Haute Cuisine

It's been a strange few days in our kitchen - I watched Saturday Kitchen and saw what Rick Stein was going to make, and realised straight away that I just had to have a go at making that... Fish tacos with guacamole from Baja California . Considering I'm not a great fan of salsa (too much raw tomato, eeuuchhh) or guacamole (I'll have a little bit of it with some doritos) at first this seemed a strange thing to do. However, Olga and I enjoy chicken fajitas, and this is pretty much a fishy version of that, and I knew Olga would love it.
The funny bit on the recipe page on the BBC website was "Prepartion time, less than 30 minutes". This may be true for Rick Stein, but after I'd spent an hour in Asda finding all the ingredients - I'd never had to find avocados or plain flour before - it still took me an hour just to make the salsa. Then another 30 minutes to make the guacamole... and that's before I'd even started on the fish. I took a break from the kitchen and walked the dog at this point while Olga cut up the fish for me.
Anyway, deep-frying the fish in my batter in a wok half-full of oil worked a treat, as we don't have a deep-fat fryer, and all in all it was a great success, and without wanting to blow my own trumpet, it was the best salsa I can remember having. I didn't take any photographs - my presentation left a little to be desired, but I'm inspired now to make salsa and guacamole more often - visitors, you have been warned! Here's how it would have looked, courtesy of www.loscabosrecipes.com's photograph:


Then, as if to balance things out, on Monday I reverted to a staple meal from my childhood, presented in the style that Mum poineered to make mealtimes more interesting for me... and this time I did take a photo! Can you guess what it is yet?

Yep, sausages, mash and beans. Olga had the castle/moat design, I had the smiley face. Just so you don't think I was completely slacking, the sausages were Sainsbury's special pork and honey ones (reduced for quick sale). Somethings never change!