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January Lock-Down Pickling

January Lock-Down Pickling

Both of these monstrosities used a 2% brine. That’s about 4 heaped table spoons of Salt to 1 litre of water. The slight pink haze is from the Ferrous Salts as I used ground Himalayan Salt. It’s not got magical properties (!!!) as some folk think, it’s just not got anti-caking ingredients which sometimes interfere with fermentation.

The Pickled Ginger was a bit of a challenge as it has natural anti-microbial properties and after a false start I had to ‘Seed’ it with a little liquid from an existing Garlic ferment. But it’s been worth the wait. If anything pickling have intensified the flavour and softened the texture. I started this on on the 29th of November, so it has been quite slow.

The Pickled Round Shallots I only started on Wednesday, so they’ve had 3 days so far. They are very active and bubbling away happily. There’s quite a lot of natural sugars in Alliums, so this will initially be a very fast ferment and eventually settle down as the Ph increases. I’m thinking perhaps 3 weeks until it goes dormant but we’ll see. The Shallots were on offer so this 1l jar will have cost us about 35p including the Salt!

 

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Caper Sea Bass

The last of the Sea Bass fillets, they were a real treat for us! We had the remaining fresh Coriander in the fridge which was beginning to look a bit tired, so this was another take on an Asian style Fish dish with a Mediterranean twist.

Ingredients:-

15g of Chinese Dried Mushrooms
1 Tbsp of Thai Fish Sauce
2 Tbsp of Soy Sauce
3 Tbsp of Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp of Lemon Juice
2 Tbst of drained Capers
2 Garlic Cloves, thinly sliced
1 Red Chilli, finely chopped
1 Shallot, finely chopped
Coriander leaves to garnish
A Slug of Apple Juice
A little Tomato Puree
4 Seas Bass Fillets
Margarine
Oil to fry
Salt & Pepper

Method:-

(1) Soak the Mushrooms in hot water for 20 minutes.
(2) Drain and slice thinly.
(3) Pour the  Mushroom water into a pan and add the Fish Sauce, Soy Sauce, Sugar, Lemon Juice, Apples Juice, Tomato Puree and Capers.
(4) Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer.
(5) Sautee the Chilli and Shallot in a little Margarine until the Shalott is softed and add to the sauce.
(6) Add the Oil to a large frying pan and heat to 190c.
(7) Season the Sea Bass on both sides.
(8) Place the Sea Bass skin side down in the frying pan and fry for one minute.
(9) Turn over and fry for another minute.
(10) Place in a warm oven.
(11) Heat oil in a fresh frying pan and fry the Garlic, Chilli and Ginger over a low heat for a minute.
(12) Add the sliced Mushrooms etc.
(13) Place the Sea Bass on a warmed plate, spoon over the sauce, add the fried mushroom mix over the Fish and garnish with a slice of Lemon and a little fresh Coriander.

We served ours on a bed of Pumpkin and Sweet Potato mash (This was a pack which was destined for composting and was well past it’s use by date!) and Bhaji coated Potato wedges. All very odd flavour combinations, but it worked well…...


 

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