Potato and Smoked Mackerel Dauphinoise

Potatoes, smoked fish and cream. What more could a person want? I've not made this before, it is like one of those lists of films to watch or books to read that I never quite get round to and in the meantime the list is getting longer and longer and longer...

Recipe:

Serves 4 as a main meal

450g waxy potatoes, scraped
225g smoked mackerel fillets
2 bay leaves
300ml double cream
200ml full cream milk
1 tablespoon grain mustard
Salt and pepper

The best thing about this recipe is that it relatively cheap, quick and easy to make, had I not been limited by Tesco's Finest Kiln Smoked Mackerel and the fact that I couldn't find any larger waxy potatoes it may have been even cheaper.

I used Charlotte potatoes which needed to be sliced to the thickness of a pound coin, this meant I could use my beloved Magi-mix rather than slicing it by hand.

The recipe calls for one hour in the oven at 190c but given that my oven is so ridiculously hot I took it out 15 minutes earlier.

The result was delicious, rich, slightly salty with mackerel and a faint tang from the grain mustard. I would certainly make this again but I may add horseradish rather than than mustard (or maybe a bit both). I did however forget to add the bay leaves, maybe next time.

A few hours later I was back for seconds and even now at nearly 10am the next morning I am craving it again. Now where is that muesli...

Nigel Slater's Real Food

This book is quite close to my heart really, it wasn't only the first cook book I ever bought 16 odd years ago but it gave me a lot of inspiration and a real love of cooking. I mean how many recipe books back in the late 90's included chip butties or a steak sandwich?

Each chapter is titled with an ingredient, and what is the first chapter called? Potatoes! Aptly described by Mr Slater as, "The culinary equivalent of a big fat hug". Hear hear!

Being such a cheap ingredient I expect to motor through this chapter fairly quickly.

The Obligatory Introduction

This blog was created when a friend of mine challenged me to cooking every single recipe in my vast cookbook collection which numbers at 102 at the last count. I am devoting it to other cook book addicts out there that have vast amounts of cook books but still have no idea what to cook or end up searching online for recipes.

My only dilemma is should I cook every single recipe, even ones involving food I actively dislike? And what order should I go by? Alphabetically, random, the order I bought them in? Or maybe in order of my favourites.

After several weeks of procrastination I have at least chosen the first book I have decided to tackle. It was the first cook book I ever owned at the tender age of 21, Real Food by Nigel Slater.