When this year’s Good Friday came.  I did not want to just do the same old thing I normally do or have some sort of fish with a “New type of Crust?!” etc etc…So I thought well why not us have a Three course meal and pull out the stops.
  We decided to take a trip to the local Market and see what the fishmonger had to offer.  And there they were… right before my eyes were huge hand dived King scallops. My eyes started to dilate and My partner could already see I was in Heaven.  Now they were a little more expensive but very much worth it.  I picked up some fresh cockles and mussels (which I wasn’t sure at that point what I was going to do with them! )  Seabass for the main.  I also Managed to pick up a generous bag of fish bones, trimmings and heads for my stock.
   I must stress at this stage that the recipes in this post are quite complex, alot of components to these dishes. So please, please, at any point  email me with any questions you have?
Starter:
Seared King Scallops with a Celeriac and Truffle Puree, Crispy smoked bacon (confetti) and  Apple Caramel:-

:
Homemade Fish stock: (Takes a good 4 hours or so)
Fish Heads, trimmings, tails (white fish)
Celery
Leeks
Onions ( leave skin on)
Tomato Puree
Parsley
Oregano 
White wine…..Once the stock is drained…reduce down to 
thicken and intensify.
King Scallops
Celeriac approx 200g
Black summer truffles (from a jar, couldn’t get fresh)
Double cream
Butter
Good Coarse Sea salt
1 slice of Bacon
Apple juice (I used Copella)
Pea shoots

Reduce down the apple juice until it starts to bubble into a caramel. Then do the Celeriac Puree…
Celeriac Puree:
Boil some Celeriac until soft. The minute it is ready, drain of the water and blitz away. Add a touch of white wine and dash of double cream. Chop the truffles finely and add to Blitz again.
 Now You can put a little sea salt onto the Scallops and start to sear in a hot pan in some butter. Once they are nearly done add the finely chopped Bacon to the pan and then start to plate up adding a finely shaved slice of truffle next to each scallop. Originally with this dish I wanted Micro garlic chives instead of pea shoots but out of stock and add Celeriac crisps on top but I didn’t have my deep fat fryer to use 😦 But that Is in my Original recipe. So I will do it next time. 

Main:
Seared fillet of Seabass, Saffron Mash, spinach, cockle and mussel bisque and 
shellfish foam:












Recipe:

Seabass
Potatoes ( maris piper)
Milk
Double cream
Garlic
Seasoning
Saffron
lemon
Spinach
Butter
Mussels
Cockles
Homemade Fish stock as above
Brandy
Dill to Garnish

Boil the potatoes for the mash. Meanwhile have No more than 500ml of milk infused with a bashed clove of garlic, Saffron and seasoning. When you are ready to mash, strain this mixture and add until the mash is fluffy and add a dash of double cream and a very small spritz of lemon. Whilst this is going on, you have to think like a chef and do the other components too. So sear your Seabass, Take some of your fishstock and add a dash of brandy and touch of cream to make your bisque. when your Seabass is done, add the cockles and mussels to the same pan just to warms really. Sautee your spinach in butter and finally you take a little of your bisque sauce and add a touch of milk and fowm up with a hand blender, but only add right at the end when plating up! Hope you enjoy these recipes. Look forward to your comments 🙂
© ChezJ9 2013

So, I’ve had a little break from writing due to health problems, blah blah, blah blah… nothing to bore you guys with 🙂 But in between I did cook and bake so so much, when I could.  Just I haven’t been able to write to you! 😦 so so sorry. I know , none excusable!
   But,… ( another but?!) Do I have some great things that I can write up NOW!  We have so much to catch up on!  I did alot before Easter. But also Easter food was just AMAZING! So If you don’t mind, First I will Start with Easter food first and then maybe go back a little…we shall see hey?! Here goes…

So it all started on the thursday before Good Friday Maundy Thursday:

Now with being Maundy Thursday I thought, Hmm Maybe we should have a big Feast like the last supper but then I thought, hang on…We have Good Friday, Sat, Sun, Mon to come etc… Oh dear we can’t do that! So we settled for something less extravagant to start the weekend of the feast My Chicken Risotto. But My was it nice! 🙂












So it started with a pretty much straight forward recipe for risotto…  However, a couple things I did differently, which I always make the mistake of was making sure I kept that Chicken stock on the hob warming or even hot whilst adding as I know Im a Buggar for that! ( ooh am I allowed to say that?! :-S) .
 Secondly I added alot of butter at the end to make it so so moist as I normally forget to! 
  And then Thirdly, I added oregano Into my recipe which I took as a whim but went luurvly!! 
  If any of you want the full recipe…please contact me and i will be most happy to give it to you 🙂 

This is just the first of the Easter feast, lots more to come people! …keep reading! 

I Cant help but Think about all that is going on in the UK,  about all this Scandal with the Horse meat appearing in our foods.  I thought I wasn’t going to post about this but I can’t help it!
 We want to know what is in our foods! We want to know what we are buying! So… Instead of posting something about Beef and how to make the perfect Burger I thought I would draw my attention to a recipe I have been trying to master for some time now… and I have 🙂 It isn’t The most healthiest of recipes but one that, without fail, my partner has wanted me to master for a while now.

  It is Chinese style Chicken Balls.

  A western recipe we have adapted and My Hong Kong friend would think what the heck is this?!  But it may replace the horrible Chicken Nuggets that some people feed to their Children.  I.E we know exactly what goes into this and it’s easy and very tasty. 
 Now I have to say I apologise for the poor photo as when I achieved this dish I forgot to take a nice picture and just, well ate it! As I was very proud.  You may say the recipe is easy but it takes time as you have to get the batter right, the chicken cooked right and the flavour. There are many versions of this batter but I have found eventually this recipe works as I have tried ALOT! 

Recipe.
The Battter

Depending on how much chicken you have, I had just one chicken breast, so I used no more than 100g of plain flour
level teaspoon of baking powder
seasoning
water ( to make the batter to any other batter i.e yorkshire puds etc)
and some sesame oil…only a small drop
and something I didnt do but I think would work great would be to add either a bit of chinese five spice or even Szechuan pepper to it to add a little spice.
Let this Batter sit in the fridge for 30 minutes. This is the key…like when you are making Yorkshire puddings, you have to let it sit in the fridge.


Then with the chicken you must coat it in seasoning and cornflour and add to the batter each at a time to enter the hot oil. I used groundnut oil or sunflower will work.   Finish in the oven in 10-15 mins on 180 degrees and it will be lovely! 🙂

Serve with a sweet and sour sauce (hot) and maybe even chinese curry sauce too! Egg Fried Rice? Noodles? A chinese salad? So versatile, you decide.

©ChezJ9. 2013

A Post that is a little late, but, hey better late than never! 🙂 Now unfortunately … This Picture is a little small because its from my  friend in Hong Kong and we cant change the size. But what im hoping you will see is that its everything a family home has at Chinese new year? The fruit to represent healthiness, The snake of the Chinese New year, The Red and Gold as every year of giving each member of family wealth and happiness? Why Dont  westerners feel like that? …

A Certain Type of Seafood at the moment, Well for some time now, My Partner and I cannot stop eating are Scallops!  Every Anniversary meal or Occasion… The Starter is,  (Drum Roll)… Scallops!! 

©ChezJ9 2013.