Saturday's Culinary Action At Chez Watson

I will start with this weekend, possibly a very good place to start.  Saturday's at Chez Watson are generally steak night but this weekend we decided to swap for fish as a very good fish shop has recently opened in our village and we don't go as often as we should.  We were intending to buy mackerel - Mr Watson and I go fishing a few times per year and caught some mackerel in the summer, the first time I'd had it and so delicious - but thanks to the food programme earlier in the week (which also reminded me about mackerel) they had sold out.

I thought back to the meal that we'd had at Rick Stein's in July, without a doubt the best meal I've ever had, and we decided to get halibut which I'd had for my main course.  The fish is unbelievably fresh at this shop, surprising for somewhere so far from the sea, but with prices to match.  I took a very sharp intake of breath when he told us it would be £14 for two steaks!  We also bought 8 large scallops (£10, an angina attack almost) and bought some very high quality smoked bacon from the deli on the way home. Might as well spend some more money hey?!

The scallops were seared and served on a bed of pea puree with chorizo and crispy bacon.  Amazing!  I decided to attempt a mirepoix sauce with the halibut (as I'd had at Rick Stein's) so briefly looked at the ingredients online and made my own version (this is one of my problems, I don't like to follow recipes). Chopped carrots, onion, leeks and coriander root (didn't have any celery in, schoolboy error!) simmered in stock until soft then blended to a puree.  A generous glug of double-cream was added later.  The halibut was lightly dusted with seasoned flour and pan fried, and we had some green veg and new potatoes alongside it.  It didn't look great, I'll be honest, but it was so delicious I didn't want to stop eating.  Ever.  Best £24 I've ever spent.

Onto dessert...  Now I am not a massive dessert fan but Mr W does enjoy a good pudding.  You can't go far wrong with Cartmel sticky toffee pudding, the best we've had so far.  I took the liberty of purchasing some very good quality vanilla ice cream in my last shop so dessert was simple.  I am hoping to start baking more but I need to get over my dislike of weighing things out and not opening the oven every five minutes first!