On Mother’s Day, after attending the customary church service, my sis left the house to hang out but not before placing her dinner order… “no rice”, she didn’t care much what I made just no rice however she hinted at produce (yam, banana, etc.), which I wasn’t in the mood for so as the chef I nixed that notion.
Mom on the other hand was less demanding even though it was her day, I think it had something to do with the fact that she was just grateful she wasn’t the one cooking lol.
So with my task laid out I began exploring…
Fish was the only meat at hand so that won a spot on our plates by default.
Then found cabbage, a small cucumber and some tomatoes a day or two away from death. Thus I decided on a simply classy salad, stashed in the fridge till ready to serve, then sprinkled delicately with red wine vinegar and a touch of salt just before serving opening up the natural flavours.
(PS. Initially planned on using relish as well but thought better of it after taking this pic, less is sometimes more so omit it from your thoughts for now please, thanks :-)
By the way, I had to scale the fish myself cause for some unfathomable reason the shops in my mom’s area sell fish steaks with scales on… while scaling it I thought if I squeezed out the excess water from the fish then it would absorb more flavour from whatever I did next, so I squeezed it lol
I wanted to make the fish the favour focal point so decided to go heavy on the seasoning since the salad was so clean… thus dredged it in black pepper & fish seasoning.
Noticed a can of tomato sauce just sitting around for weeks so I decided to do something special with it. Since fish cooks well in pretty much any liquid I figured why not the tomato sauce and that’s how I got my *eureka moment*… POACHING!!! ;-)
I had the crisp crunch from the salad, the bang from the fish but needed something with a little heft, so as the fish simmered in the tomato sauce on a low flame I turned my attention to some potatoes, timing everything for platting at the same moment…
Cleaned the potatoes but kept as much of the skin on a possible. Gave them a rub of sesame seed oil and a sprinkle of salt then tossed them in the toaster oven, turning every 5 mins or so… Tested “done-ness” with a tooth-pick after about 20 mins.
(NB. Turning the potato is vital as it sweats on the underside, so turning allows that nice golden-brown outer colour & hearty firmness to be achieved.)
While the potato was getting done I decided to add cheese to it… Just made a long deep incision and used a fork to wiggle the slit just wide enough to be stuffed.
Then topped it off with a pat of butter, cause you know… butter makes everything better hehehehe ^_^
Plate it all up and voila!… Tomato Poached Fish w/ Stuffed Roast Potato & Salad :-D
