Look at this beautiful hat my chum Jane made…
The main part of the hat and the flowers are made from fish leather, the spindly bits are seaweed. Yes! Fish leather and seaweed. She is such a clever duck.
This splendiferous titfer was featured in a Coastal Currents exhibition here in Hastings curated by The Two Ians. It was such a fun project because it involved lots of local stuff and was 100% Made In Hastings.
Jane asked her favourite fisherman to catch her a nursehound shark and skin it for her. It has to be done in a very particular way to avoid getting the hole in the skin where the dorsal fin sits right in the middle of your hat. Jane then tanned the leather herself to make the main body of the hat. Here is the leather drying on her washing line. Haha, I just love the bizarreness of this…
As this was a nose to tail project, she asked if I wanted to collaborate and help her to cook the fish. Yes, absolutely! I chose Vincent’s fish curry as the recipe for this job, because it is GOOD and EASY.
Lady Jane is not known for cooking. In fact, she mainly uses her oven for drying out hats. For her Christmas present last year I said I would teach her a signature dish. Something simple that she could pull out of the bag at any time. Perhaps it could be this one? Vincent’s recipe really is simplicity itself, and Jane threw herself into the task with gusto.
We served the curry with “10 boys” as is always my tradition with a Vincent Price curry. He suggests having many accompaniments, and from memory we had bananas, sultanas, coconut, toasted pumpkin seeds, cherry tomatoes and other bits and bobs I have forgotten about…
As suggested by Vincent on his Exotic Delights of the Far East LP record…
I followed Vincent’s “Expert Coaching” on how to set the atmosphere for this dinner party by burning incense, having sitar music on the stereo and wearing a kaftan.
Trix cut up the fish for the curry and at first I wondered how large chunks of fish would cook, compared to the smaller bite sized chunks i would usually use. It was a revelation! Because the fish had a bone running through it, this was a perfect way of cooking it. The fish chunks held together beautifully and were perfectly cooked. I am now a convert to big chunks in a curry.
Nursehound is often known as huss, and huss is something I have seen a lot at the fisherman’s huts in Hastings so from now on, when I make a fish curry, I am going to use huss. It was GORGEOUS!
To see more of Jane’s wonderful creations, check out her Instagram page – @janefryersmillinery. When we were DJing together with The Shellac Sisters I got to wear lots of her fab hats.
Ahhh, such glamour!
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4 responses
Those are some gorgeous hats! I also love the print on that kaftan, perfect for a night of curry.
Haha, I think of that frock as my “eating kaftan” – there is much room for expansion inside that little number xx
All of this is fantastic!
Awww, thanks, VT! It sure was a fun project to be part of x