There is this very annoyingly pleasant series on BBC2 called “Rick Stein’s Long Weekends” which I binge on and get ideas from. It’s annoyingly pleasant, as the dude travels to places like Reykiavik, Bordeaux, Lisbon or Vienna, walks around, eats and drinks and gets paid for it ( bastard!!!).  I watched him eating fishcakes made entirely differently to those I’ve been making for years, had some cod in the freezer and tried them today. I’m glad I did, that had to be done for the science, but it will now the the return to the old method, lightly cooked fish, spuds squeezed through the ricer. Those I made today consisted of raw cod, quickly pulsed  in the food processor, a shallot, spring onions, fresh red chili, lots of coriander, lemon peel and seasoning. I also coated them in sesame seeds, the idea seeded really appealing, but turned out to be quite disappointing.

The texture was nothing like I expected, spuds do add softness. Couldn’t taste the lemon and chili. Those lovely sesame seeds were lost, panko is the way to go, no doubt.

From today’s  episode in Vienna I crave one thing- apple strudel.  I might well make it tomorrow!