the risotto that wasn’t

using up: smoked trout, a bulb of  fennel

We like risotto; sometimes I make it in the oven, and sometimes I stand over the pot, ladling in stock.  Whatever, I know my 5oz of rice to 1 pint of liquid works.

Today, I thought I’d try the slow cooker.  I did a bit of Googling, and came up with a couple of ideas.

So, chopped the fennel and a red onion, put it in the slow cooker on high with a little olive oil, left it for an hour and stirred, left it for another hour and stirred again.  OK so far.

Added 5 oz of arborio, and 1 pint of veg stock (made with the ever wonderful Marigold bouillon).  Bit of seasoning, knob of butter.  Sorted.  Turned down to low, left for an hour, stirred it, all was well.

Came down half an hour later, zapped a piece of hot smoked trout with some butter in the microwave for 90 seconds, flaked it, opened the slow cooker and … overcooked.  Ho hum.

Still, not a disaster - added the fish, lobbed in some double cream before serving, and hey presto, fennel and smoked trout kedgeree :)

I don’t know whether I cooked it too long, or there was insufficient liquid, or whether I should have put the stock in cold (there was hot water in the kettle so I used it).  But it was still very nice, and the cats enjoyed the fish skin!

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fish and broccoli pie

using up: a head of broccoli, some smoked trout

A while back when we were in Costco, we were offered a sample of hot smoked trout.  It was delicious; like sheep, we bought a bag, and I wrapped each fillet separately and put it in the freezer.  I completely forgot about it until I was trying to make space for the mega chicken cookout last weekend, and then I made a mental note.

Thankfully, I managed to retain this note long enough to think about the fish when I needed to use up the broccoli, and this is what I did.  I’m afraid it used a lot of pans, and was a lot of faffing, but it was worth it.  Note the wonderful old battered white and blue enamel dish I cooked it in - I love that dish.

Put some potatoes on to boil for the mashed spud topping.  If you put them in the bottom of the steamer, then you can steam the broccoli on the top, as I did.  Otherwise you’ll have to use yet another pan for the broccoli.

Poach the fish in some milk for about 4-5 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fillet.  Lift out with a fish slice (!), set on a plate, and *keep the milk*.

Chop an onion very finely (I used a red one, for prettiness, but a white would be fine)., and sauté in some butter until soft.  Add some flour to make a roux, then complete a sort of onion sauce by adding the milk from the fish.

Flake the fish into chunks, removing the skin; I gave it to the cats, but they were unimpressed.  Combine with the broccoli and onion sauce.  I added some chopped parsley from the garden.

Put in an ovenproof dish, top with mashed potato, and cook at gas 6 or so for about 20 minutes, until the potato is browned.

A lot of messing about, but *well* worth it.

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a fish pie

using up: a piece of fish, a bulb of fennel, the last third of the bag of spinach.

We’re having a fairly traumatic week, and the reason for this was the cause of the existence of one not very big fillet of anonymous white fish.  One of our cats, our beloved Bada, has been and remains exceedingly ill, and a pair of fish fillets was bought to tempt her (it didn’t work).

When I’m unhappy, I cook, and I don’t like to waste food as you know, so here’s what I did.

I poached the fish in milk and water and a little black pepper for a few minutes, then set it aside on a plate to cool. I put the chopped up fennel in the fish water, and simmered it for, oh I don’t know, maybe 12 minutes with no lid, so it cooked and the milk reduced down.

Then I made some white sauce, chunked the fish, and added fish, fennel, and a pack of prawns from the freezer.  Put that in an ovenproof dish^H^H tin (the lasagne dish is broken, remember).  Piled a layer of spinach on top. Boiled some potatoes, and mashed them with Red Leicester cheese, and added that.

Baked at gas 5 for 25 minutes.  Scoffed - gorgeous comfort food.

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last night’s supper (16/6/7)

We started with tuna, quickly seared in a ribbed pan, accompanied by a broth with slivered ginger, sesame seeds, rice wine, shoyu, a dash of balsamic vinegar, and finely chopped coriander, and some rice. It was glorious.

And then. And then. Ohmigod. We had molten chocolate cakes, accompanied by raspberries and cream.

And then we had a lie down.

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it’s endemic

We just had a ring on the doorball, from a chap selling door to door from www.goodtastefoods.co.uk. He had a van full of stuff, and we were interested enough to let him show us his wares.

He brought a heap of boxes to the house; he had salmon, tuna, hake and cod, and all the rest was ready-cooked. We don’t buy - or eat - ready-cooked food, as we’re lucky enough to have the time to cook most nights; and if we don’t, we take something we’ve previously cooked from the freezers.

So he was a bit disappointed that most of his offerings didn’t appeal. perlmonger and I were interested in the fish; it seemed to be from reasonably sustainable sources, but we were concerned about freezer space.

And “it’ll be ok if *you* organise it”, he said to perlmonger. I told him he nearly lost the sale by making stupid sexist remarks, and he was really quite taken aback. P pointed out that actually, it would in fact be much better if *I* did it. And I did, and 12 tuna steaks and 14 pieces of cod loin* are in there.

* I find it very difficult to think of fish loins, don’t you?

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