Pot pies and fishcakes

IF I only food-shop in ALDIDL, which is more or less true, THEN I'm not going to develop craves for PopTarts or instant Boeuf Wellington. Although I have to report that LIDL's trim little frozen beef-and-stilton or mushroom&tarragon pies are wel lekker. They are also Deluxe and €3.00 the pair. That's €7.50/kg, which is not potato prices, not even block-cheddar prices, but cheaper than chips.

As I say, these things are tasty and make the centre piece of a supper with, say, green beans and boiled spuds. The reason they taste okay is because food engineers have been working into the night lurrying in the umami and mouth feel. Mainly ensuring that the pastry is crispy when the interior gloop is piping hot. Ingredients are hard to find on the interweb, so I'll here get them into the public domain.

30% mushrooms, wheat flour (WHEAT flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamine), water, vegetable oils (palm, rapeseed), water, salt, emulsifier, mono- and di-glycerides of fatty acids, fried onions (onions, sunflower oil), whipping cream (Milk), white wine (sulphites), mushroom stock (concentrated vegetable juices (mushroom, onion), salt, rapeseed oil, water, mushroom powder, sugar, cornflour), modified maizer starch, garlic purée, yeast extract powder blend (yeast extract, salt), whey powder (Milk), chives, salt, 0.1% tarragon, thyme, dried glucose syrup, Milk proteins, colour: carotenes.

Antient YT foodie Graham Jenkinson agrees!

Fishcakes? To give parity of esteem to Aldi, a shout-out for their {cod | haddock | salmon} fishcakes on special (€2.49 €1.49 the pair = 270g) at the end of February. I couldn't find them in B'town but picked some up the following Monday in Carlow. Like the pot-pies, these are fine in a multiple ingredient sort of way; they look a lot better cooked than in their soggy breadcrumb chilled counter state.

Multiple ingredients? yup:

ATLANTIC SALMON (Salmo salar) (38%) (Fish), potato, wheat flour (Wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamine), water, rapeseed oil, white sauce [double cream (Milk), water, salt, lemon juice concentrate, fish stock (water, potato flakes, concentrated fish extract (Fish extract, salt), salt, cod powder (Fish), lemon juice concentrate, onion powder, anchovy purée (anchovies (Fish), salt, sunflower oil)], cornflour, onion powder, ground white pepper], dill, extra virgin olive oil, maize starch, yeast, paprika, apple cider vinegar, salt, sugar, Wheat gluten, black pepper. 

DYED SMOKED HADDOCK (Haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) (28%) (Fish), salt, colours: curcumin, paprika extract), potato, Wheat flour (Wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamine), HADDOCK (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) (10%) (Fish), water, rapeseed oil, potato flake, double cream (Milk), Cheddar cheese (Milk), whole milk (Milk), chives, extra virgin olive oil, maize starch, salt, yeast, paprika, apple cider vinegar, sugar, Wheat gluten, fish stock (Fish stock, salt, maltodextrin, yeast extract, onion powder, celeriac (Celery), rapeseed oil, leek powder, carrot powder, white pepper, bay), Dijon mustard (water, ground Mustard seeds, spirit vinegar, salt), concentrated lemon juice, cornflour, onion powder, black pepper.

I like that the food engineers at Aldi have deferred to actual cooks in the experimental kitchen, the tasty bits in these two products are quite different: haddock calls for celery, salmon for dill - who knew? And of course I am impressed that they have Latin-named the species - except in the case of cod powder and anchovies. God know and who cares about what goes into "cod powder", presumably it's what's left after all the fillets have been taken away and has been rejected in the fish goujon factories. Anchovies otoh are interesting taxonomically because there are several species in the genus Engraulis. I reckon that nobody who eats cheap fish-cakes would notice if Aldi replaced E. encrasicolus [euro-anchovy] with E. anchoita [Argentine a.] or E. japonicus if those stocks are more robust this year.