This evening was to be one of culinary firsts involving the fine catch of the day made earlier.
First of all, I had never been fishing before, or been hunting for that matter, so to have caught and killed my own food was certainly a novelty for me. And one that was very exciting too. Brenda, our landlady at the Aftas Beach House, was a little less impressed with our catch. The fish normally caught would fill a plate, but ours were hardly worth more than one mouthful.
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As an aside, you may be wondering what type of fish they were. No idea. Have a look at the photos and let me know. Adi, our fisherman called them ‘la sa’. But I have struggled in finding a translation or just the correct spelling for such a poisson. In discussion with Brenda, we are going with some form of bass or bream.
Secondly, I had no idea how to cook fish. As a child I avoided seafood like an exgirlfriend. Since joining adulthood, I have broadened my horizons considerably but such leaps are usually performed in the comfort of a restaurant. As a result, my sea food cooking abilities remain limited to turning on the grill for my fish fingers.
Brenda suggested we barbecue it. Great idea, we can do that. We had to make a fire first however, and despite our attempts of locating some ‘charbon’ in Mirleft, we were scratching our heads of how this could possibly work. Luckily, our good man, Rashid popped up to the correct shop to find us some.
My good friend Rob gained a lot of respect from me that evening as he had nominated and elected himself as head chef. This job involved the gutting, filleting and preparing of the fish, a task he completed with high levels of success.
During this time I had been planning our future travel and accommodation plans in Morocco and appreciated the recommendations and suggestions of the lady of the house, Brenda. It was at this point that she whipped out three far more respectably sized fish, donating them to our cause.
Not only did she greatly increase our yield of food on the table, but she also began creating a marinade for them too. A simple blend of crushed garlic, oils, coriander and lemons spread over her halved fish was to become a tasty and welcome addition to the dinner table. I am soon learning that the key to successful seafood recipes is just keeping things simple. Focusing on quality of flavours over quantity soon pays dividends, as anyone who has visited my favourite seafood restaurant – The Wheelhouse, Falmouth – will no doubt appreciate.
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Having finished my computer bookings, I met Rob downstairs struggling on two fronts. Firstly, the number of cats eyeing up our grub. Secondly, maintaining the bbq to cook the grub. The charcoals were struggling to get excited about the prospect of the food they could potentially deliver, but after several minutes of gentle encouragement, it was roaring away. As for the cats, they were easy to distract with the fishy remains that we were not inclined to cook.
Fish was ready and was joined at the table by a vast bowl of onion, bean and mixed spice couscous that Catrin had been working on. It offered a delicious and appropriate accompaniment, as well as the abundance of Moroccan bread Brenda had made appear from nowhere.
Another great accompaniment was the local Harissa sauce. Acting like the Hell’s Angels of ketchups, the sauce offering a truly delightful kick that worked well, especially with the couscous.
It was getting towards the end of our meal in front of the rolling surf of the Aftas beach when the time came to knock off one of the 61 things and try something new. Rob, our new friend Dave and I had opted to try out the culinary joy found in eating the eyes of our fish.
Now, I do not know much about seafood and whether this is normally practiced but I actually found it not half as gruesome as I had expected. I don’t know if the other two agreed but there were definite similarities to be had with a salted ultra-juicy lychee, especially considering the hard stone in its centre. We were not sure whether the eye would change considerably during the barbecuing phase to result in this or whether it is normal to have a rock in the middle of your eye.
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Either way, I didn’t mind it. Which is not something I could say about my compadres.
This thing is linked to a great food blogging event called Our Growing Edge. This month it has been hosted by Keeping up with the Holsbys and has a fab collection of culinary curiosities. If you fancy a bit of salivation, please do check it out.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
