A culinary treat was had by all on our first session for the paying public on Tuesday evening – one of the group even described it as Babette’s Feast! Rob was in charge of Cooking With Fish The Sustainable Way and we got stuck in immediately.
First off, we had a go at filleting some lemon sole, then we each prepared whole mackerel with all its innards. The roe was potential taramasalata, and someone even took it away with them to make the fishy dip at a later date. We used all the leftover bones to make a fish stock in the pressure cooker, adding a few vegetable peelings from the mushrooms and shallots that Jay from Hickson & Black’s Deli (pictured below getting to grips with some coley) added to a Veronique sauce he made using the quick stock, some cream and an egg yolk.
We got our fish from Out Of The Blue fishmongers in Chorlton, where Dave advised us to buy coley on the grounds that they are always mature (the ones that he sources anyway) and therefore more sustainable. We duly cut it into finger slices, made breadcrumbs by bashing old toasted bread with a rolling pin, and put out a dish with flour for coating and another with beaten egg for dipping. Flour, egg, breadcrumbs, frying pan...
Having shallow-fried the coley goujons, grilled the mackerel with toasted almonds, and baked the lemon sole Veronique in the oven, we were set to eat. Accompaniments were a garlic and yoghurt dip, and boiled samphire - a wonderful sea vegetable that Dave threw in for us. What a feast. The only problem was that we soon had to pack up and go home... we could’ve all stayed there for hours!
Adele Jordan coordinates the classes and events run by Cracking Good Food. You can get in touch with her by emailing adele@crackinggoodfood.org
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