It’s Friday So It’s Fish!
I tend to have fish on Friday, although I come from a family where there was quite a bit of anti-Roman Catholic feeling. My mother was from a Huguenot line and after what had happened in France in the eighteenth century, you could understand her family’s feelings. With my father it was a bit mixed, but he didn’t like the way the Pope Pius XII had not condemned the Nazis. If it’s one thing my father was, it was an anti-fascist. But then he’d been at the Battle of Cable Street.
But still we generally had fish on Fridays! A friend has said that her family did too, as that was the day the fish-man called. I know we had a fish-man, who brought fresh fish and perhaps he came on Friday.
I don’t always follow the tradition and C generally didn’t. But recently, I’ve found a few nice fish recipes and tend to cook one of them on a Friday.
Today was no exception and I cooked a variation of the Lindsey Bareham recipe of fish with peas and beans, that I often use.
I started by setting the oven to warm up to 200 °C, with a plate warming in the top oven. I also set some water to boil for the vegetables.
Warming Up The Cooker
Meanwhile, I prepared the fish, by taking it out of the packet and putting it in my expensive porcelain dish from a pound shop.
Fish Ready For Cooking
I generally do two pieces of fish, in case a hungry and beautiful woman should turn up, whilst I’m cooking. The only preparation I do is to put a tablespoon of Carluccio’s lemon-flavoured olive oil over each piece of fish. I always used to use a real lemon, but then I often forgot to buy one.
I also prepare the vegetables. The potatoes tonight were a pack of Waitrose’s ready-to-microwave ones, the beans were a pack of yesterday’s runner beans on special offer and the peas were frozen ones from the freezer.
The Peas and Beans Ready To Cook
The only tricky preparation was to cut the beans in half.
After the fish went in the oven, I put the beans in the boiling water and started the potatoes in the microwave. After a couple of minutes, the peas were added to the beans and by the time they’d cooked so had the potatoes. I then just gave the fish another minute or so until it was cooked and placed it on top of the green vegetables.
Fish With Potatoes, Peas And Beans
It really must be one of the simplest ways to cook fish and vegetables. Even I can get it right every time!
The washing-up isn’t too onerous.
Easy Washing Up
There’s nothing that’s actually too dirty and can’t be washed in the sink.
I Want Another Of These!
This is my most commonly used kitchen implement.
It’s probably a war-time tablespoon, but it’s just the right size and balance for every job.
Another would be lovely, but I wouldn’t mind more!
Instructions For The Stupid
I made my fish supper last night and used these beans.
Instructions For The Stupid
Note on the packet it says when you boil them, that you should remove them from the packaging.
Paying For Plastic Bags
There is talk this morning, that we’ll all have to pay five pence for a plastic bag.
I’m not against the charge, but a total ban, as some are proposing, would create problems for me.
I usually shop once every day and never take a bag with me, as that is just something else to forget, when I go out. As too, I have a gammy hand, I find carrying an empty bag difficult and have dropped a couple on occasion.
But the biggest impact on me would be on my kitchen rubbish system. Here’s my waste basket.
My Kitchen Bin
It’s actually a large plant-pot from IKEA. As you can see in the next picture, it’s the ideal size for the standard Waitrose plastic bag.
My Fuller Kitchen Bin
The trouble with bought bags is that they are far too big or too small for my bin.
I have designed my own bin and sometime, I’ll get round to making it.
What I Need Is A Chip Hoe Or Hook!
I have always liked fried new potatoes. Earlier in the week, I boiled a small packet of Charlottes and fried the remains with my supper tonight.
I’ve always had difficulty turning them in the pan. C used to use a slice and a fork, but that method needs two good hands. And I only have one! So I’ve tended to rely on making sure that only firm chips go in the pan and then using a bit of tossing to turn them.
What I Need Is A Chip Hoe Or Hook!
It was whilst I was frying them tonight, that I felt that a miniature hoe, as used in gardening might do the trick. Obviously, the shape of the end would be the key to a good design. Effectively, it would just lift the chip to see it was cooked on the underside and then flip it. A simple hook in an appropriate material might do the trick.
I am reminded of a very old joke.
A visitor was being shown around a monastery. He came across this monk with a large pile of potatoes, which he was peeling and cutting into pieces, before dropping them into a large saucepan of boiling fat.
The visitor smiled and said to the monk. “You must be a chip monk!”
He got an immediate reply. “No! I’m a friar!”
Real Michelin Chefs Use Microwaves
I was in Waitrose buying some supper, when the young lady in front at the prepared vegetables shelf picked up some mixed green vegetables and put them down. As I picked up another one, she said that she didn’t have a microwave. I said not to worry, as a friend of mine, who’s a Michelin-starred chef uses one. She smiled and said perhaps she’d get one.
Is This The Best Microwaveable Gluten-Free Sunday Lunch?
I wasn’t feeling too well this morning, as I probably got too hot in the sun at the Paralympics yesterday. It seemed to make my hand and arm go rather cold. So I picked up one of Marks & Spencer, roast pork loin with apple & cider sauce dinners from their Fuller Longer range, as I didn’t want the hassle of cooking properly.
Roast Pork Loin With Apple & Cider Sauce
It really is rather a nice meal for something that you just put in a microwave. I wonder whether when John Randall and Harry Boot, invented the cavity magnetron in 1940 at the University of Birmingham, ever visualised, nearly everybody having one in their homes.
Good Idea, Bad Packaging
It was a good idea of Waitrose to sell prepared onions.
Good Idea, Bad Packaging
But why do they put them in such terrible packaging. It was bad enough before I had the stroke, but now it’s downright impossible.
As they stick two packets together it makes it even worse. I’d just like to buy one prepared onion. Please!!
The Anonymous Widower 