Hake on Skordalia with Seared Spinach, buttered Muscles, Oyster Mushrooms and Sundried Tomatoes

Masterchef makes my mouth do some serious drooling. My belly will start rumbling and I'm itching to get into the kitchen. So my new tactic, eat before I watch! Yeah, I'm that bad. I get some serious cravings if I'm even slightly hungry while watching Masterchef. So for lunch yesterday I wanted some serious food going on. I'd never tried Hake before yesterday so I had no idea what to cook with it! All I could gather from asking around was that it tasted amazing. It was on offer so how could I not really? I looked around at a few recipes and saw it's mostly teamed with bold and strong flavours, so I just imagined a sea bass flavour and worked around it. I'm so pleased with how it turned out! My private home taster even said they'd be happy to pay £15 for this dish! But hey they may be slightly biased no?

I don't care! A compliment is a compliment! Especially with all the thought I put into this! I really do hope you give this a go. It's like eating out, but eating in. Hrmm. It's fairly simple to make, just takes a lot of concentration, with so many components! Skordalia, is Greek in origin and is said exactly how it's spelt. If you've been watching Masterchef, yes I did learn this from John!

Recipe:

Skordalia - 

5 large potatoes

3 tbsp butter

2 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves of fresh garlic

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp lime juice

Enough milk to cover potatoes.

Peel and chop potatoes to small squares. Boil in a saucepan with milk (no water!) Peel and squash garlic add to potatoes.
Once cooked and soft, scoop potatoes without milk into a blender add remaining ingredients, bled into a smooth mash/puree consistency.


Spinach - 
50g spinach including stalk
1/2 onion, diced
1 garlic clove
Chop spinach to 3-4inch length.
In a frying pan gently cook the stalks and diced onion, once they begin to soften turn off heat.
Add the leaves and cover, leave until plating up.

Sun dried tomatoes - 
5 Cherry tomatoes
Olive oil
Half the tomatoes, brush with olive oil.
Lightly sprinkle salt and pepper.
Leave under the grill until beginning to brown.
(This should be a medium heat)

Mushroom & Muscles - 
15 Muscles (I don't know the weight! 
About 2 handfulls! or half a pack.
Handfull of oyster mushrooms

(Terrible sorry ahha! ameteur cooking at it's best!)

Gently fry with 1 tbsp butter just to warm through

Hake -

Gently fry in butter.

Sprinkle lightly with salt.

Cook skin down until you can see it's cooking half way through.

Turn over gently.

Watch carefully, for the centre of the fish to turn opaque.

You don't want to overcook this gorgeous fish!

Sauce - 

Very simple, just a small tbsp of the reduced milk and garlic from the potatoes.

Sounds strange but it's just very creamy and only needs very little to bring the dish together.

Once again your probably left overwhelmed with a massive recipe, that is measured in handfuls? It may look daunting now, but read over before you start and make sure you have everything ready! Overcooked fish with cold potato is just wrong, sick and wrong. Hahaha. I wish you the best of luck with this dish, it's so worth sitting down with a glass of white!

Until Next Time xo