JAMIE'S ROASTED WHITE FISH AND LEEKS

I had the most amazing meal at Kurobuta on Friday and I am currently wishing I could eat there every night! The wagu burgers and pork belly buns are just out of this world. Unfortunately being pregnant means I couldn't eat any sushi as they don't freeze it first, so there was definitely going to be fish on the menu at home this week.

This recipe is from Jamie's Superfoods book and it took about 40 minutes to prepare and cook.

Ingredients for 4 people:

16 baby leeks, trimmed and washed (if like me, you can only buy normal leeks, I would use around 4-6 big ones and slice them)
4 x 200g fillets of white fish, off the bone, skin on (I used cod)
1 large lemon, cut into 8 thin wedges
4 sprigs of fresh rosemary
12 rashes of smoked, streaky bacon

For the marinade:

A couple of sprigs each of fresh thyme, rosemary and bay leaves, picked
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
Juice of half a lemon

Preheat the oven to 200 C / gas mark 6 and place a baking tray in the oven to warm up.

To make your marinade, bash up the thyme, rosemary and bay leaves with a pinch of salt in a pestle and mortar until the salt turns green. Pour in a couple of glugs of olive oil, add a pinch of pepper and the lemon juice and give it a stir. Unfortunately I don't have a pestle and mortar and so I just blended it all together in a food processor and it seemed to do the trick.

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and parboil the leeks for around 5 minutes. Drain in a colander and let them steam dry.

Put the fish, lemon, rosemary sprigs and leeks in a bowl. Pour over the marinade and toss to cover everything in the lovely marinade flavours.

Place the fish, skin side down, into the preheated tray. Scoop the lemon, rosemary, leeks and marinade out of the bowl and place over and around the fish. Place 3 rashes of bacon over each fillet of fish and then roast in the oven for 20 minutes. 

I found that the two lower rashes of bacon weren't crispy enough so I would suggest either laying the bacon separately and not on top of each other (like I did) or putting them under a high grill for a few minutes at the end.

When it is ready, serve and enjoy.

I have to admit, I wasn't really looking forward to this, it looked good but I was worried it was going to be bland. I was so wrong…..this was actually really delicious, I loved the combination of the leeks, fish and bacon but it was surprisingly the lemon that bought the dish together. Arabella enjoyed the bacon and fish but apparently wasn't that keen on leeks - she would have preferred the pea mash that I made with my Pesto Baked Cod - I would add this rather than substitute it and I think it would then be the perfect midweek meal for the two of us.