Harry's Fish Pie

My fish pie is rich, healthy (only mildly!), filling and packed full of exciting flavours, textures and aromas. I could eat it any time, but it’s especially satisfying on a cold, winter’s day. It takes a while to prepare and cook, but boy it’s worth it! Great to put in the middle of the table so that everyone can dig in. Just make sure you get your share though!

Pie Filling
(measurements are approximate as I do it by eye really)

25g butter
2 shallots, finely chopped
250ml dry white wine
250ml dry Vermouth
500ml fish or chicken stock
500ml double cream
1/2 tsp English mustard
400g mix of boned, skinned white fish chunks (cod, haddock, pollack, monkfish)
400g boned smoked haddock chunks
200g raw peeled king prawns
200g cooked, shelled mussels (optional and the fresher the better and none of that jarred nonsense)
1 lemon
Handfull of flat leaf parsley, chopped (chop the stalks as well as they’re tasty and add extra texture)
Freshly milled sea salt and black pepper

Pie Topping

5-6 large Desiree (Maris Piper will do) potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1 inch cubes (they’ll cook faster)
Large knob of butter
100g grated mature cheddar
Milk (optional)
30g bag plain crisps, crushed (optional)
Dash of Worcester sauce (optional)

How to do it!

Heat your oven to a medium heat (180C or gas 4).

Heat the butter in a saucepan and gentlr fry the shallots. Don’t brown them.

Add the wine and Vermouth and reduce.

Add the stock and simmer until it’s reduced.

Add the cream and on a medium boil, reduce to a thickish sauce.

Strain the sauce through a sieve. If you like your shallots don’t bother.

Stir in the mustard, season with salt and pepper to taste, cover the pan and turn off the heat.

Poach the fish until half cooked then drain.

Add the fish chunks, prawns and mussels into the sauce and mix through gently.

Squeeze in a little lemon juice, add the chopped parsley and mix through.

Boil the potatoes in salted water until soft.

Drain then mash the potatoes (or use a potato ricer if you want it really smooth) with some butter (milk and dash of

Worcester sauce optional) until smooth.

Put a shallow pie or gratin dish onto a baking tray (in case of any bubbling overspill).

Spoon the filling into the dish so that it’s about 2 thirds full and the fish and shelfish all covered by the sauce.

If there’s not enough sauce, just add a little more cream or milk. If there’s too much, keep some back and use as a warm dip with some warm, crusty bread as a snack.

Spoon the mash evenly over the pie filling right to the edges of the dish.

Sprinkle with grated cheese.

If you want a nice crunchy topping, cover the cheese with the crushed crisps.

It should look something like this right before it’s ready for bunging in the oven.

Fish pie ready for the oven

Put the pie in the oven and bake until you see it bubbling away and/or golden brown on top. Best to check after 20 mins then 10 min intervals. If it’s bubbling furiously and not brown, put it under the grill to brown and crisp up the topping.

Piping hot fish pie, ready to eat

Serve with spinach or buttery peas. HINT! Put some fresh mint leaves in the water you cook your peas in. They’ll taste even more amazing.

That's one mighty portion!

Enjoy!

“See it all, till tomorrow”

Pork and Veg Leftovers Stirfry

This is a delicious, filling, incredibly quick stir fry I made today from fridge and freezer leftovers that’ll satisfy for lunch, dinner, coming in from the pub, or (if you’re as twisted as me) for breakfast (next-day curries are WAY better though).

Total time spent, including raking about in the fridge and freezer was 10 mins and if I was to guess the cost it’d be £2 at an absolute maximum.

What I Had As Leftovers

1 pork loin chop
A handful of beansprouts
1/4 onion
2 spring onions
1 red birds eye chili
3 slices sandwich ham
1 takeaway-sized portion boiled long grain rice (I make mine in batches using my awesome microwave rice steamer from Lakeland. No fuss, 10 min perfect rice every time).

How To Do It

Prep Work (2 mins)

Cut (forget knives, kitchen scissors are better) pork loin chop (or any leftover fresh meat) into 1 inch strips. HINT: cut the strips perpendicular to the grain of the muscle as the meat’ll turn out more tender.
Wash beansprouts
Roughly chop onion, spring onions and ham
Finely chop chili (I kept the seeds in to add more heat)

How To Cook It (4 mins)

Heat a little olive or ground nut oil (I added a dash to a bit of fat and juices from some sausages I’d just cooked a minute earlier) in a large frying/sauté pan or wok.

Once the oil is smoking, add all prepped ingredients except the rice.

Stir fry for 2 mins.

Add rice.

Stir fry for two mins.

Add a dash of dark soy sauce (optional), serve and enjoy.

“See it all, till tomorrow”

8-12 large tomatoes
1 small onion
1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Tomato purée
Hot chili powder
Olive oil
2-3 bird’s eye chilis
1 bay leaf
Fresh basil, coarsely chopped
Thick cut bacon or smoked suasage (Matteson’s smoked pork sausage is the best)
Double cream
Tabasco (optional)
6-8 oz penne pasta
Freshly grated parmesan cheese
Freshly milled black pepper

How to do it!

Finely chop the tomatoes.

Finely chop the onion.

Finely chop/crush the garlic.

Chop chilis (keep the seeds in if you like it hot).

Chop and fry 4 bacon rashers or chop enough smoked sausage for 2 people, then set aside.

Add pasta to lightly salted boiling water in a large suacepan. Give it a good stir.

Heat a healthy wad of olive oil in a wide frying pan.

Add onion, garlic, chilis and a few shakes of chili powder and fry for 3 mins.

Add chopped tomatoes, a big squirt of tomato purée and a bay leaf.

Heat until it starts to bubble.

Add chopped bacon or sliced smoked sausage and a good big clump of chopped, fresh basil and gently fry for a few mins.

Taste. If you want it hotter, just add a few dashes of Tabasco. Mmmmm….

Add as much cream as you want and stir in! But not too much.

Cook for a further 2 mins.

Taste. Season with salt and a wee pinch of sugar to taste.

Drain pasta and add to sauce (always add pasta to sauce, not the other way around. It just works better that way and you don’t waste even a micron of that precious sauce).

Sprinkle with some chopped basil and serve with infeasibly large amounts of freshly milled black pepper and lashings of freshly grated parmesan.

Eat, enjoy, then loosen the belt or undo a couple of trouser buttons…

“See it all, till tomorrow”

You’re now asking “what has food got to do with communication?” The answer is it has everything to do. Escpecially these days.

Sharing a meal with friends or loved ones has always been a time not just for eating, but for talking and communicating. “What did you do today?”, “what do you think of this…?”, “did you hear the one about…?”  Today’s busy lifestyles don’t always make this possible, but it’s worth it as it brings us closer together and makes memories.

Some family recipes are handed down orally generation to generation. In my experience, it’s not just orally, it’s by sharing the cooking experience. As a child, I learned how to make bread by watching my mum weigh out the ingredients, mixing and kneading, but I also listened to her “commentary.” It wasn’t just an audio-visual experience. In the end is was smell-o-vision and taste-o-vision! The entire package was imprinted into my neural net without a word written down.

Experience is a language all its own.

Now, I don’t know all the weights for bread making off by heart. I cheat by using written recipes. But what is chief in my opinion is that we learn the important things in life not just by reading, but by sharing experiences.

So, even if you can’t get all the family together for a meal, share the preparation and cooking with someone and have a good chat while you’re at it. You’ll not only appreciate the value of homemade cooking more, you’ll learn more about your companion and yourself. As the old British Telecom advert said “it’s good to talk.”

“See it all, till tomorrow”

Ingredients
(Serves 4)

1 onion
1 tin corned beef
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 lb potatoes
Olive oil
salt & freshly milled black pepper
Fresh parsley

How to do it!

Cut corned beef into small cubes.

Finely chop the onion.

Cut peeled potatoes into half inch cubes and boil until nearly soft.

Drain potatoes.

Heat about 2 tbsp of olive oil in a large frying pan.

Saute onions until slightly brown.

Add chopped corned beef.

Fry for 1 min.

Add cooked, cubed potatoes.

Add Worcestershire sauce according to taste (you can never have enough in my opinion!)

Season lightly with a little salt and pepper.

Mix well (I mash mine up with a potato masher, but if you like it chunky, just stir it up).

Spread evenly around the pan and fry on a gentle heat for around 30 mins.

Once the underside is browned, turn out browned side up and garnish with parsley.

(alternatively, turn out after 15 mins, slide back into pan and brown on other side)

Although some people like to serve CBH with a fried egg on top, I think it’s best with lashings of baked beans and freshly milled black pepper, with extra dashes of Worcestershire sauce if you’re up for it.

Enjoy!

“See it all, till tomorrow”