My lovely chums David and Katy can get to my place “door to door on the 134” but we don’t see each other often enough. Something to rectify in 2016 because I LOVE THEM. They came round for dinner the other Friday and I vaguely remembered that some time ago I’d made them a Vincent Price’s Fish Curry and they had liked it so I made it again…
This is a top recipe to make on a week night if you have folks coming round as it is so quick and easy. I got some cod from the fishmongers, but next time I might go for something firmer (Vincent recommends sole, halibut or flounder), OR, not stir the curry as much when cooking it as it broke up quite a bit. It was still delicious though. Another winner from Vincent. The recipe is right at the bottom of the post but, before that, have you got all your Christmas present yet?
For AGES I’ve been wanting to buy myself a special recipe book so that I could write down all my STELLAR recipes. You know the ones, the ones that you have torn out of a magazine, made, then thought, “this is the best recipe EVER”, never to see that scrap of paper again.
I have just found the ULTIMATE book for this purpose. I love it so much, it is now my absolute favourite thing. Behold…
This is a notebook made from a book. It’s got pages of the original book interspersed with blank pages for you to write your own recipes in. It has a bookmark made from the spine of the book. I think it is the nicest thing I own.
I showed it to Mr Rathbone in bed the other morning, enthusing over it, thrusting pages under his nose for him to look at. He said: “You love that so much you want to marry it, don’t you?” I said, “yes”. And I do.
Here’s where you can get yourself one of these amazing hand made notebooks. They are not all cookery related. Beautiful! www.vintagenotebook.com and here is the recipe…
Mary and Vincent Price’s Fish Curry – from A Treasury of Great Recipes – 1965
Serves 6
1/2 cup cooking oil
4 onions, chopped
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1.5 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
3/4 cup tomato puree
3 pounds fish fillets, cut into pieces
In a heavy saucepan heat the cooking oil. Add the onions, curry powder, paprika, salt and pepper. Cook until browned. Add tomato puree. Cook until almost dry, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. When almost dry, add 3 to 4 cups hot water. Boil 20 minutes. Add fish to the sauce, and cook slowly until tender (about 15 minutes). Do not stir after adding fish.
There, Vincent is so wise, I obviously didn’t read his recipe properly. “Do not stir after adding fish.”!
