Fish pie

We ate this on a cold February day, after zooming to the library to read about pirates, princesses and bears. I made you your own little pie, which you thought was fabulous.

This is great for using up any odds and ends of fish or prawns you’ve got lurking in the back of the freezer. To make enough for 4, you’ll need:

250g (ish) puff pastry (life’s too short to make this stuff)
chunks of fish – we had some cod offcuts from a previous meal, but any firm white fish or salmon would do
prawns – again, we had a mix of shell on prawns (which I de-shelled), and some of those tiny little cheapie frozen ones
1 onion, finely chopped
a couple of tablespoons of flour
1 tablespoon butter
milk – I must have used at least half a pint
a small pile of grated cheese – say 50g

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C. You’ll need to find a pie dish of some description – you could use lots of small ones (ramekins are perfect for small people), or a big pyrex or enamel job.

Fry the onions in a little olive oil until they’ve softened, and then tip them into your pie dish.

Next, you’ll need to poach your fish. Place it in a pan, and cover with milk. Bring to the boil, and then quickly turn down to a simmer. Depending on how large your pieces of fish are (in particular how thick), it’ll take from 4-8 minutes to poach them.

Fish the pieces out of the milk with a slotted spoon, and place on a plate. Flake, and check carefully for bones. Sling your small chunks of fish in the pie dish too, and add the prawns (assuming they’ve been defrosted thoroughly if you’ve retrieved them from the freezer!).

You now need to make a white sauce, to go over the fish and onions. Take the warm milk you used to poach the fish, and melt the butter in it. Add the flour, and whisk until it starts to thicken (keep simmering the milk, and don’t let boil). Add the grated cheese, salt and black pepper, and whisk until smooth.

Pour the white sauce over the fish. Roll out the pastry to the size of your dish, and place over the top of the fish mixture – you’ll need to make a couple of slits to let the steam out. Place the dish on a baking tray (in case of spills), and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until the pastry is puffed up and golden.

It’s delicious with some steamed broccoli – and of, course, you’ve got to have peas…

Chorizo, prawn and courgette skewers

It's been a ridiculously hot day (unheard of up here in the frozen north), so we spent the afternoon pottering about in the garden, and then had a bbq. For once, we didn't need an umbrella.

These worked really well on the bbq - but you could grill them quite happily as well.

Makes about 7-8 skewers. You'll need:

half a red onion, chopped into large chunks
a large courgette, sliced into chunky rings
a small pack of king prawns (we used ready cooked ones, but crevettes, or langoustines would also be fantastic cooked in their shells)
half a large ring of chorizo (I'd say this was about 15cm of chorizo), in large slices
a little olive oil for brushing

If you're using wooden skewers, soak them in water for half an hour first, or they'll burn to a crisp.

Thread chunks of everything onto the skewer, in whatever pretty pattern you fancy (I did: courgette, chorizo, prawn x2, red onion, courgette, chorizo, prawn x2 etc). Repeat ad nauseam for the other skewers. Brush with a little olive oil, and then sling onto the bbq once the charcoal has turned white and is giving off lots of heat.

Depending on how high you've got them above the heat, how much charcoal you've got, wind speed and other exciting outdoor factors, they take around 5-15 minutes to char nicely and cook through.

We ate them in the sunshine on the balcony, with a green salad and lots of French bread, before retiring to the shade for pudding.

Prawn, pepper and tomato pasta

We spent this morning filming for your Dad's promo video, in a freezing cold alley. You were surprisingly amenable...

Tea was unsurprisingly swift.

You'll need:

a tin of tomatoes
a large onion, finely chopped
a red pepper, diced
a green pepper, diced
a slug of balsamic vinegar
lots of black pepper, and dried oregano
half a bag of frozen prawns, defrosted (the larger the better - ours were definitely on the shrimp side)
pasta (bows are good)
capers (to garnish)

Gently fry the onion in a little olive oil, until it softens and goes translucent. Add the peppers, and cook until they've softened too. Chuck in the tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, oregano and black pepper, bring to the boil, and simmer (you'll need to leave it for a good 23-30 minutes if you want a nice tomato-y taste).

Stick your pasta on to cook (at the regulation three handfuls per person). After a couple of minutes, slide the prawns into the tomato sauce, and let them cook gently for 5 minutes or so, until they're hot.

Drain your pasta, and tip into the sauce pan. Swish it all about until all the pasta's coated with the sauce, and drop a few capers on top. Ladle out into some bowls, and away you go. A little grated cheese/mature cheddar/parmesan on top would be a bonus.

Fish pie

Proper nursery food, this. And quite appropriate after an afternoon at Mothercare buying small vests and socks.

For three, you'll need:

a couple of pieces of fish (we had pollack because it was cheap in Morrisons, salmon would be even nicer)
two smallish onions, finely chopped
enough milk to cover the fish
whatever frozen prawns you can rustle up from the freezer, defrosted
a knob of butter
a tablespoon of flour
a couple of really large potatoes
salt, pepper, nutmeg and a bay leaf

Start off with the potatoes. Peel them, chop them up reasonably small, and stick in a pan with boiling water for about 12 minutes. Once they're soft, mash, adding lots of salt and pepper.

Then it's onto the onions. Saute them in a little olive oil for 6 or 7 minutes until they're soft. Chuck them in the bottom of your pie dish.

Check there aren't too many bones in the fish. Cover with milk, add a bayleaf, and simmer for 10 minutes or so, until it's cooked. The length of time will depend on (a) how thick it is and (b) whether you've got it straight out of the fridge and plunged it into a pan. A couple of minutes before the end, chuck in the prawns so they're cooked too.

Lift the fish and prawns out from the milk (don't throw the milk away!!). Take any skin off, flake it, remove any bones, and add to the onions in the bottom of the pie dish.

Add butter, flour and some grated nutmeg to the milk, and whisk gently for 10 minutes or so on a low heat, until the sauce has thickened. Pour over the fish mixture in the pie dish. Top with the mashed potato, and stick in the oven (at about 180C) for half an hour or so, until the top has gone crispy and the fish mixture is bubbling away.

You can get fancier - you could add some celery to the onion, maybe put some cheese on top of the potato, add some peas, vary the fish...the possibilities are endless.

Fried rice with chorizo and prawns

We got back from Gran and Grandpa's in need of a little something for lunch after a weekend of travelling on steam trains. This seemed to fit the bill.

You'll need:

some leftover cooked rice (from Thursday's tilapia tea)
some chorizo (how much depends on how greedy you are, and how much you like chorizo - so in your case lots...), sliced
an onion, finely chopped
half a red pepper, chopped
a couple of carrots, sliced
a handful of prawns (if frozen, make sure they are defrosted)
a little sunflower oil
black pepper

Chuck the chorizo in a frying pan (you don't need to add any extra oil), and turn up the heat. Fry for a couple of minutes, then add the onion, and cook until it's translucent. Add the red pepper and carrots, and cook until they're softened - at this point chuck in the prawns and cook for a minute or two. Add the rice and swish everything about in the pan until the rice is reheated. If it starts to stick, you may need to add a little sunflower oil. Season with some black pepper.

You may also like to add a touch of chilli with some Encona or Tabasco. Your dad likes eating this with a little mayonnaise, and he often adds some soy sauce.