Wot We Had in the Fridge

Wot We Had in the Fridge

            Yet again I return for one of my short visits home to an empty fridge, complaints from my father of ‘your mother cooked baked potato with tuna TWICE IN A ROW’ and ‘ but dinner in college is so easy, who needs to grocery shop?’ welcomed me. So I was forced to feel around in the fridge for something to cobble together for dinner. What I found was, new potatoes, some rather old preserved lemons, one last dollop of mayonnaise, butter, a few leftovers from the Neighbours dinner and some dodgy looking green beans. The green beans were quickly discarded as they smelt like wet fish. So instead I turned to the freezer and found mackerel fillets, a good start, and some frozen beans. I used the lemons as my sole inspiration for a Moroccan pan-fried mackerel with rose infused crushed potatoes.

            Firstly I boiled the potatoes with salt, pepper, a bay leaf, garlic, parsley and the mint. Meanwhile I toasted some blanched almonds, added the chopped lemons a good 150g or so of butter, salt, pepper, ras al hanout, parsley and a little vanilla extract and cooked till golden. When the potatoes were boiled I simply crushed them with mayonnaise and a dash of rose extract. Finally I dusted the mackerel fillets with flour, pan fried them (1 min on top 4min skin side down) and poured the sauce over, add some green beans and you have a dish.

            I even managed to provide dessert which was eagerly devoured by my father who had been surviving on the afore mentioned potatoes grudgingly. I simply used the salted caramel and caramel mousse left over from the Neighbour’s dinner, white chocolate I found in the cupboard, vanilla ice cream and cherries I had actually originally bought for my breakfast. Oh well needs….must.