Seasonal fish. Mackerel Escabeche with boiled potatoes.

West or northwest 4 or 5, becoming variable 3 later.

Slight or moderate.

Showers.

Good.

Not sure if I told you about my local harbour and its fishermen. Hastings has still many local fisherman and the boats can be seen around sunrise, getting the catch of the day. The Rock-a-Nore (or “The Stade”) has a unique feature, the “boys ashore”. While most fish is sold at the wholesale fish markets, the “boys ashore” (typically retired fishermen who no longer go out) sell some catch of the day in wooden huts, a bit like pop-up stalls. They are only allowed to sell local fish, but it will be the freshest you ever tasted. This also means that if your desired fish was not caught last night, you need to be flexible. While there are some fantastic fish shops around (my favourite are the Rock-a-Nore Fisheries for smoked fish and the RX Fisheries for variety), the stalls are where I get my catch if I have nothing specific in mind. And for a chat. And for gaining fascinating knowledge.
Until recently I never thought of fish as seasonal or subject to the state of the sea. Yes, we know that fruits have seasons and that there is a reason you only get fresh game in autumn and winter. But fish is a bit more complicated and depends very much on the water temperature and water clarity. Take cod, a fish so popular in the UK that it can be called the “typical British fish”. Cod likes cold water, hence you wont find it in the summer in the South-East or South- West. Cuttlefish likes it warm, so if we have a cold spell in summer, there is no way it can be in the “catch of the day”. If you spend your summer holidays in the UK and want to sample the freshest fish, be patient if the variety is a bit limited. There is a reason for it. All you need to know how you can replace your desired fish. And if you don’t know, ask your friendly fishmonger.

Mackerel is an odd fish. Most people only like it smoked, since it has an odd taste. Not a bad taste but, due to its oily content, you have easily enough of it. The oily taste is more pronounced than in herring, but can replace most herring dishes with mackerel. Most of the time you need to do it, since herring is a true winter fish. Mackerels are available all year round in the UK, but they need to be very, very fresh. Mackerels are also very sensible fish. In winter they gain weight, are plumber and fatter and thus result in a far better smoked treat, while in summer the smoked variety can get a bit dry and is best in a salad. Or you can grill it and serve it with gooseberry sauce or, as a lunch treat, as “Escabeche”. This is a wonderful summer lunch treat: Can be cooked well in advance, doesn’t smell in the office, is a good recipe for people who are not fond of oily fish but want to improve their intake,  and doesn’t mind if you don’t feel like it today but keep it a day longer.
If you serve it with pre-cooked whole small potatoes (which can be reheated in the microwave) and a separate container which contains a bit of crème fraiche with capers (the vinegary types) and salt and pepper, you have a first class office lunch treat.

And if you are afraid to fillet fish, watch this video. Mackerels are really easy to fillet, so there is no need to not buy them because the fishmonger doesn’t prepare them for you.

Mackerels “Escabeche”

2 small or 1 large Mackerel, filleted

1 tbsp of flour

Pinch of salt and pepper

Olive oil

1 small onion sliced (I like red ones but you are fine with a normal small white)

100ml of good white wine vinegar

A generous pinch of sugar

A good splash of ice cold water

Mix the flour with the salt and pepper and add the mackerel fillet. Cover them and shake the excess off. Fry for about 8 minutes, on both sides, in the olive oil and remove with a draining spoon. Put them in a shallow dish. Fry the sliced onion in the same fat, but make sure they don’t colour too much (about 2 minutes), add the vinegar, the sugar and the water and let bubble away until the onions are soft. Add more water if it gets too syrupy. Pour the whole contents of the pan (onions and vinegar) over the fish and let marinate for at least 8 hours (up to 3 days), turning frequently.
Once you are ready to eat or have decided to take them to work, drain well and put into any container (fish and onions). Serve with either dark rye bread or reheated boiled potatoes, which are covered with cold crème fraiche to which you have added capers and salt and pepper.

Gatherers and Hunters. Bread dumplings with mushrooms in cream.

Westerly or southwesterly 6 to gale 8.

Moderate or rough.

Rain or showers.

Moderate or good.

The other day I was in Aldi and just about to reach into the freezer when a man next to me exclaimed in a delighted voice: “OMG, they are back”. His partner and him descended on a box and threw various plastic containers in their shopping trolley. After they half emptied a carton and trundled off with bliss in their face, I looked at their box of desire. The labelled said: Dried onions or bacon flavoured bits. They clearly left the dried onions and went for all the “bacon flavoured bits”. Nearly all, for much to my delight I found the last jar which evaded their scrutiny. I carried it proudly to the till (together with- for good measurements- a jar of dried onions) and felt like I have won a battle. 

At home the euphoria has disappeared and I wondered what possessed me to buy it in the first place. You see, I don’t even like bacon that much, so why would I feel proud to have attained the last jar of fake bacon? 

Of course I could claim it was curiosity to see how Vegan imitation food compared to the real deal, but this would be lying. I bought it because someone else wanted it.
It is like walking through a town and seeing a huge queue forming in front of a shop. People come out with bags full of something and when you inquire what is for sale you see rapture in the faces of the people in the queue and they whisper: “Frozen Crocodile tears are back”. Of course you join the queue. It is part of human nature. You are curious and you want it because others want it.

Maybe it`s a gatherer and hunter instinct in us. Maybe it is just greed. Maybe the fear of missing out. Or the fear of being excluded in a society ritual. Or maybe I am just particular stupid.

Anyway, once you have these blasted things, you put them to use. Ditto the dried onion (which I consider buying more often; they are very handy, especially for a single household). And since the weather is unseasonal wintry, comfort food is on the menu. Dumplings with mushrooms in cream. 

I was never good at dumplings, I reckon you need to grow up with an Austrian grandmother who teaches you how to do these things. They either disintegrated in the water or sat like stone in my stomach. But in absence of an Austrian “Oma” we have now “Auntie Google”, so there is no excuse to not get it right.

Since I exchanged the real bacon and the real onions, both need to be chopped up and fried in oil, and thus missing saturated fat which binds it together, I added grated, firm coconut fat. And while some websites suggested shaping the dumplings with wet hands, others advised to flour your hands. This made more sense to me. But the best advice was to do them in advance and let them firm up, by leaving them uncovered for an hour in the fridge.

Bread dumplings with mushrooms in cream

2 tbsp imitation bacon bits

1 tbsp dried onion bits

1tbsp grated coconut fat

1 stale/dry white bread roll or white bread

2 tbsp of milk

1 egg

1tsp chopped parsley

salt

flour for your hands

200gr mushrooms sliced

1tsp of butter

2 thyme twigs

2 tbsp of chives

200 ml of crème fraiche or double cream

salt and pepper.

Cut the roll into small cubes and put into a bowl. Pour the milk over and mix well. Let soak for about 10 minutes. Add the bacon bits and onions and let soak for another 10 minutes.

Whisk the egg with the parsley, the salt and add to the bread mixture. Stir well. Grate the coconut fat into it.

With floured hands shape 2 dumplings (they will be quite sticky). Put on a plate and put uncovered in the fridge for a minimum of one hour.

In the meantime slice the mushrooms and heat them with the butter in a pan. Add thyme, a bit salt and plenty of pepper and the cream. Cover and let the mushrooms soften and the sauce thicken without too much of evaporation. Take off the heat.

After the dumplings had their time in the fridge and you are ready to eat, take a big pot, fill with water and a good two tbsp of salt and bring to the boil. Once the water boils, add the dumplings, and turn the heat down immediatly. The dumplings should only simmer or they will fall apart! Cook them for about 20-25 minutes and remove at the end with a slotted spoon and leave to drain thoroughly.

Just before they are finished reheat your mushrooms again and once the boil, add the chopped chives.

Serve the dumplings in a deep plate and put the mushroom sauce around.

Verdict:

Not bad at all. They retained their shape and were firm, yet fluffy. Since the imitation bacon bits are basically flavoured bread, it gave them an interesting note. Not that I would buy it again, but at least I know now what to do with them.

If you have a use for frozen Crocodile tears, let me know.

The image is from Wikipedia since I failed to make a photo. If you ever need to take a photo from the internet, use the tab “more search tool” in the image section , then “usage rights” and chose one which is labelled as “labelled for reuse” in order to avoid copyright issues.

Dutch Sausage rolls. Saucijzenbroodje

Southwest 4 or 5, occasionally 6 at first.

Slight or moderate.

Showers.

Good.

Nightshifts suck. I don’t mind working at night and I don’t have problems sleeping. But I have problems cooking. Basically everything is upside down, or should be. You have breakfast at 6.30pm, your lunch at 1 am and your supper at 8 am. But somehow I cant eat things like curries at 8 am. Or follow it with a glass of wine. Drinking in the morning feels wrong, and eating a hearty meal as well.

So I put some energy into my lunch. But this is normally something which can be micro waved. So I tend to cook several portions and freeze them. Meaning my freezer is overflowing with a variety of (and of course me being me: unlabelled) food portions. Another problem is that my Vegetarian children went off Vegetarianism, so I bought sausages and meat. And now they are back to being Vegetarian, meaning that I have to finish that all, despite not wanting to.

I am not complaining, it is a good thing that they try again and I don’t mind eating once in a while meat, but it is getting too much now. So the next two lunch recipes will feature meat products, and then I should be back on track. The rest can be frozen for sometimes in the next months.

This month challenge from “Bloggers around the world” is the Netherlands. 

A tricky one for the summer. While the Netherlands has wonderful winter dishes, they are not that good for light meals. And there are few traditional Vegetarian meals. By sheer coincidence my friend from the Netherlands visited me earlier this month and brought with her some cookery books. I already thought about the Dutch sausage rolls; while they are quite substantial, they can be justified as a picnic dish for the summer. In one of her books was a Vegetarian pastry and I tried the filling for the “sausage” rolls. They were nice, but not really traditional.

I also tried the other variety, the Brabantse Worstenbroodjes,  but first of all it is too much work making bread dough just for one portion, and second they kept less fresh than the more common known variety with puff pastry. Which is bizarre since I thought that the bread dough around it will keep it fresher. Nevertheless they are nice as well, just make a “milk” bread dough with egg and butter. Here is what you can expect and the following picture was my outcome.

But if you really want to go full Dutch, use any shop bought puff pastry for a quick “make ahead” lunch treat. The top photo is the full roll, the following picture with the filling is unfortunately of bad quality, but you get the idea.

Do try them, they are very good and the filling can be used for more party sized little crowd pleasers.

Saucijzenbroodje

75gr minced beef

75gr minced fat pork

1 shallot, finely chopped

2 tbsp oats, soaked in a bit of milk (about 1 tbsp), or use soaked breadcrumbs, but oats are better

2 tbsp finely chopped parsley (curly is fine)

1 generous pinch of nutmeg

Salt and pepper, generous

1 tbsp of strong mustard, either the traditional Dutch, or Dijon or a mixture between Dijon and coarse French (which I used)

Half a sheet of puff pastry (since the sheets here are around 300gr, you are aiming for 150gr)

1 small egg, beaten (preferable a quail egg to avoid waste)

Preheat oven to 200 C. Put the chopped onion into a small dish and “wet” it with water. Microwave for 2 minutes until they are soft, but check after 1 minute if there is still some water. Ideally you should aim for them being soft without any visible water left (a few drops are fine), but pay attention, they burn easily.

Let cool completely and then mix with the two meats, the parsley, the oats with the milk, the spices. Use your hands to mix everything thoroughly and try a tiny pinch (preferable from a bit of beef, but you wont die if you eat a morsel of pork). Add more salt and pepper if necessary. It needs to be generously spiced, it is perfect if you think: Oh, that was one small pinch too much.

If you don’t use a quail egg, keep 2 tbsp of the beaten egg for the glazing and pour the rest into the meat mixture.

Roll out the puff pastry and brush with the mustard. Try to form a sausage with the meat mixture (works better with wet hands) and lay in the middle. Put first the short sides over and then both length sides. The seams are on top.

Brush with the egg and bake for 20minutes in the oven. Leave to cool but don’t put it into the fridge, cover it with a tea towel and pack the next morning into a tupper dish.

Eat with a portion of salad and Piccalilli if you like. Roast potatoes will transform it into a full blown meal.

Smakelijk eten!