It is summer and we have decamped to the French Alps where it is certainly cooler than in London, where the temperatures have reached 36 Centigrade!

I’ve set myself the challenge of using food that is in the freezer and so in over two weeks we have not had the same meal twice! It seems that I have a fair amount of fish stashed away, hence we seem to be eating a lot of it! No bad thing actually, but is challenging to come up with a daily variation, but that is part of the fun! I allow myself to buy all the extras, fruit and vegetables but NOTHING for the main ingredient!

So far we have had whole Sea Bass cooked on a BBQ, , Skate wings grilled, flaked and used in Tortillas, Skate wings sautéed in butter and served with Beurre Noisette ( browned butter) and capers, Cod Goujons breaded , fried and served in a wrap with salad ingredients, small Cod or Haddock Goujons, served cold on a Caesar Salad and Blackened Haddock fillets. This was the first time that I had made this, and if you love fish and spice, then this one for you. The other problem was time ! What? No time? When here we are with no commitments, visitors gone and time on our hands! But we have become obsessed with The Tour de France. There is a one hour highlights programme on TV at 8 pm and we have to play scrabble before that! Therefore we can play scrabble up to 7 pm as the recap programme starts at 8 pm. Therefore we can pack this into our day by having a TV dinner !

Cajun ( the word comes from Arcadian, French settlers in Canada who were forced out by the British and subsequently settled in Louisiana, where it was shortened to Cadien and then slurred to CAJUN )

Blackened or Cajun Fish

A mixture of spices I used a mixture of the following, as it will keep you can mix it and then keep the rest for future use.

A dessert spoon more or less of the following Paprika, Piri Piri, Celery salt, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Cajun spice mix ( if you can find it) Chili powder, salt and a dessert spoon of English mustard powder.Very Simply mix all together.

You will need a fillet of fish per person and as such the skin needs to be removed. Light your oven on a lowish heat ( this to keep your fish warm whilst subsequent fillets are being cooked.) Pat the fish dry with some paper towel, heat some oil I use olive oil but sunflower oil is fine) in a frying pan. Spoon some of the spice mix over the upper side of the fillet ( press it down) and when the oil is hot, place the fish in the pan, spice side down, and then spoon more spice on naked side of the fish and press down. After about 4 mins of cooking, flip the fish over and cook for another 4 minutes. The fish should look black.

Serve with a simple salad or perhaps a salsa. Of course a simple salsa of tomatoes, cucumber, spring onions, a bunch of coriander (cilantro), juice of a lime and salt to taste is fresh and simple to make. Using ripe but firm tomatoes, cut into chunks, the same with the cucumber and onions. Chop the coriander and mix all the ingredients together .

Another version is Mango and Avocado salsa, using a ripe mango, a ripe but not too soft Avocado , a spring onion or two chopped, bunch of coriander, juice of a lime or lemon and salt to taste, chop / slice mix as above.

And here is the version that I made using ingredients which were at hand. I used sliced nectarines, a fresh grapefruit, an avocado and some chopped spring onions. It was not necessary to add the lime or lemon juice as I used the juice from the grapefruit.

Meanwhile I have been making ice cream. I have made Mango, which was very easy just adding chopped ripe Mango to my basic ice cream recipe. Then I made vanilla with caramel swirled into it as it was freezing, for this I made my own caramel but of course you can buy it ready made. And finally I tried my hand at frozen yogurt. It seems to be the flavour of the summer, but again easy to make and you don’t really need an ice cream machine

The basic ice cream recipe is 3 large eggs beaten together with 1/2 cup(100 grams) caster sugar and 450 mls heavy / double cream and 225 mls whole milk.

To this basic recipe chopped soft fruit can be added, such as peach, banana,melon, kiwi,raspberry strawberry etc. To this basic ice cream I added my caramel which I stirred in periodically whilst the ice cream was freezing.

To make your own caramel ( and I’m sure that most of you already know this) is to boil cans of condensed milk milk. They need to be covered with water in a deep saucepan and brought to the boil, and simmered for about 3 hours. A careful watch eye is needed to ensure that the cans are always covered with water. After 3 hours remove from the water and leave to cool. As they are now cooked they can be stored until needed, as it makes sense to boil several cans at once.