Fishy festival faves

 

These recipes are dedicated to all that attended the wonderful Whitehaven food festival. They are a selection of some of the food that we demonstrated.

 

As a side note, before we begin, we were given the task of looking after Ainsley Harriot for the weekend. We helped him get all the equipment and ingredients ready for his demonstrations. What can we say; he is a truly gifted professional. He signed autographs and had pictures taken for a good 14 hours straight (this man did not even get time to eat)but said that meeting people was his favourite part of his job so did it all with joy. He found us West Cumbrians to be a thoroughly friendly bunch so we should all give ourselves a pat on the back.

 

However, without further ado, here are some of our fishy party snack food ideas.

 

Quick ceviche

This can be served with cocktail sticks as a canapé idea, or plated up as a starter

 

Zest and juice of one lemon

Zest and juice of one lime

Good drizzle of sweet chilli sauce

Good drizzle of soy sauce

3 cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

½ red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

Small pack of coriander, chopped

300g of any fish (it can also be a mixture of fish). Good ones to try are salmon, tuna, scallop, cod, haddock, whiting or sea bass

 

Slice the fish finely or dice it into smallish cubes.

Place it in a bowl with the lemon, lime, sweet chilli, soy, ginger and chilli. Give everything a good mix together.

Leave to marinate for between 20 minutes and 1 hour. During this time the acid in the citrus fruit will ‘cook’ the fish. How much ‘cooked’ you like it will be determined by how long you leave it to marinate. Leaving it much longer than an hour will cause the fish to begin to break down with the citrus acid, losing the texture you want to retain.

Just before serving, mix in the coriander.

 

If you are using this as a starter, it is good garnished with some rocket leaves and a dollop of crème fraiche.

 

Langoustine won tons

Won ton wrappers are a novice cook’s best friend. They can be used as an alternative to filo pastry which can be a nightmare to work with as it dries out so quickly and becomes unworkable. They can also be used as an alternative to fresh pasta which takes a certain skill (and usually a pasta machine) to make.

You can buy them at oriental supermarkets or online from stores such as Wing Yip (wingyipstore.co.uk)

We stuffed ours with raw langoustine, but we were trying to be impressive for our demo. If your budget does not stretch that far, raw tiger prawns are a good alternative.

Won tons can be steamed, deep fried or baked. As we are going for easy peasy, we’ve chosen the latter cooking method.

 

200g raw prawns, chopped

1 red chilli deseeded and finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated or chopped

Dash of soy sauce

Handful of fresh coriander, chopped

Won ton skins

 

Mix all of the ingredients, except the won tons, together.

 

Won tons can be made into all sorts of fancy shapes, but we’re going for what we believe to be one of the easiest.

Lay out a single won ton wrapper. Put a dot of filling in the centre, not too much or it will burst open as it cooks.

Wet your finger with water and run it around the filling to wet the edges of the won ton.

Pinch the edges of the wrapper in to make a little parcel shape.

Continue to make the parcels until you have used up all of the filling.

Place on a tray lined with baking parchment. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for around 10 minutes.