The Number 23

Well, it had to happen eventually guys. At some point, the game had to come unstuck and a truly unappetising dish had to hit the table. I'm just glad that we made it to almost halfway before it happened! This week we rather timidly attempted to make Grilled Sardines, Crispy Halloumi, Watercress Salad & Figs and Thick Chocolate Mousse. We didn't end up making the fig portion of the meal because I couldn't locate them anywhere, but that is the least of my worries from this meal. Maybe it's best if I just start from the beginning...

If I'm being honest, the whole meal wasn't a disaster. For one thing, the halloumi seemed to have worked. It tasted okay, and aside from that I can't say much more because I've never had halloumi before and have no idea what 'good' halloumi dishes are... but it didn't make me drive heave so in my books that's a winner! It wasn't difficult to cook at all, and aside from my ham-fisted attempt to pick up the packet of sesame seeds ending in an explosion of the damn things, it was a mess-free and enjoyable dish to make.

Then there was the salad, which was actually really good. We excused the flaked almonds (allergies) but the dish actually came up great. It was really fresh and well-balanced in terms of flavours, and it involved my favourite superfood - pomegranate! Again it was super easy to put together, pretty inexpensive and I imagine it to be quite versatile as well - salad goes with most things! And this is a salad with a bit of extra specialness to it. I think this one would be welcomed gladly at a summer barbecue.

The mousse was heavenly. I have made a couple of different mousse recipes before so I had a pretty good idea of what was involved in the actual process, but wasn't aware of how amazing this was going to turn out! The recipe called for 200g of 70% cocoa chocolate, but I always find that dark chocolate mousse is too rich so I opted to use 100g of 70% and 100g of milk chocolate. This worked really well and the mousse ended up being the perfect combination of rich and creamy, without being sickly. Not to mention that it was pretty easy to do! I even ended up beating the egg whites by hand, as well as the double cream. We've got one hand mixer that churns cream to butter in an instant, and another that sprays everything up the walls, so elbow grease and a whisk ended up being the best combination there! It only took a couple of minutes and I like to think that everyone could really taste the love in the final product.

Ok. So let's talk about what we've all been waiting for....the sardines.

Buying the fish was a nightmare. For starters, the fish market did have fresh Australian sardines, but they were about the size of my thumb. I took one look at them as I tiptoed through the puddles of fishy water and thought to myself "if I'm going to serve that, then what is the point?". After shaking off the yucky water and fish scales from my shoes, and begging someone to help me, a very loud woman lead me to some Portuguese sardines which, although frozen, were larger and 'ready to be cooked once defrosted'. I have to say, I think the loud lady lied to me. The fish were not ready to be cooked. The fish were whole, not gutted and not scaled. Imagine my horror when I realise what has happened and have to make the decision to either can the whole meal, or gut and scale the fish myself.

So I put my big girl panties on and decided to just scale and gut the little suckers if it kills me. I managed to mangle two fish before I had a mini-throw-up and wanted to cry. I tried. I really, truly tried. But I was holding the little fishy in my hand, overcome by his fishy stank, slicing him from navel to nose and trying to scrape his guts out with my knife and my bare hands and I just couldn't take it anymore. I rang my dad and sooked until he agreed to come over and help me (and by help me, I mean take over entirely so I didn't have to look at them again). But even after they had been tidied up, the kitchen cleaned and they were cooking away in a lovely marinade of lemon, chilli, garlic and parsley, I was still overwhelmed by the smell of them. Don't even get me started on their creepy dead eyes staring up at me from the plate. I managed to scrape out a tiny bit of meat and have a taste before covering up the little face with my salad and losing my appetite. I'm sorry, I just can't do whole fish - particulary smelly sardines.

So we enjoyed the salad and a bit of cheese, and we all loved the mousse....but it's safe to say that we all loved the pizza I ordered as well. But good news for the fish world, I have no intention of ever eating your sardine brethren ever,ever again. Rejoice!

I have much higher hopes for next week (which won't be until Saturday night, for my regular readers!). We'll be tackling Tasty Crusted Cod, My Mashy Peas, Tartare Sauce and Warm Garden Salad.
Like I said... much higher hopes.

Til then - Bon Appetit!