Read this before picking up the skillet

Whether it’s bream or Alfonsino, Mures’ head chef Markella Koutalidi shares her Top 3 must-know tips to cooking fish ahead of Good Friday tomorrow. For a perfectly cooked fillet, read on...

ONE of Hobart’s leading seafood chefs has spilt the beans on the top tips and tricks for perfecting the best seafood dish this Easter.

Mures head chef Markella Koutalidi revealed to the Mercury three critical tips to cooking fish.

Cook with the fillet skin down in a pan on high heat for two minutes before baking in oven for 7 to 10 minutes.

Season the skin with salt to ensure the skin remains crispy and with moisture maintained.

Don’t over season the fish. Instead only use small amount of salt and pepper, but remember to season side ingredients.

Ms Koutalidi said the easiest and tastiest home cooked seafood dishes were:

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Easter Recipes

Scallops

Seared with sweet potato puree, pickled chili, Lilliput capers and raisins with a herbal panko crumb.

Ingredients: 12 scallops, 20g panko bread crumbs, 1 sweet potato, 2 pickled green chillies, 10g raisins, 1 bunch parsley, 1 lemon, pinch of Lilliput capers, olive oil, butter, salt and pepper.

Prepare: Skin and slice sweet potato and boil in salted water until soft. Blend with a tablespoon of butter until consistency is silky smooth. Take raisins and boil them for 15 minutes until they are rehydrated. Thinly slice pickled chili and combine with raisins and pinch of Lilliput capers.

Herbal Panko Crumb: Finely chop parsley and zest lemon. Combine with 20g of panko crumbs and add a pinch of salt and pepper plus a teaspoon of olive oil then mix. Preheat oven to 140C and cook until golden.

Scallops: Pan sear in olive oil on a high heat until cooked to your liking. Finish with a small table spoon of butter, sprinkle with chopped parsley and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Serving: Using sweet potato puree as a base, lightly cover with herbal panko crumb mixture and add a sprinkle of raisins, Lilliput capers and pickled chili and top with seared scallops.

Blue Eye Trevalla

Baked with roast pumpkin, silver beet, spring onion, bok choy, shitake mushrooms and charred cherry tomatoes.

Ingredients: 170g Blue Eye Trevalla, 4 cherry tomatoes, 1 shitake mushroom, 1 stem of spring onion, 1 stem of silver beet, ½ bunch of bok choy, pumpkin and seeds, thyme, butter, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Prepare: Clean and chop silver beet and bok choy into quarters, slice spring onions on slight angle, and thinly slice mushroom. Chop cherry tomatoes in half.

Roast Pumpkin and seeds: Peel and slice pumpkin into large wedges, season with a drizzle of olice oil, pinch of salt and pepper and sprinkle of thyme. Line oven tray with baking paper and roast pumpkin at 180C until cooked through. Reduce heat to 130 degrees, sprinkle a pinch of salt over pumpkin seeds and bake until golden brown.

Blue Eye Trevalla: Place skin side down in a pan on high heat for 2 minutes until skin becomes crispy. Season flesh with small amount of butter, salt and pepper and then bake in oven on atray lined with baking paper for 7 – 10 minutes (depending on thickness) at 180C.

Finishing off: Add tomatoes to a cold, non-stick pan sliced down. Drizzle with olice oil and add to heat until charred. Combine onions, chopped garlic and good drizzle of olive oil to a pan on medium to high heat. Add mushrooms first, then once they begin to shrink add silver beat and bok choy. Cook until greens wilt and season with light sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Serving: Serve greens as base, lightly place cooked Blue Eye fillet on top, garnish around the edges with tomatoes and roast pumpkin. Sprinkle with thyme.

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Mures head chef Markella Koutalidi reveals all the tips and tricks to make easy Good Friday fish dishes. She is pictured preparing three easy seafood dishes. Picture: MATT THOMPSON