Cooksister | Food, Travel, Photography

Food, photos & faraway places

  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • About me
    • Contact me
    • Work with me
    • Legal
      • Copyright notice & Disclaimer
      • Disclosure
      • Cookies and Privacy Policy
    • Press and media
    • Cooksister FAQs
  • RECIPES
    • Recipe Index – by course
    • Baking
    • Baking (savoury)
    • Braai/Barbecue
    • Breakfast & brunch
    • Christmas
    • Dessert
    • Drinks
    • Eggs
    • Finger food
    • Fish
    • Gluten-free
    • Leftovers
    • Meat
    • Pasta & rice
    • Poultry
    • Pulses
    • Salads
    • Soup
    • South African
    • Starters & light meals
    • Vegan
    • Vegetables
    • Vegetarian
  • RESTAURANTS
    • British Isles restaurants
    • Dubai restaurants
    • France restaurants
    • London restaurants
    • Montenegro restaurants
    • New York restaurants
    • Pop-ups and supperclubs
    • Serbia restaurants
    • Singapore restaurants
    • South Africa restaurants
    • Sweden restaurants
    • Switzerland restaurants
    • USA restaurants
  • TRAVEL
    • All my travel posts
      • Austria
      • Belgium
      • Canada
      • Dubai
      • Cruise ships
      • France
      • Germany
      • Greece
      • Grenada
      • Hong Kong
      • Hotel reviews
      • Italy
      • Israel
      • Jersey
      • Mexico
      • Netherlands
      • Norway
      • Portugal
      • Singapore
      • Ski & snow
      • South Africa
      • Spain
      • Sweden
      • Switzerland
      • UK
      • USA
      • Wales
  • PORTFOLIO
    • Freelance writing portfolio
    • Speaking and teaching
    • Photography portfolio
    • Buy my photos

Baked gurnard with a mustard cream sauce

by Jeanne Horak on June 30, 2004 5 Comments in Recipes - fish, Recipes - gluten-free

Cooksister-tomato

Well, the heady excitement of Is My Blog Burning 5 is now, sadly, a thing of the past. But with my recent visit home to South Africa and all the fish I saw on the menu there (post still to follow, I promise), I can’t seem to get the fishy theme out of my head.

When I was growing up, fish was really simple. When I was a toddler, fish came in 2 types: fingers or cakes, both liberally doused with tomato sauce and possibly mayonnaise. Then as I graduated to “adult” food, the fish we ate at home was either kingklip or, if we were being fancy or having company, sole. So if it was firm, white and filleted, it was kingklip & if it was flat & usually crumbed, it was sole. Easy peasy. But sometime in the 1980s/1990s, the prices of both these fish went through the roof and my mother quite smartly switched to hake as our family’s fish of choice. I was never that mad about hake. I mean, it’s OK – like cod (to which it is related), it’s very flaky when cooked so pan-frying is tricky unless you batter it to death first (and I don’t mean batter as in assault…) and then deep-fry it. Or you can oven-bake it, but generally it is not the world’s most exciting fish. Once I had moved out of home and had to learn to forage for myself in the supermarket, I decided that even hake at ZAR 15/kg sounded expensive, so I asked the fishmonger for a substitute and thus stumbled on butter bream (well that’s what the fishmonger’s pimply assistant called it…). What a lovely fish! The fillets are about the size of kingklip fillets but have a lovely pinkish tinge to the flesh when raw. When cooked, it’s a firm fish, not as flaky as hake and (I think) tastier, and if you get small fillets you can dip them in seasoned flour and pan-fry them – yum!

But then in about 2001, South Africa decided that it was much more profitable (what with our lousy exchange rate) to sell the hake (and, apparently, butter bream) we caught off our coast to other countries, and consequently the price of hake shot up to almost ZAR 30/kg, and butter bream which was ZAR12/kg shot up to about ZAR 25/kg. At this time I decided that if I was going to have to pay this much for fish which weren’t exactly the height of culinary excitement, I may as well start buying more expensive “premium” fish and at least get some bang for my buck, so to speak…

And so began my foray into the world of poached salmon fillets, seared tuna steaks, grilled butterfish (this is the closest I could get to what this actually is – apparently this is what the Namibians call butterfish which is my best guess I’m afraid. I know it isn’t the dollarfish that Americans refer to as butterfish as I have had salmon-sized butterfish steaks…) and my favourite fishy dinner party standby, gurnard (see recipe below – at Anthony’s request!). Of course, now that I am in London, I have a whole new fishy lexicon – haddock, mackerel, plaice, sea bass, red snapper… the list goes on. So slowly I am building up a new supply of recipes to suit new fish species. But for now, I’ll leave you with a recipe from home. Enjoy.

BAKED GURNARD WITH MUSTARD CREAM SAUCE (serves4)

Ingredients:

4 skinned gurnard fillets (about 1kg)
lemon juice
chives
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup fish or vegetable stock
1/2 cup cream
2 tsp wholegrain mustard
salt and milled black pepper

Method:

Wash and pat dry the gurnard fillets. Season and moisten with lemon juice. Roll up and tie up with chives (leave some for garnishing). Arrange in a single layer in an oiled baking dish. Pour over the wine and stock and cover with a sheet of oiled greaseproof paper (I usually use tin-foil) . Bake at 190C for 15 minutes or until opaque and just cooked. Pour the cream into a saucepan. Whisk in the mustard, then the cooking liquid from the fish – do this slowly, spoonful by spoonful so the cream doesn’t separate! Keep the fish warm while reducing the sauce over a high heat until slightly thickened. Snip reserved chives and sprinkle over the fish before serving.

More deliciousness for you!

  • Chicken, sun-dried tomato & mustard pasta sauceChicken, sun-dried tomato & mustard pasta sauce
  • Salmon tagliatelle and a Cirio product reviewSalmon tagliatelle and a Cirio product review
  • Prawn and lemon pepper risottoPrawn and lemon pepper risotto
  • Quick creamy mustard and caper pork chopsQuick creamy mustard and caper pork chops

Never miss a Cooksister post

If you enjoyed this post, enter your e-mail address here to receive a FREE e-mail update when a new post appears on Cooksister

I love comments almost as much as I love cheese - so if you can't leave me any cheese, please leave me a comment instead!

« Mmmm… Cholesterol!
All creams are equal – but some are more equal than others »

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. redsaid says

    July 2, 2004 at 1:40 am

    You’d think I would’ve learned by now not to read your blog when I’m STARVING!!!!!! (With no more exciting prospects than a piece of toast beckoning… and not even a drop of Bovril in sight… sigh.) Yes, I know, it’s scandalous and I should really, really learn how to cook.
    Keep up these cookin’, smokin’ scribblings of yours, ‘kay?
    R.

    Reply
  2. anthony says

    July 2, 2004 at 9:21 am

    Hey cheers. I’ll have to head out again with my fishing mate. I almost chucked the first Gurnard I caught back in, as it’s an ugly spikey bugger. But my friend told me it was good eating and it was.
    Will be trying to reach double figures on fish I’ve caught in my life – more a shabby excuse to sit outside near the water and drink beer type fisherman.

    Reply
  3. Jeanne says

    July 2, 2004 at 10:35 am

    Hey Red! Long time no hear… Thanks for the compliment – don’t you worry, I have no intention of stopping any time soon! Look out for my homesickness-inducing SA trip posts soon (hope to get time this weekend!)
    No worries Anthony! I also didn’t know how nasty-looking gurnard are when still alive, but man they sure taste good! In fact, I realised when doing this post that I have no idea what most fish I eat look like when still alive… Makes identification of fish by their common names rather difficult when these names vary from place to place (plaice to plaice? ho ho ho!) and the internet only shows pics of them when still whole! But we persevere…

    Reply
  4. Les Appleby says

    November 26, 2004 at 4:45 am

    Please help an ancient expat who is longing for the taste of plaice. Where can I buy this in South Africa. We live in Hout Bay!! Love Gurnard and Elf even more than Hake and Kingklip and Kabeljou.
    Any help would be appreciated. Love your website.
    Regards,
    Les Appleby

    Reply
  5. Rob says

    March 16, 2005 at 9:29 pm

    Hi there – I recently spent time in S Africa – and my girlfriend and I really loved the fish out there…Kingklip, Cape Salmon, Yellowtail etc… now we are back in the UK and are looking to try new fish and our local fishmonger has some gurnard. So I’m going to try your recipe! Thanks for posting it….

    Reply
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Never miss a Cooksister post!

Enter your address to subscribe via e-mail

Search over 500 recipes

Featured on

Recently on Cooksister

  • Potato, salmon and cucumber salad
  • Review: Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote
  • Exploring Grenada’s tree-to-bar cocoa estates
  • Beef, broccoli and udon noodle stir fry from “The Japanese Larder” by Luiz Hara
  • The Rosemary – an organic Hungarian restaurant in London
  • The Foyle Hotel Eatery: dining on Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way
  • 8 Rhubarb recipes you need to try this winter
  • Saturday Snapshots #318

Archives by month

Archives by category

Popular posts

Peppermint Crisp fridge tart - a South African treat
Oxtail and red wine potjie
Roosterkoek - a South African braai essential
How to sautée Brussels sprouts
Brandy and Coke glazed gammon for a South African Christmas feast
Gem squash central - how to find them, how to grow them, how to eat them!

Also available on

cooksister


Instagram post 2182859529545291118_54730621
Can anybody gaze up at St Paul's Cathedral and fail to be impressed by its scale, beauty and grace (and the amazing blue skies that London has been blessed with for the past 2 Sundays??) *LONDON TRAVEL TIP* Admission to the cathedral costs £20.00 on the door (or £17.00 in advance) but here are my tips to see the interior for less.
1. Attend a service in the cathedral for free (there are four services a day), although you will not be able to access some areas like the whispering gallery that are open to paying visitors.
2. Attend a free organ recital which take place most Sundays at 16h45.
3. Get 2 for 1 tickets when you buy National Rail tickets to travel to a station near St Paul's. See http://www.daysoutguide.co uk for details.
4. When you buy your ticket, ask for an Annual Pass which will let you return to the cathedral for free as many times as you like for a year. 365 visits for the price of one!
5. Book a public guided tour (no extra cost above admission) which will get you access to areas like the Geometric Staircase and the Quire which are not usually open to visitors.

Instagram post 2171125393545679606_54730621
"Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate" (JRR Tolkien)

Do you love the anticipation of what lies just around the corner? Or does the unknown fill you with trepidation? On my recent trip to Assisi, I found this compact and ancient city to be filled with hidden treasures concealed behind every corner (and there were MANY corners, most of them on a steel uphill! 🤣). Sometimes a quiet church; sometimes a quirky art gallery; sometimes a breathtaking view; and sometimes a cheerful procession of geraniums marching up ancient stone stairs.

May you turn a corner today and discover something wonderful. 🙂
📸 @paolahorak

Instagram post 2140197497750837873_54730621
Today, South Africa (my homeland) marked Heritage Day, when the diversity of cultures in the country are celebrated. But as much as heritage is about what makes us different, it is also about what brings us together.

One thing that brings South Africans of all ages, from all walks of life, and from all cultures together all over the world is the braai - food prepared communally over an open fire and enjoyed with friends. Today, Heritage Day shares the date with National Braai Day when Sourh Africans celebrate their unifying fireside  culinary heritage. 
I have made this dish both in the oven and over the coals of the braai - and I definitely prefer the smokiness of the braaied version. The dish is simplicity itself - salmon (or snoek, if you can get your hands on some!) basted with a sticky glaze of... smooth apricot jam and Bovril! I kid you not! Don't mock it until you've tried it 😁. Serve on a bed of leaves topped with pomegranate seeds and spring onion.

Happy Heritage Day! 🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦 #heritageday #braaiday

Instagram post 2135786442203279056_54730621
Hands up - who is loving the fabulously mild September weather we are experiencing in London at the moment? Such a treat 🌞 There are few finer ways to enjoy sunny late summer weekends than sundowners along the river Thames with friends. This particularly lovely and colourful river view was snapped from outside the @barmyarmstw1 in #Twickenham recently. 
How have you been celebrating the lingering summer days?

Instagram post 2118446473331719697_54730621
The Cité de Carcassonne is a walled mediaeval citadel within the modern French city of the same name, in the Occitanie region of southern France. The citadel was founded during the Gallo-Roman period and is famous for its intact 3 kilometres of double surrounding walls and 52 towers.

The original Roman walls were in place by 333 AD and since then the citadel  has been variously occupied by the Visigoths, Saracens and the Crusaders. The second line of walled defences was added after 1226, outside the Roman walls, and the town was finally annexed to the kingdom of France in 1247.

I loved looking up at these magnificent walls on Bastille day, through the prism of a glass of @foncalieuwines who were hosting us at @lecomptoirdelacite  for dinner with a spectacular view. 
Have you ever visited a Mediaeval walled city? Which one? [PRESS TRIP]

Instagram post 2106746806038463644_54730621
Simple and delicious, this new potato, salmon and cucumber salad is the happy marriage of nutty new potatoes (I used @jerseyroyals), silky smoked salmon and crispy cucumber in a lemony yoghurt dressing. Perfect for a summery main course - the recipe is linked to in my profile. Have a delicious weekend, everyone 😎 [GIFTED]

Instagram post 2100775015050655801_54730621
Come on in - the gates are open! Hello to my new followers - great to have you here 😊

These beautiful gates lead to the elegant Chateau la Provenquiere in the Pays d'Oc region of the Languedoc where I recently tasted their range of rosé wines. Built in the 15th Century, the castle was restored and refurbished to its current style in the 1800s. If you visit, make sure to explore the beautiful grounds and views over the surrounding countryside from the chateau garden. [PRESS TRIP]

Instagram post 2097986173625239866_54730621
Looking out over the vineyards of La Clape in Pays D'Oc in the south of France, where we spent the night at Gerard Bertrand's beautiful hotel, Chateau L'Hospitalet. From this ridge (about 10 minutes walk from the hotel) you can look out over the vines all the way to the Mediterranean which exerts its influence on the region's microclimate and its much-respected red wines. [PRESS TRIP]

Instagram post 2093023799826787585_54730621
[Press trip] Enjoyed a fabulous charcuterie platter under the trees to the sound of cicadas at Bar Boeuf & Cow near Béziers with winemaker @bruno.andreu. Bruno has recently started making wine under his own name and makes a great range of "Aromatic" @vinspaysdocigp varietal wines as well as AOP and premium "Icon" ranges. His "Aromatic" Pays D'Oc IGP Merlot with its ripe red fruit flavours and lively acidity made a great match for the excellent smoked duck breast (and I love his  botanical-themed labels!). What wine do you enjoy with charcuterie?


Load More...


Follow on Instagram


Cooksister

Follow Jeanne Horak-Druiff's board Recipes by Cooksister on Pinterest.

The South African Food and Wine Blog Directory

Foodies100 Index of UK Food Blogs

See my Recipes at Feastie

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Jeanne Horak is a freelance food and travel writer; recipe developer and photographer. South African by birth and Londoner by choice, Jeanne has been writing about food and travel on Cooksister since 2004. She is a popular speaker on food photography and writing has also contributed articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print publications. Jeanne has also worked with a number of destination marketers to promote their city or region. Please get in touch to work with her Read More…

Latest Recipes

Jersey-royals-salmon-salad2 © Jeanne Horak 2019
Beef-Udon-noodle-stir-fry-title
P2PIrelandRhubarb © J Horak-Druiff 2013
Blood-orange-halloumi-salad-title
Lentil-squash-feta-Casserole
lamb-pulao-title
Blood-Orange-Cake-Title
Rhubarb-strawberry-Galette-1

SITEMAP

Home

Contact

About me

Recipe Index

Restaurant Index

Copyright & Disclaimer

Cookies & privacy policy




blog counter

© 2004 - 2019 · Jeanne Horak unless otherwise stated - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You may not reproduce any text, excerpts or images without my prior permission. Site by RTW Labs

Copyright © 2019 · Cooksister on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Cooksister cookie consent
We use cookies to ensure you receive the best experience on our site. If you continue to use this site, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions. Accept
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Necessary Always Enabled