Food in Provence (and elsewhere)

It’s a long weekend here and most of the cottage residents have gone off to explore Ireland. Me, I’m happy to stay around here. There was a torrential downpour around 6:30 but there was no rain when I headed off to Midleton around 9. Rather than just going to the supermarket and the Farmer’s Market, I’d scoped out a butcher and a fishmonger along the main street so headed to those first. I was looking for a pintade at the butchers but was told I’d have to head to the English Market in Cork for that. And a chicken is too big for one. So, off to the fishmonger where I bought a couple of mackerel and a sea bass. All for just €13.66!

The next difficulty was trying to find some farmhouse cheddar-y type cheese for a cheese and potato tart on Monday (I’ve borrowed another tart tin to keep up with my pastry practice). No go. Ordinary Irish cheddar it will have to be. I had more luck hunting down some muslin squares—a very helpful person in the Midleton Tesco told me where I was more likely to find them but then came to find me and after a bit of a faff with her in-store app, we finally found them. They were where I’d expected them to be—with the nappies—but pushed back on a shelf. These I wanted to make ricotta but by the time I got back to the school all the milk had sold out. Ho hum. Next weekend, maybe.

I quickly made another white soda bread for lunch…

… ate lunch then went for a surprisingly needed nap. I had one of my scones with butter and school-made raspberry jam for an afternoon snack while catching up on my crossword solving and then it was time for dinner.

Mackerel first (the sea bass hasn’t yet been gutted so will probably keep longer). I filleted them (one of the skills we have to demonstrate…) and hd them grilled with boiled potatoes and yoghurt with coriander.

The grill is a little underpowered so the skin wasn’t as crisp as I would have liked—and there’s nothing in the cottage to take out the pin bones—but quite a satisfactory evening meal.