Friday 20 February - Scallops Mornay

We were planning on having Chinese Food, but George announced he was out for the evening, so it was an ideal time to try something new that he would probably refuse to eat. I decided on scallops - the selection in Waitrose wasn't great, so I ended up buying a bag of frozen ones.

Googling came up with a variety of different recipes for Scallops Mornay (Saint Jacques), so as usual I mixed them up and did it my own way.

Firstly some mash was made ( I used the potato ricer to make it smooth), and I added a couple of bantam eggs. This was then piped around the dishes. (We could have done with a bigger piping bag....)

Then the sauce was made - I had poached the scallops for two minutes in a mixture of wine and water, and then reduced the cooking liquid.
Mushrooms and shallots were fried until tender.

Then flour was added to make a roux, the poaching liquid was added along with a spoonful of cream to make a thick sauce, and then finally a handful of grated cheddar.

I left this mixture to cool, before adding the scallops and filling the centre of the dishes with it, and topping with grated cheese (I was really worried about over cooking the scallops!). It was then baked until golden, and served with some green salad and crusty bread.

Next time I visit the Fish Sheds, some scallops in the shell will be purchased so we can do this again - it was delicious.

Wednesday 18 February - Stuffed Pancakes

We missed Shrove Tuesday as were driving back from a break in Lincolnshire, so moved our pancakes to Wednesday.
I decided to make stuffed ones for a change - spinach and cheese, and some mushroom ones for George.

Started with a normal pancake batter, which I always leave to rest for an hour or so, despite having no proof that this makes any difference

The pancakes were fried in clarified butter, and stacked up ready to fill.

For the fillings - mushrooms were fried with garlic and shallots, and finished off with a dash of cream.

The second filling was wilted spinach mixed with ricotta, gorgonzola and parmesan, and lots of grated nutmeg.

The pancakes were then rolled around the fillings, and topped with a white sauce flavoured with bay leaves, and finally topped with mozzarella and some parmesan

It was all then baked until bubbly and golden.

Served with a green salad, and some bread to mop up all the sauce.