My Oh My It's Fish Pie

Yes, that’s right I am going to be sharing a recipe with you for something called fish pie.  But first I want to bounce an idea off of you.

I kind of want to test out a ton of cookie recipes for the upcoming holiday season.  Does that seem like something you all would be interested in?  I keep coming across recipes that seem like they would be wonderful, and so I stow them away only to choose 5 or 6 between all of them to actually bake.  I will typically spend an entire weekend baking cookies and then I hand them out to neighbors and family.

However, this method tends to lead to madness as most of the cookie recipes are new to me and can inspire foul language and flying objects if things don’t turn out exactly as I pictured them.  But, if I make many cookies leading up to Christmas, I can pawn them off on unsuspecting people and whittle down my choices through a well-documented pseudo-scientific method. (Although I will most likely just make a lot of cookies and still choose 5 or 6 new recipes that turn me into a hyperventilating monster a few weekends before Christmas.)  So, cookies? Cool?  It’s decided then.

Now, on to that fish pie.  This one of the many recipes I took away from working in the Scottish Kitchen at the Folk Life Festival.  It was the first recipe I successfully made on my own after learning it, and it is the only one I specifically asked one of the cooks to share with me. 

It sounds kind of gross, and it doesn’t look super appetizing, but I promise you – it’s good.  I like to use this with leftover cooked fish, but you could always cook your white sauce a bit longer with the fish in it to cook the fish. I have taken the liberty here to dress up the pie a bit, but feel free to pare it back and keep it very simple. Oh and when you do make this, the lighter your mashed potatoes are, the better they will sit on top and spread out over the pie.

Joyce McRaye’s Fish Pie

 Any white fleshed fished can be used here (and I have even seen recipes which call for salmon) such as flounder, haddock or cod. Also feel free to omit the crust; the pie will work just as well without it.

For the Crust
1 c flour
5 Tb cold butter, cut into small cubes
1-3 Tb cold water

For the Pie

1 large shallot, chopped
2 Tbs. Butter
¼ tsp. Thyme
¼ c. flour
1 c. milk
½ lb. cooked white fish, shredded
½ c. frozen peas
Salt and pepper to taste

For the Topping

4-5 medium red skinned potatoes, cut into 1-2” chunks
1 garlic clove, whole
1 Tb. Butter
¼ c. milk or cream
Salt and Pepper to taste

For the crust: cut the butter into the flour until it is course looking, and then slowly add water a teaspoon or two at a time, until the dough comes together. (This can be done in a food processor).

Shape dough into a ball, flatten it to a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the mashed potatoes for the topping.  Boil cubed potatoes with the whole garlic clove in salted water for about 12 to 15 minutes, or until the potatoes can be pierced with a fork.  Drain the potatoes and mash with the butter and milk until well combined.  Add salt and pepper to taste. (Or you can use your favorite mashed potato recipe for this.)

Preheat the oven to 375°.  Roll out the dough and place it into 9 or 10” pie plate.  Prick the crust with a fork and pre-bake it for about 10 minutes. 

While the crust is baking, sauté shallot and thyme in butter over medium heat in a large pan for about 5 minutes.  Next, add the flour and stir constantly until the flour and butter have thickened and are smooth.  Slowly add in milk, whisking to avoid lumps.  Once all of the milk has been added, the mixture should be thick but not too stiff, if it is, add a bit more milk.  If the mixture is too watery, let it simmer for a few minutes on the stove.  Add in the cooked fish and peas, stirring to combine.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour filling into pre-baked crust and top with mashed potatoes.  Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until the mashed potatoes are golden and the crust is browned.  Cool for 15 minutes and serve.

Saying Cilantro

I was going to give you a different recipe originally, but then I looked and I had already shared it – last year! So in an effort to not repeat myself just yet, Joe and I experimented a little and came up with something quite tasty. And in honor of some family members who will be spending time in Alaska salmon fishing – this is for you. But I think the recipe would be just as good with chicken or pork too, so don’t feel locked in to the salmon idea.

The main star of this show is cilantro, but the whole combination is really spectacular. The only downside would be for people who do not like cilantro, but then you have your own genetic mutations don’t you. For the rest of us with whatever gene makes us love cilantro – this recipe is the bee’s knees.

Well, I guess I shouldn’t be so cruel to people who dislike cilantro. It’s just that at a restaurant once in Long Beach, Joe and I were enjoying a little happy hour on the beach, when a woman near us started complaining about cilantro. And it was not just ordinary complaining – oh no. She felt the need to over enunciate the (perhaps) proper way to say it, with a roll of her r and everything. Seeeee-Laaahn-Trrrroh. And an accurate pronunciation is fine when you do that to everything, but imagine normal cadence, normal pronunciation peppered with Seee-Laaahn-Trrrroh every 4th or 5th word. I’ll demonstrate.

“Oh does this dish have Seeeee-Laaaaahn-Trrrrroh? Because I can’t have Seeee-Laaaahn-Trrrroh. I’m allergic to Seeee-Laaaahn-Trrroh.” The server replies that there is none. “Oh good, so I’ll have the ____ as long as there’s no Seeee-Laaaahn-Trrrroh.”

When the food arrives she looks at her plate “Excuse me, but I believe there is Seeeee-Laaaahn-Trrrrroh in this, and I can’t eat Seeee-Laaaahn-Trrrrroh.” The server removes the plate and walks past me as I am wide-eyed staring at this woman who continues to her dining-mates; “I thought there was no Seeeee-Lahhhn-Trrrroh. Because I just can’t have Seeee-Laaaahn-Trrrroh, I’m allergic to Seeee-Laaaaahn-Trrrroh.” This went on a few more times, because the server returned with the plate and assured her what she saw was parsley, but since parsley is not nearly as excruciating to say as cilantro, she did not believe him and ordered something else instead.

To this day Joe and I will always toss in one Seeee-Laaahn-Trrroh for good measure while shuddering at the memory of that dinner. Well, that and we sat near a divorcing couple where the man was very intoxicated and possibly on other drugs (he told us about the coke) who kept trying to include us in their fights. The whole evening was capped off by that same man getting injured on his bicycle after he left the restaurant and the server appearing on the restaurant’s deck with binoculars so we could watch the whole thing. Ahh yes, California, how we miss your kind of crazy.

Well, so back to the recipe. This is good. Make it.

Roasted Salmon with Cilantro Sauce
I used some Sockeye Salmon for this but I think pork chops or tenderloin or even chicken would be great, but you may have to adjust the cooking time.

For the sauce
1 bunch cilantro, including stems, washed
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 lime
Olive oil

For the Salmon
3 bell peppers, seeded and cut into strips
1 medium onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 Tb olive oil
¼ tsp. ground cumin
1 firm ripe tomato
1 8oz. piece of salmon
Salt and Pepper

To prepare the sauce, put garlic, cilantro and lime juice into the bowl of a food processor or blender. Pulse a few times to chop everything up. Then with the motor running, stream in the olive oil until well combined and creamy looking. Season with salt if needed.

Preheat oven to 400°. Toss together the peppers, onion, garlic olive oil and cumin and place in a large baking sheet. Place the piece of salmon on top and sprinkle everything with a little salt and pepper. Next, spoon some of the cilantro sauce over the salmon, coating it evenly, and spoon some onto the surrounding pepper mixture. Slice the tomato and lay the pieces on top of the salmon, sprinkle tomato with a bit of salt and pepper. Bake uncovered until salmon is cooked and the peppers and onions are softened about 20 minutes.

Serve with some of the reserved cilantro sauce.


P.S. I just got a new camera, and I am showing off the new pictures - notice how they aren't washed out with flash!

Two Bites and A Push

First a little update about the ant invasion in my garden box.  After almost destroying the plants with a shower of vinegar, placing cinnamon all over the garden and then circling it with boric acid, the ants were merrily trotting about the plants as though everything was not covered in supposed poison.  A simple Google search of “ants on fava beans” lead me to pictures and discussion boards from people with similar problems.  Apparently, black aphids like to eat the plants especially under tender leaves and near the flowers.  The aphids secrete a sweet substance that the ants eat, and the ants will protect the aphids in order to eat the aphid excrement.  A few well-placed sprays of water mixed with dish soap knocked off the aphids and ants, and with the temperatures in Maine being more “Maine-like” the plants are doing okay.  I may yet get a few fava beans this summer!

Right, so back to the post at hand.  Two bites and a push.  This describes the proper size of a fish taco.  I actually didn’t know this until Joe told me last week.  I have eaten and made fish tacos quite a few times and had never heard it described like that before.  I guess I was too focused on the food.

Fish tacos are marvelous.  If you have never had one, I beg you to try and find a restaurant serving them near you immediately.  In Long Beach, we typically got Baja style fish tacos, so that is what I will share with you here.  But fish tacos are really very versatile.  You can grill, broil, bake, poach or fry the fish and eat them with any array of condiments and toppings.  This would be a huge post if I gave you all these options so I will try to stick to just the Baja style. 

Baja style means fried fish topped with a type of spicy cabbage slaw in a corn tortilla.  The version I made was decidedly New Englandy, but I encourage variation and experimentation when making or trying your own. 

Fried Fish Tacos
I made these with a Baja style red chile sauce, both in the breading and in the slaw.  If you can’t find the ingredients for it, feel free to use the substitutions at the bottom of the page.

For the Fish

1 lb. firm white fish (suck as cod or haddock)
1 egg (with ¼ c. of the red Chile Sauce if so desired)
1 c. flour
1 c. bread crumbs
Olive oil
 

For the Baja Style Red Chile Sauce (as adapted from Bon Appetít February 2011)

2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 Tbs. olive oil
¼ tsp. ground cumin
¾ c. water

For the Slaw

2 cups shredded green cabbage

¼ of a red onion, sliced very thinly

1 c. fat free sour cream (or Mexican Crema if you can find it)

¼ c Baja Style Red Chile Sauce

Juice of ½ a lime

¼ tsp. ground cumin

For the Tacos

Corn Tortillas

Cilantro

Sliced Avocado

Lime Wedges

For the Baja Style Red Chile Sauce

Heat olive oil in a small pan over medium heat, add the chipotle peppers and garlic.  Fry until garlic is tender about 3-5 minutes.  Remove from heat and add cumin.  Pour into blender with water and blend until smooth.  Set aside.

For the Slaw

Combine sour cream, Chile sauce, cumin and lime juice.  Stir to combine.  Pour the sauce over the shredded cabbage and red onion in a medium bowl, tossing to combine evenly. Set aside until ready to serve. 

For the Fish

Whisk the egg and Chile sauce together in a small bowl.  Place flour and breadcrumbs in separate bowls.  Season bread crumbs with salt and pepper.  Slice fish into strips.  Heat enough olive oil in a medium sized frying pan so that the oil is about ¼” deep. 

Next, coat the fish in flour, then the egg and finally the breadcrumbs.  Carefully place fish strips into heated oil and repeat until the pan had 4-5 strips in it.  Fry the fish on all sides about 4 minutes total.  Remove fish to a paper towel lined plate and repeat with remaining fish strips.

To serve the tacos, heat up corn tortillas (wet a paper towel and place about 6 tacos inside the paper towel inside a plastic bag, microwave on high about 45 seconds, or longer until the tortillas are soft and pliable).  Place a tortilla onto a plate and place a fish strip in the center of the tortillas.  Top fish with slaw, cilantro and avocado slices.  Squeeze with a lime wedge.  This should be eaten in 2 bites and one push. 

 Substitutions:  If you don’t want to make the red chili sauce or if, like me, you can’t find chipotle peppers in your central Maine grocery store – use the following for the slaw.  Substitute Chipotle flavored Tabasco in place of the sauce.  You can also use any kind of fish you’d like but the firmer the fish, the more easily it will fry.  

Citrus and Sockeye

There are a few foods that I have tried to force myself to like. So far I have been fairly successful at this. It may sound weird, but I believe there are certain foods that as a self-proclaimed ‘foodie’ I should like. Just like the list of books I should read to be a better person – there are some foods I need to enjoy to be a better foodie.

I don’t know how this came about, but at some point in my adolescence I determined that there were certain foods I should eat to be more classy. Class apparently was very important to me. Maybe not class so much as snobbism. Either way, I felt it was important to eat fancy food and the first thing on my list was fish.

My sisters and I had eaten our fair share of fish sticks as children but I knew this did not count as fish. Plus, I have always wanted to (and still do) go deep sea fishing. I have, however, been “off-shore” fishing a few times while vacationing on the Jersey Shore. In fact my grandmother enjoyed fishing and she did not mind baiting my hook with a slimy piece of clam, then watching me drop the line until it hit the ocean floor. And as grandma’s go, that’s pretty cool. She even watched my pole for me while I chummed over the side of the boat.

Somehow this experience inspired me to want to eat fish. Crazy, but that’s me. So the flounder we caught that day was filleted and given back to us. My grandmother broiled it and served it with a wedge of lemon. I thought it was magical. And if I recall correctly, only her, my father and I ate that fish. This may be the real reason why I was determined to enjoy fresh fish – not everyone else liked it. I could be different and slightly weird in my affinity for these creatures.

So I added flounder to my list of acceptable seafood, but knew that I needed to increase that list. I tried the Spanish mackerel and bluefish my dad caught while deep-sea fishing, but immediately moved those over to the “ewww gross” column. And then one Mother’s Day while out at a very fancy lunch I decided to try salmon. I consulted with my dad (who, since he was willing to eat any seafood, was my go-to expert on the matter) as to whether or not I would like salmon. “Sure!” he said, with a shrug of his shoulders.

Excellent! I would have the salmon, please waiter! When it came, it was very pretty, and I knew I would like a pretty fish like salmon. But as we all know 15 years ago, fresh fish was not that common in most restaurants, and this was no exception. It was fishy and dry. I choked down the first bite, played with my rice pilaf and wondered if anyone would notice that I was not eating my salmon.

My great-grandmother, who was wary of my “classiness,” snidely asked if I was enjoying my salmon. When I looked up at her, she seemed determined to hear me say that no, in fact I did not like it. My stubbornness saved me in this instance and I said, yes of course I liked my salmon, I mean it is salmon after all. Hmph! I managed to eat the entire piece of salmon and perhaps that was my tipping point. I don’t remember being skeptical of other fish, and since then I do remember enjoying salmon almost every time I have it.

This recipe is a good starter salmon option, for those of you who may not like it. However, the most important part of this dish is the salmon, so be sure to buy one that’s fresh and preferably wild caught.

Broiled Sockeye Salmon with Citrus Yogurt Sauce
As adapted from Bon Appétit June 2005
Currently it is Sockeye Salmon season, and I recommend that you take full advantage of it. This is an easy dish that really pulls through on flavor. The citrus yogurt sauce is a very nice accompaniment to the salmon and I find that both, cold the next day, tossed with cold boiled potatoes and lettuce make a very nice salad.

1 fillet sockeye salmon, pin bones removed (size as needed for your dinner - 1 pound=4 servings)
1 c strained, greek style yogurt*
Juice and zest of 1 lime
Juice and zest of 1 orange
Juice and zest of ½ a lemon
1 tsp. honey
1 tsp. olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine the zest, juices, oil and honey with the yogurt and season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Preheat your broiler to low. Sprinkle the salmon with salt and pepper, place on a greased broiling pan.

Broil salmon for about 5-7 minutes, until the top of the fish is nicely browned and cooked through. (If you prefer a medium-rare cooked fish, place broiler on High and cook for less time.

Serve salmon with citrus yogurt sauce on side.

*I prefer to use the strained Greek style yogurt because it has less liquid in it. Since the recipe calls for so much added juice, it’s best to start with a fairly dry yogurt. If the yogurt you get has a lot of liquid on top when you buy it, drain that off, or let the yogurt sit in a paper towel lined strainer over a bowl for about an hour prior to making the sauce.