Fish Pie

This is like one big pie of comfort food! It's so tasty, and not too badly unhealthy I suppose. Could be worse!

You could use fish pie mix or fresh fish, but the frozen fish in Tesco is a lot cheaper and just as suitable - per 100g it's cheaper to buy a bag of frozen salmon and a bag of frozen cod. If I was feeling particularly flush I would have bought a bag of frozen smoked haddock too, but I wasn't, so I didn't. But it would have added a lovely extra bit of flavour. So that's always something that can be varied - choose whatever fish you have on hand or is on offer at the time to use in the dish. You can also change the veg too - peppers or peas would be good as well. You could add some grated cheese on top of the potatoes as well if you'd like.

This dish contains loads of milk (I used Avonmore's low-fat Supermilk) so you get the nutrition boost of calcium, magnesium, potassium and all the other good things milk has to offer. Avonmore lactose free milk would also be fine, or even soy milk I suppose, but I haven't tried that in this dish myself. I recommend low-fat milk to try and keep the saturated fat and calorie levels down, but if full-fat is your choice or what you have on hand, go for it.

The fish is a great source of protein - both cod and salmon are low in calories and high in protein, both being a good source of vitamin B12, phosphorus, iodine, selenium and potassium, along with smaller quantities of other vitamins and minerals; along with those already listed, salmon is a good source of vitamin D, vitamins B3 (niacin) and B6 and omega-3 fatty acids. So basically they're very nutritionally dense in relation to their calorie content - very healthy foods!

Sweetcorn is a source of folic acid and other B vitamins and vitamin C, and is a source of antioxidants such as betacarotine. Sun-dried tomatoes are high in fibre, and provide some omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids as well, due to being packed in oil. They're a good source of vitamins C, B6, riboflavin, niacin, and of magnesium, copper and manganese too. They're a great source of potassium, with one serving providing almost half the RDA of potassium. Sun-dried tomatoes are also high in antioxidants - they contain a significant amount of lycopene.

Fish Pie
Ingredients
1 onion, diced
1 large tin sweetcorn, drained
1/2 a jar of sun-dried tomatoes, drained and chopped
3 frozen salmon pieces
3 frozen cod pieces
2 oz butter
2 pints milk
3 tbsp cornflour, blended with some milk
1 tbsp dried basil

For the potato topping
~12 potatoes, peeled and chopped into big chunks and rinsed
1 oz butter
good splash milk
2 tbsp sour cream
1 tbsp dried basil

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Place the fish pieces on a greased baking tray and bake in preheated oven for 2 mins until cooked through.
2. Meanwhile, boil the spuds until soft, about 8-10 mins. 
3. When the potatoes are done, drain and add the butter, milk, sour cream and basil and mash well, ensuring everything is well mixed. Set aside.
4. Heat the 2 oz butter in a saucepan. When melted add the onions and fry until softened. 
5. Add the milk, and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in the cornflour milk blend. 
6. Bring back to the boil and stir continuously until thickened. If needs be, add more cornflour - be sure to take it off the heat when adding cornflour and stir it in immediately.
7. When the fish is cooked, break into pieces - about 1.5" chunks. Add to the white sauce, along with the tomatoes, sweetcorn and basil. Stir well.
8. Pour the mixture into a greased 10 inch square dish. 
9. Add the potatoes - the filling isn't heavy enough to support the potato very well, so add it on in small spoonfuls so you don't have to spread it much - just plop it on over the whole dish.
10. Place the dish on a baking tray to catch any overspill. Bake in the oven for 15 mins until the filling is bubbling and the potatoes are slightly browned. Serve with some peas and garlic bread.

Garlic Chilli Prawns

This is a super easy recipe that looks fancy, but really isn't. And it's so full of flavours as well - the aroma in the kitchen when these are cooking is amazing!

You can use this recipe as a starter serving for 4, or a main for 2. Once again, I buy all my ingredients for this one in Lidl - convenient and affordable! This is my fiancé's favourite meal at the moment, so I've made it heaps of times - start to finish it takes about 20 mins to make - so great for a started for a big dinner or just a really quick meal on its own.

Garlic Chilli Prawns
Ingredients
2 packs of prawns
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 chilli, finely chopped
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
~30g butter (a good knob of butter really)

Demi-baguette, sliced
butter and oil

Method

1. Put the oil and the butter on the frying pan, and heat until the butter is melted and starts sizzling. Now, I say rapeseed oil because that's my personal preference due to its lower levels of saturated fats and higher levels of heart-healthy omega 3 fatty acids, but olive oil is totally perfect too. 
2. Tip the minced garlic and finely chopped chillis into the pan. Turn the heat down to moderate at this stage so the garlic doesn't burn. 
3. When the veg has softened a bit, approx 2 mins, add the prawns to the pan. Add a good splash of boiling water as well to create a bit of a sauce around them. 
4. Cook the prawns for 2 or 3 mins on either side. Add more boiling water if it dries up too much. 
5. Scoop the prawns and veg out into the serving dish. Pour the liquid from the pan over them. 
6. Place the dish into a warmed oven to keep them hot. 
7. Put some more butter and oil on the pan - not too much this time. Place the sliced bread onto the hot pan and fry until crispy and golden on the one side. Serve with the prawns for dipping.