Fish & Chips - a tradition

As I write this I am queing in a fish and.chip shop in my home village. It has been sited here for much of my life and is opposite a newsagent that has been in existance, and used by my family, since before I was born. Now I know that there are businesses that have been around far longer but I am not dwelling on their age, it's the tradition.

Fish and chips, that is a piece of white fish covered in batter and deep fried in boiling oil, and potatoes cut into chips and cooked in the same way. This was for years the most common take away dish in the UK. For some it took on the status of high dining and was an event, something special that was looked forward too. Today, with so much more convenience food, access to microwaves and the plethora of fast food establishments,.it has become just another factor in the race for a modern life.

Not that this is so bad, the variety of foods and flavours has grown and one gets to much more choice. The problem perhaps is in what people choose, where once cooking from fresh ingredients was the.most frequent method it has taken a back seal to cooking ready prepared meals.

To try to combat what might be seen as laziness, that reaching for something from the freezer or chiller cabinet, I have been compiling lists of recipes that involve just 4 or 5 steps. This way we can cook even if feeling tired.

So why am I standing in a fish and chip shop? I hear you cry. There are some days when we are just too frazzled, like today when I was late getting home. I always say that it's my turn to cook when we do this.

This email was handwritten on a Sony Ericsson P910i