Monday, May 4, 2009

Cracking good Sunday dinner


I made Jamie Oliver's Fantastic Fish Pie for the first time last night and, boy, did it live up to its title! Olivia even loved it, so it's now firmly on my list of favourite family meals (and it serves six so there are leftovers for dinner tonight - brill!)

what you need
5 large potatoes, peeled and diced into 2.5cm squares
salt and pepper
2 eggs
2 large handfuls of fresh spinach
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
olive oil
285 mls double cream
2 good handfuls of grated mature cheddar or parmesan cheese (I used parmesan)
juice of 1 lemon
1 heaped teaspoon English mustard
1 large handful of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
455g haddock or cod, skin removed, sliced into strips (I used flake...a less firm fish would work better methinks)
nutmeg (optional)

what to do
  1. Pre-heat oven to 230C (450F) degrees
  2. Put potatoes into boiling, salted water and bring back to boil for 2 minutes. Carefully add eggs to pan and cook for further 8 minutes until hard-boiled, by which time potatoes should also be cooked.
  3. At the same time, steam spinach in a colander above the pan for about a minute. When spinach is done, gently squeeze liquid out.
  4. Drain potatoes, remove eggs, cool, peel and quarter. Place to one side.
  5. Fry onion and carrot in oil for 5 minutes, then add cream and bring to boil. Remove from heat and add cheese, lemon juice, mustard and parsley.
  6. Put spinach, fish and eggs in dish and mix together, pouring over creamy vegetable sauce.
  7. Mash cooked potatoes, with butter, salt and pepper, and nutmeg if you want, and spread on top of fish. (I added a touch of cream to the potatoes to ensure they were nice and moist.)
  8. Place in oven until potatoes are golden, around 25-30 minutes.
  9. Serve with your choice of veges. We did the pea and corn thing as it's kid-friendly and yummy with the mash!

3 comments:

Chantelle {fat mum slim} said...

That looks delicious, but I am not sure I could 'do' a fish pie.

You have almost convinced me though. x

Amanda said...

I'm always a bit cautious when it comes to fish pies, too...but this is yummo! It's not overly fishy, which I think is the key...give it a run!

BonBon Rose Girls Kristin said...

I've always wanted to try a fish pie. Being a Florida gal I love seafood ANYTHING! I think I might have to make this for the hubs. Thanks for sharing!