Fish Pie with or without Cauliflower Recipe

We love a good flavoursome fish pie.  I usually use Jamie Oliver's recipe with the peas mashed into the potato topping.  But today i'm trying something a bit different.  

I'm not a fan of cauliflower cheese - my mother made the absolute worst white sauce you can possibly imagine and it's put me off any white sauce based recipe for the rest of my life!  But hubster likes it and Little Miss loves cheese so we'll have a little try to see if she'll eat cauliflowers this way. 

This recipe uses cauliflower as the pie topping instead of traditional potatoes.   

It's loosely based on this recipe from the latest Tesco magazine.  

The peas are blanched.  

Fish chopped into bite sized pieces.  

The white fish, prawns and peas are put in the base of the oven dish.  I'm making small pies, just enough for two adults and one Little Miss.  I'll make about half a dozen and put the other 5 in the freezer for another day.  

The cauliflower is chopped and boiled.

Then popped on top of the fish.

Cornflour and milk are mixed to make a sauce.

Creme fraiche and Dijon Mustard are added and mixed well.

The sauce is poured over the cauliflowers.  

And the top sprinkled with cheese.  

To be perfectly honest I didn't have enough cauliflower to top all 6 pies.  One cauliflower actually only topped two of these tiny pies.  

I improvised with the other four, peeled and boiled some spuds to make mashed potato.  

I put some of the sauce straight on top of the fish as it won't seep through the mash as well as the cauliflowers. 

Then I spooned the mash over the fish - I can't pipe to save my life - seriously I can't even pipe icing!  Then I spread to with a fork and made little ridges so some bits get nice and crispy.  

Topped with cheese of course.  

Here it is after 40 minutes at 180 oC.

Served with a tin of baked beans.

Thai Fish & Coconut Curry Recipe

Another recipe from I Love My Slow Cooker by Beverly LeBlanc.  This is definitely my current "go to" recipe book, there's a wide variety and the recipes are clear and straightforward - no waffling!

This is the first time I've done fish in the slow cooker, it's added right at the end of the cooking time so that's it's nicely cooked through and not overdone which I was worried it may be.

I happened to have some homemade fish stock that's been languishing in the freezer forever.  The recipe suggests using chicken stock which I'll have to do in future but this seemed a good time to put that fish stock to use.

I also used frozen fish which with hindsight was a mistake. Because the fish is added at the last minute (in slow cooker terms) is made the previously perfect consistency sauce really watery.  Too watery, it leaves that unsightly puddle of liquid at the bottom of the dish.

Here's all the veggies chopped and ready to fry.

Next all the spices.

 And the coconut milk brought to the boil.

Then it's into the slow cooker and that evening it's served with rice.

You can actually see the puddle already forming under the rice.  The sauce itself was absolutely delish and I'll definitely make that again, just not with frozen fish.

It'd probably be fine with fresh fish although to be fair the sauce has quite a strong flavour which to me would overpower the delicate flavour of the fish making it pretty pointless using it.

I almost feel like this recipe has been include in order to "prove" that you can use fish in a slow cooker.

I'll be doing a repeat of this one with chicken added at the beginning of the cooking time so it has chance to soak up all those scrummy flavours in the sauce.  .

Salmon Potato Bake

Salmon and new potatoes for dinner tonight.  The spuds need eating and I'm fancying the salmon that I noticed hiding at the back of the freezer.

But every recipe I can find includes cream or creme fresh, neither of which I have.  I'm sure I can knock up a tasty creamy sauce without a trip to the shops so here goes . . .

Slice and boil them spuds.  My potato bakes are usually burnt on top and clap cold underneath so ill give par boiling a try today.

Chop the onion.  I've also got a head start on chopping the rest of the veggies aka whatever was in the fridge.

Fry the onion in oil.

Chop the veggies and sling them in with the onion.

Chop the salmon into cubes.  I used frozen salmon straight from the freezer so i had to defrost it in the microwave for a couple of minutes first.  Turn off the heat and add the salmon to the veggies.  Add a big old dollop of wholegrain mustard. 

Sprinkle with cornflour and give it a good mix.

Chuck it in a roasting dish.  Please excuse my old roasting dish, he's looking forward to retirement.

Drain the spuds and sling them on top.

Pour some milk over the whole thing - just enough to make a puddle under the veggies.  I guess I'm going shopping anyway - that was last of the milk.

Grate some cheese over the top. 

I'll stuff that in the fridge until it's wanted.  I'm thinking about 20 - 30 minutes at 180C.  

It actually took 45 minutes and the spuds could have done with more boiling.   But hubster's happy, after he added extra cheese.  Mini munch seems to agree.