Joined a mail order club selling restaurant quality fish and meat.  No more depressed trawling around Tesco's supermarket for me.

Mussels and a few clams were opened in wine and parsley and the liquor passed through a muslin and heated with butter and cream.  The mussels were allowed to firm up in the fridge for a half hour while baby leeks and garlic were sweated down in butter with white pepper.   The mussels and parsley were added and warmed through.  Placed in a bowl with lemon and the soup ladled over at the table.

Brill is a very large flatfish, not dissimilar to halibut.  I most often cook fish skin down in a very hot teflon pan and turn over for a very short time.  Shiitake mushrooms do not mix well with other mushrooms and can be quite heavy going if not paired with rice or potato.  Here they are in a sauté with red pepper, garlic and coriander, in olive oil.  Served with bashed new potatoes and boiled baby carrots.

We had quite a lot of Hake.  This is a nice flaky fish, a bit like cod, but not as creamy.  It is very popular in Spain.
Once again seared skin down and served with a robust sauce of vermouth and capers whizzed and reduced.  Olive oil beaten in at the end.  Small new potatoes were boiled and halved, then roasted on with Spanish baby plum tomatoes.

More hake, but this time in a style from Richard Coutanceau in La Rochelle.  New potatoes, carrots and garlic cloves roasted in olive oil, fresh rosemary and a little goose fat.  A very light chicken stock is reduced and thickened slightly with arrowroot.  I added a small amount of  lemon juice and served with boiled green beans.  The fish was just pan seared as usual.

The club also sold me some black pudding that was quite soft, in the style of a boudin noir.  Next time I will boil it in its skin to see if it sets up.  It was not a problem in this dish, however.  A paella of monk fish and black pudding with cherry tomatoes and green beans.
The monk was marinated in fresh bird's eye chile and light olive oil for two days.   This was very hot so the fish was wiped before adding to the paella.  Some shallot, ginger and garlic sauté in light oil in a shallow casserole.  Bomba (Valencia) rice added and well coated in the oil.  Sherry, saffron, parsley and water added and cooked on for a few minutes, paella style.  I added slices of black pudding and then departed from the correct method and turned it into a pilaff, meaning I stirred, covered and, after adding the monk, finished in the oven.  Blanched green beans and tomatoes were added near the end.

The swordfish was of superb quality.  Broccoli blanched and stir fried with garlic.  Potatoes mashed with a sauté of baby leek whites and lashings of butter.   Swordfish rubbed with olive oil and seared in an iron pan.  Flat leaf parsley just wilted.

I cooked this after two days travelling from Brazil and arriving home at 8pm.  It was good to get back into my kitchen :-)

The joints from the Christmas goose had been confit in goose fat and left to mature in the fridge for 6 weeks.  The fat was melted off and the legs put under an overhead grill (salamander) for a few minutes.  I constructed a cassoulet of smoked bacon, black pudding, ginger and garlic, well fried in goose fat and added to cannellini beans.   Served with boiled green beans, well glazed with olive oil.

We have not had woodcock before.  It is a very tasty game bird that comes undrawn, with head on.

I had specified that it be hung for maximum flavour.  It smelt fresh and tasted very gamey indeed.  I made a very rich risotto of shallot, butter and parmesan with Madeira and strong fowl stock.  They say woodcock should be roasted whole with its head tucked under its wing.  I filleted off the breast and thigh and grilled and rested it.  Even with a green salad this combination was too rich together, but I can recommend the woodcock.

The club also sells well aged Aberdeen Angus beef from a herd in Somerset.  We had a small forerib, roasted on the bone.  Buttered spinach, boiled carrots and mash with butter, cream and horseradish.

Our favourite cheese shop in town had a solitary Epoisses that was mulching down well.   We said we would buy and the woman serving warned us it was very ripe.  We said 'good', but she still said she would only charge us half price.  Strange person.

It was just right, although we have had riper.