This is a classic South African fish pie, topped with white sweet potato mash that’s often served for supper on Good Friday. Hake would be the typical fish, however any firm white fish can be used. For the budget minded, a mix of fish offcuts works very well. The watercress and orange salad is simply a blend of watercress and orange segments (use a knife to separate to remove all membranes) dressed in orange juice with sea salt flakes and black pepper.
Prep time 20 minutes/Cook time 45 minutes/Serves 4
Ingredients:
For the filling:
500g (1 lb) white fish, skinned and filleted (use a mix if you can)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2–3 tbsp plain flour
6 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
180g (6 ½ oz) kale, trimmed and shredded
2 eggs, beaten
For the sweet-potato mash:
500g (1 lb) sweet potato, peeled, diced and steamed (remember that African sweet potatoes are typically the white kind) boiled in salted water and mashed
25g (1 oz) butter
¼ tsp grated nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
Sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
Watercress and orange salad, for serving
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C (180C fan/400F). Slice the fish into small portions, season and dip in flour. Fry in 2–3 T olive oil until pale golden then remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside (4-5 minutes).
At the same time, add the remaining oil to another pan and use to soften the onion (about 4 minutes). Stir in the garlic and kale and add a little seasoning. Cover and simmer until very soft, adding a little more oil if necessary (about 6 minutes). Adjust the seasoning to taste.
Mix the kale with the eggs and turn into an oiled pie dish. Top with the fried fish and spoon over the mash. Press down evenly with a fork. Transfer to your pre-heated oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until hot and flecked with brown.
Serve with a watercress-and-orange salad.
If you prefer using spinach instead of kale, go ahead it’s a simple substitution, just cook the greens for 1 minute until just wilted, then chop.
Masala Snoek
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This is another South African fish recipe, this time with snoek, however, the tikka masala spice paste was probably invented in the UK (there are claims for Scotland and England) based on the classic butter chicken recipe. Here the dish is re-invented as a spice paste for coating South African snoek. This makes an excellent and simple Good Friday dish, served with potato salad or minted new potatoes. Like so many South African snoek dishes this is typically braaied (barbecued) though you can oven-bake the dish, too.
Prep time 20 minutes/Cook time 20 minutes/Serves 4
Ingredients:
For the Tikka Masala Spice Paste:
2 garlic cloves roughly chopped
1 red chilli pepper seeds removed and roughly chopped
2cm (1 in) piece of fresh ginger peeled and minced
2 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon hot paprika or paprika
1 teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon cumin seeds or ground cumin
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon tomato puree
30g (1 oz) fresh coriander chopped including stems
Pinch of sea salt
For the Fish:
50g (1 ¾ oz) tikka masala curry paste
2 tbsp ghee, melted
1 whole snoek
limes or lemons, quartered, for serving
fried curry leaves, for serving (optional)
For the sambal mix:
250ml (1 cup) plain yoghurt
5 tbsp vegetable atchar (or your favourite Indian chutney)
Method:
Begin with the tikka masala spice paste. Place all the ingredients into a small blender. Add just 1 tablespoon of oil to begin with, more can be added as required.
Start the blender and blend until the ingredients start to come together into a paste. If the blender has trouble getting going add another half tablespoon of oil of tomato puree. Then after this add small amounts of tap water in between blending, until you are happy with the consistency.
Once thoroughly blended the paste can be used immediately as a marinade. Alternatively you can jar up the paste and keep in the fridge for up to a month.
For the fish: Mix together the curry paste and ghee. Place the snoek on a double sheet of kitchen foil and rub with the paste.
Place over medium-hot coals and cook for 25 minutes, uncovered, until the fish is opaque. Serve with the sambal.
