Beeetroot, mackerel and lentil salad

For dinner, we had this.

I won't post the whole recipe again, just follow the link and enjoy.

I reduced the quantities a bit for the sake of WeightWatchers points (we find that 80g lentils, dry weight, is enough between two) and we had a whole smoked mackerel from the excellent Sussex Smokers in the freezer so we used that rather than fillets.  Also, I used pre-cooked beetroot - I know fresh is nicer, but I'm on nights and I just couldn't be bothered.  It was dry tarragon as well I'm afraid, although fresh would be better if you can find it.

I admit to using an egg-poacher, too.  I am capable of poaching eggs properly, but I do sometimes break them and we only had two eggs left so I didn't want to take the risk.

It's delicious.  Delicate flavours melting together, and a lovely contrast of flavours and temperatures.  I'm starting to think that there's nothing that can't be improved be an egg yolk running through it.

With the quantities we used, this is 14 WeightWatchers ProPoints.  For some reason mackerel counts very high, and smoked mackerel even higher.  I'm not sure this is correct... your thoughts?

Trout

I've always been a big fan of using local shops rather than supermarkets wherever possible.  To an old socialist like me it's much better to spend your money in the community you live in - wouldn't you rather benefit the bloke who lives up the road rather than some faceless multinational? - and from a purely selfish viewpoint you'll probably be getting better quality at a better price than the supermarkets can offer.

 

Last night, for example, we had burgers.  The burgers came from the butcher and for £1.49 each they were enormous, and quite clearly made from decent mince.  They were proper red - not that weird grey colour of cheap burgers.  The buns came from the bakery at 30p each - the same price as supermarket rolls and far superior.  I hate the texture of Chorleywood bread, but these were the real deal.  Veg came in the form of corn on the cob from the greengrocer at 50p each - far better value than those weird pre-packaged ones that sell at over a pound for two half-cobs.

Anyway, I didn't write a specific blog post for that as it was just heating up bought products rather than actually cooking something but tonight's dinner follows the same principles.

We're very lucky to have a proper fishmonger here in Godalming - an apparently dying breed, but this one opened just a couple of months back and good luck to him - and I popped in yesterday and walked out with two trout, filleted for me by the fishmonger and all for a grand total of £4.40.

I've never really understood the price of fish.  I'll be honest - one of the reasons I chose the trout was that it was the cheapest thing in there.  But trout's delicious, and while I know that lobster is also delicious I don't think it's six times more delicious, although it is six times the price.

This technique for cooking fish is easy, doesn't create much mess and doesn't smell - in a small flat you're always aware that the smell of frying fish tends to hang around.  By cooking the fish inside a parcel it's almost steamed, so it's healthy and tender. It gives a huge amount of freedom - you can mess about with the fillings and herbs to your heart's content.

The only thing you need to put in is a drizzle of oil and a splash of liquid (white wine's favourite), otherwise choose the flavourings you want.  In the mood for something Asian-style?  Ginger, garlic, a chilli pepper and soy sauce might just fit the bill.  With the trout I went for dill and tarragon, with a bit of lemongrass.  I had a tin of anchovies in the cupboard, so I chucked them in with the oil they were stored in instead of salt.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First of all, tear off a nice big sheet of tin foil.  Lay one of your fillets on it, skin-side down.  Now lay your flavourings on top of that - today dill, tarragon, lemongrass, a splash of white wine, some anchovies and the oil from the anchovy tin.

Now lay the second fillet from the same fish on top, flesh down, as if to recreate the fish with tasty flavourings inside.

Now lift up the edges of the foil and bring them together, folding the edges over to make a sealed foil pouch.  Make one of these per person for a small fish like trout - if you're using a bigger fish, one fillet per person might be enough.

Cook in the oven at 180C for about 15 minutes.  Thin things like fish fillets don't need long and although it's difficult to overcook something cooked like this in steam it is still possible and overcooked fish is dry and unpleasant.

Once it's cooked, open your parcels, take out the lemongrass and serve with salad.

Very Fishy Risotto

Here's another recipe that came out of that glorious summer's day I spent in Brighton, in the heady hot days of early April.  This one might be hazy on the details - I took photos at the time but didn't write anything down.  Bear with me though, I'm sure we can salvage something useful.

It's definitely a one-pot meal too, a factor that's swum back into focus for the first time since student days after my week without gas, relying on the borrowed camping stove, and that text from my sister asking for help as she doesn't have an oven at the moment.

Here goes then, recipe writing from vague memories and photographs - it's a new extreme sport!

Judging by the photos this is a bit of a production - I reckon there are about six portions from the quantities shown here.  Just cut it down for fewer people - just a leek instead of a leek and an onion, skip the mushrooms, just use the crab and skip the anchovies and crayfish...

For a big feast though, start with an onion, a leek and some mushrooms.  These look like oyster mushrooms to me, which suggests they were on special offer in Waitrose at the time - they are a useful addition to a seafood dish though as they do have a seafoody taste about them.

Chop them up and set them cooking over a low heat - as low as your stove will go - in a pan with a knob of butter and a generous splash of olive oil.

While that's going on, prepare a litre of vegetable stock from a cube in a measuring jug.  You won't be using all of it, but it's better to have too much ready than too little.

After five minutes or so the veg will be nice and soft so in goes the rice.  Use risotto rice (often labelled arborio rice).  Packet instructions generally suggest 75g per person, but we find that far too much - 50g per person is plenty.  On this occasion I was cooking with the intention of making leftovers so I think I used about 200g with the intention of making dinner for two, then lunch for two the next day.

Don't let your attention wander from the pan at all at this point or the rice will burn and you'll have to start again.  Keep the rice moving around in the pan until it's all coated in oil/butter but not brown or burned at all.

Now add a splash of stock - not enough to cover everything, but maybe half-way up.

Now for the fish.  I brought the dressed crab back from Brighton: it was only a fiver, which is a fantastic price for a fresh, locally caught dressed crab, and it came with the white and dark meat.  I had a tin of anchovies in the cupboard and felt that they would make a good addition in lieu of salt (you can use the oil they're stored in as cooking oil in the first step, too) and the crayfish tails came from Lidl.  I know, I know - local, under-the-arches fish suppliers and discount supermarket in the same blog post?  But as it happens Lidl do quite a decent line in MSC certified fish products for not very much money at all.

My number one alternative to shellfish would be smoked fish for a dish like this - top quality undyed smoked haddock from the supermarket fish counter with the skin removed and separated into flakes, for example.

Chuck your choice of fish in and give it all a stir.

Now the challenge is to cook your rice properly - the rest will take care of itself.

Risotto rice cooks by absorbing the liquid it's being cooked in.  It takes about 20 minutes (refer to the packet instructions) so the challenge is to add exactly the right amount of stock so that the rice is perfectly cooked at the same moment that there's no more liquid left in the pan.  How much stock is that per gram of rice?  Nobody has any idea so what we do is add stock little by little from that measuring jug.  You won't be using the whole litre - probably about half, in fact - but by making it up you've got as much as you'll need.

It is a slightly labour-intensive way of cooking, adding stock little-by-little and stirring most of the time, so maybe put the TV on loud enough that you can hear it from the kitchen, or start up a talking book on your iPod.  Or do I get bored too easily?

Judging by the photos, I obviously felt this needed a bit more vegetable component, so I chucked some frozen peas in a few minutes before the end of cooking time.

Judging by the pictures, there are about six portions here - just adjust for your numbers.  It's worth making some extra though, as you can turn leftovers into delicious fish cakes the next day.  Just make little cakes in your hands, pressing the risotto firmly together, and dip them first in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs.  Shallow-fry for just a few minutes either side and serve with salad.  It's one of those meals where the leftovers are even better than the original dish!

Scallops and Pak Choi

This one's been hanging around in the saved-but-not-published file for some time.  I was faffing about whether or not to post it because it's not really a recipe, and it's so light it's not a full meal.

Then I got a text from my sister asking me for simple fish dishes she can do as she doesn't have the use of an oven at the moment.  This seemed ideal.

It's been gloomy and raining ever since, but you may remember we had a few really glorious days back at the beginning of April.  I took advantage of the sunshine and went down to Brighton for the day.  Next time you go, head for the Fishing Museum, under the arches on the seafront, not far from the Palace Pier.  There are a couple of fishmongers there as well as a stall selling delicious snacks like whelks and cockles - I had a couple of crab claws.

The fishmonger had local scallops at a price I couldn't resist so those came home along with a couple more goodies.

Scallops are the easiest shellfish to prepare - no messing about with shucking them as they generally come already done.  Eating the orange part - the coral, or roe - is down to personal preference but I trimmed it off these ones, for presentation as much as anything else.  They're a nice way to introduce non-believers to the whole idea of shellfish as well, as they have a delicate flavour and they're so easy to eat - it's purely a piece of muscle, not like having to shell a prawn!

Gently score a noughts-and-crosses pattern into one side of each scallop, going about a quarter of the way through.  This will help keep them in shape while cooking and add a bit more surface area for the spice.  All I'm using in terms of spice is Chinese 5-spice - just dust it over.

Cook the scallops for no more than two minutes on each side, in a really hot griddle or frying pan.  While they're cooking, cut a pak choi in half lengthways and fry that in another hot pan - again two minutes each side is plenty.

Squeeze a bit of lemon juice over and serve.

To me this is the best thing to do with fish, especially if you've got limited cooking facilities - just choose appropriate herbs or spices, fry it hot until just cooked through and serve with simply prepared veg.

Smoked Salmon Paté (guest post)

Hello to all of TVC’s wonderful readers! In case you haven’t already figured it out – my name is Vicky (AKA Manicure Maniac) and I am TVC’s girlfriend.  Lucky me, as I get to eat all the wonderfully yummy things that he cooks! Yum Yum! Hehe

Now, I don’t usually do much cooking – the kitchen in our flat is very much TVC’s domain.  So, on the few days when he’s working late shift and I have to feed myself, it’s usually something simple like a jacket potato or beans on toast. Not very exciting at all!

But, since starting this blog I have started to become more interested in cooking, and even been allowed to use the kitchen on occasion! So, this was a little bit of a challenge. Before making this, if someone had asked me to make some paté I would have been absolutely terrified and wouldn’t have a clue where to start!

But it was surprisingly easy, simple and CHEAP, which is of course, one of TVC’s main goals in life – to create fantastic food on a budget.

I was lucky enough to be given a huge amount of smoked salmon as a Christmas gift from a colleague at work. This stuff is the real deal too – Scottish salmon caught and smoked by the wonderful gentleman who gave it to me, and the quality really shone through!

But, we had so much of it (around 500g in the end) and there was no way we were going to be able to eat it all, and so I suggested that we turn it into paté.

After a bit of googling, it became clear that it is really simple to make, and so I decided to give this one a try. I’m still finding my feet where cooking is concerned, so this seemed like a really good recipe to start with.

Here is what you need:
Some smoked salmon (obviously)
Cream cheese
Double cream
Lemon juice
Salt and pepper.

I ended up doing this in batches because we had so much salmon. This made 3 batches which filled 2 kilner jars with salmon – so it does make a lot!

 

I put around 150g of salmon, a tablespoon of cream, two heaped tablespoons of cream cheese, some lemon juice and salt and pepper (for each batch) into a blender and whisked.

And you’re done. Easy Peasy.

If I had to buy the salmon, this probably would be quite expensive, but I only had to buy the cream and the cheese in the end. Together these cost about £2.50

We’ve had two relatively large helpings each out of one of the jars and we’ve not even got half-way through it yet! We gave the second jar to my mother just so it didn’t go to waste.

Each jar would easily make about 6-8 large servings of paté.

So there you have it. I hope you’ve enjoyed my guest post. I know I really enjoyed making this, and definitely enjoyed eating the paté! 

Fish Pie

As a rule I hate waste, and I'm generally very good at not throwing any food away.  This week's been a total failure though: I bought a whole cooked crab in France and ended up chucking it out because I'd misread the sell-by date (generally I ignore dates and trust my own nose, but I didn't want to take the risk with seafood), then I bought clams at the Farmers' Market on Sunday, intending to cook them tonight in a variation on this recipe.  The fishmonger was sure they'd survive until today (I've been working late shifts until now so not cooking dinner) but when I got home this afternoon they were not only dead but stinking.  The kale from the veg box that I'd been planning to use was dried out too.

Never mind: it hurts like hell to throw food away, but despite one bad week I'm still pretty good at not wasting food.  And I had a backup plan: fish pie.

Fish pie is one of those dishes that you make slightly differently each time depending on what's available.  The basic structure remains the same - white fish, smoked fish, shellfish and salmon, poached in milk with leeks, topped with mashed potato and browned in the oven - but you can muck about with the choice of fish, seasoning and herbs as much as you want.

Oh - and this is an ideal dish for a freezing cold day like today - you can turn the heating off, because the oven's going to be on for hours!

I've recently been converted to Heston's method of mashing potatoes, which is quite simply to cook jackets and mash the flesh rather than the traditional boiling.  The very best of Heston's ideas are things that you can do at home to radically improve the flavours of your own cooking, and this is one of those - mash from jackets is belting.  So, first up, get some potatoes cooking in the oven.  These bad boys took an hour and a half at 180C.

When you can push a knife through them with no effort, leave them on one side and get the fish ready.

My fish selection was dictated by a combination of necessity and market forces.  I'd taken a couple of gurnard fillets out of the freezer with the intention of making the clam dish, there was a smoked mackerel from Sussex Smokers in the fridge from Sunday's Farmers' Market, and there were prawns and salmon in the freezer as Sainsburys and Waitrose respectively have had them half-price lately so I'd bought them with the intention of doing fish pie some time soon.

Using a sharp knife and your fingers, get rid of all the skin and bone and cut the fish up into small pieces.  Leave the peeled prawns whole.

Put the fish into a large pan with oil and butter over a low heat.  Chop up a leek and throw that in as well.  This time around, I also chucked in a handful of frozen peas.

 

Once there's a bit of colour on everything, add milk - not enough to cover everything, just maybe half way up.

Season with salt and pepper, and add a generous sprinkling of dill.

Poach for 10 minutes or so, while you remove the skins from the jacket potatoes and mash the flesh along with a knob of butter and a twist of salt and pepper.

If you're lucky enough to own an oven proof pan like this one, you can just spread the mash over the top.  Otherwise, transfer the fish into an oven proof dish and spread the mash over that.

Then it wants a bit of time in the oven to make a nice golden-brown crust on the mash.  I found 40 minutes at 180C about right - you might get quicker results if you have a fan oven.

 

Add some cheese to the mash if you want, or a sprinkle of breadcrumbs over the top for a crunchier crust, or swap the prawns for mussels, or use kippers instead of smoked mackerel...  the possibilities are endless with this one.

Financial verdict
Sorry but I didn't keep receipts for everything so I'm not quite sure.

Fish freezes really well - there's very loss of quality once thawed - so the secret to fish pie is to buy the ingredients individually when they're on offer.  Supermarkets always have prawns, salmon, white fish OR smoked fish on offer - just get them at the right moment and chuck them in the freezer.  Then there's just potatoes and a leek left to buy, plus a bit of frozen veg if you want.  These quantities made two generous portions for us plus three more for the freezer which will get nuked and eaten at work later on.

The skinny
Bake potatoes in the oven (1 1/2 hours at 180C) then leave to cool

Peel and chop a leek

Remove skin and bones from a fillet of white fish, a fillet of salmon and a smoked fish

Cook the fish and leek over a low heat in oil and butter, along with a packet of prawns

Add enough milk to come half-way up the fish mixture and reduce for a few minutes

Add a handful of peas

Season with salt and pepper and add a generous amount of dill

Mash the flesh of the jacket potatoes

Spread the mash over the top of the fish mixture

Bake in the oven at 180C for 40 minutes, or until the mash has a golden-brown crust

Marmite Dieppoise

Say what you like about the French, they've got the right idea about food.  I spent a couple of years living over there and had some of the most amazing meals, out in restaurants and as a guest at friends' houses.

Forget any ideas you may have about French food being fancy, or complicated, or rich, or about the French having ideas above their station when it comes to good food.

These things may well have a kernel of truth, but they come from the most important thing of all about the French and their relationship with food: they absolutely insist on a certain standard of quality, all the time.

No matter where you are, if you have a meal in France it will be good. I reference Heston Blumenthal's series In Search Of Perfection, in which the great Heston is wowed by a meal of roast poulet de Bresse - top quality chicken - in a motorway service station.

I want to live in a country where a Michelin starred chef is impressed by the food in motorway services.

Anyway, the Manicure Maniac and I popped over to Calais for a booze cruise at the weekend. Before compressing my poor Citroen's rear springs with massive quantities of cheap wine, we were able to squeeze a meal in at one of our favourite restaurants, La Mer. It's a standard high street place, nothing special by French standards, but we've had some good meals there, notably their lunchtime special of moules marinieres with chips and a beer for around €10.

We were a bit late arriving this time and missed the lunch special, so we had to order off the dinner menu.

In a rare moment of allowing the moths to escape from my wallet, I ordered one of the priciest items on the menu: Marmite Dieppoise at €23.

This blog is all about value, so why am I banging on about a £20 main course? Because value is not about cheapness, it's about getting your money's worth.

I was driving so on the water and I had no intention of having dessert, so I felt I could splash out on a main - and just look at it!

There's monkfish, salmon, potatoes, two king prawns, two scallops and a healthy amount of mussels in there, all in a rich creamy sauce. It was absolutely delicious and I'm not even sure I could have bought the ingredients in England for the asking price. Did I mention also that it was bloody delicious?

Not a cheap lunch but very definitely a value one - and a level of quality that is rare in England but completely normal in France.

Sardines with new potatoes and mushy peas

One of the ready-meal companies (I think it might be Young's) is advertising a new line of seasoned fish that comes in a sealed bag which you cook in the oven.  The ads make a big deal of how cooking in the bag keeps the fish moist and flavoursome, which is entirely true.  It's not a new idea though - it's a completely accepted way of cooking fish, and surely it's better to do it yourself so that you can choose your own fish and herbs?  Cheaper, too.

I've been cooking fish this way since I saw it on the fish episode of River Cottage Every Day, which is still available on 4OD.  I'm a big fan of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and I've often been inspired by his programmes and recipes.

I've also often been inspired by his campaigns, including Hugh's Fish Fight.  One of the lessons that I took from that series what the absurdity of the fact that Britain, which is an island surrounded by lots of delicious fish, tends to eat nothing but cod, tuna and salmon.  All lovely fish, but there are plenty of others which are just as nice and if only we ate a wider variety we could fish sustainably without the risk of over-fishing one species to extinction - as we already risk doing with cod.  The Fish Fight website has got some handy charts of which fish are sustainable and good to eat - take a look.

One of my favourite cheap fish is the humble sardine.  I absolutely love a tin of sardines in tomato sauce on toast as a cheap and tasty lunch so I'm slightly at a loss to explain why I'd never cooked a fresh one until today.  It has to be said, they're not easy to find - in the general change in High Streets since the coming of the supermarket the traditional fishmonger seems to have suffered worst: my nearest one is 12 miles away.  Fortunately, the local Waitrose has an excellent fish counter so when I saw these sardines in there I couldn't leave them behind.

You can use whatever herbs and spices you fancy with this technique, but today I decided on a Mediterranean theme, so I used thyme, oregano and rosemary.

This really is the simplest way to cook fish that there is:  simply put the fish on some foil, pour on a couple of glugs of olive oil, the herbs and a few squirts of lemon juice (I have no problem with Jif lemon, but feel free to squeeze a fresh lemon if you want to) and then lift the edges of the foil up and crimp the ends together to make a parcel which looks like a shiny Cornish pasty but with a fish inside.  

The fish will gently steam inside the parcels, losing none of its moisture or flavour.

The fish will only need 15-20 minutes in the oven at 170C, so get your new potatoes going at the same time as the fish goes in.  I've got these Italian stock cubes which I bought heavily discounted with more than six months left on the sell-by date, so I don't think they can have been a very big seller for Oxo!  I thought they'd add a bit of flavour to the potatoes, so I used one of these rather than just boiling them in plain water.

We British insist on mushy peas with our fish.  I've always used a Heston Blumenthal recipe which is, unusually, really simple to make.  It used to be on a certain newspaper's website but they've put up a pay wall and I have no intention of paying to subscribe to a newspaper that I don't want to read in order to access precisely one recipe so I won't be providing a link.  I know I should credit my sources, but this newspaper obviously doesn't want to be credited.

Anyway:  Put a small amount of frozen peas into water to thaw.  Boil up a sensible portion of peas according to the packet instructions (about three minutes).  Then whizz up the boiled peas in a blender along with some mint sauce (or dried or fresh mint) and a few splashes of vinegar.  Then stir in the thawed peas.

With careful timing, everything's ready at the same time so serve and enjoy!

Taste verdict

There's no two ways about it, sardines are a very fishy fish.  Some people will find the flavour too much.  We thoroughly enjoyed it, although it was a bit of a fiddle getting the meat off the bones.  If I'm honest, I prefer mackerel - but when you take the price of sardines into the equation this becomes a really good, healthy meal for very few pennies.

Financial verdict

Two whole sardines - £1.10

Enough new potatoes for two people - about 60p

Frozen peas, stock, herbs, vinegar, mint sauce - pennies, from store

85p each.

The skinny

Put each sardine onto a sheet of tin foil and season with a couple of glugs of olive oil, a squirt of lemon juice and some thyme, oregano and rosemary.  Make the foil sheets into parcels

Bake the parcels in the oven at 170C for about 15 minutes

Meanwhile, start new potatoes boiling in Italian or vegetable stock

When the fish and potatoes are nearly ready, make the mushy peas

Put a few peas in a ramekin in cold water to thaw

Cook a couple of portions of peas in boiling water as per the instructions

Whizz the cooked peas in a blender along with a teaspoonful of mint sauce and a splash of vinegar

Add the thawed peas for some texture

WeightWatchers ProPoints

11

Mackerel and bacon salad

I wasn't planning on writing anything about tonight's dinner, because I got the recipe from a TV programme which only went out this week and it felt a bit too much like plagiarism.  In the event I had to say something though, because it was so absolutely delicious!

I really like Nigel Slater as a TV cook (he always insists he's not a chef) - he comes across really well, and I like his simple cooking style.  A combination of his lovely recipe and top-quality smoked mackerel from Sussex Smokers (I'm not being sponsored by them, I promise) made this an absolute delight.

Click the link and give it a try, it was lovely!

Red mullet with pak choi

"Mise en place" is a poncey chef's term for "getting everything ready before you start."  It's obviously necessary in a restaurant kitchen so that you can get going as soon as the head chef starts yelling in your direction, but things are generally a bit more relaxed in the kitchen at home.  It's good to be organised, but let's face it - you're going to be interrupted by the phone/doorbell/kids/cat anyway.

Having said that, certain recipes do benefit from getting everything ready before you apply any heat to any pans.  This one is ready in about seven minutes from the first ingredient meeting heat, so you really need to get everything ready before you start.

Get a pan of water going, then make a start on the prep.

There are two bits of chopping and preparing to do: the sauce for the pak choi, and a bit of garnish to prettify the dish with when served.  The sauce is simply one clove of garlic, crushed under the heel of a knife blade then finely chopped, one teaspoon of preserved ginger (or the equivalent amount of fresh ginger, if you prefer), two tablespoonfuls of soy sauce and one teaspoonful of Thai fish sauce.

The garnish is just a couple of spring onions and a mild chilli pepper.  Don't be macho and go for a hot one - we're using this as a garnish, which means it's not cooked, which means we're getting the full chilli heat from it.  Getting great big explosions of chilli heat in an otherwise innocent mouthful of tasty fish is not big and it's not clever.

I use these handy little ramekins which I got for Christmas one year as part of one of those fancy Oil&Vinegar selection boxes that you can only get in December.  The contents weren't up to much, but I use the ramekins all the time when I'm making this sort of thing, and curries which require a particular spice mix.

At this point I came across a bit of a pak choi-related problem.  I have a regular whinge about vegetables that you can only buy in packets.  I dislike the waste of resources and the landfill involved in unnecessary packaging, I don't like being told how much can buy at a time, and today I discovered a new one: packaging hides substandard veg.  I bought a pack of two pak choi which looked fine, but when I opened it up I discovered that one was unusable - every single leaf on it was wilted and brown, so when I'd removed them there was nothing left but the bulb.

I'd normally want to serve one pak choi per person, but tonight we made do with a half each.

Either way, you want to cut your pak choi in half lengthwise.

It struck me while I was doing the prep what pretty ingredients these are - look at the baby leaves in the middle of the pak choi!  And isn't red mullet the most gorgeous colour!

The red mullet came from the Pimpernel Fisheries stall at the Farnham Food Festival and I must admit it wasn't cheap.  I have seen it far cheaper elsewhere - in seaside towns in France and in England - but it doesn't seem to be readily available inland so I didn't mind paying a bit extra.  If you can't get hold of red mullet, or if it's beyond your budget, I reckon this would be just as nice with trout or mackerel.

Right: we're ready to do some cooking.  Get the fish going in oil over a medium heat, skin side down.  You want to do most of the cooking skin side down, then turn it over for the last couple of minutes - about seven minutes in total should do it.

When cooking something as delicate as a fish fillet, it helps to know the quirks of your equipment: these two fillets were quite different in size, so when I noticed that the smaller one was noticeably more cooked than the larger one I moved it to a cooler part of the pan and the big one to a warmer spot.  Heavier, cast-iron pans are less prone to this, and electric hobs spread their heat better than gas ones when they're in good condition - but they're prone to a different set of problems.

When the fish is nearly ready (about like the photo above), turn it over then put the pak choi in the boiling water that you started earlier.  Leave it in for about thirty seconds then lift it out with a slotted spoon and put it on kitchen roll to dry.

Heat oil in a second pan, put in the pak choi, and add the soy sauce mixture.

Swoosh it all about a bit in the pan, then serve the pak choi, place the fish on top and garnish with the spring onions and chilli pepper.  You'll probably do it more neatly than I did.

Taste verdict

The red mullet sings for itself.  It's a lovely fish, and one we should eat more of.  It's just a shame you can't find it in most places.  My girlfriend and I both said the same thing about pak choi - we hadn't had it for ages, and we'd forgotten how much we liked it!  What a tasty veg - and the simple little sauce and garnish let the two ingredients speak for themselves.

Financial verdict

Two red mullet fillets - £5

Two pak choi - £1.50 (I know I had to throw one away, but I paid for two so the amount stands)

Two spring onions - 20p

Chilli pepper - free, off my chilli plant

Soy sauce, Thai fish sauce, garlic, ginger - pennies, from store

£3.35 each.  Yeah, it's a lot. But...  that's mostly down to geography.  We seem to live in a fish desert here: the nearest proper fishmonger is about 20 miles away, which is ridiculous considering that the sea is only 35 miles away.  When I lived in Brighton, I used to buy red mullet from the bloke on the beach as a cheap dinner.  It's not possible round here.

The Skinny

Start a pan of water boiling.

Prepare the sauce: put one crushed and chopped clove of garlic, one teaspoonful of preserved ginger, one teaspoonful of Thai fish sauce and two tablespoonfuls of soy sauce into a ramekin or other suitable container.

Prepare the garnish: chop two spring onions and one mild chilli pepper.

Prepare the pak choi (one per person, if all's gone well): cut in half lengthways.

Start your fillets of red mullet (or other fish) skin side down in oil in a frying pan over a medium heat.

When the fish is nearly done, turn it over.

Now put the pak choi in the water, which will be boiling by now, for 30 seconds then remove and dry off on kitchen roll.

Put the pak choi in hot oil in a second frying pan and pour the soy sauce mixture over.

Fry for a minute, then turn over and fry for another minute.

Serve the pak choi with the fish on top then garnish with the spring onion and chilli pepper.

WeightWatchers ProPoints

3

Posh fish fingers

Fish fingers are great, aren't they?  Even as an adult there's something really satisfying about a fish finger sandwich - and nothing cheaper than ready-made fish fingers between a couple of slices of sliced white, with whatever sauce or ketchup you like.  My local Lidl even sells MSC-certified ones, for a couple of pence more than a pack of non-certified ones.

Dinnertime demands a bit more care and attention, so I thought I'd try a fresh variation on the frozen, breadcrumbed theme.

Take a selection of your favourite, sustainable fish, filleted for you by your friendly local supermarket (couldn't tell you the last time I saw a decent fishmonger, but the fish counters in my local supermarkets are excellent) and cut them into roughly equally sized pieces.  Thinner pieces can be larger, if you see what I mean - you just want them to all cook at the same time.I've used a fillet each of tilapia, cod and trout but just use whatever you like.

Get three pudding bowls.  Put flour mixed with dill in one, a roughly beaten egg in the next and fill the third with outmeal.  Dip the fish pieces in each bowl in order - the flour will allow the egg to stick to the fish, and the egg will allow the oatmeal to stick to the flour.

I found that I ran out of egg and oatmeal quite quickly, so ended up using two eggs and two bowlfuls of oatmeal.

Put the pieces into a greased baking tray (or two, if you only own small baking trays) and you'll end up with lovely coated fish!

Chuck them in the oven for 25 minutes at 180C.  They will also fry very nicely if you're not worried about WeightWatchers points.

While they're doing, prepare some salad and some nice chunky slices of good quality bread and butter.  Serve with tartare sauce, and lemon and lime wedges if you're feeling poncy.

Taste verdict
Not honestly an unqualified success.  My girlfriend found the oatmeal coating sweet.  I didn't think it was sweet, but it was a bit too crunchy - finer oatmeal may help here.  I like the idea though, and I'll keep playing with it.

Financial verdict
Selection of fish - £4.39.  I didn't really need three fillets between two people.  I already had the tilapia and cod, but I was in the supermarket for something else today and I couldn't resist the trout.
2 eggs - 33p (from my friend who keeps chickens - they're cheaper and far, far better than anything from the shops).
Salad - not much.  Let's say £1 for two people?
Flour, oatmeal, dill, bread - pennies, from store.

£2.86 per portion.  But this was an extravagant version, two fillets of fish would have been enough!  I haven't included the lemon slices, because that was an unusual cheffy touch - a squirt of jif lemon would have done the job.

The skinny
Cut fish fillets into equal sized pieces.

Coat with flour, then egg, then fine oatmeal.

Put the pieces into a greased baking tray.

Cook at 180C for 25 minutes, until the crust goes brown.

Serve with salad, fresh bread and tartare sauce.