Sunday, August 06, 2006
Lots of Catching-up and Some Sea Bass
It has been weeks since I've been online to update you on my ongoing battle in the kitchen and I am facing this post - that describing the food we had on the 22nd of July - with a mixture of anticipation and embarrassment. I am sorry that I disappeared on you all for so long, but my life was just getting so hectic, something had to give.It wasn't only the blog, though. As you will see during the coming days/posts, my cooking has grown a bit simpler as well. A lot more salad and pasta... And, of course, the grilled sea bass with butternut squash gratin I served for dinner the night of the 22nd. Before you scream out "Simple? If this is your idea of simple what does complicated look like?", give me a second to explain. My idea of simple is quick and fairly easy to assemble, not one-dimensional and flavourless. If I want that, I treat myself to lunch in the canteen. So while this dinner may not be as quick to prepare as a frozen pizza, I do guarantee you that you will not have to slave over a hot stove forever for it either. And it will be a whole lot tastier.
For the fish:
1 whole sea bass, scaled and cleaned
½ lemon, sliced
a few springs of dill
For the butternut gratin:
½ butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and thinly sliced
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, finely chopped
100ml cream
2 handfuls of grated cheese (a mix of something runny and something flavoursome, such as mozzarella and cheddar, is perfect here)
salt and pepper to taste
butter for the ramekins
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Begin by assembling the gratin. Butter 2 small ramekins and fill about half way with sliced butternut squash. Scatter half of the chopped garlic over the top and season with salt and pepper. Cover with enough butternut to fill the ramekins. Pour in enough cream to come about 1cm from the top of the ramekin. Don't overfill them, you don't want to boil the squash, nor do you want it to spill over in the oven as my gratins do all too often. Don't worry about leaving the top layer of squash exposed, it will cook fine in the rising bubbles and steam. Scatter with the grated cheese and bake in the middle of the oven for about 40 minutes.
Stuff the sea bass with the lemon slices and dill. Wrap loosely in tin foil and place next to the gratins for about 25 minutes.
And just in case you are wondering what the runner beans are doing in the picture as part of a supposedly simple dinner, I found them in the bottom of the fridge and they really wanted to go, so I cooked them up quickly as well.
Christine at 7:47 pm
