Gillian Morgan, New Product Developer, Morgan’s Fine Fish  

The creator of Morgan’s Seafood Kitchen talks about her seafood heritage.

What is your first foodie memory?

As you would expect for a family with a seafood business, we loved seafood from an early age! So much so, our family Christmas dinner included a prawn curry! We had it every year and it always tasted amazing. My Mam doesn’t like spicy food so she cooked a traditional Christmas dinner as well. My Dad ate the chicken, ham and stuffing dinner as well as the prawn curry.

 

The first dish you mastered was…fishcakes. I remember my Mam showing me how to flake the fish and add it to mashed potato, onion and herbs when I was young.

 

The best meal I’ve ever had was…when we went to Italy for Dad’s 50th birthday, it was almost 20 years ago but I still remember the fabulous flavours of the amazing seafood stew we had!

 

The chef/cook I most admire is? I really admire Neven Maguire, another seafood lover. Neven has done a huge amount to promote the seafood industry throughout Ireland and he has a great grá for quality, fresh ingredients. I was lucky enough to meet Neven at a trade show once and he picked me to help make a nest of spun sugar for a dessert – I was thrilled!

 

The cookbook I couldn’t live without is? I love cookbooks and could spend hours searching for inspiration for a special meal. I have a collection of recipes from many different chefs that I’ve gathered over the years. If I really like a recipe it gets written into my notebook and that is my go to for special occasions.

 

Food heaven for me is…an array of fresh shellfish to turn into a feast for a special meal.

 

Food hell for me is…having to cook for a very fussy eater. I’m really lucky that my three children love trying new flavours, they are a great help when it comes to taste testing new fish dish flavours.

 

For a late night feast I’d make...prawn pil pil. It’s so quick and easy to make and full of flavour with chilli, garlic and lots of fresh coriander all soaked up with crusty bread.

 

What’s your guilty food secret? Sometimes when I go out to restaurants I can’t resist a delicious fillet steak! We don’t eat red meat very much at home so it’s a nice treat.

 

Who do you most enjoy cooking for? My husband loves cooking too and we love nothing more than cooking a dinner party of tapas style dishes for our friends. His speciality is the BBQ while I take care of the shellfish dishes like scallops, prawns and mussels. They all go so well with a great range of flavours so there are never two menus the same.

 

What one ingredient would you take to a desert island? Chilli! I’d be able to cook up lovely dishes with freshly caught seafood and limes and coconut from the island’s trees. You can tell I love these flavours from the Morgan’s Seafood Kitchen range, especially the Spicy Lemongrass and Lime Seafood meal!

 

Tell us your best kitchen tip? My best tip is to involve the whole family in cooking from an early age; my children love to help in the kitchen and have developed a great interest in healthy eating as a result. Learning to cook is a great skill to develop.

 

What dish would you most like to be able to cook? I’d love to master the perfect paella – it can be tricky to get the rice just right with a great flavour combination.

 

What’s your favourite restaurant? I really like Fire at the Mansion House, I don’t get to go to it very often but they do some gorgeous fish dishes there as well as steak.

 

What’s your favourite piece of kit? My microplane zester, I love it!

 

What three things do you always have in your cupboard? Olive oil, coconut milk and tinned tomatoes.

 

Your go to dinner is? Baked fish, it can be easily cooked in the oven alongside roast veg and potatoes and is delicious with a quick and easy sauce for a healthy family dinner.

 

What food could you not live without? I don’t think it’s too hard to guess - Fish!

 

Chocolate or cheese? Oh definitely cheese!

 

What are you working on right now? I am working with the team at Morgan’s on extending our Morgan’s Seafood Kitchen range to include pre packed fish and meal kits with a great range of flavours which is handy and easy for people to cook.

 

Morgan’s Fine Fish is available in Aldi, Dunnes Stores and Supervalu. For more information on the deliciously healthy, low fat Morgan’s Seafood Kitchen range which will be available in the coming months, visit www.facebook.com/morgansseafoodkitchen and follow Morgan’s Seafood Kitchen on Instagram @morgansseafoodkitchen