First difference between book versions spotted! I cooked this using Hwngo's book (first edition hardback, well-thumbed and -ahem- slightly foxed with various food products, aka much loved...) . My version suggests removing the fish bones with tweezers; his doesn't (I didn't; the chances of finding tweezers in a batchelor pad are... well, quite good actually, but I didn't want to ask...).I'm starting to think that West Sussex is deeply conservative/ old-fashioned. Again I had problems finding good fish, so I went to the fish man at Tesco's yesterday lunchtime (he knows his halibut); no smoked haddock because he tends to get this in at the end of the week. I can only conclude that there are either a lot of weekend Simon cookbook users in the area, or there are still lots of people here eating fish on a Friday. Anyways, 3 packs of the thickest lumps of fish I could find later...
There are 3 layers of potatoes in this recipe and not a lot of cooking time (1 hour in total), so slice the potatoes very thin (mine were about 1mm) or risk having them crunchy at the end. I bought a whole bag of parsley but only used half of it; the recipe would have coped well with all of it. I overpoached the fish slightly and had a long job removing the skins; 15 minutes poaching instead of 20-25 would have made this an easier job and left the fish a little less flaky.
The layers worked well but I forgot to put potatoes on last and ended up with some decorative tomato slices on top. This didn't really make a difference, aside from putting some colour in the (yummy) brown crust. The result was edible. Not the most spectacular-tasting Simon so far, but a dependable cold-evening recipe nonetheless.
Hwngo made one of his excellent rhubarb crumbles. He says it's easy to make, but I think that really translates to 'easy to make if you have years of cooking experience'.
2 comments:
The parsley was my fault. I shouldn't have encouraged you to stop when you did. Still, it's better than an ordinary winter staple. It's yummy. I've just had some for dinner.
Rhubarb crumble. Blend 3oz butter, 3oz raw cane sugar and 8oz flour in the blender. Add a handful of walnuts and give one more whizz of a second or so. Poach about 500g of rhubarb with a couple of apples in 1/2 cm water for 20 minutes with the merest shake of raw cane sugar.
Put in a big bowl, cover with topping and bake at 170 for 40 minutes. Really not difficult, honest.
P.S. I had a little parsley sauce with it (made by whizzing the parsley with a little olive oil, the juice of a lemon, some parmesan, and a little black pepper) and that worked really well.
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