Feeding the parents...

Went home this weekend and cooked attempted to cook a nice meal for the parents. All week I was suffering from the cook's equivalent of writer's block and just could not come up with a decent menu.

I did know that I was going to finish with Queen of Puddings as that gave me an opportunity to use up the masses of cake left-overs from the wedding cake tasting. I also knew I wanted to do fish and something very meaty to please both parental units. A rather successful trip to the Saturday market resulted in me settling for:

Sea bass in a spicy broth
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Rib-eye steak with roast potatoes and mustard cream cabbage
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Queen of puddings

Sea bass in a spicy broth

I got a pair of sea bass fillets and a pint of prawns from the fish man at the market. I made a broth using the prawn heads and shells and some Asian aromatics (ginger, coriander stalks, lemon-grass and chilli). Unfortunately I used a touch to much chilli: one red chilli finely sliced with seeds. When will I learn how to use chilli? I either get too much or not enough - grrrrrrrrrrrr! Anyway, I served the fried fish fillets on a mound of noodles surrounded by coriander and prawns. Obviously the picture looks very dry. Mainly because I made a bit of a boo-boo and strained the soup into the wrong bowl so instead of a clear liquor it was a touch cloudy. Still it tasted OK, just a touch hot and I cooked the fish pretty well.

Rib-eye steak with roast potatoes and mustard cream cabbage

No picture here as this was not the roaring success I had envisaged. Error after error here meant I wasn't best pleased with my steak or potatoes. Let's just say they were "very caramelised". I could blame a strange kitchen and equipment but that would be a cop-out. Frankly, I cocked up. Still Ma very much enjoyed it. And I completely forgot to top the steaks with the blue cheese butter I'd made.

Queen of puddings

Despite all the earlier mistakes I'd left the best till last. Both parents loved this pudding and despite seconds even managed to leave some for another day. This was the only recipe (from Phil Vickery's Proof of the Pudding) that I'd used and the piped meringue and different fruits really improved the presentation: I'd made a pair of contrasting compotes: plum and pear and cinnamon. Quite a difficult beggar to serve up nicely though. At least I ended on a high note.