In between working, gardening and my obsessive compulsion to clean the house (which is getting less erratic, thanks to writing this blog) I like to spend a large portion of my free time looking for new and inspiring recipes to trial and attempt on the Internet.
I have hundreds of cook books that I could spend hours pouring over, but I always seem to favour the search engines on my trusty laptop. I think that I follow this pattern for only a couple of reasons; one bizarre reason being that I seem to form an unhealthy addictive tendency to obsess over a certain type of cuisine, celebrity chef or even particular types of food. Which direction the tables will turn is unbeknown to me and my reasoning behind my mysterious choices are bewildering, all I know is that I pinpoint a subject and relentlessly research it until I have identified what it is that I want to cook. My most recent subject being Italian-style food (if you hadn't guessed) and just lately I have had an increasing yearning to replicate anything made by Nigel Slater and Dan Lepard.
My cooking thoughts are mainly directed towards the weekend, a time in which I like nothing more than to spend the day burrowing away in the kitchen (other than the Sunday just gone, due to a mammoth hangover that encased me from 7.30am until I went to bed at 10pm that night) trying to create something R would sing his highest praises too.
Writing about it now, actually makes me seem quite pathetic. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings are all dedicated to pursuing my chosen subjects. I become excited by the unusual and sometimes obscure recipes I find, most of them on newspaper or food based websites e.g. The Mail, The Good Food Channel, The Guardian, BBC Food and, more recently, The Telegraph - all of which have varied and massive memory tanks which store some of the more out of the ordinary and less repetitive recipes.
Thursday and Friday I start to flag slightly. Having gathered a vast variety of different recipes from a number of mixed sources, I feel quite confident that I don't need to spend quite so much time scouring the World Wide Web for inspiration. That is until R murmurs some famous words that can easily send me into a blind panic - "So what are we doing for teas this weekend?"
You'd have thought I'd have learnt over time to explain my executed meal plans to my husband at the beginning of the week, instead of leaving it until questioned which would be pointless anyway as R has a particular habit of only knowing what he wants to eat on the day that he has it.
After giving him a brief explanation of what I had planned (not telling him about the hours I had spent pouring over the Internet trying to find something suitable to satisfy his needs) he replied, "Nah, I don't really fancy that."
I did my extreme best not to jump up from where I'm sitting and scream in his face with violent rage before spinning on my heels and making a dramatic exit out of the house shouting '"YOU SORT TEA OUT - I DON'T CARE! " This would be unfair of me as it has been me that has been secretively and deviously planning our meals for the weekend. Perhaps if I had dropped hints earlier on in the week, gently enticing him into what I had planned and standing firm by my choices it would never have to come down to me wanting to throw myself on the floor kicking and screaming after his nonchalant reply. Anyway, if it was left to R what we would be dining on each week we would, nine times out of ten, end up visiting our local Indian only to return with a calendar and a place on their Christmas card list (don't pretend like you've never received a Christmas card from your local Indian/ Chinese).
Given the timing of R's reply (usually last thing on a Friday night) this generally leaves me with a few hours to come up with something that will tantalise his taste buds before I visit the local market town on Saturday morning to retrieve the ingredients needed. You would have thought even with only thirty minutes that this would be sufficient enough time to come up with some new material, yet with all of my extensive research I have collected, not just only over the past week, but since my obsession with food started, my mind seems to go utterly and completely blank, my inability to make decisions only worsens when under time-restricted pressure.
Saturday morning arrived far too quickly and with having no psychic dream that had foreseen what we were to eat for our supper, we decide to just "see what looks good" when we get to the market and go from there. I'm not convinced R doesn't have his own secret agenda to what he wants to eat that night, refraining from telling me until we are in a public place so I can't try and change his mind with some (ahem) gentle persuasion. As I've mentioned before R knows what he likes and likes what he knows, whereas I like to push the boundaries and experiment with new dishes. We have to try and compromise and meet somewhere in the middle.
Our first port of call is to our favourite Fish Man (Fish Stall) on the market, whether we feel like fish or not, this is always the best place to start as his fish is as fresh as can be - no pungent aromas lurking from behind his counter, only bright, shiny, gleaming fillets and whole fish from the catch that morning lay before our eyes, and with a queue normally 6 deep and only one man serving, an early start is essential.
We always like to try something different. On this particular morning three perfectly named rainbow trout sat glistening under the overhead light and at £2.50 each were a complete steal. Having known our reliable fish man for some time now he knows I'm not keen on bones so he took the head off and butterflied it for me, leaving me with a fish that could be steamed whole or grilled simply on the barbecue (his suggestions) ten king prawns and 5 scallops later I was edging closer to what was going to be our dinner that night.
Sun blaring down on me in the town center I took a seat on the cleanest bench with the rest of the mostly older community to try and fathom out how to best bring all this produce together. Barbecue seemed like a good option given that the weather was unusually tropical-like and R particularly likes to gather his barbecue tools and make his claim as chief griller (I think it's a man thing).
Not wanting the smokiness of the BBQ to completely smother the trout, I decided to steam it in a tin foil parcel with a few fine strips of ginger, spring onion, chili and lime, all flavours that would be bursting with freshness and refreshing on such a hot day. The scallops and prawns grilled in a cast iron pan on the BBQ with lime juice would stimulate our taste buds as a starter leaving our appetite craving for the suggestively spicy but oh so gently flavoured trout.
Although completely at the other end of the scale from what I was first going to cook, it was as equally enjoyable and satisfying especially with the sun bearing down upon us. Given the way in which I prepared the food (Thai inspired), I served it with a peanut satay sauce, cucumber and chili dipping sauce (not for the faint hearted) and a dressed rice noodle and vegetable side dish.
The trout, which is sometimes compared to salmon, definitely had a more delicate taste to it compared to its robust cousin. Whilst salmon has a very clean tasting texture and can withstand some of the more heavy flavourings, I think the rainbow trout would have tasted superior if just cooked with a little butter, a sprinkling of dill and some summer fresh greens. As far as the scallops and prawns, anything goes for my taste. As long as it uses fresh herbs and top quality produce you can't really go wrong.
In all my excitement of actually finding something to cook, dessert got pushed right to the back of my mind and only remembered about when R glanced me his puppy dog eyes and asked me what was for pudding. Luckily for him I had picked up a sliced fresh cream fruit scone for him and a decadently rich dark chocolate bar for me.
Have I learnt my lesson? I'd say no given the fact that on Monday night a large proportion of my time was spent pouring over a borrowed Nigel Slater book looking for my next conquests, What can I say? Old habits die hard whatever the inevitable outcome.
Pan Fried Scallops and Prawns.
We cooked these in the frying pan on the barbecue, but they could easily be cooked on a hob.
King Prawns - de-headed, peeled and de-veined.
Scallops - out of the shell and cleaned.
1 Lime
A few fresh coriander leaves
1 small chopped red chilli
Put your pan on a medium heat then when hot enough add your prawns and the juice of half a lime.
Cook until all prawns are pink, then remove and cover with tin foil.
Keeping the pan on a medium heat add your scallops in a circle in a clockwise direction, allowing 1 minute and 30 seconds for one side then turn over, starting from the first one you put in and cooking for 1 minute and 30 seconds on the other side, adding the other half of the lime juice halfway through cooking ( if they are particularly big scallops, they may need 2 minutes a side ).
Once cooked, share the scallops and the prawns between the serving plates and garnish with a few coriander leaves and a sprinkling of fresh chilli.
Steamed Rainbow Trout with Ginger, Chilli , Spring Onion and Lime
Fresh Rainbow Trout - ask your fishmonger to butterfly it for you
A few matchstick sized pieces of ginger, chilli and spring onion
One lime - one half sliced finely
Clean the trout, pat dry and place on top of a piece of tin foil (large enough to make a parcel round the fish)
Season with salt and pepper inside and out, then place the matchstick-sized pieces of the ginger, chilli and spring onion with a squeeze of the not-sliced half a lime inside the cavity of the fish.
Close the trout and place the lime slices on top of the fish.
Seal the tin foil around the fish leaving enough space around the trout to encourage a good circulation of steam.
If cooking on a barbecue place the parcel on a wire rack over the hot coals for around ten minutes, depending on the size of your fish.
You know when the fish is cooked as the flesh starts to come away from its skin easily.
Satay Sauce
3 shallots, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
½ lemongrass stalk, tough outer part removed, inner stem finely chopped
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
125g roasted salted peanuts, crushed
200ml/7fl oz coconut milk
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
½ lime, juice only
Blend the shallots, garlic, lemon grass and rapeseed oil in a blender until you have a puree.
Heat a frying pan on a medium to high heat, then when hot cook your puree for 1-2 minutes or until it becomes fragrant.
Add the crushed peanuts and cook for another minute before adding the coconut milk.
Bring the mixture to a simmer for around two minutes until it has thickened in texture, taking care to stir all time.
Then add the soy sauce, sugar, fish sauce and the lime juice and mix well until the sugar is dissolved.
You will find that you will have a lot of oil which has been extracted from the peanuts, we preferred to skim this off but feel free to keep it in the dish if you like it.
Cucumber and Red Chili Dipping Sauce
Half a cucumber, diced
A quarter of a red onion, peeled and diced
One red chilli, sliced into rings
Teaspoon soft brown sugar
Enough rice wine vinegar to coat the vegetables
A splash of cold water
Add all the ingredients together (seeds and all) and combine until the sugar has dissolved.
Taste and if the vinegar is too pungent for your liking add a little more cold water.
Tomato, Chili and Coriander Salsa
A pack of cherry tomatoes, halved
A large handful of chopped fresh coriander
One large chilli sliced, seeds kept in if you like the heat!
Juice of 2 limes
A splash of good extra virgin olive oil.
Add all of the ingredients together and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours for the flavours to amalgamate together.
We were obviously feeling a little chili infatuated that night, but this salsa makes a great accompaniment for anything from fajitas to burgers or even just a dip for some crisps.
Rice noodles and Steamed Vegetables.
Enough rice noodles to serve how ever many there are of you, although beware, they seem to multiply once cooked!
Normal sized handfuls of fresh mange tout, baby sweetcorn and bean sprouts.
2 spring onions, sliced
Dressing -
3 parts of rice wine vinegar
1 part fish sauce
2 parts soy sauce
Small piece of ginger, finely grated
One small red chilli , chopped and de-seeded
1 teaspoon soft brown sugar
A few fresh coriander and parsley leaves, chopped
Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions.
Steam the mange tout and the baby sweetcorn until just cooked.
Add all of the dressing ingredients together and mix well..
Carefully add all of the ingredients together and mix until well combined.
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