What fish to eat

I was cooking dinner recently when one of my friends text me recently to ask, ‘I need your help with buying not terrible fish’.

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Btw, if you want a boring list of reasons why the last newsletter was in Aug, you can see them at the bottom of this newsletter.

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Weirdly at that moment I was cooking mussel orzo. I often make a dish which came from a supermarket magazine, I tried to dig it out but I’ll have to describe it. It’s a kind of a Puttanesca but with mussels and no olives. You've got cherry tomatoes and anchovies, cooked down, then capers, some lemon zest and a bit of parmesan in the end. It tastes so good and most of the ingredients are in my fridge or cupboard already. Sometimes I fry tiny, little cubes of courgette until they get really soft and jammy, and that's nice as well.

Mussels are a great thing to keep in the freezer, a good source of protein and the ethical credential of bivalves is pretty good. In a nutshell (mussel shell?) fish need feeding, and often that is smaller fish that is taken out of communities where it disrupts food systems and ecosystems.

Also mussels are just chilling. They don’t require as much care as say, farmed salmon. That’s something I’ve completely stopped eating – from an ethical point of view, yes – but also reading about half-alive fish, mutilated by lice infestations, was enough to put me off eating it. Fermentation whiz Melanie helped me see the light on that one.

Also I try not to eat prawns. I don't think as many people know about that, maybe? Which is a shame, but the mix of slavery, exploitation, sea bed trawling and other terrible things means I try to only have them occasionally. I don't really think the world's coastlines can provide the interior land mass with all the seafood at once.

I think it's hard to eat perfectly ethically, but I think avoiding farmed salmon is a really good place to start. The first thing I thought of to text my friend was that sardines on toast is so good, or sardine pasta. And treating wild salmon like a really special treat, which it should be. Making tinned wild salmon fish cakes is really nice, or hearty salads, with tinned salmon salad, potatoes and herbs is always delicious.

Back to the mussels. Puttanesca is from Naples and has that intensity of southern Italian food – big sun-drenched flavours– but that night my friend text me, I didn't have any tomatoes or any courgettes. I made a different version based around some leeks in the fridge. This is much more delicate, like a nice late spring vibe. Sweet, tentatively optimistic flavours that go well with some sun and a slightly cool breeze.

I gently caramelised the leeks with some onion and celery and then added fennel seeds and bay leaves. I was going for a delicate, aromatic, almost watery vibe? I melted down the fonds with some white wine, but actually sweet vermouth would have been great too, I feel like vermouth accentuates that aroma where a bay leaf really comes into its own.

I was really playing around with delicate flavours, the celery, the sweetness of the leek and onion. You do have to add some chicken stock and parmesan to give some more punchiness to the flavour, and then you add the orzo with water, always more water than I think. It needs another lift at the end, so I toasted some panko breadcrumbs in butter and oil, and fried some capers until they bloomed open with crispy edges, mixed in some lemon zest, more parmesan and some finely chopped parsley. I think tarragon would have been so great in this, a much underrated herb.

Orzo with leeks and mussels

Sorry for the state of my unwiped table, what a pig.

Serves 4

3 leeks
1 onion
3 celery stalks
fennel seeds (about a tsp)
bay leaves (4-5, go heavy)
white wine or sweet vermouth
chicken stock, 500ml
parmesan, 1/3 cup ish
orzo, about 500g depending on how hungry you all are
frozen mussels
panko breadcrumbs, 1/2 cup ish
butter, olive oil
capers, 1-2 tbsp
lemon zest
parsley, finely chopped. Dill/tarragon would work too

About an hour before you want to eat, caramelise the onions and leeks. I like to use a saute pan with the lid on to help it all soften. I think I had some chicken fat leftover which always helps with browning I feel but use whatever. Once they’ve started to colour, add the celery, fennel seeds and bay leaves. When everything is soft and golden add your alcohol, about a 125 glass worth I guess? and scrape up all the sticky bits.

Then add the pasta and mix through before adding the chicken stock and an extra 500 ml water. I find one pan orzo always needs more water than you think it will. Cook for about 5-7 mins until there’s still a bit of chalky bite, pre-al dente and stir in the grated parmesan. Then add the mussels and let them cook for 3ish mins, and leave the lid on, heat off while you make the topping.

Heat the butter and olive oil (I trust you to eyeball this!) until hot and throw in the breadcrumbs and keep stirring until golden chestnut brown. Move them all to one side and splash in a bit more oil. Sizzle the capers and let them turn golden, mix in with the breadcrumbs and sprinkle in the lemon zest.

Serve the orzo with the breadcrumb topping and parsley.

A note about the mussels: I like to use Picard frozen mussels, it’s great to have them on standby and they’re great to put in okonomiyaki or Korean jeon.

I get them from Ocado, I do an order there once in a while and stock up on other hard-to-find things like, short grain brown rice and Garofalo brown pasta (lots of lovely shapes like radiatori, mafalda and mezze maniche which are perfect for working lunches).

Other things

Late spring breakfast

I’m on a current breakfast smoothie fixation but it might be about to get displaced. This is my favourite season to start having scandi-ish breakfast. Loosely, it’s dark rye bread (proper Danish rye bread would be the dream) topped with things like:

• sliced egg

• Jarlsberg

• soft cheese

• thinly sliced radish and cucumber

• ham

A really gorgeous way to start the day! Nice with a small black coffee. (If you look closely you can see a weird blue mark on my egg, I don’t know what that was, biro? Don’t worry I didn’t eat that bit)

Ultimate comfort lunch

I think I saw this recipe on Jess Stanley’s lovely newsletter? Or maybe Hetty McKinnon, I don’t know. But I’ve consistently made Kristina Cho’s Tomato Egg for lunch since I saw it way back in December. It’s comforting, delicious, great for a hangover, super quick to make, I love it.

Melon Bovril

I drink green tea all the time and have been working my way through lots of lovely green tea gifted to me at Christmas. Previously I thought gyokuro green tea wasn’t for me because it tastes of nothing, but I actually followed the instructions – hate to follow instructions – and wow, if a marine Bovril with notes of melon is your bag then you will want to try. I’m not selling it but it is delicious.

Boring reasons why I haven’t updated this newsletter in ages in case you’re nosy – aren’t we all

Mostly ADHD paralysis
Having a toddler
Having a job
Moving into and semi-renovating a house

Thank you for reading!