Jubilee cook-up

Wow, I haven’t written for a while and there’s lots to update.  The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee last weekend was an excuse to get cooking and get eating.  Mainly eating!

There were three BBQs over the bank holiday, which meant I was rained on three times.  Lovely.  The first one on Saturday needed a dish from a Commonwealth country, and what else would I bring but tandoori prawns.  I’ve realised this is actually the easiest recipe in the world – I just had to mix the spices and add the prawns:

And there’s no doubt, tandoori prawns have the wow factor!

I must share the two best creations of the bank holiday weekend – a G&T jelly in the shape of the Queen’s head (awesome)

And my mum’s fabulous Jubilee cake – how brilliant is this??

I also remade the mango cheesecake for BBQ No.2 but unfortunately (or fortunately?) it didn’t last long enough to be photographed!  I take that as a good sign.

And now onto the next #oneshellfishamonth.  June = crab.

It’s all in the planning

The third oneshellfishamonth is now upon us and tomorrow I will be cooking langoustines for 8 people.

I’m being quite adventurous this month as I’m going to be doing a main course too.  This was going to be John Dory, but having done more reading, and having had a chat with the fish monger, I’m instead going for grey mullet, which’ll be a better fish (/easier) for 8 people.

I’m still going to bake the fish, but I’m now in a quandary of deciding whether to adapt Tom Kitchin’s John Dory recipe to the grey mullet, or finding another.  I found this delicious looking recipe for Thai whole baked fish in garlic-chili sauce, which looks delicious and I’m definitely going to try some time, but I’m not sure it’s really the thing when the langoustines are going to be quite simple with garlic and parsley butter.  I’m also salivating over Tom Pemberton’s recipe for baked grey mullet with tomato salsa and saffron new potatoes….I had thought the hard part would be deciding on the shellfish, but this time it’s the fish!

I think I’ll seek advice from the wonderful guys down at Dagon fishmongers, I’m sure they can set me straight.

And in the spirit of planning, I’ve also set the date for the 4th oneshellfishamonth – Sunday 22 April, which’ll be a nod to my heritage with tandoori prawns.  I actually used to make this quite a lot when I lived in Brussels, so it will be a trip down memory lane for me!  I’m being organised because I’m heading to a wedding in South Africa on 7 April for 2 weeks and don’t have much time when I get back as there’s another wedding set for 28 April.  2012 is apparently the year to get married – I’ve got SIX weddings to attend between now the end of September.  Crazy.  However, at least this gives me the opportunity to be a better planner and forward thinker: when and what will I cook next….