Further Adventures in Cooking Fish

[debitha]

Yes, I am blogging about food again. What can I say, I love food.

Yesterday I bought monkfish from the Fish Man. He suggested the old batter-and-fry. "A bit of flour, a bit of bicarbonate of soda... do I mean bicarbonate, or baking powder? Yeah. Yeah, bicarbonate of soda to make it sort of bubbly, and a bit of water."

So I mixed up the above, and then had misgivings. Bicarb? Really? Upon turning to the Almighty Edmonds, all the batter recipes used cornflour and/or baking soda. Does anyone have an opinion on this? I scrapped the bicarb mix and started over with baking powder (and threw in some paprika for taste and colour). I'm thinking I should also have floured the fish before battering it, because there were definite issues with keeping the batter on the fish.

Anyway, presentation issues aside, it was a tasty dinner (I boiled, sliced and fried potatoes again and flash-fried some spinach in obscene amounts of butter). The monkfish was tasty, and almost slightly sweet. I will probably have that again.

Comments

[giffydoll.livejournal.com]

I like reading about food.

BTW We have booked our tickets to leave from Bristol. I think we shall have a car with us the whole time now (we are thinking about bypassing London completely) We will also have sleeping bags :)

[debitha.livejournal.com]

Food is good. Talking, reading and writing about food is good. Mmmm, food.

Super duper. If you have a car we could go to somewhere like Avebury, if you have any interest in that sort of thing.

Sleeping bags not required at Chez Debitha. I can in fact run to bed linens for you. :o)

[giffydoll.livejournal.com]

Hmm, Foodblog Thursday isn't going to be very exciting this week. I did a lot of blobbing and not much cooking ;)

[giffydoll.livejournal.com]

Also, no idea what Avebury is, but I'm sure I'm interested ;)

[sassafrassle.livejournal.com]

Avebury=similar to Stonehenge (ish)

[lazyknight.livejournal.com]

Well. If you can imagine a village sat inside stonehenge, then yes :-)

Stone circles are stone circles, no?

[sassafrassle.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury

Re: Stone circles are stone circles, no?

[debitha.livejournal.com]

Yes. No. Sort of.

Some of them are big, some are quite little. Some have tall stones, some have stones that are under a meter tall. Some are very simple, some are more complex.

On the other hand they are all groups of rock arranged in a cirular pattern. It's a bit like saying all dogs are dogs. It's a true statement, but it doesn't let on all the variety available.

Have a nosy through the website I linked for Giffy. It's very good, with lots of pictures and info, in a well-laid out way.

Re: Stone circles are stone circles, no?

[lazyknight.livejournal.com]

Taking that logic, the mendips are no different to the alps or the himalayas... they all kinda go uphill.

[debitha.livejournal.com]

Oh hey. You are still here. Thought you'd disappeared off the face of the planet again.

Are you fixed for somewhere to stay next weekend?

[debitha.livejournal.com]

Avebury is a big stone circle complex (there's all sorts of nifty archaeology). If you're interested in seeing something along the lines of stone circle/long barrow etc, there are a few within driving distance of Bath. This website (http://www.stone-circles.org.uk/stone/index.htm) has a bunch of stuff. Avon, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Somerset and Wiltshire are driveable if you want. We can decide at the time if/whether you want.

[giffydoll.livejournal.com]

Awesomeness! Def up for that :)

I *must* also get to go to the Costume museum, I heard there was a fire earlier this year, but it's ok.

Lots of places to visit is coolness.

[debitha.livejournal.com]

It's OK, I have the Costume Museum at the top of my mental list of things for you to do. I have just realised I have no idea if your Beau has any particular interests. He must do, but I do not know them.

[giffydoll.livejournal.com]

He likes stuff. We're both keen on stone circles ;) We have seen a few olde stone things in Ireland, but always keen for more, especially if they informative signs etc. We both love that stuff ;)

[sassafrassle.livejournal.com]

You almost make me want to eat fish! (nb. I find fish pretty boring as a general rule)

[debitha.livejournal.com]

The freshness of the fish makes quite a big difference. I have never been a big fan of fish, but I may be becoming a convert.