handful of flat leaf parsley (finely chopped)
• Salt and ground black pepper for seasoning

Note:

Uusually, for this recipe, you should use smaller mullets of about 100 g (4 oz) each, taking in account that you need 3 or 4 of these small mullets per person. However, you can cook big mullets in the same way and this is what I have done because my only option at the fish counter was to buy big fellas like the two featured in the photograph.

Directions:

First and foremost, clean the fish removing all the scales with a small knife. Do not scratch too hard because mullets have a delicate flesh and you could damage the fish.

Once the fish is cleaned inside and outside, give a final rinse under fresh running water.

Cleaned and ready for cooking.

Take a pan, wide enough to contain the fish. Add the olive oil and heat over medium heat.

Once the olive oil is hot, add the chopped garlic.

Immediately after the garlic, add the chopped celery or, if you prefer, you can add them to the pan at the same time.

Sweat off for a couple of minutes or until the garlic start changing its colour.

Then, add half of the chopped parsley you have previously prepared and gently stir for 30-40 seconds.

Add all your chopped tomatoes...

...and stir for few seconds to have an even mix.

Now, season with salt, not too much because later you will taste the sauce and eventually add some more salt if needed.

Finally, season with pepper, turn the heat down to low and cook the sauce for about 15 minutes.

At this point, if the sauce have reduced too much, add a glass of hot water (alternatively, half glass of hot water and few drops of red wine). We need the sauce just slightly liquid because later, when the fish will be placed onto the plate, we will use this sauce to cover.

Now, the sauce is ready for the fish, but before putting the fish into the pan, taste and check for salt.

Then, lay the mullets in the pan.

Both the mullets are now lying in the sauce. If you are cooking small mullets, these should be nearly covered by the sauce. In my case, having to deal with two big fellas, I will baste them with the sauce every now and then.

Cover the pan with a lid...

...and cook for about 15 minutes. If your mullets are small, 10 minutes should be enough to cook them perfectly. Do not turn the fish because this kind of fish is very fragile; a gentle shake of the pan is probably all you need to set the sauce around the fish.

This is me basting the fish after 5 minutes cooking (baste regularly during the cooking). Another 10 minutes and everything should be ready.

When the fish is perfectly cooked, sprinkle with the remaining parsley.

Put the fish onto a plate using a spatula and cover with the sauce. Slices of warm country bread is what you need now and of course a nice glass of chilled white wine.

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Ciuppin (Fish Stew) Recipe

Ingredients:

• 4 Red Gurnard, weighting about 200 g (7 oz) each
• 60 ml (2 oz) Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Onion (finely chopped)
• 1 Carrot (finely Chopped)
• 1 Clove of garlic (finely chopped)
• 150 ml (¼ pint) White wine (about a glass)
• 450 g (1 lb) Chopped tomatoes (usually 1 can)
• 1.5 Litres ( 2 ½ pints) Very light fish stock (dissolve 1 stock cube in 1.5 litres of hot water)*
• A Hanful of flat leaf parsley (roughly chopped)
• Salt and ground black pepper for seasoning
• Slices of Italian country bread , grilled and brushed with garlic

*First and foremost, before you start cooking, be sure that the first thing you do is prepare the stock so that is readily available when required.

Note:

Red gurnard do not have scales so there is no need of scraping their body with a knife. Just gut the fish and rinse thoroughly under fresh water. Cut off and discard all the fins.

Directions:

Put the olive oil into a large sauté pan casserole and heat the oil over medium heat.

Add the chopped vegetables (onion, carrot, celery and garlic) into the casserole.

Stir and sweat them off until the onion become golden in colour.

Then, add the white wine, stir and let it evaporate (it probably takes a couple of minutes).

Next, add the chopped tomatoes.

Stir and cook for 5 minutes.

Then, add 1.5 litres of light stock and continue cooking for 15 minutes over low/medium heat.

Next, season with salt and black pepper and...

...add the fish into the casserole.

Continue cooking for about 15 minutes and avoid stirring because this may break the fish up.

After 15 minutes, gently remove the fish from the pan using a slotted spoon. Meanwhile keep cooking the rest of the contents in the casserole.

A bit of surgery here! Remove the main chunks from the fish, put them into a small bowl and set aside.

All the fish bone and fins go back into the casserole. Continue cooking for a couple of minutes, then...

...pass all the casserole contents into the food mill (a.k.a. Mouli).

The food mill should be positioned over a second pan, usually a saucepan, which will collect all the liquid (soup). All the bones and hard bits remanining into the mill have to be discarded.

Here, we should have a lovely boneless fish soup. Meanwhile you have put the saucepan over a low heat. Check the seasoning and add salt and black pepper according to your taste.

Add the fish chunks you previously set aside. At this stage, if you want more fish, you can add some prawns or scallops.

Simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the parsley (roughly chopped flat leaf parsley).

Serve it accompanied with slices of grilled country bread.

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Fish Kababs (Fissh Kabaabs) Recipe

Ingredients:

• 200 g (7 oz) Breadcrumbs (see my note below)
• 6 King scallops
• 6 Tiger prawns
• Cut a monkfish fillet into 6 pieces (roughly 4 cm x 4 cm)
• Cut a salmon fillet into 6 pieces (roughly 4 cm x 4 cm)
• 2 Medium size squids (with their body make 4-6 pieces)
• 12 g (1 tbs ) Smoked sea salt
• 4 g (½ tbs) Black pepper
• 1 Small sprig of rosemary
• A small bunch of flat leaf parsley
• 1 Clove of garlic
• Some extra virgin olive oil in a small bowl
• Kebab sticks
• An atomiser filled with 3 parts olive oil and one part white wine

Note 1:

For the breadcrumbs I usually leave a couple of French baguettes in my larder for two or three weeks. Once the baguettes are hard like a stick, they can be grated using a normal cheese grater. During the recipe preparation I further process the breadcrumbs with a processor to make the crumbs similar to flour.

Note 2:

Salt and black pepper seasoning is subjective so if it is too much for you, use 6 g (½ tbs) of smoked sea salt and 3 g (1 tsp) of black pepper.

Directions:

Take the small sprig of rosemary and cut some needles away.

Take some parsley leaves and the clove of garlic.

Chop them all.

Put the breadcrumbs you previously grated into the food processor bucket and add the herbs.

Add the smoked sea salt.

Add the black pepper and process until you have a very fine mix.

Clean the fish and then cut the monkfish and salmon fillets into pieces. Try to cut the pieces so that they roughly match the dimensions of the king scallops. About the tiger prawns, remove the shells and take the heads away.

Clean the squid and then cut the body so that you have 4-6 strips or triangles. Also, keep the heads because they are delicious. If you want to know how to clean a squid, go to the link Fish preparation

When all the pieces are ready, put them onto a kitchen paper and pat them dry.

Now that all the bits and pieces are in position, we can start breading the fish.

Dip the fish in the olive oil and drain it a bit.

Now, dip the fish into the breadcrumb mix. You can see from the photograph that the parsley and rosemary gave the mix a lovely slightly greenish colour.

Once breaded, set it aside on the same tray.

Keep going until all the fish is breaded.

Now the fish is ready to be lined on the stick.

Pierce the fish so that you can have about 5-6 pieces of different fish onto a stick.

Put the kebabs onto the metal rack.

Switch the grill on (medium heat) and cook for a couple of minutes.

After 2 minutes, when the breadcrumb mix shows an initial stage of browning, spray the oil/wine mix with the atomiser and then keep cooking on the same side for another 3 minutes.

Having completed the 5 minutes cooking on one side, turn the kebabs on the other side.

Repeat the procedure. After 2 minutes, spray the kebabs and cook for a further 3 minutes. I have to say that the cooking time varies depending on the grill you have, the distance from the grill and the grill settings, so my suggestion is to use also "eyes and nose"; when the breadcrumb mix is evenly golden brown and the smell of fish is all around your kitchen, you cannot be wrong!

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