Fish Archives - Page 5 of 7 - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: Fish

22
Dec
2020

Salami on a Sushi Platter?

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, Fish, Good Housekeeping World Cookery, Japan, Rice, Salami, World Cooking

Kon’nichiwa friends! Today we are making Sushi but not any old sushi. Today, I am using the recipe for O’Sushi contained in the Japanese chapter of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery (1972). It’s mostly sushi as we know it with one notable exception. Yes, that is salami in the middle of the plate!

For this recipe, I wanted to put myself into the shoes of a housewife from 1972 who had never tasted or seen sushi before. So, for the purposes of this post, this is me, using my new-fangled microwave to zip up some delightful treats for the kids.

And later tonight when they are in bed I am going to make some fancy pants Japanese food for date night with the hubby because we like walking on the wild side. Just look at the massive pocket on my denim overalls dress. If that doesn’t scream living on the edge, I don’t know what does. Except for maybe my cork platform sandals.

O-Sushi The Recipe.

Boil some rice in the usual fashion. Prepare a sauce of vinegar, sugar and salt whilst it is cooking, using 2 tsps sugar to 1 tbsp vinegar.

How much salt Good Housekeeping? And what do you mean boil rice in the usual fashion? I’ve never boiled rice in my life. Good lord, step one and already I need to phone a friend?

Sheila? I’m making the sushi…su….shi…It’s Japanese. Only I don’t know how to boil rice or how much salt to add to the sauce? What do you mean my hair, face, clothes and kitchen seem different? I’m not interested in continuity I’m interested in salt and getting laid tonight! This is date night sushi Sheila so quit with the comments and help me with the rice…oh…ok…thanks.

The rice should be dried and cooled quickly and the juice is shaken over it whilst it cools.

WTF? Where am I supposed to get juice from? Oh…the vinegar sauce is the juice? Why did they suddenly decide to call it juice? And how quickly does this rice need to be dried and cooled? Maybe I’ll just pop it in the fridge and shake the juice / sauce over it from there? Will that work?

Ok, next step.

Form the rice into small flat rolls or cakes and garnish with any of the following: Boiled prawns

Smoked Salmon

Raw Fish

Tinned fish; Anchovy fillets; ham or any other cold meat thinly sliced;

A thin omelette seasoned with salt and sugar, edible seaweed, or any salad vegetable

Place the garnish on top of or around the rice cakes. Alternatively, cylindrical cakes can be made with a filling in the centre and and thin layer of egg, seaweed, etc around the outside.

Well, mercy sakes alive, it looks like I’ve just made proper some Japanese O’Sushi….I really hope hubby likes it!

The Following Day – The Sushi Wrap Up

Hello Sheila? I”m just calling to fill you in on date night last night. Yes, it went very well. The food was all very tasty but we both agree. Raw fish will never really catch on here…it’s just too out there for most people! The salami sushi though? That was the bomb! I can see people lining up in the streets for some of that! …. The sex? No, nothing, I caught a cold from standing in front of the open fridge for and hours and shaking juice on the rice and had to go to bed early.

Have a great week!

PS – For a real insight into the art of making sushi, watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

15
Apr
2020

Bridget Jones’s Salmon

categories: Film Club, Fish, Salmon

Hello friends! I made Bridget Jones’s Salmon as a nod to our latest film club event. We are continuing to meet through iso. Only now we meet via Zoom. It is a nice way to catch up and see each other. And I am running out of things to watch so having a film club choice is always good!!! Last meeting was my choice and the random category I drew was Rom-Com. Now I am not a big fan of said genre so it actually threw me into a bit of a panic!

My first and initially only choice was Two Days in Paris, which is a film I absolutely love! Plus I thought, by having a couple that are together at the start, it subverts the whole boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl which is one of the things I find so formulaic and boring in most rom-coms. Plus, you know…

Paris 😍

And Adam Goldberg 😍😍

And Julie Delpy 😍😍😍

Have you seen it? It hits so many of the things I love I feel like the makers tapped deep within my psyche to find all that was good. And then turned it into a movie!

Turns out though that 2DIP is not currently available on any of the streaming services or for rental on the Googs, or YouTube. And of course, my fine upstanding friends and I would never stoop to illegally downloading films (🙄) so as a choice it was null and void. Which left me here…

Until I remembered Bridget Jones! I loved the book and the film! I was a bit worried though because I thought at half of film club would hate it. But, even though parts of it have dated horribly, everyone really enjoyed it. There is something about living in iso that I think makes people crave the familiar and watching Bridge was like wrapping myself in a warm and comforting blanket!

If you are looking for entertainment, I can heartily endorse you watching Bridget Jones Diary. It was the perfect antidote to the bad news and gloom of the daily news.

I can also heartily recommend Yotam Ottolenghi’s Bridget Jones’s Salmon!

In the spirit of not going out to buy items I did not have and not wasting ingredients I do have I made two substitutions to the original recipe in my version:

I had no celery so I left it out altogether
I had no currants so I subbed in some barberries I found in the back of the cupboard. And yes, I am the weirdo that has barberries in the back of their cupboard. I am actually very sad because the little shop I used to buy them from has closed. I am treating the ones I have left like gold until I can find somewhere else that sells them!

When Life Give You Lemons…

So, in response to the virus and a big drop in revenue, my work has cut hours for most people. So as of now, I am working four days a week. I feel absolutely no rancour in relation to this decision which I honestly think was done to save jobs. It sucks because I am one of those lucky people who actually love what they do, and I was actually had more work to do in response to the changing conditions.

But my loss sweet readers is your gain because I have been wanting to post more on here for ages. Having that one extra day where I am not working means I will have more time to spend doing this. I also am in the process of making list of all those things I said I would do “if only I had the time” and I am going to get cracking on that. I fully intend to make my additional day off a blessing and not a curse!

Stay safe, stay indoors and take care. And let me know what Rom-com you would have chosen!

07
Feb
2016

REPOST -Belly Stuffed Rainbow Trout & Orange Salad

categories: Books, Fish, Holidays, Orange, Persiana, Salad

Hello Friends!

Today we are celebrating Lunar New Year, and the Year of the Monkey with a delicious belly stuffed rainbow trout. Lunar New Year, often called Chinese New Year is celebrated all over Asia, and all over the world via the Asian diaspora. It is a time for families to get to together, for the exchanging of gifts and of course food.

I read this article in Serious Eats recently and as soon as I read that whole fish was a common item at Lunar New Year dinners I knew exactly what I wanted to cook. I have been waiting for an occasion to make Sabrina Ghayour’s Belly Stuffed Rainbow Trout for AGES and this seemed like a perfect opportunity. Fish is considered lucky for New Year, particularly at the Reunion (New Year’s Eve) Feast because the word for carp sounds like the words for good luck and gift.

Now I know some of you might be a bit freaked out by cooking / serving a whole fish. And believe me, I used to be right there with you. If you do not like the idea of a whole fish, you could certainly pan fry or bake fillets of rainbow trout and serve with the stuffing mixture. However, in Chinese symbolism a whole fish represents togetherness and abundance.

But first, let’s talk Chinese Astrology. We are about to enter the Year of The Monkey. Famous people born in Monkey years include Leonardo Da Vinci, Elizabeth Taylor, George Lucas, Charles Dickens, and Lord Byron. Gillian Anderson is also a Monkey. Dragging that list down a notch or two from the great and the good, other monkeys are Miley Cyrus and me!

What can you expect in the Year of The Monkey?

It is a year to act, to innovate and to take your destiny into your own hands. However, the recklessness of the monkey also cautions us to think before we act so do not be too hasty in making decisions. Setting clear goals is important this year. The monkey is also a sociable creature so this is a good year to nurture and expand your relationships with those around you.

Belly Stuffed Rainbow Trout

I guess I should have made something a bit more Asian to celebrate however Sabrina Ghayour’s recipe for belly stuffed rainbow trout is delicious at any time of the year! Incidentally a rainbow trout is the only fish I have ever actually caught for myself.

The fussiest eater in the world is a keen fisherman (yet curiously cannot eat anything he catches; he just throws them back). A few years ago we rented a holiday house in the mountains and one afternoon set out to go berry picking. Well the berry farm was closed but the trout farm was open. He went to the most difficult area and started catching fish left, right and centre. I was content to read my book but, seeing how easy it looked said that I would have a go. Well. We slowly moved from the most difficult to the next most difficult to the next most difficult, ending up in what was basically a wading pool. The four year olds (who were the only other people using this pond) and I eventually caught our fish. Then I cried because I felt bad about killing something. But my rationale was “If I’m going to kill something then I ‘m damn well going to eat it” so we stopped on the way home and bought some almonds and I made us a lovely Trout Almandine for dinner.

He refused to eat it. Which resulted in a blazing row where the phrase “I killed a fish for you. How can you not eat it?” and variations there of were thrown around the room. Miraculously his piece of trout stayed in the pan and not over his head!

Lesson learned. This time, we bought a trout.

The stuffing is a very tasty and gorgeously colourful mix of spring onions, pine nuts, garlic, chilli, coriander and preserved lemons.

Sabrina’s recipe from the wonderful book Persiana is below:

My notes on this recipe were that even though I halved the stuffing ingredients because I was only cooking one trout I still had a lot of it left over.

This is not really an issue as it is totally delicious and I had the following ideas for the remainder:

Scatter over cooked vegetables
Add a little olive oil and toss through pasta, maybe with some crispy breadcrumbs
Serve on flatbread crisps with a dob of hummus as an appetizer
Stir through rice for a pilaf effect
Sprinkle onto mushrooms and grill.

Or you could just do what I did and just eat it by the spoonful while waiting for the fish to cook!

Orange & Arugula Salad

To serve with my Belly Stuffed Rainbow Trout, I made a very simple orange, black olive and rocket (arugula) salad. Citrus fruits are a symbol of prosperity, good luck and abundance and lettuce symbolises spring. So, despite not having Asian flavours my salad has come celebratory significance.

It’s almost too easy to call a recipe but here we go:

Orange, Olive and Arugula Salad

Print Recipe

A delicious, fresh and simple salad that is a perfect accompaniment to seafood.

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

100g rocket / arugula
1 orange
handful of black olives
1 tbsp orange juice
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil
S&P

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Place the rocket in a salad bowl.
Segment the orange removing all peel and pith. Do this over a bowl so you catch the juice – this can be used for the dressing
Toss in a handful of black olives

For The Dressing

Mix the orange juice, lemon juice, olive oil and seasoning to taste.
When ready to serve pour over the salad

Notes

You can fancy up this salad with any //all of the following

Chopped toasted walnuts or pistachios
Toasted pinenuts
Pomegranate seeds
Thinly sliced fennel
Thinly sliced red onion
A smattering of feta
Some tarragon leaves

Some other lucky foods to serve at Lunar New Year include:

Spring rolls represent gold bars
Celery for wisdom
Plums for mental acuity
Dumplings for wealth
Long Noodles for a long life.

My work is celebrating tomorrow with a yum-cha lunch. Bring on the dumplings!

Lunar New Festivals will continue until 22 February so you have plenty of time to join in the celebrations.

Just for fun, I took some fortune cookies to a family dinner and we all chose one to pick our fortune for lunar new year. This was mine:

If you are celebrating Lunar New Year, or even if you are not, you are all my garden of roses and I wish you all a year of joy and abundance!

Have a wonderful week. I’m off to eat my weight in dumplings!

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04
Nov
2015

Vincent Price’s Buckingham Eggs Jaffle

categories: 1960's recipes, Anchovies, Bread, Breakfast, Brunch, Cheese, Eggs, Jaffle

You made a what???

For for those of you who are already totally confused, let me explain. A Jaffle is an Australian term for a toasted sandwich. And it is a much loved food for breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, supper, a midnight snack or any of the times inbetween.

And I made one based on Vincent Price’s Buckingham Eggs. And it was very good!

Like I guess many of my generation, the first real inkling I had of Vincent Price was as the voice in Thriller….

I had no idea he could not only cook, but cook like a boss, until I started blogging. It’s one of the reasons why I am so excited that the 50th edition of Vincent and Mary Price’s A Treasury of Great Recipes is about to be released. And I am reliably informed by Jenny of Silver Screen Suppers that, in her view, it is the best cookbook ever written! And Jenny knows her stuff!!!

Only a few more sleeps ’til that happens but first, Jenny invited her blogging pals to take part in a cookalong with some of Vincent and Mary’s recipes.

I hadn’t really intended on making the Buckingham Eggs for the cookalong . I was totally primed to make Vincent Price’s Champagne Chicken but, it was only 10:00am. Possibly a little too early for a roast dinner. But I was hungry and a jaffle seemed like the perfect thing to tide me over til dinner time. A quick glance at the fridge revealed eggs, cheese and anchovies. I had a thought process that went something like this:

You could make the Buckingham Eggs
But I want a jaffle
The Buckingham Eggs sound really good.
So does a jaffle.
Anchovy and Mustard butter…-
Egg and Cheese Jaffle
Hmm…what if we…
I like where you are going with this

And thus the Buckingham Eggs Jaffle was born. I’m sure neither Jenny or Vincent would disapprove of my tweaking the recipe slightly to satisfy both the devil and the angel on my shoulder! For the purists, here is a link to the original recipe as cooked by Jenny:

Buckingham Eggs

For my version, I made English mustard and anchovy butter. I could not find any anchovy paste, so I mashed up an anchovy. The mustard adds some heat and makes it a beautiful colour!I could just eat this on toast forever and be totally content!

But, wait, there’s more!

Eggs and cream and cheese and onions. I meant to add some Worchestershire Sauce but I totally forgot! Oh well, all the more reason to make it again next Sunday!

Now, add the onions to the egg mixture and scramble them really lightly. You need them to thicken up but still be quite moist as they will continue to cook once they are in the jaffle iron.

Now, butter both sides of the bread (if you’re feeling decadent ) or the one side if not. Place the buttered sides on the surface of the jaffle iron. This is important otherwise your bread will stick like crazy. Place the cheese on one side and the thickened egg mixture on the other side.

Fold The Iron over. Trim any bits of bread hanging out of the iron and place over a low heat.

The only tricky bit is that once the iron is closed you have no way of telling how much the inside has cooked unless you open it up and have a little peek. Make sure you turn it over at least once so both sides get toasty. As a general rule, once the outside is a dark golden colour, the inside will be perfect. This is the colour you are aiming for:

At the risk of sounding a bit hippy dippy, when cooked like this, the egg and cream mixture and the cheese become one in a gorgeous creamy melange. This is surrounded by crispy, salty, slightly spicy bread…..OMGZ delicious.

This made a super brunch, but if darkness is falling across the land and the midnight hour is close at hand, this would also make a super late night snack!

A massive thanks to Jenny for including me and to Vincent and Mary Price for the recipe.

For all the deets on the cookbook launch and activities around it, click any (ALL) of the links below:

Vincent Price Treasury Cookalong with Silver Screen Suppers

Vincent Price Legacy Tour – for details of celebratory events in the UK

Amazon Page for the 50th Edition of A Treasury of Great Recipes

Treasury of Great Recipes Facebook page

Silver Screen Suppers Facebook page

Champagne chicken up next! Stay tuned….

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05
Aug
2015

The Margaret Fulton Cookbook 11- Fish

categories: 1970's food, Fish, Margaret Fulton Cookbook

Fish…is fresh when the eyes are bright, the flesh is firm, the gills red and the scales do not come off easily. Fish should smell of the sea.

The biggest crime is to overcook fish. Whichever method of cooking you choose, watch your fish with loving care, serve it with a glad heart and a touch of parsley, a wedge of lemon or a dash of paprika”

– Margaret Fulton

Fresh lively vibrant seaood

THEN:

Yikes! So much fish, none of it looking all that appetizing. And that fake background of the sea. Because that’s where fish comes from kids. Just in case you didn’t know….

NOW

I really want to be on a beach somewhere watching the sunset and eating some fish and chips as mouthwateringly delicious as these.

Margaret Fulton’s Fish and Chips

What do I love about this photo? The crispy fish, the sharp salt crystals, the hazy tartare sauce in the background, the muted colour sheme that makes the fish, the chips and the lemon just pop…so, in short everything!.

Hope your having a great week! Now go eat some fish and chips…you know you want to!

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