How To Cook With 2 Toddlers: Moroccan-inspired fish with lots of memories.

I seldom cook fish for the simple reason that fish is either expensive or not fresh or both. But the Turkish supermarket that we always frequent happened to have fresh sea bass on that day there so my lovely husband, knowing how much I love fresh fish, bought one.

But alas, when I unpacked it, there it was - glassy eyes staring at me, scales gleaming, gills red and tummy full of innards. Alamak, as the Malays say it. OMG, roughly interpreted. So now I have to scale and gut the fish and the only times I've seen it done, were when I was between the ages of 6 to 9, when I accompanied my mother to the wet market while I was still living in Singapore. Back then, Singapore was full of wet markets and I still remember vividly, the one in Ghim Moh where I grew up (and looking at the Google images brought me right back to the thick of it) - vegetable-sellers standing on stools, shouting and waving their green offers, Indian women in their vibrant saris sitting cross-legged chatting with each other surrounded by their colourful spices, live chicken squawking in their cages and friendly fishmongers scaling and cutting up fish caught a few hours before and who gave my mom fish roe for free knowing that I love them. Just opening up that package and staring at that fish brought back all those memories. Something that opening a pack of frozen, square-cut salmon fillet could never do.

But memory alone is not enough to scale and gut the fish and so I had to youtube it. Suffice to say I managed. But what became of that fish after being cleaned is even better. It got to be smothered with a Jamie Oliver's Moroccan-inspired spice paste for his Moroccan Sea Bream dish (from Jamie's 15-minute meals) that went really well with the couscous (though I must admit that my children preferred to have the fish with rice and corn kernels and a side of vegetable sticks to dip into the sauce). You will notice, however that after all my substitutions, it has become neither Jamie's nor Moroccan. But deliciously so and I'm proudly owning this one.

Ingredients

For the spice paste :

50 g parmesan cheese
2 tbsp ground nuts (or use pine nuts)
1 whole roasted capsicum or bell pepper
3 fresh tomatoes
1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar
A pinch of salt and pepper
A dash of garlic powder (or half a garlic for a stronger taste)
A squeeze of lemon.
Half a cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 fresh chilli (optional)

Put everything in a blender/food processor and blitz to a smooth paste. Adjust the taste accordingly.

Short-cut tip - You can also use a jar of pesto and blitz that together with the ingredients, minus the nuts and parmesan.

For the fish :

1 whole fish, scaled and gutted (or 4 white fish slices with skin on)
Salt and pepper for to taste
100ml hot water or hot seafood/vegetable broth
A pinch of saffron strands

Heat a frying pan with a little bit of oil in it. Meanwhile, season the fish with salt and pepper. When the pan is hot, add the fish, skin down and leave for about 2-3 minutes, to cook and crisp up the skin, depending on the thickness of the fish. Then flip the fish over. Drop the saffron strands into the hot water/broth and stir until it becomes yellow. Add 2 tablespoons of spice paste. Then pour everything into the pan, around the fish. Cover and let it simmer on a low flame for about 7 minutes until the gravy has thickened to the consistency that you like. Add more water/broth if it gets too dry.

Sprinkle some coriander and serve with couscous or rice, with roasted or steamed vegetables and more spice paste (and extra chilli slices if you wish for an extra zing) on the side.