Attempt #29: Baked Fish with Crème Fraîche and horseradish sauce

The original recipe from Jamie Oliver was for baked trout but trout is not so readily available in KL, I decided to replace it with Garoupa fish.

As the recipe involves only marinating and seasoning of the fish with salt, black pepper and optional of thyme & lemon, it is utmost important that the fish must be fresh. What you will get from this recipe is an easy, healthy and you get to appreciate the fish authentic flavour.

The result:

The horseradish and Crème Fraîche sauce compliments the fish really well as it will provide that strong salty, spicy and sour-ish flavour to the fish.

The recipe (serves 4):

Ingredients:

·         Olive oil

·         Salt and freshly ground black pepper

·         4 whole trout, approximately 14oz-1lb each, gutted and scaled

For the Crème Fraîche & Horseradish cream

·         I heaped tablespoon grated fresh horseradish

·         9oz Crème Fraîche (about 1 generoud cup)

·         Juice of 1lemon

Optional

·         A little fresh thyme, leaves picked from stems

·         1 lemon, sliced

 The Method:

Preheat the oven to 475F. 

Pat the fish dry, then with a sharp knife slash each fish at an angle on both sides – this will allow the heat and seasoning to penetrate. Rub with Olive Oil and seasoning.  For extra flavour, you can stuff the fish with fragrant herbs such as thyme and the lemon slices. Cook for around 12-15 minutes until crisp and golden.

While the fish is being cooked in the oven, make your sauce. Fresh horseradish, which you should peel and grate, is nicer, but you can also use the creamed horseradish bought in jars. Mix the horseradish in a bowl with the Crème Fraîche and season well. Squeeze over some lemon juice to taste.

Serve the fish with a good lob of the Crème Fraîche sauce. Goes nice with beer.

Attempt #19: Horseradish sauce

My first time making a Roast Dinner Sauce. I am the typical 'ready-pop-the-jar-open' sauce type of person.  But hey, decided why not give this a try.

Result:

 

Not too bad. Good thing about making the sauce on your own is that you can increase/reduce the quantity of the appropriate ingredients to your liking.

Recipe:

• 5 tablespoon crème fraîche
• 1 tablespoon grated horseradish, fresh or jarred
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, extra virgin olive oil
• 1 lemon

Put the horseradish into a small bowl. Finely zest over your lemon, then halve your lemon and add a squeeze of juice to the bowl. Add the crème fraîche and a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix well. Taste and add a little more horseradish if you think it needs to taste more fiery.

Attempt #12: Banana Pancakes

Since I have tried mostly main course recipes, I thought why not try a dessert recipe.

And banana pancake sounds so simple and the photo of Jamie’s banana pancake looks so mouthwatering. Unfortunately, this is my first time making pancakes (if you are thinking how can a 35 year old mom not made pancakes before, well, the daddy usually does it for the kids and the mommy steals a share *grin*). And this attempt reminds me that I still have a long way to go before I can be a good cook. The drama unfolds...

Here’s Jamie’s rendition of the banana pancake:

 

Drumroll....

 

Here’s mine:

I tried to make it look as pretty as possible. The crème fraîche helps beautify the dish but here’s what it looks like when each ingredients/ items are on its own.

The pancake:

Lesson learnt: The size of your pancake is the size of your pan! Reminder to myself. Use a smaller pan! Else it looks like a 'roti canai' (a type of indian-influenced flat bread)!

 

The banana:

It doesn’t turn golden as it is supposed to be as described in Jamie’s recipe. It came out from the pan looking limpy, mushy and saggy. L

I am sure I did not do much justice to jamie’s recipe. Click here for his actual recipe.