Some Recipes

Here, when I get around to it (as usual) I'm going to put some recipes for my favourite food. The first one I'll do is a recipe for Shark that a friend & myself made up all by ourselves, after we couldn't find one anywhere else on the Web.

Shark with Spinach, Potato, & Mushrooms.
Rabbit & Fennel Casserole.

Shark with Spinach, Potato, & Mushrooms

'Shark ?' I hear you say, 'I didn't know you could eat that !'

Well, until Julie bought 2 shark steaks from Asda (one of the UK's supermarket chains), neither did I. As it happens, it is very tasty indeed ! One of the things that tends to irritate me about normal fish is although it has a nice flavour, it tends not to offer much resistance to being chewed. Shark, however, is a bit tougher, having a similar consistancy to chicken (doesn't everything ?), so it is much more satisfying to eat. Another advantage is that, being a shark, it doesn't have any bones for you to choke on, just a bit of cartilage running down the middle which is easily removed.

Things you will need:

1. A Frying pan,
2. A Baking dish,
3. A saucepan,
4. Your favourite device for mashing things with,
5. As many shark steaks as there are people you are feeding,
6. A quantity of spinach,
7. A few potatos (or is that potatoes ? Dan Quayle'll know !)
8. A few mushrooms. If you can get designer ones, so much the better,
9. An onion,
10. A bit of milk, full fat so as to annoy the Food Fascists(tm),
11. A bit of your favourite non - crumbly cheese,
12. A bit of butter, NOT margarine because that is horrid,
13. A teeny bit of sugar, preferably demerara,
14. Your favourite condiments to flavour the food with,
15. Your favourite wine to drink with it. When we did it, we drank a red Rioja (which happens to be my favourite wine).

First thing you've got to do is chop up the potato(e)s & put them to boil in the pan. I recommend boiling them unpeeled, because as far as I am concerned that is the best bit of the potato. Whilst they're boiling, chop the spinach as finely as you can be bothered, & then using a sieve squeeze as much water as you can out of it. Then you need to very lightly fry it just for a couple of minutes in the butter. Then put it to one side for later.

When the potato has boiled you need to mash it (if that's your thang) - my favourite mashed potato has a bit of milk in it & some cheese, but that's me for you. Put that to one side.

Chop up the onion as much as you like to, & also the mushrooms (unless you are using small ones), & fry these for a bit in some butter. Towards the end, throw in a tiny bit of sugar. Finally, mix the spinach into this.

Once that's done, you need to artistically arrange the mashed potato & the spinach / mushroom / onion mixture into the baking dish. When we did it we used a lasagne dish, & had an Irish flag kind of layout with the green stuff in the middle & the mashed potato either side. Put it in the oven & bake it for a while.

Whilst that is baking, you should be frying the shark. Here I don't recommend doing it in butter, because that doesn't really get hot enough; I do most of my frying in ghee, which is a special processed butter (it's been 'clarified') which gets much hotter, & can be got from most Indian shops, or if you are lucky, the so - called 'Ethnic Foods' section of supermarkets. When I don't use ghee, I use Olive Oyl. Anyway, you may wish to remove the outside of the shark & the middle 'bone' bit beforehand, or you may like to leave it there to demonstrate how hard you are. Fry it, flipping it over frequently, until both sides are golden brown.

Once that's done, the other stuff will probably be baked, so get it out of the oven, put everything onto the plates, eat it, & drink the nice wine with it.

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Rabbit & Fennel Casserole

One day I was in Tesco looking around, & I noticed in the reduced meat bit there was a packet of Rabbit portions. 'Hmm,' I thought, 'I wonder what that is like ?' Not bad as it happens !

Things you will need:

1. A large saucepan,
2. A casserole dish,
3. A pre heated oven,
4. Either some potatoes (to roast) or some pasta,
5. Some rabbit, chopped up into pieces,
6. A bulb of fennel, chopped into pieces. If you don't know, fennel is like aniseed flavoured celery, so if you don't like aniseed, use celery instead.
7. Some garlic,
8. Some tomatoes,
9. A green or purple pepper, depending on which side you're on,
10. Some mushrooms,
11. A tin (sorry) of mixed beans,
12. An Oxo (stock) cube,
13. Some fresh coriander leaves,
14. Some Basil,
15. Your favourite condiments to flavour the food with,
16. Some interesting liquid to make up the wet part of the casserole - whatever you're into, whether it is wine, beer, cider, or whatever; just so long as its not boring water. Experiment with different kinds of liquid each time you do this !
17. Some nice wine to drink with it.

First of all, pour some oil (preferably Extra Virgin olive oil) into your pan, & heat it up. Throw in the rabbit, & fry it, swishing it around until you can see it visibly browning. Warning ! I am told that rabbit is supposed to stink big - time when being cooked, so open the kitchen window ! As it happens, when I was doing it, it didn't smell of anything in particular, but open the window just in case. Then add the fennel & the garlic, & cover, remembering to stir occasionally whilst you chop up the tomatoes. Add those, & then remember to stir occasionally whilst you deal with the manufacture of your pasta or your roast potatoes; once those are under way you can now deal with chopping up your pepper & your mushrooms.

Place these in your casserole dish, & pour your rabbit mixture on top of them, add your crumbled oxo cube, & mix it all up. By this point, your tomatoes should have reduced into some liquid - add whatever it is you are using for ancilliary liquid (like the wine) to just about cover all this, & then put it in the oven. Sit down & chill out for a while.

If you are doing pasta, when it is cooked, drain & put it somewhere. If you are doing potatoes, when they are soft, drain the oil from the roasting dish & put them back in the oven to go crispy. Add the beans & the herbs to the casserole dish, mix up, & wait for a bit - by the time the beans have heated through & the herbs have infused, the potatoes (if that's what you are doing) should be complete.

Serve the whole deal, & eat it in conjunction with the wine of your choice, & hopefully with the Close Personal Friend of your choice.

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