John Dory

Sorry for the long absence. I have been preoccupied with Creek matters. See www.favershamcreektrust.com

Meanwhile, I want to sing the praises of the John Dory. This distinctive fish is tall but small, not lavish in its gifts, but deeply rewarding. You can always tell a John Dory by the black mark by the gills.  It is a fish for connoisseurs, something to talk about long in advance of the meal.  Something to invite the boss home for, if you want promotion. No individual fish will give you a huge portion, but - my goodness! - each bite is full of rapture, and holds together, and tells you something flattering about yourself.

In this case, we simply grilled the fish on a flat steel plate. Served with a garlicky gratin of potatoes baked with cream, and some freshly-picked spinach simply washed and heated in a covered pan. 

Superb food. Fit for kings. Cheap, local, simple and fast.  

I just want to ask you, why does anyone think that price should be the first consideration when buying food?

I haven't forgotten...

OK - it's been a while since I posted here, but I've been foraging, cooking and eating without cease, and taking some pictures to enliven things. I promise to post some of them later this week. We'v been on the allotment a fair bit now that the soil is soft enough to dig. Today I planted a section with shrubs and perennials to attract beneficial insects - bees and butterflies. This planting includes honesty, Flat Sea Holly, Cornflower, Red Campion, Red Clove, Viburnum, Cistus and Hebe. It seems a bit wasteful to give up lovely veg beds for creepy-crawlies but it's a good principle to follow. I also planted a row of spinach (Medania), and a row of garlic (unknown name, but white). We may give up on cabbages - they just don't do very well, despite elaborate netting against cabbage-white butterflies. And it's always depressing when harvesting the onions to find so many are blighted with white rot. Still we are planning beans, sweet corn, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, lots of soft fruit, peas, salads and artichokes. Yum yum.

Bloaters

I have mentioned our local fish-stall before, Blue Walpole's marvellous shop in a shed at Oare. Smelts are in, and we've been buying pigeon, pheasant and partridge (how marvellous, this quirky remnant of feudal law which puts the sale of game birds into the hands of fishmongers).

Last Saturday, we bought bloaters from Blue. These delicacies are little herrings which have been smoked. Unlike kippers which are split open and cleaned, and then spread-eagled out onto tenterhooks in a flat shape before smoking, bloaters are left whole and plump and cleaned only after the chimney-treatment. This encourages them to swell up, hence the name. Modern techniques are more dainty than they were even just a few decades ago, so the flavour is nothing like as gamey as I remember for any of these items, but easier to manage as a result and more acceptable to cautious guests. Here are our bloaters....

These are to be lightly turned under the grill, and served with bread and butter.

Coffee and Tea

On a working trip to Calais recently, we were taken to lunch at a local resto called Cafe de Paris, not far from the Place d'Armes. The decor is typically modern French bling. A remarkable old lady takes her lunch there very regularly, maybe every day - she has a Légion d'Honneur, because she ran the local resistance from her hair salon during the war. Our group was eating the lunch of the day - the Formule - which was 14€, with a choice of cod in a fennel sauce, or a beef stew. Both were served with a basket of bread, and some delicious vegetables, and were judged excellent. The meal also included 'coffee'. This is is what 'coffee' looks like:

No fewer than five items, with a little coffee, a rice pudding, a mousse, an ice-cream and a chocolate pot, all in tiny portions and set out on a slim plate in a row. Elegant and really memorable. I have been experimenting with making different kinds of coffee. This is Greek coffee, which I overfilled and had to pour into a saucepan a few moments later.

And finally, in homage to our national obsession with tea, I leave you with this delightful scene from Faversham market last week - the sale of someone's collection of teapots.

Blow out

Someone on Facebook put this photo online - sorry I can't remember who it was - but they were recounting the experience of a breakfast available in Great Yarmouth. This breakfast costs £15 or something and if you can eat it all in 60 minutes, it's free. Just have a look at it.... to be honest it makes me feel nauseated just thinking about it.

Don't get me wrong. The Great British Breakfast is a remarkable feast, but this presentation sums up everything I dislike about food. The best that can be said is that it's clearly cooked in a quirky kitchen by an entrepreneur with an idea!