Smoked Gigha Halibut with Soda Bread and Fennel Piccalilli by Paris House

 

Prepared and eaten together this dish is sure to impress your family but the individual components are fantastic too. The halibut can be substituted for any smoked fish.

 If you fancy a spot of baking with the kids the soda bread is a great place to start. There’s no yeast required and little ones can get involved weighing out the ingredients, rubbing the butter through the flour and watching as the bicarbonate of soda and buttermilk react to create the bubbles which give the bread it’s lift.

Make the soda bread once and we guarantee that you will go back to the recipe again and again.

 

Recipe Courtesy of Paris House

Serves: 4

Difficulty: Easy


Equipment

  • Bowl
  • 16cm stainless steel saucepan
  • Sieve
  • Zip lock bag
  • Silicone paper
  • Tin foil
  • 30cm x 11cm x 8cm round bread tin (or similar)
  • Cooling rack

The dish

  • 1 recipe of piccalilli
  • 2 tbsp chopped dill
  • 1 recipe of soda bread
  • Salted butter
  • 400g smoked Gigha halibut (you can buy it here) – this is something a bit different, amazing quality. You could use smoked salmon as an alternative.
  1. First job is to make the piccalilli this needs to be done well in advance, preferably a week, to allow it time to pickle and mature. Once made it can be stored in the fridge for at least a month.
  2. On the day, make the soda bread.
  3. When ready to serve, slice the soda bread and fold the chopped dill through the piccalilli.
  4. Present the bread & butter, piccalilli and halibut family style for everyone to enjoy.

Ingredients

Fennel Piccalilli:

  • 2 heads of fennel
  • 10 baby yellow skin onions
  • 10 cornichon gherkins
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp white mustard seeds
  • 120g white wine vinegar
  • 80g Sweet white wine
  • 70g sugar
  • 2 tsp English mustard powder
  • 1.5 tsp turmeric
  • 2 tsp cornflour

Soda Bread:

  • 185g milk
  • 25g treacle
  • 200g wholemeal flour
  • 85g soft flour
  • 45g fine oatmeal
  • 4g bicarbonate of soda
  • 4g salt
  • 20g butter
  • 150g buttermilk

Cooking Method

For the Fennel Piccalilli:

  1. Cut the green tops from the fennel bulbs, then cut the bulbs into quarters.
  2. Cut most of the core from each quarter and discard. Finely slice each quarter and place into a bowl.
  3. Peel and half the baby onions, remove the core from each onion half and place in the bowl with the fennel.
  4. Gently simmer the mustard seeds in water for about 10 minutes, drain and rinse then place in the bowl with the vegetables.
  5. Add the gherkins and salt and mix well.
  6. In a pan bring the white wine vinegar to the boil.
  7. In a bowl mix the sweet white wine, sugar, mustard powder, turmeric and cornflour.
  8. Pour into the boiling vinegar and mix well, lower the heat and gently cook out the mix for 5-10 minutes, until very well thickened.
  9. Remove the pan from the heat.
  10. Drain the salted vegetables through a sieve and gently squeeze out any excess liquid.
  11. Add the vegetables to the pan and mix well.
  12. Place the piccalilli into a zip lock bag, remove as much air as possible and seal closed. Place in the fridge and leave for a minimum of 1 week to pickle and mature.piccalilli

For the Soda Bread:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
  2. Gently warm the treacle and 50g of milk and mix well.
  3. Mix the flour, oatmeal, salt and bicarbonate of soda together in a medium bowl.
  4. Rub the butter into the flour mix.
  5. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well until fully incorporated.
  6. Fill a silicon paper lined 20cm x 10cm round tin and cover with foil.
  7. Bake at 180ºC for 30 mins.
  8. Remove the foil and bake for a further 10 – 15 mins, until golden and cooked through.
  9. Leave to cool for 10 minutes then remove onto a resting rack to cool.soda bread

To Serve:

  1. When ready to serve, slice the soda bread and fold the chopped dill through the piccalilli.
  2. Present the bread and butter, piccalilli and halibut family style for everyone to enjoy.Smoked Halibut and Piccalilli
 

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