Dazz Switalla Flavour Secrets No.1 The Strand Chef www.no1thestrand.co.nz

The party season has begun and this week I've been asked to a celebration and it's a fancy dress with a theme of someone famous.

Dressing up and masquerading as someone else reminds me of a con my friends and I carried out in a posh European nightclub. One of our friends is the spitting image of David Beckham, so by hamming it up and pretending to be his minders, we had free drinks and free entry. That doesn't really help me out this week though. Who can I pass myself off as? Maybe an out of shape chunky Chuck Norris?

Whoever I turn up as, there is always fun to be had passing yourself off as another persona.

With the boat show in town recently, using the new look waterfront as a display area, it made me realise just how many Kiwis are into fishing. It seems to be something that is in the blood, with many of us having been introduced to it at a young age. As a youngster I can recall my first attempts at gutting and filleting fish with untidy messy fillets and lots left on the fish frame. So this week the recipe shows how these tiny morsels can be disguised and made into a neat parcel by wrapping in filo pastry and oven baking. When you serve these filos straight from the oven, no-one will know how badly you filleted the fish – a desperate disguise, and also a good way to have the main course pre-prepared.

Fresh Fish and Feta Parcels
Serves two

Ingredients

2 Fish fillets

4-6 sheets filo pastry sheets

2 tablespoons melted butter

2 slices feta cheese

Salt and pepper

1 tomato, sliced

Method

Lay one sheet of filo down, brush with a little melted butter, top with another sheet. Lay the fish fillet onto the bottom of the sheet. Season with salt and pepper, top with tomato slices and then feta, fold in the end of the sheet and enclose the whole thing like a parcel. Brush with melted butter and bake in a moderate oven (180 degrees Celsius) for around 15 minutes, depending on thickness of fish fillets. The slices of tomato will prevent the fish from drying out and the filo will retain all the juices. The feta will do what feta does best – taste divine as its melts into the fish.