Even so, I also don’t “get” the idea of boil/don’t boil. I’d think you’d just want to keep the whole thing simmering throughout. As you say, adding cold ingredients to the pot will take it off the boil anyway, so I’m not sure either where this on/off idea has come from. Probably the most important thing would be not to overcook any of the fish.

You’ve raised another very interesting idea here about how paupers’ meals have been transformed into haute cuisine. Very true! You’ve even got at least one ingredient listed above which is a good example – monk fish. It’s now very fashionable – and expensive! When I was a kid it wasn’t perceived as a desirable fish at all (well, not in Scotland anyway). It was mainly used as a substitute for prawns to make some kind of fake scampi product. (That’s from memory, I haven’t done any research on this yet.) These days monk fish is very sought after and is considered to be a delicacy.

Same with crabs. I remember lobster fishermen throwing them back in, or giving them away at the harbour. No one wanted them. Different story now, though. So what’s changed? Fashion? Perhaps. And the celeb chefs went through a phase a few years ago of making it very trendy to cook cheaper cuts of meat – lamb shanks being a great example of this. Lamb shanks are great, but I can’t help feeling that a lot of food and cooking is just all about fashion, and what’s flavour of the month. It’s just a big hype.

It’s a shame. I would always rather eat fresh, tasty food than fashionable food, but I guess when you give chefs celebrity status then they’re always going to try to beat their rivals with some “new” things. New is often good, but not always. Brits still love their old favourites – prawn cocktail and steak and chips.

I’ve noticed while writing my food blog that it seems to be quite fashionable to do new takes on classic food. I’m into that too. Now you’ve got me wondering if I’ve been sucked in to the latest fashion.