Oven-roasted Filet of Grouper

This oven-roasted filet of grouper recipe is one of our favorite ways of cooking fish in the oven. The topping of thinly sliced onions and lemons keeps the fish from drying out, plus they add a lot of flavor.



While I was in Cairo on my house-hunting trip, one of the first things I asked about is the availability of seafood, particularly fish. Seafood probably features on the house menu at least once a week in some form: Lemon sole, whole Red Snapper, Prawns, Grouper, Salmon steaks. Pan-fried, grilled, oven-roasted, étouffée or courtbouillon.

I figured we are only about three hours from Alexandria and the Mediterranean Sea so there should be seafood in abundance here, possibly even a fish market.It seems I was wrong.Fortunately my nearby Carrefour has a newly renovated, well-stocked seafood department but that’s the only option I know of so far.

Anyone from Cairo out there reading who would like to set me straight, please, please do. Last week we had Grouper – oven-roasted and topped with an abundance of sliced onions and lemons that kept it moist.Any fish would do here so use what you have.

Ingredients
800g or 1 3/4lb fish filet
2 small onions
1 large lemon
Sea salt
Black pepper
Olive oil
3 generous tablespoons of butter

Method Preheat the oven to 200C or 400F.Cut all the scraggly bits off of your filet and make sure all bones have been removed. Slice your onions and your lemon very thinly.Using your hands, mix the two together and make sure to pick out any lemon seeds.

Drizzle a little olive oil in the bottom of your baking tray and sprinkle a fish-sized area with sea salt and a good few grinds of black pepper.

Lay the fish in the baking tray and sprinkle the top with sea salt and black pepper.

Heap the fish with the lemon and onion slices.  Balance the butter on top and drizzle liberally with olive oil.

Roast in the preheated oven for 20-30 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish.

Enjoy!

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Rustic Potato Bread

I’ve got the oven on in the kitchen because the heater is not working downstairs and it is cold, cold, cold.  Who knew Africa could get so cold?  I feel guilty having the oven on just for heat, so I am baking bread.  Rustic potato bread because I forgot to pack a bread pan and this Julia Child recipe from her Baking with Julia doesn’t need one.  If you need an excuse to warm your kitchen, join me.  Also, there is nothing more divine than the aroma of bread baking.  

Ingredients

3/4 lb or 340g russet potatoes (I don’t have russets so local potatoes will have to do.)

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 cup or 60ml tepid reserved potato water (80 – 90°F or 26.7 – 32.2°C)

1/2 tablespoon dry yeast

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 1/4 – 2 1/2 cups or 280g – 310g flour

Method

Peel your potatoes and cut them into cubes.   (Julia says just to scrub them but, really, peels in bread?  I don’t think so.)

In a small pot, cover the potatoes with water and add 1 teaspoon of the salt.  Cook until they are fork-tender.  Reserve 1/4 cup or 60ml of the potato water and then drain the potatoes in a colander.  Put them in a single layer if you can, to make sure they can dry completely.  Cool for 20-30 minutes.

When the potatoes are cool, stir the yeast into the potato water, warming it again if necessary.  It needs to be warm enough to activate the yeast.  Leave for about five minutes. 

It should get all foamy like this.

Meanwhile, put your cool, dry potato cubes in a mixer and beat until they are nicely mashed. 

Add in the olive oil, the yeast/water mixture and the last teaspoon of salt. 

Mix until the liquids are incorporated into the mashed potato.

Change your mixer attachment to the dough hook and start adding in the flour.  This mixture is going to be very dry at the beginning.  I had to come back and check Julia’s recipe several times because I was sure I had missed some liquid but the 1/4 cup of potato water is it!  Just trust and keep mixing.  As she says, the dough will transform.  And it does.  Ideally you will mix for 11 minutes.  I ended up stopped at about 9 1/2 minutes because the dough got so sticky that it just went round and round on my dough hook and it didn’t look like any kneading was happening like that.

For the first rise, put a bit of cling film on the top of the mixing bowl and allow the dough to rest for 20-30 minutes at room temperature.  Making bread in Cairo brings me back to my Paris winter days of bread making.  Room temperature was too cold for the dough to rise, so I used to run hot water in the stoppered sink and add a kettle of boiling water.  I would carefully float my dough in a bowl or the baking pan in the hot water.  It was the only way to get the dough to rise.  It works just great if you are in a cold climate.  Here I filled a pot with hot water and floated the bowl in it. 

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C and flour a tea towel, as a resting place for the final rise.  If you have a baking stone, put it in at this point as well.  If not, about halfway through your preheating, put the baking tray in the oven so it can get nice and hot.

Once your first rise is done, roll the dough into a ball and then press out into a round disk.   Starting at the end farthest from you, roll the dough into a tube.  When you get to the last turn, put a little flour on the final edge and fold the corners in.  Roll it over and place it on the well-floured tea towel, seam down.  With marble all over this cold kitchen, I placed mine in a baking pan and put it on the warm stove.

Let rise for 20 minutes.

Julia’s recipe calls for spraying the insides of your oven with water to create steam when you put the loaf in to bake.  I prefer to put a pan in the bottom of the oven about halfway through the preheating process.  This pan gets really hot and a half cup of water added just as you put in the loaf creates enough steam for a great crust.  

When the second rising is done, pull your oven shelf out enough to allow you to roll the dough from the tea towel to your heated pan.  Julia wanted me to put it seam side up but that just didn’t work out. 

Making steam!

Bake for about 45-50 minutes or until the crust is nice and brown and the loaf sounds hollow when thumped.  If you are so inclined, you can check the internal temperature which Julia says should be 200°F or 93°C.

This recipe is easily doubled to make two loaves, since that is actually what Julia made.

Enjoy!

Homemade Buttermilk Waffles

Traditional homemade buttermilk waffles make a great breakfast for dinner option! Glass of wine optional. But recommended.

I’ve got to start out by saying, I am not a breakfast person.  Now that doesn’t mean that I am not a morning person, because I absolutely am.  Cup of coffee and I am good to go.  I just think that Western breakfast foods like eggs and pancakes and waffles are mere convention and other cultures would rarely eat those things, even for breakfast.  

I was delighted when I first traveled to Asia in 1981 and the hotel breakfast buffet included fried rice, fried noodles, various curries and even bowls of chopped chilies to add on to all three. My favorite breakfast is dinner from the night before. Leftover whatever: pork chops, curry, spaghetti Bolognese.  All joy on my morning plate.  That said, occasionally we do have conventional breakfast for dinner!  Which complicates matters for my breakfast the next morning. But never you mind.

First fry up some bacon. Not too crispy.  You want to be able to chew on it.  Okay, that’s how I like it.  Make it crispy if you must.

Then make up some homemade buttermilk waffles.  Glass of wine optional.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups or 220g flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda or bicarbonate of soda

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

2 cups or 475ml buttermilk or 2 tablespoons of white vinegar and milk up to the two-cup or 475ml measure.

1/3 cup or 78ml salad oil

2 eggs

Method

Preheat your waffle maker as per manufacturer’s instructions.  

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. 

Add in the buttermilk (or milk/vinegar mixture which is an excellent substitute for buttermilk) and salad oil and the eggs. Beat until thoroughly blended.

Pour batter into the center of the lower half of the waffle maker, being careful to leave room for when the batter spreads out as you lower the lid and also for when the waffle starts to bake when rising. 

Close the lid and watch for the signal that your waffle is cooking.  On my waffle maker, the light goes green when it is ready for batter, red when it is cooking and then green again when the waffle is ready. 

I leave the waffle in just a little bit longer after the light turns green so the waffles are nice and crispy.  Yes, I know, limp bacon, but crispy waffles.  I am a woman of contradictions.

Serve with butter and syrup with bacon on the side. And your preferred beverage.  Enjoy!  

Pin these homemade buttermilk waffles!