Mango! the fruit, the lionfish, and the cat

Well, certainly not keeping as regular a lionfish night recently, but impromptu lionfish night arrived in style again. This time the restaurant popped back up for a night in deep creek, and now it is mango season so..... It was time for Mango salsa lionfish. Yum!

Last year we got mango the cat, aptly named as our house was full of mangos at the time, so its only right that mango the cat supervised all proceedings including being the taste tester while Jason filleted the fish.

 

Lots of lime, salt and pepper and the lionfish is grilled to perfection! Then add a yummy mango salsa to put on top that's it, a delicacy that's for sure.

I forgot to take any pictures of the mango salsa on top of the fish as I was too busy eating it and forgot, but it looked amazing!

Add in lots of beautifully arranged Mahi, chips and dips, potatoes, veggie dishes, and cookies for after and out pop up restaurant was complete!

Lots of new people came as we had lots of interns leave, and new ones arrive.

We even ran out of chairs....

And some expressed their love of the UK....while Mango supervised

 

Great stuff! Lots of mangoes, LOL ( see last blog for what that means!), and lots of yummy food,

 

Until next time.....

 

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Having too much fun! LOL (Lots of lionfish) dinners and a Lionfish beach BBQ party

A long time since the last the lionfish blog, but alas this does not mean we have not been feasting well LOL ( lots of lionfish!) in fact, we have been having so much fun eating all the lionfish recipes that we didn't want to spoil it for all of you who are unable to share in our lionfish feasting glee...!
Actually, although we have indeed been having some yummy lovely dinners, I admit to being a lapse reporter on these events! After a trip to England and lots of work, some weeks we missed due to being away etc. you know the story.. However we are back and have enjoyed continuing Saturday evenings of fun food, and I have redefined the irritating slogan of LOL. I only found out what this actually means recently, (I obviously am not in the texting crowd anymore!) but as its annoying, it instead should be something like this:
"hey, wot u up 2" (or whatever the current text slang is now)
"I'm eating LOL, they're tasty" (for lots of lionfish!)

We have missed some weeks, but done others, there has been some Thai lionfish and others,some I have missed but the evenings carried on, but the beast of the bunch was last Saturday, as i was there and it was on a beach! our pop up beach restaurant, serving the very best lionfish packets....

These packets are little presents of joy, inside a delightful mix of plantains, carrot, celery, onion, tomato, and the main ingredient. All baked over the fire. Then, add in the culinary delights of everyone else and we truly did have a world class beach restaurant..for one evening only!

looking a little like an advertisement for Lost of Survivor...!

We had people serving plates of Mahi Mahi. Some amazing stuffed peppers, coconut rice, roasted vegetables, cinnamon pretzels, and more.

And after everyone enjoyed the full moon beach fire before heading back. And the little pop up restaurant was no more......
Amy Cox, Thank you for the photos!
Until next time when we report on more eating of LOL. :)

Kate

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Lionfish cookbook night continues with Lad Akins

Orange ginger lionfish

Lionfish night this week included two delicious dishes...orange ginger lionfish and lionfish ceviche. This week was a particularly special week as one of the books authors, Lad Akins, was here at The Cape Eleuthera Institute doing Lionfish research.

Lionfish Ceviche

Mixing up the ceviche

I must admit at this point that this week I cannot take any credit for this amazing food that was prepared. I was away helping the shark team with their shark research project and arrived just in time to take the photographs, and eat some!

 The credit goes to the lionfish team, Jocelyn and Liz, to Jason who did a day of diving then joined in, and of course to Lad, it was great to learn from the author and founder of this amazingly tasty cookbook!

 making the Ceviche

Ceviche eating time!

The main recipe tonight!

Jason and Liz prepare the main dish

All set for the oven!

These dishes looked so great, the Ceviche seemed to be a winner, a mix of raw lionfish marinated in lime and chilis it is a special treat enjoyed with the freshest fish! Homemade chips finished off this tasty dish.

The orange ginger lionfish looked so pretty and had a wonderful distinct flavour when mixed with sesame oil.

The lionfish dinner is ready to go, with lots of extras too!

Adding to this spread was some pumpkin dip by Sarah, freshly baked bread from Matt and chocolate treats from Claire amongst others too! For me, this was great, everyone turns up, helps out, and in no time at all, an instant lionfish party is made!

Yummy!

Lad and the lionfish team after a job well done!

Edd and The shark team

Cheers to a job well done! The end.

Lionfish this week: 15
Lionfish running total : 69

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Hawaiian Lionfish with mulled wine! The cookbook challenge continues

Hawaiian lionfish ready to bake

This week we went for the Hawaiian Lionfish recipe from the cookbook. This was a good choice as our Saturday became rather busy with other events, so we actually only arrived back at our house to cook it when everyone else did to eat it! Whoops.

The mix for the fish

It turned out if you have some fish, and want to look like a fancy cook, and whip up some lovely tasting recipe, but don't have time, then make this.

I even did it a little wrong by adding the crushed pineapple into the dry mixture, then reading the next line down in the recipe that said..."stir the pineapple and onion together in a separate bowl..." and it still tasted good.

Dipping station

Still, the mixture looked good and after dipping the fillets in egg, they where then dipped into breadcrumbs (I made this bit up as I didn't have any almonds to crush) then the mixture of crushed pineapple, onion, brown sugar, sesame seeds, and flaked coconut is just spread around the fillets.

And that's it, in the oven it went. By the time everyone had tasted Matt's lovely freshly baked bread he brought around they were ready.

Enjoying the food

This is a nice tasty recipe, with things that you may have in the cupboard, everyone seemed to like it, although I have met some people who insist that cooked pineapple is horrible, so I guess if you are having Hawaiian lionfish then don't invite those strange people!

What to do when it's cold and you find a forgotten large bottle of red wine...warm spiced mulled wine it is then!

And, despite the blue sunny photos, the Bahamas does get cold, and this week it was defiantly cold so, I spiced up some red wine and made my own mulled wine, yummy!

Warming up with after dinner mulled wine (and wearing jumpers, or sweaters, or whatever you call them!))

Lionfish this time. 11
Running total. 54.
Until next week.....

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What do I do? My thesis in 5 minutes, try Prezi

Apart from eating Lionfish on Saturday evenings, I am still running along with the PhD, but what is it all about, and what am I actually doing?  Well, recently I went to Toronto for a conference and presented my work in a 5 minute jargon free overview.  Instead of powerpoint, I decided on the alternative, Prezi.  A zooming, visual, more exciting, storytelling way of describing things.

So if you have ever pretended to concentrate while someone is telling you what they do for their PhD, but you actually don't know what they are saying and really you are planning your escape.....here is a 5 min alternative, a story about what I do.  I thought I would share it, mid week before our next lionfish adventure at the weekend!

thanks! Kate

http://prezi.com/j6i4w_0abukq/five-minute-thesis-this-area-is-closed-but-what-about-the-fish/?kw=view-j6i4w_0abukq&rc=ref-29778405

Cookbook challenge week 5, the Rosti party

This week we cooked some lionfish appetizers, spicy lionfish rosti. A potato, fishy, gingery spicy mix these little guys were quite fun to make. At first we thought they would be a disaster as they didn't stick together so it would be lionfish and potato mix instead of an actual rosti, but they came out well in the end, a good little party food.

Cooking up the Rosti's

Rosti mix

The lionfish is such a versatile fish that even mixed into this, you could still taste the fish, yummy! To go with them, Ron and Karen brought round some Mahi Mahi tacos, double yum! They went down a treat.

Food is ready!

Lots of food!

yum!

We had another great turnout this week, although we didn't manage to get out and catch as many lionfish, hence the appetizer, everyone arrived with gifts and we even had a lovely dessert bar of pumpkin pie, chocolate dipped pineapple, and chocolate brownies!
Lionfish on saturday = 3
Running total= 43
Until next week...

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Lionfish, lobster and mango

Lionfish cookbook challenge week 4!

Last weekend we unfortunately had no lionfish cookbook party. Instead we went to a fundraiser ball on this island and enjoyed some local food there.  This week however, it was back on the menu be again!

Lionfish is back on the menu

My role in this weeks menu was literally to just turn up and eat it as I had been away in Toronto all week at a conference. After a week discussing sustainable fishing, presenting my work so far, exploring Toronto, seeing some snow etc. it was lovely to get back into the flip flops and come home to a dinner party!

It was a long day of flying, although a free upgrade was lovely (constant cups of tea from the minute you sit down is the best!), a nice thank you for flying so much!

Blackened lionfish fillets in the pan

Everyone brought such yummy things, lobster bisque, salsa, chocolate desserts that taste like dime bars...you name it, we had it here

Jason had been busy, he had caught lots of lionfish with Brendan, Rachel, and Zach and then cooked up the fillets to make the blackened lionfish recipe from the cookbook. By the time I had got freshened up, people had arrived bringing starters, yummy chocolate desserts, and an amazing lobster bisque making this one wonderful instant dinner party!

The CEI crew enjoying dinner, this week the windy weather had moved us to a lounge party

After a day of flying, arriving just in time for the lionfish party was great!

Everyone seemed to enjoy the fish cooked this way. This recipe, blackened lionfish is a quick and easy coating of paprika, cayenne, garlic etc. and is fast to cook in a pan. Cooked to way, lionfish would go with pretty much anything.

Empty plates, must be good!

Claire getting some Mango cuddles

Mango the cat seemed to be enjoying the company and seemend to think everyne had come around to play with him, he is a little attention seeker! he also enjoyed some of the lionfish! He also helped us to decide what to cook up next week. He decided on Hawaiian lionfish, good choice! (We told him he couldn't choose the mango salsa recipe as mangos are not in season!).

Which recipe next week Mango?

Until next week...
Lionfish last night = 14
Running total = 40

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