With the horrible Viral Infection that has laid me low since Christmas, my taste buds have been shot to pieces and I have survived by sucking down bowls of various homemade soups.

Today my run of dodgy luck hit a new low, when the Power to my rented Cottage went off completely at 4am and by 7am I was simply gagging for a cuppa tea.

I decided to cut and run, but could not get to my Car as two huge 4 x 4 Electricity Company Vehicles blocked the Car Park and I was told that a tree had fallen in the night taking down the Powerline and it could be hours before Power was switched back on!

I eventually headed for a local Little Chef ~ two miles away and as I was first customer of the day the two ladies there, Julie & Marilyn, made a huge fuss of me and sympathised with my catastrophic tale of Bad Luck Stories!

I thought, bugger the Muesli, sod the Cornflakes and went for The Olympic Breakfast, minus eggs (due to allergy) and OMG what a corker it was, washed down with two mugs of tea!



When the ladies saw me take a photo of my Olympic Masterpiece, they asked me to take their photos too and send a compliment to their HQ, so I did.





My appetite is now well and truly back so "Sod The Soup" until I am ill again!

WHO ATE ALL OF THE OLYMPIC BREAKFAST?

Looks like you found Nemo too.....

Both Nemo and my Fish Shoulder Bag are indeed drawn from Marine Fish.

However, the nearest photo of a real fish, similar to my Bag is the Blue-Ringed Angelfish.



Whereas, Nemo was definitely a Clown Fish.

Straying off the Food Thread, as I am still pretty stuffed after my Olympic Breakfast, I was just googling Clown Fish when I came across Jigsaw Puzzles with Royce McClure's amazing artwork.

How do you fancy spending time sorting this beauty?

Easy Peasy, say the Jigsaw Puzzlers on here!

So how's about this Bobby Dazzler then?

i think i'm going to vomit.

Not in the Marine Fish Tank if you please!

Staying on Fishy Subjects I made an excellent "Starry Gazey Pie" to surprise my Lady Friend.



Sadly, she never turned up, so no wonder those sprats don't look very happy as they struggle to gaze up at the stars, through bleary eyes!

The good news is that the Starry Gazey Pie tasted superb and I have enough left over to "see" me through several meals!

I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, but euuugghh! That's possibly the most creepy/disgusting thing I've ever seen. I'm finding fault with the recipe, not your creation of course.


Ew!

I am sorry about that Em, but Star Gazey Pie is a traditional Cornish Dish and the heads of the fish, usually pilchards or sardines are left peeping through the top of the pie to gaze up at the stars!

You don't actually eat the heads!

I quote

'December 23: Mousehole celebrates Tom Bawcock's Eve, a procession takes place with fish lanterns and Star-Gazey Pie. Celebrated in memory of a local fisherman, Tom Bawcock, who many years ago during a Christmas of terrible food shortages, went to sea in a lull between storms and returned with a healthy catch of "seven sorts of fish". From these, the villagers made Starry Gazey Pie, complete with fish heads protruding from the crust. On Bawcock's Eve today, local children parade through the village carrying brightly lit fish lanterns, and the pubs are very "merry places".'

quote:

Originally posted by LittleVoice:

Hmm... not sure what to say about that...

I'll reserve judgement until I know the rest of the ingredients. Being a fish eater this might not be half bad...

some chef made star gazey pie when they were competing on 'the great british menu' to cook for the Queen, although if I remember correctly it had a lobster head or something crazy like that poking out the top of it. haha! a little OTT I think.. Littlevoice..your pie looks kinda cool. The somewhat shocked reaction to it however reminds me of a little fishie 'masterpiece' I made in art class a few years back..my teacher didnt really know what to make of it because it wasn't what you would call..normal? ..oh I dont know! Anyways, what I am trying to say is that, what may look a tad weird to some, can actually be pretty freakin great! (as was my piece of art btw )

Right, my fingers are really painful from practising guitar chords again, so here is a basic recipe for the filling of Starry Gazey Pie.

Sweat off some shredded leeks in olive/sunflower oil in a big frying pan, then add other pale ingredients that you fancy, I used chopped butternut squash and sweet potato, this time.

Meanwhile, start preparing the fish that you fancy, this time I started with cutting fillets from mackerel that I had in the freezer. I actually helped to catch them on an amazing day up on the sea-front near Sovereign Harbour, Eastbourne in August, when I was out walking and saw a disturbance in the sea.

Large shoals of sprats were leaping out of the water, some even landing on the shingle beach and they were in turn being chased by shoals of mackerel, a few of which also leaped onto the shingle.

A Fisherman with his line set up with six hooks and feathers came along and I told him where to cast his line and the mackerel virtually leapt onto the hooks and soon he was pulling five and six ashore at every cast. I helped him get them off the hooks so he could re-cast asap!

Within twenty minutes, we had caught over thirty fine mackerel, popped them into plastic carrier bags and I had my share in my kitchen within ten minutes. It is very important to process mackerel quickly before the formation of scombrotoxin, so I had some grilling within twenty minutes and the others gutted and in the freezer within fifteen minutes.

So that was one variety of fish, the second was a piece of cod from the Fishmonger. I quickly fried the fillets in oil, skin down then poached them in milk for ~ five minutes, let them cool, then remove the skin and the laborious bit was flaking the cooked fish, ensuring you removed all the bones!

Keep the now fish-flavoured poaching liquid to one side for the sauce, then assemble the sweated leeks and other vegetables in an oven dish, add the flaked cooked fish, a selection of herbs of your choice, I used herbes provencale and fresh tarragon, then a handful of sliced green grapes, then the piece de resistance, a goodly portion of frozen seafood cocktail (prawns, squid, mussels & scallops) now making six varieties of "fish", then pour over the poaching sauce thickened with flour heated in a pan with butter, double cream, a handful of grated cheddar cheese, pat it all down then put mashed potato/sweet pototao on top and add the gutted sprats, cut in half, to make it look as if they were coming out of the sea to look at the stars, then bake in the oven at ~ 150deg C for twenty minutes, until the potato topping starts to brown and the sauce bubbles through.

You don't have to stick religiously to those varieties of fish, use what is available and what you and your guests like, many hate mussels, so don't use them! Blend your own choice of fish together, but be sure to remove all the bones that you can find and still warn your guests to keep alert and not choke on a swallowed bone!

It is a fiddley dish but quite delicious and do experiment with other ingredients, I have used sliced boiled egg on occasions, then for a luxurious taste a piece of fresh salmon and so on, dependent on season and taste.

Also you can use a short or puff pastry topping instead of mashed potato, just go with the flow!