Creamy Fish Pie

Still in the UK and enjoying some basic British recipes. Another one I was after: fish pie. Around 1 hour in total, massive mess in the kitchen but worth it. 

I watched these two videos to make this recipe, but pretty much followed this one. 

INGREDIENTS:

-5 eggs.
-4 salmon fillets.

-2 satchels of mashed potatoes or 

1 kg of potatoes.

-2 or 3 handfuls of spinach.

For the white sauce:

-5o grams of butter.

-50 grams of flour.

-350 ml of milk.

-2 tsps. of dijon mustard.

-50 grms of cheddard cheese.

-salt.

-pepper.

-green onions.

STEPS:

1. Boil the eggs for 12 mins until they fully boiled. Peel them off.

2. Cut up the salmon fillets in slices not too thin and distribute in pan as well as the eggs cut up in fours.

3. Get the sauce ready. Melt the butter in a stove and add the flour, creating a paste. Now add the milk and stir and stir and stir. Bring it to a boil and get it out of the stove. It will thicken. Now add the seasoning, the mustard, the grated cheese, the pepper, the salt and the green onions. Make sure it is all tasty and salty.

4. Now add the sauce onto the baking tray with the salmon and the eggs and distribute it. 

5. Add the spinach on top of the sauce, distribute.

6. Now get your mashed potato going (I did instant), and when ready pour on top and with a fork trace some lines. Now add the cheese.

7. Stick in oven for 30 minutes in 200 degree temperature until it gets golden on top.

Delicious. Although next time I will add fish stock to the white sauce.

Who would have thought for one minute that mustard, cheese, spinach, eggs and salmon could actually go together?? We are too tough on the brits....they do some have a couple of good recipes here and there. ;) 

 

Rhubarb & Apple Crumble

Yum!
One of the best thing of living in other countries is the different fruits and classics you can do. Another classic, rhubarb crumble, rhubarb does not even exist in Spain.

I followed another BBC recipe and worked out great. 

INGREDIENTS:

For the fruit mix:
-500 grms of rhubarb.
-500 grms of apples.
-180 grms of sugar (aprox).

For the crumble:
(this crumble is for 2 pies, and you can freeze it)
-250 grms of flour.
-160 grms of cold butter.
-80 grms of oats
-100 grms of brown sugar.

STEPS:

1.  Cut up the fruit (rhubarb and apples into pieces) and coat it in sugar. 
2. Stick in oven for 20 minutes and roast, turning it every once in a while. It will caramelize a little....yes drooling. The fruit will soften and roast. 
3. Now in the meantime, make the crumble. Add the ingredients above together and dissolve with hands. The butter has to be COLD and hard. Stick in the freezer if it isn't.
4. Now transfer the cooked fruit to your pretty dish that you will use. The fruit will have shrunk so you need a smaller dish. Now add the crumble on top and be generous.
5. Stick in oven again for 20 minutes or until the crumble is golden. 

Ready! 
I find that the proportion of sugar to the sourness is the tricky part in these desserts. In my opinion the British recipes are better than American ones, which contain so much sugar you'd be running marathons, every single day to burn off. I read MANY recipes to understand that this is a pretty good proportion. Let me know what you think.

Toad in the Hole

A super British classic now that we are in the Lake District. Wow this area is sooooo spectacular. Highly recommend it. I NEEDED to do this one being here and it came out pretty great! I'm doing this one back in Spain for sure. A comforting pub dish, pretty decently healthy, original recipe here from BBC.

INGREDIENTS

-300 grms of flour
-4 eggs
-400 ml of milk
-12 sausages.
-oil
-a bunch of fresh rosemary.
-salt&pepper.


STEPS

1. First prepare the sausages. Brown sausages in the oven to 200 degrees for 10-15 minutes and flip them so that they are brown on both sides. Drizzle them with olive oil.
2. In the meantime, prepare the batter for the Yorkshire pudding, which is the yellowy doughy blanket around them. For that you need to put the flour in a big container and make a space in the centre and there put the eggs. Now mix it all gently.
3. You will get a big lump of dough and egg and now add the milk and whisk until it is very smooth, it has to be slightly runny, not too doughy, but more on the liquidy side. 
4. Now add the salt and pepper (1/2 teaspoon of each) and stick in the freezer for a while or oven for an hour (I put it in the freezer because I had no time) until it gets cold.
5. Get the sausages out of the oven and now pour the batter in the container. The sausages should be half covered in the batter ideally. 
6. Now add the rosemary leaves on top. This is a great great touch that adds a lot.
7. Stick in oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees and let the batter rise, do NOT open the door of the oven.
8. Check if the batter is golden and has risen and if that is the case it is ready! At this point you can also turn the temperature down a little so the the dough is fully cooked and leave it for 5 minutes.
9. And that's it. Serve with gravy (granules one will do) and of course Brussels sprouts will make you feel like you are back to 

           

Brownies

Esta receta es de la tienda Thorntons de chocolate que cogí hace muchos años en Belfast. Aquí está. Mi madre dice que es la mejor receta de brownies que ella conoce.

Malasaña

• 200gr. de marganirna-mantequilla
• 200gr de chocolate negro.
• 3 huevos
• 250 gramos de azucar glas.
• 115 gramos de harina
• 125 gramos de nueces
• 1/2 cucharilla de sal.
• 1/2 vainilla
• 12x8 inches fuente.

1. Preheat the oven 170º o 350º.
2. Melt the butter and chocolate together by placing a bowl over simmering water until melted, or a microwave.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat together the eggs and sugar for approximatelyy 2 o 3 min until pale. Add the melted chocolate and mix well until blended.
4. Add the flour, salt, chopped nuts and vanilla essenc to the mixture and stir until all ingredients are incorporated and there are no lumps.
5. Pour into the tin and bake for 35 min. It will look cracked and flaky which is good.
6. Leave to cool and lift out to cool from the tin and then cut off.