The dish is Roasted Haddock wrapped in Bacon, with Asparagus and a Lemon Mayonnaise. It was a slightly frustrating event at the beginning, as I couldn't find the Jamie Oliver cookbook that the recipe is in. I tracked the main recipe down online, but they didn't have the recipe for the homemade lemon mayonnaise that is used with the asparagus. I resigned myself, after searching exhaustively for the cookbook, to simply think up something else to make for dinner. On my way to the grocer's though, I decided to check one more time under the seats in my car, and blammo, there it was! So I was able to get all the ingredients for the meal, yay!
The fish gets seasoned with some finely chopped fresh rosemary and some lemon zest (finely grated peelings of a lemon). Then it's wrapped in bacon, pan fried on the bottom for a minute, and then popped straight into the oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. You're best to have an oven proof pan that can go straight into the oven.
In the meantime, you have plenty of time to steam your asparagus and make the homemade mayonnaise. For the mayo, you simply take and egg yolk, mix a teaspoon of dijon mustard, and slowly stir in about a pint of olive oil. This has to be done very slowly to keep the oil together with the mixture. Then you squeeze in a whole lemon, making the mayo nice and zingy! The flavour of the asparagus helps to soften the zing, so it needs to be zingy... I just like using the word zingy... ... moving on. Once the fish is done and the bacon is crispy, take it out, plate them, and then toss the asparagus in the juices left in your pan. This really helps to add to the flavour of the asparagus. That's it, plate the asparagus beside the fish, spoon some mayo over top the asparagus, and you're ready to serve. Grab a nice white wine as well, we had a pinot grigio and it was brilliant with the meal.
There were only two things that didn't quite turn out according to plan. The bacon didn't crisp quickly, but that's because I forgot to thin it out, flattening it with the knife like the cookbook told me to. I had to broil it at the end to make the top crispier. The other mishap occurred after I took the pan out of the oven. Once removed, I took off my oven mitt like usual... ... you might see where this is going I'm sure... ... anyways, I then grabbed a spatula to make sure the fish wasn't stuck to the pan (which it wasn't at all, to my surprise). Now I also grabbed the handle of the pan to keep it steady while using the spatula... ... ladies and gentlemen, I think I may be up for a Darwin Award this year, lol. My thumb is now completely seared, with a small line seared on my index finger. I was lucky it was only those two fingers that took the brunt. I immediately ran my fingers under ice cold water for a minute, which probably saved them from blistering. Then I brought out the marvelous wonder of science: solarcaine! It's a spray anesthetic for burns and minor wounds. It numbs the pain as it absorbs into the skin. It's glorious, and helped dramatically to lessen the throbbing pain... well, that and a few more glasses of wine than I would typically consume on a weeknight, lol. That's all for now kids, cheers!
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