In memory of my mother, The River Test Middle Beat 2nd June

Anne Veronica Sowton 

1st July 1934 - 6th June 2010

It is with a very heavy heart that I write this entry.  This time last week I received a call at 3.30am to be told that my mother had been taken suddenly, very seriously ill and was not expected to last the night.  My mother was able to have the strength to enable us to say our goodbyes, she was sedated but I know in my heart she could hear us.  She was an incredibly special person.  It is with my mother that I can remember catching my first trout, just days before I was due to go to Prep School at the age of 8 while my parents went off to Malawi in 1974.  This was a public strech of the River Itchen just below the weir in the water meadows just down from the chucrh of St Mary where my mother is to be burried.  We had no idea what we were doing but a worm on a hook in the right place saw us hook and land our first.  It was no monster but it was a trout and like the fish I was hooked.  In the same place last year mum and I took Max and we caught a trout, Max's first.  


I remember my mother waking me at 4am to drive from Blantyre to Mount Zomba where I had just started to fly fish.  Again neither of us had a clue but after awhile the thrashing around was productive and a trout was snagged and landed.  Both my parents were very patient with my fishing, my father rowing me out over Lake Malawi and fly fishing on the 10,000 foot Mount Mulanjie (where we hooked and lost a monster that nearly dragged us both in and I snapped the rod!!) and I owe it to them that I am now a semi-competent fisherman.  


They both came down to the Middle Beat exactly this time last year for the Mayfly, a very happy day and one I shall never forget.  The Test is very special to me and for my mother to have seen it means a lot to me and will do every time I come to fish here...

Mum and Dad on The Test June 2009 for the Mayfly

So I owe it to my mother to make sure that I continue with this blog, she loved cooking and was an amazing cook, hostess you name it.  Someone who really lived life to the full and I can honestly say she managed more in her lifetime than most people could do in two.  I love you very much mum and I will miss you terribly as will hundreds of people but I can assure you, you will never be forgotten.


The Mayfly

This was the day we had been waiting for all year.  The conditions were perfect, warm and sunny.  Whilst we new the sun would put the fish down in the day due to the brightness, the warmth would stimulate a lot of fly activity and we weren't disappointed.  Not on;y were there prodigious numbers of Mayfly, there were huge hatches of Sedge, Olives, Pale Wateries and Black Gnats.  The air was thick with flies and under all the leaves, the Mayfly that had hatched earlier, were waiting expectantly for the mating dance that would take place in the evening.  The Mayfly spends two years of its life as a nymph and spends only a few days as an adult fly from the order, Ephemeroptera, coming from the Greek, meaning 'short-lived' - hence the name.  

For 2 weeks at the end of May and beginning of June you have an explosive number hatching and the trout go crazy for them, no wonder, they are a big meal in comparison to the usual fair of gnats and smaller insects and grubs.

The fishing 

The morning was brief, we had some good sport for the first hour and a half but by 10.30am it was already getting hot and the sun was bright pushing the fish down and making it difficult.  We persevered for another hour calling it a day at 1130 to go in to Stockbridge to top up on some more flies.  We went via The John O'Gaunt pub as they sell flies for half the price and have an excellent selection of dry fly patterns.  The most popular being a fly called a Grey Wulff which is tied in many sizes as it represents any up winged insect from the Ephemeroptera order - small patterns for Olives, large for Mayfly.  

The famous Grey Wulff

Lee Wulff, an American fisherman invented the fly and left a few for fisherman on The Test and is now the most popular fly pattern and has many variants in size and colour, a serious legacy!

We returned to the river and having brought with us , wasabi and dark soy we decided on the freshest trout sashimi for lunch.  We had a large brown trout which in hindsight was probably a bit on the old side as the fish wasn't as tender as we had hoped.

Trout for the chop

Well at least it looked good!

Well it was a good experiment but I think a younger fish than the big old gnarly leviathan would be a better bet. 

In the afternoon the boys came down to the river with Lisa, it was the first time they had been down and Lisa could see why Guy and I so look forward to coming down to the river as it is such a magical place.

Lisa and the boys with Joseph, Nick's grandson.

The fishing started in earnest around 5pm as the mayfly were now starting their mating dance and come to the river to lay their eggs.  The fly has 3 main stages as an adult - emerging, the dun (upright adult) and the spent gnat (dead, flat winged on the surface).  The fish will switch to the different stages when one is more prevalent than the other and the fisherman has to adjust accordingly.  Not only that but you have to present the fly so that it looks more appealing than the thousands of actuals on the water.  

The dance was well under way now and it was looking better than we had seen in years.  We had been lucky that the weather had been cold up and till today so the ones that had hatched previously had all been waiting under the leaves.

The air thick with Mayfly 

Guy with a very nice looking brownie (not a chocolate one!)

 The fishing was spectacular and a number were caught and reaching our 4 fish limit was a little too easy so selecting the fish to go for was important, you didn't want to waste your limit on small fish today, this is the one time of the year that the fish loose all sense of safety and just smash into these flies - manner from heaven so to speak!

I have to thank Max, my eldest who was very handy when it came to landing fish and he managed to land some pretty big fish which I was very impressed with. 

Sunset and the end of a lovely day

So the day ended having been a spectacular days sport for us all.  Earlier in the day Lisa and the boys had spent a lovely day with my mother, I take great comfort in that she enjoyed a beautiful day with my wife and my children and her last day was an earlier summer's day, having seen the best of her roses and blossom and not a horrible winter's day.  I will remember my mother in that way, a summer's day spent on The Test with my family, that's as good a way of remembering someone as I can think...

I love you mum....

Utter disappointment, Mark Hix, Brewer Street, W1

Never has the parable of The Emperor’s Clothes been more applicable than our experience of Mark Hix flagship restaurant.  Well I say restaurant, it is a restaurant if you look at the dictionary definition which is ‘a place where meals are served to the public’.  Of course this is a definition that is very simplistic and does not have any of the nuances that we imagine in our minds eye for a restaurant to be.  McDonalds is a restaurant, Wetherspoons pubs have restaurants, yet we don’t associate these establishments as being the same as what was alleged to be the new paradigm in cooking/restaurant experience.

This was our first experience of a Hix restaurant, and was our wedding anniversary so an important occasion as far as we were concerned.  We had read lots of reviews and had been given personal recommendations that this was the new Mecca for culinary greatness, is this fact or turning a blind eye to the food as it's the place to be an no one wants to be the first to say something bad?  Mark Hix, the not so new kid on the block having been kept in the shadows in the Richard Caring Empire producing popular dishes to the cognoscenti, is the current hot news.

Our first impressions of the restaurant were moulded by the couple eating each other’s faces by the front door and one of the door hosts in a hat saying ‘yeah be there in a minute’.  We were shown to our table in what we thought was the bar.  No, the bar was downstairs.  This was the restaurant.  We were offered a drink from the bar, my wife ordered a lychee martini.  Now I would have expected this to have been no problem, but fresh lychees they had not.  So it was decided on wine.  We often go for the default, good value, white burgundy, Macon which we duly ordered.  I don’t normally pretentiously try wine but just give the glass a good sniff to check that it’s not corked.  I should have checked this.  The bottle was as at room temperature and was very poor indeed.  How hard can it be, i have tried countless Macons and rarely have i found a bad one, well at last i had.

But things now go from the sublime to the ridiculous.  We ordered, just main courses which in hindsight was a very good call.  I ordered plaice and L ordered brill.  My plaice arrived, skin down on a white plate with no garnish or accoutrement.  It looked very bland, often looks are deceiving but in this case it looked like it tasted – but worse.  This fish must have been frozen; it disintegrated in to a mash.  I called the Maitre D over and showed him the blob of fish i had created by pushing the fish of the bone into what can only be described as a blob of fishy blancmange.  He admitted that this didn’t look right and took it away.  He came back to inform me that Simon, the chef said the fish was fresh and i quote ‘That’s what happens to plaice when you cook it’.  This as you can imagine was the equivalent of lighting the blue touch paper.  I was from that moment on understandably pissed off.  I was presented with another dish, the same as my wife’s which I have to say had no flavour and another disappointment. 

We were offered no apology, no attempt to  placate, in fact I was told by another member of the boy band that waltz around masquerading as Maitre D’s or management, I couldn’t tell, that other people had had this dish and they didn’t think anything was wrong.

This isn’t a credible foodie restaurant in my humble opinion and I am very surprised that a chef of that calibre would put his name to a restaurant where he doesn’t cook and employ a chef and management that has an attitude of total disdain for its customers.  I know something about fish, a lot more than the people serving me and to be treated the way we were was nothing short of a disgrace.  

I will not be going to another Hix restaurant unless I know for a fact that he is in the kitchen cooking my food.

The River Test Lower Beat 18th May

As you will read in Guy's very witty description of our biweekly fishing on The Test, I was unable to go as a result of what must have been proper flu, not the usual man flu but the real McCoy.  It was however with a touch of glee that i heard that the Mayfly hadn't started to hatch and a large amount of relief - an early hatch would have been deeply unfair.  So I will hand over to Guy with a little help from our good friend Dom...

The Hut which is listed 

If a week is a lifetime in politics, a fortnight in fishing is a long 14 days. When Ben, who is the brains, and considerably more, behind this blog, called me and bleated that his man-flu was so severe that he couldn’t make it fishing I sprinted to the nearest pub, and racked my brains as to who, at such short notice, might fancy a day’s fishing over work. We had had, two weeks ago, an extraordinary day’s fishing and with the Mayfly season upon us and we were expecting another fruitful day. Safe in the knowledge that Ben’s man-flu would either turn out to be fatal or, as I daren’t say, incurable, I invited our mutual friend, Dom Makin, the Dog Father, to come along. Dom is a keen fisherman but it was only when I said that he might have miss Ben’s funeral in order to make it, and he said “no problem”, I knew he was serous about fishing.

The Lower Beat is one long wide piece of river, when there's no hatch it can be daunting 

Dom has, for a number of years, been a great friend of both Ben and mine and, true to form, managed to reschedule his day job so as to ensure he was only slightly late for a very early lunch in Stockbridge. The Boot it was!

The Boot, many an afternoon has been 'lost' here

I had plumped for my new routine of getting up at 5am but, having left home by 06.00. found that, on arrival, access to the river, was closed. Two weeks ago, Ben and I had crashed Phil, the river keeper’s, cottage before the gate was open, hoping for a cheeky bacon sarnie and jokingly Phil told us to bugger off until the river officially opened. Two minutes later we were following him down the drive to the water’s edge to have up of tea. I’d love to tell you he made Ben and I walk the plank but I’d be lying. I refused, and as he pushed Ben off the plank into the puddle I knew that, for once, Ben wasn’t out of his depth. Phil, and his father David, represent the best in river keepers and it’s only when you have had the privilege of spending time with them that you truly appreciate that they are not just funny, they’re also not as funny as they look!

A nice plump brownie probably stuffed after the Hawthorn frenzy

I arrived on the river shortly after nine am only to be greeted by one of our fellow syndicate rmembers bemoaning the fact that he had broken his rod. It gets worse; he set up his spare rod which, on the first cast, also broke, so headed of the Orvis, where he purchase a new rod. Orvis, for the record, offer a 25 year guarantee on all new rods. When Peter, on casting with the third rod of the day, heard the top section of his rod snap, first cast, I thanked the Lord, and Orvis, for their guarantee. He then proceeded to catch several trout with the said replacement (fourth) rod, so well done Orvis.

 Peter into a good fish...or is that the bottom?!

The weather forecast was as good as one might have wished for, having been unseasonably poor for the whole of May. As I was driving down the temperature crept into the early teens and with Hampshire just the right side of the weather forecast, things were looking good. Cloudy but warm and with the potential for some rain is, in my humble opinion, a great combination.

It was clear from the start that the Mayfly were not hatching in any numbers and, after the Hawthorn, which had appeared in Biblical proportions over the last two weeks, it was an entomological likelihood that the fish might deviate from the norm.

A classic chalk stream dry fly pattern - text book fishing from Mr Joseph! (not a daddy long leg in sight!!)

Had you seen the fish, two weeks ago, gorge themselves to the point where their stomachs were so distended you might have assumed that they would lunge at our flies with gay abandon, I am only sorry that  if you were expecting a review of our riverbank exploits that mirrors the events of a fortnight ago you’ll be disappointed. They say, and “they” are the old, wise, great and sometimes pissed, that if the Hawthorn hatch is prolific, the mayfly hatch won’t be. I fished olives because they were hatching and I caught fish as a result.

Guy observing the rules, observing mind you, that's all!

I fished flies that I believe matched the hatch. Having showed my fellow guests what I believe to be traditional dry flies that might rise a trout, I could nor escape the feeling that size or ease of catch somehow reminded me that perhaps we all love, rather too much, big hatches of flies, like the hawthorn or mayfly forgetting that when you tie on a size 18 grey duster, and rise the only rising fish in your swim, if feels different, and special. If you’re reading this and don’t quite get it, give it chance, you won’t regret it…..

Guy with a good brown caught in the fast water on the bend down from the bridge 

  

The afternoon was dead, as far a rising fish were concerned but it was a great reminder that fishing is about the un-catchable not the slaughter. Emerging olives and tiny dry flies were a beautiful reminder that the harder it gets, the better if feels. By the time I was thinking about leaving, mayfly were coming off the water but not a trout rose to one whilst I was watching. This time in a couple of weeks.....

One of Dom's charges!  The Dogfather's work is never done!

This is my first attempt at blogging so if you’re reading this and have issues with my views or the ways in which I express them please open your heart and say what you see....

 Rounding of the day with a very fat brown trout

Cheers Guy, excellent bit of writing, please do it again soon!!

Nettle and Wild Garlic Soup

Nettle and Wild Garlic Soup

Nettle and Wild Garlic Soup.  I loved making this partly as it's as cost effective a dish as you're going to get and there is something very satisfying about foraging and making something delicious that hasn't involved a trip to Sainsbury's.  The only cost are some base vegetables - potato, onion, celery and carrots with a couple of pints of chicken stock.  Since making this batch I have picked a load more and picked some broad leaved wild garlic in Devon which had a really powerful aroma.  You only need the leaves of the wild garlic and you must only take the tops of the nettles.  You can only do this when the nettles are young and the tops are nice and fleshy otherwise they become tough and inedible..

To make the soup you cook the base vegetables first.  Fry off the onion and celery and then add the chopped carrots and potato and cook until tender.  

Now add the nettles and the wild garlic and let this cook for a further 15 minutes.  Once you have finished cooking take off the heat and blend.  The colour is fantastic, not too dissimilar to watercress in both colour and texture.

I am not going to bother with a recipe for this as you can follow any recipe for watercress soup and add nettles and wild garlic instead of the watercress and you will come out with a lovely bowl of soup.  I am not sure about the stinging nettle garnish - looks good in the photo!!

River Test 5th May

It was another early start, up at sunrise which was around 5am.  It's the most perfect time of day, it's the equivalent of a spring day in the year.  Everything to look forward to, full of promise and hope - and that's precisely the emotion fishermen go through before each and every fishing trip.  This is going to be the day when we catch the most/biggest fish....the one that didn't get away.

We managed to get on the road by 6.15am giving us an ETA of 7.45am on the river - a first and certainly to the surprise of Phil the river keeper who assumed we had been up all night and hadn't gone to bed yet!  The weather was fair and considerably warmer than the prediction of the weathermen.  The temperature was around 12c and was getting warmer.  Perfect conditions for fly life and we would be shown later in the day what a proper Hawthorn hatch looks like.

We were on the Upper Beat today which is my favourite.  Rather than one large piece of river this is a maze of small carriers with a combination of slack water, rapids, wide glides and weirs.  As a result the fishing is both challenging and exciting at the same time.

I went straight to my favourite spot, a narrow fast moving part of a carrier just down from a weir pool.  It has always held fish and i can't remember the last time that I didn't connect with one and today was no exception.  I put on a Hawthorn as it was apparent that these were in great numbers.  The fly landed at the top of the glide and came over the sweet spot perfectly and sure enough WALLOP!....and then promptly came off AAGGHH now that was annoying as this fish was going to be out of action for the rest of the day.  What's the expression?  Once bitten, twice shy well once pricked by a sharp hook, twice shy that's for certain.

I walked all the way down to the bottom to fish my way up and was consoled by a lively over wintered rainbow trout (no rainbow's had been stocked this year)  It was lean as they tend to be at this time of year before they have had a chance to gorge themselves on the prolific mayfly hatch.

By 10.30am the temperature was now around 14c and the mild temperature had stirred up the Hawthorn and this was a site that Guy and I had not seen before.  We walked across the marsh and were literally covered in Hawthorn.  These as I said last time are terrestrial insects and do not involve the river in their life cycle but when you see the sheer numbers of these insects and the vast number that get blown on the water you can see why the trout get turned on to them.  Interestingly enough though when I looked at the stomach contents of the fish we caught there was a big difference between one fish that had only been feeding on cadis and water snails, bottom feeding which is odd that it rose to the fly, one that had a few Hawthorn and one that frankly would have won any pie eating contest in a former life as a human being - this one was STUFFED and I really mean stuffed.  Its stomach was so full that it was impossible to count  the flies, literally hundreds, crushed under the pressure of so many.  I have never seen anything like that, way more than during the Mayfly.   You can see why they can put on weight so quickly at this time of year which is essential to build up reserves for the energy intense period of mating (although thanks to the previous stupidity of the government fish stocked have to be triploid - sexless, although they still can go through the motions)

Midway through the morning there was a nice fish rising very close to the bank and was clearly taking full advantage of the prolific number of Hawthorn that were passing overhead.  A well presented imitation over its head triggered the feeding response and up it came and off it went.

The fish takes

The fish dives again, you can see that it's a good sized Brown Trout

The fish tires, the heads nearly up 

Ready for the net 

They think its all over

It is now!!

Fat as butter, a 5lb brown trout having feasted on Hawthorn soon to be Beetroot Gravadlax and on The Mansion menu

By 1pm we had had a few fish and I stopped fishing to do a bit of foraging.  Nettles.  At this time of year the tops of the nettles are tender and make a great soup.  We had picked masses of wild garlic in Devon and planned to make Nettle and Wild Garlic Soup  and a Wild Garlic and Nettle Pesto for the trout. (Since fishing on Wednesday we have been serving our soup and have a new dish - a trio of trout - cerviche, smoked and beetroot cured gravadlax.  Luckily Guy had rubber gloves in the boot of his car (don't ask) and after a backbreaking hour I had picked a sackful of nettle tops.

And so to the pub....Off to The Boot for our ritual meeting up with the locals, including Johnny Robinson, joint owner of Robinsons, an institution in that part of the world,  a good old fashioned family butcher and smokery where our trout is cold smoked.

After a few pints of cider, Robinsons pork pies were calling and what great pies they were too.  I defy anyone (except that Hawthorn obsessed trout) to eat two of those bad boys, deeeee-licious.

Johnny keeps ferrets which not only provide great sport but are a very effective way of hunting rabbit, lovely little critters but watch your fingers!

After a few hours break we returned to the water and the Hawthorn activity had died down but the prospect of a sedge or olive hatch still loomed.  As the afternoon turned into dusk it was clear that no such hatch was going to happen and the fishing was getting increasingly more difficult and the number of fish rising had dropped off to a few and these few had turned on to something else.  In fact often when there is no noticeable hatch they are often taking very small black knats.  I keep meaning to have a collection of very small flies but my eyesight is poor and when its dusk they are impossible to thread without a magnifying glass and a lamp!! (old age, I didn't think it would happen to me!)

So we pushed on without much luck until we could see no more and headed back to London feeling very satisfied...

another plucky pheasant!

River Test 21st April, first day of the season

This year I promised that I would keep a proper log of my fishing exploits.  I have been given many record books but can never be bothered to fill them out and they are very one dimensional and I could never see myself referring back to them.  Blogging however is a great way to be able to keep a running  commentary and something far more likely that would be used by me as a reference.  A big part of this blog was to diarise my exploits both in the kitchen and in the field, catching, shooting and then cooking.  So this is going to be a record of fish caught and importantly new (and old) ways to deal with trout (trust me you need to be quite inventive with the fish after catching over 100 kilos in a year!)

Without further ado I should introduce my fishing companion, Guy Joseph, a very talented fisherman, who will also be contributing to this aspect of the blog throughout the season....

April 21st 2010
Weather conditions
Bright but cold.  Temperature was 5c when we arrived at 930am and a north easterly wind was adding a significant wind chill factor to an already low temperature.

Fly life
By 11am the wind had picked up and there was zero fly life bar a few early Hawthorn flies, also known as St Mark's flies.  These were almost bang on time, if not a little early, surprising given the winter we have had.  These are terrestrial insects, no part of their life-cycle requires water.  When their numbers get to sufficient numbers, when there is a strong enough breeze the insects are blown on to the water and eventually this triggers a feeding response to the trout and they turn onto them.

Today however there just weren't sufficient numbers.  The default flies in this situation are Daddy Long Legs and Yellow Humpies.

The day

We were on the middle beat and  fished the morning from about 10.00am until 12.30pm.  There was virtually nothing rising and what fish there were, were very low down in the water and nothing was bringing them up.  The wind had come up a bit and was putting a serious chill over the water and the normal hatch of olives was conspicuous in it's absence.  Nothing else for it but to hit the pub and discuss tactics.

A couple of pints of cider and some food (not really worth discussing) we ventured into Stockbridge to Orvis to ritually buy more flies which none of us needed, it's part of the process, makes you feel confident for some bizarre reason even if you have many of the identical patterns in your box.

Back on the river things had warmed up and there were a few fish starting to move and were higher up in the water.  A nice tout moved to the fly and came up short and was clearly in the mood, another cast just in front put the fly over its nose, Wallop! the fish took and gave a good account of itself, not surprising as this was a good sized fish, around the 6lb mark and in reasonable condition.  The river is stocked but has a good number of over wintered fish and many smaller wild browns and plenty of Grayling.  As the afternoon went on there was plenty more action with Guy and I matching each other fish for fish.

The carrier

We stayed on the main part of the river, nothing was showing on the carrier

   

Nick White and Julian Charrington

Our co-syndicate member, Nick White had a few smaller fish and our guest Julian Charrington had a nice fish at the top of the beat.

It was a lovely day in the end.  A good start to the season.  It's particularly lovely at this time of year, the first swallows had arrived swooping over the river to catch what meagre fly life there was.  I heard both Woodpecker and Cuckoo and the Ash and Willow were starting to take shape, the Moorhen had laid her eggs, what a lovely time of year.  Many different shades of green as everything starts to bloom.  That's a big part of fishing.

Moorhen eggs

Yellow Marshflower

We finished early as it looked unlikely there would be a hatch, once the sun had started to set the chill had come back and it seemed doubtful that a good hatch of Sedge was likely.  It was a good day, Guy and I both catching 4 a piece.  I had two of 6lb which was a very good start to the season

Proudly showing off a fine brace of brown trout

The end of a good day 

Until the next time

Quick Prawn and Squid Indian Curry with Aromatic Rice

I have been very slack with the blog but have a perfect excuse in that we were on holiday so i was out of action for 2 weeks but now back in the saddle so to speak.  This recipe beats phoning your local curry emporium and ordering a heart stopping 3,000 calorie curry that takes its revenge out on you throughout the night.  It's also a very quick curry to make and doesn't involve lengthy marinating.  The only thing you need is to make sure you have all the necessary spices to make this dish taste authentic.  The main spices i use are a combination of Fenugreek (not to be confused with an amusing, moustached encrusted, indebted European), Cumin, Tumeric, Chilli flakes.  Most of these are associated with Southern Indian cuisine and have a very distinctive flavour (and have medicinal properties too).  So what goes into this dish...


For the curry 

• 2 medium sized shallots
• 3cm square of fresh ginger julienne
• 2 cloves crushed garlic
• 100 g closed cup mushrooms
• 1 large knob of butter or ghee (clarified butter) if you have it
• 1/2 teaspoon of 
• Fenugreek
• Cumin
• Tumeric
• Ground coriander
• Paprika
• Crushed fennel seeds
• Brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon of Chilli flakes (I would go less depending on how hot you like it - you can always add you can't remove!)  I use these as I feel in better control of the heat this way.
• 1 large tablespoon of tomato paste
• 300 g of large shelled prawns
• 2 small squid
• 2/3rds of a tin of coconut milk
• 1/2 pint of fish stock. (use a whole Knorr fish stock cube and 1/2 pint of water or your own stock but make sure its reduced and strong flavoured.

The process

Chop the shallots, garlic, mushrooms and ginger and add to a frying pan with the heated butter.  Sweat this down and then add all the spices and mix through so you end up with a gorgeous smelling paste.  Add the tomato paste, stock and coconut milk and let this reduce down so that its not watery.  Test the seasoning and heat and if you feel it needs more add a few more chilli flakes.  Once you are happy with the taste add the squid and the prawns.  These literally need no more than 2 minutes and once these have been cooked through then serve the dish.  If you want to make this look professional put the cooked rice in a cup and turnover on the plate and then put the curry next to it... 

Preparing the squid

Clean the squid (if you don't know how get the fishmonger to do it but its very straightforward - pull the tenticles away from the body and discard the guts, pull the plastic looking quill from the body and remove the wings and the outside skin will come away from the body and you are left with a lovely white smooth body.  Rinse the body out and the tentacles.  One last job is you will feel the beak in the centre of the tentacles, this needs to be removed.  Now slice the squid up either in rings or horizontal strips. 

For the rice

Wash the rice thoroughly with cold water as this helps reduce any sticking.  Add the spices to the pot and add twice the quantity of water to the rice and bring to a simmer.  Don't put the lid on as you want this to evaporate.  When you come to serve the rice its up to you whether you take the spices out - it looks pretty but you don't necessarily want to bite into them...

• 1/3rd of a cup of Basmati rice per person - this is for two people so 2/3rds!
• 10 cloves 
• 10 cardamom pods
• 2 sticks of cinnamon
• 3 curry leaves
• Salt