About Me
I'm a Melbourne boy, hailing from St Kilda with one ex, one current wife and four kids. Love the outdoors and making new discoveries. I cook a lot at home (cheers from wife) and do some preserving, mostly jams, pickles and fruit liqueurs. This is the diary of a cooking journey.

My Complete Profile

Recent Posts
Programs I Like
Champagne Tasting
Weekend Herb Blogging # 52
St Kilda Cakes
A Cool Drink
Weekend Herb Blogging
The Nest
Ring, Ring
The Rock Whisperer
On Budget

Links
1001 Dinners 1001 Nights
A Few of My Favourite Things
Abstract Gourmet
Apellation Australia
Becks and Posh
BurgerMary ATX
Cook (almost) Anything at least once
Cooking Down Under
Cook sister!
Cooked And Bottled In Brunswick
David Lebovitz
Deep Dish Dreams
Chef Paz
Chubby Hubby
Eating Melbourne
Eating With Jack
essjay eats
Food Lover's Journey
Gosstronomy
Grab Your Fork
I Am Obsessed With Food
I Eat Therefore I Am
Iron Chef Shellie
Just Desserts
Kalyn's Kitchen
Kitchen Wench
Lobstersquad
Matt Bites
Melbourne Gastronome
My Kitchen in Half Cups
Nola Cuisine
Not Quite Nigella
Nourish Me
Seriously Good
Souvlaki For The Soul
Stone Soup
Sunnybrae
Syrup and Tang
Steve Don't Eat It!
That Jess Ho
The Elegant Sufficiency
The Perfect Pantry
The View From My Porch
Thyme for Cooking
Tomato
Tumeric & Saffron
tummy rumbles
What I Cooked Last Night
where's the beef
WhiteTrashBBQ
Vicious Ange

Food Blog Resources
Food Blog S'cool
I Eat I Drink I Work
Kiplog Food Links

Food for Thought
Autism Victoria
Autism Vox
forget me now
Lotus Martinis
MOM - Not Otherwise Specified
St Kilda Today

Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Fish & Shellfish Medley
Picture by Michael Blamey

In a recent post for Wine Blogging Wednesday, I created a dish to go with champagne that was the featured wine. It has occurred to me that I never gave the recipe for what was a memorable match, though this fish and shellfish medley could easily partner a different wine - a crisp, dry reisling or a fruitier sauvignon blanc for example.

The dish itself is easy to do as most of the work can be done beforehand, leaving only the frying of the fish and scallops until the last minute, and really, who doesn't like the combination of fish and shellfish? Only the mussels are a little bit fiddly with pulling off the beard a must and the scallops need to have the black intestinal tract and supporting gristle trimmed off as well. Do you remove the scallop coral? Depends on you, for some dishes I do remove it, for this one it didn't seem necessary as it blends well with the orange of the mussels. Don't be tempted to make this dish without the mussels as they contribute so much flavour to the sauce.

Fish & Shellfish Medley

4 thick fillets of firm white fish, 5 cm (2") wide
20 scallops, cleaned
oil for frying
1/2 kg (1 lb) mussels, debearded
100 ml (3 fl oz) dry vermouth
500 ml (17 fl oz) home made fish stock
pinch saffron threads
40 g (2 oz) unsalted butter, in small pieces
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

Put a large pot on high heat and when very hot put in the mussels and vermouth, then place lid on the pot. Shake every 30 seconds until all the mussels are opened, about two minutes. Strain the mussels through a seive and keep the mussel liquor. Clean the pot and put in the mussel liquor, fish stock and saffron threads and boil hard until well reduced to about 1 cup of liquid. Remove the mussels from the shell and keep warm. Most recipes advise to discard any mussels that remain closed, but I never do, I just prise the shell open and remove the meat. If in doubt smell. Fry the fish fillets in a little oil in a non stick pan, skin side first, until just cooked, then turning the heat to high, fry the scallops for about 30 seconds each side. Keep warm. Add the butter two pieces at a time to the reduced fish stock and whisk or swirl in, when dissolved add more butter and repeat until all the butter is incorporated, then add the parsley. Taste for seasoning, add salt if needed. Place the fillets of fish onto plates, surround with the scallops and mussels and pour the sauce over. Posted by Picasa
 
  posted at 7:47 am
  5 comments



5 Comments:
At 8:52 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

turning food for thought to food

 
At 12:59 am, Blogger Jeanne said...

Could that look any more delicious? Nope, didn't think so. ;-)

Brave man to go prying open mussel shells! But maybe that's just years of warnings from grown-ups talking.

 
At 7:25 am, Blogger neil said...

Hi anon, you betcha!

Hi jeanne, the mussel thing is a virtually unquestioned rule. I broke it one day when some mussels I had bought fresh and placed in the fridge for a few hours refused for the most part to open. Figuring that maybe the sudden transition from the cold to the heat may have stopped them from opening we ate them all anyway to no ill effects. Later on I watched an interview with the owner of a Belgium cafe and he said that sometimes the hinge on some mussels freezes up and there was nothing wrong with eating the closed ones. The choice is yours, let your nose be your guide!

 
At 11:15 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm loving this recipe!

Paz

 
At 4:03 pm, Blogger yanmaneee said...

kobe shoes
retro jordans
supreme clothing
michael kors factory outlet
authentic jordans
adidas nmd
louboutin
kyrie 5
kyrie 3
lebron 16 shoes

 

Post a Comment

<< Home



Search


Recipe Categories
Soups
Salads
Vegetables
Poultry
Pork
Beef
Cakes & Desserts
Miscellaneous

Archives
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
May 2009
June 2009
September 2009
October 2009
November 2009
December 2009
January 2010
February 2010
March 2010
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010
September 2010
October 2010
November 2010
December 2010
February 2011
March 2011
April 2011
May 2011
June 2011
July 2011
August 2011
September 2011
July 2012

Miscellaneous
AUSTRALIAN FOOD BLOGGERS
Prev ~ List ~ Random ~ Join ~ Next
Site Ring from Bravenet


Site Feed

counter easy hit

Credits
Blog Design by:


Image created by:
Ximena Maier

Powered by:


Photos, Original Recipes, and Text - (C) Copyright: 2005-2010
At My Table by Neil Murray, all rights reserved.
You may re-post a recipe, please give credit and post a link to this site.

Contact Me
Neil Murray

Follow messytable on Twitter