Pan Fried Hake With Salsa Verde, Chorizo Polenta, Warm Goats Cheese Salad

It has been a busy 7 days. In fact, I am so late writing this today that it is more than 7 days, but you get that some times. In a week that saw the leaving certificate exams kick off, the World Cup started Oliver Dunne of Bon Apetite in Dublin 'boycots' the Restaurants Association of Ireland 'Awards', because they are, well s*ite and Máire Flynn of the Tannery tells him to take a chill pill as the restaurant awards are only a bit of fun. We also saw Irelands finest boys in blue escorting Israeli spuds - I mean I know we love our spuds but do they really need Irelands answer to McNulty and Co protecting them - and why would anyone want to buy Israeli spuds - apart from just for the obvious reasons. Right now we have amazing Irish spuds here, boil them and cover with butter, salt, butter, black pepper and butter. We made a great potato salad with celery, carrot, spring onions, home made mayo, harissa and chives. You will not beat it. Think we might have photo on our flickr page. It was so good.

Did I also moan about the 'Taste of Dublin' where the chefs want to be 'celebs' and the 'celebs' think they are chefs... no I didn't and I won't. I'll leave it for today as our blog is late.



Roll your goats cheese into a sausage shape and stick in the fridge until needed. Wash your salad leaves, slice your pear and fennel thinly and mix with the leaves. Add some crushed walnuts and mix. Next make your dressing by using a table spoon of dijon mustard, honey and some white wine vinegar. Mix well then slowly add some good olive oil, mixing all the time. Season and maybe give a squeeze of lemon juice to loosen it up. Next, chop up your cheese into small but thick slices. Press some walnuts into them and roast under a hot grill for a couple of mins until the cheese begins to melt. While doing this, dress the salad and add the warmed goats cheese at the end.





Or Spongebob with spicy sausage. Boil some salted water and then using a whisk get a nice bit of 'motion in the ocean'. Add the polenta (is used 200g and it was way to much!), olive oil and another pinch of salt. Bring to the boil and cook for 5 mins. Remove from heat, cover and stick it into a pre-heated oven for an hour and a half, stirring occasionally.

Next, slice your chorizo and cook in hot oil. Remove and set aside. Reserve the cooking juices from the chorizo. Now remove the polenta from the oven a whisk in a good knob of butter, chorizo oil and soem chopped cooked chorizo. Put it into a dish of some sort, lined with parchment paper and refridgerate overnight.

When ready to eat the following day, remove the polenta, slice and bake with some chorizo on top. Serve with a salad....maybe a warm goats cheese salad?

Rinse your hake and remove any bones etc if your fishmonger has been too lazy. Portion it as you like and set aside while we make the salsa verde. Take a bunch of parsley and mint and finely chop. Flash fry some capers and finley chop. Chop some gerkins and a clove or two of garlic and...finley chop. Tear up some basil and mix it all together. Add a tbsp of mustard and some white wine vinegar. Slowly add some oil and mix well. Season. You can also use anchovies in this but i decided not to.

Next, heat a little oil and add the fish, skin side down. Cook until crisp then turn and cook for another min. Romove from the pan and plate with a topping of salsa verde.

Shopping List
Fresh hake €6.00
Veg, 'erb, salad and polenta €6.70
Chorizo €2.00
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Total €14.70

Drinks:
Cuvee Des Contis, 2009, 14%
Montezovo Bardolino, 2008, 12.5%

On the stereo:
Josh Rouse, Justin Timberlake, Vuvuzelas