Farming’s fun, yes, it is, I repeat to myself as dogs and I trudge up to the yard yet again in the relentless rain. Bother, welly stuck, wet sock, whoops, squelch. “Remember,” I repeat my mantra, “you could be in that traffic jam on the M6”

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Serve Antipasta, a simple and delicious mix of smoked meat and fish, salami, eggs with anchovies and lump fish roe, cherry tomatoes and avocado and various pickled fish.

I arrange everything on two large plates one meat, one fish, each with a bowl of *Aioli, strong, home-made garlic mayonnaise, and plenty of warm home made bread rolls.

For the *Aioli use 4 eggs yolks, 6 cloves of garlic and about 500ml olive oil. Make in the usual way for mayonnaise but put the garlic in at the beginning with the egg yolks. Slow is the word here!

Here is my version of this delicious fish stew. All quantities are approximate. I use whatever fish I can get!

For the Aioli use 4 eggs yolks, 6 cloves of garlic and about 500ml olive oil. Make in the usual way for mayonnaise but put the garlic in at the beginning with the egg yolks. Slow is the word here!

Next peel about 1.5 kilos of potatoes, and blanch them. Cut up a few sticks of celery, four tomatoes, a fennel bulb, some thyme and summer savoury. Chop a good hand full of parsley.. If you have new garden peas or some shelled broad beans add these too.

Firm white fish is best. Monkfish, bream, bass. I have used cod and haddock. They taste fine but are inclined to fall to bits. Squid, mussels and large prawns are good additions. Make sure you clean the mussels carefully, rinsing out the grit, pulling off the beards and discarding any open or broken ones.

Once everything is prepared heat some oil in a big pan. First put in the vegetables and the mussels. Next put in a layer of fish. Cover with water, about 2 litres, or fish stock if you have it. I sometimes use a tin of chopped tomatoes or a bag of last years frozen ones instead of some of the water.

Bring to the boil, add ½ a pint of white wine(275ml) Simmer for ten minutes then carefully take out all the fish etc leaving just some potato behind. Keep the fish warm. Crush the potato into the sauce and stir in half the *aioli. Warm through

Spoon fish and broth into individual bowls and serve with the remaining aioli and crusty bread. A good crisp white wine completes the feast.

Enjoy fish!!

Baked Sea Bass

Evelyne came to stay from Brittany so I ordered Sea Bass from Mark. It was wonderful!

I oiled some tin foil, placed the fish, covered in fennel fronds, on it, drizzled over Pernod and, wrapping the fish up tight in the foil, I baked it for 20 minutes in a hot oven. I served it with Evelyn’s’ Hollandaise sauce, new potatoes and a salad from the garden. Quite delicious!

For me simple is best when cooking fish. When buying fish the flesh must be firm, the eyes bright and the gills deep red. If this is not the case and fish smells fishy then I would rather cook something else! Fresh fish cooked simply and quickly is my rule.

Grill whole gutted fish quickly under a hot grill or on a barbeque with fresh lemon and olive oil.. Or fill the cavity with herbs or porcini mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, rub with oil, wrap in foil and bake. Check after 10 minutes. The cooking time will vary according to the size and variety of fish. The flesh should be just opaque and firm, not separated and dry.

Fillets of haddock or cod can be skinned with a sharp knife , dipped in a little egg then flour and herbs and fried quickly in butter or olive oil.

Seer scallops or tuna steaks in a hot pan for no more than a couple of minutes on each side . Add chopped fennel or sage, or flame a little gin and crushed juniper berries
over the scallops. Serve the tuna with black pepper, lemon juice and a sharp green salad with plenty of rocket. Or place the fish on a pile of boiled noodles. The possibilities are endless but fresh, quick and simple are the key.

There are so many wonderful versions of fish stew often impossible to do authentically from one region to another. Here is my own Anglicised version.

Bourride:

All quantities are approximate. I use what fish I can get!

For the Aioli I use 4 eggs yolks, 6 cloves of garlic and about 500ml olive oil. I make it in the usual way for mayonnaise but put the garlic in at the beginning with the egg yolks. Slow is the word here!

Next I peel about 1.5 kilos of potatoes, and blanch them. I cut up a few sticks of celery, four tomatoes, a fennel bulb, some thyme and summer savoury and chop a good handfull of parsley.. If you have new garden peas or some shelled broad beans add these too.

Firm white fish is best. Monkfish, bream, bass. I have used cod and haddock. They taste fine but are inclined to fall to bits. Squid, mussels and large prawns are good additions. Make sure you clean the mussels carefully, rinsing out the grit, pulling off the beards and discarding any open or broken ones.

Once everything is prepared heat some oil in a big pan. First put in the vegetables and the mussels. Next put in a layer of fish. Cover with water, about 2 litres, or fish stock if you have it. I sometimes use a tin of chopped tomatoes or a bag of last years frozen ones instead of some of the water.

Bring to the boil, add ½ a pint of white wine(275ml) Simmer for ten minutes then carefully take out all the fish etc leaving just some potato behind. Keep the fish warm. Crush the potato into the sauce and stir in half the *aioli. Warm through

Spoon fish and broth into individual bowls and serve with the remaining aioli and crusty bread. A good crisp white wine completes the feast.

Enjoy fish!!

A Fish Shop, Hokkaido
It takes years to become a Sushi master. A young apprentice may spend two years simply preparing the rice before he is allowed to touch a fish. The fish is so fresh many bars keep the fish alive in tanks and prepare them for each order. I’ve even seen a lorry full of water transporting fish across Tokyo; a sort of huge mobile aquarium.

In this country it is only possible to serve either sashimi or a simple version of sushi if you are fortunate enough to be a fisherman or live so near the sea that you are able buy fish the day it has been caught. There is a saying in Tokyo that if it is past midday the fish is not fresh enough for sushi!

I am lucky enough to have two sources of very fresh fish in my local town so occasionally, for a very special treat, I make Temaki-zushi or California Roll style sushi. I rinse sushi rice in water and cook it in an equal quantity of water i.e. 5 cups of rice to 5 cups of water. I boil it quickly for three minutes then reduce the heat and continue for a further ten. Then I check to see that the water is all absorbed. Next I cover the pot with a cloth and let the rice stand for another 15 minutes. While the rice is standing I prepare the dressing by mixing a little salt and sugar with about 125 ml of Sushi vinegar or Mirin.

Traditionally the rice is tipped into a wooden tub but a plastic bowl will do at home! Using a wooden spatula, I slice through the rice rather than stir it, slowly adding the rice vinegar mixture. The Sushi apprentice would also fan the rice as he turned it, to cool it to body temperature; cooler than this and the grains begin to harden. Now you begin to see why he must practice for so long to perfect this art form of cooking rice!

I serve the rice, still warm, with very thin slivers of the freshest raw fish; salmon and tuna, scallops, king prawns, smoked eel. Raw vegetables too; sliced cucumber, avocado, asparagus, mange-tout peas, spring onions and whatever else I fancy.

I ask each guest to take a sheet of Nori sea weed, fill it with rice, a selection of fish and vegetables, a dab of hot, eye watering Wasabi and a little slice of sweet pickled ginger and some soy sauce, then twisting it into a cone shape, eat it with their fingers. We drink green tea, a glass of sake or some Japanese beer and have a feast; a simplified version of the great delicacy of Japan!

And a dish of Sashimi, fish, wasabi and ginger and soy sauce without rice or nori, makes a wonderful starter to a meal.

Victoria Sponge, cucumber sandwiches - no crusts - and chocolate biscuits and those ones that look as if they were filled with dead flies, what were they called? It’s tea time on a winter’s afternoon. Granny has had the fire lit and the table laid, Nanny has cleaned me up and sent me down from the nursery…
“ And it is the nicest meal of the day. whether it is taken in the nursery with a two year old host making milk and honey flow with a lavishness that rouses wonder … or in a North country inn with eleven or twelve different sorts of cakes on the table; out of doors or merely in the drawing room. Philosophers might say the charm of the meal lay in the informal conversation: pedants may contend that all hangs on the country of origin of the tea itself; but all children, and all sensible people know that the fascination of tea really depends entirely upon the cakes.” Mrs C. F Level: The Gentle Art of Cookery 1925.
From the Constance Spry Cookery Book 1964:
“Take 3 eggs and their weight in butter, caster sugar, self raising flour, some good jam and icing or caster sugar. Cream the butter until it looks like whipped cream. Add the sugar and beat until white. Add the eggs one at a time with a good spoonful of sifted flour. Beat thoroughly. Sift the baking powder with the remaining flour, stir quickly into mixture. Turn into two sandwich tins 7 inches across, well buttered and floured; bake in a moderate oven 20-30 minutes. Turn out when cool, sandwich well with a good jam. Powder with icing or caster sugar.” Or, then again, you could just do what the Calendar Girls did…

A Comforting Tea Time Cake

I turn to my beloved Constance Spry Cookery Book first published in 1956. ….”in those days the disposition of a woman’s time made tea time possible, and the taste for, shall I say, the cosier figure gave no cause for apprehension…..” She goes on to discuss the merits and, indeed, politeness of tea time entertaining going into the tricky business of whether one puts ones milk into the tea before or after pouring. There follows a delightfully trivial debate of what was and was not de rigueur at Afternoon tea! Suddenly I was a child again having tea with my scary Granny!

An absolute must, she tells us, is an Old fashioned Sponge Cake with a Crust: I quote: “take five eggs and their weight in castor sugar, and the weight of three of the eggs in flour, plus 1 tablespoon of orange flower water…. ( if you can get it! I will substitute a little orange zest in mine; not the same I know but something rather than nothing)

Separate yolks from whites. Take 1 tablespoon of sugar away from the total quantity for every egg white. Put the remaining sugar into a bowl with the egg yolks. Whisk over gentle heat until white and mousse-like. Add orange flower water. Whip the whites stiffly, incorporate the remaining sugar, and fold into the mixture with sifted flour. Turn at once into a greased and sugared cake tin, bake in a slow to moderate oven forty minutes to one hour………..

She gives no more instructions, you’re on your own! I guess you just turn it onto a wire rack cool and eat! Bon appetite,sit down, relax, enjoy your afternoon tea!