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By Anna, 15 May, 2010 5:25 pm

Raymond Blanc’s marinated and grilled mackerel looked so delicious when he demonstrated it on his recent show, that we were eager for the mackerel season to start and as this is my third consecutive mackerel post, you can be confident that the mackerel are around. No more mackerel posts for a while after this one, I promise.

It’s a nice meeting point between cerviche and heat-cooked fish – a gentle introduction to the cooking of fish by acidic foods. It enhances the flavour of the fish, but in a strange way, tempers it, so this might be a nice recipe for people who want to like mackerel but don’t rave about it. If you are a fan of this plentiful oily fish, then this is an interesting and attractive recipe to consider. It’s worth mentioning also that because there’s a lot of vinegar sloshing around, you get little to no lingering cooking smell.

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By Anna, 7 August, 2009 11:12 am

We’re having some strange weather again this Summer. It’s been cold enough to make you contemplate making a pot of stew, but yesterday it was hot again, with the Mother of all rain and murk arriving in the evening.

So what to make for dinner on these days? A strike down the middle;  warming, comforting pork chops and a healthy, tumbling portion of bright and beautiful Summer vegetables.

The vegetables are utterly versatile, really, you can chuck in whatever you like – carrots, green beans, fennel, aubergine, well anything! You could liberally strew some fresh herbs over the top for the last 10-15 mins of cooking if you fancied it. I would definitely get some of the fresh basil growing in the garden and tear at it.

I would if I had basil growing in the garden, but I don’t. I’d get one for the windowsill, but Gary (the male cat) would eat it. He likes green stuff. I don’t like cat spit all over my food, so I wouldn’t like that. Hey ho.

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By Anna, 6 August, 2009 6:38 pm

Cereal. It has its place, but sometimes it’s not even a chore, not even unpleasant, it just IS.

Time to pep it up a bit. Ian has been pouring yogurt over the top, but that all got a bit milky and shudder inducing half-way through and there’s a limit to the quantity of dried fruit you can strew over it all before you get over-developed jaw muscles.

If only greek yogurt wasn’t generally so high fat and more to the point, expensive… Then we heard about straining yogurt and allowing it to sit overnight. The texture is transformed. It’s a miracle – a miracle, I tell ye!

Spoon over some sweet, poached fruit and bliss follows.

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