It has been a couple of weeks since I posted and it has been this first time I have missed a whole week. A lot happened in that time and I have been keeping photos of the boards and pictures of food. You can follow my Instagram account to see photos of food I make, that doesn’t necessarily make it into the blog.
This past year I had a group of amazing students work for me and I could not have been more grateful for everything they brought to the programs we ran together. When I asked what they wanted to do to celebrate the end of the year they asked me to cook for them. This took some negotiation as I live in the city, most of them live outside, I don’t have enough plates to feed them all and fitting them all in my 685 sq. ft. condo seemed daunting. Despite all this they managed to convince me….but to be honest it wasn’t really that hard of a sell.
I asked them to complete a poll to let me know what they would like to have. Italian was the winner. You can see the menu here. The dinner was a wonderful end to a year that I can’t put into words, so instead I put it into my food. I will miss them all and can’t wait to see what amazing things they accomplish in the future. That is the essence of why I love working with students.
This past week was a bit of a hodge podge menu board. Mostly inspired by a shop to Costco. For all the things that Costco is and isn’t I love buying mushrooms there. I know lots of people who go for other bulk things, but me, it’s portabello’s everytime!
It was also Cinco De Mayo on Tuesday so I obviously had to make Mexican. Margaritas and Chicken Mole Enchilada’s absolutely hit the mark. They were delicious. If you have never had mole stay tuned this week for a Mole Tacos recipe I will share as I have left over sauce. I always make too much.
I also reached for my trusty Jamie Oliver Comfort Food Cookbook this week for the Curried Fish Pie. Fish pie is a traditional British dish. The pie is usually made with white, often smoked, fish (for example cod, haddock or halibut) in a white sauce or cheddar cheese sauce made using the milk the fish was poached in. Prawns and hard boiled eggs are other common additional ingredients. It is oven-baked in a deep dish but is not usually made with the shortcrust or puff pastry casing that is associated with most savoury pies (e.g. steak and kidney pie).
I adapted the recipe a little to suit our eating preferences and ingredient availability (omitting the eggs, and using Haddock). I really enjoyed the flavours but found the pie a little wet. Maybe it was because I had used frozen fish. All in all a good one, and worth revisiting, with some fresh seafood.
Curried Fish Pie
adapted from Jamie Oliver’s Comfort Food
Ingredients
Potato Mash
- 2 large Russet Potatoes
- 1 small knob of unsalted butter
- semi-skimmed milk
Sauce & Pie
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1-2 fresh red chillies
- coconut oil
- 2 small handfuls of curry leaves
- 1 1/2 teaspoons black mustard seeds
- 2 onions
- 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger
- 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 X 400 g tin of light coconut milk
- 200 g baby spinach
- 1/2 lemon
- 1/2 pint of grape tomatoes
- 2 haddock fillets
- 12 black tiger shrimp
Directions
For the sauce, sauté the first 9 ingredients on a medium heat in a frying pan for about 10-15 minutes, this will give the onions a nice caramelized flavour. Add the coconut milk and spinach and cook for a few minutes to thicken. Top with the fresh tomatoes and remove from the heat – pour the sauce into a deep oven dish at least 20cm x 20cm and leave to cool.
Peel and roughly chop the potatoes and cook in boiling salted water for 12 to 15 minutes, or until tender. Once cooked, drain the potatoes and mash really well with the butter, a few splashes of milk and a pinch of sea salt and pepper. This can be done ahead of the pie preparation.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.
Cut all the fish into bite-sized chunks, and intersperse around the dish with the shrimp. Squeeze over the lemon and top the whole thing with your mash – scuff it up with a fork to create a larger surface area for crispiness.
Bake for 40 minutes, or until golden and bubbling at the edges.
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