Friday 2 September 2011

Friday Feast - Smoked Haddock and Mushroom Pie

Well, that was a bit of fun and games! I was typing this whilst watching the weather on TV (it's gonna be hot they say!), with my 'wakey-wakey' cup of tea and accidentally pressed Control and P together, rather than Shift and P for a capital! That woke me up in a hurry 'cos Blogger only flipping well published a half typed recipe, complete with typos and goodness knows what! Sheesh - does anyone know how to un-publish without deleting the thing? I just did a copy and paste to a word processing document and then a swift delete of what was a load of misspelt, badly spaced text! Ha, a load of haddocks-wallop instead of a load of cods-wallop!

It probably serves me right - just before the weather report, whilst typing this recipe, I'd been getting sooooo cross with a line of discussion on Breakfast TV. The debate was whether Shakespeare did actually write all his plays etc. or was it someone else. I personally don't think it'll change my life one way or another if he did or he didn't, but the guy from something like the Shakespeare Trust arguing in favour of it having been Shakespeare all along was so vociferous (yay, today's big word!), overbearing and downright rude that I got all riled.

Then, the camera zoomed right in on him - and I lost it at that point. The Mrs Victor Meldrew in me took over, the laptop went for six, as I jumped up and down whilst pointing at the TV screen squealing ' Look, look, he's got stains all down the front of his jumper - how can you possibly trust a man like that?!'. At that point, my OH who was also watching, almost choked on his tea as I was obviously kicking the day off to a good start!! :) All I can say is, that pro-Shakespeare chap obviously hasn't heard of stain remover! Speaking of stain remover, a quick fix is a Wet Wipe - not the baby ones but the ones with alcohol in that are murder if you get them near your eyes.

Anyhow, calm has returned and here's today's recipe:

Smoked Haddock and Mushroom Pie

Ingredients


for the haddock
500 ml milk
750g smoked haddock fillets
65g butter
40g plain flour
salt and freshly ground black pepper


for the topping
750g potatoes, peeled and boiled until tender
4 x 15ml spoons milk
50g Parmesan, freshly grated (I just use all ready grated!)


for the mushroom layer
15ml spoon olive oil
250g mushrooms - sliced
bunch salad onions

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C, 400 degrees F, Gas Mark 6.

Place the milk and haddock in a saucepan, bring to the boil and then gently simmer for 3-4 minutes until the fish is just cooked. Strain, reserving the milk. Flake the fish, discarding any skin and bones.

Melt 40g of the butter in a pan, stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Gradually stir in the reserved milk, bring to the boil and simmer for 1 minute, stirring continually until thickened and smooth. Season to taste.

Place the fish in an oven proof dish and pour over the sauce.

For the topping, mash the potatoes with the remaining 25g of butter, the milk and most of the Parmesan.

For the mushroom layer, heat the oil in a saucepan, stir in the mushrooms and spring onions and cook for 8-10 minutes until golden.

Spread the mushroom mixture over the fish and sauce, then top with the cheesy mashed potato.

Scatter over remaining Parmesan and bake for 25 minutes until piping hot and golden.

Serve with peas or green beans.

Things I would do differently - our oven heats up in next to no time so I certainly wouldn't preheat it right at the start of this recipe. And, although this is very tasty and I've made it a few times for a change, for simplicity you can't beat a good old mix of white fish, smoked fish and prawns in a sauce just topped with mashed potato.
 Yippee, the sun is shining here - I wonder how long it'll last :)


Di
x

17 comments:

  1. That sounds yummy but i'm still chuckling over the first half of your post. Anxious day for me today...check out my blog to find out more.
    Hugs,
    A x

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  2. DO you MIND oh Feisty One? I happened to be drinking coffee while reading your post . . . and nearly did a "Len" choking on it when you made me laugh.

    PLEASE put a warning before your funny comments, lest you need to send my poor DH a Sympathy card when I expire. At least I'll have DI-ied laughing (Geddit? DI-ied laughing?) Snort!

    See, this is why I DON'T watch TV in the morning. I'd shout at it too!

    Hugs, Sarn xxx

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  3. Lol, made me splutter my tea all over the screen, now where did I leave those wet wipes.....the pie looks lovely and almost had me licking the screen.

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  4. Life is never dull in your house Di! I'm glad I'm not the only one who has to edit their work to death before it is fit to publish.
    On the published one you could have gone to the beginning of the post and in the top left hand corner there is a Blogger sign, usually sort of blurred, next to an empty search box, Follow, Share etc. If you click on this 'B' it takes you to your dashboard and you can click 'Edit post'. When you have edited it, publish it as usual and it overwrites the original. Hope that makes sense and is helpful.
    Kate x

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  5. Oh that's a great tip Mamapez If I've published accidentally, I normally hit the DRAFT button and that seems to remove it ready for editing until I'm finished and ready to publish. Think I'll try your way though.

    Hugs, Sandra

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  6. Hi Sarn and Kate

    Between us we'll crack this flipping blogger :)) Di xx

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  7. Ah, but I didn't want anyone to see the load of old tosh I'd published before I edited it - not that I think you're all sitting there, fingers poised, to jump in :) Have just tried with a test posting and changing it to draft worked but I have a suspicion I can see that others have stuff waiting in draft on my dashboard.

    A 'safety net' I've thought of is immediately you begin to write a post go to options and schedule it for a future date which you can then change to automatic once you're happy with the posting - then it wouldn't matter if you got happy fingers like me and accidentally posted 'cos it wouldn't appear until the allotted date:)) Just gotta remember to go to options first! Di xx

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  8. I think I have a kind of computer dyslexia. I simply can't spot my errors until they are actually published on the main screen. I go through my draft over and over, publish it, and suddenly all these misspelt words, lack of capitals etc pop up. That's why I publish first and then edit. Once someone commented on the original before I republished the edited version, but it has only happened once and I can live with that.
    happy blogging my friends.
    Kate x

    Incidently, I use igoogle-Reader to tell me when a blog I follow has a new post. On there I can read postdated entries before they are published. I have known new challenge themes up front on several occasions. So I am not sure your idea really works Di. I can't open those pages, but I can read all of them on the Reader page!

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  9. As a post script to that, 'Yes Di' I have just seen your 'Just testing and messing about page'! Kate x

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  10. Oh Kate! That's an eye-opener about iGoogle! I can sometimes see an unpublished post in my dashboard followers bit but I assumed that could be something in draft rather than a forward dated posting. It's a 'reet can o worms'!!

    Do you use Preview before publishing a post? That's really useful - down at the bottom next to publish - and like you, that's where I seem to be able to spot missed things/errors 'cos it appear just like it will once you publish it!

    Di
    xx

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  11. Just for future reference Di click on Edit and click on undo it always works for me this will or should take you back to where or what you had just done! gorgeous looking pie and its so easy to do l'll be doing this myself one day!:)Sandra H

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  12. Sheesh Sandra!! That simple? I think my Mrs Potato Head is permanent!!! Gonna do a quick test :) Di xx

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  13. Well? Did it work Di? I know you tried as my side bar says you did something 57 mins ago, but I can't see anything new on your blog!

    xxxx

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  14. Hi Di, because I was waiting for your Friday post I clicked on it as soon as I saw it on my readering list ... but you'd already deleted it!! Had to wait for the real thing and I haven't stopped laughing yet ... how/why did I miss that interview? Your recipe looks delicious so another one to try out. I'm making the pickle stuffed sausage recipe tomorrow for DH to try - I've assured him it's delicious. Finally got round to posting the recipe you triggered this old brain into remembering. DH is delighted with all this cooking ... he doesn't mind being a guinea pig :) Elizabeth x

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  15. Yum, yum - sounds and looks delish! Wouldn't go down well in our house though and it's too big to make for one... shucks. Thanks for the laugh about the Shakespeare fan, too - I could just see it happening and couldn't stop giggling :-)

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  16. Another scrummy triumph there Di - I will have to give it a go. Still giggling at your mishaps of the day - how mean can I be!!!

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  17. LMAO as usual! You Are To Funny Girl! I've had the same thing happen Di. There is some good info in the comments above! I usually copy and past my boo boo to a new post (and save it) and once I've done that go and immediately delete the published post through Edit posts. Another super recipe!

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