Do I need Therapy ?

Thanks for sharing

 Posted by Anna on Tuesday, 9 February 2016

 

Spice Jars in the cupboard
Spice Drawer
Spice tins

My wonderful new kitchen is developing nicely and I am finding a space for everything and keeping everything in its space …

This was an interesting exercise when it came to my spices though – but I accepted the challenge gladly and as a result have an up-and-over cupboard full of the small jars, plus a drawer full of the lovely spices from Seasoned Pioneers, then another drawer with my two Indian spice containers – one with seeds and one with powdered spices. The danger now is that I have discovered a new company doing spice oils – Holy Lama Spice Drops – which  sound amazing. Fortunately a friend here, Vicky, is also interested in them, so we are going to club together to make up an order, because you have to order quite a bit to get free delivery. Hope they are as good as they sound – will report back in due course ! Hopefully I can find space for the ones I decide to buy.

One of the great joys here is “discovering” fish. I have never really cooked much fish as Mark doesn’t normally like it, but he does enjoy it here – says it doesn’t taste of fish ! Though actually I can see where he is coming from, because it has no fishy smell, it is so fresh. I wanted monk fish for a curry the other night and sadly the Orkney Fish Company in Stromness didn’t have any on the counter – but I had a quick rummage in their freezer and found that they had it there, frozen by them three days earlier. Result! So that was dinner for friends Vicky and Ian sorted. Except. Ah. Where was the recipe ? Well, I managed to recall which of my (rather too) many cookery books it was in and also remembered that it had been one of the ones unpacked and used when we first moved up. But then they got re-packed when the kitchen was demolished and put back in the container where we are storing everything (and I mean everything) that we haven’t unpacked.

Mark came to the rescue as he generally does. With infinite resource and no little effort he located the boxes marked Kitchen books from house (were there really six of them? Oh dear), and extricated the required book – Rick Stein’s India – within which is the most excellent recipe for a monkfish curry with naan bread. And it has to be said, myriad other recipes which I fully intend trying in the fullness of time.

It’s great using fish I know about – lovely skate wings in a court bouillon with a brown butter and caper sauce – halibut (oh yum), the most lovely cod fillet which I turned into “fish fingers” and did with a cross between chips and wedgies and mashed minted peas and home made tartare sauce. Delicious.

But there are also fish I haven’t tried yet – I can’t even remember all the names. Ling, I recall, Witch Fillet (must try that), Lythe Fillet. And others. Adventures in fish cookery beckon.

So – what can I say – more to follow (and details of another kitchen addiction … bet you can’t wait to read about it can you !!)

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing