mediterranean fish - with a twist

sometimes an empty dish is all you need to see to know just how good something tasted. and this was great!

this fish dish is the perfect balance to some of the richer, more stodgy food that we eat at this time of year. the addition of thai fish sauce was inspired by stephen from stephencooks.com, a wonderful food blog and one of the first that i started reading.

needless to say i can’t find the specific recipe that inspired me but have a browse through stephen’s archives, there is some great stuff there. his pizza recipes are particularly good for inspiration.

mediterranean fish (serves 2)

200-300g white fish (i used haddock), skinned and boned

2 slices of prosciutto or pancetta

1/2 a red onion, cut into large chunks

1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into large chunks

1 green pepper, deseeded cut into large chunks

3 tomatoes, quarted

1 tablespoon of capers, rinsed 

a large handful of black olives, pitted

1 teaspoon fresh thyme

4tbsp olive oil

juice of a lemon

1 tablespoon thai fish sauce

freshly ground black pepper

place the onion, pepper, tomatoes, capers, olives and herbs in a baking dish, drizzle with the olive oil, lemon juice and fish sauce. season with freshly ground black pepper and mix well so the juices coat the vegetables.

cook in a preheated oven at 200°c, for 10 minutes. stir the vegetables then place the fish on top of them. top the fish with the pieces of proscuitto (or you can wrap it around the fish, securing it with cocktail sticks if necessary) and return to the oven for a further 15 minutes (or until the fish is cooked).

serve with brown rice and bread to soak up all the juices.