When I was a little girl on holiday with my family, my father liked to go fishing, so he would hire a rowing boat and we would go out into Swanage Bay in Dorset. There we would sit, bored stiff, while he caught, if he was lucky, about one fish every two hours. Then one memorable day Pa caught a huge conger eel. Well, to a five- or six-year-old, it looked huge, and it wriggled all over the bottom of the boat and frightened the life out of my sister and me. Maybe that’s where my reluctance to eat fish came from – scarred for life by a conger eel!
Apart from once going fishing with a boyfriend, an experience guaranteed to end a romance, it was a sport I never indulged in until years later, when we used to spend a lot of time in southwest Florida. We had American friends who regularly went fishing and they persuaded us to go with them a few times. Still boring, although my husband enjoyed it, but I have to admit that sitting on the Marco Island bridge, looking out over the Everglades, watching the sun go down and the pelicans diving for the fish that we couldn’t catch, had a lot more appeal than a boat in Swanage Bay or a soggy river bank in England.
Occasionally, to liven things up, a group of men wearing orange overalls and carrying brooms would come shuffling along sweeping the bridge, and it was only after they’d passed us that we saw the word ‘prisoner’ printed in large letters on their backs. They were ‘trusties’ from the county jail and were accompanied by a watchful gentleman holding a large, lethal-looking shotgun. Now there’s an idea for solving Malta’s litter problem.
From our terrace I often watch people in the evening peacefully fishing off the jetties at Tal-Veċċja and Fekruna, and I’m always amazed how many women there are. But it’s not for me, I’m afraid – I can’t sit still long enough. So the fish for my recipes today were all caught at the fishmongers.
Mediterranean baked fish
Greek-style psari plaki is fish baked on a bed of tomato sauce, but it could just as easily be called Maltese-style or Mediterranean-style. I like to add a few extra vegetables to the sauce.
(Serves 4)
4 x 500g awrat or paġell scaled and gutted
2 lemons
Salt and pepper
Handful of fresh mint sprigs
Olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 small aubergine, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 small zucchini, diced
2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
1 tsp sugar
Handful of mixed black and green pitted olives, sliced
1 tbsp chopped fresh mint
Rinse the fish inside and out, dry with kitchen paper then slash them two or three times on each side. Slice one of the lemons, season the cavities with salt and pepper and then tuck some lemon slices and a few mint sprigs into each fish. Brush them generously with oil and put them to one side while you make the sauce.
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Heat three tablespoons of oil in a pan and fry the onion and aubergine until soft but not coloured. Add the garlic and zucchini and fry for a few minutes more. Stir in the tomatoes and sugar, season with salt and pepper and simmer for five minutes, then add the olives and chopped mint. Brush a large baking dish or roasting tin generously with oil and pour in the sauce, then sit the fish on the sauce.
Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until the fish are cooked through, brushing a couple of times during cooking with a little more oil. Serve the fish on warm plates with the sauce and garnish with the remaining lemon, cut into wedges.
Lampuki with lemon and garlic butter
Cooking fish doesn’t come any easier than this and it just happens to be my resident fish lover’s favourite way of eating lampuki.
(Serves 4)
Olive oil
4 large lampuki fillets
Seasoned flour for dusting
60g butter
1 clove garlic, crushed
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp chopped parsley
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan. Dust two of the fillets with seasoned flour and fry them quickly, skin-side down, for about two minutes in the hot oil. Turn them over and fry the other side until golden. Drain the fillets on kitchen paper and keep warm while you fry the other two, adding more oil as necessary.
Wipe out the pan with some kitchen paper and heat the butter until foaming. Add the garlic and cook for a few seconds, then stir in the lemon juice and parsley. Cook for a few seconds more, then serve the fish on warm plates with the lemon butter spooned over.
Salmon, avocado and egg salad
A nice cool and easy salad for a warm evening.
(Serves 4)
600g salmon fillet
1 lemon
A few parsley stalks and 2 or 3 slices of onion
½ tsp black peppercorns
6 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp crème fraîche
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
Salt and ground black pepper
2 firm, ripe avocados
4 big handfuls of torn iceberg lettuce leaves
2 handfuls of rocket
4 hard-boiled eggs, quartered
½ small onion, thinly sliced
Run your fingers over the salmon and pull out any bones, then put it into a deep-frying pan. Halve the lemon, reserve one half, slice the other and add the slices to the pan, together with the parsley stalks, onion and peppercorns.
Add enough water to come halfway up the salmon, bring to the boil, lower the heat, cover the pan and simmer gently for five minutes. Turn off the heat and let the salmon cool in the fluid.
Whisk together the mayo, crème fraîche, honey and mustard. Add the squeezed juice from the remaining half lemon and season with salt and pepper. Halve, stone and peel the avocados. Toss the lettuce and rocket together.
Drain the salmon and discarding the skin and any stray bones, break it into large flakes.
Arrange the lettuce leaves on a single large platter or divide between individual plates. Slice the avocado and arrange the slices on the lettuce.
Scatter over the salmon and decorate with the hard-boiled eggs, then drizzle over the dressing, add a tuft of onion rings and serve.
Swordfish with basil butter
I originally made this butter to go with chicken, then I found that it’s equally delicious melted on grilled or barbecued swordfish.
(Serves 4)
Large handful of basil leaves
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbsp pine nuts
Grated rind and juice of
one small lemon
50g softened butter
Salt and ground black pepper
Olive oil
4 pieces swordfish, about 200g each
Put the basil, garlic, pine nuts and rind and lemon juice into a mini chopper or processor and whizz until finely chopped. Alternatively chop the basil and nuts finely by hand, then mix with the garlic and lemon rind and juice. Put the butter into a small bowl and stir in the basil mixture, then season with salt and pepper. Cover with cling film and chill in the fridge.
Brush the swordfish with olive oil and sprinkle it with salt and pepper, then either grill or barbecue it until browned on both sides and cooked through. Heat the basil butter in a small pan just until melted, then serve the fish on warm plates and spoon over the butter. We like this with a simple cherry tomato and bean salad.