Fish Pie with Scallops
I can't remember when Fish Pie became our Good Friday tradition, well that's the thing about traditions, isn't it? You don't really plan them, they just grow from good ideas. Over the years I've made a variety of different versions and, as I am taking part in the the
Fish is the Dish,
Healthy Happy Hearts campaign, eating two portions of fish for six weeks, it was an ideal way to get one of my fish portions.
Fish Pie with Scallops (Serves 6)
Printable Recipe
1 fillet of Haddock
1 fillet of Salmon
1 fillet of Saithe
12 scallops
Fish can be varied according to availability and personal preference2 hard-boiled eggs, shelled and sliced
Fish stock powder (I used Essential Cuisine)
optional
For the sauce:
500ml milk
2 tsp cornflour
seasoning
For the topping:
6 large potatoes, peeled, quartered, boiled and mashed with a little milk and butter
1. Preheat the oven to 200C.
2. Poach the fish in 300ml milk with a tsp of fish stock powder. Poach for 15
mins until fish is cooked.
3. Lift out the fish and place on a plate to cool a little.
4. Flake the fish removing any bones.
5. Measure the warm milk used to poach the fish and top up to 500ml.
6. Mix cornflour with a little cold milk and add the cornflour mixture to the warm milk.
7. Cook until the sauce starts to thicken, season to taste.
8. Place the flaked fish in an ovenproof dish add the sliced hard
boiled eggs and top with the raw scallops.
As they don't take long to
cook its better to put them in raw and they will be cooked in the oven.
9. Pour over the white sauce.
10. Cover the sauce with the mashed potatoes and fork up the potato to create crispy bits.
11. Place the dish on an oven tray and place in the oven for 15 minutes
until the sauce is bubbling and the potato topping is golden brown and
crisp.
I served the Fish Pie with Asparagus, sauted in butter with a little water to create some steam.
The fish was tender with the delicious, plump scallops adding a touch of luxury to this comforting fish dish.
Find out more about the Healthy Happy Hearts 6 week plan.
Labels: aspargus, fish, Fish is the Dish, haddock, mashed potato, saithe, salmon, scallops
Fish and Chips: the healthier takeaway option
We all know that fish and chips is a healthier takeaway option
than other choices like pizzas, burgers or kebabs. If you live in the countryside like me, it's not easy to access takeaways, they don't deliver you have to go and collect!
That's why I prefer to keep some breaded
cod or
haddock in my freezer along with some oven chips and frozen peas. In 30 minutes you can have a comforting plate of Fish and Chips ready and on the table.
If you have more time and want to make your own, you might want to check out some of the recipes on the Fish and chip style fish recipes on the
Fish is the Dish website:
Fish n Chips Jubilee Fish and Chips by Nick Coffer Spooky Witch Fingers
Fish is the Dish has been educating people across the
UK about the health benefits of eating fish for over a year now, and they are delighted to announce that after months of hard work, their Healthy Happy Hearts Challenge is finally complete and underway!
Labels: cod, Fish and Chips, Fish is the Dish, haddock, Healthy Happy Hearts, peas
Haddock Mornay Layer Bake - keen as mustard!
All of this little lot came to me from Kelly Atkins at Food Matters. They are working with Henry Harris and Grey Poupon to show the versatility of Grey Poupon Dijon mustard as an ingredient in cooking. Grey Poupon
is one of the finest Dijon mustards, it’s the white wine in the
ingredients that makes it superior to its competitors and the flavour it
creates when used as an ingredient is very unique.
I opted to make a fish dish and only specified some spinach, the rest of the ingredients were a surprise to me a bit like doing 'Ready Steady Cook'!
So here is what came in my bag:
2 Haddock Fillets
260g bag of Spinach
220g Blue Stilton
300ml Creme Fraiche
2 Leeks
3 potatoes
215g jar of Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard
You will also need:
2 tbsp olive oil
75g butter
1 tsp cornflour
50g Gran Padano cheese, grated
100g mature cheddar, grated
salt and freshly ground black pepper
After much thought and some inspiration hunting through my cookbooks, I decided to make a layered bake.
Put 1 tbsp olive oil and 15g butter in a large pan, add the leeks when the butter begins to sizzle. Saute the leeks gently until they are soft and slightly golden. Tranfer them to an ovenproof baking dish, season with salt and pepper.
Put the other 1tbsp of olive oil and 15g butter into the pan and add the whole bag of spinach leaves once the butter begins to sizzle. Cover the pan (I used a sheet of foil and cook gently until the spinach has wilted, about 5 minutes.
Place the wilted spinach over the leeks in the ovenproof dish, season with salt and pepper.
If the fish has skin, remove the skin and cut the fish fillets into chunks and spread over the spinach and leeks. Season with salt and pepper.
Put a tsp of cornflour into a bowl and add about a tbsp cold milk, mix together. The cornflour will help the creme fraiche not to split when the dish is baked.
and now for the mustard, add a generous teaspoonful of Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard to the milk and cornflour and mix thoroughly.
Add the Creme Fraiche and the two chesses and mix together.
Spread the mixture over the fish and vegetables layers.
Peel the potatoes and slice thinly, parboil in a pan of boiling water for about 5-10 minutes until soft but not breaking up. Top the ovenproof dish with the potatoes. Melt around 20g of butter in a pan and brush the potato slices with the melted butter.
Bake in the oven at 180C for 30 minutes until the sauce is hot and bubbling and the potatoes are golden brown.
I was really pleased with the taste of this dish, you could taste all the ingredients but no one overpowered the others and the crispy texture of the potatoes was a nice contrast to the creamy sauce and soft vegetables.
Now the eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that I did not use the Stilton. I felt that it would have overpowered the taste of fish and I wanted the mustard to be the dominant flavour. However, I thought it might be nice to accompany the Fish Bake with a salad and a little Blue Cheese Dressing.
Blue Cheese Dressing
100g Blue Stilton
2oz cream cheese
1 tbsp mayonnaise
100ml single cream
Crumble the blue cheese, set aside about 1/3 of the cheese and mix the rest with the cream cheese until well blended.
Stir in the mayonnaise and the single cream, then stir in the remaining blue cheese.
Cover with cling film and chill in the fridge for 3 hours to blend the flavours
I made a simple Waldorf salad with Romaine lettuce, chopped celery, sliced apple and chopped walnuts, combined with the Blue Cheese dressing this was very good and a complete contrast to the fish bake.
I'm not convinced these are ideal parnters but the Blue Cheese dressing would make an outstanding dip to have with crudites as it really complimented the celery (especially when I was testing it out before serving!)
Labels: celery, cheese, creme fraiche, Dijon Mustard, fish, Grey Poupon, haddock, Leeks, lettuce, potatoes, salad, spinach, Stilton, waldorf salad, walnut
