Last Saturday, I went to the Earth Fair food market in Tokai, Cape Town. All I can recommend is that you never ever come to a food market with me if you’re hoping for a relaxed morning out, it must be exhausting and expensive! I have to taste (and mostly buy) everything – I always feel guilty tasting everything on the table and walking away empty handed. My kitchen fridge is overloaded with jars of relish, pickles, chutney, chilli concoctions from mild to wicked, tapanade and pesto. Some of what came home with me this week were beautiful organic veggies including the most delicious cherry tomatoes I’ve ever tasted, boerekaas with fennel seed, Argentinean paprika sausages and the prize of the day – four beautiful swordfish steaks. They brought tears to my eyes!
Ok enough about me, onto the food. The fish had the same gamey texture as tuna, which led me to think of sushi, which trailed off to the sushi flavours and resulted in this dish. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. You could replace the fish with tuna, salmon or even dorado or yellowtail.
You’ll need: (serves 4)
4 fish steaks or fillets
1 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp fresh ginger, chopped
Small pocket of baby potatoes
Salt
Pepper
30ml pouring cream
1 tsp wasabi paste (to taste)
Pickled ginger
Here’s how:
Marinate your fish in the sesame oil, soy sauce, lemon juice and fresh ginger for about two hours.
Pop your potatoes on the boil (with skins) and when they’re soft, drain off the water. Pound them up into a nice chunky mash, season with salt and pepper, add the cream and wasabi and mix well. Now taste it! Wasabi is all different, you may need to add more depending on the product you’ve got. Don’t be too nervous, the mash allows you to taste the wasabi without your eyes streaming. It’s delicious!
Heat a dash of sesame oil in a pan and pop in your fish. Depending on what fish you’re using and your preference, you might choose to sear it on the outside and leave in pink in the centre (tuna, salmon) or cook it through (swordfish, dorado, yellowtail). But just don’t dry it out, it should be soft and juicy either way.
Serve the fish on top of the mash with some pickled ginger on the side.
Enjoy!
Yours in food
Leigh
