Fish Stew

Another fish stew – a little different, much quicker, one-pot on the stove and not too bad for warmer weather.  While I am quite happy eating cold food, salads and the like, in the summer, DH tends to like a hot meal except of the hottest of days.  This doesn’t heat up the kitchen and is very tasty.

1-2 tbls olive oil

1 onion, diced finely

2-3 cloves of garlic, minced or a tbls of garlic puree

juice of one lemon

chopped fresh basil

300g fresh or frozen raw prawns/shrimp

400g can of chopped tomatoes (no sugar added)

100 ml chicken or fish stock

a couple of dashes of Tabasco

1 pouch cooked puy lentils ( or a couple of cups of your own cooked lentils, or even a drained and rinsed can)

Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil till the onions begin to brown but don’t let the garlic burn.  Add the lemon juice and let it reduce slightly.

Add the tomatoes and the stock and bring it up to the boil.  If using cooked lentils, stir them in and add the prawns then cook for 5-7 minutes, until the prawns are pink and cooked thru.  Frozen prawns will obviously take a little longer than fresh.  If you are using canned lentils, you can add them, then let them simmer for 5 minutes, then add the prawns – to be honest I don’t usually cook the canned lentils for long at all and they are fine. Salt (if you feel it needs it) and pepper to taste.

Spoon into a bowl, drizzle over a bit of olive oil and scatter the basil on top.  If you like you can add another squeeze of fresh lemon juice then serve.

Yummy with steamed fresh asparagus.

You can substitute any sort of bean you like, chickpeas, butter, haricot, whatever.  You can use lime instead of lemon, and coriander instead of basil. You can use a mix of seafood, like scallops and calamari and shrimp, and that’s good too.

 

Fish Stew

A bit like boullabaisse but less ingredients!

2 leeks and 2 stalks of celery, chopped

2 tbls good olive oil

2 x fish stock cubes made up as directed or 2 x 500 gm fish stock bags – you want about 1000 ml of liquid

juice of one lemon

2 (or more) cloves of garlic

2 tbls fresh thyme

a pinch of saffron threads steeped in a small amount of hot water

2 bay leaves

2 – 4 firm white fish fillets, fresh or frozen, cod or haddock work fine, salmon works too

fresh or frozen raw shrimp

fresh or frozen scallops

fresh or frozen calamari rings

fresh or canned lump crabmeat

2 450 gm cans of cannelli beans

The amount of fish and type of fish can be dictated by your preferences, and weather you want it more soupy or thicker and more stew-y.  For two generous portions I use two fish fillets, two 180 g packs of shrimp, a can of crab meat, one calamari cleaned and cut into rings, scallops if they are on sale (about 10-12)

Saute the celery and leeks but don’t let them go brown. Add the fish stock, the bay leaves, the saffron and it’s soaking water, the garlic, and the lemon juice.  Let all this simmer nicely on the stove top in a deep skillet for about 15 minutes. Halve the cherry tomatoes and add them to the broth.

Add the seafood.  Turn up the heat. How long you cook it will depend on whether the fish is fresh or frozen. Fresh fillets and other seafood will only need a few minutes.  The fillets should be cooked through, opaque and flaky, the scallops opaque and firm-ish, the shrimp uniformly pink, the calamari firm,  Canned crabmeat needs only heating thru.  All-fresh seafood shouldn’t take more than 10-15 minutes, depending on how MUCH seafood you are adding.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Drain and rinse the beans, then stir them in gently to heat thru.

Serve in big, warmed bowls. Garnish with fresh flat leaf parsley or cilantro leaves.  You can pass a bowl of lemon wedges for people to squeeze over at the table.

This is my go-to cupboard meal.  If I have frozen fish and frozen shrimp and stock cubes I can make this in a flash and it’s always well received.  If I’ve been to the store and can buy what’s fresh it will be a more complex stew. For a lunch, you can probably get 4 servings. A fresh spinach leaf salad is a great accompaniment or stir in a handful of spinach to wilt in a minute just before serving!