Humble Pie

So my Mummy has left me after an all too brief visit. Back she goes from whence she came, in an iron bird, bound for the sunshine leaving me behind surrounded by grey clouds -sniff sniff.  The old me would have soaked up all this misery with a quick shot of retail therapy. And to be honest, I had just the ticket in the show stopping, vertiginous, nod to S and M shoes called the Lady Peep Spike by Christian Louboutin (above).  I tell you so coveted are these dangerous strutting contraptions, they made the front cover of the Evening Standard!  Well, Good sense prevailed in the end and I spared myself the obligatory catholic guilt and shame that usually follows a bout of avarice. Besides there is always Santa Baby to hurry down the chimney with my shoes on Christmas day, after all I've been an awfully good girl.  To assuage my need for a blues banishing retail therapy fix, I settled on the more modest unwrapping of my amazon orders.  Surprisingly, I was so happy with my humble offerings in the form of a book,  The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davis, and a pie dish.  It was really the pie dish that did it for me.  It has a gorgeous gradated cassis colour on the outside and the inside is a natural stone with a glossy enamel coating.  I just knew that this humble bit of crockery and I would have a long and happy relationship where it will serve me time and time again. Naturally, I had a desire to cook in it straight away and started to scratch my head for easy dinner ideas that required a pie dish.  I turned to my son, who is the font of all good sense in our household at present, and asked him for what he fancied for dinner.  "I would like some fish pie for my dinner mummy and I want to stay up late today!" he said rather authoritatively for a three and half year old.  "Hmm, spot on my Darling, I have a quick fish pie recipe that you and Daddy usually enjoy..." but before I could bore him with any more details he turn on his little heels and skipped off to resume play with his model cars.

Anyway, my day was certainly picking up. I got started with the pie after a quick dash to the local shop.  I made, baked and served dinner in my lovely new pie dish.  I was happy as Larry having ended the evening with a call from my Mummy to say she was home safe and sound.  Yes, I did let my little Darling have a rare late night as it was Friday and he was the reason dinner was such a hit (and coincidentally, Wee Willie Winkie was on holiday)!  

I also thank Jamie Oliver for this simplified and jazzed up recipe, see below. I sometimes fiddle just a bit with this by lodging some quartered boiled eggs into the mix before piling on the mash.  Also, if I'm strapped for time (or just a bit lazy) I sometimes use a good, no added nasties, pre-made mash (from the fridge section of the supermarket) for the topping which I enrich with extra butter or olive oil, salt and black pepper if necessary. 

  

Easy as pie, ready for the oven

The final product!

Fish Pie (Jamie Oliver)

serves 4 - 6 
This is a fantastically simple fish pie which doesn’t involve poaching the fish or making a tedious white sauce. Loads of good, fragrant veg are added quickly by grating them in. You can use whatever fish you like, making this as luxurious as you want it to be. If you like your fish pie to be creamy, feel free to add a few tablespoons of crème fraîche to the fish.
PS Some of the supermarkets now offer lovely packs of different fish and shellfish for using in fish pies. Keep a look-out, and if you buy one you want it to be about 700–750g in weight for this recipe.

Ingredients

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1kg potatoes
• 1 carrot 
• 2 sticks of celery
• 150g good Cheddar cheese
• 1 lemon
• ½ a fresh red chilli
• 4 sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley 
• 300g salmon fillets, skin off and bones removed
• 300g undyed smoked haddock fillets, skin off and bones removed
• 125g king prawns, raw, peeled
• olive oil
• optional: a good handful of spinach, chopped
• optional: a couple of ripe tomatoes, quartered

To prepare your fish pie
• Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6 and bring a large pan of salted water to the boil 
• Peel the potatoes and cut into 2cm chunks 
• Once the water is boiling, add your potatoes and cook for around 12 minutes, until soft (you can stick your knife into them to check) 
• Meanwhile, get yourself a deep baking tray or earthenware dish and stand a box grater in it 
• Peel the carrot 
• Grate the celery, carrot and Cheddar on the coarse side of the grater 
• Use the fine side of the grater to grate the zest from the lemon 
• Finely grate or chop your chilli 
• Finely chop the parsley leaves and stalks and add these to the tray

To cook and serve your fish pie
• Cut the salmon and smoked haddock into bite-size chunks and add to the tray with the prawns 
• Squeeze over the juice from the zested lemon (no pips please!), drizzle with olive oil and add a good pinch of salt and pepper 
• If you want to add any spinach or tomatoes, do it now 
• Mix everything together really well 
• By now your potatoes should be cooked, so drain them in a colander and return them to the pan 
• Drizzle with a couple of good lugs of olive oil and add a pinch of salt and pepper 
• Mash until nice and smooth, then spread evenly over the top of the fish and grated veg 
• Place in the preheated oven for around 40 minutes, or until cooked through, crispy and golden on top 
• Serve piping hot with tomato ketchup, baked beans, steamed veg or a lovely green salad

Comments

[Aineakho]

I want those shoes! Sexy is what he does best, not sure where I'd wear them to since my social life is a shadow of its former self. hmmmm!!!

I'll be making this for dinner tonight with whatever fish I have in my freezer.