Fish is the dish salmon with a twist

I do love fish - well I should, it's my job - but I love feeding the family fish.
But even although I am surrounded by hundreds of recipes, it's not always that straightforward to find something quick and easy (oh and that doesn't use all the pots and pans in the house !!)

I have been doing a salmon pesto recipe for a wee while - I can't even remember where I found the recipe. Oh yes I do, I think it's in Delia's 'How to Cook Vol 2' - my favourite cook book in all the world.

But inspired by our Fish is the Dish work, I decided I needed to find a twist.

Kyloe steak restaurant review

I've been reading with envy some of the fab foodie bloggers and their visits to various gastronomic venues  in and around Edinburgh. Most have involved fantastic surroundings, amazing food and good prices !!

So I couldn't resist but try the newly opened Kyloe restaurant in The Rutland Hotel. It says it's Edinburgh's first gourmet steak restaurant and after reading this review from Nadine Pierce we just had to go and find out for ourselves.

It's not always easy to go out to dinner with two small people in tow and so lunch is often a better bet.  And thanks to having a French class close by on Saturday and a voucher giving us 40% off food, we toddled off to try it.

And impressed we were. From the welcoming staff, to the funky interior, it was a great experience. They were really welcoming to our two monkeys who proceeded to put their sticky mits over every piece of mirror, glass and shiny thing in the place !

Fish can be frugal: PART 1

I've been reading and listening to such a lot about the horrible state of the economy that it's not hard to start become very consious of money and the increasing prices of things.

I work in the seafood industry and a big part of my job is to try to get people to eat more fish more often - which is why we have launched our new website called Fish is the Dish. Make sure you check it out.

But I've been worried that a lot of people think seafood is expensive. So I've decided to put this to the test.

Here's my fist calculation.

Last night we had smoked mackerel on baked potatoes - based on a recipe from our fab chef Jaqueline O'Donnell from The Sisters restaurant in Glasgow.

I took my prices from Tesco.com today (25/10/11) and here we go:

	Per pack	Approx 1 serving
Baking potato	£1.50	£0.38
Cream cheese	£1.34	£0.34
Smoked mackerel	£2.34	£0.10
Baby beetroot	£0.94	£0.31
Apple	-	£0.20
Horseradish	£0.69	£0.09
TOTAL		£1.41

WOW Less than £1.50 for a main meal - that's not bad at all.

Not only that but it was easy and super easy for a Monday night supper. I might be able to make a cheap cheesy beany potato for that cost but I'll tell you what, it won't taste as good and certainly won't be stacked with omega-3, selenium, iodine..... don't get me started.

Go on try it - and if you need a recipe mail me at karen@fishisthedish.co.uk

The Museum of Flight - a family day out.

We've been meaning to go to visit the National Museum of Flight at East Fortune for ages.
We thought that it would be a great family day out and we were absolutely right.

There's lots to see - lots of space for running around - hands on displays. Oh and excellent fish and chips in North Berwick only 4 miles away.

Silent sunday - flourless chocolate cake (requested)

Fish for tea with no prep. Honest.

There is something about a Wednesday night which means I generally have no energy for cooking.
I have plenty of energy for eating, but no energy for the preparation and washing up that comes with it !

So tonight I thought I would try something super easy - with minimum preparation.

And here it is - no prep fish tea !

Oh come on then, I hear you demand?? Oh ok....

I took a loin of haddock which I cut into two and placed in an ovenproof dish.
I then pressed Jamie Oliver's Piri Piri Herb Crust which I picked up from Morrison's.
You can find it here.

I didn't need very much of it and think the tub will last a good while.

I put this in a hot (Gas Mark 7) oven for 15 minutes or so while I boiled some small potatoes and vegetables.

Et Voila. Serve. enjoy.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy right enough.

Give it a try - loads more tips at Fish is the Dish

Silent Sunday

Sunny day at the zoo

Silent sunday - breakfast pancakes

Canadian buttermilk pancakes for Sunday breakfast. Yum.

Take two haddock fillets.....

When I was at the Farmers Market on Saturday buying the scallops for our Saturday night indulgence, I picked up a couple of oak smoked haddock fillets.

These weren't your run of the mill, yellow smoked fish fillets - they were gorgeous, Scottish haddock fillets smoked over oak chips.

I would love to be able to recommend the stall holder but I didn't get his name. But the haddock was amazing.

With one of the fillets, I made home made fish fingers for Toots and Pip.
Very easy - cut the fillet into "fingers" - because it it a butterfly cut, this is really easy. We had eight 'fingers'. We then dipped them in flour, egg then breadcrumbs. The girls liked getting involved.

Silent Sunday: 2 October 2011

Cupcakes for Pudsey - min 50p :-)

Scallops... Super fast supper

We love scallops. They are so simple and easy to cook.
Let me tell you how we do them in our house....

I guess the first challenge is where to buy them.
You can get them in most supermarkets - often chilled but usually frozen.
These come from a range of places but ususally they are Canadian - these are great for in a fish pie but because they are quite small don't really lend themselves to being panfried.





I like to buy mine from the fishmonger - that way I can ask where they came from (personally, it has to be West Coast Scottish ideally from Mull or Skye.)

But if you are lucky enough to have a farmers market close buy you can pick up something like this..... for very little.


This little lot of 9 prime scallops cost me only £6. I think that is good value. But I am biased. I love them...