Like a lot of Irish people I’m very aware that I don’t eat enough fish. I love fish, I’ll usually order it when I’m out but I don’t cook a huge amount of it when I’m at home, and if I do it tends to be for himself and myself as I can’t face the inevitable rejection from the mini dictators.
It’s not that they don’t like fish, one of them loves chowder, three of them will eat kedgeree, the smallest man loves seaside fish and chips and we have one girl who would crawl over hot coals for crab claws, it’s just that it’s so hard to find a fish dish that they will all eat that I’ve kind of given up trying.
But now that bleak January is behind us I’m upping my enthusiasm for trying more variety in our family dishes, and so this morning, armed with good intentions I asked the source of all knowledge, aka my trusted IPB group for their suggestions and as usual they weren’t found wanting.
Some great suggestions were offered and I’ve bookmarked all of them to try out in the next few weeks, for today I went with a suggestion from the lovely Sinead over at Bumbles of Rice for a roasted cod dish, you can find the details here while looking at this recipe these Asian style salmon skewers caught my fancy so I decided to make them too. I often find that the more choice the children have the more willing they are to try a little of everything.
I served both of these with some savoury rice, corn on the cob, peas and some homemade oven chips, all set out on the table for the children to pick and choose.
The only thing I wasn’t pleased with was the pancetta that I used for the cod didn’t crisp up by the time the cod itself was cooked, in future I would use Parma ham, flavour wise it was delicious but it lacked visual appeal. The fish skewers were a big hit and I see these becoming a regular feature especially during the summer as they would be perfect on a barbeque.
An encouraging start and one I’m determined to build on, with so much choice there really is no excuse for me not to serve fish once a week.
Will let you know when I try the other yummy suggestions that were made but if you have a favourite fish recipe, one that could be a winner with all the family I would love to hear it.
We were only discussing this last week, we are determined to eat more fish here now too. We have so many wonderful varieties available to us it's crazy not to be eating it often. All of my gang love mussels, we buy a couple of kilos from the fishmonger, cook them in garlic, butter, parsley, onion and serve them up with crusty bread. One of the kids favourite lunches 🙂
Nicola xx
Great idea Nicola, I love mussels, I think the novelty of them might swing it.
Something the kids might like is swordfish and chips,it's really easy to cook with a bit of garlic, olive oil and parsley on the grill for a couple of minutes and ready(and there are no bones!!!)
I don't think I've ever tried swordfish Margarita, the lack of bones is a huge bonus…adding this to my list.
One of the goals I made at the start of the year was to build up to having fish twice a week, and we've been doing OK but with the same three or four things all the time. I tried the Haddock with tomato and parmesan that was suggested when you asked and it was lovely. The big problem here is bones – the kids get freaked out by bones, and I am silently worrying for them but trying not to show it. So we end up back with salmon darnes over and over!
Looking forward to trying the haddock, the bones are a worry but I'm going to give the suggested swordfish a try and maybe some fresh tuna…bone free dinners for all😊