Lancaster

My sister and her husband have been with us over the weekend and it was a chance to do some cooking and some catching up. I quite enjoy playing chef on these occasions and when there's a challenge to it as well that's always a bonus.

The plan had been

Thurs - arrival
Fri - Pork chops in a mustard sauce
Sat - Reindeer in a leek, mushroom and cream sauce
Sun - Vegetables wrapped in thinly sliced beef Japanese style
Mon - Out to a Thai restaurant.

On top of that there were plans for trips out and trying the Norwegian tradition of grill pølse.

In the end it didn't quite happen like that.

For one, and this is where the challenge comes in, they like their food simple, direct and full of traditional english flavours. So Japanese just didn't sound appealing enough. So we ended up cooking a Thai Green Curry instead - don't ask me what that has to do with English culture but it's a curry so that probably covers it.

We also ended up eating Mackerel. It's just the start of the season here so it was with delight that we purchased 4 beauties in the supermarket. 2 kilos worth - a meal fit for a king. They were simply grilled and served with mashed potatoes and veggies. I'm all for messing with flavours but sometimes it is very good to just let the food do the work and frshly grilled mackerel in season is the way to do it.

However next time I'mk going to cover them in a vicous rub as I think it could also be quite special.

Tonight they've gone home so it's just me and Deb - so some Spanish style chicken. Report on that soon.

As for the Lancaster of the title - we found the wreck of an old World War 2 bomber out in the middle of nowhere in Norway. More info can be found here It is a bit odd to find bits of a conflict that ended 60years ago. Makes me realise how lucky I am.