Si, si encore des bouchées – Bouchées de cabillaud-tofu, sauce harissa légère

I know that some of you might think that woman at Citron et Vanille doesn’t make real food, those bites and tiny little things cannot satisfy a hunger, and does not seem like “food”. Real people want real food. I will have to somehow disagree un petit peu!

I love to serve LOTS of small bites, full of flavors when I entertain. Now for example if this will sound more real to you, you can take a regular size plate, place some sprouts, spinach leaves and place with 3 or 4 bites, and top it off with the sauce. Does it sound more real? If you do actually present it that way, it will look not only very real, but incredibly flavorful as well.

I don’t know about you, but my favorite dishes to prepare are appetizers and hors d’oeuvres. I never liked gigantic plates of food in front of me, I find this overwhelming to look at, never knowing where to start.

I rarely use tofu and fish, probably because in my mind tofu is vegan and mixing it with fish defeats its purpose, well the combination of those two ingredients made the bites very moist and soft. For the harissa sauce, there are a few different versions but I like this one. You can decrease the degree of the heat by adding more or less chili peppers. You can make extra harissa and use it with grilled meats or fish, or even spread it on sandwiches or just on toasted bread. The proportions I list here will give you extra, so if you want less, decrease proportions. You can keep the sauce in an air-tight container for about one week.

I just realized that this weekend is Mother’s day in the US, in France is the last Sunday of May, so I imagine many celebration dishes will be all over the web. This could be a nice way to start the celebration of motherhood, thinking about it, my mom would like it, it is somehow like her, soft inside, with a touch of fire on the outside. So happy mother’s day to American moms!

Ingredients for about 10 bites

For the bouchées

  • 4.23 oz (or 120 g) extra firm tofu
  • 4.23 oz (or 120 g) cod or any dense white fish
  • 1 scallion, chopped
  • 2 tbs cilantro, chopped
  • paprika
  • cumin
  • salt and pepper
  • spinach leaves for decoration
  • alfalfa sprouts for decoration

For the harissa sauce

  • 2 red bell peppers
  • 2 red chili peppers
  • 1/4 tsp coriander seeds
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1/2 tsp caraway seeds
  • 3 tbs olive oil
  • salt and pepper

Preparation

For the fish-tofu bites

Blend all ingredients in a mixer and grind to a fine consistency but not too fine, you still want to see the “green” inside. Form small balls the size of a walnut. Place in a sheet and broil under broiler. Broil until golden brown on all sides.

For the harissa

Char broil, red bell peppers and red chili pepper under broiler, until the skin has grilled and starts detaching from the peppers. Remove from the oven, let them cool. Peel and remove the seeds from peppers.

Blend all ingredients in a blender into a smooth purée-type of consistency.

Serve in ceramic spoons or in small dishes. Place one spinach leaf, some alfalfa sprouts and one fish-tofu bite topped with harissa sauce.