Fish

While we were out on Monday taking the main computer to be mended (mainboard failure) we called into the fish wholesalers on the Kings Lynn industrial estate where they also have a retail shop for the first time.  When I worked in a city centre there was a fabulous fresh fish stall in the indoor market and I have missed my twice weekly visits. This was an opportunity to ditch the lack lustre supermarket fish!

For this visit I stuck to cod and haddock (although the salmon and bass looked lovely) as I knew we have a few busy weeks ahead of us. I purchased a total of 2.25 kg of fish at £10.40 a kg.  My husband was a bit taken aback but it was £3 a kg less than the street vendor in the town (only on a Tuesday) and over £6 a kg less than the supermarket per kg.

Got home and found some sharp knives and plastic bags and cut the fish into 200g portions, with the scraps into one bag for fish pie or fish cakes. Wrapped individually and froze except for 2 lovely thick loins of cod for tea.  The flakes were a good 1/4inch thick by 2 inches round and lovely and fresh. A real treat.

I am looking for fish recipes and intend to stretch the fish over the next few weeks.  Besides frying some in a nice light batter, I do like to put a portion each in individual dishes on a nice bed of just cooked spinach and top with a mix of cream cheese and mustard and bake.   I have looked up some other recipes and think I will try a tomato sauce with thyme and the cod slid in to baste or a simple and quick fish curry. Then some fish cakes with fresh parsley ( my dill has not yet grown but the parsley is freshly sprouting) and a fish pie (with some prawns). To stick to my overall budget of £60 a week for feeding two of us well, this parcel of fish is going to have to last at least 10 meals. So there won't be many lovely big lumps like yesterday!