This sweet and spicy thai dipping sauce is the perfect addition to salads, meat or fish, or as a dip to go with spring rolls, summer rolls or anything else that needs an extra kick. Made with just five ingredients it’s got a powerful chilli kick with potent flavours of fish sauce, lime juice, garlic and palm sugar. It’s the perfect summer sauce, regardless of whether the sun is shining or not! Find the full recipe at brainfoodstudio.com

Thai Dipping Sauce (Nam Pla Prik)

Gavin Wren Fish & Shellfish, Recipes, Salads, Sauces, Side dishes, Small Bites

There’s no need to lament the British Summer when there are such beautifully bright and abundant recipes in the world as this Thai dipping sauce otherwise known as ‘Nam Pla Prik’, a bold and powerful indulgence for your senses. The Joys of Summer. I stare out of the window on this summer day, the day before the solstice, the day before the longest sun rises over the glorious plains of Albion, shining new, fresh light …

how to make gravadlax

How to make gravadlax

Gavin Wren Basic Ingredients, Fish & Shellfish, Food Techniques, Main Dishes, Recipes, Small Bites, Writing

Today I’m talking about gravlax, or gravalax, or gravadlax, or even Gravad laks depending on where you are, who you are and why you’re here. There might be other spellings that I’m missing out, but so far I’ve covered Norwegian, Swedish and Danish as well as the slightly confused situation in England where it seems to go under a few of those names. However you spell it, this is an absolute peach of a recipe, …

Avocado prawn khobez wraps with mint yoghurt

Avocado prawn wraps on khobez with mint yoghurt

Gavin Wren Fish & Shellfish, Recipes, Sandwiches & Wraps, Small Bites, Vegetarian

I’m in a lucky position. I live in a part of North London where there’s a strong Turkish community and just down the road there’s a lot of Greeks as well. That means I’m tripping over mediterranean delis and restaurants and there’s an abundance of new ingredients to discover that seem to magically fall into my shopping basket on a regular basis. It also puts me in the unique situation of never having any trouble …

Mackerel with beetroot, apple and horseradish

Pan fried mackerel with beetroot and apple salad

Gavin Wren Fish & Shellfish, Main Dishes, Recipes, Salads

There’s everything to like about this dish. Thin slivers of just-cooked beetroot doused in a simple red wine vinegar dressing, crisp apple, fresh pan fried mackerel and finished with some nutty, leafy and tangy adornments. It’s a simple recipe for success that I can’t believe has sat in my recipe notes, remaining unpublished for so long. I wrote this recipe in the summer of 2014 and was instantly taken with it. It was made few …

Whole smoked mackerel

How to smoke mackerel

Gavin Wren Fish & Shellfish, Food Techniques, Recipes, Writing

I’ve reached peak mackerel. I don’t know what happened, whether something changed in the tides of the moon, but I suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to consume lots of this lovely, oily fish. There was a sign that this was coming, my smoked mackerel omelette indicated that I was heading into a mackerel period, because I’ve eaten that omelette a LOT since posting it. I feel nervous about estranging some of the more vegetable based …

smoked mackerel horseradish omelette

Smoked mackerel omelette with horseradish

Gavin Wren Fish & Shellfish, Main Dishes, Recipes

I don’t really like roast dinners. I’m sure that’s heresy in some quarters, but it’s the truth. From a young age I eschewed gravy on any roast dinner (yes, I know, I’m a heathen), preferring to retain the integrity, structure and substance of my food, rather than reduce it to a plate of sloppy gruel that could be consumed via a straw. This doesn’t mean I like my food dry, I just favour the legion …