A Recipe for Disaster: Cooking Up a Big Italian Idea by Stephen Phelps

Author:Stephen Phelps [Phelps, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Stephen Phelps
Published: 2017-06-24T04:00:00+00:00

Cooking the Ugly Fish

Monday was ugly fish day. Overnight Lia had defrosted the Scorfano, the 90 Euro fish. It had been kept under lock and key since we bought it from the Fish Pirate a couple of days earlier, and once out of the fridge an armed guard had kept it under surveillance during an overnight vigil. Only kidding of course, but we were still smarting from cost of these fish. I think because this was the single most expensive item in the making of Cookucina so far.

The acciughe experience had already taught us that Tam was not very good with fish. She had practically thrown up when asked to pull the spine out of a tiny little anchovy. Now she was staring down the gullet of the ugliest fish on the fishmonger's slab, its huge mouth gaping wide. The warty skin of the Scorfano is beautifully set off by its (almost human) eyelashes. It looks a bit like the marine equivalent of the old joke about a camel being a horse designed by a committee (a joke which somehow never got the laughs in Qatar). Lia was making what she assured us would be a light and refreshing starter, a mousse di Scorfano. First she boiled the fish for fifteen minutes in water flavored with onion, carrot and celery. Then it was time to remove the meat from the bone. The trick, she said, is NOT to use any kind of food processor, which would turn the fish meat into a cream and lose all the lovely texture of the flesh. Instead everything had to be done by hand. Tam's job was to pull the skin off, then tenderly tease the flesh from the bones, crumbling it gently into the waiting bowl. The look of disgust on her face said it all. I fully expected her to ask if she could be blindfolded for the task. Five minutes later she was able to announce that the job was done. Lia took one look and was clearly not pleased.

"You've missed a bit" she said. "There's more meat inside the mouth. The tongue is the most succulent bit. You'll have to get in there and crack the jawbone to get at it."

Tam blanched visibly. Barfing seemed inevitable. But Lia was winking at the camera. It was a joke and Tam was mighty relieved when she discovered she would NOT be required to pull the tongue out. Nevertheless, this cooking lark seemed to be losing some of its luster for her. This is the delicately flavored fish mousse Lia and Tam (reluctantly) put together that day.

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