An afternoon of rugby, wine and seafood

Posted by petra08 on April 16, 2013 · 2 Comments 

A friend of mine has gone pescetarian, it means she has cut out all meat from her diet. She said that she listened to her body and it makes her feel better. I think it is very important to listen to your body (except perhaps mine when I want cheese!). Life seems to go past way too fast and we decided to have the afternoon together and then dinner. We got her a ticket for the rugby and then headed to Sandy’s, the fishmongers in Twickenham.

Sandy’s is great, they have so much to choose from and when buying a whole fish they always offer to scale and fillet for you, perfect. I wanted to buy a few different things and see how I could marry all the flavours.

One thing I love is canapes, I never eat them often enough and I find it so hard to resist that perfect little bite, all in one go. They are also easy to some degree to pre prepare, perfect for when you are out and quickly want to rustle something up.

The game was great, my friend had not been since uni (a few years away) and then it was college rugby so Quins was a notch better and we had a fantastic afternoon, much aided by a few glasses of wine! The Quins won and did their walk around the pitch and we decided that it was worth braving the rain to cheer them on!

We were is such a good mood we stayed on to listen to the band and well, have some more wine. By the time we got home we were starving and quite tipsy I was thinking how I would get the food done! Giggling my way around the kitchen I got a couple of canapes to get us started.

Garlic marinated anchovy with a tomato sauce that I did earlier that morning.

I got a couple of crab claws and I took the meat out and mixed it with the wild garlic pesto and placed it on top of soft boiled quails eggs. That was a lovely bite.

When I was young my mum used to go to the local smoke house and sometimes come back with a freshly smoked mackerel and I have loved it ever since. I can’t find it as fresh but almost and Sandy’s has the best ones I have found in London so far.

Smoked mackerel pate

• 1 smoked mackerel, skinned and de boned 
• 1 celery stalk, peel off the stringy bits and chop finely
• 3 spring onions, sliced
• 2-3 tbsp mayo, I did mine from rapseed oil
• 1 tsp hot sauce
• cracked black pepper

Gently mix everything and set aside to let the flavours marry. I did this in the morning and it was perfect by the time we got back. I served it 2 ways,

with 1/2 soft boiled quails egg 

in a rice bread parcel 

The main course was a mix of seafood, small dishes that worked together. We had some guaccamole to go with all of it

A sweetcorn salsa, I used corn from 2 corn on the cob and we ate a lot of it, it had a bit of chilli, pepper and a slightly sour dressing

I pan fried some salmon 

Some tiger prawns 

Truffled cauliflower mash with pan fried scallop and a chorizo and sourdough crumb (no chorizo for my friend)

In Barcelona we had some wonderful clams and ever since we got back I have been trying to think of how they made them taste so good. I did 2 versions, one for my friend with vegetarian stock and ours with chicken stock and finely sliced Jamon Iberico. I am getting so close and it was so good.

After a whole afternoon and evening on the vino and all the food took the last of our energy and we did not even have the energy to eat dessert. Crashed out on the sofas we watched a movie in the background whilst still chatting after a great day at the Stoop and a lovely dinner! What a perfect Saturday, always lovely to spend time with you L!

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Filed under Allotment/Veg, Anchovy, Avocado, Bread, Cauliflower, Celery, Egg, Fish & Seafood, Garlic, Herbs, Home made produce, Hot Sauce, Mackerel, Meat, Prawns, Recipe, Rose, Salmon, Scallops, Spring onion, Starch, Sweet corn, Tomatoes, White, Wine · Tagged with cauliflower mash, Clams, Guaccamole, Quails eggs, smoked mackerel pate, sweetcorn salsa