Hake, Spiced Chickpeas, Masala Butter (Serves 4)
What you need
For the Chickpeas
Ingredients:
1 jar Medium Curry Sauce Green Saffron’s
1 tin chickpeas
For the Masala butter
Ingredients:
200g butter, at room temperature
1½ tsp Green Saffron ‘Garam Masala’ spice mix
½ tsp lemon zest, finely grated
1tblsp flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
A couple of tsp of GREEN SAFFRON Garam Masala (optional)
For the Fish (Sea Bream, Hake, Whiting or Salmon (pan-fried))
Ingredients:
4 fillets of your chosen fish
a little (cold-pressed) Rapeseed oil
a little sea salt to season
2 ‘rondelles’ or knobs of ‘Masala Butter’ (see above)
How to make it
For the chickpeas:
- Pour the ghee sauce into a heavy-bottomed saucepan or casserole dish and heat on a medium flame (temperature)
- Open the tin, drain the chickpeas in a sieve. Discard the salty water – you’re not going to need it. Pour the chickpeas into the pan, turn up the heat and gently stir.
- Heat the mixture until it just starts to bubble, then turn the heat down and simmer for a few minutes to reduce the sauce to your required consistency, 8 or 10 minutes will do.
- Then, turn the heat off, sprinkle with GREEN SAFFRON Garam Masala and set aside, keeping it warm.
For the Masala butter:
- Take a small bowl, mix all the ingredients together and pop in the fridge for later.
*N.B. If you like, you could at this point take a square of cling-film, lay it out on your counter-top, place the butter mix at one, then carefully roll it up into a ‘sausage–shape’. Twist each end like a ‘Quality Street’ sweet and pop into the fridge for later. When you need it, simply slice a disc shape off the end, the thickness of a Euro or Pound coin, remove the cling film and off you go!
For the Fish:
- Grab a large thick-bottomed frying pan or skillet, place on medium heat, add a glug of oil and allow to heat up for a minute or two. Ideally, the pan should be hot, but not quite at the smoking point.
- Sprinkle a pinch of salt onto the fillets of fish, then using a fish slice or pallet knife, carefully place the fillets into the pan, skin side down
- Allow cooking until the white flesh starts to just turn opaque and milky, approx. 3 to 4 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fillet
- Take the pan off the heat, turn the fillets over so the skin side is facing up and add the Masala Butter
- Gently swirl the pan around once or twice making the butter slide around, then set the pan down.
*TIP: have a small jug of water to hand and add the smallest bit to the pan if the butter looks like it’s a little too hot.
To Serve:
- Take a generous couple of tablespoons of the Chickpeas, place in the centre of each dinner plate, pop a fillet of fish on top, then, using a tablespoon, spoon some of the buttery juices from the pan around the fish onto the plate and serve immediately. Ta-dah! Enjoy…