FISH PIE IN THE SKY

It’s colder than I expected for a London autumn. The wind howls up the Regent’s Canal all the way to Bethnal Green where the Belgian and I are staying before we move into our chic Hoxton apartment. But it’s a glorious new discovery in the East End with all of it’s new growth, old markets, mixed cultures hob-nobbing, hugger mugger. Smelly, colourful, cheap and chic next to designer skinny Shoreditch jeans, wildly expensive organic food stores and yoga classes a go-go.

But in amongst all of this there is still the old East End as we imagine it from Ealing comedies. It’s a wild west of duckin’ and divin’. And to cap it all The Palm Tree pub on the bank of the canal is a staging post for old cowboys and their girls on open mike night singing songs from the rat pack. They’d put pop idol or any karaoke night to shame.

Although there are some posher markets like Spitalfields, Broadway and Borough, the Globe Town market still goes every day in Roman Road. It’s nothing grand but some great fruit and vegetables and I’ve found a friend already in the man who runs the fish stall.

When the weather is rough and you need some home comfort, Fish Pie is the best. Simple to cook and even easier to eat. I made mine with a slab of undyed smoked haddock and a pint of prawns. For the hassle it’s easier to buy them shelled, unless you want to make fish stew stock for which the pink husks are perfect.

Cook the fish in a bit of butter and flake it into the bottom of a pie dish with the prawns. Toast some almonds (soak them, take the skin off and split them) or pine nuts in what’s left of the fishy butter.

Next hard boil four eggs (I usually throw them into the pot with the potatoes) and chop them into the dish. Then cook some peas – more than you think you’ll need. It makes a more complete dish. Some people use leeks but they have a rather glutinous effect on the pie. Next whisk up some light bechamel sauce and pour it over - sufficient to cohere the whole and top the whole thing off with creamy mashed potato.

Most of you will have worked out by now that I am not particularly hardline about how you season food or what herbs you cook with, as long as you do both. For me lots of black pepper in this dish but the smoking makes the fish quite salty already, so use a steady hand there. A bit of tarragon in the sauce gives it a nice open flavour.

15 minutes in the oven and finished off under the grill should do it. Wash down with a big glug of Macon Villages. You may never want to leave home again.

TENDER WORDS

Tender (2009) tells the story of Nigel Slater's love affair with his garden in Islington and the many seedlings he has raised in his box-hedged vegetable patches. It’s a magnificent volume, like a medieval knightly treatise with pictures of his Eden, its produce and many of the recipes he has created from them.

23 May, 2010

FOOD FROM THE HEART

Cooking is a basic human instinct. We’ve been eating, chopping, shaping, flavouring, enticing ingredients into something delicious since time began. But as the way many of us live has changed, the basic skills we require to cook, are no longer valued and it’s often easier to let others take control of what we eat.

21 April, 2010

IN A RIGHT FISH STEW

This week we had sustainable fish stew. It’s a quick and easy way to feed a gang of hungries on a Friday night and doesn’t need much else but some good bread and wine. Like all stews, you need balance, rich liquid and a range of potent flavours steaming from your pot.

15 March, 2010