Hi everyone - hope you all enjoyed your Easter! I have to say mine was much improved from last year - admittedly I was still celebrating the holiday alone (as I'm working in my university town over the holidays) but I managed to upgrade last year's McDonald's Easter Sunday dinner to a homemade carbonara - plus chocolate for pudding - and spoke to the family over Skype! The carbonara recipe - yes, another one, it's worth it, I promise - will be appearing on my blog sometime this week, but for now, I thought I'd share two suitably 'fishy' meals for last week's Good Friday - or any Friday as a matter of fact - particularly as fish is renowned for being 'brain food'; with my recent writing of the last essays of my second university year, I've certainly needed it.
My first recipe is a fairly traditional English fish pie - perfect for a Good Friday fish supper - jazzed up with a bit of wholegrain mustard and lots of cheddar cheese! I know that so many people think fishy food is awful (or share the Italian school of thought that fish and cheese together is a cardinal sin) but this recipe is set out here to prove you utterly wrong. When you see the beautiful colours of the fish and smell the pie in the oven - and most importantly, taste the darn thing - you will understand what I'm talking about. This meal is literally heavenly (if I say so myself) and so simple. It's perfect comfort food and doesn't even require proper cooking.
My second recipe is perhaps not as 'Good Friday' as fish pie, but this Mediterranean style tomato-mackerel pasta will blow your mind (and tastebuds). It's really quick and easy but tastes yummy, is actually very good for you, and just seems a bit different to the infamous tuna pasta bake I've heard so much about (this may seem weird for a student but I've never much fancied tuna). Anyway it's spicy, saucy, simply lovely. Enjoy.
*Fish Pie*
*Serves 2*
1 pack of fresh fish (ready chopped/deboned - Sainsburys' do a great 'fish pie' pack for about £3.30 that uses three different types of fish - perfect)
6-8 king prawns, halved
1 leek
Large handful frozen peas
1 red chilli (small)
1/3 pack light herby cream cheese
Splash milk
2 large potatoes
1/2 tsp wholegrain mustard
Lots of grated cheddar (large handful at least!)
Warning: you'll need an ovenproof dish for this - luckily I've got one that I can use both on hob and in the oven, saving me transferring my fish pie mix to an ovenproof dish after preparing it.
1. Boil a kettle and add to a saucepan with a pinch of salt and the peeled/chopped potatoes - they'll need at least 15mins to cook until soft (for the purposes of easy mashing)
2. Chop leek/chilli and place on a high heat on the hob. Whilst cooking, halve your king prawns and make sure the fish in your pack is chopped into evenly-sized chunks. When your veg are cooked, turn off the heat and gently add your fish/prawns to the pan before mixing cautiously - you don't want to break up your chunks of fish too much
3. Add your cream cheese and allow to melt over your fish and leek mixture into a sauce before throwing in frozen peas, some black pepper, and a tiny splash of milk if necessary (be careful though as too much milk makes for a wet pie - your mash won't brown/crisp)
4. By this point, your potatoes ought to be cooked; prod with a knife to make sure before draining, taking the pan off of the heat, and placing the potatoes back in their pan with a tbsp of butter/marge, grated cheese, and wholegrain mustard. Mash well (I don't have a masher so just use a fork instead) until smooth-ish.
5. If you have been using a dish like mine (suitable for hob and oven use) - then the next step is particularly easy - when the mash is to your taste, simply take forkfuls and layer over your evenly spread fish-leek-cream cheese mix, before placing in the oven at 160' for 45mins. If you have to transfer your fish to an ovenproof dish at this point, do so gently, before covering with your mash in just the same way as above and baking with the same heat/timing as detailed above. Serve and enjoy!
(It's not the prettiest dish in the world, I know, but if you were serving it for people other than immediate family and wanted a better appearance, you could make individual fish pies in smaller ovenproof dishes - they'd look much smarter like this)
*
*Med-style Mackerel Pasta*
*Serves 1*
1/2 tin smoked mackerel, in brine
1 red chilli
1-2 cloves garlic
1/2 tin chopped tomatoes
1 chopped leek
6 destoned black olives, halved
Splash of balsamic vinegar
Lots of black pepper
Dash of Worcestor sauce
Sprinkle of oregano
Chilli oil, to serve (trust me, you only need a drizzle but it's yummy)
80g spaghetti (smaller than ususal portion - leek makes up for this!)
1. Finely slice garlic, chilli, and leek. Add to a wok (not completely necessary but makes it easier to see everything going on!) and place on a high heat
2. While these cook, boil a kettle and get a saucepan ready to throw your spaghetti into. Open your tin of mackerel (on the rectangular Sainsburys' tins, it opens easily with a ringpull) and drain - I pour the brine away outside as I have to admit, it smells fishy - the odour stays in your sink otherwise (please don't let this put you off the mackerel itself - it's so lovely and already deboned etc. - ready to eat in the tin!)
3. When the leek is cooked and softened, add your tinned tomatoes, stirring well and crushing with the back of a wooden spoon until smooth. At this point add your pasta to salted boiling water (for 10mins cooking time). Add your sauce ingredients (listed above) to the tomato-leek mix and stir well, before adding around half of your tinned mackerel* and breaking up with a spoon. Like tinned tuna, it breaks up easily and is already cooked, so you don't need to worry about cooking times, etc.
*You could use leftover mackerel in a cold mackerel-mayo-salad wrap for lunch the next day, or simply double the recipe and make enough for dinner tomorrow - it's awful but that's what I do as this recipe is my absolute favourite at the moment!
4. Keep an eye on your tomato-mackerel sauce as the pasta cooks, adding little sploshes of the boiling pasta water to the sauce when it begins to look too dry. Remember to keep the sauce on a high heat as this way the sauce stays thick and flavourful without thinning down too much as you add water
5. When your pasta is cooked, drain lightly and add to the wok holding your tomato-mackerel sauce, stirring well, adding extra black pepper and a drizzle of chilli oil if you have any. Throw in your black olives at the last minute and stir through once more before turning off the heat and serving. I'm really hoping you love this one as much as I do - I think it's beyond lovely...
