Wow, The Madhouse has turned into a major cooking zone ! We've been trying out (and blogging about) loads of new recipes from the Weight Watchers Supper Club app, Heinz Barbecue sauces and Steenberg Organic essences, amongst others, over the past fortnight, much to everyone's delight! Well, I also told you that Aldi had sent us a hamper of ingredients to rustle up a Bank Holiday feast for their Let's Party Cookbook app (that I told you about here). Good luck if you entered - they're now trying out the recipes and deciding on a winner - and if you didn't, look out for the next challenge to take part in.
Well, here is the feast we cooked up.
For a simple but delicious starter, we interspersed slices of juicy melon with Parma ham. The sweetness of the melon and the saltiness of the ham really offset each other nicely.
For the main course, I thought about making Chicken breasts topped with a slice of the West Country Farmhouse Vintage Cheddar that Aldi had sent me and wrapped in a slice of their Smoked Treacle Cured Back Bacon before being grilled to crisp perfection, but Madhouse Daddy Mike said he had his eye on that for a bacon sandwich because it sounded delicious ! OK, back to the drawing board ! I decided to revisit one of our family faves and make a refined version of the Cheesy Fish Pie recipe that I blogged about here. (The camera battery was flat when I made this so you'll have to make do with the photo of the original version - it looks the same from the outside anyway !)
I usually make this with a mixture of white fish/smoked fish/mixed frozen veg/crème fraîche. This time, I decided to push the boat out and go for some added luxury and indulgence, so I used white fish/salmon fillet/prawns/mussels, to which I added some leeks that I gently cooked in butter until they went soft before adding some crème fraîche and some of the Vintage Cheddar that I grated. The delicate flavours all worked really well together and it made a lovely change from the usual fish pie that I make. The kids usually turn their nose up at fresh salmon but they wolfed it down and asked for more !
And for dessert, we needed a light option after all that food so I went for Eton Mess Meringue Nests. I chopped some strawberries, broke up a couple of meringue nests into small pieces, folded the whole lot into some vanilla yogurt (we used the Activia Vanilla Pouring Yogurt from Bzz Agent that I told you about here because it has the perfect light texture) and piled the whole lot into the remaining nests, with some whole fresh strawberries on top for good measure.
The family's verdict - wow, how come we don't eat like that every day ?! Errmm maybe because mum's at work usually ?!! I'll be looking out for next month's challenge to see what the theme is though so they may be in for another feast if they're lucky !
for more information : https://www.facebook.com/AldiUK
Disclosure : I received a selection of ingredients from Aldi to inspire me in the kitchen, as outlined here.
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Really interesting review.
ReplyDeleteThe fish pie sounds delicious - in fact the whole menu is delicious and easy to prepare.
ReplyDelete@beachrambler/Hazel