Our Attempt at Fish Pie

Having received an extraordinary amount of potatoes from my nan's garden (I estimate 5 kilos), it has been a challenge to think of enough potato recipes to provide some variety. Last night, Shaun and I made fish pie. I've never done it before but I knew it's meant to be super easy, so no problem. Yep. You'd think that wouldn't you... especially if following a recipe labelled as easy on BBC GoodFood

Rather than get separate fish, we just bought one of those fish pie mixtures from the supermarket. The poaching was fine, although I got a bit carried away with studding the onions with cloves. Bit of a mistake there BBC Goodfood, they do not make fish taste nice as I learnt to my detriment. Big fan of including hard boiled eggs though, they were a welcome change in texture and pad it out nicely on a budget. Making the white sauce was interesting to say the least. It may have been because we were using gluten free flour, but trying to blend the poaching milk into the butter and flour mixture was a nightmare. It was so stiff that in trying to stir it, the amount of vigorous activity necessary for success made it fly all over the hob. And although it tasted nice out of the pan, once cooked within the fish pie, it tasted underseasoned. Personally, I felt it would benefit from some roasted garlic, but that's more likely to be because I'm a garlic fiend than because it actually needs it.

But so far, although not perfect, it was turning out pretty tasty. However, the mash potato then happened. Oh dear. Potato puree, just for everyone's future reference, does not work on top of a fish pie. A very similar consistency to the white sauce, it simply merged into the pie and made what can only be described as tasty fish mush. We brought it back though with the addition of large amounts of grated mature cheddar on top, which once the pie was baked made it crunchy and delicious.

A retrospective review of Moya from last weekend

The first time I went to Moya was a happy accident very soon after I arrived in Oxford almost exactly 4 years ago. Not knowing quite how popular the nearby seafood restaurant Fishers was, I hadn't made a reservation for when my mum had come to visit. Starving, cold and grumpy (my food rage is well-known amongst family and friends), we stumbled into Moya and had a wonderful meal. Frequent visits back have always been equally enjoyable, so when mum (I do have friends as well, honestly) and my stepdad were coming to stay last week, I booked a table for us and my boyfriend, Shaun.

Moya is a small restaurant/bar, serving Slovakian food and cocktails. The atmosphere is not the most relaxed, the chairs are rigidly upright, there is a mixture of good and mediocre photos on the walls and the decor isn't exactly cosy; however, there were fresh flowers on the tables, the colour scheme is pleasant and it is impeccably clean. The staff are also friendly, helpful and attentive, and took our coats which is less common than I would like at restaurants. A new addition to the decor this time was a display of jars of Slovakian honey, which was also advertised in the menu, and although I don't expect sales pitches when I go out for a meal, I thought this was actually rather nice to see and it made the food feel more authentic.

Starting the meal with drinks, the boys both ordered beer and mum and I had a long island iced tea and mojito respectively. Having experienced many disappointing mojitos, I feel confident in judging and mine was wonderful. Not so alcoholic that the other flavours were overpowered, the balance of lime and mint was spot on. I tried mum's long island iced tea, which I confess made me splutter with how overly alcoholic it tasted, but she enjoyed it so it appears that the issue was simply that mum is more hard-core than I am. Depressing thought.

But anyway, we skipped starters and went straight to the main courses. My stepdad Roger ordered goulash which he said was tender and delicious but too small a portion for a 6"3 man. Mum had the pork shank, my usual favourite at Moya, which was meltingly tender and falling off the bone, with a delicious beer and venison sauce and gratin potatoes. I branched out from the main menu and opted for the pan fried pheasant breast was also served with the gratin. I'm a huge fan of gratin potatoes, and I know how bad they are for, well, all of me, but I just can't resist their creamy garlicky wonderfulness. These met most of my expectations, apart from the top wanting cooking for a bit longer. The pheasant on the other hand was overcooked and chewy and although edible, it was really disappointing. The accompanying cabbage was rather bland, and red cabbage rather than green would have been a better match with the flavours. Shaun also chose off the specials board, having the cod loin with pancetta. The cod was nicely cooked but there was barely any pancetta, and what was there would have been much nicer crispy. When I asked him how it was, I was met with a shrug, which speaks volumes for someone who loves food almost as much as I do.

Moving on to the puddings, mum declined (the pork shank was rather large after all) but the rest of us partook. Roger and Shaun both ordered the bubble cake, a light sponge cake with berries and they both devoured it, although I got the impression that the custard rather than the cake was the highlight. I had the apple cake. I enjoyed the apple, sultanas and cinnamon filling, which was a lovely, if standard, combination; however, the pastry was lacking in crispiness and even bordered on being soggy. A nice surprise did occur when I ordered and discovered there was no vanilla ice cream with which the cake was meant to be served. I had been very torn between the apple cake and the pear sorbet, so the absence of vanilla ice cream meant I could have both. Yay! It was one of my favourite bits of the meal actually (and definitely beat the cake), with a nice consistency and a lovely fresh flavour. A very nice ending to the meal.

So, to review:
3/5 for food
3/5 for presentation
3/5 for setting
4/5 for service
giving an overall 13/20

P.S. Apologies for the lack of photos, I had not expected to be setting this up and didn't take any. This will be remedied in future posts...