Seiche Recipe

Forecast cold and wet weather for Sunday last forced a decision to cancel a trip to an outdoor annual "pork fair" in another part of the Charente. The risk of a wet day, after some time to be spent travelling, was sufficient to deflect us from the undoubted delights of charcuterie, pork lunch, pig competitions and races (the mind boggles!). We'll hope for the best next year, but instead, here's something about fish..........

We were scanning the big fresh fish display at the supermarket the other day, in the hope of spotting something we recognised(!). The  choice obviously depends on whatever has been caught the previous day, and this varies from visit to visit, so the prospect of buying again a type of fish previously enjoyed, can be remote! On this occasion, we bought some seiche, otherwise known as encornet.  It looked much like octopus to me, so when I got home, I did some internet research. It seems as if these words can be translated as squid, crayfish or octopus.  The fish was sold as "tranches", quite chunky and very thick slices of white meat with a thin skin on one side. I removed the skin which seemed quite tough, and cut the meat into strips. 

Ingredients for the two of us
250 gr seiche
1 large onion, halved and sliced
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
100gr stoneless black or green olives cut in half
2 cloves of garlic (I grated them but I guess you could chop small)
Olive oil

Put the seiche into a non-stick pan with a little oil and toss it  for a couple of minutes. Add the onion, toss around for another couple of minutes then add the tomatoes, olives and garlic.  I had a large pan, so the juices  cooked down quickly. I served it hot with my couscous dish see here but it would be good with rice or new potatoes and a green vegetable.  Quick, simple and delicious, I will certainly be looking for seiche again at the fish counter.

Sorry, I only thought about a photo of the meal on the plate after we had finished it all!!