Jools Oliver's Crunchy Fish....

Jools Oliver can cook! I mean, who's the one cooking for their four children when husband Jamie Oliver is on the road with all his Food Revolution stuff? His wife Jools that's who! As an Ambassador for Jamie's Food Revolution foundation, we are given various challenges to complete every month. For June, Jamie launched his new Family Food Channel on Youtube-- It's all about inspiration and guidance for feeding your family, with tried-and-tested nutritious recipes and loads of tips to make mealtimes little bit easier. We were challenged to subscribe to the channel and visit www.jamieoliver.com/familyfood to make one of his delicious recipes. Jool's got a super-tastic easy weeknight family fish recipe I will make over and over again. It's got this awesome crunchy coating made from stale bread blitzed into crumbs along with olive oil, lemon zest, fresh thyme leaves and Parmesan cheese if you so wish, baked on top of any firm fish fillet. Really... ditch those frozen fish sticks and let your meal shine with this incredible healthy fish dish you can easily customize with a whole lotta' crunch I'm sure your family will love!

Served with roasted broccoli and cauliflower along with All-American Potato Salad

Jools Oliver's Crunchy Fish (recipe tweaked)
Makes 4 servings

2 thick slices of wholemeal bread, (roughly 100g)- I used a leftover refrigerated 6" sesame sub bread loaf
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large lemon
6 sprigs of fresh thyme

2 to 3 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese (optional- or serve at the table)
kosher/sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 x 120 g firm white fish or salmon fillets, scaled and pin-boned (I used 5 fillets)

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Make sure you pick out all the stray bones generally along the centre mid area of the fish, or use a tweezer.

Preheat the oven to 350 ºF. Tear the bread into a food processor, add olive oil and grate in the zest of a lemon. Pick in the thyme leaves (throw away the stalks), then add a grinding of black pepper and salt. Add Parmesan cheese if using. Whizz the mixture until nice and fine. 

There was no way I will be able to use up all that fresh thyme in the next week. Preserving them for their dried leaves was the best bet. I'm air-drying the remaining thyme by tying them in two bunches hung upside down in a cool dark place (about 10 C) for several days (this means my laundry room). When the leaves dry out, they will be easily plucked off their stems and placed into a sealed container as part of my spice rack :) 

Place a non-stick oven-proof frying pan on a medium-high heat. Rub fish fillets all over with a little oil. Place in the hot pan skin-side down. Squeeze some lemon juice over the top of each fillet, then pile most of the crumb on top, covering them evenly, then scatter the remaining crumbs into the pan. Fry for three minutes (this will get the skin nice and crispy), then transfer the pan to the oven and roast for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the fish is cooked through and the crumb is golden and crunchy. TIP: You can also remove the fish onto a tray to cook in the in the oven at 350 F.

Carefully remove the pan from the oven using oven gloves or a thick towel wrapped several times around the handle, then transfer the fish to your plates. Serve scattered with the extra super-crispy crumbs, baked potato, wedges or potato salad and broccoli or peas on the side.

Let's eat more fish!! When you've got a great dish like this one, it's totally achievable!

The portions were quite big for the kids which means leftovers the next night. Next time I will cut the fillets into several square pieces so they will be smaller portioned and fun to eat.

Check out Jools cooking up her Crunchy Fish on their new Family Food Channel on Youtube.

Jools' Crunchy Fish

Thanks Jools for the inspiration and helping me get more fish into my dinner repertoire! Cheers!