Tuesday Night Supper

Wandering past my local fishmongers on Atlantic road yesterday it was impossible not to buy something. Run by two lovely south London brothers, Lorne (photographed) and Ian (they have been nicknamed the Mitchell brothers in the past! though the resemblance ends there; they could not be friendlier), it is by far my favorite place in the whole of London to buy fish. Set up by their grandfather in 1932 they took over the family business and have been running it for years.

They have such a huge selection of fish and you can guarantee it will be fresh. I always get my fish from here for any catering I do, including a delicious 9lb salmon for a christening party a few months ago that I was reliably informed had been out swimming in the ocean just the night before!

I did end up getting a little carried away as I always do and couldn't resist getting a handful of prawns for just £1.50 to make a very quick and tasty little starter dish:

Fry the prawns in a little hot oil for a couple of minutes. When they start to crisp up sprinkle over some little splinters of garlic and a teaspoon of butter (I also added a teaspoon of my Thai Red Curry paste for an extra kick, though it tastes just as good without, or add half a teaspoon of smoked paprika instead for a Spanish tapas style dish).
Fry for another minute, remove from the heat and add a good squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of parsley or coriander. Eat with your fingers from a large sharing dish in the centre of the table. When the prawns are this small I like to eat the shells too, though unlike my boyfriend Harry I cant quite bring myself to eat the heads as well..!

For our main course we had Pan fried Coley fillets with a warm cannellini bean & spinach salad.

In my efforts to save a little money mid week I went for Coley fillets. Its texture and flavour is very like that of cod, being part of the same family of fish, but it comes without the conservational guilt of Cod and is highly under used.

The salad was an adaption of a good old Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall creation (recipe here) from his TV show last week. I fried some thin sliced chorizo first and added the rest of the ingredients to it along with some fresh spinach and extra smoked paprika (Coley does need a little boost of flavour). It all worked really well together.

And for pudding.....

Oh dear, my reputation is ruined!

I do love to cook deserts and cakes, (like gooey chocolate fondant or panna cotta with poached pears) but I really failed last night and had a disgustingly delicious 30p fruit cocktail trifle from the supermarket! Oh well, even Raymond Blanc has admitted to really enjoying beans on toast (don't we all?) and I once worked with a top class french chef who mostly ate midget gems.... we all have our little down falls.