Yesterday I was forced into Culling some of my books! There were just too many on the shelf, it was untidy, but that was not the problem. Several years ago, a visitor commented “ the shelf is bending he said” Himself replied, “ Glass does not Bend” and nor does it, but of course it can break. As I removed a book from the shelf, it wobbled! And the above thought went through my mind. I quickly removed all the books on that particular shelf and found that the glass had indeed moved. It had somehow slid out , or almost out of its brackets!

Himself, quickly came to the rescue, but it involved in removing all of the books and inspection of all of the shelves, fixing them as needed and then the obvious, cleaned them all and sorted out books. There were indeed some which would decamp to France and others , that had never been used , or were just too boring to keep, and still others that had sentimental value, such as a pretty useless book on the cuisine of Belgium !

Dinner was scheduled around the Rugby World Cup , after the England Fiji game and before the French South Africa game. Fortunately I had decided to have the Alternative sole, Megrim, which I had defrosted earlier. My intention was to make Sole Meunière with brown shrimps, which I think was often called Sole Ostendaise, in Belgium. The little brown shrimps, which are required are readily available there, even in the local supermarkets, but here in the UK , more difficult and more expensive. We had been to the local farmers market, where they had wonderful Halibut, which at £40 a go, a tad expensive for 2 people, but sadly no brown shrimp. So Sole in beurre noisette it had to be.

For some unknown reason, many people are afraid of cooking fish, and I have one friend who actually finds fish abhorrent, but then she also doesn’t like the Sicilian specialty of stewed donkey ( can’t say I blame her for that one though!) And yet another, who always soaks fish in milk before cooking, must be something that her mother / grandmother did!

So this has become FISH WEEK, from (Poor-mans) Dover Sole, to Hake ( an alternative to cod) and skate, or what it really is a form of Sting Ray. Whilst living in the US, I found that Americans or Texans at least didn’t eat what I call Skate, which they call Ray. In fact they told me, that if they caught it whilst out fishing, it is just thrown back. To be honest, the fish itself is big and can be huge and a only the wings are eaten.I cook both the sole and the Skate/Ray the same way, lightly dusted in flour, sautéed in hot, unsalted butter with the fish being doused by the spoonful of hot butter, carefully turned and the hot butter doused over again. Remove the fish, put onto a warm plate, turn up the heat so that the butter begins to turn brown! Be very careful not to burn the butter.

Spoon the brown butter ( Beurre Noisette) over th fish, garnish with a slice of lemon., Along with vegetables and salad of your choice.

So, we also had Hake, which I cooked exactly the same way as above but this time served it on a bed of curried chickpeas. Not a huge fan of chickpeas, although I do like Hummus. I used a jar of chickpeas rather than dried which require soaking!

For two people:-

• Extra virgin olive oil , a tablespoon will suffice
• 1 tin of cooked chickpeas, drained & rinsed
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 thumbnail sized piece of ginger, grated
• 1 red or green chilli seeded, finely chopped
• 1tsp cumin seeds 
• 2tsp cumin powder
• 1teaspoon curry powder
• 1tbsp smoked paprika 
• Squirt of tomato purée or a teaspoonful
• Cup of water
• A large knob of butter 1-2 ounces
• 1 bunch coriander, chopped (you can use parsley if preferred) 

Sauté the onions , garlic, chillies and ginger in the olive oil with the cumin seeds,powder-and curry powder. Do not let the onions brown, just cooked.Add the drained chickpeas, tomato purée and paprika, cook for a couple of minutes and then add enough water to cover the chickpeas, simmer gently for about 5 minutes.

Pat dry the fish, heat the butter until it is sizzling. Pop in the fish and cook for about 5 minutes spooning over the hot butter from time to time. Carefully turn the fish over to give some colour to the second side, again spoon over the butter.

Spoon the chickpeas between 2 plates and top with the seared fish . Garnish with some of the oil from the chickpeas , some parsley, coriander or as I did a few rocket leaves.