When Great Food can almost-but-not-quite cancel out Bad Service

One of my biggest food peeves is bad customer service and those who know me understand how much it angers me. It's not unreasonable to expect kind, attentive service when you dine out, is it?

I like to think I'm quite a tolerant person so it takes a lot to annoy me...Um, actually, let me rephrase that. It takes a lot before I let annoying things get to me. Next time you want to feel annoyed about something, try really hard to change your reaction to it. The situation is kinda the same, but you might feel a bit more relaxed about it. It doesn't excuse the experience of things like bad service though.

For instance, take this magnificent feast I had at Tiger Tiger in Portsmouth the other day:

Heavenly, yes?

But of course it was, I can't deny that! This is my kind of mixed grill. Sirloin steak, lamb cutlet, gammon, chargrilled chicken, sausage, fat chips, crispy onion rings, mushrooms, fried egg. Oh, and a tomato. All wonderfully fresh.

Surprisingly so, when it took about an hour to arrive! It was midweek and the place wasn't that busy, but after sitting down, I went to go and find our own menus because no-one had come to serve us. When our drinks arrived, we almost forgotten that we had ordered them because they had taken so long. Uh oh, that doesn't bode well for our food coming out anytime soon does it...

Tick tock tick tock. We heard the mutterings of the girl at the table next to us commenting that her food still hadn't arrived yet. Sitting outside on the balcony was also making it trickier to catch the eye of one of the many staff milling about inside. Few of them seemed to come by to tend to any of the outside diners.

Finally our meals arrived, hurrah! And as you can see from the picture above, it was pretty damn good. I'd definitely have me one of those again. Unfortunately though, it went downhill again afterwards.

When we finished our meals, we decided to go straight up to pay, rather than wait for one of the staff to come by. Understandably, we had to wait a little while as the lady at the till was already dealing with some other tables' bills.

However, by this point, Matt and I were so fed up with hanging around that as soon as we got our bill, we just paid the balance and left. (It's worth noting at this point that we originally decided to eat at this restaurant after hearing that there was a 2 for 1 offer on all main meals.)

A few minutes after leaving, I had that nagging feeling that something was very wrong. It took a few extra minutes to work out in my under-Math-worked brain that yes, we had been overcharged. Dagnamit! Instead of giving us the cheapest meal for free, we had been given a drink free! Yeaarrgh *rips hair out*

It is things like this which cancel out the experience of great food. What a shame.

Am I being unreasonable about any of this?
Continue reading this post..

A Boy-Friendly Risotto

Now I must say upfront that this isn't a jab about men's general ability to cook. There are obviously alot of successful and talented man chefs out there, professional and amateur. But you know there are some guys who just have no interest in cooking whatsoever.

This is the guy who only has a couple of cans of baked beans in his kitchen cupboard, some instant noodles, and perhaps on occasion, some tinned ravioli. The fridge is mostly filled with lager, a bit of cheese, leftover takeaway pizza and some sachets of tomato ketchup. (A massive generalisation of course but I'm just trying to paint a picture here.)

Cue Matt, my boyfriend. I was not that surprised when I went over to his flat the other night, with the intention of making a nice risotto and was presented with this to cook with:

Ok, not that bad, considering it's a one-pan recipe. But to prep the stuff, all I could find to work with was this...

Yes, a pizza cutter, a blunt dinner knife and a dinner plate - to chop up vegetables.

Hmm.

Warning, don't try this at home kids. That pizza cutter is an uncooperative and dangerous fellow when it comes to slicing a bell pepper. And if you hate the sound of nails across a chalkboard, don't cut your stuff on a ceramic plate! Erk.

Matt agreed to have a go at making this 'simple' veggie risotto, as he never cooks. I was to show him the way.

A long while after swirling the butter around in the pan, we realised that the hob wasn't even on. Oops. As I passed him each of the prepped ingredients, I started to wonder if we had been too ambitious in thinking we could fit everything in the one tiny pan he has.

Turns out, we were!

"Er, I'm way out of my depth here now, I better let you take over now." Off shuffled Matt, leaving me to coax all the vegetables downwards to get the lid back on.

Ten minutes later, I peeped in to check on it, and it was bubbling alot of yellow stuff. Must have been that extra butter I dropped in at the end (as if all that veg wasn't enough). Another ten minutes later, still bubbling.

I'm not sure what I was thinking, trying to teach Matt how to cook risotto, when I'm clearly not that experienced in making it myself! This was meant to be a quick version of risotto - where you can basically leave it to simmer in the background, rather than standing over it adding the stock gradually.

Well, this 'quick' version took an hour and a half in the end! The rice was a bit on the mushy side, as was the veg. And it was quite difficult to dish up in a way to make it look appetising. (Well, I was so hungry by that point that it was just dumped into the bowls really.) And it tasted...ok, actually!

Not a complete disaster then - plus, Matt said he would cook this again! Yessss, secret mission complete.
Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie Day Faux Pas: A Questionable Strawberry Tart

Tarts are not usually my thing. I'm more of a jammy dodger you know. But I had a boxful of strawberries and not much else to work with for Friday Pie-Day this week. So I did a 'simple' strawberry tart which for some reason, came out looking a bit questionable. Now I've not seen many tarts in my time, but they don't usually look like this, do they...?

This is practically a no-bake tart. How did I manage to get this wrong?!

I mean, I even ended up using ready-made pastry because when I tried to make the shortcrust pastry from scratch, it went all bubbly and mushy in the oven. Oops. I still don't know what went wrong there but I chucked that right out!

All I had to do after baking the premade pastry was to add some chopped strawberries and some jam-like stuff. The recipe called to make it thick, which it certainly was, but...it just doesn't look right! A bit gloopy.

And the taste? Well, it wasn't really that bad but I preferred my lemon tart, which was a bit more successful!

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie-Day adventures.

Fancy a laugh at my other Hungry-Jenny-Faux-Pas?
Continue reading this post..

Post-Training Scoffage

When I get back from aikido training every Tuesday night, I crave carbs, chocolate, meat, juice...well, just ANYTHING to eat really. This is often after having a quick drink at the pub near the dojo with the rest of the aikido guys so my stomach is always a-rumbling. The alcoholic beverage is much needed after a hard night's training, but I'm always itching to get home for some food. Pub crisps just won't do!

So randomly, I decided to bake a cake to have after training last night:

Yes, some light lemon drizzle cake will do nicely after training, I thought...

I was a little nervous about giving it out because I had literally just finished baking it before the lesson so didn't have time to sample it (and test for any adverse after-effects). I'm pretty sure this is the first proper cake I've baked before as well. I know, can you believe it! (Look, I'm a bona-fide pie-eater ok)

Luckily, the cake seemed to go down rather well, with all pieces being snapped up by the hungry aikido guys. "So what're you making next week?" asked one. "I like carrot cake" said another.

Is it kinda wrong, as the only female of the group, to be the provider of post-training food from now on? Probably yeah. But hey, I'll take any excuse to cook. And here's a bunch of people I can test out new recipes on, as they will be too hungry after training to mind too much what it is, haha! That's my thinking anyway.

I do feel a little guilty that I made a cake though. I should really do something a bit healthier next time, a bit more along the lines of what I had planned to do before (try and make pre- and post-training food to maximise my training. I managed to do this er, once). So if I'm really going to do this, I think I should do it properly. No, I won't be serving up bowls of rice or anything, but I will hunt down some recipes for good post-training snacks and test them out on this lot when I can. Hope they won't mind!
Continue reading this post..

Hungry Jenny Finally Defeated...by a Taco Shell

I pride myself on being able to finish every meal that is put in front of me. Food wastage was never an option when I was growing up and I just cannot bear to see perfectly good food being thrown away. There are often times when I have to concentrate really hard not to shout out at a restaurant when I see a fellow diner giving up on their food. "NO!' I want to cry, "Call that a finished meal? You aint done yet!"

Now, I beat my ex-workmates at a competition to eat the most plates at a Chinese buffet (of food of course, not actual plates), chomped down a 20-ounce steak with a beefy jacket potato, and enjoy delicious 10-course meals when I can, so you can imagine my surprise when I was defeated last night by, of all things, a taco shell...

Yes, that really is the remains of a taco shell, and not a flattened chicken I tell you!

From what I can remember, this is only the second time that I've not been able to finish a meal. The first time was because I accidentally drank too many cocktails before my dinner arrived so I er, was not in a fit state to eat. So I tend not to count that.

Last night I was at Smith and Western's for a birthday meal (a wild west themed bar grill diner) which boosts a variety of steaks, burgers and other meat-like goodness. I'm a ravenous fan of the place if you didn't know already so have already tried alot of the things on the menu. So for a change, I decided to try the House Chilli, which was served in a massive taco shell:

I apologise for the picture quality in this post by the way, I was just too excited about eating it! Now, I don't eat chilli much, made more obvious by the fact that I thought it had cherry tomatoes sitting on the top. BIG MISTAKE. They were of course, chillies.

After this fiery start, I dug into the mince and beans. It was piping hot, comfortingly soft, and there was lots of it! The layer of melted cheese was really the icing on this delicious cake of chilli. I nibbled at the sides of the taco shell from time to time, but wanted to leave that til last so as not to let the chilli spill out everywhere. I don't think it would have really, as it was pretty solid (in a good way).

About halfway through though, I started to realise just how large this meal was. As I dug in more, I remembered that there was rice with it too, all sitting at the bottom of the shell! My goodness, it was a bottomless pit! Others around me were showing completion signs of their meals and I started to sweat a bit. I don't think I was actually feeling that full yet (that's her eyes talking you know, not the belly) but I knew and came to accept that I wouldn't be able to finish the shell itself. That's ok, I reasoned with myself, it's the bowl of the meal anyway, so doesn't really count.

I think I made a good effort though!

Fancy a laugh at my other Hungry-Jenny-Faux-Pas?
Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie-Day: Steak and Kidney Pie, The Nag's Head

Now THIS was a challenge, I tell you!

Slow cooked prime beef and kidney pie with chipped potatoes

Those of you with eyes bigger than your stomach (like me) might think that this pie looks quite small on the plate. But oh no, it was a whopper alright...

The Nag's Head in Chichester attracts alot of visitors for its famous carvery. Every week after aikido training, we walk through the back of the closed restaurant to the bar, painfully breathing in the loitering smell of roasts cooked just a few hours ago. It's torture I tell you!

Well, back to the PIE. I've had my fair share of carveries at The Nag's Head (one which I had after a Sunday roast earlier that day at home!), but I really wanted to see what the pie was like. Homemade pies in British pubs have something about them that you hope to experience good things with each time you try a different one.

This had pretty thick pastry and concealed the WHOLE pie. Great start, cos I prefer those to pies with just a pastry top! Greedy yes. There was a lot of gravy around the pie but soggy it was not. Pastry for me is good with gravy, but only if you can still bite into it to make it crumble onto your tongue like this one did. Ok, I've salivating a bit as I write this now. Uh oh, I haven't even gone onto the meat of the pie yet!

It was chunky. And I mean that in a good way. Very good. Not chewy at all or dry. And there was a LOT of it! Which led to, of course, a bit of panic. Would I actually be able to finish it? Those mammoth 'chipped potatoes', as they were called, were not really helping either! Fat chips are the best, but the buggers do put the pressure on for you to finish them. I mean, you don't want to be the person who leaves a bundle of perfectly gorgeous chips on the plate, do you? Well, I didn't so I battled through.

After managing a dessert as well (indeed, my eyes really ARE bigger than my stomach!), I wandered back home slowly and suddenly it hit me. The fullness, the meat sweats, the dotty eyes, the works. I actually had to lie down for an hour. Er yeh, I think I over-ate a bit.

But damn, that was a good pie...and I'd definitely have one of those again!

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie-Day adventures.
Continue reading this post..

Restaurant to try: Bucci, Balham

So, I'm aimlessly walking from Clapham Junction to Balham to meet a friend. Ten minutes later, I realise I've taken the wrong exit from the station and have been walking in the wrong direction. One hour later, I have finally found my friend and we continue wandering, this time down Balham High Street in the hunt for some much needed food.

When looking for a restaurant on a whim, what entices you? The jolly diners inside munching happily? The gorgeous smell of their food wafting out? Or the bustling waiters waving round plates of delicious-looking food?

Well, I can't really point to any of these reasons actually, as you can see:

Yes, for some reason, we were drawn into this quiet, completely empty restaurant, a few doors away from the noisier, full-of-laughter options.

A bad sign, do you think?

The intimate tables and simple dineware makes Bucci look cosy and clean, not hostile and cheap. The waitress with a lilting accent who kept asking us to repeat our questions was attentive and patient, not annoying and ignorant. Yes, we were the only diners there at half one in the afternoon and maybe it is more of an evening place (they offer about 20 woodbaked pizzas during evening service only), but nothing about that seemed to scream at us to run away!

We chose from the set lunch menu which currently do 2 courses for a tenner, and 3 courses for £13.50. Not bad eh?

The presentation and slightly over-saturated colour of the dishes both led to slight hesitation before digging in...

Here I had avocado and prawns to start, followed by grilled seabass, roasted veg and potatoes. You do get a sneaking suspicion that some ingredients are not freshly prepared (for example, the marie rose sauce on the prawns was quite thick like the type you get from a bottle). For this particular meal though, this was a small issue and I happily tucked into the rest. And their portion sizes must have been a lot bigger than we thought because we strolled along Clapham Common for a couple of hours afterwards just to walk it off!

Other restaurants I've tried that you might like to read about. Continue reading this post..

Old Fruit, Fresh Dish

Crunchy apples, firm grapes, bouncy peaches, juicy oranges, and slightly green bananas. Now that's my kind of fruit. All fresh. I hate it when it goes even a bit mushy, yeurgh. Keeping it in the fridge obviously helps alot but leave it for too long and it will start to go brown and get The Wrinkles. But oh no, don't throw it out! For the love of biscuits, there's ALWAYS a use for old fruit.

So before you chuck away those manky old apples, or overly-squishy oranges, try one of these out instead...

Peach Turkey with Asparagus and Broccoli

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For 2:

1 peach
1 large turkey steak, chopped into strips
8 asparagus spears
8 tender-stem broccoli pieces
1 spring onion, chopped
Fresh coriander
Some grated ginger
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp honey
Some lime zest and juice

1) Cut the peach into 9 wedges.
2) Mush up one wedge and mix in a bowl with the soy sauce, honey and lime. Add the turkey and leave to marinate for at least 15 minutes.
3) Lightly boil the asparagus and broccoli in salted water for 5 minutes.
4) Fry the turkey, then add the spring onions, asparagus, broccoli and ginger.
5) When it's all heated through, stir in some fresh coriander and serve with steamed rice and the peach wedges.


Juicy Orange Beef

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For 2:

2 beef steaks
1 large orange
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp soy sauce

1) Cut the orange in half and squeeze one half into a bowl with the soy sauce and honey.
2) Sit the steaks in the mixture and leave to marinade for at least 15 minutes.
3) Cut the other half of the orange into wedges.
4) Fry the steaks over a low heat to make sure the sauce doesn't burn.
5) When they're almost done, add the orange wedges for a minute.
6) Serve with steamed rice and green beans.


Apple and Pork Pats

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For 2:

200g lean pork mince
1 apple
100ml hot vegetable stock
Some cornflour
Pinch oregano
Pinch thyme
1 tbsp sage
1 tsp cinnamon
Some lemon zest
1 small egg, beaten
Some flour
Half a red onion, chopped

1) Chop the apple into 10 wedges.
2) Mush two of the wedges and mix with the mince, herbs and zest.
3) Add some of the egg into the mixture, with a bit flour if it gets too sticky.
4) Make 8 balls out of the mixture.
5) Fry the balls over a low heat, turning them frequently to make sure they don't burn.
6) Mix a bit of cornflour into the stock and add to the pan.
7) Add the onions and apple wedges and leave to simmer until everything is piping hot.
8) Serve with cheesy mash!

You must also enjoy these other fruit recipes! Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie-Day: Honey Nut Cornflake Tart

Do you remember cornflake tarts from school? A portion of pastry lined with jam and topped with cornflakes and syrup. Served in huge rectangle metal dishes and cut into squares. I always used to ask for a corner piece if there was one going - because you got more pastry, three whole sides of it, YEAH!

But there'll be no scrimping for pastry in my ones, as I decided to make round tarts to allow no risk of pastry shortage to occur...

...and you might be pleased to know that they actually turned out well so here's the recipe!

Now I made some jam from fresh strawberries, because I don't usually eat jam and didn't want to buy a whole jar. If you want to use homemade jam for this too, you'd need to do it the night before you make your cornflake tart, to let it set all jam-like. Honey nut cornflakes rather than plain ones give it some extra sweetness and crunch.

Honey Nut Cornflake Tart

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 5 medium tarts:

The Jam (makes about 3 tbsp)

6 fresh strawberries
Zest of half a lemon
1 tsp sugar

1) Chop the strawberries up and mash to a mush.
2) Add to a pan with the zest and sugar and put on a very low heat, stirring occasionally.
3) Leave it to bubble quietly in the background, it will eventually get piping hot and less sloppy.
4) Put in a airtight container, and leave to cool in the fridge overnight.

The Tart

10 tbsp honey nut cornflakes
3 tbsp golden syrup
3 tbsp strawberry jam
200g shortcrust pastry
Dash of milk

1) Roll out the pastry and use a cutter to make 5 medium rounds.
2) Butter a cupcake baking tray and carefully stick the rounds in. Prick each one with a fork and bake blind at 170 degrees C for 15 minutes.
3) Brush milk on the bottom of each tart to fill in the holes from the fork pricks. Let them cool slightly.
4) In a bowl, break up the cornflakes and mix in the syrup.
5) Spread a layer of jam onto each tart and a spoon of the cornflake mixture. Bake for 15 minutes.

Leave them to cool slightly before eating!


You might also enjoy my Old School Cornflake Tart!

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie-Day adventures. Continue reading this post..

Brace Yourself...

Here's an interesting challenge that will present itself upon me over the next couple of years. I've recently found out that I will need jaw surgery (don't worry, it's not as scary or serious as it sounds) and part of this procedure means I will have to wear braces for the next two years.

Two immediate thoughts popped up in my head as I was told this:

a) I hope this doesn't affect my aikido training too much
b) Oh holy mother of crab sticks, what won't I be able to eat during this time?!

The first, I got over pretty quickly. Of course, I'm nervous about accidentally getting hit in the mouth, or landing on my face after a bad breakfall or something. Plus the horror of any bleeding teeth and wires poking out everywhere as a possible result of it. But you can't exactly stop someone who is about to attack you in the street and say, "Er, pardon me, but before you attack me, would you be extra careful around my facial area please because I'm wearing braces?" Silly, isn't it! So, with that, I will just (brace-twinkle) grin and bear it.

The second issue though - facing up to the food I should steer clear of - is a different matter altogether. I mean, I've had braces before as a teenager, and to be honest, can't really remember how it affected me food-wise. But now that I'm an older, greedier Hungry Jenny, I'm just not sure how I will cope...

The whole looking-like-a-teenage-nerd thing doesn't bother me too much - of course, that feeling might change once I start wearing them, but as you might be able to tell, I have more pressing issues on my mind about this to deal with in the meantime!

Since starting my blog, my food habits have changed a lot - I eat more (if you didn't think that was possible, I can assure you it is!), cook more and try new food experiences wherever I can. I love exploring new avenues of food, reading other food blogs and other peoples' experiences. In other words, Hungry Jenny needs constant feeding.

So the thought of not being able to eat particular foods suddenly makes me panic. Part of the conversation I had with the orthodontist the other day included the phrases 'liquid diet' and 'six weeks' in the same sentence. What? I don't want soup and yoghurt for six weeks, I want REAL food!

Of course, I'm probably being melodramatic. But put an obstacle like braces in the mouth of someone who eats as much as I do, and you will get what promises to be an amusing challenge for the next two years.

So what's going to happen then? Well, we'll just have to see how this journey pans out, won't we? Lucky you!
Continue reading this post..

An Alternative Use of Yorkshire Pudding

Traditional pub food is great and it's comforting to see your old favourites on the menu whichever pub you go to: bangers and mash, ham, egg and chips, ploughman's lunch, shepherd's pie and of course, in many pubs, "a burger and a pint".

So I was quite surprised to be presented with this odd-looking dish in a sleepy little pub in Luton the other day:

Some weird kind of swiss roll then, is it...?

No, it's a roast beef yorkshire wrap! I wasn't sure what to expect from it really because I couldn't picture a wrap made out of yorkshire pudding. Naturally, I had to order one just to see what it looked like.  

As you can see, it's not exactly the picture of health. My friend Sam and I were intrigued for ages though, snapping photos for about 5 minutes (Sam even stopped to send a photo to her Yorkshire-pudding fan boyfriend, haha) before settling down to actually eat the thing.

And the verdict?

It basically tasted like a thick pancake as it was obviously a little soggier than the normal crispy yorkshire puds you get.  The thin slice of dried out roast beef reminded me a lot of school dinners. The steak-McCoy-tasting gravy it came with helped immensely though to add a bit of extra beef to it.

The novelty factor of this strange wrap did start to lose its touch though about halfway through.  Because it was wrapped so tightly, it had many layers of yorkshire pudding, making each mouthful heavier and more eggified. I could feel the roots of new spots appearing on my face, the grease melting wickedly into my skin and the whole stodge of it all settling uncomfortably into my stomach.  

Yet...I was still enjoying the meal and strangely compelled to finish it. There's something about food like this that maliciously leads you into munching down every bite until it's gone.  So with all this in mind, would I encourage you to try one, or order it again myself?

Hell yes!

Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie-Day: Breakfast Pie

Every now and again, you need something a bit more substantial for breakfast in the morning. Come on, you can't just have a flimsy bit of toast all the time.

But, pie for breakfast? Surely not?

Well, it's looking you in the face, my friend, so you have no choice but to indulge...

It's a glorified omelette really if you think about it. But oh, so glorified. It tastes even better cold actually. I had three slices in one go at one point and I only stopped because there was er, none left.

This would be enough for 3 people (ie cuts into 6 neat little slices), but if I were you, I'd make it when there's only two of you so that there's more for you to eat. Or just have it ALL to yourself. I didn't do this of course - I did give away one slice ;-)

You could leave this in the oven while you have a quick shower in the morning. When you come down to the kitchen, you'll be hit by that wonderful fried breakfast smell (the good home comforting kind, not the greasy spoon type) and super-smug that your breakfast is ready to eat. And trust me, you will eat it ALL!

Breakfast Pie

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 6 slices:

4 eggs
3 new potatoes, diced
50ml double cream
3 bacon rashers, chopped into strips
small handful of cherry toms, halved
small red onion, chopped
a few mushrooms, sliced
fresh parsley

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2) Lightly boil the potatoes until cooked, and drain.
3) Heat some oil in a pan. Fry up the onion, bacon and mushrooms.
4) Turn off the heat, and mix in the potatoes, toms and parsley.
5) Transfer it to a lined baking tin. Mix together the egg and cream and carefully pour into the tin.
6) Stick in the oven for about 5 minutes until it looks golden and your stomach's a-rumbling.

Leave it to sit for a short while after you take it out the oven. (As long as you can wait anyway). It'll make it a little easier to take it out the tin without it lolloping at the sides. Yes, it looks like a nice neat slice has been cut out here but really, I clumsily splodged it out onto a plate, then quickly trimmed down the sides of the pie to hide my clumsiness!

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie-Day adventures. Continue reading this post..

4 Recipes to try if you don't like FISH

Either you love all types of fish, steer clear of it altogether, or just like 'some fish, like fish fingers'. For those in the two latter groups, you are missing out! If you're a vegetarian, that's fine of course. But if you avoid fish because the smell puts you off, or you don't like the look of a whole fish part on your plate, here are some really simple recipes to coax your tastebuds into being more accepting of fishy meals.

Each of them involves a different type of seafood and results in a loving dish that does not smell or look overly fishy. Well, I think so anyway!

See? No fishy business here is there...?

Come on, just try one of them this week, they really aren't that bad.

Prawn and Cashew Nut Stir Fry (above)

Print-friendly recipe

For 2:

150g flat rice noodles
handful of beansprouts
200g cooked prawns
1 red pepper, sliced
2 spring onions, sliced
1 egg, beaten
2 tbsp Thai fish sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
Handful of cashew nuts
Coriander
Sesame oil

1) Simmer rice noodles for 10 minutes and drain.
2) Stir fry the onions, prawns, pepper and beansprouts, then the noodles.
3) Pour in the beaten egg, fish sauce and a bit of sugar.
4) Toss in cashew nuts and coriander, and serve!


Sardine Stuffed Peppers

Print-friendly recipe

For 2:

2 peppers, cut in halfway lengthways and deseeded
Tin of sardines, drained
Handful of spinach, ripped
Bit of red onion, chopped
Slice of granary bread, broken into crumbs
4 cherry toms, diced

1) Preheat oven to 190 degrees C
2) Mush sardines with breadcrumbs, diced toms, onion and spinach.
3) Stuff yer peppers and stick in the oven for about half an hour until hot.


Easy Seafood Risotto

Print-friendly recipe

For 2:

150g seafood mix
150g basmati rice
200ml boiling water
200ml hot fish or veg stock
1 celery stick
Few mushrooms, sliced
Small red onion
1 tbsp rice vinegar
25g butter
Parsley

1) Fry onions in a large deep pan in a bit of butter. Tip in rice to heat.
2) Pour in stock and boiling water, put the lid on and simmer for 10 minutes.
3) Add seafood mix, mushrooms and celery into the pan. Simmer for another 10.
4) Stir everything up and add a generous splash of rice vinegar to serve.


Haddock and Tomato Stew

Print-friendly recipe

For 4:

2 haddock fillets, skinned and cubed
A can of chopped tomatoes
1 green pepper, chopped
Handful of mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, chopped
150ml veg or fish stock
Basil
Parsley

1) Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
2) Simmer haddock cubes for a few minutes til cooked through and drain.
3) Fry onion, pepper and mushrooms and add to ovenproof dish with fish. Stir in tomatoes, stock and herbs.
4) Cover with foil, bake for 25 minutes and serve with boiled rice.

You'll be surprised by the sardine dish because it doesn't come out honking of sardines. Yes, you have to get past the obstacle of opening the tin to receive that strong whiff of fish, which is probably one thing you could do without if you're a fish-hater.

If that put you off (sorry!), try the seafood risotto instead. A good way to try a new ingredient is to blend it with others so this dish is a perfect one to start with. You'll be so amazed at the gorgeous warmth of the soft buttery rice that you won't even realise you are eating seafood as well!

In any case, I hope this brings you one step closer to trying fish and that it'll make you want to try more...

More seafood recipes here! Continue reading this post..