The British Beach, Bloody Good Fish, Bake 'Em Anywhere Scones and Emergency Jam

Monday

Simon has just gone out to watch England v France, for the second night running….  Yes, he went out last night, even though we both knew last night was Sunday, and the football was on on Monday.  Lord only knows what we’ll be like when we really start losing our marbles properly.

Beach in Looe this morning, with a visit to Pengelly’s for fresh fish.

If we were doomy gloomy types (which we sometimes are…), the beach would have been an utter nightmare.  Sitting there, with an umbrella of dark grey cloud, watching the bright blue sky over to the west - in fact, over Polperro.  And the dog beach was shut because the steps finally slipped into the oggin, so His Royal Hairiness had to be returned to the confines of the still-slightly-sick-smelling Shazmobile.

However, the girls’ sheer joy at being beside the seaside beside the sea is so friggin’ tangible that you can’t help but be swept up by it.

So, several hours, huddled in a scarf, taking the odd photo...

(including one of my foot - why?  Nobody knows...)


...and finally succumbing to slipping into my pyjamas (which I had slipped into my handbag at the last moment, justincase), slid by in no time.

Fish and chips for lunch.  Yessss.  Well, fish and chips for O & S, a pasty for M and a portion of chips with mushy peas for me.  No batter, see?  Oh to be able to eat wheat in Cornwall of all places.

Then we picked up our Pengelly’s fish, bought on the way down to the beach.  So, bearing in mind, Pengelly’s fish monger is slap bang next door to the main fish market in Looe, and they have the pick of the day’s catch, and we were there nice and early, this is some seriously good fish.  We have fresh mackerel (oh mama) for dinner tonight.  We’ll just roll the bastard in oats, grill it, and serve with samphire which will have been verrrry briefly tossed in hot butter.  Lazily, I got the monger to fillet them before he monged them to us – heh heh.  Yes, I know it’s easy but I’m on holiday.

We also have monkfish, for dinner tomorrow (except we have fallen amongst thieves and been invited out for Coddy Shack shish and fips tomorrow night with the incomparable J&G*, so monkfish will have to wait until Wednesday), to be served with streaky bacon and tomato salad, plus endless amounts of fresh mixed crab meat, cockles, mussels, tiger prawns and shrimps to take on our walk to Talland Bay tomorrow – assuming it doesn’t piss down all day, which it’s supposed to…  We shall see.

* Coddy Shack Fish and Chips – FABULOUS!!!  Go there!!!!!!  Now!!!!!!!!!!  I know, too many exclamation marks, but you will understand when you go.

So, the day is drawing to a close, and as the girls delight in their mackerel in oats with sautéed samphire, I realize that if I don’t put the following recipes down now, I will forget them.  Because in the interim, I have improvised strawberry jam and scones!

Actually, I photographed Marguerite Patten’s scone recipe from the 70s before we came down here, but there’s no scales here, so this is a recipe for scones which you can do wherever you are!

The basic measure is spoonsful, and I used dinner spoons.  Yeah, er, dessert spoons?  You know, the kind of spoons wot you eat off of, which are not soup spoons or teaspoons.

SCONES

Take 8 heaped spoonfuls of self-raising flour – I used Dove’s Farm Gluten Free, by the way, and it worked fine.

Stick this in a bowl and add a pinch of salt, a heaped spoonful (the same size as the flour spoons, including height of heapage) of butter, and two teaspoons of baking powder.  If you’re using plain flour, use double the quantity of baking powder.

Rub, or fork, the butter into the flour.  Add a heaped spoonful (blah blah as above) of sugar.

Add enough milk to form a soft dough.  If using gluten free flour, you will not be able to roll the dough out because it will be too sticky and will not hold together.  In this case, oil your hands and make scone sized lumps of dough – place them directly on the baking sheet.  If using proper flour, I dare say you could roll it out and cut shapes. 

Bake in a hot oven (my photographed instructions said 425f, but I had no idea what that means, being eddicated abroad, like, with no Imperial points of reference and no conversion chart about my person, so I did 230c) for about 10 mins.

JAM.

Take one punnet of strawberries, top them, and slice into four or five slices each, straight into a hot saucepan.  Add a couple of teaspoons of elderflower cordial (recipe to follow - or did I already post it - anyway, recipe on here somewhere) and a splash of balsamic vinegar, plus about 3 or 4 teaspoons of soft brown sugar.  Bring to a rolling boil and keep it there for 5 minutes without stirring.  Turn the electric ring (gaaaaaah!!!) off, and stir occasionally as it cools down over the next 10 minutes or so.  If using a proper hob (i.e. gas – sorry, but really?  Electric?  For proper cooking?!) just take it down so it’s not bubbling crazily any more, then lower the temp every couple of minutes over the next 10 minutes.  Pour into a teacup and allow to cool.

Yes, you could sterilize a jar and do all that stuff, but let’s face it, if you just made the scones, too, it’s not going to last long enough to go off, is it?  In fact, I have to stop writing now because I need to wrestle the teacup off the two children, one of whom abhors jam in all its forms…  Or not any more, it seems.