Wednesday 28 July 2010

Hake-ing it Easy

We struck it lucky with the location for our holiday in the north east of Scotland. We stayed in a tiny cottage by the seafront. The upstairs bedroom - accessed via a precarious, near vertical ladder stair - had a ceiling so low that I had to walk with my head to one side while up there.

The weather was fine apart from one deluge day. The scenery was quite stunning and very different from the west. But, best of all, there was the local fish processors' fish shop about 30 seconds walk from the house.

We went to the fish shop every day to buy Cullen Skink for lunch and seafood to cook for our evening meals. We'd taken a limited range of ingredients with us but that didn't matter. The fish was so fresh that it didn't need to be mucked about with. Although some days I did experiment a bit more e.g. the Hake I cooked wrapped in Serrano ham - just fried in a very hot pan with some butter and oil. My wife particularly enjoyed the sweet and meaty prawns cooked in garlic butter. The prices were also very reasonable - I think we're paying through the nose on the west coast.

We also became a bit addicted to the coconut ice cream from the shop a few miles from where we were staying. Excellent diet: fresh seafood, ice cream and red wine. I heartily (sic) recommend it.

So, back home to the dank and grey west coast? Not quite. We're now in Normandy in France enjoying delicious barbecued food, excellent company and temperatures touching 30 degrees. Time for a dip in the pool I think!

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