Another obsession: food photography

I do feel sorry for my other half - we sit down to dinner and before he can "dig in",
out comes the camera and I make him wait....

It started when our DSLR popped it's flash and Him Indoors decided to make an investment in a new version. Here you are mum - you have the broken one.

Then I joined Blipfoto and started a journal. I was good to start with - but without a working flash it's difficult in the winter.

It developed into a work obsession. I work on the fantastic Fish is the Dish project where we are trying to encourage more families to eat more fish by showing them how easy it is.  With a small budget it was a case of do it yourself.....

I think I've improved hugely. This is tonight's dinner - smoked haddock and leek risotto. Easily cooked and thanks to a flash investment, looking quite good.

Other shots have been less successful but it's a learning process isn't it.

Last night we had pork stir fry in noodle broth - tasted ok but would have been better if we had used dashi stock and the photograph is decidedly mediocre.

I thought the colours would lift it but it is just a bit too boring.

The plates have become important. I am sounding even more sad than I did before but I invested in one black plate.

Food and fish in particular seems to benefit from strong colour around it and I am really enjoying playing with it. I thought the peas really seemed to burst out of the plate here and I am particularly happy with the cakes from the weekend.....

I am hopeful that I can continue to improve my photography skills, and if not at least I'll eat well !!

Silent Sunday: Cakes

Practising: cake making, decorating and taking photos.
Nice day.

Pan seared scallops with morcilla and risotto

Mummysknee was talking about her scallop and black pudding recipe - so gorgeous and so easy. 

Here's my take - a tale of three countries: - scallops from Scotland, Spanish black pudding and Italian Risotto.

The scallops were gorgeous - Scottish scallops compete with the coral (which some people don't like and discard but personally I think adds something to the taste).  They are easy to cook in a couple of minutes and have an amazing sweet taste. I'm not the biggest fan of our black pudding - I wanted something a little different and am lucky enough to live around the corner from a deli which specialises in Spanish sausages. They do an amazing spicy chorizo which is what I normally serve with scallops but Him Indoors decided we should try some Spanish morcilla- their version of a black pudding.

I wanted to make a little more of a meal of this and so served it with a white, plain risotto. It would have benefited from some truffle oil but Him Indoors had already used it.

The risotto was the time consuming part but once that was done, I heated a pan with a little oil in it until it was smoking hot ! The scallops where placed in a clock face (thank you Gordon Ramsay) then I placed the morcilla in the centre of the pan and began to turn the scallops. Once the scallops were all done, I added a touch of butter, let that froth then took it off the heat.

It was delicious, very easy and very tasty. The Spanish black pudding was a bit less sweet and more spicy than it's British cousin. Well worth a try. After all, you only live once.

*Apologies for the lack of photography, I seem to have misplaced my SD card !!! *