Best of British

Hello!

This post starts out a little differently. I've decided to include more lifestyle-type posts on my blog because I often get the chance to go to some great events with more of a food, drink and various other random things focus and it would be a shame to miss out on sharing those. I also seem to have less time on my hands nowadays (take me back to being a student when all I had to worry about was whether I could get up in time to watch the Jeremy Kyle repeat at 1:30pm) which means I don't get as many opportunities to do dedicated outfit posts.

Waitrose British Dish Challenge

I was recently thrilled to take up a challenge from Waitrose to recreate a classic British dish. I was more than happy to accept as I love cooking, though this presented a bit of a problem; British cuisine! I actually don't tend to eat many traditional British dishes, I tend to be into more exotic flavours found in Indian, Moroccan and Mediterranean cooking.

I thought about the typically British stuff and the ways I might be able to put my own spin on things. I came to the conclusion that actually, the British dishes I like the most are dead simple; steak pie, a Sunday roast and fish and chips.

It was the latter that I decided to go with. A fish and chip shop conjures up memories of visiting seaside towns when I was younger, or scraping together change with friends to buy a cone of chips to share smothered in salt and vinegar when we were teenagers.

As much as I wanted to reinvent traditional fish and chips, I figured that it's one not to be messed with. Instead I altered the concept slightly and made fish goujons rather than a large fillet so I could have a posh version of one of my favourite variations- a fish finger butty!

Beer Battered Cod Goujons with Crusty Bread and Hand-cut Chips
Ingredients from Waitrose:

Maris Piper Potatoes
Cod Fillets
Crusty Sandwich Loaf
Plain Flour
Sparkling Water
Lemon

Maris Piper potatoes make the best chips. I washed and peeled a handful and cut them into thick, chunky chips. I then parboiled them, then coated them in olive oil and seasoned. I baked my chips so that they were a bit healthier.

I must say that the quality of the cod I got was amazing. I cut the fillets into thick strips, coated in plain flour and then dipped into my homemade batter before frying. I followed this recipe for the batter.

This crusty bread was divine with loads of thickly spread butter.

To add to the English theme, I decided to try some of Waitrose's own brand gin, paired with Fever Tree ginger beer and a generous wedge of lemon. Amazing.

An awesome meal. The man agreed too.

Checked shirt- vintage

Stylefruits Brilliantly British Fashion Blogger Card Game

This post seemed like a good opportunity to share another recent British-themed venture. I was asked by Stylefruits to take part in their annual fashion blogger card deck. This year's pack is titled 'Brilliantly British' and features a set of British-themed statistics for 32 fashion bloggers.

They're so cool and a great way to discover new bloggers. You can nominate bloggers for next year's pack, here.

I'm going to give a pack away to a lucky reader who comments on this post so don't forget to leave me a comment to let me know that you'd like to win the pack!