Cooking salmon and the Bouncy Castle

Somewhat exhausted after son's wedding anniv party held here which included 22 children and their parents, hence bouncy castle above, star guest.

As part of my contribution to the catering, I bought a 2.7 kg whole salmon - even the shopping was tricky as tried 4 or 5 local supermarkets who said either there was not enough time to order (Waitrose) or they wouldn't have one (everybody else except Morrisons who only promised giants) but then on Thursday I found two great fish sitting on the counter at my local Tesco's. Reader, I chose the pretty one. 

Had to cut it in half to cook, one half in my own fish kettle and one in my neighbour's.  I dimly remembered a foolproof poached-salmon if-eating-cold recipe but had thrown away my old tattered Katie Stewart cookbook, so had to check internet. Question was (1) do you boil the water before you put the fish in, then bring back to boil, simmer for a couple of minutes, take off heat and let it cool in liquid for several hours. Or (2) do you bring the water slowly to the boil with fish already in the fish-kettle/pan, then immediately take it off the heat and let it cool in the liquid.  I chose the latter and it worked fine.  I then had another panic about the numbers invited so also bought a whole huge fillet and this too poached beautifully by method 2.  Also at last minute had to borrow enormous plate from neighbour as reassembled whole salmon measured 24 inches.  Disguised joins and neck bits with cucumber and frilly lettuce, scattered more about, and the result was one of my rare domestic goddess moments. Phew. (You can borrow fish kettles from Waitrose and Morrisons, by the way, and I think next time it would be more restful just to buy the whole fillet even if it isn't quite as spectacular as a whole huge fish.)
Later: good news, had not thrown Katie Stewart Times cookbook away after all. Just found it in four or five pieces in one of my bookshelves where I keep old cookbooks (funny that - trouble is, my organizational systems are hit and miss)  Her method for cold salmon is 'Fill any pan with sufficient cold water to cover fish, remove it before bringing water to boil, add salmon, bring back to boil and boil hard for exactly two minutes, cover with tight-fitting lid and leave for 12 hours or until quite cold. This works for any size of salmon or salmon cut.'

Spring & Cooking

Spring at last.  Isn't it wonderful?

Cooking at the mo as family etc here this weekend.  Decided to try Jamie Oliver's Chicken Tagine.  Sainos supermarket lady saw me examining the displayed cookbook and explained they had Moroccan preserved lemons in stock, phew, and the prog had only aired the night before.  Bought said lemons at vast expense but to me they tasted not v.exciting. Cd've saved myself £4 by adding lemon juice. We'll see what the final deeply authentic dish tastes like.  I had to watch the recipe on Channel Four 'catch-up' in order to check the ingredients, but basically you rub and marinate the chicken with cumin, coriander seed and ginger, and some olive oil for 2 hrs, fry chicken, fry onions and garlic too, add chicken stock, pinch of saffron, plus stoned olives and 3 small preserved salted lemons.  I also added aubergines because I had some around, and stoned dates because another recipe suggested them.  Then you simmer the whole lot slowly for 1 1/2 hrs. I didn't buy Jamie's latest book, Jamie Does Spain, Italy, Morocco, Sweden Greece & France, because I have 50 cookbooks, but maybe I will in the end, because he is such a good original simple cook.
It was fascinating watching him go around the Marrakech market collecting tiny slices of various ingredients in his stew pot/tagine and then taking the pot to the baker's oven (or bathhouse-stove embers?) to be cooked. I approve of main courses that can be prepared in advance like tagines, which sound so much more glamorous than stew.
A week later:  Yes the recipe was a great success. I do think the preserved lemons added an unusual taste which made it different but still delicious.  Went down very well with the family.  Next day we had a drinks party in the sun. For this event I'd ordered some of the food from Waitrose Entertaining and made the rest.  Fortunately the young helped prepare and serve, and then they sat down and ate an enormous lunch. Took me a week to recover from all this catering and excitement.

Christmas cooking recollected in tranquillity

Here is my guest the kitten on Christmas day. Sadly he has gone home now. We miss him.


A proper family Christmas is terrific fun, but exhausting if you normally lead a quietish life. We had ten people for four days, so I had to concentrate hard on being a domestic goddess. Fortunately I’d bought myself a pre-Christmas present of Mary Berry’s Stress-Free Kitchen, the sort of title that attracts me. This has several easy but looks-as-if-you’ve-tried fish recipes. I wanted to cook three fishy dinners as one family member doesn’t eat meat, just poultry and fish. First evening we had a Delia-esque fish pie, topped with crumbled Weetabix (it’s good, honestly), second evening Mary Berry’s creamy Thai-style salmon (not Thai at all really but interesting, I thought) then turkey, then MB’s haddock peperonata. Turkey came from Norfolk, twice as expensive as Saino’s normal ones but did taste good. I forgot to put semolina on the potatoes as advised by Nigella – fine all the same, as had bought duck fat (N. again). Memo: must invest in a new dressing gown next year – not red satin though, because something tells me I won’t look like her anyway.

Mistakes this year: next time I won’t buy pre-peeled Brussels sprouts. And I won’t put orange zest in the brandy butter as it looked a bit peculiar, despite my mother’s elegant dish. Oh another thing, Nigella said to flame the pudding in vodka and it worked a treat. I always heat the alcohol before setting light to it. Another more mundane cooking tip – Marigold Swiss vegetable bouillon (purple pot) cheers up any home-made soup made from left-overs, even sprouts.
Photo - sister-in-law gave me Christmas pot pourri so I put it on the table (photo credits Rory V)

Went to see the film Australia yesterday. Good epic scenic romantic stuff, two stories really, very long. Take your sandwiches. I’ll blog about recent reading another time. Currently on English Passengers which I’ve had for ages on my TBR list. Hard work but an impressive piece of writing and interesting.

A very happy new year to all readers and blogging friends.

Creepers & berries, fish pie and recent reading

Recent Reading
The Siege of Krishnapur by JG Farrell. Well worth reading if you are interested in Colonial India. Vivid believable descriptions of the characters and situations, all told from a masculine British point of view. The Victorian ladies were mostly depicted as pretty silly and the sepoys were just the sepoys. Have to confess I skipped some of the philosophy - perhaps I was exhausted empathising with the besieged.

The Point of Rescue by Sophie Hannah. Excellent characterisation and scene setting in this pyschological crime novel. The lives of the yuppie mummies and their difficulties with child care were both convincing and, in cases, chilling. I haven’t read her earlier books so couldn’t quite latch on to the characters of the main policeman and woman. The complex plot was well handled and such a long book would see one nicely through a long plane journey. I didn’t much like any of the protagonists but the plot carried me along. Have looked briefly at Sophie’s impressive biography (click on her name above) and see that she is an extremely talented young woman.

If you haven't time to read the Booker shortlist, check out these mini-lite summaries.

Recipe.

I cooked a version of Delia's luxury fish pie last weekend, except that I fried fresh breadcrumbs in butter and oil as a topping and didn't include expensive scallops as I thought they'd be overcooked and unappreciated in a pie. Instead I substituted white fish, smoked haddock, plus sliced raw mushrooms. I also used a well diluted fish stock cube rather than ready-made stock and omitted the cheese, plus I added some parsley to the sauce. Otherwise just the same, really, and quite a success with the family. I cooked the two kinds of fish and the sauce in advance, adding the raw king prawns, finely sliced raw mushrooms and topping just before I heated it up. It's not often I have a domestic goddess moment these days so I thought I'd better post about it.