Mixed Fish Grill, Mediterranean Fennel & Couscous

Meal 119 - January 4th - Mixed Fish Grill, Mediterranean Fennel & Couscous

So this is it - the end. I don't really know what to say - my writing talents were never exactly Shakespearean in the first place but I'm a bit lost for words. I feel I should thank my family, and possibly Jesus for their love and support over the last 12 months. To the readers of my blog, thank you - without you, what really would have been the point? Jamie Oliver - he will almost certainly never read this blog, but he has been the inspiration to it all. And of course Lolz - without her washing up skills, and her, ahem, honest comments and criticisms I would never have seen it through January, let alone December.

Prawn Cocktail, King Prawns & Sun-Dried Pan Bread

Meal 87 - October 20th - Prawn Cocktail, King Prawns & Sun-Dried Pan Bread

Ah prawn cocktail. Conjures up images of Fanny Cradock and 80s dinner parties, where it would be followed by duck a l'orange and blackforest gateau. Back in those days, it would probably be served in a stemmed cocktail glass, with a few prawns on a bed of iceberg lettuce, smothered in a mixture of ketchup and mayonnaise (masquerading of course as the much posher sounding Marie Rose sauce), with a wedge of lemon.

Sticky Squid Balls, Grilled Prawns and Noodle Broth

Meal 73 - September 1st - Sticky Squid Balls, Grilled Prawns and Noodle Broth

September for me has always been a bit of a watershed month. It signifies the end of the summer holidays. The weather gets cooler, the days shorter. The countdown to Christmas begins. It's normally around this time I start to think (cue the miniature violins) of all my unfulfilled new years resolutions and what I still want to do before the clock strikes midnight on December 31st. Today, I am particularly thinking of the 47 15 minute meals I still need to cook, at the rate of almost 12 per month. Given that I have never cooked more than 10 in a month, things are not looking promising. I was actually hoping to squeeze one more 15 minute meal into August in order to beat this record but unfortunately, my plan was scuppered by a night of semi-impromptu drinking, which ended with a trip to the chippie and a chicken shish kebab.

Grilled Cajun Prawns, Sweet Potato Mash and Holy Trinity Veg

Meal 46 - May 25th - Grilled Cajun Prawns, Sweet Potato Mash and Holy Trinity Veg

This week, Lolz bumped into Masterchef presenter Gregg Wallace on the tube. I say "bumped in to" - apparently he got into her carriage, she smiled at him awkwardly and proceeded to Tweet about it. It's not unusual to celeb spot in London - I once bumped into The Hoff in Brent Cross shopping centre* but what is was surprising is that Gregg retweeted her. Rather than be concerned about the fact that he ends up dating most women who tweet him I decided that this was a sure sign that BBC bigwigs and experts in the culinary industry have spotted my cooking/blogging talent and I would shortly be securing some celebrity endorsements and, possibly, my own TV show.

Sizzling Beef Steak, Hoi Sin Prawn and Noodle Bowls

Meal 41 - May 4th - Sizzling Beef Steak, Hoi Sin Prawn and Noodle Bowls

Ahhh, bank holiday weekend!  After a long week of work I can't describe how excited I am about 3 days of lie ins, alcohol, football and of course 15 minute meals. With respect to the latter, we found ourselves watching an episode of the 15 minute meals TV show as we had lunch, featuring this particular recipe. Lolz gave me some nervous looks when she saw that the recipe needed 4 separate pans, but we both agreed it looked sufficiently appetizing to kick off a new month of 15 minute meals! Today is of course also Star Wars Day - time will tell as to whether this particular attempt was out of this world...

Prawn Linguine, Sicilian Shaved Fennel Salad

Meal 39 - April 26th - Prawn Linguine, Sicilian Shaved Fennel Salad

Up until now I'd assumed that the scariest thing to come out of Sicily was the Mafia. Well today I would be aquainted with a Sicilian Salad which, although less murderous, was just as terrifying.
 

Lucky Squid 'n' Prawns, Spicy Vegetable Noodle Broth

Meal 34 - April 13th - Lucky Squid 'n' Prawns, Spicy Vegetable Noodle Broth

With a disproportionate number of seafood dishes in the 15 minute meals book (26, compared to 16 chicken for instance) I knew I had to get in touch with my inner Rick Stein and cook some of them or risk a real fish frenzy towards the end of the year. Amongst those 26 dishes there are three squid ones which I'd been putting off making as, although I do enjoy a good calamari, my knowledge of cooking the things are quite limited.

Koh Samui Salad, Chilli Tofu and Thai Noodles

Meal 26 - March 17th - Koh Samui Salad, Chilli Tofu and Thai Noodles

When I cooked my broccoli pasta meal last week I was quite excited at the prospect of embracing occasional vegeterianism. I even cooked (sorry, we, it was a joint effort...) some Chinese leaf parcels for dinner on Friday night. Today's dish however, despite including a range of vegetables and that gastronomical enigma tofu (seriously, I have no idea what it is or where I might find it in a supermarket), is not actually vegetarian. And, ironically, despite my cluelessness surrounding tofu it was actually the prawns which proved the most elusive ingredient on the list. For some reason Waitrose were all out of prawns. Refusing to accept defeat though, I cunningly purchased a pre-made prawn cocktail pot, rinsed off the Mary Rose sauce, and hey presto - 100g of prawns!

Flashy Fish Stew, Saffron Sauce and Garlic Bread

Meal 3 - 12th Jan - Flashy Fish Stew, Saffron Sauce and Garlic Bread

If my previous pork dish was venturing into "slightly less well know territory", then this Flashy Fish Stew was breaking new frontiers. The challenge was not in the execution of the recipe (it was probably the easiest of all I had done so far) but in procuring the ingredients. I decided to embrace the Jamie ethos, don an aura of middle-class-ness (well, my gilet, which apparently is kind of the same thing) and negotiate North End Road market.

I was surprised and delighted to find the market chock full of bargainous delights, such as saffron for about a third of the Waitrose price and shell-on king prawns for 25p each! 25p!! I bought two red mullet from the fishmonger who happily gutted and scaled them for me (I was only cooking for two people, so assumed this would be enough...). Getting home I did encounter a few problems - the fish, when fully prepared into fillets (the fishmonger did not fully debone or remove the heads from the mullets) were a little on the small side, while a good proportion of the mussels (bought from Waitrose I might add) were unusable. I also broke the garlic crusher with some over enthusiastic garlic crushing, while Lolz later broke the pestle / mortar (not entirely sure which is which) in what can only be described as an evening of mixed fortunes.

Fortunately the finished dish was hearty and flavourful if lacking a little in seafood. The garlic bread was simple and much needed for mopping up the copious amounts of sauce. The real triumph of this dish though was that I really learned that the buying and preparing of seafood is not as scary as I once thought, and to really make it as flashy as the title promises, you probably need to buy a bit more seafood than you might imagine.

Lolz gave the dish 7/10. Said it would have been an 8 with less chilli and more fish. Difficulty factor 3/10.