Isn't it tyical - I'm all wide awake (Ertie's in the land of nod) and there's no-one on here to chat to. I'm all on my lonesome.........
Anyway, I thought I'd start a thread about food - I know Judith asked for some more of my recipes, and I think someone else did, too. So I'll tell what we're having for bank holiday (have family coming for lunch) and the recipes - if you fancy the sound of them, that is!
I've decided to make Spaghetti Vongole for starters, and then Sea Bass baked in rock salt for main course with a shepherd's salad, and hot crusty bread. And then for pudding I'm making Pavlova with figs and berries drizzled with orange blossom honey.
We'll have Chablis with the starter and main course, and something sparkling and sweet with the pudding.
To make the Sea Bass you need to buy a good few packets of sea salt (the hard crystal chunky type) I always buy Maldon Sea Salt, anyway - so that's ideal. It sounds fiddly, but really it's dead easy to do. You just mix the salt with a little water and a couple of beaten egg whites until the salt goes slightly gooey and moist. I sprinkle lemon zest on the salt, and then cover the bottom of a roasting dish with the salt and lay the Sea Bass on top. Don't scale the fish, but after you've cleaned it inside I always put bunches of fresh dill (or any other herb you like - but I like dill) inside the fish, along with some slices of lemon, bay leaves and freshly groung black pepper. You then put the remaining sea salt all over the fish - making a kind of 'salt oven' if that makes sense. You bake that just for about 40 minutes on 220 heat. When you take it out, the salt will be rock solid, so you give it a bash and crack it open. The fish will not taste salty - you'd think it would, but it doesn't - it just cooks the fish beautifully. It comes out all sweet, tender, moist and succulent - and the flavour is incredible.
I think a nice shepherd's salad always goes well with it, and hot buttered crusty bread straight out of the oven.
Oh, I'll write out the rest tomorrow..........
Goodnight!
Anyway, I thought I'd start a thread about food - I know Judith asked for some more of my recipes, and I think someone else did, too. So I'll tell what we're having for bank holiday (have family coming for lunch) and the recipes - if you fancy the sound of them, that is!
I've decided to make Spaghetti Vongole for starters, and then Sea Bass baked in rock salt for main course with a shepherd's salad, and hot crusty bread. And then for pudding I'm making Pavlova with figs and berries drizzled with orange blossom honey.
We'll have Chablis with the starter and main course, and something sparkling and sweet with the pudding.
To make the Sea Bass you need to buy a good few packets of sea salt (the hard crystal chunky type) I always buy Maldon Sea Salt, anyway - so that's ideal. It sounds fiddly, but really it's dead easy to do. You just mix the salt with a little water and a couple of beaten egg whites until the salt goes slightly gooey and moist. I sprinkle lemon zest on the salt, and then cover the bottom of a roasting dish with the salt and lay the Sea Bass on top. Don't scale the fish, but after you've cleaned it inside I always put bunches of fresh dill (or any other herb you like - but I like dill) inside the fish, along with some slices of lemon, bay leaves and freshly groung black pepper. You then put the remaining sea salt all over the fish - making a kind of 'salt oven' if that makes sense. You bake that just for about 40 minutes on 220 heat. When you take it out, the salt will be rock solid, so you give it a bash and crack it open. The fish will not taste salty - you'd think it would, but it doesn't - it just cooks the fish beautifully. It comes out all sweet, tender, moist and succulent - and the flavour is incredible.
I think a nice shepherd's salad always goes well with it, and hot buttered crusty bread straight out of the oven.
Oh, I'll write out the rest tomorrow..........
Goodnight!