2 new fish species in my belly

Evening all, 

I am currently on holiday in Cornwall; one of the excellent things about this part of the world is the sheer number of day boats that go to sea, fish, and sell their produce to local independent fishmongers.  One example is the fishmonger in Widemouth Bay near Bude.  

We visited today and he could provide 2 species that I had never tried before, the Megrim Sole and the Grey Trigger fish.

The Megrim Sole

I think this sole, is pretty much only found around Cornwall in the UK (I may be wrong).

A lot like lemon sole in almost every way.  The preparation was simple, a de-scale and in the oven.

The taste test.

Pretty good, soft bright white flesh, with a delicate flavour. Soley really! whilst not as good as lemon or Dover. 

I oven baked it but think a poach or breading would be a better treatment. A dab of tartare sauce, and it would sing.

The Trigger Fish

Our fish was caught by a day boat in Bude.  It should be mentioned that the Grey trigger fish is usually a native of the West Atlantic, from Nova Scotia to Argentina.  It seems that recently they have been found in the Med and for the last 4 years, or so the fishmonger tells me, Bude.

This is a weird looking fish, almost all head with some mean looking teeth.   I got to work on it, showing some of my fishmonger voodoo.  What I first noticed about this fish was the bony armour around the head, making the usual head cut impossible to make - never mind!  I cut off the fins and entered through the fin hole.  Did I mention that the skin was a hard as well baked concrete?  I moved round the tail, round the top of the fish, avoiding the armour and cut through the last of the skin with chicken scissors; job well done.

The taste test.

Amazing, this fish has gone right up there into to my favourite fish. Even though it tastes a bit like chicken.  This fish cost £2.95/kg (cheaper than Mackerel)  as they are unknown here, but if they were more prevalent they could easily be as popular as monk fish.   The reason; well filleted this is a boneless fish with good flavour and a really good texture.  Try one if you ever see one at your fishmonger, get it, oh and ask him to fillet it, it's easier.

Alice's Mackerel

The other half would kill me if I didn't mention the two Mackerel that she caught this morning, also taken for for tea. Not bad for a first attempt.

Failure

Yes, as was always inevitable, lack of time produced an epic fail of the meat challenge. :(

Sorry chaps

The Meerkat cometh

Sorry to disapoint those who saw the title and thought that maybe I had eaten a Meerkat, but this is one of my other passions.

The next update to Ubuntu Linux will soon be with us.  I can't wait.

Details of what is new here:

If you haven't used Linux for a while or wondered what all the fuss is about, then release day is the perfect time to try a new install.  If you do, I will promise to answer any questions you have in a friendly and accommodating way.  It is the least I can to for a community that has been providing me with free desktop software for over 5 years.

Return of the Quack, once again

As only did half a job of eating the duck in the last instalment, there was more eating to be done.  As you may recall I had made some stock and reserved the duck breasts.

In my mind I had a lovely cleansing oriental soup to wash away the excesses of the weekend.

I warmed up the stock (this really should be clarified for the perfect effect, but it doesn't affect flavour) threw in a couple of star anise, rehydrated Chinese mushrooms and let it bubble for a couple of minutes.  At this point I added some good quality udon noodles and cook until tender.

Meanwhile I scored the duck breast and seasoned lightly with 5 spice and seared, leaving very rare in the middle (it is going to sit in hot stock until you eat it).

Dish up the stock, mushrooms and a portion of noodles into a bowl, add some fresh watercress and finish with the sliced duck breast.  Awesome Sunday tea.

Better start eating some gamebirds before they go out of season.  Until next time.

Return of the Quack

Well, a quick trip down to the supermarket produced a special offer on ducks.  One whole duck for £6..  What do I do with all this meat between 2 ?

As it was Friday night and I was hungry, I decided simple is best.  I butchered the duck, removed the legs and wings and filleted off the breasts.

For tonight, I decided that I would fast roast the legs and wings and serve with salad and chips.  Oven set to 220C wings and legs in for 40ish minutes.  Chunky oven roast chips in at the same time et voila !

All very good, very nice and just what I wanted.

Whist I roasted the legs and wings, I chose to roast the carcass (and subsequently boil for a couple of hours) to produce a deep flavoured stock.  I will use this later along with the duck breasts.

Billy goat gruff

This week I bought a goat shoulder from Manchester market in the Arndale.  This is close to work and is a pretty good butcher.  The cut of meat was not quite what I expected, rather than a "square" lamb shoulder, this cut of meat was more of a blade end of shoulder plus some neck chops (scrag end, where I'm from).  No mind, this is still perfect for what I had in mind for this meat.  Tonight we have a goat curry (Indian style) prepared by the Yorkshire lass.

I cubed the meat and saved the bones.  All will be used in thus curry.


Spice mix - I don't tend to mess with these rough measurements much, except to adjust the heat.
1.5 tsp freshly crushed (with a good pinch of sea salt) coriander seeds
1.5 tsp freshly crushed (with a good pinch of sea salt) cumin seeds
A couple of bay leaves
0.5 tsp black pepper corns
4-6 cardamom pods
1-2 dried chillis, crushed
0.5 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric

A little oil
2 x medium onion, 1 shredded, 1 diced
2/3 cloves garlic
Lamb / Goat Meat of your a stewing cut such as shoulder, ideally including bones cubed into mouth-size chunks.

4/6 fresh large tomatoes, or 1.5 cans chopped tomatoes
3 good handfuls of Lentils, Yellow and / or Red (red will just vanish, so do use a mixture)

Spinach; as much or as little as you like. I wouldn't omit this, as I think it's pretty fundamental, but if you don't like it.....
Further veg of your choosing (mushrooms are always good, fine beans, but anything goes here)
Bunch of fresh coriander, stalks chopped fairly fine, leaves roughly chopped.
Fresh chillis as required


Method

1. Oil and all spices in on a medium heat, fry until fragrant, add onions and garlic, and fry to soften. Add meat and bones, and colour these. Add 1.5 pints of water (to just cover meat), pop on a lid and leave for a minimum of 1.5 hours on a lowish heat. The longer the better, to get really tender meat. 

2. Add lentils now, and coriander stalks, along with your tomatoes. Take off the lid, and simmer, making sure it doesn't dry out. This stage can take from 45 mins to as long as you have. 
If you want to make it a day ahead, leave it at this stage. 
3. Finishing touches; when you are nearly ready to serve, throw in the prepared veg you have chosen, along with any chilli or further salt you want to add. Allow the veg to cook through to desired crunchiness. Chuck in the spinach and the coriander leaves (save some for garnish), wilt and mix those in, warn through and you're done. 
Serve with raita, chopped coriander, bread of your choice, and a cold beer. 

Goat is an excellent meat for this type of preparation, a bit tougher and richer than lamb (and about half the price) try and seek this out.  Indian or Caribbean shops and butchers will usually have some goat on sale.  I must get a lamb's leg to try a roast or turn into steaks.

Pousin, Done

This weekend, on the menu, it is Poussin.

The Yorkshire girl and I discussed at some length as to whether the Poussin is a different breed or just a baby chicken. Well disappointingly it is just a baby chicken. The ones we bought said " slow reared for a better flavour", you go figure!

Because it was Friday and I was hungry, a simple approach was taken to cooking these small birds.

The Poussin were put in a baking dish with potatoes, Olive oil, lemon juice, Garlic, salt and pepper and roasted in the oven for 45ish minutes at 230 degrees. Served with baby veg.

Well what about the taste? Surprisingly it tasted just like chicken! There are some points of note though. This Poussin did taste particularly tasty, whether this was it's young age (normally a factor against flavour) or it's "slow rearing" i don't know.

The birds are perfectly man sized. One Poussin per hungry man is about perfect.

Due to size, and the fact you can cook it hotter and quicker, you get crispier skin (and more of it per unit volume of meat).

And again thanks to the above reason, the meat was cooked perfectly, while the cartilage was still quite tough.  On a well cooked chicken the cartilage can sometime drop off with the meat. This matters to the Yorkshire girl, who is not a fan of all things gristly or fatty.

All in all very good. Will buy again (2 for a fiver at the nations market leading supermarket).

Poussin. Done.

Next up: The Yorkshire Girl's Goat curry.