Celebrate a special milestone over this deceptively simple dinner for six – with dramatic baked fish and a fabulously indulgent chocolate tart
Celebrate a special milestone over this deceptively simple dinner for six – with dramatic baked fish and a fabulously indulgent chocolate tart
Classic Antipasto Platter
An antipasto (or ‘before the meal’) platter is a tasty array of marinated and roasted vegetables, salty olives, pickles, cheeses and other morsels to whet the appetite. Keep it simple but with
a mix of colours and textures. Add slices of fresh artisan bread and dried or fresh fruits and vegetables to suit the season.
We used Marinated Artichokes & Feta, Chargrilled Capsicum & Eggplant, Jumbo Kalamata Olives, Queen Green Olives Feta & Ricotta, Sundried Tomatoes in Oil and Caperberries, all from Delmaine Fine Foods.
Good tip:
Baked whole fish is the simplest and tastiest method of cooking fish, as well as the most sustainable. Save the head and bones to make a delicious stock.
Not sure which fish is okay to buy?
Making sustainable seafood choices can be tricky, given the impact of fishing on our oceans. Check out Forest & Bird’s Best Fish Guide (wallet card or downloadable app) at www.forestandbird.org.nz.
Greenpeace New Zealand’s Red List names species commonly sold in New Zealand that should be avoided at all costs due to their high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries. Read more at www.good.net.nz/priceoffish
Baked Whole Fish
Baking a fish whole keeps it moist without it falling apart. For maximum drama at the table, transfer the cooked fish to a large platter on a bed of couscous salad.
1 or 2 whole fish, such as kahawai,
trevally or snapper, scaled and
gutted but with head and tail intact
assorted fresh seasonal herbs, such
as basil, fennel, thyme, oregano,
marjoram, parsley or bay leaves
2-3 pieces of marinated red
capsicum, roughly chopped
2 lemons
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
sea salt
1 1/2 cups dry white wine or water
extra virgin olive oil
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Wash the fish inside and out under a cold running tap, making sure all scales have been removed. Place in a deep roasting dish. Don’t worry if the tails flop over the sides!
Rinse herbs and bundle together before roughly chopping. Put in a small bowl with the red capsicum. Add juice and zest of 1 lemon, garlic and salt to season. Stir and place most of mixture inside body cavity.
Pour wine or water into the roasting dish and sprinkle remaining herb mixture on top of the fish. Drizzle with a generous splash of olive oil.
Cover fish with baking foil and place in the preheated oven to bake until just cooked through
– about 30 minutes, depending on the fish size.
Check if cooked by cutting a small incision with a knife: the flesh will be opaque when it’s done.
Remove from oven and transfer to a large serving platter. Pour any remaining cooking juices into a small jug to serve. Arrange the couscous salad around the fish. Sprinkle with fresh herbs and serve with lemon wedges.
Good tips:
A whole baked fish has fillets top and bottom, separated in the middle by the spine and attached bones. Serve the top fillet first by slicing sections of meat down to the spine and scooping them off.
Once the top fillet is removed, lift up the skeleton at the tail end and peel the spine and attached bones off the bottom fillet.
You can eat most of the meat around the fish head, or save it with the spine bones to boil up later to make tasty fish stock. (Best done when everyone is out and you can open doors and windows wide!)
Roasted Vegetable and Couscous Salad
2 purple kumara
2 parsnips
2 red onions
3 carrots
1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary or thyme
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
olive oil (we used Delmaine’s Extra
Virgin Olive Oil)
Couscous
1/2 cup instant couscous
1/2 cup boiling water
1/4 cup dried currants
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp olive oil
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
small handful flat-leaf parsley or mint,
chopped
Preheat the oven to 180?C.
Peel all vegetables and cut into large chunks. Place in roasting dish and toss with olive oil and rosemary, then season well with salt and pepper. Roast for 40 minutes, turning occasionally. Set aside.
Couscous: Combine all ingredients except herbs in a large heatproof bowl and season with salt and pepper. Cover with cloth and leave for 10 minutes. Uncover and fluff with a fork.
Gently combine herbs and warm roasted
vegetables. Transfer to serving platter.
–Claire Aldous
Tossed Green Salad
Create the simplest salad with crisp mini cos lettuce, roughly torn. We used The Fresh Grower’s Sweet Petite Cos. Mix a basic vinaigrette by adding crushed garlic and freshly ground salt and pepper to three parts extra virgin olive oil and one part balsamic vinegar, both from Delmaine Fine Foods.
Zesty Lemon Broccoli
generous handful of long-stemmed
broccoli, roughly broken (we used
The Fresh Grower’s Bellaverde broccoli)
2 tbsp butter
zest of 1 lemon
1 large clove of garlic, crushed
freshly ground salt and pepper to taste
approximately 1/4 cup pine nuts
iced water
Bring a large pot of water to boil and blanch broccoli for 2 minutes. Drain and immerse in a bowl of iced water.
Melt butter in a large frying pan. Add half the lemon zest with all the garlic and stir.
Drain the broccoli and add it to the pan, tossing on a medium heat for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and transfer into a serving dish.
While the pan is still warm, add the pine nuts and toss. Garnish with pine nuts and the rest of the lemon zest.
Scrumptious Double Chocolate Tart
Pastry
120g unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 large free-range egg yolk
1 cup flour
3 tbsp
Fairtrade cocoa
Filling
350ml cream
350g Fairtrade milk chocolate
100g Fairtrade dark chocolate, grated
(we’ve used Cadbury Dairy Milk and
Green & Black’s organic 70% dark)
Topping
75g Fairtrade dark chocolate, grated
To serve
Thickened natural yoghurt
Slices of crisp, fresh pear
Pastry: Preheat the oven to 190°C. Beat the butter and icing sugar together until just combined. Add the egg yolk and beat until well combined. Sift in the flour and cocoa and beat until the mixture comes together.
Turn out onto a lightly floured surface (a baking tray is ideal) and roll until pastry is approximately 1/2 cm thick. Chill until firm. Line one 28cm tart or several smaller tins with pastry. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Bake blind for 10 minutes. Remove the baking beans and continue to bake until the base is cooked (approximately 10 minutes more). Set aside to cool.
Filling: Melt the chocolate into 100ml of the cream in a double boiler. Set aside to cool. Beat in the remaining cream until thickened and smooth. Ladle mixture into the cooled tart shells. Refrigerate for several hours until the filling is firm.
Grate the dark chocolate into shavings using a cheese grater and sprinkle on top. Serve with generous dollops of yoghurt and slices of pear.
–Claire Aldous
Good tip:
To bake blind, line a prepared pastry case with baking paper and fill with ceramic pie weights, large dried beans or rice. Bake in a preheated 190°C oven for 10 minutes before removing the paper and weights. The shell should now have taken form, so reduce the temperature to 175°C and continue baking until cooked and golden.