Tiger prawns cooked in sea salt recipe

                                                 Tiger prawns cooked in sea salt

When looking for “mazzancolle” at the fishmonger, just ask for tiger prawns. For the recipe below, I used 10 tiger prawns because it is quite easy to lay them in one circular flan dish. If you want to cook more than 10, then I suggest you use use more than one oven dish or cook at different stages remembering to use the same salt mixture (it tastes even better!). This recipe is ideal as a starter when you have a fish meal but you can also decide to have it as a main course (it just depends on how many tiger prawns you use).

Ingredients:

Preparation: 10 mins
Cooking: 10 mins

* 10 Tiger prawns
* Coarse sea salt (in this recipe I used 800 g - 1 ½ lb of salt)
* Lemon (just half lemon)
* 40 ml (1 ½ fl oz) Extra virgin olive oil
* A handfull of flat leaf parsley (finely chopped)

Cooking Procedure:

Put all the salt into a large bowl.

Squeeze over about half a lemon.

Add the parsley.

Add the olive oil.

Mix everything together.

Put part of the mixture into a flan dish to form a bed.

Lay the tiger prawns onto the salt bed with their heads pointing outwards.

Cover the tiger prawns bodies with the remaining salt paying attention NOT to cover the heads.

This is how it should look like before putting it in the oven. Now, pre-heat the oven at 200 °C (gas mark 6) and when it is ready, put the dish into the oven for about 8 - 10 minutes (see How to cook perfect mazzancolle). Generally speaking, the prawns should be ready when their heads start becoming slightly burnt. Try different cooking times to suit your taste. This way you will know exactly how to get the best results from your oven.

To serve this dish, place in the middle of the table and everyone helps themselves. Remember that because the salt is very hot, the prawns will still be cooking. To avoid overcooking, remove the top layer of salt with a fork.

Buon appetito!

SERVES 2-3 AS A STARTER

Sea bass wrapped in cooking foil recipe

                                                Sea bass wrapped in cooking foil

One of the easiest and most effective ways to cook fish is to wrap it in foil. All the flavours stay inside the wrap and work their way through the fish! When cooking using this method, use simple ingredients and very fresh fish for best results. You can see similar recipes to this one selecting Sea bream wrapped in cooking foil 1 or Sea bream wrapped in cooking foil 2; this time I have used a sea bass instead of sea bream. Capers, anchovies and lemon with a final garnish of parsley...try it!

Ingredients:

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 30-35 minutes

* 1 Sea bass about 500 g (1.1 lb)
* A small handful of capers
* 4-5 Anchovy fillets
* 1 Lemon
* Some extra virgin olive oil
* A couple of potatoes
* Salt and black ground pepper for seasoning
* A small handful of flat leaf parsley (roughly chopped

Cooking Procedure:

When buying the fish, ask your fishmonger to gut and scale it, but do not remove head and tail. At home, rinse the fish under fresh water and then pat it dry with kitchen paper.

Cut a large piece of foil so that you can wrap your fish later. In the centre of the foil put a layer of greaseproof paper, roughly of the same length as your fish. Put some drops of olive oil on the greaseproof paper.

Spread the olive oil all around the greaseproof paper (use your fingers or a little brush).

Slice the potatoes (thin slices) and lay the slices as shown in the picture. Then, drizzle some olive oil over the potato slices. The potato helps to absorb part of the liquid that may form in the bottom during the cooking.

Make three diagonal cuts onto the top side of the fish.

Brush the inside of the belly with olive oil.

Stuff the belly with the anchovy fillets. I am not seasoning the inside of the fish belly with salt because the anchovy fillets are already salted. However, feel free to season with black pepper if you wish to do so.

Put half of the capers inside the gills.

Put the remaining capers inside the fish belly.

Next, cut three thin slices from the lemon and put each slice into each of the cuts you previously made.

Drizzle some olive oil over the fish.

Season the outside with salt.

Season the outside with black pepper.

Close the wrap, seal it folding the sides and put it onto an oven tray. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C (gas mark 6). When the oven is hot, put the tray into the oven and cook the fish for about 30-35 minutes.

Once the fish is cooked, drizzle with some good quality olive oil and sprinkle with parsley (the fish may be served on the wrap).

Serves 4

Buon appetito!

Plaice with potatoes recipe

                                                 Plaice with potatoes

This recipe is a clear reminder of an Italian rule of thumb when cooking fish: never mess with fish!
Far too often, when dealing with fish, I see too many ingredients added to it. Just watch some of the many TV cooking programs and you will recognise the non-confident cook from the amount of ingredients he/she uses; the more ingredients used the less confident is the cook!
This recipe works very well with whole flat fish and when you buy it, look for turbot (in Italy we call it rombo) or brill, alternatively use a plaice as I did. You can use the same technique to cook turbot (or brill) fillets if you like, but there is nothing more exciting than presenting a whole fish to your guests.

Ingredients:

Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 30-35 minutes

*
1 Kg (2.2 lb) Plaice (whole fish)
*
1 Kg (2.2 lb) Large potatoes
*
75 ml (3 fl oz) Extra virgin olive oil (for the salsa - keep this in a small bowl)
*
60 ml (2 fl oz) Extra virgin olive oil (for brushing - keep this in a glass)
*
A handful of flat leaf parsley (finely chopped)
*
3 Cloves of garlic
*
6 Small sprigs of rosemary
*
Few drops of lemon juice
*
Coarse salt and black ground pepper for seasoning *
1 Kg (2.2 lb) Plaice (whole fish)
*
1 Kg (2.2 lb) Large potatoes
*
75 ml (3 fl oz) Extra virgin olive oil (for the salsa - keep this in a small bowl)
*
60 ml (2 fl oz) Extra virgin olive oil (for brushing - keep this in a glass)
*
A handful of flat leaf parsley (finely chopped)
*
3 Cloves of garlic
*
6 Small sprigs of rosemary
*
Few drops of lemon juice
*
Coarse salt and black ground pepper for seasoning

Cooking Procedure:

To start, we prepare the salsa. Chop all the parsley with only one clove of garlic. I used the chopper because I want these chopped as finely as it can get. Next, put the chopped contents into the bowl containing olive and give it a stir.

Add few drops of lemon juice.

Finally, season with a pinch of salt, stir and put the salsa aside.

Peel the potatoes and cut them in thin slices using a mandolin (slices should be about 3 mm thick).

Take a large oven tray, cut a piece of greaseproof paper of the same dimension of the tray and brush the paper with olive oil.

Place the potatoes slices on the greaseproof paper, in the shape of your fish.

Brush the potato slices with olive oil.

Season the potato slices with salt.

Season the potato slices with pepper.

Next, put the tray into the oven and let the potatoes cook at 200°C (gas mark 6) for 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile you prepare your fish, first patting it dry with kitchen paper.

Then, putting a couple of rosemary sprigs and the remaining cloves of garlic into its cavity.

Now, remember the tray you have in the oven? Take it out and put the fish onto the layer of potato slices. Leave the oven on because soon you are going to put the fish into it.

Brush the fish with olive oil.

Season with salt.

Now, cover the fish with the remaining potato slices. Brush the potato slices with oil and season with salt and pepper. Around the fish, put the remaining rosemary springs as you can see in the picture.

Next, put the tray into the oven and cook for about 30 minutes at 200°C (gas mark 6).

After 30 minutes the fish should look like this, however you may need some extra time if you use a bigger fish.

To serve, put some of the fish meat onto a potato bed and garnish the fish with a little touch of salsa.

Buon appetito!

Serves 4.

Red mullets in tomato sauce Recipe

                                                Red mullets in tomato sauce

Ingredients:

   
          Preparation: 15 mins
          Cooking: 30 mins

* 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

Cooking Procedure:

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.

          Serves 2