Norwegian pretzels

As you might have guessed, we made these for Eurovision, which was beamed live via satellite from Oslo. Sadly, Morten Harket didn't make an appearance and the UK was marooned at the bottom of the table. But the pretzels were good. Hurrah!

You'll need:

1 envelope of dried yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon black treacle
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups bread flour
1 egg, beaten (or a little milk)
extra salt flakes

Stick your oven on at about 220 degrees C. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water, and add the black treacle and salt. Stir to create an unholy mess.

Tip in the flour, and mix to a dough. We had to add a little extra water, to get everything to stick together. Knead the dough really well, until it becomes elastic, then divide up into small pieces. Roll each of these out into thin snakes, and then twist into shapes (this was the bit you loved - you were surprisingly brilliant at making hearts).

Place on a baking sheet, and brush with the egg (or milk). Scatter some flakes of sea salt over the top of each.

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes if you like them chewy - a little bit longer (maybe switch off the oven and leave them inside as it cools down?) if you want them crispy.

Salt and pepper pan-fried fish

These are glorified fish fingers, I suppose. Curiously appropriate for an afternoon in which you've pretended to be a mermaid and built a cardboard boat with a paper sail.

You'll need

a couple of fillets of fish (we had basa, which I've had in France under the name of panga)
an egg, beaten
3 or 4 tablespoons of flour
lots of black pepper, a little salt
a little vegetable oil, or butter for frying

You can either slice your fillets into chunks (basa has fairly firm flesh), or do the whole fillet if you have a pan big enough. I suspect you might have to cook a whole fillet for longer than the small pieces.

Mix the flour, black pepper and salt together, and place in a large flat bowl. Dip each fillet (or piece) of fish in the beaten egg, and then dunk in the flour mix. Your Dad reckons that cornflour produces a lighter batter, and is particularly good if you're doing small pieces.

Heat the vegetable oil or butter in a frying pan until it's sizzling. Add the fish (you might have to do this in batches), and turn each piece over after a couple of minutes. You'll be able to see how well it's cooked by the colour of the fish. Fry for another couple of minutes until the outside is golden, remove, and eat asap.

We had ours with some homemade oven chips, and a green salad. The mermaid ate most of the fish, but thought that the chips were the best bit. C'est la vie.

Salt and pepper squid

After a busy morning clambering around the walls in Byker and eating croissants in Morrisons, we decided you needed a little bit of exotica for lunch...

We used:

one large squid (preferably with all the internal stuff taken out by the fishmonger), sliced into rings
75g plain flour
lots of freshly ground salt
lots of freshly ground black pepper
a small pan, with about 1.5cm of oil

Put the flour, salt and pepper into a freezer bag, and shake it about to mix. Stick the squid rings (such a lovely sounding phrase) in the bag, and give it all a good shake (while holding the top closed, obviously).

Stick the pan on the heat, until the oil is sizzling. Drop the rings carefully into the pan, and pull out after a couple of minutes when they are golden brown. Drain on a piece of kitchen roll.

Eat with some salad, and lots of homemade bread and butter.