Something fishy

With temperatures in the high 30s today there is no doubt that Sydney is moving into summer. I think this may be a freak day but it’s still great to see everyone in shorts and summer dresses again. I’m putting away all the slow roasting pots and moving away from the oven cos it’s just too hot these days.

What we want to eat now are light flavourful dishes that excite the palate and don’t involve too much time in the kitchen. There’s balmy nights to be enjoyed you know.

While out walking with a friend recently we got to talking about what was on for dinner. She was telling me about a delicious Marinara dish that she makes that’s so good everyone comes back for seconds. I have a fridge full of fresh seafood so it sounded like the perfect dish to try.

I got myself some fresh crusty bread and whipped up this dish last night. It’s the kind of dish that gives you a great basis to work from. You can make it more spicy or creamy; you can add more herbs or alcohol. It’s all depends on what you feel like on the day. For me I’m not a big fan of parsley so I replaced that with some chopped chives. For my seafood mix I used big juicy prawns, chopped up calamari hoods and diced Tasmanian salmon fillet. I found a tin of smoked oysters that were just begging to be used so I threw them in too to add another layer to the flavours.

J is a big fan of his fish/meat. To him everything else on the plate is just garnish. Vegetables are just to add colour and carbs just fill out the plate. All he really wants to eat is his protein. So when I presented him with a bowl jam packed with delicious fish he was very happy. The crusty bread hardly got a look in until it was time to soak up the spicy sauce.

Thanks N for this great recipe.

Marinara

40 grams Butter (you may need some olive oil also, I don't like to use a lot of butter but it does give it a really nice taste)
Marinara mix about 150grams/person (add in more prawns or whatever you want to)
2 glasses White wine
1 diced Onion
A large Tin of tomatoes
Garlic to taste I usually do a clove/person
Parsley couple of handfuls of chopped
Chilli teaspoon of the jar stuff or around 2ish if fresh
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter throw in garlic and chilli and stir around for about 30secs to a minute then add the onion and fry till translucent.

Add the wine and gently boil until the alcohol smell has gone about 5 minutes then add the tomatoes and boil for 20 minutes or so. You can do this bit in earlier in the day.

When you are almost ready to serve bring the tomato sauce back to a gentle boil and add the seafood stirring it around, should take around 5 minutes to cook and lastly add the parsley and serve with crusty bread.