Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Easter Tuesday
Has been a busy day. The digital camera seems to be a success although I still don't seem to have got the hang of posting them. I keep getting the pop-up for broken connection; happily not fatal.
That apart, an entirely new fish recipe. Bought two smoked mackeral from a Bangladeshi fish shop in Balham (the street where the market is) on Easter Sunday. Wonder what to do with them. Settle for a fish stew, vaguely a l'Estrella. So melt butter, add pounded pepper. Add about four finely chopped onions. Cook for a while. Add six chopped tomatoes - would have done better with beef tomatoes rather than the rather feeble ordinary winter ones. Cook for a while. Add 100 grams or so of chopped elderly bacon peices of uncertain appearance. Cook for a while. Skin and bone mackeral which turned out to be much mushier than expected. Maybe they had been frozen for some portion of their life. Simmer gently; serve with white rice and cabbage.
All turned out much better than I thought likely half way through the proceedings. Another time I would use proper bacon and add at the beginning - this would be less salty and with better flavour. And maybe cook the rice in with the stew. All in all a good invention. As they say, you have to speculate to accumulate.
Not so pleased at the latest wheeze of the Whitehall control freaks. Having completely failed - to be fair, along with most of the rest of the world - to manage sea fishing effectively, they now decide that the way forward is to license all the people who go sea fishing for fun. People whose collective impact on sea fish must be very close to zero. A scheme which one imagines will cost about as much to run as it will collect and achieve nothing beyond fattening the contractors who dreamed it up and annoying the people who like to go fishing. Some of whom, again to be fair, like to keep rather odd hours. When we will ever learn?
Or is it perhaps a googly from the RSPCA who having done for hunting foxes, now want to move into the cruelty to fishes business?
PS must ask the RSPCA what it thinks we should do about the plague of urban foxes.
That apart, an entirely new fish recipe. Bought two smoked mackeral from a Bangladeshi fish shop in Balham (the street where the market is) on Easter Sunday. Wonder what to do with them. Settle for a fish stew, vaguely a l'Estrella. So melt butter, add pounded pepper. Add about four finely chopped onions. Cook for a while. Add six chopped tomatoes - would have done better with beef tomatoes rather than the rather feeble ordinary winter ones. Cook for a while. Add 100 grams or so of chopped elderly bacon peices of uncertain appearance. Cook for a while. Skin and bone mackeral which turned out to be much mushier than expected. Maybe they had been frozen for some portion of their life. Simmer gently; serve with white rice and cabbage.
All turned out much better than I thought likely half way through the proceedings. Another time I would use proper bacon and add at the beginning - this would be less salty and with better flavour. And maybe cook the rice in with the stew. All in all a good invention. As they say, you have to speculate to accumulate.
Not so pleased at the latest wheeze of the Whitehall control freaks. Having completely failed - to be fair, along with most of the rest of the world - to manage sea fishing effectively, they now decide that the way forward is to license all the people who go sea fishing for fun. People whose collective impact on sea fish must be very close to zero. A scheme which one imagines will cost about as much to run as it will collect and achieve nothing beyond fattening the contractors who dreamed it up and annoying the people who like to go fishing. Some of whom, again to be fair, like to keep rather odd hours. When we will ever learn?
Or is it perhaps a googly from the RSPCA who having done for hunting foxes, now want to move into the cruelty to fishes business?
PS must ask the RSPCA what it thinks we should do about the plague of urban foxes.
# posted by Jim @ 11:00 AM 
