Fish Week

Spring has, apparently, sprung. Which I think means a move away from comfort food and into lighter foods. Such as fish. This doesn't really explain the leg of lamb I'm planning to have for lunch tomorrow with chickpea mash but never mind.

It's been a fish week. We started the week with whole roasted mackerel with capery spinach (stolen from Allegra's clickalong). The idea of whole roasted fish just chucked in the oven with some herbs and garlic was, I think, a bit much for the houseguest. She appeared to enjoy it an awful lot but was a bit confused as to how we found time to roast whole fish between arriving home from work at 7pm and going out to pub quiz at 8.30. I must admit she has a point. Which is the glory of fish of course - it cooks so so quickly.

Tuesday night was a non-fish meal (spag bol, cooked to perfection by Mr Salmagundy). Wednesday was what I would describe as more of a challenge. The fishmongers had whole sides of salmon which was most definitely a new experience for me. Again, this was covered in herbs, garlic and sea salt, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, wrapped in greaseproof paper (foil probably would have worked better but we'd run out) and roasted. Served with polenta and peas, it was a perfect mid-week dinner. I learnt a couple of things in making this dish. Firstly, never again will I waste my time with a garlic crush. While I do sometimes want my garlic a little finer than I am able to chop it, I tested out the grating method. Quick and neat - I don't know why I never tried this before. I am also learning about polenta as an alternative to potatoes, pasta, rice, etc. Some time ago we had a recipe which called for polenta so we purchased about 2kg of it from our local Iranian supermarket. We are now trying to find inventive uses for it. I am warming to it. For Mr Salmagundy, it was love at first sight.



The third fish meal was far less courageous - a smoked mackerel and spinach risotto cooked in a hurry before friends came over to help with my wedding dress fitting. I accidentally cooked far too much rice and learnt very quickly that risotto does not stand up very well to being left to its own devices while I answer the door and pour wine. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't great and it definitely wasn't as good as I know it can be.

This week we bought smoked mackerel fillets from the fish stall at the farmers markets (a staple in our Saturday shopping bag), whole fresh trout for an experiment and some salmon fillets for Allegra's clickalong this week. It will be a good week. But not until we've had a roast leg of lamb to see winter out (we hope).

Sunday

Today was a cooking day. That's the way Sundays should be. Sundays are for cheesy movies and cooking. Fiance and house guest took care of the cheesy movies. I laboured for what seemed like hours on Nigel Slater's olive and herb focaccia and had a mild panic when it wouldn't rise, even when placed under the heater (turns out the heater wasn't on). Fiance made homemade pasta sauce which bubbled away on the stove for hours and hours and made the flat smell lovely. Then I made Allegra McEvedy's smoked haddock and leek risotto from the Guardian clickalong sometime ago. I do love following Allegra's recipes, especially when there are gems such as this: When you put it in the bowls it should be pert yet relaxed and soft - a bit like when a woman with big tits is lying on her back. Fantastic.

The house guest was amazed by the whole process. The handmade bread surprised her. The risotto (which was amazing) prompted her to check if I had made it completely from scratch and when I said yes, she followed it up with but not from a packet at all. Which made me think. My cooking is not particularly inventive. I will make other people's inventive dishes but I'm not very creative myself. So all I do really is follow instructions and buy good ingredients. I am confident enough in my skills to follow instructions carefully. That is all. It's not that difficult. Is that what's wrong with this generation? We're too scared to try to cook, just in case it's bad? We need to give ourselves time to cook and have enough confidence to try to cook. Simple. Here's a pic to inspire, taken by the amazed house guest.