Happy Birthday - Fish is the Dish

Fish is the Dish is one year old today and to celebrate I wanted to tell you about the opportunity I recently had to learn all about fish, how to fillet, de-bone, de-scale and the eat with Fish.

The lovely Heather welcoming everyone to the workshop

We had a talk about the sustainability of the fish we buy and eat by one of the chefs at the Westminster Catering College in Vincent Square near Victoria Station, London. There were plenty of opportunities for people to participate and help and in turn we all learned loads about the 'other' fish available such as pollock and hake and how to fillet a sole along with the different varieties of sole. Shoppers tend to go for the old favourites like cod and haddock but there is pressure to stop fishing for them and give them a chance to regenerate.

A new friend??

We had a demonstration by Miranda Godfrey, a cookery lecturer at Westminster Catering college, featuring some quick and easy fish recipes such as Grilled Mackerel with Black Pudding & Savoy Cabbage and Korean Style Shellfish Broth.  I volunteered a couple of time to fill mackerel and whisk the beurre blanc sauce.

Grilled Mackerel with Black Pudding & Savoy Cabbage

Korean Style Shellfish Broth

 

My wonderful whisking is keeping this sauce velvety!!

This was followed by a demonstration by Tina Pemberton of quick and easy recipes we could use for entertaining or simple suppers.  Tina demonstrated Baked Fillet of Seabass (Chinese Style), Teriyaki Tuna (my personal favourite) and Hake Nuggets with Pasta Bows (these were really delicious!).

Tina Pemberton

Teriyaki Tuna

Hake Nuggets with Pasta Bows

We all got a small portion of each recipe to taste and went home with the recipes, a new apron, fish slice and a lot more knowlege of handling and cooking fish.

I confess to being slightly scared of cooking at home with fish but it is couses like this that give me the confidence to try some.  Seafish have sent me some lovely scallops and squid to try and they are currently living in my freezer waiting for my daughter to visit and I am going to turn them into a rissotto, mmmm - looking forward to using my new found knowledge!  Fish is the Dish and we need to eat more - how about you?

Some of my favourite seafood