Olympic Food Challenge: Papua New Guinea - Curried fish

So far for the Olympic Food Challenge we have; eaten Pigs Trotters, toyed with the idea of goats head soup, eaten breadfruit (an ingredient that I was assured was disgusting) and tucked into and enjoyed okra*.  Tonight we are venturing into the very belly of the beast and I'm cooking something that ticks all of my "do not eat this" boxes.

What can be so bad?  It's curried fish!  I love fish and I'm rather partial to a good curry.  What I really don't like is cooked pineapple in any form.  I do like pineapple, don't get me wrong.  I don't have a phobia for the fruit itself.  I just don't like it in a savoury setting.

Having braved pigs feet however, I feel that I needed to give this a try.  The fish curry recipe from Papua New Guinea is a simple enough recipe to follow** and also had the added fun factor of being quite vague.  Not only were the quantities a guide but there was also no specific fish specified.  We had cod cheeks in the freezer so that is what we used.  The finished dish was really good, even the pineapple worked, but I can't claim that it was a true Papuan classic.

*up until that point I had only found okra to be slimy and disgusting, I really enjoyed it home cooked so somebody must be cooking it wrong.
**even though it is written in white on a black page which is a pet peeve of mine.

Friday Night Take-away - Fish Fingers

There are two steadfast Friday traditions in our house and it's not often that they converge.  Today however, both Fish Friday and Friday night take-away are singing from the same hymn sheet.  I had sent Z shopping earlier in the day to get provisions for the weekend.  Included on her shopping list was cod.  I was planning to roast the cod wrapped in bacon and serve it with bobby beans* and roasted cherry tomatoes.

When I got home from work, it turned out that the dinner plans had taken a change of path.  Z had cooked R some fish fingers with some of the cod that she bought on Kirkgate Market.  She and my mum both liked the look of the toddler's food so much that they decided to knock my plans into a cocked hat.

The thick fillets of cod were sliced into fingers and rolled in beaten egg and breadcrumbs before being shallow fried.  We stuck with the bobby beans and some new potatoes as the accompaniments but really it should have been chips and mushy peas to really recreate the take-away experience.

*Green beans, French beans, call them what you want.  I had never heard them called bobby beans before moving to Leeds but it's such a cute name it will probably stick.

Lemon Pepper Crusted Cod

The Easter weekend is upon us.  Two bank holidays and a four day weekend.  For most of today I have been thinking that it's Saturday.  I think it has something to do with the lie in and a shopping trip around Leeds Market.  We were shopping for fish because it's a tradition, or an old charter or something, to eat fish on Good Friday and who am I to stand in the way of tradition?

As is often the way, we didn't know exactly what we were looking for but that's part of the fun of shopping for fish on Leeds Market.  All of the fishmongers are good, so with an open mind you can simply pick what looks best on the day.  If you do go looking for a particular fish for a particular recipe you might miss out on a real stunner.

In the end we bought a nice piece of cod.  Cod is still one of the fish that we should eat less of due to stock numbers, but as I haven't eaten a morsel of cod since I started Tonight's Menu, I figure I can have my share tonight.

The cod was topped with bread crumbs which had lemon zest, parsley, plenty of black pepper and melted butter added to them.  It was then baked and served with boiled anya potatoes and steamed broccoli.