Fish pie? That's not a dessert...

After the limited success of the courgette fritters, I thought I ought to try again to feed The Team something home-cooked, delicious and nutritious.  So another magazine recipe to the rescue - well, it said it was easy. It's called Cheesy Fish Pie and is in the July 2013 issue of the in-store Asda Magazine (page 59 of 101 if that link doesn't take you straight there).  As you will see, not a tricky situation.  

But, well, what can I say in my defence?  I'm a baker, not a cook.  I was worried that it was all a bust, because the fish took nearly twice as long to cook as they suggested, but it ended up being just fine after all. I had started in plenty of time, so that despite the extra time for the fish to be cooked dinner was served on time.  Mind you, that didn't mean the girls were keen to eat it...  But when 'bed hungry' is the only other menu option, they get hungry eventually.  

Mr Becca and I thought it was fine, not huge on flavour but easy enough.  I've heard that Jamie Oliver does a good fish pie, we'll have to try that one next time.

Courgette fritters - Becca does savoury, ooh

I had seen an easy recipe for courgette (zucchini to you non-Europeans) fritters in a supermarket magazine, and thought to try them on The Team for a change  (sorry but I can't find the recipe online, I'll keep searching and add it in at a later date if I do).  It included eggs, courgettes, plain flour and not too much else so I figured they'd like eat.  They were quite keen, and the recipe said to fry them lightly for a few minutes on each side.  Sadly, some required quite a few more than a few minutes so not all of them were fully cooked.

But they ate them, in the most part.   However, I may just stick to sweet goods for the moment...

Mr Becca on a Friday night...

Some men like to play video games.  Some like to go out for drinks at the pub.  Some like to play five-a-side football at the weekends.  My husband's favourite method of chilling out after a long hard week at the office is to cook.  Yes, you read that right.  Cook.  He loves to spend hours painstakingly measuring out tiny amounts of obscure Indian herbs, or Thai grasses, or Vietnamese chillies and grinding them in his granite mortar and pestle to make delicious, fragrant sauces and marinades for any number of dishes. 
He has a good selection of cookbooks and likes to pick one on a Friday morning in order to plan out his Friday night's entertainment.  He stops by a near-to-the-office supermarket on his break and picks up any last minute ingredients, sometimes calling me during the day to enquire as to the amount of any particular one that we may have remaining in a cupboard. 

As you may notice, they aren't all Asian cuisines, there are a good few Mediterannean ones in there too, and a couple of Mexican ones.  As long as the food is fresh and flavourful, he's happy.
So anyway, the Friday just past, he made Chicken in Parmesan with a basil sauce (that's a typewritten recipe, so may be one from his late gran), Jamie Oliver's Red Rice from Jamie's 30-Minute Meals  (incidentally, it's very hard to make these meals in the alloted 30 minutes.  They use up every piece of cookware you own and leave them all lying dirty about the kitchen in order to meet the timescale.  Not ideal, really) and some Creamed Spinach.  I'm not really sure why it's called that, because it is made with softened onion, pine nuts and a cheesy layer on top...
We eat whatever he makes for lunch on the Saturday, or, if we're out for the day, then for dinner, because he stays up late to cook.  I mean, waaaaay late like 2am late.  Can you tell it's me that wakes up with the kids every day?!  Still, when lunch or dinner is this fresh and delicious, it's not all bad ;)

 

Mr Becca comes home

Mr Becca is fast developing his own following on our Facebook page, and I've set him up with his own album.  As he loves to spend a Friday evening listening to the banging tunes courtesy of Judge Jules or Annie Mac on Radio 1, or downloaded podcasts on his iPod (often by internationally-renowned DJ Pier, yep that's right - this lovely man is Mr Becca's brother), I've titled the album Last Friday night.  He only cooks savoury food, and has a passion for Asian foods from scratch, especially since our months in India back in 2004.  He can quite easily spend 20 minutes with his mortar and pestle, crushing the required spices into the right consistency to make the sauce or whatever.  He has quite a collection of cookbooks and varies between Indian, Thai, Vietnamese and many Italian and mediterranean dishes.  His family background is Italian, and we have travelled in our youth, so he's always looking to recreate some of the flavour that we don't find locally. 

His current faves are Jamie Oliver and Thomasina Miers and on his recent mid-week trip to London to see his family he made sure to visit their restaurants.  And also to check out a shop he found recommended in the back of his latest favourite cookbook, Mexican Food made simple, by Thomasina Miers, Casa Mexico.  Where he bought some smoky-smelling Chipotle chillies, some fat and odd-looking Poblano chillies and similar oddities for himself and for me, he chose some fabulous pieces of useful kitchen stuff - a teatowel and potholder.  The fact that he prefers to use a potholder, and I prefer an oven mitt, didn't escape him ;)

Then he bought a fabulous, fun gift, ostensibly for Mini-1 but actually for me (she graciously agreed to let me use it on her behalf). 

I know, I'm a sucker but I love the London Underground iconic tube map.  Last time he was down there visiting, he brought me back a tube map tea towel.  And years ago when we lived in London I had a mobile phone fascia for my old Nokia in the same design and I loved it!

Snackadvisor.com

As you may have noticed, we like to bake sweet stuff here at Becca Towers.  However, should you fancy a trip over to the dark (i.e. savoury) side, check out my friend's fabulously fun blog at www.snackadvisor.com She posts videos and snippets of all sorts of food-related fun and delivers in a style very unlike any tv presenter you've yet seen.  Think Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous, and you'll be closer, ha ha.  Hope you enjoy her stuff!