Monkfish

I never know how to choose fish, but sometimes Ihave a go (and so far I've never been poisoned!).
I had a go last time at Sainsbury's and I went for a Monkfish. It must be a good fish as it's quite expensive ...
I can't remember if I've ever cooked - or tasted this fish before - so I chose a random recipe from the Internet.
As it wasn't planned, I didn't have the all ingredients.
For the fish, I replaced the curry powder with garam masala powder, I didn't use bay leaves, thyme, tarragon or saffron strands.
The sauce was quick to make as I was running out of white wine, and I didn't have any mussels.
I had some fresh organic cabbage left from my Riverford order (please remind me to write a post on them) which went really well with the fish.
The result was absolutely yummy!

Tartiflette

If you're a quiz night fan, you might want to know that Tartiflette is a French dish from the Savoie region originated in the valley of Aravis, home of Reblochon cheese. Surprisingly, it's not a traditional dish, and was, in fact, invented and launched only in the 1980s by the Reblochon trade union in an attempt to increase sales of the cheese.

Now, as for the recipe, it's pretty simple:

• cut some potatoes in squares and cook them with some onions
• once cooked, put the potatoes in a dish, add some cream (optional), bacon (optional as well - and cooked) and cover with Reblochon (cut in two or three slices depending on its thickness).
• bake in the oven until the Reblochon is melted and crispy.

Bon appetit!

Brunch: Poached egg, Smoked Salmon, Brioche and Hollandaise sauce

Hollandaise sauce:
I still don't get how to do this sauce. So if you never tried doing one, I would recommend you buy a 'ready made' one.

Brioche Bread:
I have a Kenwood bread machine which makes dead good bread (and brioche). All you need to do is put all the ingredients in the following order and wait few hours.

Milk: 130ml
Eggs: 1
Butter, melted: 80g
Unbleached white bread flour: 350g
Salt: 1tsp
Sugar: 30g
Easy blend dried yeast: 1 and 1/2tsp

Poached egg:
I was going to describe my own method but I found a really nice web page on how to make the perfect poached egg.