1 Recipe: Basque Chiorro (Page 105)

It's a hot summers day, the kind of day that makes men get a haircut and fight to get a space at the supermarket, for the british dreams of beer and barbeques to begin. But not here, oh no. We're going to do a Simon. Today. Albeit one that can eaten on a sultry evening with cold beer and conversation.

So. First problem. The recipe is for hake. And no hake is to be found; the curse of visiting the fish counter on Fridays ("yes, we had some earlier but it's gone") strikes again. But it suggests cod as an alternative, so line-caught, earth-friendly cod it is. The other problem is the wine. The recipe suggests 2 glasses of red wine. But it doesn't say which red wine. So off down the wine aisle to look at not-terrible-because-I'll-have-to-drink-it but not-too-good-because-I'll-cry-cooking-with-it. The result: a 2005 Altos de Tamaron, complete with a 2007 silver from the Challenge International du Vin (cheap trick: if you're in France and know nothing about wine, head for the medal winners; it's a 1"ish gold silver or bronze circle pasted onto the bottle; Paris or regionals are usually good, and silver is usually worth a punt). I'll see how it goes. Smells quite fruity anyways.

Oh, and man does this recipe have a lot of garlic in it. 2 tablespoons of; Simon might as well have said "a small bulb" in the recipe and have done. Still, it's interesting to be using mace in a recipe (I got powdered, not realising quite how small a 'pinch' was) and the hot paprika that I bought by accidental finally found a use. Although I may have to make quite a lot of this recipe before I get through the whole tin of it.

I also treated myself to my wine of the month. A Marques de Murrieta Ygay (Gran Reserva 2000). Probably not the right wine for this dish (although Spanish and Spanish - whoops, I mean Basque- could work), but I'll see what Hwngo thinks. If indeed after the journey from heck (delayed flight, hot day) he's still capable of thought.

I've tried a little of the Altos de Tamaron. I have a cold, but I can still taste serious amounts of blackcurrants in it. I may possibly have bought Ribena by mistake. And it has a bit of a vicious backtaste to it, so perhaps more cough medicine than Ribena. But it's quite nice all the same. Although I'd be very careful what I'd put it with (wimpy food, no) it could be quite fun to feed to friends.