Smoked haddock, leek and pea fishermans pie

I love fish pie, nursery comfort food at its best. This week I decided to make a variation on the classic and it proved a popular dish, definately something I would make again. Pretty economical too as I was able to utilise mostly ingredients from the freezer or store cupboard, the tasty dish is gluten free and utilsed some of the stock powder I had kindly been sent by Essential Cuisine.

I really like Essential cuisines range of stocks as they are not over salted and very tasty, they are very like homemade stock, light in colour and allergy friendly. The smoked haddock I used in this recipe was from a frozen pack but I prefer if possible to use undyed smoked haddock if you can get it, any other white smoked would work too. The peas were frozen petit pois but you could easily use ordinary peas if that is all you have. I had the leeks and creme fraiche in the fridge and potatoes in the cupboard.

What you need

• 2 smoked haddock fillets, skinned and de boned - cut into bite size pieces
• 2 leeks, topped tailed and cleaned. Cut in to fine circles
• Essential cuisine fish stock powder - make to about 150ml stock
• Creme fraiche
• Dill 
• Cornflour
• Frozen petit pois / peas - ramekin full
• Salt and pepper
• Potatoes ( 1 used 2 large poatatoes for 2 people)
• Butter or vegetable oil

What you do

• Gently heat a little butter or oil in a large frying pan, add the leeks and cook for a few minutes until they are starting to soften
• Add the fish pieces and cook very gently until just coloured, now add the peas to the pan and the creme fraiche (I used about 2 tbsp), the fish stock and dill.
• Simmer gently until you have a sauce of your desired thickness, if necessary thicken with slaked cornflour. (Slaked is when the cornflour is mixed into a paste with little water or milk or stock). Taste and season
• Place the pie filling in your chosen dish and allow to cool
• Meanwhile cook your potatoes for your mash, once ready then mash with a little butter and season to taste
• Place the mashed potatoes on top of your pie
• Pre heat the ove to 180c and bake for approx 25 minutes until golden on top and the sauce is bubbling
• Serve immediately

Smoked haddock, leek and pea risotto , using DelishFish

I recently placed my first order with DelishFish on the recommendation of a number of other food bloggers, its a delightfully easy website to find your way around and gives good information about the different types of fish available,  So I chose a variety of fish, all which arrived really quickly at the peak of freshness right to my door,the courier even called first to check I would be in to receive my delivery and John the owner tweeted me to check everything had arrived Ok.

The quality of the fish was second to none, lovely large fillets, all individually packed and labelled so its easy for the cook, the packaging was great too, so everything arrived lovely and cool and intact. The fish was very good value for the quality of fish so I will be ordering again from John at Delish Fish.

I love smoked haddock and John's is reputed to be the best in the country ( as per River Cottage website) so I wanted a recipe that would really show off this ingredient to its full, I make smoked haddock chowder a lot but wanted a more evening meal dish so I thought risotto, peas for a sweet hit to contrast with the smoky fish and a soft oniony backnote coming from the leeks. 

Ingredients

• 1 large fillet Smoked haddock - undyed DelishFish's preferably
• 1 Leek - cleaned and cut into fine rings
• Risotto rice - 
• Frozen petit pois - handful
• Fish stock - I used Essential cuisine
• Parsley or dill to garnish
• Olive oil

If feeling especially decadent you could top with a poached egg 

Method

• In a large frying pan warm a little olive oil, gently softened the leeks without colouring
• Next add your risotto rice and stir gently to coat the grains in the olive oil and cooking juices from the leek
• Next add a small quantity of your fish stock, stir and gently simmer until absorded
• Keep adding stock in small quantities and stirring until the rice is tender
• Microwave your fish on a plate covered with cling film and a couple of drops of water - a couple of minutes should do the trick.
• Once the rice is pretty much cooked add the frozen peas and little more stock , simmer for a few more minutes then stir in the flaked cooked fish and any juices on the plate
• Sprinkle with parsley and serve

This is lovely dish creamy in texture but with no added diary and light but satisfying, great if you are watching your figure too.

Smoked haddock and leek chowder

This is one of my favourite soup, so warming and comforting. Its loosely based on a recipe in "New Covent Garden Soup - Book of Soups" one of my extensive collection of cookery books. I first had their version off their stand that used to be on London Euston railway station, on a business trip. I make my version fairly regularly throughout the winter season, its easy to substitute the smoked haddock for salmon or prawns and the leek for onion, you could also add sweetcorn too.I used Leeks today as I had a fresh supply from the garden.

Ingredients

• Large knob of butter
• 2 large leeks - cleaned and chopped
• 2 large potatoes - peeled and chunky chopped
• 500ml fish stock - a stock cube is fine
• 1 largeish piece of smoked haddock, cooked, de-skinned and flaked and any bones removed
• Pepper
• Dill Weed

Method

Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add 2/3rds of the chopped leeks and potatoes to the pan, cook gently without colouring for about 5 minutes, then add the stock and bring to a simmer, cook until the vegetables are just softened. Now allow your soup to cool and use a stick blender to liquidise until smooth. Now add the rest of the vegetables and bring back to simmer and cook until the vegetables are tender, if you need to add more water you can do, add the flaked fish and dill weed, taste and season. You probably won't need any salt as smoked haddock is fairly salty.

Serve garnished with parsley or a swirl of cream or both if you wish.