Couple of Ideas

Bought sea caught Grey Mullet, which needs a bit of care to bring it to life. Cooked it whole, gutted and descaled, stuffed the belly with ginger slices, a few chilli slices and the green heads of spring onions. Laid it on oiled and seasoned greaseproof paper that I scattered with a generous handful of refreshed wasabi (seaweed). Wrapped it up papillote style and cooked in a fan oven at 180°C for 40mins. turning it over 2/3rd of cooking time.
 

 Took the skin off, lifted the fillet off the bone and served with some of the cooking juices,

 



Was not the outstanding success expected, cooked just a little too long, still moist but I think cooking could be reduced by 10mins. Wasabe didn't have the impact expected so would probably not repeat. Definitely step up the ginger and chilli to give a bigger kick. Any suggestions welcomed!

To go with it, and to use an abundance of spinach I had at the moment,  I washed, stripped the stalks, spun dry and shredded about 1lb of spinach. Threw that into a very hot pan with a knob of butter and kept stirring to avoid catching and to drive off any lingering water. As it wilted and largely collapsed I then threw the retained ends of two bunches of spring onion which had been sliced along the length into slivers, think julienne but not so fussy.

 

Job done, time to serve, topping the spinach with a warmed soft boiled quails egg. Tasted good even if not outstanding!

I even remembered to take a photo!

tasty lunch

From time to time our fishmonger has sprats. They are now in season. This is our favourite way of having them as a lunch. Butterfly fillet a dozen sprats, leave just the tail fins on. Try to get the larger ones and ones still intact, not too chewed up. Cost you less than a £!. Skin and de-seed three tomatoes then finely chop and crush with a fork. Add one crushed clove of garlic and one stem of spring onion finely chopped, season and mix well. Toast six slices of bread. Sprinkle each slice with olive oil spread with a generous layer of the tomato mixture and lay two sprat fillets head to tail, skin side up. Drizzle with oil and return to grill briefly. They will only take a couple of minutes so watch carefully. Lift a fillet up gently to check that flesh has turned opaque. Serve with a light green salad.

Partridge Medley

Still chuffed about the other meal last weekend. No pics again so use your imaginations, this was a reworking of something I did recently. Four partridge was the offer we couldn't refuse. So took the breasts off the birds and set them aside. Then took off all the other useable meats. Carcasses went into a stockpot with an onion and a carrot and a glass of red wine, water to barely cover, then simmered gently.
Checked all the meat for possible shot. The other useable meats I minced on a coarse grade. Then re-minced it again this time with about six spring onions and 8-12 soft no soak prunes. Make sure you mix the prunes in else they will clog up the mincer. Into this mixture one small egg, Tbsp fine chop parsley, 1.5 Tbsp chestnut flour, pepper and 1/8th tsp of cayenne. Mix well together. With wet hands take 30gms of mince mix firm up and roll into balls, should make around 15. They will hold together easily.
Strain of stock into a clean pan, bring back to a very gentle simmer and carefully roll the balls into the stock in batches, after about 15min lift out to dry and set. Roll in chestnut flour, dip in another beaten egg then roll in coarse breadcrumbs.
Now to put it all together. In a hot skillet add a large knob of butter, pan fry the breasts, turning on the two sides and the neck end until coloured and inner flesh just has a line of pink still. Pat dry and rest in a warm place for ten minutes. In a pan of hot oil slide the breadcrumbed balls into the oil for around 6 mins or until they are evenly coloured. Lift out, drain. Assemble your plate, sit back and feast!