Fish Pie with Prawns

I am surprised that this Fish Pie recipe hasn’t turned up earlier on my blog. My whole family loves it and I have been making it for years as it is so delicious. It is a bit of a cheat’s pie since it uses garlic and herbs cream cheese as a base of the sauce so the flavor of the pie is sorted right from the start.

This pie can be prepared a day earlier and just baked when needed. That is why it works really well when you know you will not have time to prepare dinner the next day but you still want to serve something really tasty really quickly. So as soon as you are in your kitchen after being away from home, you can put this dish to the cold oven, put the temperature up and bake it for 40 minutes. In the meantime, you can cook some vegetables to serve it with, lay the table and get everybody gathered at the table for a delicious meal. Really convenient when you are short of time.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 portions):

800g potatoes, peeled and cut into equal sized pieces,

50g butter,

200ml milk (plus 3-5 tbsp optionally, if the potato puree is too dry),

2 tsp cornflour,

150g garlic and herbs cream cheese,

400g white fish, cut into bite size portions,

200g prawns (cooked or raw), shelled and cleaned,

salt and pepper.

METHOD:

1. Cook the potatoes in salted water till they are soft.
2. Preheat a fan oven to 160 Celsius degrees.
3. When the potatoes are cooked, add butter and mash them well, check the seasoning.
4. Pour the milk in a frying pan, add the cream cheese and gently melt it on a medium heat.
5. Add the fish, raw prawns, salt and pepper, stir and cook for 2-3 minutes. If you are using cooked prawns.
6. Transfer the fish to an ovenproof dish and cover everything with the mashed potatoes; decorate, if you wish and put to the hot oven for approx. 30 minutes until the top is nice and golden. If you prepared the pie in advance and kept it in the fridge, put it to the cold oven and then turn the oven on. You will need an extra 10-15 minutes.

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Fish and Tomato Soup

Good tomato soup is always a winner. I make quite a few different types of tomato soup and I am sure so do many other people. I thought about this recipe when I ended up with some fish “leftovers” after I cut out nice, thick fillets from a cod.  This soup is a great way of using such thinner parts of cod or any other white fish. It is aromatic and substantial as addition of chopped tomatoes and green peas turns it into almost a stew. Another great advantage of this soup is that is very easy and quick to prepare.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 portions):

1 onion finely chopped,

2 tbsp olive oil,

2 garlic cloves, crushed,

1 can (approx. 420g) chopped tomatoes,

800ml fish or vegetable stock,

1 tsp sugar,

1.5 tsp paprika,

0.5 tsp chilli powder,

1 tbsp fish sauce,

300g frozen green peas,

350g cod, skinless and boneless, cut into pieces,

1 tbsp lemon juice,

Salt and pepper.

METHOD:

1. Heat olive oil in a big pot, add the onions and fry on a medium heat for 3 minutes; add the garlic and fry for further 2 minutes.
2. Add chopped tomatoes, bring to boil and cook on a medium heat for 10 minutes; then add stock and cook for 10 minutes more.
3. Add all the spices (sugar, paprika, chilli and fish sauce) and frozen peas; bring to boil.
4. After 3 minutes add the fish and lemon juice, cook for 2-3 minutes, taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

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