All Eaten Up was invited along to Sydney Seafood School at the fish markets last week for IGA's Food 4 Life program launch.
The focus of the program is to promote simple, healthy and affordable meal solutions for Australian families and to emphasise the importance of home cooking and using fresh, in-season produce.
After being greeted with a refreshing white sangria and garlic and fennel roasted macadamia nuts (both of which were great starters), we were seated in the seafood school's lecture room to watch celebrity chef Jason Roberts prepare and cook lunch for us.
Lunch was to consist of salmon with a zucchini and mint salad, and a passionfruit and praline souffle desert. We were then told to watch carefully - the room is equipped with four big screens for viewing the action close up - as we would be preparing and cooking these dishes ourselves afterwards.
While he was preparing the food, Roberts related a few personal anecdotes about his recent travels through the US (he'd just returned to Australia after working there for some time). One story was the scary fact that many American families eat their meals in their cars on a weekly and often daily basis. With the latest stats from Australia showing 52 per cent of Australians over 15 are now overweight, it would seem our fast food habits are quickly catching up to theirs.
Roberts demonstrated the Food 4 Life concept well by coming up with a delicious, no-fuss baked salmon recipe.
We were then ushered into the large, open-plan food preparation room which had around six individual work stations which overlooked the fish market auction room floor. The salmon was incredibly easy to prepare and took just 10 minutes to cook when wrapped in baking paper (with the cooked potatoes and the zucchini and mint salad) in a pre-heated oven.
Thankfully, the passionfruit and praline souffle had been prepared for us earlier (although it seemed simple enough to make, I don't really have much of a sweet tooth so have never tried my hand at souffle) and we were left with the difficult task of popping these in the oven for around 10-15 minutes as well.
I was most impressed by the salmon and salad dish and will definitely be replicating the salad in the near future, perhaps even for Christmas lunch. The raw green and yellow thinly sliced zucchini with mint leaves, olive oil and lime juice seemed an unlikely combination but was actually the standout recipe for me. It had a great refreshing taste and texture and really highlighted the importance of using fresh produce.
I've included the 'Salmon in a bag' recipe below; however, this and all the other recipes (including the tasty garlic and fennel roasted macadamias) can be found on the IGA Food 4 Life website here along with Roberts' suggestions for Christmas lunch.
Salmon in a bag
Serves 2
This is a delicious way to prepare a single portion of fish with minimal effort and incredible flavor, This method of cooking has been around for a very long time and is definitely a style of cooking that is underused. Once you have mastered this technique there are so many variations to play with.
Ingredients
2 x 180gm piece of salmon
6 small potatoes steamed and skinned removed, and sliced into 1cm rounds
3 tablespoons chopped green shallots
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 lemon, cut 2 slices, the remaining used for its juice
4 sprigs of fresh thyme
Salt
Ground white pepper
1 cup of fresh mint leaves
1 small yellow and green zucchini finely sliced and lightly salted
½ bunch chives, finely sliced
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 200’C (430’F).
Make sure the fish is trimmed of fat, pin boned and free of scales.
Take two pieces of baking paper about 30cm in length and lay it flat on the bench.
In the center of each piece of paper lay the steamed potato slices along with a sprinkling of the green shallots, season with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and then top with a piece of salmon.
Squeeze over a touch of lemon juice along with a little more of the olive oil, season with salt and pepper, top with a slice of lemon and two sprigs of fresh thyme and seal the bag. Take the edge of baking paper close to you as well as the opposite edge, bring together above the fish and fold downwards creating a tight pleat, fold the ends to the left and right back under the fish creating a snug little parcels.
Place fish parcel onto a heatproof tray, and then put into the pre-heated oven, for approximately eight minutes or until cooked to your liking. The best way to test is to pierce with a sharp skewer; you are looking for almost no resistance.
In a medium sized bowl, mix together the sliced zucchini along with the mint leaves and a scattering of the chives, season with a pepper, a little oil and another squeeze of lemon juice.
Once fish is cooked, remove it from the oven and allow it to rest for a minute or two before opening bag
To serve, tear the bag open, dividing the zucchini and mint salad evenly, and place on top of each piece of fish. It is not necessary to remove the fish from the paper bag
Enjoy!