However, recently, I have been pleased to discover a few lovely things for the kitchen (or rather, the table) in the same hospice shop I mentioned just before. Don't panic, this is not suddenly going to morph into a blog about 'old tat' shops, but isn't this serving plate lovely?
So far, I've used it for cheese and also for a cake (I mean once the cake was on the plate, you couldn't see the fish), but the other evening, I made a smoked mackerel salad and for once, I felt like not only was the food lovely, but I had absolutely the right thing to serve it on.
Doesn't happen to me often.
This started off life as a Good Food lunchbox idea but as the Husband mused when he read the recipe after we'd eaten "You changed it?". But of course.
Smoked Mackerel Salad with yoghurt, horseradish & dill dressing
8 spears of long 'tender stem' brocoli
200g sugar snap peas (cringe, they had been imported from a long way)
3/4 bag of watercress, rocket and spinach salad
2 smoked mackerel fillets, skinned
150ml low fat natural yoghurt
2 tsps horseradish sauce
juice of half a lemon
about a tablespoon of finely chopped dill
Quickly steam the brocoli and peas till they are cooked but still have bite. It really won't take long. Run them under the cold tap quickly to refresh.
Spread your salad leaves over a beautiful, thriftily sourced, serving dish (or on individual plates), then artfully arrange the cooked brocoli and peas around ad through the leaves, Flake over the smoked mackerel.
Make up the dressing by mixing together the yoghurt, horseradish and lemon juice, and stir through most of the dill. Drizzle this over your plateful of salad, and scatter the remaining dill over the top.
The dill gave the dressing a lovely flavour so I am also entering this into Karen's lovely Herbs on Saturday challenge, hosted this month on Bangers & Mash
:.