This made a nice lunch for two but would be equally good as a little starter for four. I got the idea from a James Martin recipe in James Every Day, but as usual just had to ring in the changes. It was really tasty and extremely light, for something more filling I'd consider adding a slice of toasted ciabbatta.
First you need a red pepper or two, cut in half and place face down on a tray with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Pre-heat the oven on to 200°C and put the peppers in on the top shelf for about 15-20 minutes.
Meanwhile, finely chop a couple of spring onions, a handful of fresh coriander and half a red chilli and put in a bowl with the juice of half a lemon, a glug of olive oil, salt and pepper.
Once the peppers are cooked, peel off the skin and then very finely dice them. Add them to the other dressing ingredients in the bowl.
Share out some mixed salad leaves between two plates with a few extra coriander leaves mixed in. Take half of the red pepper mixture and mix it in with the leaves using your hands.
Season your scallops with a little salt and pepper. Heat up a dry, non-stick frying pan until really hot and, keeping it on a high heat, lay your scallops in the pan. Count 30-40 seconds and then turn them over and count another 30-40 seconds.
Arrange the scallops on top of the salad and spoon the rest of the red pepper mixture over the top.
Fish is always a quick dinner and, if you're ok with sorting out the bones yourself, a whole fish is the tastiest of all. Lemon Sole has an mcs rating of 2, or at least the ones caught off the cornish coast are, so no need to feel guilty either.
This is a really tasty sauce to serve with lemon sole, and an uncharacteristically close rendition of a recipe for me, this time from The Abel & Cole Cookbook, I love this book and all the recipe ideas are cleverly grouped by seasonal ingredients. I've used it a lot and can really recommend it.
So, first put some jersey royals on to boil. Or whatever you want to serve with this, personally I couldn't wait to get my teeth into the jerseys, they are so lovely (just in case anyone doesn't know - jersey royals are a very special type of potato grown in, and only in, Jersey!).
Sprinkle a liberal serving of flaked almonds into a dry frying pan and heat until toasty brown. Put them to one side and add oil and a knob of butter to the pan to heat up, at the same time pop the oven onto its lowest heat.
Lightly coat the lemon sole with plain flour, put into the frying pan and cook for a couple of minutes on each side. Pop them into a baking tray and bung in the warm oven, turn it off though as you don't want them to keep cooking, just to stay warm.
Get some spinach (or whatever veg you're having) on to steam.
Back to the fish pan: be warned this sauce evaporates faster than last month's paycheck, so you need to be on the ball. Make sure the pan is really hot then chuck a glass of white wine in, let it bubble away for a bit and deglaze the pan with a spatula. Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon, and add a heaped teaspoon of capers that you've chopped up, all of the toasted almonds, another knob of butter and a load of fresh parsley.
Turn the heat right down and get the fish, potatoes and spinach onto plates. Spoon over the sauce and eat immediately. Yum.
I used sardines in this recipe but I really think mackerel would have been loads better, just because sardines have lots of tiny bones which are hard to make out under the topping.
I suspect white fish would also work well with this. I got the inspiration from a recipe in "Two Greedy Italians".
First of all gut, fillet and pin bone your fish and lay the fillets side-by-side in a well oiled baking tray. Cover with lots of breadcrumbs, chopped garlic, parsley, basil and a thinly sliced mild chilli or bell pepper.
Drizzle over some olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees C, for about 25 minutes.
This was lovely with a watercress, tomato and cucumber salad.
