Baked Stuffed Haddock

Whole Haddock

Ready for Baking

Baked Stuffed Haddock

If you are lucky enough to live in Nova Scotia, you are likely to have good access to fresh seafood, and if like me you live in a fishing community, well seafood is your oyster. Today, I was brought a small whole haddock, scaled, head and tail removed.

I cook with my mother’s hand, always adjusting amounts and seasonings as I taste and cook.  Most times this is a success and leads to new family recipes. These recipes are always adjusted for taste and what’s in the cupboard, so please use this as a guide and add your own variations.

This is how we prepared baked stuffed haddock.

 

1 Stalk of Celery chopped

1 Onion chopped

1 Clove Garlic chopped

1 Tomato chopped

1 Large Tomato sliced

Fresh Parsley

½ cup of White Wine

1 cup Cracker or Bread Crumbs

Olive Oil

Butter

Sauté onion, garlic, and celery in olive oil until soft. Add parsley and chopped tomato, until and continue to cook until tomato is mostly liquid. Add ¼ cup of the white wine and cracker crumbs. Reserve mixture.

Place haddock on a shallow baking dish and rub inside of haddock with butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stuff haddock with reserved mixture. Lay tomato slices over haddock, pour remaining white wine over haddock, season again with salt and pepper and bake in 375-400 degree oven until done.

I served this with brown rice and caramelized onions dusted with brown sugar.

Wild Wonderous Mushroom Pizza

Inspired by our mushroom foraging this fall, this pizza is wonderous, and especially with a glass of red wine. We choose  Riscal, Tempranillo (chosen to allow the mushrooms to be the star in your mouth). The ingredients have been eyeballed to meet our family needs, and not measured to exacts, so please use this as a guide and inspiration.

Shiitake, Oyster, Cremini or mushrooms of your choice (1 bunch of oyster, 10 shiitake, and 10 cremini  sliced)

Yellow Onion (1 Large sliced)

Fresh parsley (handful chopped)                                                                               

Swiss Chard (4 medium size leaves chopped)

Fontina Cheese (enough to scantily cover ingredients, grated)

White wine (about 3 tablespoons)

Butter & Olive Oil (I mixed olive oil and butter together to save my arteries)

Pan fry your onion in butter and olive oil until nicely browned or caramelized. Reserve. In the same pan add more butter,olive oil and  mushrooms and fry. Add parsley and wine, simmer until wine has been absorbed. Turn heat off, add swiss chard and toss. Reserve.

Distribute ingredients equally over pizza and bake in a 450 oven for 5-7 minutes and then change to broil for remaining cooking time. Watch closely.

The cooking times will vary depending on ingredients.

My pizza dough Recipe.

1 cup warm water

1 package active dry yeast

21/2 to 3 cups of bread flour

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Combine the water, yeast, and 11/2 cups of the flour in a large bowl. Mix well. Add the oil, salt, and remaining flour. With large wooden spoon mix the ingredients together until the dough holds its shape. You may need a bit less flour, so add the last half gradually.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. IF the dough becomes sticky, sprinkle a bit more flour over it.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled 2 quart bowl. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and place in the oven with the door closed and the light on, and let the dough rest until it has doubled in size, about 1 hour.

When the dough has risen, place  on a lightly floured surface, divide it into two or more parts and roll them into balls. Cover them with a tower and let rest for 15 minutes. The dough is ready to be shaped, topped and cooked.

This made 2 medium size pizzas.

Wild Apple & Oregano Jelly

 

Peelings and cores of wild apples*

5 Stalks of fresh oregano

Take remaining cores and peelings after apples have been used for some other purpose. Add 5 stalks of fresh oregano.

Put in pan and just cover with water and cook until soft.

Drain overnight in jelly bag. (My mother uses a pillow case.)

Add some water to your juice 1/3 of the amount of juice you produce.

Cook 20 minutes, then add ¾ cup of sugar for every cup of juice is the rule of thumb, but taste it to gauge your own desire of sweetness, and adjust sugar accordingly.

Boil hard 5 minutes. Jelly should coat back of spoon. If not continue to boil.

This jelly is especially good if apples have red skins.

Pour into sterilized bottles & enjoy with bread and cold meats.

 

*I used 2 quart saucepan of peels and cores

 

 Finding wild apples on our hike in Antigonish inspired me to make use of them.