Cornwall - Take I

So, I've missed a few weeks and have A LOT to catch up on - So I'm going to start at the end and and with the beginning, as clearly that's the way that makes sense...


So starting with this week, Mark and I have been in Cornwall at my parents' house for the last week. So, I've taken advantage of the superior cooking facilities and better food sources down here and have cooked pretty much every night (mainly to get off washing up duties, clearly). Taking a break from some of the Bruce experiments, I've been trying out some new bits and pieces. I have, however, been a bit poor at taking photos as you'll notice. Try not to get bored.


So, up first - Hake with wild mushrooms and red cabbage.


Point to note - Hake does NOT go with red cabbage. The red cabbage was merely an addition that Mark specifically requested and had to be served in a separate bowl to stop it screwing up the other flavours. Point over.


First up - the hake. The lady serving us at Seabourne Fish recommended this, and what a great recommendation it was. Hake is a white fish, a bit like cod but less meaty. 

The below is adapted from an Epicurious.com recipe:



Extra-virgin olive oil
Grated lemon zest of two lemons
3 hake fillets (1 1/2 to 2 inches thick)
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
450g mixed fresh wild mushrooms (I used shiitake and chestnut), trimmed and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
75ml stock (I used beef as that was all I had. It was fine)
A couple of tablespoons of flat-leaf parsley
Juice of 1 lemon 


Preheat the grill to a medium heat. Firstly, I mixed together half the lemon zest, a glug of oil, salt and pepper and roll the hake fillets in the mixture before placing them on the grill.


Next, I heated the oil and sauteed the garlic before adding mushrooms, a bit of salt and some pepper. After a couple of minutes, I added the stock, parsley and the remaining lemon zest, then the lemon juice until the mixture was piping hot.


By this time the hake was ready - you can tell as the flesh is firm and white coloured - and I spooned the mixture over the top. Simple but lovely.

Now for part II - Red cabbage


When Mark said red cabbage, I thought of the recipe my mum always makes. Spicy, sweet and sour and Christmassy. So I found and adapted a recipe that I thought would get me there on lecker.de - and it almost did (not quite, but almost).

I used:
Extra virgin olive oil
1 red cabbage (c 1.2kg), cut into c1cm strips
1 red onion, peeled and chopped

250ml red wine
A couple of large glugs of white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
3 medium apples (I used 2 granny smith and 1 pink lady), peeled and chopped into c 1cm pieces
3-4 tablespoons of redcurrant jelly

I heated the oil in a large saucepan, then added the red cabbage and onion and sauteed for 4-5 minutes before adding the wine and vinegar. I then also stirred in the cinnamon stick, the bay leaf, the sugar and a large pinch of salt and left to cook, covered, for about 30 minutes.
I then added the apple and a little more vinegar and cooked the cabbage, uncovered, for another 30 mins.
This was pretty much the perfect time to leave the cabbage soft but firm (the al dente of cabbage) - I stirred in the redcurrant jelly over the heat, added a little salt and it was ready to serve. Just like Christmas