Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Cheap and Cheerful Smoked Fish and Cannellini



Yesterday, I was trying to decide what to make for dinner. I found some smoked haddock in the freezer and cans of cannellini beans in the larder. Et voila - a meal that is quick, healthy and cheap. So I thought, my boys who are cooking for themselves could use a recipe like this. So here it is.

Keep these in inventory:
A) Skinless smoked fish fillets. Either cod or haddock are good choices. If you like, you can freeze them.
B) Cans of cannellini beans

To prepare
1) Lay the fish fillets in a frying pan. If you have them, add 1 teaspoon peppercorns, 1 bay leaf and 1 celery stalk. If you don't have these ingredients, don't worry
2) Pour into the pan 2 cups of water
3) Cover the pan, bring the water to a boil then turn down the heat and simmer for 5 minutes, a bit longer if the fish is frozen.
4) Drain 2 cans of beans into a colander and rinse to get rid of the gloopiness (an important step)
5) Pour our most of the liquid from the pan. Leave about 1/2 a cup. Take out the fish and put on a plate.
6) Now put the beans into pan and heat them in the liquid for about 5 minutes.
7) Put the fish back in the pan. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and chopped parsley if you have it and stir everything together, breaking up the fish as you go.
8) Taste and add salt and pepper (easy on the salt because the smoked fish is salty already)