Two weeks of feasting on fish

I have just been away for a couple of weeks – a well-timed break to coincide with a quieter period on the farm – and have spent most of it thinking about, eating or cooking fish. The Portuguese are dedicated fish-lovers and I was determined to take full advantage of the incredible array of fish on offer.

The fish counter at our local supermarket had to be seen to be believed.  Banks of crushed ice housed trays of seafood of all different shapes and sizes – at a glance, there were various flatfish, bass, bream, prawns, squid, eel, rays, monkfish, crab, lobster, octopus, sardines, mackerel – my eyes were on stalks and I couldn’t wait to get some home and start cooking.  The fish we ate the most was gilt-head bream. The lady at the fishmonger scaled and gutted them for me and we simply opened them up and put them on the BBQ.

Here are just a few photographs of my two week fish extravaganza.

Choosing fish in a restaurant

Prawns in garlic butter – remove the heads and eat the rest!

Sardines waiting to go on the BBQ

Squid with lemon & parsley

Squid, monkfish & chorizo kebabs for the BBQ

These were halved and grilled with herbs & butter

Seafood cataplana – an Algarvian staple

The cataplana pot

And something that got us laughing at a local restaurant…not so great presentation of a prawn cocktail.  Thankfully, they weren’t expecting us to drink the contents of the glass.