181: Baked red mullet with saffron and mint, p124, and 182: Baked red mullet with pine kernel stuffing, p370

Oooh, a bit behind with getting these written up from the start of last week...

Okay. Red mullet. One of the most expensive fishes to buy? 'Buy grey mullet, it's much cheaper and really nice!' cried my boss when I moaned about the price, on more than one occasion... 'Yes but Nigel doesn't use grey mullet in the book, it's always red mullet that is specified, and besides, red and grey mullet aren't even related to each other' - so I'm not convinced I can substitute one for the other.

Anyway, back to the recipes. The first one called for four medium sized mullet to serve two people. The second called for four large red mullet to serve four people. Yikes. I decided to do as I've done in the past and cook even for one person for two recipes at the same time, then the hubby and I swap plates halfway through. Kinda silly but it saves a lot of money and gets the recipes done! Bit concerned about the lack of dinners left between now and Christmas/New Year, and the deadline for finishing the book!

I went to the excellent Sandy's, where they always have red mullet (all pretty big ones), and asked for two. The chap threw them on the scales and they came to over £22 together. I gulped and asked if I could just have one, and then tried to figure out if I could still do both recipes... Taking my one, fairly large red mullet home, I surmised that I could maybe bodge it by chopping said mullet in half (to give a head end and tail end - the pine kernal stuffing needs to be stuffed inside the fish, so this was the only way I could think of doing it) and baking each separately in the oven in my little oval Denby dishes.

The fish halves fit snugly in the oval dishes, and it worked just fine. Although it did look a little odd...

I have to say, the first recipe, with saffron and mint, didn't really bowl me over... but then it is supposed to be a light Spring day meal, not a depths of Winter dish! The saffron and mint were perhaps a little too subtle for the strong, meaty fish, or maybe I should have used more of each, but the fish was cooked to perfection (although it did need another 5mins in the oven, even chopped in half).

The second recipe was by far the better, with a lovely fruity, crunchy, interesting stuffing, which worked beautifully with the strong, meaty flesh of the fish. I'm not a big fan of raisins in savoury dishes, but here they worked a treat, although I did chop them up a bit smaller than they were whole, so they gave little bits of fruity, sweetness to the dish, not bigger lumps. Lots of scrummy Mediterranean flavours. Definitely one to repeat. Should we buy red (or grey) mullet again!

Incidentally, half a decent sized mullet, plus potatoes on the side and some tomatoes, was fine for each of us. The idea of having two whole mullet each seems a little excessive...

172: A deli sandwich, p167

I do find sandwiches dull, particularly ones I make, so tend to avoid... but this one was really really good! Oooh, I would have paid good money for it infact. But then anything with parma ham has to be good. Scrummy scrummy. Nice fresh ciabatta, a good handful of rocket, and sundried tomatoes - aaall good. I might have to make this on a regular basis...

114: Bread and tomato salad, p273

A simple salad jazzed up with the addition of anchovy fillets, olives and red wine vinegar. Not sure if the bread was supposed to be chopped up after baking, as it definitely didn't say in the recipe... I cut the oblong ciabatta into thick rounds so they were c. 2x3inches, mixed them with the salad and dressing, and then placed the bread in the bowls and piled the salad and poured the dressing on top, but I think it might have been better to chop the bread up into more bite-sized crouton pieces so they would soak up more of the juices and be easier to eat (who wants to be trying to cut pieces of crispy bread in a salad?? We used our fingers to eat the bread in the end...). If I did this again I'd also chop the anchovies up and mix them in the dressing and then dress the salad with them, to make the fishy meatiness of the anchovies go that bit further, throughout the whole salad.

94: Cannellini beans with coppa, spinach and mustard, p257

Yummy yummy, another spicy, meaty salad - with butter beans substituted for the cannellini (oops, thought the tin on the shelf was cannellini beans but it wasn't when I went to get them...), and pancetta instead of coppa (well, the recipe does say 'thinly sliced coppa or other cured meat').  As ever the mustard gave a heck of a kick, and the beans gave a nice simple background to the strength of the dressing, pancetta and spinach.

92: Mozzarella with grilled fennel, p261

Oooh, an interesting one... I'd never pick this - don't really like fennel, don't hugely like black olives... But did quite like this! Wasn't quite sure how to slice the fennel into '£1-coin thick slices' so it wouldn't fall apart in the griddle pan but it just about worked. I probably could have griddled it for longer, as it was still a little crunchy, but the combination with the creamy (couldn't-find-buffalo-anywhere) mozzarrella and sweet olives was really rather nice. A surprise success!