Oriental food shop

The ragu is plopping. We’re having Tagliatelle al Ragu this evening. The sauce is very slow cook so I’m getting it done this morning, ready to just warm up this evening after our visit to the hospital.

This is more of an Italian version. One of the things that struck us is when you have a bolognese in Italy it isn’t the same as in this country. The sauce is far lighter. The meat tends to be a mix of minced pork & beef, as I’m using. The sauce isn’t the thick red tomato of the ragu sauces you buy in jars here. Instead it is subtler – or blander - depending upon the way you look at it. This is what I’m trying to achieve today, subtlety not blandness. The meat nonetheless is going to plop away for a couple of hours minimum.

We’re hoping to get to the oriental food shop in Lancaster after the hospital. It’s a fabulous shop. Most of the foods have writing on we can’t interpret. The owner looks at us with a certain bemusement. I don’t think he has many grey haired westerners seeking things like chilli bean sauce. He’s always keen to help interpret.

The choice of some things is overwhelming. In our usual supermarket you have the only brand of soy sauce they sell. In this shop you have 20-30 different varieties, reflecting the slight differences of production of different Eastern nations.

The Fox is in need of some chilli bean sauce, light soy sauce, sesame sauce (not tahini) & groundnut oil for a minced lamb stir-fry he’s hoping to make for Tuesday.

It’s as well I had that one good night’s sleep. I’m still feeling more myself so hopefully I will cope with both the hospital & the quick shop.

So tired

Yesterday I came & sat in front of the computer, all ready to write my blog. My mind went a complete blank. I couldn’t think of a thing to write about. And when I could – the adverse effect on relationships of shift work & odd working hours – I couldn’t be bothered. Ultimately I was just too tired to make the effort to clarify my thoughts in any way. I turned instead to playing Mahjong on the computer, followed by some card games – neither of which demanded much from me.

As the day went on I only got more tired, what with the gardener arriving & then the trip into hospital followed by a social lunch at the golf club. By the time we got back I was fit only for a lie down. When I got up it was time for painkillers & dinner. However, by the time the Fox had made dinner – a warm up of Slow Cooked Venison Roast he’d made months ago & put in the freezer – I was resorting to yet stronger painkillers as the others had had no effect.

I stayed & watched “Pointless”, a TV quiz show, before falling into bed. I finished the last 10 pages of the light romantic novel I’d been reading. Lights out. I’m relieved to say I had the best night’s sleep I’ve had for ages. My eyes are still a bit gluey & gritty but nothing like as bad as they have been. It is with considerably more relish that I got today’s lamb curry under way – it’s plopping even as I write - & sit down to write this.

We’re telling ourselves there’s only two more weeks to go. Then we may both have the chance to get on top of things. The treatment has certainly been a draining experience for both of us.

Smoked haddock

I’m fired with the thought of smoked haddock. I’m not quite sure why.

Last night we popped over to Carnforth to buy some diced lamb. (Booths supermarket there does decent sized pieces unlike the scrappy bits elsewhere around here.)

As I mentioned a while back we’ve come to the conclusion we need to eat out at least once a week while the Fox is having this hospital treatment. We decided to stop at the County Hotel in Carnforth for that meal. It was delicious. I had a starter of smoked haddock, salmon & prawn fishcakes with sweet chilli dipping sauce & small side salad. Delicious. The delicate smokiness swirled round my mouth. I suspect that’s what started getting the idea into my mind. I followed the fishcakes with oven baked salmon with a lemon cream sauce while the Fox had some excellent fish, chips & mushy peas.

I had been intending to make a lamb curry today, using the lamb we’d just bought. At some time I was going to buy some fish, something strong enough to cope with an Avocado & Yogurt side salad – mackerel or salmon maybe – I hadn’t quite decided what fish. By the time I’d finished my meal, my thoughts had changed from salmon.

When we got home we watched “Masterchef: the Professionals”. The skills test set by Marcus Wareing involved poaching some smoked haddock. As I watched him flake the moist-looking fish, my mouth began to water. A light bulb went off in my mind – smoked haddock.  That would have a strong enough flavour to cope with the avocado & yogurt. We haven’t had any smoked haddock for a while. We’re doing a top-up shop today so why not buy some smoked haddock. The lamb can wait until the weekend.

I was just thinking of poaching the haddock in milk as Marcus had done. By now I’m thinking I might top the fish with a poached egg each.

When I was a child I hated smoked haddock. My gran – she lived with us until she died – used to pop to the fishmonger every week & buy some smoked haddock to poach for tea. The whole house stank of smoked haddock. I hated it. I tried it again after I’d met the Fox – it was one of his favourite fish - & discovered I could enjoy it, even like it. Maybe it was the way my gran cooked the fish I objected to. Even now I can’t work out how she could stink the place up so much.

These days I even have fond memories of a smoked haddock dish we, along with a friend, had in a pub while holidaying in Edinburgh several years ago in the 1980s.