Baked Fish With Almond Stuffed Prunes

What a fun week we are having trialing the menu for Saturday night. I’m enjoying cooking again and Rog is certainly enjoying sampling! I’ve decided to keep the whole dinner party traditionally buffet where guests can try a bit of everything. So I have created lots of dishes from nibbles through to dessert, making as much of it as I can myself, including Labne (yoghurt cheese.)

I want to have a balanced menu with a fish dish, a chicken dish and a lamb or beef dish. I was going through my recipe books and came across a recipe in the fish section and as usual I had to put my own twist on it. Middle Eastern flavoured baked fish with almond stuffed prunes.

I used Barramundi as it’s a firm fish that holds its shape well and is flavoursome without being overpowering. Instead of cooking large fillets, I cut into smaller ones as it will reduce the cooking time on the night and my guests won’t get too stuffed with all the other food and feel they need to join Weight Watchers!

I used blanched almond meal and cinnamon as the fish coating and as I had left over egg whites from a previous recipe I just used that as the ‘glueing’ agent which worked just as well. And I did shallow fry the fish in oil but I think for a healthier option (and to avoid that Weight Watchers membership!) you could bake in the oven on a moderate heat and just watch them closely.

I had a bit of a hiccup when it came to toasting the almonds for the stuffed prunes – I kept burning them! Frustrating but we got there in the end. There is nothing worse than burnt nuts! Yukky. Then I burnt my fingers trying to stuff the pitted prunes with extremely hot whole almonds and should have known better and let them cool down. Ouch.

So here is the end result. I made some Moroccan flavoured Cous Cous using Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s Ras el Hanout spice blend, garlic, mint, pumpkin, pine nuts and peas and served under the fish fillets and an onion like jam that is flavoured with cinnamon.

And what does the judging panel think? (AKA Rog) Quote: “Some of your best work bud.” Say no more! Another dish down, only another 7 to go!