An attempt at an English home-cooked weekend dinner

Wow, the past week has just been busy at work that I just had did not have time for anything else. I have never been so glad last Friday. And I promised myself, not to come in to work this weekend regardless if it means breaking my back for another volume of work next week (Ugh, that's already tomorrow!).

So, weekend was spent with what?? With having a very English meal plan!! - - at least for Saturday and Sunday's dinner. The hubby has always whined about being sooo deprived of English dishes here in Bermuda considering that this is a British overseas territory and the island has a quite a number of Brit expats. Bermuda is leaning towards more American or Caribbean dishes -- I guess due to the proximity of both locations where supplies are easier to import, and American and Caribbean influences reach the island faster than the brits. Oh well, back to this weekend plan. Hubby and I went through the English heritage cooking book I bought months earlier and decided to go for English fish and chips for Saturday and roasted pork loin with apple sauce for Sunday.

Not once in every restaurant we went to did the hubby like the fish and chips. He always complains that fish and chips here pale in comparison to the UK's local fish and chips shops. I, on the other hand, is never a fan of battered fried fish. We Filipinos like our fish either fried whole or grilled with just some seasoning, and rely more on our dipping sauce for flavor (often a blend of vinegar, soy sauce, local lemon, and chilies). But as hubby and I would often have compromises in our meals, this weekend ended up with the English meal winning.

Bermuda markets are not abundant with fresh fishes - surprise, surprise! So surveying the limited varieties of fishes at the supermarket, we ended with cod fish for the Saturday night experiment. As for the batter, ours was a bit of contradiction as we ended experimenting with Guinness Irish beer. Why? Because I remembered Jamie Oliver using this beer for his fish and chips in one of the Iron Chef America episodes. The result, the fish turned out a little bit darker than expected haha. In the end though, I think it turned out decent enough given our very first attempt. Hubby finished his portion in 5 min - - he said he liked it. Either that, or he was just too hungry haha. ;)

Today was for the roasted pork with apple sauce one. This was actually a first for me eating roast pork with gravy and apple sauce. Often times in the Philippines, we use the same dipping sauce as described above - - and with rice! :) I love this one, and there's even enough leftovers for tomorrow (not that i would love that!) - - which means less chores on a Monday night and just concentrate on chilling out and watching 24, yey! :)