I recently attended a cooking course at the Sydney Seafood School with owner and head chef of Kepos Street Kitchen and Kepos & Co, Michael Rantissi. The cooking class was a great experience – what I loved was not only was the demo from Michael really interesting (this guy can talk and he openly admits it) was that afterwards we proceeded to the test kitchen and made the dish ourselves before sitting down with a bottle of wine and enjoying the fruits of our labour! I have been to other cooking schools where it is simply a demo and a taste which is great and all but nowhere near as fun.
Michael shared with us a great recipe for Chickpea and Blue-eye Trevalla Tagine and I made a few adjustments to suit my families personal taste which is hot and spicy! Whilst traditionally cooked in a
Tagine, I made the recipe in my
Le Creuset Shallow Casserole as I know we all have limited funds and space, realistically unless you are a die hard Tagine lover, the heavy base of the Le Creuset casserole dish and the self basting rings on the lid made for a great substitute.
The Recipe for 6…
Ingredients:
- 1kg blue-eye trevella fillets with skin off and bone free (I had my fish monger do this for me)
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 large brown onion chopped finely
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tablespoon ground turmeric
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon ground fennel seeds
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon chilli powder
- Pinch saffron threads
- 2 cups vegetable stock (if you prefer a fishy aroma you can use fish stock)
- 1 tin chickpeas drained
- 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
- 1 bunch coriander
- Salt & pepper to taste
Directions:
1. Cut fish into equally sized pieces so that you have two pieces per person
2. Heat your casserole or tagine over medium heat with a lid on
3. Add oil, onion and garlic, cook for a few minutes until transparent and stir occasionally
4. Add all spices and saute for a minute
5. Add the saffron and stock before bringing to the boil
6. Reduce the heat to low-medium and add the chickpeas and cook for 10 minutes uncovered
7. Add the fish pieces and sprinkle over the chilli flakes, add salt & pepper
8. Cover and reduce heat to low and cook for 5 minutes
9. Turn the fish and cook for a further 8 – 10 minutes
10. Garnish with fresh coriander and serve with cous cous or rice
Cook’s notes:
Michael explained to us how to make the perfect cous cous and how not to follow the box instructions. The result was a truly delicious and authentic fluffy cous cous which I have not had since made fresh in the Middle East.
The method for perfect cous cous:
1. Place 1 cup cous cous in a bowl (I use my Pyrex glass bowls)
2. Add olive oil and use your fingers to ensure all the cous cous is well coated
3. Top with some salt & pepper along with any spice you may want to infuse with (cumin, turmeric, chicken stock cube)
4. Cover with 1.25 cups of boiling water
5. Tightly seal the glass bowl with cling wrap
6. Wait 18 minutes before opening the cling wrap
7. Loosen the cous cous with a fork before serving
