Pan Fried Pollock, Seared Carrots Julienne, Spicy Rice with Red Wine Reduction

Approx cost: €4.00
Approx calories (per serving): ~450
Approx preparation and baking time: 40 minutes

After many days of eating a lot of rich food I love going back to a nice piece of white fish. The taste is delicate without being bland and white fish really goes with a red wine sauce. I personally find long grain rice a little uninteresting on its own, so here I’ve added a little chilli purée and some diced cucumber just to give it a little zing.

Ingredients

Ingredients you'll need for this dish

– 2 fillets of white fish, such as Pollock, Cod, Haddock etc
– 2 – 3 small Carrots
– ~100g white long grain Rice
– ~2 tbsps plain Flour
– ~1 tbsp Chilli Purée
– 30g Butter
– 1 x chunk of Cucumber around 6cm long
– ~1 decilitre Red Wine
– 1 tbsp Olive Oil

Instructions

1. Start off by having a good look at the fish fillets, trimming off any bits which don’t look so good, ensuring all the bones have been removed and so forth. Rinse off the fillets and pat dry. Put the plain flour into a plate or bowl and turn the fish in the flour, and then set aside. Wash and peel the carrots and then cut in half, and then slice each half thinly lengthways, and then each slice lengthways again to julienne.
   
   
   
   




2. Put on a pan of water – about 2-3 times as much as you have rice, and heat until boiling. When boiling add in the rice and cook for around 10 minutes, until done. While the rice is cooking wash the cucumber and dice finely.
   
   
   
   




3. When the rice is ready, drain away any excess water and stir in the cucumber and chilli purée. Also add in a dash of olive oil if you wish, and then set aside and allow to cool.




4. Set two frying pans onto the stove. Melt the butter in one and put the olive oil in the other. While the butter is melting be sure to pat in the flour to the fish fillets. When the butter is sizzling, place the fish fillets gently in the pan, cooking first for about a minute on each side to seal and crisp up the flour with the butter, before cooking for a minute or so more on each side, until a nice golden brown.
   
   
   
   




5. When the fish is done, transfer to a plate. By this time the olive oil should be really hot – put the carrots gently into the oil and fry vigorously, stirring every 10 seconds or som for about a minute. Transfer to the plate with the fish, and also serve out some rice. Finally, return the pan you used for the fish to the heat – when hot, pour in the red wine, which will mix with the butter and flour remnants, and stir for about 20 seconds. As it’s so hot it will boil very fast and reduce down to a smooth, velvety sauce which you can pour over the fish before serving.

Nom nom