Fish

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Brandade – A French Version of Fish Pie

Preparation time: 20 min

Cooking time: 25 min

Will serve 4 people

Ingredients:

650 g of salted cod
1 ltr of milk
2 bay leaves
4 pepper corns
500 g of potatoes
6 medium cloves of garlic finely chopped
50 ml of olive oil
80 ml of cream
The juice of 1 lemon
Lots of black pepper
NO SALT !
3 tbsp of finely chopped parsley

Soak the salt cod for 24 hours in several changes of water.
Bring the milk to the boil, reduce heat and infuse it with the bay leaves and pepper corns for 10 minutes.
Trick! Leave a wooden spoon in the pan at all time to prevent the milk going over.
Preheat the oven to 200/ Gas 6.
Drain the cod and put it into the infused milk. Simmer for 8-10 minutes or until barely tender.
Drain again and cool slightly. Flake the flesh with a fork, discarding any skin or bones.
Scald the cream.
Peel and cut in small squares the potatoes; cook them until tender.
Mash – add some cream to ease the process. Make sure there isn’t any lump!
In a food processor blend the cod, add the rest of the cream, the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and pepper until you have obtained a smooth mixture.
In a large bowl, blend by hand the mash and the brandade together.
Take 4 individual porcelain oven dishes; brush them with some olive oil .
Put the brandade in and level it.
Warm up each dish for 20 minutes in the preheated oven.
When ready sprinkle some fresh parley.
Serve with a green salad and some roasted tomatoes.

Fish Strudel

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 pack of puff pastry
• 600 g of a mix of white fish ( haddock, cod ) and salmon filet- cut in 3 cm cubes
• 80 g of cooked prawns- defrosted
• 2 leeks or one leek and one fennel when in season
• 4 shallots- chopped finely
• Half a pack of tarragon- leaves removed from the stalk and chop finely
• 50 ml of white wine
• 25 g of unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 egg yolk mixed to a tbs of water

The white sauce:

• 45 g of plain flour
• 30g of butter
• 500 ml of full fat milk- warmed up and infuse with 2 bay leaves
• Salt and pepper

Cut off the bottom roots and top leaves (where the white stalk becomes green) and peel off the first layer of skin.  Cut one long slit down the stalk.  This makes it easier to wash (make sure you get all the gritty dirt out from between the top layers of skin) and also helps the leek break up naturally while cooking.  Rinse it and chop it finely.

Slowly heat the olive oil and the butter in a sauce pan.  Add the prepared leeks and shallots, salt and pepper and soften them on a low heat until translucent, stirring often to avoid burning. Then, add the white wine and season, cook on a low heat until the wine has completely evaporated- the leeks and shallots should have melted.

Prepare the white sauce. Melt the butter chopped in morsels, make sure it does not burn, add the flour all at once and whisk, cook for a minute or two. Discard the bay leaves from the milk and add it gradually to the roux off the heat, stirring at all time with a whisk to prevent lumps to form.  Put the pan back on a medium-low flame and cook until it thickens; season.

Add the “melted” leeks and the tarragon to the white sauce. Check the seasoning and add more salt and pepper if necessary.

Roll out the pastry to a rectangular shape to the thickness of a pound coin. Once you get the desired shape and thickness, roll it on your rolling pin and lay it on baking sheet covered with baking parchment.

Spread the sauce on top of the pastry, making sure to leave a 3 cm band all around the edges of the pastry.

Scatter the fish pieces and the prawns onto the sauce.

Fold the pastry through the middle and seal all the sides by pinching the edges.

Brush some egg wash onto the whole strudel.

Bake in a hot oven, 190C, for 25 minutes.