We Love Cooking!:
fish

Renowned Irish chef Martin Shanahan is mad about fish! Or so the program title tells us. Martin has just recorded a 6 part RTÉ series which starts this evening on RTÉ 1. As the owner of the award winning restaurant Fishy Fishy in Kinsale, Co. Cork. Martin has years of experience cooking with seafood, and he believes that many Irish people are still afraid of cooking and eating fish. Throughout the series Martin’s determined to “take the fear out of fish” and show that anyone can cook simple tasty seafood at home. I spoke to Martin yesterday to have a quick chat about fish! Check out the interview below and make sure to tune in tonight!

Hi Martin, congratulations on the new series, the promo on youtube looks really fantastic! So how did you find the crossover from cooking in the kitchen to the filming process and cooking on camera?
A bit nerve wracking initially, I suppose number one I'd be a chef and obviously the biggest part of it was when I got in to the fish business first I had a fish shop for 7 years, and I wouldn't have cooked so much during that time, but I listened to the customers all the time. The biggest thing was that they all obviously loved fish, but they weren't able to cook it or they were afraid of the bones. That was the feedback all the time! I think a lot of people come into fishmongers and they are afraid to ask for the fish without the bones. So basically in the program I'm trying to educate people and to encourage them to go out and go in to your fishmonger and ask them to do those little jobs for you. Most fishmongers would be more than happy!

Can you tell me a little bit about how you got into cooking and how cooking fish became your passion?
I would have trained as a chef in Rockwell back 25 years ago and I would have worked by the sea quite a lot and I worked in San Francisco and anywhere I worked it would have been beside the sea, so I always loved cooking fish. It was always so simple and tasty. My experience in the restaurant is that you never get a complaint that the fish is tough. Fish is truly nature's fast food and it really is, it can be cooked so fast and so easy. That's why in the program I say that if you can fry a rasher or cook a sausage, you can cook a piece of fish! Again the techniques are really simple and that will definitely encourage people to get cooking.

People may know you as the owner of Fishy Fishy in Kinsale, but for people who haven't been to Kinsale could you tell us a little bit about the area and the food scene down there?
Well look, Kinsale is a great tourist town, and when I say tourist town, I consider someone coming down from Cork to be a tourist! People come down for an afternoon from Cork to get away from the stresses of their everyday life and it's only 20 minutes down the road but it's like walking into a different atmosphere. And the obvious connection I suppose is with the sea, you don't think of a cow, you want to eat prawns or you want to eat a bit of fish and chips!

What are some of the most successful dishes from the restaurant?
We'd have a couple of great ones but one of the most popular is probably the traditional fish and chips! We use fresh haddock and we take the skin and bone out of it and cut it into pieces, fry it in batter and you pick it up in your hand, put it in, close your eyes and you can be guaranteed no bone.

In the promo you mention you are on a mission to get people eating fish, and from my experience people seem to be quite nervous when it comes to cooking fish, have you any sure fire winning dishes that always win over even the pickiest eaters?
The very simple one we do is a pan fried piece of cod and people would be nervous about a piece of fish like cod, or haddock, or hake, because they have a line of bones around the top of them, but in the program, I cut a piece of cod, I show them exactly the piece they should look for in the fishmongers and we just roll that in a little seasoned flour and pan fry it. I add a little knob of butter near the end and a little drop of water and by the time the water has evaporated, the butter has melted into it and you finish it off with a squeeze of lemon and on to the plate, I tell you can get nothing better! The one thing I would always say to people is to season fish, although it comes from the sea people think it might be salty but it's not, it's quite mild in itself, so you have to season it! The other thing is to make sure is that you have a good solid pan, you can't cook a fish in one of these omelet pans because they just don't hold the heat and the minute you put on the piece of fish the pan goes cold and starts to stick.

There are some great shots of you doing some cooking at a local kids school, how would you recommend getting kids to eat more fish?
At that demo we actually made fish fingers in the school and we shot some back in the studio to show people at home how to make them. Fish fingers are great because they involve the kids and I would encourage parents to go to the fishmonger, ask for a pound of nice white large fish, it can pollock, it can be hake, it can be cod, it can be haddock, but again no skin and no bone, and I would encourage them to ask the fishmongers to cut them into fish fingers for them. Then you bring them home and do your flour, a dip in egg and breadcrumbs and pan fry them. That way the kids can do it with you, and it gives them a great connection with the food. You'll see in the program the reaction of the kids when they eat the fresh fish as against the processed fish and what we find is kids never lie. You know they say it as it is, you can't tell them "don't say that", they just spit it out. You will hear some of the comments from the kids and they know there stuff even at that young age.

What was the reaction to you filming locally?
We got a great reaction! When the lads from RTE approached me, I wouldn't be one for the camera, but they said they would love to make a program and I said no lads the only way we could make it, was if we were to make it in Kinsale and they asked me why and I said well I know everyone in the streets, so I'd feel comfortable around them and I can have a chat with them! But the reaction overall with people has been super and everybody local just can't wait to see it. We're involving people on a day to day basis and get great feedback from people and so we understand their fish fears!

What are some of your favourite dishes from the series?
I couldn't pick just one, but what I am hoping will come out of this more than anything, is that we'll keep the fishing industry that we have here in Ireland. My business wouldn't be successful without the product the local fishermen are catching. If we lose the local fishermen, and they are under pressure between quotas and costs, and people aren't obviously eating enough fish in Ireland, and we end up exporting a lot of it. So hopefully this program will highlight it and we'll make people realise it is a great product, it's a local product and you couldn't get anything more natural, it's not grown, it's not fed fertilizer, it's not mass produced at the push of a button, so hopefully people will see that and taste it and think that was lovely!

Martin's Mad About Fish airs tonight on RTÉ 1 at 8.30, make sure to tune in!

Of all the dishes we prepared for Foodstock, I am pretty certain that the Irish Seafood Chowder was the biggest success. I am told that the French absolutely love their seafood which is probably why! The chowder we made had a great selection of fish, haddock, cod, smoked fish, and prawns which the amazing chefs at the Chalet meticulously prepared for us. I have to admit that cooking on such a large scale can be quite daunting in terms of producing a similar end product to that of a smaller quantity, but that said between the whole team we served up some damn tasty chowder!

For about an hour on the Wednesday night I did feel like I was in a soup kitchen and there was a high chance of some sort of repetitive strain injury after ladling the chowder 350 times! Luckily we had the lovely ladies from Bord Bia to help us out, one of whom was out on her first assignment with them, though I’m pretty sure she is well inducted after Foodstock.

Irish Seafood Chowder
This is the kind of soup that if you put a lot of love and time in you will get the best results. The key is to add the fish at the very end leaving just enough time to let them cook. Cook the fish pieces too long and you will be left with an Irish seafood mush rather than a chunky creamy chowder!

Serves 8 (Makes 3.15 litres)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 medium onions, finely chopped
100g salt pork diced (or pancetta/bacon bits)

2 dried bay leaves
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, finely chopped
1 kg of peeled and diced potatoes
1.125 litre of fish stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1.25kg of cod (or similar white fish)
750g of fresh salmon
500g of mussels
500g of smoked haddock
330ml of heavy cream
1 tablespoon of fresh parsley, chopped finely
100g of smoked salmon, cut into fine strips for garnish

In a large pot, heat the butter and sauté the onions for 3-4 minutes.
Add the salt pork and continue to fry until it colours.
Add in the fresh thyme, bay leaves and potatoes and cook gently for 2-3 minutes before adding the fish stock.
Season well with salt and pepper.
Simmer for 10-15 minutes until the potatoes are tender yet firm. (Some of the potato will break down and help thicken the chowder).
Add the haddock, salmon, cod and mussels and simmer gently for 5 minutes.
Remove the pot from the heat and allow to sit before finally and gently stirring in the parsley and cream.
Serve with the strips of smoked salmon as a garnish on top.

Mackerel is one of those types of food that, in my life, I have always just taken for granted, like pasta or potatoes. We have been catching them just off Howth head since I was a kid, and they have always been there reminding us that summer has started. With the first catch, comes that familiar fresh taste, lost in the months of winter, and savoured with every bite, but which regrettably soon becomes the norm and less of a novelty for lazy summer evening meals.

With the last days of this years summer well and truly behind us, and mackerel season coming to a close, last weekend we cooked up the final humongous pile of mackerel which were all individually, neatly wrapped in tinfoil and thrown in the freezer, upon their arrival from boat to land. The fish tasted almost as good as fresh and only needed the simple additional flavouring from a squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch of smoked sea salt and ground black pepper.

BBQ Mackerel with lemon and Smoked Sea Salt

There are so many things that you can do with fish on a barbecue, but sometimes its nice to keep things simple, a few herbs, maybe some garlic butter or just plain lemon and salt will bring the natural flavours alive. If you are freezing mackerel, freeze the same day you get it, make sure to use within 3 months, and defrost in the fridge. You may notice a change in the texture of the fish but it shouldn't be too significant.

1-2 gutted mackerel per person, depending on size
A drizzle of olive oil
2 lemons
A good pinch of smoked sea salt
A good pinch of freshly ground black pepper
Tin foil to cover the mackerel

Wrap the mackerel individually in tinfoil, and place on a hot barbecue.
Cook for 4-5 minutes either side, it's a bit of a guessing game but open the tinfoil to check if the fish is cooked through.
Take the wrapped fish off the barbecue and remove the tinfoil.
Place the fish on a large serving dish and drizzle with a little olive oil.
Generously squeeze lemon juice over the fish, and season with smoked sea salt and black pepper.
Serve straight away!

I reluctantly agreed to go on a fishing trip over the weekend with my dad, I say reluctantly because he asks every weekend! Anyway I agreed mostly because my girlfriend jumps at chance every time she's asked and then gives me the eyes which say you better come, but mostly because I'd get the chance to use my new camera which hasn't really had much use since I got it.

I think when you grow up with the sea as part of your life you become accustomed to it and maybe even take it for granted, but even though I moan about being dragged out on the boat, I think there is an element of secretly enjoying it! I also think as I get that bit older I begin start appreciating surrounding's more and more!

The intention was to take some pics as the fish were being caught and then picture them as they were being cooked but my battery ran out! But hey that's life! So instead some pics of a Galway Hooker, the fisherman and woman, Howth pier, and Cod in it's last few moment's of life.

Fishing trip part two will come when, the girlfriend attempts to cook the mackerel later this evening!

EDIT: the girlfreind just messaged me asking if eating fish which hadn't been cooked properly could harm her. I asked her had she heard of Sushi.