Day 10 - Baked fish with mediterranean topping

Well it is Day 10 of the larder challenge and I am feeling quite proud of myself. A different meal every night from the contents of my pantry, fridge and freezer! I used up some things that had been knocking about for ages and tried a few new things too. And best of all no supermarket so some pennies saved too.

It has been a busy day today generally, there is something about seeing the sun in the morning that perks me up and gets me going.
By 10 am this morning I had completed my day's project - one living room floor waxed and polished, one bathroom floor waxed and polished and one set of wooden stairs waxed and polished - must remember they are done before I go flying down them.

After work I got the big brush cutter out, and cut down the thistles that were encroaching on the grazing field, and once I had run that one dry I got out the smaller strimmer and tackled the nettles along the perimeter fencing. With all that hard work done in the sun, it was time to put the sun brolly up and relax with a glass of cold squash and nurse my poor blistered hands.

I could not think of anything to make for dinner tonight so I turned to one of my cook books for inspiration, and tonight we have my interpretation of baked cod mediterranean style.


Baked Fish with Mediterranean Topping.

I am not using cod because I don't have any. I am using frozen 'lotte' which is a type of monkfish readily available and cheap to buy here in France, but any white fish will do.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lophius - for the fishy info)

I laid the fish on some of the defrosted green beans left over from the other night just so as not to waste them. They are not part of the recipe, neither is the sweetcorn, but while I had an open tin that needed finishing I threw them in too.

1 onion
1 red pepper
1 tin of tomatoes (400g)
1 clove garlic crushed
1 red chili deseeded and finely chopped
1 tablespoon tomatoe puree
1 pinch brown sugar
salt and pepper
8 stoned black olives (optional)
chopped fresh parsley

Fry the onion and pepper in some olive oil, until softened, then add the garlic and chili and saute for another minute
Add the tomatoes, the puree, sugar and seasoning (in keeping with the challenge I did not have a tin of tomatoes so I added a whole 40 g tin of puree and some water instead) and simmer until it starts to thicken.
Place the fish on a baking tray, pour over the sauce and scatter the black olives on top. (I didn't because, 1 I don't have any and 2 I don't like them that much.)
Bake in the oven at 180°C/Gas 4 for 15 minutes if using fresh fish, 30 minutes if using frozen fish.
Garnish with the parlsey to serve (although I also threw in some dried parsley to the topping before it went in the oven).

And reading that back goes to prove why I never normally use recipe books because I never do what they say anyway!