Diamonds and pearls

It's been Bank Holiday weekend- and a four day one at that - thanks to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. It meant that I had the whole family home too- which was wonderful.It was also our Pearl wedding anniversary so some special food was called for!

We decided to celebrate with lots of trips to the pub to drink Harveys, and lots of trips to the fishmonger to get fresh fish as a treat.

I'm lucky enough to have this view from my bedroom window and I can watch the fishing boats setting their pots at high tide- for lobster and crab- or watch them ploughing back and forth fishing for sea bass and other local catches.

We buy our fish from the local fisherman's shop www.southernheadfishing.com and I like to go there to find bargains (of course!)

There is usually a box of oddments to be had- sometimes slightly damaged Dover sole or plaice- and today it was small lemon sole at £1 each.

We had these grilled with a little persillade- garlic, parsley and oil- on a bed of vegetables with little cornets of chips. (Cornets courtesy of the water cooler at the gym- ssshhh!) I garnished them with a few clams (palourdes) cooked a la mariniere- in a pan with a lid with a splash of  white wine and parsley until they steam open.They went down well.

This made me think about another delicious lemon sole recipe: 

Sole with Riz Camarguaise

1 lemon sole per person

olive oil

chopped parsley or persillade

1 cup long grain rice (or red Camargue rice if you are lucky enough to find it)

1 cup chopped tomatoes (I like the ones with chilli)

2 tsp tomato puree

1  small onion finely chopped

1 cup stock (fish or vegetable)

1. Fry the onion in olive oil until soft

2. Stir in the rice and coat the grains in the oil and onion.

3. Add the chopped tomatoes, stir and add the stock 

4. Boil until  nearly all the liquid has been absorbed then switch off the heat and let the rice steam in the pan with a tightly fitting lid.

5. Now brush the sole with oil and grill for 3-4 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness of the fish.

6. Garnish with parsley or persillade and serve with the rice and some seasonal veg.

Other fishy delights we've had this week have been scallops with pea puree and black pudding (too simple to need a recipe- just peas pureed with some mint, fried black pudding and flash fried scallops):

and finally using up some leftover fish soup to make a fish stew- this time garnished with king prawns and mussels from the fish shop: