Fish Pie

I have always loved fish pie, but sighed at the thought of having to poach the fish before hand, leave it to cool then flake the fish, whilst making a bechamel sauce and boiling the potatoes. It would always end up with a very fishy smelling kitchen and could be rather messy so I made them infrequently.

Until that is, I thought - why do I need to poach the fish? ... tradition? hmm maybe, its what my Mother and Grandmother both did, so I thought I would start a new tradition.

I have spoken many times of Gordon our great Fishmonger, he was once asked why his fish pies were so much better than the ones the person asking made, he replied "that's because I put twice as much fish in as you do". I remember those words when making my Firsh Pies.

Fish Pie

Fillet of Smoked Haddock - undyed

Fillet of Cod or Coley or any other white fish

Large Salmon Steak

Handful of prawns

Couple handfuls Frozen Peas

Homemade bechemel sauce - butter, flour, milk, pepper

Finely chopped parsley - enough to suit.

Mashed potatoes

Grated Cheese - I know its fish and cheese, but hey, I love a crispy cheese topping on mash.

Oh, so simple. Oven on at 200oc. skin and de-bone the fish.

Cut into hearty chunks, they keep their shape once cooked, giving you something to bite into.

Boil your potatoes and mash.

Make up your white sauce - usually its around 3/4pt, add chopped parsley.

Pour the sauce over the fish and prawns and peas, mix well.

Add the mash to the top with cheese if you wish.

Pop into oven for 25-35mins.

Mussels in a Wine & Cream Sauce

Following on from our recent visit to Conwy and the stunning Mussels we had there, I thought I would try to recreate the dish, especially when Gordon had a sack full of the last Conwy Mussels of the season on his stall. Taking away a massive amount of mollusc's my brain got a-ticking on how to proceed and came up with this:-

Mussels in a Wine & Cream Sauce

Big Pile of Mussels approx 2Kg

200ml Double Cream

200ml Dry White Wine

2 cloves of garlic

1 leek - Finely chopped

1 Lemon

Handful chopped parsley

Butter

Take 200ml of wine from the bottle and put to one side, pour some of the remaining wine into a glass, this will be required on standby during the tedious task of cleaning and de-bearding the mussels.

Heat the butter in a deep pan, add the leek and crushed garlic, cook slowly for a few minutes.

Add the Mussels, turn up the heat and cover for a few more minutes.

Add the wine, swizzle around the pan and steam the mussels for a couple of mins.

Then add the cream and scrape the zest of the lemon onto the pan and add the juice of half the lemon.

Put the lid back on for a couple more minutes, until the mussels are fully open.

Toss in the parsley.

Serve - with lots of crusty bread.

Hubby and I ate directly out of the cooking pot (saves on washing up!) dipping into the large pan full of mussels with bread and when the bread ran out spoons for we did not want to waste any of this delicious sauce. The lemon added the finishing sparkle, freshening the dish. If I dare say it was even better than the meal we had in Conwy.