Never too late to change

[desperance]

So for lo, these twelve, fifteen, many years, I have been making fish pie the same way, utterly basic: smoked & white fish in a plain bechamel, with or without mushrooms, under plain mashed potato grilled to a crisp on top. It's very yummy, one of my comfort foods.

Now suddenly I'm experimenting. Yesterday's was the classic mix of smoked & fresh haddock, on a bed of sauted shallot, fennel and leek, moistened with cream - no sauce else - under a potato and celeriac mash. Yum-yum, only different.

I'd actually meant to make a veloute with the fish stock that I'd meant to make from the monkfish head I'd brought back from the market yesterday, only I never got around to the first stage of that. So I'm doing it now, making the stock to make a base for the tofu and mushroom and leek soup with noodles that I have decided shall make my lunch today. Which I wouldn't have, if it hadn't been for that fish-head in the fridge, glaring at me.

Flexibility, see? Variation. And me such a creature of habit ordinarily. Lord alone knows what's happened...

ETA [which I still can't remember what it stands for, but you-all know what I mean]:

My whole house now smells of fish, but in a good way. And yes - he thanks you for your concern - that does indeed include Young Lochinbar, who did indeed get to chew on various chewy bits of fish-head. Yum-yum.

Comments

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Edited To Add. :) Not, as my friend chamois_shimi thought, estimated time of arrival. It really pissed her off when people used ETA to edit posts until I explained to her what ETA meant in this case. :)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I thank you. Usually I'm good with acronyms, I can mostly work out even those that I don't know; this one defeated me when I first saw it and has defeated me constantly since, even after someone (you?) first told me what it stood for. It's a blind spot. Maybe because I too kept thinking Estimated Time of Arrival, and my mind won't allow one acronym to mean two different things? Being, as asserted heretofore, a creature of habit? I dunno. Drives me crazy...

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

Heh. I just use "EDIT" because it's pretty clear and only one letter longer.

[danjite.livejournal.com]

Would you be a sweetie and Air Express us one of those pies?


Thanks!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Oh, if only. We could get very deeply into reciprocity; little packages of foodstuffs from Chiang Mai would go down very well in this house. (Coincidentally, I was just this morning reading a recipe that describes itself as Chiang Mai pork curry, tho' it then goes on to assert that it derives from Myanmar...)

[danjite.livejournal.com]

...and we have that lovely curry at least every week as it truly is one of the local specialities.

Mmm.... ginger.

The other great goodnesses here include Chiang Mai sausage, which is a... hmm... peripherally bitterish fermented sausage which is OMGSQUEEAMAZZZING (especially with green chili paste), housewive's mix- which consists of peanuts or cashews deep fried with MASSES of chopped garlic, chili and kefir lime leaves or... I can go on.

I. Love. Food.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Mm-hmm. That couchsurfing you speak of? One of these days, y'know, I might just surf on over...

[danjite.livejournal.com]

Well, as a writer you are welcome anytime at the <a href="http://www.traifebuffet.com>Traife Buffet Publishing</a> writer's camp. But I do so recommend signing up for CouchSurfing- we have met some many interesting folks as they passed through town here. Tonight there is a young chef from New Zealand on her first trip off the island. Friday night, we get three people from Mumbai for the weekend. Too much fun.

You have the communal cooking mojo right now, don't you?

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

'cause yesterday I threw a few pieces of chicken into the slow-cooker with a can of frozen Limeade concentrate, ground up some tricolor peppercorns on it, clapped on the lid, and wandered off.

It tasted nice, though, because this time I remembered I was cooking something and didn't leave it on the highest temperature setting overnight.

Re: You have the communal cooking mojo right now, don't you?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yup, the mojo is definitely with me.

Frozen limeade concentrate? Ulp. You go places I would never think to tread.

Re: You have the communal cooking mojo right now, don't you?

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

I go lots of places even angels would think twice about, especially with cookery. ;-)

I like citrus on chicken, especially lime, and I like sweet sauces--sweet and sour chicken springs to mind--and also things that are spicy (hot) and sweet at the the same time.

I've done that before, but with lime *juice* and ground pepper, which is very good. Also simple: something you may have noticed is a very necessary thing with Ms. Wanders-off-while-cooking-stuff.

So, sweet/hot/citrus seemed like a good idea. I grant the results might have been too sweet for some people, but that was mainly on the outer surfaces...inside it was just sort of succulent, without a lot of sweetness.