Fish pie ... an easy success

It's not difficult to confuse me. I'm easily distracted. Which is why I cook in silence, I am concentrating, a lot. I'm also probably hungry so feeling quite bad tempered.

Last night I whipped up an easy fish pie. There had been bechamel sauce on offer at Sainsbury's (21p - bargain!) that needed to be eaten. So I poured the sauce into a dish (added a little milk, lemon juice, extra salt and pepper), diced up the fish (smoked cod loin and a salmon fillet) and whacked it in a preheated (200 degrees) oven whilst I diced up potatoes for the mash topping. Whilst the potatoes bubbled merrily I grated some carrot and apple and poured over the lemon juice and sugar mix for my salad, and cut up some carrot sticks for the b-friend's boiled carrots. While the carrots bubbled I mashed potatoes (plenty of butter, a splash of milk, salt & pepper) which I then spooned over the top of the fish & sauce. The fish pie went straight back into the oven on a higher heat and I prepped a handful of asparagus and chucked them into a saucepan for a few minutes (when I drained them I put them back onto the heat with some butter and lemon).

This meal is pretty much how I do all my cooking - it's a bit haphazard and rather dependent on what was available on offer at the supermarket. I'm also not a big user of measurements and prefer to use terms like "when it's thin or thick enough", "when it feels right" or of course "use enough for x people". Those instructions are pretty useless unless you've made the dish before.

Tuesday was pancake day and year I was keen to try my hand not only at sweet pancakes but also at galettes ... the savoury buckwheat version. I remember eating these in France with much gusto with a cheese filling if memory serves. Naturally as with so many good intentions this did not transpire and we just gorged on pancakes with lovely unhealthy fillings (lemon and sugar for him bananas and nutella for me).

30min meal

I purchased Jamie Oliver's 30min meals book for my b-friend. I hoped it would spur him on into the kitchen and then I would get to enjoy lovely food. However, I neglected to remember one thing ... I am the Kitchen Despot. The kitchen is my kingdom and I do not tolerate any uppity subjects trying to get above their station by doing things like cook. It should be noted that I feel like this even when it's not my kitchen.

After waiting for 3 weeks I cracked under the pressure of having an unused cook book around the place and decided to whip up the Jerk Chicken. At the outset I would like to make some things clear. I like Jamie Oliver's cook books - I have 3 or 4 of them myself - sometimes I even cook from them. However, I do not really use cookbooks any more, I read them for inspiration and then heavily modify the recipes to suit myself. This time however I was making it mostly exactly as it was written (I omitted a few ingredients and added a bit more/less where it seemed appropriate). It did not take me 30minutes. It took me 49 (yes the bfriend timed me!). I think 30minutes is a very optimistic timing as it does not take into account any reading of the recipe as you go along or that most of us are not as competent / confident in the kitchen as a professional chef.

I'm a pretty decent cook and I think I would struggle to do this in 30minutes. There are a lot of different parts to it, the chicken, the sauce, the sweet corn, the rice dish and the salad. The sauce was very fiddly to make and charring the sweet corn fumigated the kitchen. It also produced an ungodly amount of mess. Having said that it was a delicious meal - the rice and beans dish was especially good and I will be making that again with other dishes.

I'll be trying some of the other recipes in the book, for sure, but tonight I will be whipping up a fish pie (of my own creation) and it won't take me any more time.

Fear of the carrot

As vegetables go the carrot is pretty exciting. Bear with me here I'm not completely nuts quite yet. The carrot tastes good, looks appealing and has comedy potential. It is especially scrumptious grated with apple and mixed up with a dash of lemon juice and sugar (mmmm).

However my carrot related concern is about carrot cake. I'm a big fan of carrot cake, or rather I am a big fan of good carrot cake. Mostly however I experience disappointing carrot cake. I think this is because people skimp on the carrot and add a bunch of unnecessary ingredients. I do not believe that carrot cake is improved with the addition of raisins or sultanas. Nor do you need to add so much ginger that you cannot taste anything else.

The real joy of carrot cake is that it is moist without being too heavy, the wetness of the carrots mean you do not need as much fat to create the same effect. As carrots are a 'sweet' vegetable you do not need to add large quantities of sugar. Also it has the secret health benefit of including a veg in a cake (perfect excuse for a big helping - one of your 7 a day don't you know).

I make my carrot cake with cardamom and cinnamon - rather than ginger. The cardamom has a lovely warmth and the cinnamon a bit of a punch ... but the two tastes combined are far more mellow than the sharpness that ginger gives.