Fish Dishes?

[Phil Pascoe]

Jane Grigson, I assume? Sophie doesn't.
Strangely, in Stein's Fish & Shellfish they don't seem to get a mention under any name, or at least any name I've yet heard.
I used to go out on the small inshore fishing boats 30 years ago - congers and dogfish (murkies, from the Cornish mor and ky, sea and dog) were always thrown back.

edit - Davidson gives the spelling as Morgay (also in Scotland, apparently.)

 

[Chris152]

I m intrigued to know what is wrong with potato skins, I always thought it was the most nutritious part of the spud.

It's just an issue for me, it aggravates my small intestine apparently. My understanding is the same as yours, the nutrition is good - and so is the taste!

 

[Chris152]

Well done. Looks great. Dover sole is my favourite. Next time - trim off the frills all the way round with scissors before you skin it. This gets rid of all the little bones. When you fry or grill it, on your board (or in the pan) push the top two fillets to one side gently lift out the central bone - which will come out all in one go (especially if the head is off) and then you can put the two top fillets back. Always skin both sides. (Fishmongers often leave the white bottom skin on - which is lazy and not good for cooking).

I skinned both sides and trimmed the outer fins, I watched a Rick Stein video on how to and it worked well. I even cooked the skins for my dog. I remember my mum working hard to remove the flesh from the little bones at the edges after she'd eaten the main part, and did the same but it certainly was a labour of love It's something I associate in my mind with eating shellfish - every morsel counts. And I bought the Dover sole because I remembered your comment on them earlier, and I agree wholeheartedly - delicious.

 

[AJB Temple]

Yep. Fins off but also snip off the frill. That bit is all cartilage. Personally I take the head off as well, mainly because it makes it easier to lift the skeletal bone out.

 

[AndyP]

The French use saumonette (probably the wrong spelling).

I’ve been trying to work out what dogfish is known as around here and finally realised that it is what I have only ever seen as Roussette . We used to buy it as it was boneless and easy for the kids to eat.

 

[Steve Maskery]

I bought some scallops today, on offer.
The shells were huge, the size of my palm. the flesh was modest, the coral was miniscule.
I was left wondering what was the point.
S

 

[RogerS]

I bought some scallops today, on offer.
The shells were huge, the size of my palm. the flesh was modest, the coral was miniscule.
I was left wondering what was the point.
S

If they were very fresh then surely it's the taste rather than the quantity that matters ?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I’ve been trying to work out what dogfish is known as around here and finally realised that it is what I have only ever seen as Roussette . We used to buy it as it was boneless and easy for the kids to eat.

According to Davidson's North Atlantic Seafood dogfish in French is petite roussette.

North Atlantic Seafood by Davidson, Alan: Used; Good Paperback (2003) | Reuseabook

ISBN: 9781903018224 - Paperback - Prospect Books - 2003 - Condition: Used; Good - Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. This book is in good condition but will show signs of previous ownership. Please expect some creasing to the spine and/or minor damage to the cover. Grubby book...

www.abebooks.co.uk

 

[AJB Temple]

Scallops are variable but I agree quality is what counts. Billingsgate, on the very rare occasions I get up early enough to go there, usually have queen and king. The shells of queen scallops are smaller and are convex (ish) on both sides, where are king have a flat side and the scallop inside is much larger. More expensive too. Maybe as much as a pound each in the market. Sounds like Steve bought queens.

 

[Tiresias]

Jane Grigson, I assume? Sophie doesn't.
Strangely, in Stein's Fish & Shellfish they don't seem to get a mention under any name, or at least any name I've yet heard.
I used to go out on the small inshore fishing boats 30 years ago - congers and dogfish (murkies, from the Cornish mor and ky, sea and dog) were always thrown back.

edit - Davidson gives the spelling as Morgay (also in Scotland, apparently.)

According to Davidson's North Atlantic Seafood dogfish in French is petite roussette.

I’m pretty certain the Stein mention would be in the 2001 ‘Seafood’ And the Grigson would be Jane. Although her daughter’s book Fish (written with her then husband, William Black?) is very useful. Sorry to be a bit vague – all my cookery books (except what I have on my Kindle) are down in the Borders, and I am in Edinburgh just now. So don’t quote me on those details.

Wiki has the following to say (although I don’t regard it as a particularly valid research source…):

‘Le terme saumonette est un nom commercial utilisé en français pour plusieurs espèces de petits requins, les petites roussettes, les aiguillats communs, des émissolles ou les requins hâ.’

So your saumonette is your roussette.

This is starting to intrigue me. One thing that does occur is that there are quite a lot of species of dogfish like things. Maybe people are trying to distinguish between them. Or, maybe, as I suggested earlier, they are trying to disguise shark as something it isn’t.

Morgay is a new one on me (but then again, although I am Scottish, I’ve probably spent less than 50% of my life here, and surprisingly little of it hanging around with fishermen). But again, from Wiki: ‘it was one of the species sold in English and Scottish fish and chip shops as rock salmon, rock eel, huss, or sweet william’. But it also refers to it equally as catshark and dogfish. But eel crops up again.

The bouillabaisse thickens.

 

[Chris152]

The bouillabaisse thickens.

Now that's something I'd like to try cooking. Again, it seems odd that such soups/ casseroles aren't so common in the UK?

 

[Tiresias]

Now that's something I'd like to try cooking. Again, it seems odd that such soups/ casseroles aren't so common in the UK?

Oh, Chris, that (bouillabaisse) may be a rabbit hole you don’t want to go down.

If you ask a dozen cooks how to make it, you’ll probably get more than a dozen recipes.

It can also be a bit of a faff.

What I like (and no doubt I’ll get shot down for deviation from some imagined original: and, indeed I can’t even remember where the first recipe I tried came from) is a thick deep red fish stock, well flavoured with tomatoes, saffron and garlic; what would have been the cheaper (no longer) fish from the market – rascasse, gurnard, conger, monk &c. filleted and poached in the stock, (use the carcasses for the stock, but then obviously you have to force it through a sieve), served separately; and lots of bread with rouille. I see no need to add shellfish, but as I am not from Marseille, what do I know.

And how, I hear you cry, does that differ from bourride? Good question.

Next we can move onto chowder.

The reason we don’t have more fish stews is, I surmise, that fish ain’t that cheap anymore. I was amazed to find, mooching around a supermarket the other day, that pork was actually almost as cheap per kilo as turnips.

 

[AndyP]

Translating foodstuffs can be problematic.
Missus bought some églefin this morning. This is haddock of course but when églefin is smoked it is known as haddock fumé.

 

[AJB Temple]

I agree re bouillabaisse. The French fall out over it. I've only cooked it a few times, using the rather involved and time consuming recipe from "Take 12 Chefs" which was apparently a TV series donkey's years ago, and spawned a book, which I have obvs. I agree it can be ££ to get the fish and shelfish unless you visit a fish market and get the scraps (or save up in the freezer) but when done well it is fantastic.

Happy to locate the recipe and post up here if anyone wants. Be warned it involves hanging up a muslin bag and allowing it to drip overnight.

 

[AJB Temple]

Much to my astonishment my wife found a wet fish shop (called The Fish Shop) in Sevenoaks today. I can't understand how I didn't know this as they have been there nearly 4 years. Anyway, the stock was amazing and the two guys in there were really clued up. The only salmon they sell is sashimi grade, at £25 kg. Super fresh, no food additives, not reared on rubbish in close confines, no parasites. Top notch.

They had some excellent (and rarely seen round here) John Dory at £29 kg, two or three big Turbot at £30 kg, and some really nice big red mullet, at £14 kg which I bought along with some hand picked mussels at £6.95 kg. Oysters were pricy at £2 each and King Scallops likewise at £1.50 in their shells. They were doing fully picked large crab for £10.50 in the shell which is OK given the labour involved. Ginormous mackerel. No pollack oddly enough . Not cheap but nothing is in Sevenoaks.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

According to André Simon's A Concise Encyclopedia of Gastronomy (1983) the difference between a bouillabaisse and a bourride is that the bourride has no saffron but has garlic or aïoli. (I seem to remember being told that on a course.) My 1961 Larousse does have saffron in the bourride, though, and the 2009 Larousse has saffron, but only sprinkled on the finished dish.

A picked crab for £10.50 is cheap enough - a large cooked but unpicked one here is £13. The fishmonger in Par market (expensive even for Cornwall, I think) is £10.95 for 4oz of white crab meat.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

This is interesting to scroll through -

Bourride

Bouillabaisse’s Troubled Half Sister

pistouandpastis.medium.com

 

[AJB Temple]

I found a copy of the Alan Davidson book you mentioned Phil. Was peanuts on Abe a £3.95 inc postage and turned out to be a first edition, RNLI no. 99/100. Very interesting and detailed. Not much use for modern cooking trends, but very informative. I didn't realise that salinity varied so much in the seas around Norway / Finland / Sweden.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The Cook's Room: A Celebration of the Heart of the Home: 9780060166458 - AbeBooks

The Cook's Room: A Celebration of the Heart of the Home - ISBN 10: 0060166452 - ISBN 13: 9780060166458 - Harpercollins - 1991 - Hardcover

www.abebooks.co.uk

Is interesting if you like cooking in general - how kitchens evolved and varied in different Countries according to the local cooking methods.
I've yet to come across an Alan Davidson book that's not good.

 

[AJB Temple]

Bought that. £3.57 on Abe for a hardback including postage so worth a look.

 

[AJB Temple]

Supper tonight. The photo is a bit misleading as the prep tray is 50cm long so this is a biggish fish and cost £11.95. Gurnard. Scaled, fillets off and pin boned. Head cavity cleaned and gills removed (as they make sauces bitter). Then it was turned into stock with a bit of jellied h/m chicken stock and cream, skimmed, filtered and reduced. Made 4 good portions, just sautéed for about 4 mins in a hot pan with plenty of butter and just served with a large dollop of very slow cooked dauphinoise and a squeeze of lime. Slow dauphinoise method shamelessly pinched from Fallow on YT. Very easy.

 

[Chris152]

I've never tried gurnard, and that's got me looking again at the fish in Cardiff market - I know they have good quality, but parking in the city is such a pain these days. I may have to grit my teeth and head there. This is their FB page:

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Oh, that didn't work as I thought.

 

[marineboy]

Holidaying in the Cotswolds a few weeks ago we had a day out in Cardiff. First time we’d been there, and we were impressed. Saw the fish stall in the market and the produce looked excellent. I researched parking before our trip and it did look very limited and very expensive - apart from the J Lewis one which was reasonably priced, clean and spacious, and not too busy.

 

[Chris152]

Just had my first delivery from Ashton's in Cardiff - fresh in and prepared this morning, delivery 15 miles for no extra charge. And they seem lovely people to deal with, really helpful, I told them to just put in whatever is fairly mainstream and freshest. I've packed it all up in freezer bags apart from what I'll eat this evening, very happy so far

 

[AJB Temple]

Good for you.