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Baked
Local chef Andrew Brown brings us his take on a different recipe…
I was in London cooking for a family
in South Kensington over the Easter
Holidays. The Lady of the house is
recovering from foot surgery. She is
a keen cook and foodie so the job is
quite demanding.
Ask the fish monger for four
thick cut steaks about 250300g in weight.
You will also need:
• 1 large onion roughly
chopped
• 1 fennel bulb roughly
chopped
• 1 red pepper roughly
chopped
• 2 sticks celery roughly
chopped
• 1 red chilli
• 4 cloves of garlic crushed
• 6-8 anchovy fillets ( when the
dish is done no one will know
they are there )
• Tin plum tomatoes
• Handful chopped parsley
• 2 bay leaves
• Good pinch saffron
• 2 fish stock cubes
• Olive oil
• Juice of half a lemon
Hake
Every day lunch is served at 12.30pm and dinner at 7.30pm, two courses for lunch
(one always being soup) and three courses for dinner. In between there is afternoon
tea at 4.30pm.
The social graces and etiquette of a formal household not yet being my strong point I
was getting a bit miffed at the mouthful of food always looking at me from the plates
as I cleared the table.
So I asked why, forgetting that I am just the help and should only speak when spoken
to, can’t you all manage that last mouthful? An embarrassing silence ensued.
Later her Ladyship took me aside and explained, in no uncertain terms, it was not
my place to address them at the table and in polite society a small amount of food is
always left to indicate that sufficient has been served. I thought it best not to tell her
that where I come from you only leave food because its rubbish.
Anyhow, hake is a wonderful fish, from the cod family but longer and more eel like to
look at with a big fearsome looking face.
Apart from the sweet soft flesh the best thing about it is the bones, its skeleton is
made up from one long T shaped bone which when the fish is cooked the flesh just
comes away from.
Here we go…
Pre-heat your oven to 180 Celcis.
Put all the chopped vegetables, chilli,
garlic, saffron, bay leaves, stock
cubes (crumble them over) and
anchovies into a roasting tin. Give
them a good glug of olive oil and mix
to coat.
for a further 20 minutes uncovered.
Liquidise everything and pass it
through a sieve.
Cover the tin as tightly as you can
with tin foil and bake in the oven for
30 minutes.
Sprinkle the chopped parsley over the
top and serve with rice or pasta and
greens of your choice.
After half-an-hour, lift off the foil
and pour in the plum tomatoes, give
them a stir and return to the oven
Season with salt and pepper and
lemon juice, arrange the fish steaks in
another roasting dish spoon over the
sauce and bake for 30 minutes.
Delicious!