‘Tonight is our “fishy” night,’ laughed Alice as she looked around her group and started to lay out her ingredients.
Tessa was ready with her notepad, as was Rob, who really was trying so hard.
‘We are an island nation and yet it is a sad fact that so many of us rarely eat fish, let alone cook it. We have some of the best fish going, but most of it is exported to overseas markets!’ Alice couldn’t help but vent some of her frustration at the poor uptake of what should be an Irish staple. ‘Tonight’s dishes include a favourite of mine: prawns done with garlic, butter, wine and the sweetest of cherry tomatoes, which is a wonderful starter or can be served as a main course. And for mains I’m doing a lovely blackened salmon served with a creamy spring onion mash and asparagus in balsamic vinegar. First off I want to show you how you can tell if the fish you are buying is fresh. Come closer and I’ll reveal all.’
As they gathered around Alice showed them how to study the skin of the fish, its flesh and its eyes, and then to lift it up and smell it.
‘It should smell like it just came out of the sea, slightly salty. Any other bad type of whiff and it means it’s a bit older than they are telling you. If it is pongy, walk away. Then, with the prawns, look at the colour, smell them, and also feel if they are still firm. If they’re too jelly-like and soft, say no … Then to clean a fish …’
‘Yuk,’ said Kerrie.
‘Well, most of the fish you get will have been cleaned, unless you are catching them fresh yourself, but boning them is often necessary. For some, when you cook them, the bones will lift off fairly easy if you run a sharp knife under the skin, but for others you need to take out a bit before you cook them. Always check for bones before you serve your fish.
‘Now, to the prawns. These raw ones can be boiled quickly, and you will see the colour change. Then I tend to peel and top and tail them, and then remove that little black line you see that runs down the centre.’
‘I hate it when they give them to you in a restaurant in their shell with their feelers and claws and everything.’ Kerrie grimaced. ‘And then you are trying to eat them, and it’s so messy!’
‘That’s the way I like them.’ Emmet laughed. ‘With the garlic butter or oil running down my fingers and my chin.’
‘Well, the ones I’m using tonight I’ve already peeled and cooked, and we are just going to heat a nice few spoons of olive oil and some chopped garlic and then throw in the prawns. Try not to keep stirring at them or they may start to break up a bit.’
A few moments later, Alice continued. ‘OK, as you can all see the prawns are beginning to cook, so now I’m adding some of the halved baby cherry tomatoes and you will see the juice from my tomatoes is mixing with the prawns. As they cook a bit more I’m adding about half a glass of white wine. It’s good to taste at this stage, in case we need another drop of wine. Everything is looking good, but now as the final flourish I’m adding a large knob of butter. This gives the sauce a rich, almost creamy, feeling and a sort of gloss. You must let your sauce thicken up a little bit, but also make sure you have plenty to serve with the prawns. For a starter, I am going to serve this with a little bit of rocket leaf or mixed green salad, and some nice crusty bread, but if this were a main course for Gemma and Paul or someone I would probably serve it with rice or baby potatoes.’
They were all delighted to sample the piping hot prawns, and Alice left the dish on the counter as she began to show them how to pan-fry the salmon and how to make a proper creamy mash without any lumps and that wasn’t too watery.
Now it was their turn.
Paul and Gemma, a great young couple, were a pleasure to watch in action as they divided the work equally. It was funny that Liam had never given a hand in the kitchen, or lifted a finger to cook a meal for her or his children during all the years of their marriage. Cooking was Alice’s business and she had let him get away with it.
She must have been daft! She’d made sure the boys could cook, but had never tried to get Liam involved. She wondered whether Elaine was making the same mistake; or maybe Liam was somehow different with her.
Lucy’s face was intent as she cut the tomatoes and added them to her prawns. She might need a little more oil. Emmet was already preparing his potatoes for the mash. He was an instinctive cook and clearly enjoyed food and eating out.
‘Lucy, you need more oil in that!’ he advised, as if reading Alice’s mind.
Tessa’s prawns had turned out perfectly, and her fish was almost ready.
An attractive woman in her late thirties, she always seemed slightly tense to Alice, but then it couldn’t have been easy for her to give up her career and independence and come back home to Dublin to look after her mother.
‘Alice, Mum loved the chicken with mozzarella. She made me make it again the other night when her friend Annie came over.’
Florence Sullivan seemed to be a great character, and was enjoying all the meals Tessa brought home to her.
‘Well, I hope that she enjoys the fish, too!’ Alice said.
Kerrie was hunched over her frying pan trying to salvage the salmon, which was far blacker than intended and breaking up into pieces. Her potatoes were undercooked, which had made them almost impossible to mash, and her prawn starter seemed to have far too much liquid and needed a bit more reduction.
‘I hate fish!’ she said. ‘I’d never cook it at home.’
‘Kerrie, why don’t you use this to lift out your salmon,’ suggested Alice, passing her the plastic fish slice. ‘Hopefully you will be able almost to get it out in one piece to put on your plate.’
Before her eyes Alice watched the overcooked salmon disintegrate in the pan, with Kerrie trying to spoon it out. The mash looked lumpy, and Kerrie was near to tears when Alice suggested adding some milk and a little butter to it and popping it back in the pot. Alice didn’t know what was going on with Kerrie, but she certainly did not appear to have any understanding of cooking or feel for it.
‘It’s crap!’ Kerrie said. ‘Absolute crap! I’m just a crap cook, and no matter what I touch it goes wrong. I’ll never learn how to cook properly.’
‘Listen, Kerrie, we all have a few disasters.’ Alice laughed. ‘Don’t worry about it.’
‘I’m getting married in a few months’ time, Alice, and I cannot cook. Cannot cook anything! I’ve managed to fool my boyfriend into thinking I’m some kind of Rachel Allen because I can heat up the best ready meals ever and make them look good on the plate, but I can’t keep it up for ever. I’m such a fraud.’
Alice stood there stunned. Kerrie was simply trying too hard, expecting too much of herself. It was funny, but people who were, like her, afraid of food and not relaxed and comfortable with it, and needed to do everything too precisely, were often awful cooks. While others, who just flung things together and never needed to bother to check recipes or amounts, just cooked instinctively and were brilliant.
Lucy had darted over and was being very solicitous while Tessa wordlessly took over the mash.
‘My mum’s a pretty crap cook!’ confided Lucy. ‘So at the weekends or if there is anything special on my dad usually does the cooking. He loves it. It’s his secret hobby. Kerrie, it doesn’t really matter who cooks, does it?’
Alice smiled. Nina was a fairly good cook but she’d always suspected it was David who was the adventurous chef in the Brennan household!
‘But I should be able to do it.’ Kerrie sniffed. ‘Cooking is simple, pretty basic. Surely anyone can learn?’
‘Of course they can!’ said Alice matter-of-factly, glad that the drama was over. ‘Now, I have some extra fish in the fridge and here’s a nice fresh pan. How about you give the salmon another go? One of the most important rules for any good chef is always to have extra ingredients around, just in case they need them. Never ever leave yourself short!’
Twelve minutes later, under her watchful eye, Kerrie had produced a perfect piece of blackened salmon, which she served with the creamy mash that Tessa had managed to whip into shape.
‘Your boyfriend will love that!’ said Rob reassuringly.
Kerrie O’Neill drove home and pulled up into the basement car park. She opened the silver foil container and ate a bit more of the warm blackened salmon and mash. It was nice, and she really liked the asparagus which had been quickly roasted in the oven with a little balsamic vinegar. She finished off the asparagus and then got out of the car and walked over to the big communal bin and tipped the remainder of the food in its container inside. Then she grabbed her bags and laptop from the car and, locking it, took the lift to their eighth-floor apartment.
Matt was stretched on the couch watching TV.
‘How did your class go?’ he asked.
‘Intense. We were looking at various comparisons in the global markets.’ She smiled.
‘The company work you far too hard,’ he said. ‘How much longer does this course go on?’
‘A few more weeks,’ she said, rinsing her hands in the kitchen and pressing on the Nespresso machine as she secretly studied next week’s menu.