I like this stew because it can be made at any time of year using available fish. The sauce can be prepared well in advance and then be finished off in a leisurely fashion when you want to eat it. For excellent, ethical, sustainable fish to buy online I am very keen on www.soleofdiscretion.co.uk
Cooking the onions with the garlic until meltingly soft and then making them into a puree gives the sauce plenty of body and helps to balance the other flavours.
The homemade vegetable stock is key too, so bear that in mind if you are tempted to use a cube or powder.
Enough for 6
For the sauce
2 to 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 onions – peeled and finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
2 tbsp dried fennel seeds
A generous pinch of dried chilli flakes
250 ml white wine or dry vermouth
2 x cans tomatoes
10 saffron threads – If you can’t find good quality saffron such as that from www.norfolksaffron.co.uk it’s best to leave it out.
500ml vegetable stock
2 x 400g cans of chickpeas, drained
Zest and juice of a medium organic orange
Sea salt flakes
You will also need a roomy, flame-proof casserole with a well-fitting lid.
The Fish
Use about 1kilo of prepared fish in total. As a guide that could be about 600g of firm white fish such as monkfish, filleted and cut into bite size chunks, and the remaining weight can be made up with some raw tiger prawns, peeled and deveined, or some squid, cleaned, but leave the tentacles as they are and slice the bodies into rings.
To Finish
Some herbs such as the leaves from a small bunch of thyme, or a small bunch of finely chopped coriander or parsley.
Crispy crumbs or good bread and good butter
Heat the oil in a pan and sweat the onions over low heat with lid on for at least 30 minutes or until they are meltingly soft.
Stir in crushed garlic and cook for a few minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat and puree the onions – a stick blender is good for this task.
Return pan to medium heat and stir in the fennel seeds, chilli flakes, vermouth or wine, saffron threads, vegetable stock, drained chickpeas, orange zest and juice and a generous pinch of sea salt flakes.
Stir well and simmer for 20 minutes.
(If not using straight away, allow the sauce to cool and then cover it and store in the fridge until needed.)
With the pan over medium heat, bring the sauce to a gentle simmer and then add the prepared fish and let it cook gently for 10 to15 minutes or so until it is opaque.
Stir in the herbs. Taste the sauce and add a little more salt if necessary.
Serve the stew on warm plates or in wide, shallow bowls along with the mayonnaise and crumbs or bread and butter. Add a side of something green too if you like.
See also: Crumbs – Miracle Overnight Bread
If you want a healthier and more environmentally friendly diet, a good start would be to cook from scratch, avoid buying ready-processed meals, and so avoid foods with a high sugar and salt content. Have a look at food labels, you will likely be amazed by how much salt and sugar is included and, worse, how many of the ingredients are not recognisable as food.
Sherbhert champions delicious, healthy and sustainable food where its production minimises environmental damage, exploitation, animal suffering and subsequent processing. Sherbhert’s recipes are simple and use mainly UK organic seasonal produce sourced as locally as possible.
Sherbhert occasionally recommends suppliers entirely because of their good produce and ethos.
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