Sea My Pie

I've made quite a lot of fish recipes for this blog but never a fish pie. I thought it was time to change all that with a recipe that used two kinds of fish and some prawns. It was early in November and the afternoon sun shone before the fog once again returned. I had been to the shop early to avoid the needless queues and been able to source the following ingredients:

500 grams of Salmon

500 grams of Cod

500 grams of Prawns

25 grams of Fresh Dill

300 ml of White Wine.

1 White Onion carefully diced

200 grams of Garden Peas

Mashed Sweet Potato and White Potato made from 1000 grams of Sweet Potato and White Potato 

White Sauce created from 100 grams of Unsalted Butter, 50 grams of Plain Flour, a tablespoon of fresh Chopped Parsley and 300 ml of Milk.

On the player was the first great Yes Album simply called "The Yes Album" and it can be listened to at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nY-QvLEUh8bovdW1btwUXJHE8I_W5bIbA    

It finds the band mastering in full long-form songs that contain much melody, strong backing tracks, top-notch musicianship and above all accessibility without over- indulgence. 

The method to make this Seafood Pie is:

1. Stew the Fish, White Onion, White Wine and Prawns in some Sunflower Oil on a low heat in a Le Cresceut or very deep frying pan for ten minutes. Add the Dill and Garden Peas and stew for another five minutes then leave to cool on one side. 

2. Steam the Potatoes for around thirty minutes until soft. Drain and mash. 

3. While the Potatoes are steaming make the White Sauce by melting the Butter in a saucepan and then mixing it with the Flour and Parsley. Then add the milk and stir on a medium heat until all the ingredients are combined into a thin, runny White Sauce 

4. Put the fish mixture in a greased pie dish. Add the White Sauce. Add the mashed potatoes and spread evenly over the top of the dish.

5. Cook in the oven on Gas Mark Six for thirty-five minutes before serving. 

Richness without it being overpowering is the key to this meal, which contains lots of protein from the Seafood and freshness from the Parsley and Dill while the White Wine creates a strong flavoursome taste. 

Shut it, you Tartlet

The mixture of rain in the valley coupled with the sun bursting through a crack in the clouds produced a kind of liquid mercury hue as I gazed down into it from the hill I occupied with the Dogg on our early morning walk. 

Later that day I tried my hand at a spot of baking. On the player was the Who's seminal 1970 live album "Live at Leeds" an album I bought first during the seminal second is year of my A-Levels. A link to the full gig this live album was culled from can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD2Z2HKHDDj2RHp7wjMY54HiJF1z4akc0 

Having looked back for the last time during the October Holiday I was taking, by listening to this music from the past to inspire me in my new future, I focused on the making of some Butter Tartlets. This dish of pastry cases filled with sweet mixture and topped with icing and a glace cherry apparently comes from Canada. 

The ingredients are as follows:

For the shortcrust pastry:

Eight Ounces of Self-Raising Flour. 

Four Ounces of Unsalted Butter. 

Two tablespoons of water if required to soften the pastry to allow it to be rolled.

For the filling

Four Ounces of Mixed Peel

Four Ounces of Demerara Sugar.

One Ounce of Unsalted Butter. melted.

One Egg Beaten. 

For the Topping

A sheet of ready to roll Fondant Icing.

Some Glace Cherries. 

The method goes like this:

1. Rub in the Butter and Flour to make the Pastry. Roll it out then spread it between twelve greased patty-cake tins. 

2. Mix the Mixed Peel,  Demerara Sugar, Egg and Melted Unsalted Butter together in a bowl. Add evenly to the patty-cake tins. 

3. Bake in the oven for twenty minutes at Gas Mark Six. 

4. Turn out the Tartlets and leave on a wire rack to cool. 

5. Once cool top with the Icing and the Glace Cherries. 

Hummus be joking

 In my quest to limit the salt in my diet I recently tried my hand at making Hummus from scratch after the supermarket produced Hummus purchased had felt salty and stale recently. I was inspired by a prominent influencer in my roster to watch a video showing a leading chef make his own Hummus from scratch and his description of how smooth and fresh it is. 

With Chris Rea's mellow, refined and Jazzy 2004 effort the Blue Jukebox on heavy rotation, a sample of which can be found at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL66877F885A21CC23 , I set about preparation of this simple but effective meal.

The ingredients are as follows: 

720 grams of Chick Peas

2 tablespoons of water. 

The juice of 1 Lemon.

2 Garlic Cloves, topped, tailed, peeled and cut finely.

1 tablespoon of Ground Cumin.

1 Green Chilli, the top and seeds removed and cut finely. 

1 teaspoon of Sesame Seeds. 

The method in this recipe is very simple. First put the Lemon Juice into the blender, then add the Cumin and Sesame Seeds. Add the Garlic Cloves next with the Chilli. Finally add the Chick Peas and water then blend everything to a puree. 

The difference between this recipe and supermarket Hummus is telling. Whereas supermarket Hummus sticks to the spoon like the noxious glue we used at Primary School, this homemade Hummus rolls smoothly off the spoon and is smooth and silky rather than claggy and dry. The taste meanwhile is fresh and immediate thanks to the fresh chilli and the Garlic. After this I don't think I'll every buy anything but homemade Hummus.