Another Food Blog

Hmm. What do you do with leftover fisherman’s pie? As I said, I only ate a third of it, and put the rest in two pieces into the freezer. It occurred to me that a fisherman’s pie contains much the same ingredients as a fishcake – assorted seafood and mashed potatoes. All right, there’s that cheese topping, but what of it? I defrosted one third and chopped it up, mainly to get the prawns minced up. I added sage and chopped thyme and a little flour to it in a bowl to get it to bind loosely, but it was still soft enough to merit a non-stick ice-cream scoop to put two dollops onto a plate lined with breadcrumbs. It was a tad messy, but I managed to get it into two rissole shapes to put into a fry-pan with a little oil. Carrots boiled meanwhile, and there it was: fisherman’s pie reborn as rather good fishcakes, more satisfyingly chunky with seafood than fishcakes normally are. I had my marie rose sauce with it. Good lunch.

I don’t often eat Indian food, so it was quite a novelty to be served it. It started with onion bhajis brought by one of the other guests. He’d made them with fried onions, flour (often chickpea), and some spices and herbs. They’re all mixed into a batter and shallow fried, rather like drop scones. We had a mango dip and a hot lime dip and some boiled eggs alongside. Nice way to begin.

For the main course the hostess had cooked lentil curry. It had some heat to it with chili and other spices like turmeric and cumin, but was by no means too spicy. The rice was really good, flavoured with all kinds of stuff. The dessert she’d put together was mango sorbet surrounded by pieces of chopped mango, plus a compôte of “forest fruits” (aka summer berries).

This was an interesting as well as a satisfying meal, with lots of different tastes going on; it was vegetarian, too. I provided the wine, choosing my twin “grapes of the year.” The first was a South African First Cape pinotage, and the second a New Zealand Oyster Bay sauvignon blanc.

This one had cod and salmon cut into chunks, and king prawns. I added mushrooms and onion fried in olive oil, and freshly chopped thyme and rosemary, then black pepper. The sauce I made with home-made fish stock, milk and cornflour, but this time I used freshly mashed potatoes. I boiled two of them for 19 minutes, then mashed them up with a fork and some butter. The potatoes went on top, followed by grated cheese, and was baked for about half an hour.

The result was a very filling pie. I obviously overdid the sauce because it bubbled through. This was better than the time I forgot it altogether. It still tasted great, but these things should have a look to them. The thing is this pie came out so big that I only ate just over a quarter of it. And I have quite enough leftovers after Christmas anyway.

I was given some Polish confectionary – Sliwka Iuksusowa w czekoladzie, or plum in chocolate. They come individually wrapped in a box, and are very pleasant. They are not too sweet, but have a distinct ‘back’ taste which I like. The ingredients say they’re about two-thirds plum, which doesn’t surprise me. I compared them with some M&S cherry liqueurs, which advertise dark chocolate with a whole cherry and brandy centre. They are utterly delicious in a different way, though I note that cherries are only 15 percent of the total.

On the subject of chocolate covered fruit, there’s a postscript to those stunning chocolate mandarins I made. It is that they’re best eaten soon. They sweat a little after time, and this makes the chocolate come away from the fruit when you handle them. They’re still a nice taste, but they’re best eaten on the first day, soon after they’ve cooled.