Salt and Woodsmoke

I took home two red gurnard today. Prehistoric looking fish with triangular faces and some kind of armour plating.

Gurnard have firm white flesh, not dissimilar to monkfish. Unlike monkfish, they are cheap (each fish was about £2.80 in our shop), and not overfished.

For dinner tonight I followed a recipe I heard on woman’s hour. I listen to woman’s hour if that ifdiot Moyles has forced me over to Radio4 and I am doing something that requires me to be in one place for more than 10 minutes or so.

They call it woman’s hour because originally it was a programme intended for……I think……women. E, my sister in law and an ex producer on woman’s hour tells me that they have something like a 40% male listenership. I wonder if they tailor their programmes to take this into account. Womanly but not too womanly?

Anyway, on an edition last week was a recipe for fried gurnard with pea puree with smoked bacon. Basically, cook shallot, add peas, blend, add cream. Pea puree. Grill (River Farm) smoked streaky bacon until crisp. Fry gurnard fillets, place on top of pea puree, and bacon on top of that. Et voila. A great looking and great tasting dinner.

Full details here.