Simple, fish meal ideas please

[Sasha07]

May I ask people to give me their fish recipe/meal ideas please? I'm wanting to try a more Mediterranean diet, I'm not even sure if that's the correct term but just something delicious and simple. Fish with veg/salad/potatoes...

Yesterday, I pan fried cod in a lemon butter/garlic base from a recipe I found online, with oven veg and herby potatoes. It was nice but not something I'd plan to make each week. I'm more of a hearty winter cook so struggling with summer recipes other than salads/burgers...

I've looked online and just get recipe blindness from all the different offerings. I have no idea what fish goes well with what or how to cook it... So thought I'd ask here for some tried and tested, cooked by real people, meal ideas, please. Thanks for any help!

Our fortnightly standard is salmon (baked in a soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, garlic marinade) over noodles. I use the ready to wok style noodles that you just microwave or sauté fresh. With whatever veg - steamed broccoli, roasted Pak Choi. Or a cucumber salad in a soy sauce dressing. Sometimes we have it with rice instead of noodles. And maybe some spring rolls.

I like baking fish in a parcel of foil or baking parchment. You can chuck whatever flavourings you like in there with it. A fillet takes about ten minutes in a 180C fan oven. There will be tasty juices in the parcel which you can add to your plate. I usually serve this with rice and salad.

Good ideas to add to your parcel are

Lemon, garlic, parsley
Halved cherry tomatoes, olives, oregano
Soy, ginger, garlic
Fresh chives and a tablespoon or two of cream
Thinly sliced onions and some herbs
Thinly sliced fennel and lemon juice

Also, fish curry is lovely. Fry onions until soft and slightly browned, add garlic and ginger, add curry powder and fry for a bit. Chuck in a packet of prawns, cover with water and simmer for half an hour. When you are ready to eat, add chunks of white fish and simmer gently for about ten minutes. I often add some chopped tomatoes or blanched spinach to this (tomatoes with the prawns, spinach with the fish).

I don’t know if it counts as a recipe as such, but I put roasted salmon with boiled new potatoes, tenderstem broccoli and asparagus. Delicious. Just pop a little bit of butter/spread/oil on the fish before cooking to keep it moist, and pull the green veg before they are too soft.

Thank you everyone! Just been reading them out to my partner and he said it all sounds good, I agree. Atleast we have a starting point now and will give one of these ideas a go tomorrow and try others through the week. Much appreciated, I don't feel as lost about it all as I did when I made the post. Thanks again!

I forgot to say, if you try the fish curry make sure the sauce is quite thick as liquid will come out of the fish as it cooks and thin the sauce.

Sea bass, drizzled with lemon, and fish seasoning baked in the oven, with some cherry tomatoes that have had a coating of olive oil. Served with steamed jersey royals and tenderstem broccoli

Baby potatoes parboiled, red onion, peppers courgette, tenderstem broccoli on a baking sheet, sliced chorizo and white fish fillets on top baked in the oven until the fish is cooked.

I like using salmon or cod as part of a traybake. I use tenderstem broccoli spears or asparagus, baby new potatoes cut in half, tomatoes, peppers, courgettes (whatever is in the fridge basically!).. then place the fish on top and sprinkle with dill, parsley and tarragon with some olive oil drizzled over it all. Such a simple tasty meal.

One of my regular meals is a Thai fish curry, though I own up to using a jar of Thai red curry. Fry up some onions and whatever other veg you like - mushrooms/peppers etc. Chuck in the curry sauce and fry off, then a tin of coconut milk. Finally add in white fish fillets or chunks (coley or basa is cheap) and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Serve over rice or steamed broccoli.

Also roasting salmon fillets with various toppings - pesto or sweet chilli sauce or teriyaki etc.

For a super quick midweek meal i do salmon fillets with teriyaki sauce drizzled over with sesame seeds scattered on top, bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or so (best if you prepare it in the morning as the sauce soaks in).
Serve with a stir fry/noodles/rice or salad and potatoes.

Sea bass or sea bream (red snapper if you've got a good fishmonger), in a foil parcel with some finely chopped garlic (and maybe a bit of red chilli and/or ginger). A couple of tablespoons of water, now the clever bit, rest the fish (whole or fillets) on some chopsticks, so they steam and don't stick to the foil. mackerel and herrings can be cooked the same way, miss out the garlic, chilli and ginger, as they're not needed with oily fish.

Avocado and smoked mackerel on wholemeal toast, with a squeeze of lemon and black pepper. Yum.

Dice an onion and a bulb of fennel and cook in a pan with olive oil. Add a couple of tins of sardines in tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, a few raisins if you like them and cook down a bit. Meanwhile boil some spaghetti. When spaghetti is cooked add all together in a pan, it’s really nice! We add pine nuts on top too.

We also like salmon macaroni bake. Just make macaroni cheese like normal, but add fillets of salmon into the the tray before you spoon over the macaroni cheese and bake in the oven. The heat cooks the salmon quickly, it just needs 20 mins. We have it with brocoli and roasted tomatoes on the side.

You lot are fantastic. Really looking forward to trying all of these. Thank you ☺️

Roughly chopped red onion, peppers, thickly sliced courgettes, cherry tomatoes, baby spuds. Chuck in a roasting dish, lots of olive oil and seasoning, sprinkle with dried herbs or use fresh.
Roast high until veg is looking cooked but not charred , 30 mins. Add cod loin on top, sprinkle with chilli or cayenne, pinch paprika, salt and pepper. Roast again until cod is cooked. Drizzle with a little balsamic.

I had this with grilled seabass yesterday -
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
grated zest 1 lemon
plus 2 tbsp juice
2 tbsp small capers
2 tsp gluten-free Dijon mustard
2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
plus a few extra leaves (optional)

just put the dressing on after it was cooked. Had it with potatoes and spinach and it was nice and light and fresh.

I also like salmon baked in foil in the oven with spring onions, cherry tomatoes, chilli and ginger.

Gwyneth Paltrow does some Thai salmon burgers which are nice too. Quick google will throw up the recipe.

I use this crumb mix for cod, haddock or most fish recipes. https://www.tablefortwoblog.com/panko-parmesan-baked-cod/
https://www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/fish-and-seafood/sri-lankan-fish-curry/
https://www.recipetineats.com/asian-glazed-salmon/

Try baking whole fish, it's simple and much juicier. Sea bass or sea bream are my favorite. Wash, salt the cavity, fill it with fresh herbs and lemon slices and close with a metal skewer or toothpick. Put in preheated skillet, add white wine and/or fish stock, then bake in oven at 180 for 20-25 min.

I love grilled trout. Whole rainbow trout under the grill, both sides, served with new potatoes and salad. Yummm!
Even better if it’s freshly caught. I used to live near the River Tweed ….

Fast fish dinners we do:

Frozen pollock, haddock or cod fillets rubbed with olive oil and tossed in a mix of salt, pepper, mixed herbs, garlic granules and paprika. Put in air fryer and roast. If you throw some baby potatoes in at the same time sprayed with olive oil, they’ll cook in around the same time.

Salmon fillets roasted in the air fryer with a side of steamed green beans, tenderstem broccoli and baby potatoes tossed in pesto. It’s a Jamie Oliver recipe but I use store bought pesto
https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fish/salmon-pesto-dressed-veg/

This Asian marinade for salmon https://www.recipetineats.com/asian-glazed-salmon/ with rice and broccoli

This honey soy salmon recipe https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a86550/honey-soy-salmon/

One last one, this is great as it’s so fast
https://www.recipetineats.com/baked-fish-with-lemon-cream-sauce/

I could live on sea bream cooked this way. It's my absolute favourite fish, all round and fat with creamy white flesh and crispy skin if you cook it with very little liquid and a bit of oil. (I really like the crispy skin and that's where the collagen is, apparently.)

A second choice would be fresh sardines just baked/grilled/friend in olive oil and a few herbs with lemon to sqeeze over. They've got a lot to recommend them nutritionally too. Here's the BBC Good Food page about them - fresh, frozen or canned with four simple enough recipes at the end:

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/health/nutrition/are-sardines-healthy

Oh, not exactly what you asked for but I sometimes buy what I think is a very similar product to these ready prepared mussels in France. I wasn't sure if they were sold in the UK so just looked up the Asda website, thinking that if they sell them in Asda, they will sell a version of them everywhere. Maybe somebody will come along and say, "The Asda ones are horrible but the M&S or whatever ones are lovely" but it's just a general idea.

Cheaper than I expected as well and boil in the bag or microwave in seven minutes!

Although, after you've eaten them, please make sure to get rid of the leftover shells out of the house as quickly as possible, especially in hot weather.

https://www.asda.com/groceries/product/prawns-mussels/asda-rich-roasted-garlic-butter-rope-grown-scottish-mussels-2-x-250g-500g-/4660896

This is what you need:

https://www.thetinnedfishmarket.com/

(I’m pescatarian and as I’m not interested in supermarket fish and live nowhere near a fishing port I spend a huge amount here every month. It’s wonderfully addictive. Endless recipes on the site, though I like fish presented as simply as possible.)

BTW, for sourcing fresh fish are you aware of:

https://peskyfish.co.uk/