Fortnightly Fish Challenge

Woop woop, go me, I cooked a delish fish dish.  

We all sat down for dinner together and yep we (not just piggy me) ate it all!  There was a few blips but I have the green light to make it again (after some constructive criticism from Lovely Hubby)!

So we had Mummy's Fish Pie a la Annabel Karmel.
The recipe required salmon and cod.  Salmon no probs, same as in U.K. but cod is a different kettle of fish (mwah ha ha ha, pardon the pun) here in N.Z.  I thought cod was cod was cod but no!  I was kinda wondering how I was gonna find out a suitable alternative with minimal effort (lazy toad) and lo and behold as luck would have it Lil' Sis' boyfriend popped in.  Not normally unusual to see him, they are naturally, as loves young dream goes, attached at the hip but she is holibagging in the U.K so was odd but nice (and useful) to see him.  Anyhoo he is a fisherman, through and through kiwi chap, N.Z answer to Steve Irwin, Artist, the authority on the 'alternative, rarely seen but interesting' side of the Kapiti Coast and a Plumber.  I told him the plan and the Cod dilemma and he went off in a dream world describing how delish Blue Cod (the expensive one) was before coming back to earth when I said it was for a fish pie.  'Hoki' was the immediate answer.



 

 I had planned on getting the fish myself but for reasons I will go into in the next Make a Plan Monday The Cherubs and I hermitted from Sunday till Wednesday.    I entrusted Lovely Hubby to buy the fish for me, not difficult...'please may I have 200g each of Hoki and Salmon, fillets, no bone, no skin' obvious to me, we have been together 10 years, he SHOULD know me by now even if I don't say it he should be able to read my mind right?  

So Thursday during nap time I got to work (those nitpickers amongst you will note that I was meant to make the fish pie on Wednesday but $5 pizza on Tuesday pushed everything back!).  Preparation was a bit of a kerfuffle, mainly the tomato peeling and deseeding, oh yeh and having to get the FECKING skin and bone out of the salmon...come on now there lie two of the main reasons for not only my aversion to cooking/preparing fish but to eating it too!!  Lovely Hubby, we can read each others mind but the fish man in the supermarket obviously can't...yet!



But I was committed now, preparation was too far on to wait for Lovely Hubby to dissect the beast.  The salmon was meant to be cut in chunky cubes but instead it was a bit more like clumps pulled away from the skin and bone but you would never have known.  Honest Guv!
Anywho preparation complete...ta da...

And here we have the finished product...ta da once more...

I knew I was gonna like it, I was pretty sure the other two wouldn't...but...
I was right, after a fashion anyway.  Darling Daughter had a couple of mouthfuls then pushed the plate away but after getting a row for leaving the table she came back and ate it all, when I say ate it all, she was fed 'like a byby (her kiwi pronunciation of baby)' on her request but after 3 nights of not eating a thing I couldn't care less!  I'll feed her 'like a byby' till she's 21 if I have to!  She had fish and 4 veg in one meal whoop whoop.
As for himself, he ate it, with some cayenne pepper on top, as did I, it is kiddy food after all therefore a bit bland.   Some seconds were also consumed but he couldn't help but give some 'constructive' criticism, feedback if you like, one of the reasons why I dislike cooking for him so much but he can't help himself.  The complaint was the salmon, too earthy but he can live with it and he would like some smoked fish next time.  Well I assume that it isn't smoked fish in the recipe for the Cherubs sake, after all it is a Cherub recipe.
I liked it and they ate it can't ask for much more than that. 

Next challenge is decided...Mussels...there is a recipe on the telly adverts at the moment so that is the idea.  One for Mummy and Daddy though not Darling Daughter.
Man I thought Lovely Hubby was anxious about the fish pie, I wish I could capture or explain his face when I said we were having mussels next, ha ha ha!