A new country always brings with it some new experiences. For my family it was the fish market in the city centre, Manama. We were told to make sure we weren’t wearing clothing that was special and to be prepared for the smells and sights. This was advice well heeded! There are buckets of fish, prawns, crabs and squid tightly squeezed in to a room. Water is all over the floor, along with fish heads, fish guts and fish scales. It is truly a place for all your senses! All the fish (so we are told) comes in the morning, expect for the Norwegian Salmon which is imported.

On this day we decided to bite the bullet and buy some fish and prawns. Being from Western Australia, prawns are something we could recognise, so we went for body, freshness and size. I look forward to buying more prawns and making curries and pasta dishes, but that will be for another post. The fish to pick and purchase was a bit trickier. We relied on broken English from the fish monger to tell us what the fish was and how it could be cooked. I still couldn’t tell you what the fish we had was, but it was similar to a smaller snapper back home. The fish is selected whole and then the fish monger fillets it for you, unless of course you want it whole, then they will gut and scale it for you. The variety of fish here is something that will probably take this expat the whole time she is here to learn, but that is all part and parcel of the fun. Next time we go I will take photos of the market to share, but for today I will share the recipe for how I cooked the fillets of fish and the prawns. 

Fresh seafood is so good for you, a good way to nourish and love yourself, and when it’s fresh its preparation is easy as only the simplest of flavours are needed.

GARLIC PRAWNS AND FRIED FISH FILLETS
1kg prawns, shell and devein them

1 head of garlic, peeled

Rind of 1 lemon

Salt to taste

3Tbsp chopped parsley 

1kg white flesh fish fillets, use whatever you have available to you

4Tbsp plain flour

2tsp ground cumin

1tsp salt

In a food processor, thermomix or motor and pestle place the garlic, lemon rind and salt and purée

Place prawns in a container or bowl and place the garlic mix over the top. Cover and place in the fridge until ready to cook. It does pay to do this ahead of time and the prawns get more flavour the more time they’ve been marinating, but I don’t recommend leaving them for more than 12 hours.

When you are ready to cook dinner place the flour, cumin and salt on to a plate and combine

Have one wok getting hot and one fry pan getting hot. If it feels tricky to do the fish and the prawns at the same time I recommend doing the prawns first and then leaving them in a warm oven while you cook the fish

To cook the prawns, heat some oil in the hot wok and add the prawns. The prawns are cooked when they’ve changed colour. I find testing one (or two, if no one is looking) helpful. This way you can also add some salt if it’s needed

Place in a warm oven and start to cook the fish

In a frypan heat some oil. While this is heating dust the fish fillets in the flour mixture. This doesn’t need to be a think coating, it’s just enough to protect the fish from the direct heat of the frypan

Cook each side until the fish is cooked. This time will depend on the thickness of the fillets and the type of fish. Mine took about 4 minutes each side

When you are ready to serve place prawns and fish in a platter and sprinkle with parsley and some lemon wedges

We had our seafood with a green salad, my favourite accompaniment to any protein meal

Hope you are loving easy food