Monday 12 September 2011

Dinner for one

I love cooking for people and sharing meals. There are times, however, when I enjoy solo meals in front of my TV or in bed with my favourite tune playing in the background. I had one of those moments a little while ago when I was making fish pie. I got the recipe from a colleague - tweaked it a little and loved the result.

Ingredients:
  • 6 large potatoes, peeled and sliced
  • 1  cup fresh spinach
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 1 chopped carrot
  • Extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 cup cream
  • 2 cups grated cheddar cheese
  • 1 teaspoon English mustard
  • 1 cup finely chopped parsley
  • ½ kg haddock or hake fillet
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method:
Preheat oven to 200 C.
Place potatoes in boiling water and cook for approximately 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to the potatoes. Once cooked, drain water and put aside. Most recipes recommend that you mash the potatoes but I didn’t. It’s up to you.
Steam spinach in a colander for approximately 2 minutes. Once cooked, drain any excess water from the spinach and put aside
Place chopped carrot and onion in a pan and fry in olive oil until carrots are almost cooked. Add cream, a handful of cheese, lemon juice, mustard, and parsley – remove from heat after about half a minute.
Place spinach and fish into a baking dish and mix together. Pour half of the creamy vegetables over the fish and then potatoes on top of that. Top with the rest of the creamy vegetables and cheese and place in oven – bake for about 30 minutes
Once cooked, remove from oven and serve with chopped parsley. Not the prettiest of dishes but very very tasty