One of the ready-meal companies (I think it might be Young's) is advertising a new line of seasoned fish that comes in a sealed bag which you cook in the oven. The ads make a big deal of how cooking in the bag keeps the fish moist and flavoursome, which is entirely true. It's not a new idea though - it's a completely accepted way of cooking fish, and surely it's better to do it yourself so that you can choose your own fish and herbs? Cheaper, too.
I've been cooking fish this way since I saw it on the fish episode of River Cottage Every Day, which is still available on 4OD. I'm a big fan of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and I've often been inspired by his programmes and recipes.
I've also often been inspired by his campaigns, including Hugh's Fish Fight. One of the lessons that I took from that series what the absurdity of the fact that Britain, which is an island surrounded by lots of delicious fish, tends to eat nothing but cod, tuna and salmon. All lovely fish, but there are plenty of others which are just as nice and if only we ate a wider variety we could fish sustainably without the risk of over-fishing one species to extinction - as we already risk doing with cod. The Fish Fight website has got some handy charts of which fish are sustainable and good to eat - take a look.
One of my favourite cheap fish is the humble sardine. I absolutely love a tin of sardines in tomato sauce on toast as a cheap and tasty lunch so I'm slightly at a loss to explain why I'd never cooked a fresh one until today. It has to be said, they're not easy to find - in the general change in High Streets since the coming of the supermarket the traditional fishmonger seems to have suffered worst: my nearest one is 12 miles away. Fortunately, the local Waitrose has an excellent fish counter so when I saw these sardines in there I couldn't leave them behind.
You can use whatever herbs and spices you fancy with this technique, but today I decided on a Mediterranean theme, so I used thyme, oregano and rosemary.
This really is the simplest way to cook fish that there is: simply put the fish on some foil, pour on a couple of glugs of olive oil, the herbs and a few squirts of lemon juice (I have no problem with Jif lemon, but feel free to squeeze a fresh lemon if you want to) and then lift the edges of the foil up and crimp the ends together to make a parcel which looks like a shiny Cornish pasty but with a fish inside.
The fish will gently steam inside the parcels, losing none of its moisture or flavour.
The fish will only need 15-20 minutes in the oven at 170C, so get your new potatoes going at the same time as the fish goes in. I've got these Italian stock cubes which I bought heavily discounted with more than six months left on the sell-by date, so I don't think they can have been a very big seller for Oxo! I thought they'd add a bit of flavour to the potatoes, so I used one of these rather than just boiling them in plain water.
We British insist on mushy peas with our fish. I've always used a Heston Blumenthal recipe which is, unusually, really simple to make. It used to be on a certain newspaper's website but they've put up a pay wall and I have no intention of paying to subscribe to a newspaper that I don't want to read in order to access precisely one recipe so I won't be providing a link. I know I should credit my sources, but this newspaper obviously doesn't want to be credited.
Anyway: Put a small amount of frozen peas into water to thaw. Boil up a sensible portion of peas according to the packet instructions (about three minutes). Then whizz up the boiled peas in a blender along with some mint sauce (or dried or fresh mint) and a few splashes of vinegar. Then stir in the thawed peas.
With careful timing, everything's ready at the same time so serve and enjoy!
Taste verdict
There's no two ways about it, sardines are a very fishy fish. Some people will find the flavour too much. We thoroughly enjoyed it, although it was a bit of a fiddle getting the meat off the bones. If I'm honest, I prefer mackerel - but when you take the price of sardines into the equation this becomes a really good, healthy meal for very few pennies.
Financial verdict
Two whole sardines - £1.10
Enough new potatoes for two people - about 60p
Frozen peas, stock, herbs, vinegar, mint sauce - pennies, from store
85p each.
The skinny
Put each sardine onto a sheet of tin foil and season with a couple of glugs of olive oil, a squirt of lemon juice and some thyme, oregano and rosemary. Make the foil sheets into parcels
Bake the parcels in the oven at 170C for about 15 minutes
Meanwhile, start new potatoes boiling in Italian or vegetable stock
When the fish and potatoes are nearly ready, make the mushy peas
Put a few peas in a ramekin in cold water to thaw
Cook a couple of portions of peas in boiling water as per the instructions
Whizz the cooked peas in a blender along with a teaspoonful of mint sauce and a splash of vinegar
Add the thawed peas for some texture
WeightWatchers ProPoints
11
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