What's for dinner?

Comfort Fish

I'm into fish at the moment but having been laid low with a stinking cold my food thoughts have turned to comfort rather than sophistication.

Fish pie must feature on most people's comfort food lists but in my sniffley state that just involved too many elements (insides AND topping) and too long a wait.  Instead I plumped for a recipe from my newly purchased copy of "Fish" by Mitch Tonks, "Brixham pollack with parsley, caper and egg sauce".  Rather than pollack, what I had in was a piece of undyed smoked haddock but that worked beautifully.  You simply poach the fish in some milk and then use the milk to make a sauce seasoned with English mustard, parsley and capers and stir in the poached, flaked fish and a chopped hard-boiled egg.  Lovely.

Fish and hard boiled eggs are one of those surprising combinations that just work.  I remember a regular Monday evening tea as a child was a dish we called Prawn and Egg Mornay.  This involved lining a Pyrex dish with mashed potato in which you then place some halved hard boiled eggs, a cheese sauce with defrosted cooked prawns mixed into it, top with a sprinkle of grated cheese and breadcrumbs and bake.  Now I write it down, it sounds odd, but it works and I think it might need a new millenium reincarnation.  The other comfort fish of my childhood was mashed potato, tinned salmon and parsley sauce but I'm happy to leave that one in the Seventies!

In summary:

COMFORT FISH = FISH + HARD BOILED EGG + A VARIANT ON WHITE SAUCE

Très chic, Chez Panisse

I was just sending a lucky friend who is travelling to San Francisco a link to the wonderful restaurant Chez Panisse when I noticed that they have a new website.  It's very chic, check it out here (and don't worry, the intro is only short).

Chez Panisse is a restaurant in Berkeley, California, that was opened by Alice Waters and a group of friends in 1971.  For some reason Alice Waters and her restaurant have always captured my imagination.  She was one of the early proponents of the Slow Food movement and is a keen advocate of using local, seasonal food.  For me Chez Panisse had become almost mythical until I finally saw an opportunity to visit last month.

Even in my most extravagant, impetuous moments I wouldn't fly to San Franciso (from the UK) for dinner but since a work trip meant I would be in LA for a weekend it suddenly became just a short hop.  So I took myself up to San Francisco where I stayed at the fabulous, quirky Hotel Triton.

Saturday morning I jumped on a train out to Berkeley and wandered the nine blocks along the high street in the sunshine until there it was, in the flesh, Chez Panisse.

The maitre d' looked a little shocked that I didn't have a reservation (in my naivete I hadn't thought I would need one for lunch in the upstairs cafe) but, perhaps seeing the panic in my eyes, she assured me that they would have a table ready for me if I could wait ten minutes.  Well, I'd waited about ten years so far!

It was everything I hoped it would be.  Lovely, friendly, knowledgeable service (they hit just the right point between friendly and over-familiar) and the food was heavenly!  Here's what I had:

Avocado and beet salad with citrus vinaigrette

Monterey Bay squid roasted in the wood oven with chickpeas, rapini, toasted breadcrumbs, and aioli

Bittersweet chocolate ice cream with chocolate-almond nougatine and caramel

I have found a recipe for the squid with breadcrumbs and aioli in the "Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook" so with a little adaptation I will attempt to recreate the dish above and report back.  I've also just ordered a copy of "Chez Panisse Desserts" so watch this space for reports on that in the future.