Sometimes when I have found interesting recipes I wonder if there are typographic errors. Although I know that food writers rigorously test recipes before publication there is just as much of a chance of a typographic error in a recipe as in any other form of article.

Some years ago the Independent published a great set of supplements called the "Global Kitchen". I was thrilled when the Asia supplement included an article on black pepper crusted black cod by Nobuyuki Matsuhisa. I have tried the recipe a few times and it tastes great; though I am not sure I have done it correctly 'black cod' (it comes from the Southern Ocean) is not something I can buy at the fish counter so I used normal cod. However I am sure that the quanties for the teriyaki basalmico are wrong. You start with 650 ml liquid and despite reducing it a lot I think that is enough for a lot more than the two people specified in the recipe.

As a child I loved the sausagemeat meatballs that my mum would make and serve with mash, a veg and gravy. I would probably find them bland today but I have run into a number of tasty-looking recipes involving a bit more herbs or spices. Last week I tried cooking scallops for the first time. I liked a recipe for scallops and sausagemeatballs in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Year the combination appealed to me. I had to do some work so Mrs Oregano did the meatballs. On serving - despite a high chilli tolerance - we were blown away by the hotness. I am trying the recipe again tonight - I do not know if there is a typo in the recipe or if the wrong measuring spoon was used.

Just goes to show that recipes should never be followed slavishly.

PS I am much more likely to have typos in my blog than those of a professional writer. So apologies in advance if anybody has tried something and it is not right!

The Food Standards Agency 'eatwell plate' got some publicity in the news media over the last day or so. Reading the reports I was staggered at widespread misconceptions about what was healthy to eat. Probably though that should not be a surprise when you see widespread obesity and vast quantities of unhealthy food being consumed here in the UK.

Nevertheless the survey results are worth repeating here

Of the 2,094 people surveyed:

• 73% recognised we should aim to eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, but only 11% said we should eat a lot of starchy foods – showing that people don’t always realise the benefit of eating bread, rice, potatoes and pasta.
• 97% recognised that fresh fruit and vegetables count towards the 5-a-day target – this figure dropped to about half for tinned and frozen fruit and vegetables and dried fruit, all of which do contribute towards our daily intake.

On the subject of eating foods high in fat and sugar, which make up the smallest proportion of the eatwell plate:

• 58% of people recognised that we should only eat them occasionally, when given a list of options to choose from.
• However, about one fifth (19%) incorrectly said that to enjoy these types of food we should eat ‘plenty of fruit and vegetables to outweigh’ the consumption of high fat and sugar foods, which is not a sensible approach.

 
Initiaitves such as this one can provide good information but is the message really getting through to the public? I fear not. Things like this are promoted through press release rather than hard hitting advertising. Furthermore even if people understand the nutritional information, there are a staggering number of people unable to cook with fresh ingredients.

For two decades many schools have not taught cookery so it is not surprising many younger people do not know the basics. My son did a food technology course which did include some practical work, but quite a bit of the curriculum seemed aimed at the food processing industry.

The Government should invest in public education both on healthy nutrition and on cookery basics. Investing now will be a lot cheaper than the NHS picking up the tab for cardio-vascular and type 2 diabetes problems!

In an earlier posting I said that I was confused by the identity of peixe espada. Thanks to Wikipedia I have solved it. Peixe espada seems like it would mean "fish sword" though being a thin long silvery fish with big eyes it did not look anything like a "swordfish" which is espadarte in Portuguese. It is definitely not a scabbard fish which looks very different again.

It occured to me that Wikipedia can be run in Portuguese and I found an article by doing a search using the Portuguese fish name. While I do not understand the article it yields the zoological name trichiurus lepturus. Putting this name into Wikipedia in English leads to a further article on the largehead hairtail or Atlantic cutlassfish. The first name does not even sound like a fish to me so I will use the latter!

I have often found language dictionaries unreliable for biological terms while Latin names are universal.

At the beginning of this week a Government proposal to give women £120 to pay for healthy food during pregnancy has been widely reported in the news media. Is this going to lead to healthier children or is this the "nanny state" wasting money.

A few facts seem undeniable:

a) The UK has a horribly growing divide between the fat cats who are getting richer and those caught in a poverty trap.
b) We have a massively growing problem of obesity in the UK due to poor eating and poor exercise - relentlessly following the US in this!
c) We have a large problem of binge drinking in younger people worse than most of our European neighbours and the US
d) We seem to have a large number of underweight babies for a developed country apparently caused by drinking, smoking and poor diet in pregnancy.
e) The UK has the smallest proportion of people preparing food from fresh ingredients and the largest consumption of ready meals and fast food in Europe - the UK apparently also apparently consumes about half of the European crisp production.

Critics of the new proposal point out that there is nothing to compel receipients of the proposed grant to use the money for fresh food. On the other hand these days governments are not keen to provide vouchers rather than money.

So the problem of poor diet in pregnancy is a real public health concern, but will money solve it. I doubt it! Just as I doubt if increasing the tax on alcohol proposed by Ian Duncan-Smith will reduce binge drinking. People do not change bad habits due to money or even lack of it. If pregnant women are caught in a poverty trap then it would make more sense to address the mainstream social security system than to have a scheme like this.

I certainly do not have a good solution to propose. However I think it would be better for the Government to invest in public education on the importance of good fresh food in pregnancy and the dangers of alcohol and smoking than to give out £120 grants.

We had seen a row of promising restaurants along the harbour in Peniche. All seemed to offer a great range of grilled fish. I was given a copy of the Lonely Planet guide which recommended the Restaurante Popular which even suggested that grilled fish dishes started at €4.50!

We had done an afternoon trip to Berlenga Grande so arrived back in the harbour. We were hungry and although it was 19:30 - a bit early for a Portuguese restaurant - we decided to try the Popular. We were the first there although it started filling up shortly afterwards. We were welcomed by a waiter who spoke no English but who was delighted when one of my sons used the correct Portuguese word for 'beer'.

The seating area is under and awning but with solid sides. We found a table with a harbour view.

We learned that in Portugal there is the practice of couvert at the beginning of a meal. It is common to place little dishes on the table - in this case we had several plates of cooked prawns, bread with butter and cheese, a tasty dip and some shellfish. If you let them stay on the table you have to pay for them, but you can send them back without hassle if you do not want them. We stuck to the prawns, bread and dip but sent back the shellfish.

The menu was helpfully translated into French, German and English but I was not confident of the English translation. The French and German versions appeared to be more solid. However better still was to look at the fish counter near the door.

Most of us chose fish skewers (Misto de Peixe), though having missed it on the first day I went for grilled swordfish. The skewers all contained white fish though some included prawn or squid too. The skewers were a great success and very tasty.

We realised that with grilled fish the restaurant had a simple but good formula. For these dishes they did not have to worry about preparing sauces and the cooking time on a charcoal grill was short. The accompanying choice of rice, boiled or chipped potatoes were standard as well as the vegetable side dishes.

On a nearby table, a Portuguese family had an enormous pot of fish stew which also looked very good. Portions were generous and after a started and hearty main course we could not manage a desert. The bill when it came was very reasonable - €68 for five so approximately £9 per head - even though we never found a dish for €4.50. Very good value, for drinks, starter, main course and coffee!

By the time we left (sometime after nine) the place was full and there was even a queue outside. That is usually evidence of a good place to eat though doubtless the other places were also good.

The food had been fresh, tasty and very good value for money. The inside of the restaurant was fine (though not the best) but service was friendly and helpful. I would not hesitate to recommend it to anybody visiting Peniche.

PS I will now stop boring you with my Portugal holiday on this blog.

We had an excursion to the shopping centre in Loures just north of Lisbon. It was a bright airy, modern place with some innovative things. Probably the title is a misnomer as most of the family were looking at clothes for most of our time there. However we did look inside a hipermercado and investigated the food sections among others. However, since we were already well stocked up in the holiday house we bought very little.

I found the fish counter quite interesting - though not as large as one we had seen in Velez Malaga a few years ago.

This counter featured whole fish including quite a few monkfish. I must admit I am glad that in the UK the tails are already removed and skinned as that must be a fair bit of work. Just after I took this photo my kids warned me that a security guy was looking at me very suspiciously (nutter photographing the fish counter - will he plant a bomb in the tuna?).

At times though in Portugal I felt a real ignoramus as a lot of the fish were unknown to me. The picture above shows familiar fish like trout, sea trout and mackerel but I have no idea what the long silvery fish are. They are described as peixe espada branco which I think translates as 'white fish sword' but they are nothing like what we describe as swordfish in English.

After half a day at the shopping centre we decided to have a late lunch at the food outlet area. This had the usual US-based multinationals like KFC and McDonalds but I was glad to see that the majority of the outlets were local Portuguese companies. They included chains that specialised in pasta, pita bread and sandwiches.

However, the family members that opted for grilled chicken at a restaurant here probably got the best deal. It was chicken grilled with piri-piri sauce and served with chips, garlic rice and a salad. The restaurant area was separate from the food court and to our surprise those who had chosen the chicken were offered the choice of eating in the stylish restaurant or the more ordinary main courtyard. Since the family had chosen food from 3 outlets we chose the latter; those who chose not to enjoy the restaurant space got a 3€ reduction!

Deep fried squid is a family favourite. On a previous holiday in Andalusia we found that there were ready cut squid rings at the fish counter. I think that the Portuguese are more into grilled or roasted fish so this holiday we made ours from scratch including cleaning the squid. It is not difficult especially if you follow the 3 minute rule. At home we often deep fry the squid with seasoned flour but since we were on holiday and not in a rush the family demanded the 'full Monty' with breadcrumbs.

Serves 4-5

Ingredients

500-600 g fresh squid
3 eggs
flour as needed
salt
pepper
breadcrumbs
half lemon

Method

1. Clean squid if necessary
2. Cut squid mantles into rings about 1 cm wide, cut the tentacles into manageable sizes
3. Heat deep fat fryer or deep pan with vegetable oil to 180 Celsius
4. Beat together eggs (my rule of thumb is one egg per 200 g squid)  and put in bowl
5. Mix flour with salt and pepper and put in bowl
6. Put breadcrumbs in bowl

7. Set out two additional bowls with chopped squid and an empty one for the breaded squid
8. Take pieces of squid and cover with flour, then dip in egg and then cover with breadcrumbs
9. When you have enough for a batch, take breaded squid and fry for up to two minutes (remember the 3 minute rule).
10. Fry additional batches until squid is ready.
11. Serve with slices of lemon.

I do not ever measure the flour or breadcrumbs. It is fairly obvious if the bowls need topping up.

Since we were in Portugal we thought that a fiery dip would be appropriate. It was 8 parts tomato ketchup to one part piri-piri.

As I teenager I would have refused to eat squid; though was never offered it. I just imagined it would be slimy to eat just like a raw slug! OK, I was a fussy eater then! My mind was opened by being invited to a Chinese New Year dinner in Glasgow by a Singaporean friend. This had about 10 delicious courses and I was exposed to authentic Chinese food for the first time.

One very tasty course was a puzzle to me. What was the seafood with the vegatables? To my amazement it was squid - it was not slimy - and I had enjoyed it. From then onwards I have tried cooking squid first with the help of Chinese friends then experimenting a little myself.

However, I have found that both restaurants and my cooking were a bit hit and miss on the squid texture. I often seemed to end up with something rubbery - yet some restaurants and cooks seemed to be able to serve very tender squid - I wondered why. After having a very tender squid tapa in Tarifa I was determined to understand more about this. A Google search yielded a link which I believe is the golden rule for cooking squid. This cites a book called "The International Squid Cookbook" by Isaac Cronin which gives the following rule.

When heated, squid protein becomes firm rapidly and then turns chewy until long cooking breaks down the muscle. Much of the squid's reputation as a tough food comes from lack of knowledge of this simple fact. Sautes should be cooked no longer than three minutes and stews no less than twenty minutes. Squid cooked for less than twenty minutes or more than about three minutes probably will be tough. If you don't believe me, just try it.

So for the last 5 months I have followed this rule and so far have always had tender squid. I realise that on the occasions when I cooked squid and ended up with a rubbery result I cooked/fried/grilled for at least 5 minutes - too long! Squid rapidly changes colour and like raw prawns cooks rapidly. However, unlike prawns, there is the firming of the protein to worry about.

Earlier I mentioned that we had had some squid grilled whole (uncleaned) in Portugal. My kids wanted me to make some fried squid and unlike the Spanish fish counters we had seen there were no ready cut squid rings for sale. In the UK when we buy squid at the fish counter it is already cleaned; though I remember that was not the case when I first cooked squid in the early 1980s.

I bought four squid early one morning at this roadside stand in the next village. This was not cleaned, but cleaning is very simple. If you are not sure how to do it the following is how you do it.

The bulk of the squid's body is a mantle with a swimming fin on each side. Below the mantle is the head and tentacles hang from the head. To prepare the squid:

1. Cut the tentacles off from the head.
2. Hold the top of the mantle in one hand and tug the head with the other. The head should come free from the mantle and bring the innards with it.
3. Put your fingers into the mantle to remove the bone - which looks like clear plastic - plus any of the innards that did not come with the head.
4. Wash out the mantle and the tentacles

In the picture you see the end result:
a) the tentacles are on the upper left of chopping board,
b) the mantle is on the upper right,
c) the bone is in the middle,
d) the head and innards are at the bottom of the board.

Sometimes there may be some hard tissue attached to the tentacles which I cut off.

Squids normally have a mottled skin with usually either a pink - like in this posting - or black colour. The skin is easily separated from the mantle or fins to leave white flesh - as seen in the bowl at the top left. The squid is now ready to be cooked.

I found out that there was a food market open until about 13:00 every day in Peniche. I looked for it and at first came across a bunch of farmers selling vegetables and fruit from vehicles in a car park.

At first I thought this was the market, but having not found fish or meat on sale I discovered a building about 50 metres away with a covered, permanent market area. It was similar to what I have previously seen in Cadiz. Downstairs were mainly greengrocers with a few butchers and a bar.

Upstairs were fishmongers selling freshly-landed fish. Interestingly there was no ice and I assume that they expected to sell their entire stock during their opening hours.

There was a very large variety of fish many of which I did not recognise. I assume that quite a few were not available further north in the Atlantic off the UK. Given my lack of Portuguese skills I did not trust myself to ask the right questions let alone give instructions for cutting or cleaning. Sadly I went to InterMarché where there was a less intimidating choice; it really pays to know the names of fish when abroad. I settled on some sea bream and a few slices of moray eel; grilled both and having never had moray eel before were surprised at how tender it was.

A new experience for us in Portugal was the grilling of fish whole and uncleaned. In the UK we are used to only using cleaned fish - apart from very small fish such as whitebait which we eat whole.

Our first surprise was when we arrived in Baleal early afternoon and went out for lunch at the Prainha restaurant by the beach. We asked for an English menu - which I know from my work travels is not without risk as sometimes the translations are quite wrong! - two of us ordered "squid" with no description of how it was prepared and two of us ordered "swordfish". Those who had squid were served three (large to UK standards) squids grilled whole. However they did not realise that they were grilled whole with the innards! This meant careful knife and fork work! The other surprise was that we were served sole rather than swordfish but since it looked very good we did not send it back. The grilled fish - and we found out this was pretty much standard - were served with boiled potatoes and salad.

A new revelation was vinho verde. I had bought this at home as a cheap refreshing summer wine. I had not realised that "verde" referred to the age rather than colour of the wine. It is young wine and can be either white branco or red tinto. The wine we had was half-sparkling and went well with the fish.

A few nights later, we were sitting out with a glass of wine and our neighbours spoke to us. They were a family of five plus an elderly couple. The elderly woman invited us in for coffee. Conversation was difficult with us speaking a handful of Portuguese words and only the 15-year old girl speaking a little English. The old lady came out with an unlabelled bottle and it was clear that whatever it was, she had made it. She desribed it as morus (this may be wrong spelling) and it tasted like grappa. It was great in the coffee and tasted very smooth for something home-distilled. She then invited us all back for lunch the following day.

The lunch was straightforward and tasty. The dad had a bucket of sardines which had been tossed with sea salt and they were grilled whole. They were served with boiled potatoes and salad. The sardines were very fresh and despite our suspicions it was very easy to remove the cooked flesh from the whole sardines. We are not great fans of boiled potatoes but they went well with the fish, they had quite a yellow colour and floury consistency. The salad - like that in the restaurant - was a sort of crinkly firm lettuce, grated carrot, tomato and cucumber. We were offered olive oil and white wine vinegar on the side. I am sure it would be straightforward to grill mackerel this way - a thought for a future camping holiday though personally I would rather clean the mackerel first.

We tried cooking whole fish ourselves. I bought some sea bream dourado at a local supermarket and grilled it in a grill pan. It was actually cleaned at the fish counter - I was pleased about that! - but it worked out well cooked whole.

Three years ago on holiday in Spain I bought a little recipe book. I was surprised that all the cod dishes required the cod to be soaked in water for 6 hours or more with many changes of water. It was only later that I realised that the dried fish I had seen was dried, salted cod (bacalhau) that needs to absorb water before cooking.

Bacalhau is clearly a key element in the Portuguese cuisine too. My guidebook said that it is claimed that there are 365 ways of preparing it. I noticed in bookshops that many cookery books separated bacalhau (cod) from peixe (fish) as if it is a category of cooking on its own.

Walking round Peniche we were intrigued to see fish being dried on a line in a backstreet.

We concluded that this was the famed bacalhau. In supermarkets there was a whole section for the fish such as this one in the hypermarket in Loures.

We did not buy bacalhau. There was such a rich variety of freshly landed fish that soaking salted dried fish seemed like unnecessary work!