[susie123]

Haven't been doing much cooking recently as the drugs I'm on make me a bit wobbly and shaky so don't feel confident at the cooker (well that's my excuse anyway). Today I thought I'd have a go and gave it some thought.

Don't know if you know of or have tried Cullen Skink - it's a Scottish fish soup with smoked haddock, potatoes and onions, usually with milk or cream added and sometimes leeks. Yummy! Then there's Mediterranean fish soup usually made with white fish, tomatoes and garlic plus some other veg and sometimes prawns and other shellfish.

Well I looked in fridge and freezer and came up with a collection of ingredients which inspired me to combine the two recipes and I thought of calling it Mediterranean Skink till I remembered that there is a type of lizard called a skink so the recipe still awaits a name - though it was delicious.

Here's what I found for ingredients: from fridge, one very large potato, two small leeks, a large tinned tomato and some juice, left over from a tin I used earlier, some cherry tomatoes going a bit squishy, plus a small onion from the veg box. From freezer: two pieces of smoked haddock a bit past their best but good enough for soup.

Peeled potato and cut into bite size chunks, cut up leeks and onion and cooked all lightly in olive oil till a bit golden (actually stuck to pan which gave it more flavour). Added chopped tomatoes and some crushed garlic, cooked a bit longer, added tomato juice (there was only a spoonful or so), covered with boiling water and simmered about half an hour. Meanwhile skinned fish fillets, removed any bones and cut fish in bite size chunks. Added to pan cooked another 15 mins or so with a tad more water added and voila - it was delicious! I was a bit worried about the combination of smoked fish and tomatoes and garlic but it was fine. And no salt needed as the fish provided it.

All in all a great success and the good news is there's enough left for tomorrow. These things are great when they come together - like my experimental Christmas day game casserole in the new slow cooker - again just things that were at hand in fridge or freezer including a bit of black pudding which I found lurking in the bottom of the freezer and cut up and threw in. No I don't always have game in the freezer - just so happens I'd bought a packet of game bird breasts a few months earlier and stuck in there. I'm still thinking about what to do with the squirrel and the goose legs which have been there much longer. (Sorry folks must be fed up with me mentioning them on this forum - I must use them up then I can stop talking about them!)