I would love to live in a tiny fishing village for a while and buy fresh seafood from the fishermen as they come in from sea.

Here is a collection of seafood plates I’ve whipped so far this year:

What do you do when you haven’t been shopping in a while and only have cheese, potatoes, peas…and then find half a bag of prawns in the freezer?

You make cheesy potato gratin with pea puree and sweet chili prawn skewers of course!

Mussels in coconut cream and sweet chili sauce. Feeds 2 hungry adults for less than $5! Add a $10 bottle of red and you’ve got yourself a date 🙂

One day I’ll figure a way to avoid photographing the steam coming off hot food…without having to wait for dinner to grow cold.

Creamy prawns with rice and green salad and beetroot.

Easy and decadent.

Saute half a diced onion and a couple of cloves of chopped garlic in some butter. When those are cooked, add enough prawns for 2 and cook until just done. Add half a cup of cooking wine and once that reduces down, add half a cup to a full cup of cream (depends on how saucy you want it), plenty of salt and pepper and a good pinch of dried herbs. Serve immediately on rice to soak up all that creamy goodness. Better add something green on the side to cut through all that richness!

Surimi Salad: Surimi, grated carrot, beetroot, dressing. Plus cherry tomato, green beans and spring onions from our garden.

Have you noticed I like purple food?

Monday night dinner: Stuffed mussels and fettuccine.
Fettuccine cooked with butter, garlic and courgette ribbons.

Stuffed Mussels

(serves 2 for dinner or 4 as a starter)

Ingredients
About 20 mussels
Quarter of an onion, diced
A couple of cloves of garlic, minced
Quarter cup breadcrumbs
A sprinkling of chopped chives (optional)
Some red pasta sauce (half a cup)
A small cup of grated cheese

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Throw the mussels into a lidded pot with an inch of boiling water. Steam mussels for about 3 minutes until they open. Don’t overcook! You’re going to cook them some more in the oven.
Remove from heat, drain and cool for a moment.
In a bowl, combine diced onion, minced garlic, chives and breadcrumbs.
Remove one half of the shell from the mussels and de-beard. Arrange mussels in half shell on a baking sheet or large ovenproof dish.
Spoon over a teaspoon of pasta sauce on each mussel.
Top with a large pinch of grated cheese.
Top with breadcrumb mixture. Bake for 10-15 minutes at about 180°C or until they are golden.
Eat!

I went to a cooking demo for subscribers put on by Taste Magazine and Gregg’s. It was at the cooking school at the Auckland Fish Markets. Got a great goodie bag filled with great flavours including this mexican spice mix. Came home with a dozen huge oysters and a tuna loin from AFM.

Starter: Oysters with lemon (no photo, ate it before it could be photographed)
Main: Tuna steak topped with diced tomato and onion (poor man’s salsa), cabbage, suede and potato mash.