A-Fish with Garlic - A quick and easy meal, especially if you have been fortunate enough to catch FRESH fish that day on your travels.

Ingredients:

Two medium sized onions

1 tin canned tomatoes

1 small tube tomato paste

Cloves of garlic to taste

3 tbls olive oil or butter

4 fillets of boneless fish

Herbs to taste - for the fish try dill - for the tomato onion sauce tasty herbs such as basil, turmeric, paprika.

These are fillets of John Dory (probably my favourite fish with barramundi). Make sure you "dry" the fillets on paper towel before placing in the fry pan. Just place a couple of layers of paper towel over the front and back of the fillet and press gently. This will ensure that no watery residue is in the fry pan and allows the garlic and the fish to cook to a light golden colour.

Finely chop the onion and garlic.

Place half the olive oil or butter in one saucepan and the other half in the non stick fry pan, melting slowly.

Add chopped onions to the saucepan and sauté until soft.

Add half the finely chopped garlic to the fry pan and allow it to absorb the oil or butter.

Stir the onions occasionally.

Add fish fillets to the fry pan on top of the garlic. Cook on medium heat.
Add herbs, tinned tomatoes and tomato paste to the saucepan, stirring till well mixed. Cook on a medium to low heat so they simmer away.

When the fish is cooked on one side, turn and you will find the garlic slightly embedded into the underside of the fillet. Add the remaining garlic so it is also on the uncooked underside of the fish.
Sprinkle with dill.

Continue cooking until soft and moist with no pinkie colour.

To serve, spoon the tomato/onion sauce mix onto a plate. Place the cooked fillets on the top and scrap any remaining garlic from the fry pan onto the top of the fish. If desired sprinkle a little more dill (this isn't shown in the photo because I left it at home the weekend we made this dish - sorry!!).
As you can see the garlic provides a crunchy touch to the otherwise soft flesh of the fish fillet.

One addition we sometimes use is called "seafood extender". It looks and tastes like crab - have no idea what's truly in it! This is relatively cheap at $7.50 a kilo and is great mixed in with the tomato onion base, add with the tinned tomatoes and onions, as it doesn't require very much cooking, mainly heating through. You could also add prawns, calamari or other seafood bits. If you actually haven't got any fish using seafood extender in the sauce makes a great meal just on its own with crusty buns etc. Also very cheap per serve!

Easy Peel Tip

An easy way to peel garlic, cut the tops off, then use the flat blade of a sturdy knife with the heel of your hand, to press down and squash the clove. This way the skin will peel off very easily and all you have to do is chop the clove ready for cooking. Even a fantastic professional TV cook like Jamie Oliver doesn't know about this little trick!