Baked Haddock

We eat a lot of locally caught fish like perch, pickerel and bass.  When we travel in the Grey Bruce area of Ontario we bring back a lot of locally caught whitefish.  I'm not a huge fan of heavily coated fish like beer battered English style fish.  While I like the texture of the fish cooked this way I always pick the coating off.  Quite often the only way some restaurants serve fish is with this heavy coating so it is always a treat when they offer the same fish without the coating.

The clubhouse has a lovely haddock special on Fridays for $7.95.  Haddock is a popular mild flavoured, flaky whitefish. It can be baked, broiled, or coated for pan or deep frying.  Unfortunately we don't often have haddock mainly because I don't think to buy it.   In 2010 haddock was added to Greenpeace International's seafood red list because there is a high risk of it being sourced from unsustainable fisheries.  This is increasingly something to be aware of when it comes to many foods.  Haddock from the North East Atlantic (eg. Iceland, Norway, Faroe) comes from sustainable fishing grounds unlike haddock from Europe so look for the source of the haddock when purchasing to be sure it is from sustainable fishing grounds.

Pictured is the broiled haddock special served with hushpuppies, corn fritters, corn on the cob, potato weaves and cole slaw.  The haddock was lightly seasoned then broiled to perfection.  I really enjoyed it!  Surprisingly the corn fritters were on the sweet side but quite tasty.  So this will be a side I will be making at home as well.

We seldom have dessert even when eating out.  On the rare occasion we order dessert when out it tends to be ice cream or pie a la mode.  We ordered dessert with our meals on this occasion.  Pictured is the gorgeous pecan ice cream ball topped with butterscotch syrup, whipped cream and a cherry.

Making coated ice cream balls at home is quite easy presentation.  It makes for a lovely present  You can use chopped nuts, candy coated chocolate or crushed candy canes.  Place the coating of your choice in a shallow dish.  Scoop ice cream shaping into a ball.  Quickly roll the ball of ice cream in the coating.  Drizzle syrup of choice over the ice cream.  Top with whip cream then garnish with a cherry or berries.