Sunday 20 March 2011

Curried Mackerel for tea


We don't eat anything like as much fish as we should; it's just so expensive. Fortunately for the stingey there is always mackerel. I've recently rediscovered an excellent fishmonger's that I had bimbled past one day when we first arrived. It's taken me months and several soggy and frustrating perambules to pinpoint the spot. (Why is it always raining when i'm trying to find a place whose address exists only hazily in my mind as 'somewhere over there'?) The selection of poissons is a treat, but the prices would make for rather more of a celebratory meal than I had in mind. Anyway, I love mackerel. The ones I buy are little and seem as fresh as ninepence, and nearly as cheap! Splendid. I've promised Dot a curry. Spicy food is a little thin on the ground in this neck of the woods, and sometimes we need a taste of home. Makerel curry will be a first for me. I hope i'm not about to do something terrible...

Moroccans go nuts for spicy oily fish so i'm reasonably confident. My curry is tomatoey and heavy on the ground corriander. I just poach the fish in the sauce, add a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of sumak and it goes with some steamed bok-choy and couscous, just cos we've run out of rice, but as it turned out, it rather went with the slightly arabic feel that came from the last minute seasonings. Crikey it was nice! I was terribly pleased with myself. Good old British cooking! None of that fancy French shite!...