No photos, please
A quick recipe for a very speedy, good for family and great for friends fish bake
What was going to be a Friday morning post – a nice quick recipe to take you through the weekend, maybe even provide inspiration for that dinner that very evening – seems to have slipped somewhat.
Two reasons:
The first is easy to explain: life. Just got in the way, didn’t it.
The second I could write about for hours. But in line with the intended brevity of this post aim to keep it tight: I’ve not found the right time to make a version to ‘shoot’. Not the time to coincide cooking and eating with The Good Light for a photo. Not the time when the backdrop is clear for a video. Not the time to break down the process, get the money shot that’ll make an engaging ‘hook’. And certainly not the time to edit all that together into an enticing short film.
God it’s a lot these days, when also it’s just dinner.
So in the end I sacked off that side of things and spent precisely seven minutes and fifty eight seconds assembling the dish that’s now in the oven. And I’ve given myself the 20 minutes of cooking time to write-up the recipe and this intro.
I actually love the visual side of food media. But sometimes (at the moment, often), it’s a bore. And it doesn’t actually have any bearing of what’s meant to be the product: i.e. a delicious dish, a useful recipe.
The fish bake recipe that we’ll shortly arrive at covers both ‘delicious’ and ‘useful’. I make a version of it often – it’s effectively my go-to whenever I think ‘really ought to get some fish into the family diet’. And also whenever I think ‘we’ve got friends coming over so should cook something that feels as though we’re treating them’.
In all my versions of it there’s a creme fraiche and parmesan (or other gum-recedingly pleasing hard cheese) base; enough fish to feel generous; but also a vegetable to bulk things out – something that either is quickly blanched beforehand so it’s al dente at the same time as the fish is done, or another thing that cooks and sinks and softens just enough over the same period. There are aromatics, too – a fish-friendly fresh herb, mustard, capers – plus bread crumbs for crunch. Two out of ten times the result is at least as appreciated as a classic potato topped, béchamel-laden fish pie that takes 45 minutes to make; and the remaining eight times it knocks that labour of love right out of the park.
A green salad or a nice mix of greens on the side (cooked gem lettuce, green beans, tenderstem broccoli, asparagus etc). Plus your preference of boiled, roast, or flattened and crunchy mini potatoes; potato wedges; or French fries from the freezer (anyone tried the Koffmans version? Superb).
The one that’s coming out of my oven in three minutes (and hopefully yours soon too)? The fish is combination of smoked and not smoked haddock. The vegetable is (are) cherry tomatoes. The herb is dill. And it’s really good.
Make it, eat it, don’t worry about taking a photo.
Before we get to the recipe (for paid supporters – join us!), a quick mention for three relatively recently published cookbooks:
Partly because it’s on point (no photos!), but also because good: But First, Dinner: food for our real lives, by Eleanor Steafel.
MEDesque, by Georgina Hayden: lots of lovely photos in this one… but also tonnes of very achievable dishes for busy home cooks who still also enjoy good food.
Cooking with Sausages, by Max Halley: right up my street in terms of a single subject cookbook that’ll actually be really useful for weeknight meals. Divided into dishes involving snags, straight up. And then others that make the most of that meat.
Oh go on then, one more: Peckish, by me. Over 80 ideas for using the chicken that you put in your shopping basket each week. Currently it’s the cost of a couple of pints in the sunshine/a bottle of wine/your share of court hire for a game of padel (doubles)/an overpriced City salad/a small plate in your local wine bar.