Fish Pie with Mustard Mash

I made this on Saturday after Deano left the hospital, I think we just needed something homely and comforting and fish pie hit the spot.

About large 2/3 fillets of fish, pollack, smoked haddock, salmon

Whole cream milk

Potatoes

Pepper corns (about 10), bay leaves and an onion

Parsley - chopped, about a tablespoon

Whole grain mustard

Butter

Tablespoon of flour

Place cubed fish into a saucepan along with about 1/2 pint of milk. Add the onion (cut in half), peppercorns and bayleaves and poach in the milk. Don't let it cook too long, just long enough for the fish to cook through so about 10 mins.

Take of the heat and drain the fish into a collander and set aside the milk taking out the onion etc

Meanwhile boil potatoes until soft, mash spuds with butter and milk and add a good dollopp of wholegrain mustard.

Place a tablespoon of butter into a pan and heat until melted, take off heat and slowly stir in a tablespoon of flour to make a paste. Then gradually stir in the set aside milk until there are no lumps and place back onto the heat to heat through and thicken. Add chopped parsley. At this point you could also add some good cheddar or spinach to the sauce. Add salt & papper to taste.

Pour over fish then place mash over fish - make rough peaks with the mash.

Bake in the oven for about 20 mins. You could add grated cheddar over the mash to make it cheesier if you wish.

Fishtastic!

Chocolate Orange Sponge

Good evening gastronorms,

I'm going to catch up on a few posts this evening as life is slowly getting back to normal for the Holdens, well not Deano as he is holed up on the sofa and starting to feel sorry for his self (but not too much as it's slowly dawning on him that he now has 8 hours a day to play 'Call of Duty' on the X-box and watch as as much Myth Busters and WW2 docs as he likes, so he is filling his boots until the boy and I come home and start to winge until he puts on 'Ace of Cakes' or 'Scooby Doo' on the telly.

I recently made a yummy chocolate orange cake which is a Nigella receipe. This cake isn't an unctious, cream dripping out of the sides Mrs Miggins cake but a nice sponge that goes well with good vanilla ice cream or custard. I'm basically going to give you the receipe verbatim but upload the shots of Deano enjoying the cake on 3 consecutive nights.)

125g unsalted butter

100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces

300g thin cut marmalade

150g sugar

Pinch of salt

2 lrg eggs

150g self raising flour

20cm springform tin, buttered & floured

Pre-heat oven to 180/gas 4

Put butter in pan and melt, add chocolate when nearly melted and leave for a minute or so then take off the heat and let it just melt in the heat of the butter

Add marmalade, sugar, salt & eggs and stir in with wooden spoon

Beat in the flour bit by bit

Pour into tin and bake for 50 mins

When cooled dust with ice sugar

Chicken, Bacon and Leek Pie

Hi all,

Well it's been a busy weekend and there is lots to tell. It was my birthday on Saturday and we all went out to the skating rink in Millennium Square, it was fun but full of spotty teenagers so not quite the romantic 50's vision I had in my mind! Deano slipped on the ice and now is in hospital with a broken ankle, poor love. We thought it was sprained but no, he has broken his tibia and will need an operation...

Thanks to everyone for all of my lovely presents, I got some heart shaped cookie cutters which will definitely be making an appearance and a brilliant cookery book called 'Spooning with Rosie' which I'm dying to try and will let you know all about.

Tonight's tea had to be quick as it was 4.45 and we had to visit Deano is the ossie at 6 so made a quick pie. It's a bit of a weird one as Deano is away so I could eat meat but it has Quorn chicken in it also! You could either omit the bacon or use real (free range) chicken.

A few rashers of streaky bacon
A bag of Quorn pieces or about 2 fillets cubed
Vegetable or chicken stock
Potatoes
Cheese
Cream - I used Elmlee
Rosemary

Boil potatoes
Fry the leek (I cut in half and then sliced)and bacon until leek soft
Add Quorn and then about 1/2 pint of stock - add the chopped herbs
Add about 3 tablespoons of cream
Simmer until sauce is thick (if necessary add some cornflower)
Mash spuds - I just used butter and milk but you could add a clove of garlic to the boiling water or some mustard.
Put pie mixture in a bowl and top with mash - add grated cheese (I used Gruyere but cheddar is fine) and grill

Ta da instant yummy pie for tea

Enjoy

next post - tales from the hospital bed, Deano is missing my food as he keeps getting a microwave om elate and mash for tea!

Fish and Chips with Minty Peas

Hullo, it's Friday night and that means it's fish night! I nearly didn't do this as I couldn't be bothered but I'd bought the fish and honestly it wasn't that much more effort than putting a pizza in the oven.
Last night Dean and I went for a meal to Viva Cuba in Leeds. Our lovely friend Sarah babysat Blix as it's my birthday tomorrow. Sooo a mohito and daquiri and a few glasses of the red stuff meant I felt a bit ropey today and I had the boy and all of his energy to contend with! I decided to make paper mache day of the dead heads as I thought Blix would love getting messy but as normal he put about 2 strips on the balloons and went off to play with his soldiers, leaving me as normal to quite enjoy myself doing this stuff and moaning cos he doesn't. He's just like his dad, no creativity and loves war, well not exactly war but he loves those little plastic soldiers at the moment.

So ingredients are

1 large fillet of fish - I usually go for cobbler or pollack as it's a sustainable and also cheap but you could you any fish such as haddock or cod.
Breadcrumbs - about 3 slices of bread which you have left to go stale.
parsley and lemon juice
potatoes - as many chips as you like
frozen peas
Creme fraise
a few leaves of mint
1 x egg

Wizz up the breadcrumbs in a blender - I have one of those mini blenders so the washing up is minimal. Add a few spring of parsley and S&P and give it another wizz.
Beat the egg and place in a bowl
Cut the fish into strips - what ever size or shape you like - kids like thin fish finger size.
Dip the fish into the egg and then immerse in the breadcrumbs - place on a baking tray, dizzle with oil and a squeeze of lemon.
You can either peel or not peel the spuds it's up to you but cut into chunky chips and place in a freezer bag with a bit of olive oil. It's easier to do this to ensure all the chips are covered in oil. PLace on a baking tray and sprinkle with rock salt.
Oven should be about 200 and place the chips in the oven and cook for about 30 mins or until, golden and soft.
Put fish in the over for about 20 mins.
Cook peas then add to the blender, add a tablespoon of cremefraise and a few leaves of mint and wizz.
Dinner is served!

Mushroom Risotto

Hello,

Tonight it's risotto and I'm not sure who started the myth that it's hard but it must have been somebody who had a penchant for savoury rice to cover up for their habit. Now I know sometimes you really want a packet of the processed stuff and yes, occasionally I like a guilty packet of super noodles but this is much nicer and not really that much harder.

This recipe was for 2 so just double up etc for more people.

1/2 packet of Arborrio rice
Vegetable or chicken stock (I must admit I don't make my own unless it's the weekend so I always use 'Marigold' vegetable stock'. There is an unsalted version if you are worried about the kids.)
1 onion- chopped finely
Fresh thyme - a few sprigs
A couple of bay leaves
Fresh garlic (Nigella might suggest that you use garlic infused oil to avoid the chopping which is fine, just adds to the fat content that's all).
Mushrooms
Parmesan cheese - about a tablespoon depending on taste
1 x egg (optional)
knob of butter (optional)

Chop up onion and garlic and fry in oil oil to soft
Add rice and toss in oniony mixture
On a medium 'simmer' type heat add a ladle of stock and let the rice absorb the stock then keep adding a ladle full until the rice is cooked. What you are after is the rice to be cooked but with a bite, not so it's got the texture of rice pudding, so keep tasting. Sometimes if the rice is just about to be the right texture and all of the stock is virtually absorbed then I turn the heat off and put the lid on, it keeps cooking and works out fine.
Add the thyme and bay leaves at the beginning of the stock process.
Towards the end I add the mushrooms because I like them firm but you could fry up with the onions and garlic at the beginning.
Add the Parmesan - foodies often save their Parmesan rind in the fridge and add at the beginning of the stock process to give it a more cheesy flavour in conjunction with the other cheese; just remember to take it out at the end.
Adding a knob of butter and the egg yolk will give it a glaze and make it richer but if you are watching the calories then just omit.

Options would be prawns using fish stock, other vegetables such as courgettes or peas with mint, chicken with chicken stock (brown the chicken first and add towards the end).
Try different herbs such as basil or parsley but remember woody herbs go in the cooking and leafy ones like basil, mint and parsley go in at the very end when the dish is cooked.

Enjoy x

Gnocci with Roasted Pepper Sauce

Hi all,

well this is my first receipe and I have to say that tonights tea was yummy. It's January and the food hangover from Christmas is still going strong so I'm trying to reduce calories and portion size! This receipe was for 2 so just take the list below and double it or whatever for however many are eating.

I can't believe that people use those jars when making sauces as this is really easy peasy and tastes sooo not synthetic and out of a jar.

I forgot to say that I'm only providing the basic quantities cos that's how I cook. The majority of my dishes are 1 pot wonders except on a weekend when I might brave a few pans and even a roasting dish!

Ingredients
2 x peppers
2 x clove of garlic
Olive oil
Smoked sweet paprika
Parsley
Creme Fraise (reduced fat is also fine
1 x packet of gnocci
Salt & pepper

Cut peppers in half and scoop out seeds and stalk - cut into thick strips
Place in oven dish and liberally (but not too much) cover in olive oil
Add the 2 cloves of garlic (just squash them and take off the skin), S&P, and a teaspoon of smoked paprika (the wonder spice).
Cook for about 20 mins at about 180
Pour all ingredients into a blender, make sure you get all of the oil
Add about 3 tablespoons of creme fraise and wizz
Boil gnocci
Pour sauce into drained gnocci, add parsley and stir
Grate parmesan or peccorino on top
Et voila!

You can make this more complicated by deskinning the peppers first and then roasting or you could sieve after blending to get rid of the bits but why? it's fine as it is unless it's for a posh dinner party. You can serve this with anything not just the gnocci but pasta or even as a sauce to meat and fish.

Bon appetite or enjoy yer tea as they say up north
xxx

Welcome all

Hi all,

Hello and welcome to my little foodie blog.

My name is Claire and I live with my husband Dean (who will eat anything except meat) and little boy Blixa (who only really wants to eat bread and butter,carrots, yogurt and chocolate!). I like to cook real food and wherever possible cook from scratch, it's not a snobby thing I just prefer the taste. There are nights of course where a frozen pizza is stuffed in the oven or fish and oven chips are pulled out of the freezer but these are rare and we never really eat takeaways.
I have been known to say the incredibly pretentious words 'I couldn't live without Parmesan' but forgive me I'm not pretentious.... but just how does one live without certain store cupboard standby's?
As my husband doesn't eat meat it will be rare that you will find a meaty recipe on this blog so keep your fingers crossed for when we have guests as the inner carnivore in me always comes out and you will find me nuzzling meat off the bone like a medieval maiden.

I hope you enjoy my postings and even maybe follow some of the recipe's?

Tootle pip for now, next posting will be my store cupboard essentials!

xx