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How savoury is this seafood dish! S


Memories of home washed over me


o many things in life are taken for granted, in Jer- sey, my English Channel home – none more so than fish. When I was young, fish was my staple


food. My father was a hobby fisherman, and many a fine table of fresh fish would be presented in our home: from plaice to dover sole, bass to mackerel, bream to whiting, lobster to spider crab, or if we were really lucky a shanker or a nice crayfish.


My mother’s creations were sometimes awe- some. One dish that I fondly remember was her Coquille St. Jacques. On a recent trip


to


Ian Leatt Foodies


Montreal, I visited Bras- serie T, next door to Place des Arts. It offers fine dining indoors and out. I settled down at my table and, reviewing the menu, ordered something I hadn’t had in a very long while − Coquille St. Jacques. The floodgates of memory opened. Traditionally the dish


was made with a bread-crumb topping, covered with cheese to give a final crispy finish. Today’s recipes, however, are more creative.


The dish created here features mussels, scallops, salmon and shrimp, and like all fine fish dishes offers unbelievable aromas and flavours.


Coquille St. Jacques 4 large scallops


12 king shrimp (cooked) 12 mussels


1 small piece of salmon 6 potatoes ½ cup butter 1 egg


1 medium onion (finely chopped) A sprig of dill Salt and pepper 1 cup of milk


1½ cups of cream (36 per cent) 1 clove of garlic (finely chopped) 1 cup of white wine


Coquille St. Jacques. Peel and cook the potatoes so they’re ready for mash-


ing. In a large frying pan add half the butter; soften it and add the scallops and a little seasoning to taste. Gently cook the scallops until they turn golden. Next, add the salmon and milk, simmering gently to allow the salmon time to cook. This will take a further eight minutes. Soften the remaining butter in a small saucepan and


add the mussels, half the onion, dill, wine and garlic. Cover and bring to a boil. Once it begins to boil turn down the heat and cook for no more than 10 minutes. Once cooked, drain the pan contents, saving the liq-


uid. Distribute the fish evenly on four oven-proof serv- ing plates and place a little onion on each serving. Add three shrimps to each dish. Mash the cooked potatoes; adding the egg, half a cup


of cream and a pinch of salt and pepper. Blend thor- oughly. Fill a piping bag with the potato mixture and pipe around the edge of each dish. For the sauce, I generally prepare a form of hollanda- ise using the fish stock for added flavour.


½ cup butter 3 large eggs


1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of lemon juice Pinch of salt


Dash cayenne pepper 5 tablespoons hot fish stock


Heat butter in a heavy saucepan and clarify. Mean-


while, in a small bowl, whisk or beat egg yolks with the lemon juice, salt and cayenne pepper. Gradually beat in the butter and stock. Return the mixture to a saucepan and beat over very low heat until it is slightly thickened. Gently pour the sauce over each serving of fish, completely covering it. Place a little dill on top for colour and contrast. Cook in the oven at 350 F for 20 minutes and serve. Remember these plates will be hot, so place them on larger plates to serve. Enjoy!


Ian Leatt is general manager of Pegasus Publications Inc.


Plant some spring with a salad bowl garden T


he garden-fresh taste of salad greens picked from your own gar- den after a long dreary winter is one of the sweetest treats imaginable. And the loveliest thing is that the salad greens are among the earliest crops and the easiest to grow. We’re talking leaf lettuce, radishes and green onions to get started. All grow very easily from seeds, which can be sown in containers right in a sunny window. Because these plants grow and mature quickly, you can keep on sowing them all summer long, two to three weeks apart, and enjoy fresh baby greens all season – even in the winter if you get enough sunlight. These are cool season crops that prefer five to six hours of sunlight a day but can get by with a little less. What to plant. Start with leafy greens


such as a ‘Mesclun’ mix which gives you a variety of greens in one packet. They usu- ally contain arugula, lettuce, endive and chervil, but you can also plant individual crops of lettuce, mustard greens, cress, and Swiss chard to name but a few. Radishes are easy to grow as are chives and spring onions. The seed packet will tell you how long from sowing to harvest. Pea tendrils or shoots are very popular right now and while they take a bit more prep, they are just as easy to grow as the rest. What to plant in. You can plant in


just about anything as long as it has good drainage and is deep enough for the roots to get a good grip. You will need at least four inches for radishes which are a root crop. You will want a good potting mix, available at any garden store. If you are starting your garden indoors, the com- mercial mixes are bug and disease free.


12 www.lifestyles55.net Salads from outside the lettuce box


Arugula Also called “Rocket” in English cook books. Has a peppery fla- vour and can be a bit bitter.


Frisée Also known as curly endive and chicory. Slightly bitter.


Endive A bitter, spoon-shaped, yellow green.


Radicchio Looks like a purple cabbage. Bitter.


Mizuna Also known as California pep- pergrass. Japanese mustard green with a pungent flavour, slightly spicy. Milder when used as a micro green (very young).


Escarole A variety of endive with paler and less bitter leaves.


Baby beet leaves Taste a lot like spinach. Snip off the leaves of growing beetroot and toss them in a salad. Often cooked.


The mix should be damp but not soaking wet.


Planting. Scatter seeds about a half inch


apart on the surface of the soil and cover very lightly (1/4-inch) with soil. You may find that some of the seeds are very tiny and hard to manage. A folded piece of pa- per can double as a seed planter. Water


Cress Related to water cress and mustard. Tangy, peppery flavor.


Watercress Very strong tasting salad green. Pungent, peppery, slightly bitter. Renowned for high amounts of vitamins A,C, and E.


Tat soi Also known as rosette bok choy. Spoon shaped, pebbly leaves. Often cooked and served with ginger soy-sauce-type dress- ings.


lightly; using a can with a watering rose (you don’t want the seeds to float.) Keep an eye on your crop to be sure it doesn’t dry out but don’t over water – moist not wet.


Harvest. Harvest in about three weeks.


For greens, you can cut the top leaves off just above soil level and they will continue


Mâche Lamb’s lettuce. Mildly sweet, oak-leaf-shaped red green. Delicate and tender.


Spinach Best for salads when picked young. Mild tasting. Great with fruits such as strawberries or apples.


Chervil Related to parsley, it has a mild anise flavor that adds a lift to any salad. One of the ingredi- ents in the French fine herbs.


to replenish themselves several times be- fore you have to sow again. Radishes are obviously a one-time deal, but they can be easily re-sown. Harvest just the top third of the pea shoots to keep new growth coming. Believe it or not, that’s about all there is to it. Get growing!


June 2015 Sauce hollandaise


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