The baby wants fish pie for supper…

People have been asking me whether I have been having cravings for anything weird now that I am halfway through the pregnancy. They seem desperately disappointed when I say that I haven’t really felt the need for something so badly that I’ve dispatched the DH to the 24 hour garage at 3am. Then I caught myself eating pickled onions. From the jar. With my fingers. I have been buying a new jar every few days. DH is quite grateful is nothing more….refined.

Now I have cottoned onto it though, I have been using the baby to my advantage. Every year, right after the post-Christmas sales, the Easter fare gets put on the shelves, and I am drawn to the shiny individual egg shaped confectionary dreams that are Cadbury’s Creme Eggs. Of course the packets are a nightmare to scan, the contents are a nightmare to keep break-free, much like real eggs, and it’s a nightmare to eat the buggers, but God, I love them. The chocolatey shell that conceals something that looks vaguely lie uncooked egg but is sickly sweet and so comforting as it slips down the throat. It is such a joy to bite off the top then slowly, and revoltingly, suck out the fondanty oozey centre, slowly nibbling round the melting chocolate edges to allow better acess to the yellow and white goo. I have no taste. But I love them!!!And now, coincidentally enough, so does the baby. S/he also adores marmite, hot chocolate and smoked salmon, just like mummy does!

But there are surprises, such as today’s recent unquenchable urge for fish pie. My enjoyment of fish as a child was strictly limited to fish fingers. Not so good given that I grew up on a Mediterranean Island. I didn’t do fish, no matter how hard people tried to make me enjoy it. Then one day, just before I met DH coincidentally, I decided that I was a grown-up and should like fish and damn-it, I was going to make myself like it. And I did. And I do. I even handle raw fish. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t gut them, I don’t do heads and I don’t do bones. I get the fishmonger man to make them look as un-fishlike as possible. But I do cook it, and pretty well, I think.

Fish Pie

Ingredients
· 1 leek
· 175ml double cream
· 1 glass white wine
· 2 bay leaves
· 1 egg
· 1 kg floury potatoes
· Approx 200g white fish
· Approx 200g smoked fish
· Approx 12 large prawns
· 1 carrot/1 small tin carrots

Method
1. Pre-heat oven to 160C.
2. Peel and chop potatoes, put in a large pan and boil until soft. Once the water is boiling, add the egg, unpeeled, so that it cooks at the same time. Also add the carrot, peeled and halved lengthways, if using fresh.
3. In a separate pan, melt a tsp of butter. Add the trimmed, sliced leek and cook until soft.
4. Add wine and reduce, then add a glass of water and half a stock cube.
5. Pour in cream and add bay leaves and simmer very gently for a few minutes.
6. Put prawns and skinned chopped fishes into a deep oven-proof dish. Remove part-cooked carrot from pan and slice. Add to fish, or add tinned carrots.
7. Remove egg from potatoes, which should now be soft. Drain potatoes and run egg under cold water then peel and chop into 8 pieces. Add these to fish.
8. Remove cream from heat, then pour over fish and carrots. If the liquid does not cover the fish, veg. and eggs, top up with milk.
9. Mash potatoes very well with a generous knob of butter until smooth and creamy. Distribute evenly over fish. Mould into soft peaks with fork then place dish on baking tray/in roasting dish (if you are anything like me and only vaguely follow recipes, this will undoubtedly bubble over whilst cooking and burn onto the base of your oven meaning that everything you cook for the next few weeks will make the kitchen and food smell of fish…trust me) smother with a good layer of grated cheese and bake for about an hour.
10. Serve with frozen peas and ketchup!

Dh received this text between steps nine and ten: Fish pie in the oven. Bring Creme Eggs! xxwoof