Kinda Baked Haddock

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This Tuesday night supper wasn’t really baked but some of steam-fried.  But let’s stick with baked, to allude to a more healthy type of cooking *ahem*.

In fairness, this is rather healthy.  We got some nice Haddock from Kish Fish down the road and found this recipe which I followed to a T.

It was a nice quick supper but here are a few things I’d point out:

  • I don’t know about using Haddock in this.  I love Smoked Haddock but I’m not too keen on the unsmoked stuff.  This could well have been down to the way I cooked it, but the Haddock was slightly too fishy for me.  This is strange as it’s supposed to be one of the milder fishes.  Perhaps it was because I forgot to take the skin off.  Hmmm…perhaps.  Got any recommendations for a nicer alternative of white fish?
  • Be careful that the potatoes don’t stick to the botttom of the pan – keep them moving more regularly than it suggests on recipe.
  • I used white wine instead of sherry, which was totally fine.  I mean, who has Sherry in their cupboards these days??

TUNE

Loving Janelle Monae these days – check  out her track Tightrope over on The Hype Machine.

Tightrope – Janelle Monae – The Hype Machine

Seriously easy ‘Paella’

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Niall made this  not-exactly-authentic-but-totally-totally-delish Paella last week.

MAKE THIS FOR YOUR GIRLFRIEND/BOYFRIEND/FRIENDS/MA/BOSS. It’s delicious, very easy and highly impressive flavour wise.

TUNE

It’s gotta be The Gypsy Kings with their version of Hotel California from The Big Lebowski soundtrack. Win!

The Gypsy Kings – Hotel California on The Hype Machine

Chicken Licken

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The weekend before last, one of my most  newly acquired internet friends @colinjm was tweeting about getting the preparations together for a family roast dinner.  I realised it has been too long, yes too long, since we in the Byrne-McElwain household partook in a bit of poultry roasting.  It was time to get a nice organic chucky and get two good meals plus some stock out of it.

I don’t often shop in Tesco as I find the quality of fresh produce can be rather deplorable – and I live near one of the better ones.  However, I’ve been trying to be more conscious about where the meat that I eat comes from, and not just that it’s organic or from a good home.  I stopped by M&S first but all their organic chickens are from farms in the UK.

So, I popped into Tesco and found a free-range organic chicken from their Finest range that came from a farm in Ireland priced at just over €6.00.  Good value and I think I made the right choice.  No offense to all the lovely organic chicken farms in the UK of course.

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Gnock-out Gnocchi (arf arf)

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We’ve been taking it very easy indeed this Bank Holiday weekend.  I’ve been working over the last two days so last night myself and Niall found ourselves deciding to stay in with the Saturday papers, a nice bottle of plonk, some tunes and a decent but stress-free dinner.  And a bag of giant chocolate buttons for dessert.

Gnocchi is so gorgeous.  But it is quite a guilty pasta – one can feel the pounds pile on as each individual potato-pasta piece is popped into one’s mouth.  But… so what?  As an occasional treat, it’s simply delicious.

Niall recently treated himself to a very snazzy new camera, the use of  which I availed for this particular recipe.  Don’t think I’ll be going back to the iPhone after seeing these results.  Sorry Apple!

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Twizza Party!

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Last Thursday night, after a suggestion by Reindeer SP, a few of the recently acquainted Irish food bloggers got together for a pizza party.

Well, when I say we got together for a pizza party, I mean that we got together on The Internet.   Naturually.  Coz that’s how we do.

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Point Village Market y’all

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Check out this cool little video by Event Junkie about the Point Village Market, which launched last weekend.  It’s going to be a weekend market with 100 food, fashion and arts stalls – a fantastic addition to the lives of many a Dublin foodie/market go-er and (MOST IMPORTANTLY) there’s a pieminister stall.  Swoon!

Head down every Saturday and Sunday to feed your face :)

FREE STUFF!

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That blog title is terribly misleading, I apologise.  The Free Stuff I’m referring to was all that lovely gear you see in the pic above and unfortunately I am not doing a snazzy give-away for you, my lovely readers.  Sorry!

This was the swag from the Bord Bia Irish Foodie Event a few weeks back.  There was some lovely chutney from the almight Sheridan’s, some lovely herbs from Living Flavour, beef snacks from Biltong and some really beautiful Hot Smoked Trout Fillet from Goatsbridge.

Inspired by this recipe, I made a Bulgar Wheat, Chicory and Smoked Trout Salad, using the gorgeous Goatsbridge Trout and some of my lovely Living Flavour mint.  I threw in the Good 4 U Brocco Shoots for good measure, and it worked!

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Irish Foodies – a lesson in Porkdom

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Beautiful Belly of Pork lunch at Bord Bia Irish Foodies Meet-up

Nearly two weeks ago,  a bevvy of food bloggers were brought together by the lovely Donal Skehan and Bord Bia for a day of food-blogging talks, food styling, some veggie miso pasta and a whole lotta pork.

Not only was it a chance for us foodies to meet face to face, but it was a chance for Bord Bia to tell us a little more about their Quality Assurance Campaign, with an emphasis on how we bloggers could help promote Irish Pork.

Some other wonderful bloggers have great pics and details of the event itself, check them out.

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Shakshuka!

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I think Brunch is my favourite meal.  I love it so.  And not just because it gives me the excuse to indulge in Bloody Marys.  It sets the tone of your day, leaving you feeling relaxed and pampered.  It’s such a luxury to spend time over it as opposed to the rushed slice of toast grabbed on the way out to work during the week.

Instead of going out for Brunch this weekend, I invited a few girlfriends over on Sunday early afternoon before Africa Day so we could start the day with Sunday papers, chats and Bloody Marys.

A few months back, there was a little booklet in The Guardian  of sample recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi’s latst book entitled Plenty. This  Shakshuka recipe caught my eye way back then, but it took until this Sunday to get around to actually giving it a shot.

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