As part of my Saturday batch cooking I made these individual fish pies. They are relatively quick to make and don’t take too much effort. The recipe came from one of my favourite cook books. Before you ask, no its not written by a michelin starred chef or famous person, its a Dorling Kindersley book from a collection called ‘Everyday Easy’ and is called Dinner in the Freezer. I have a couple of them and they really are great, easy to follow cookbooks. Highly recommended!
This recipe calls for just white fish but I like to use a fish pie mix to jazz it up a bit. I think that most supermarkets sell those fish mix packs and its a good quick cheat to add some flavour.
Ingredients: (serves 4)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- Salt and freshly black pepper
- 4 leeks, finely sliced
- 1 tsp plain flour, plus extra for dusting
- 150ml (5floz) cider
- Handful of chopped flat leaf parsley
- 150ml (5floz) double cream
- 675g (1.5lb) raw white fish (such as haddock or pollack) cut into chunks
- 300g (10oz) ready-made puff pastry
- 1 egg, lightly beaten, for egg wash.
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas 6
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a low heat. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and sweat gently for about 5 minutes until soft and translucent. Add the leeks, and continue to sweat gently for about 10 minutes until softened. Remove from the heat, stir in the flour and add a little cider. Return to the heat, pour in the remaining cider and cook for 5-8 minutes until thickened.
- Stir through the parsley and cream and spoon the mixture into the pie dish (or individual dishes) with the fish. Combine gently and season well with s&p.
- Roll out the pastry on a floured surface so that its about 5cm larger around than the top of the pie dish. Cut off a strip of pastry about 2.5cm wide from the edge of the rolled pastry to make a collar. Wet the edge of the dish with a little water, fit the pastry strip all the way around and press down firmly. Next, brush the pastry collar with a little egg wash, then top with the pastry lid. Trim away the excess and pinch together the edges to seal. Using a sharp knife, make 2 slits in the top to allow the steam out.
- Brush the top of the pastry with egg wash and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until the pastry is puffed and golden. Serve hot.
Freezing instructions:
Leave to cool completely, then wrap in cling film and foil and freeze for up to 3 months. To serve, unwrap and defrost in the fridge overnight. Reheat in the microwave on high for 3-4 minutes, rotate the dish and heat for a further 3-4 minutes, or until piping hot. Leave to stand for 5 minutes before serving.
I’ll finish this post with a lovely little picture of the newest member of our little family..This is Winnie! I’m sure some of you have seen her already on my Twitter and Instagram pages as shes just so cute I can’t stop taking piccies of her! Shes our adorable little kitten and at 9 weeks old, she’s into everything. Here she is having a rare few minutes of calm.
