The tuna dish.
We all know that fish is good. As we get older and start to stumble with memories and forget the name of a previous world champion runner or a failed Prime minister, it is time to call in the fishing fleet. As a child I used to watch this fleet coming in with the first herring which would be rushed and presented to the Dutch queen. Those first herrings used to cost a fortune. Our family would wait for the price to fall before able to buy them. The fishermen’s wives were waiting anxiously at the peers for the boats to come in.
I was at the tail end of the herring fleet still being under sails. I might have been nine years or so. It wasn’t always that the boats would come back. It was a risky business and storms on the North Sea were frequent and dangerous. Many a husband would be lost. In those days the women waiting at the peer still wore traditional clothing, dark brown billowing skirts down to the ankle, and white head- gear. Perhaps they also wore a lacy scarf around their shoulders. It was all so long ago.
Now-a-days, fishing vessels are so large and so sophisticated they graze the ocean floor like never before. The whole area would be covered in miles of netting more or less depleting everything that swam. I remember two years ago a huge Dutch factory boat tried to enter Australian waters to fish. The local protesting fishermen were successful in fighting for their own rights to fish. The Dutch ship retreated and lost their case. Why has everything become so unromantic? I know losing your life while fishing isn’t romantic but so much of the past made and held memories. What memories will our grandchildren nurture in their old age? Perhaps in the future the Alzheimer will be cured by simply living along life’s path without anything remarkable to imprint on our memory’s storage. Memories will simply not be there anymore to lose!
Here is a dish to remember though. It is simple, cheap, healthy and guaranteed to refresh memories of failed Prime ministers and long time champions including Zátopek.
Its ingredients are potatoes, a good leek, onions, garlic, milk, herbs, a bit of butter, a bunch of bok-choy, tinned tuna in oil and little salt, pepper and chili. Also, young grated cheese.
Simply slice thinly a few potatoes and in layers interspersed with all the above sliced ingredient, place in a oven-proof ceramic dish. Soak the whole lot in milk level with the top of the dish and bake for an hour or so at 150C temperature. Make sure you are generous with the grated cheese on top to make sure this is brown and crusty. You then eat it with your spouse without saying a single word, except at times, just say mmm and again mmm.
I do hope my grandkids will remember my pancakes made with buttermilk.
We will all be lucky to get out alive.
Yvonne said:
I’m always on the search for easy but delicious recipes. This qualifies and will be in the oven this weekend. Thank you.
And, at the risk of being deemed risqué, like the gents above, I do like a good leek also! 🙂
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gerard oosterman said:
Yes, a good leek is always welcome. It is referred to sometimes as ‘ straining the potatoes’. ( Dutch creams.)
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
Beautiful vignette, Gez. Many thanks. I like the word picture of the old days of the women waiting anxiously on the pier. It’s vivid and wonderfully atmospheric. I also find it curious – and true – that we sometimes hanker for days of uncertainty and danger over a safe and extremely efficient and rapacious work life that surrounds us today.
The other side of that coin is that the days seem to whizz by with a kind of dog day afternoon every day. I find myself measuring time by putting out the red, green or yellow wheelie bins – ah this week it’s a green garden waste week. And so it goes.
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gerard oosterman said:
I forgot the yellow bin that holds the empty Dan Murphy bottles. Now we have to go for another fortnight. I might sneak them down during the night in front of the neighbours nature strip. 😉
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Hung One On said:
Sounds great Gez plus I love a good leek.
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
Don’t we all, Hung. Unfortunately too many of them seem to want to show up after beddy byes.
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gerard oosterman said:
It’s up to three good leeks a night now. I’m thinking of putting a mattress down in the bathroom. Is it the Shiraz.?
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gerard oosterman said:
I thought you would. How’z life?
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algernon1 said:
So do I Hung, unfortunately a little too often.
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vivienne29 said:
Interesting. And a tuna/potato bake!
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gerard oosterman said:
Yes, it is. Don’t forget the leek.
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