I hate cooking with a vengeance.
I love Tesco Finest Fish Pie and Ian keeps saying his Mum used to make it so I thought.......
....and that's where it all went pear shaped *angry face*
I followed the recipe exactly, stood there for almost two hours trying to peel 'real' tatties, poaching different coloured fish, grating cheese and what happens?
Yes, the mash has sunk in the fish and all gone goooey.
The only thing I did was refuse to stand there making that stupid 'roux' type sauce (am I glad of that) and use the milk the fish had been poached in to make a packet of Schwarz parsley and chive sauce.
It was thick but not thick enough to stop it swallowing the mash.
I'm never, ever going to cook again.
Pat
Last edited by: Pat on Tue 3 Nov 15 at 17:05
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...and now I've got a huge sink full of washing up.
It may well be all right if you've got a cleaner popping in or a dish washing fairy to pop it all in and close the door, but I haven't.
Pat
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Sorry, wrong forum, can anything else go wrong?
Pat
moved it for you
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 4 Nov 15 at 01:28
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>> can anything else go wrong?
Save yourself the hassle:
www.bighams.com/recipes/fish-pie/
I occasionally buy one to give the resident cook a break. I also add a few king prawns.
Costs £7.00 in Waitrose, and available elsewhere.
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I bet it still tasted OK?
If you haven't, try Jamie's Ministry of Food, a book for people who "can't" cook (no offence intended). I use it myself and even though the boss is a bit sniffy about it I haven't noticed her objecting to the results. There's a fish pie recipe in there, no white sauce required, and you don't pre-poach the fish. Apart from the prepared mash, the whole thing cooks in the oven in one hit.
I'll email you the page.
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Oh dear Pat.
Reminds me of the hoary old army gag; slightly bowdlerised to pass forum censorship.
Sgt Major; "Who called the cook a plonker?"
Small voice from back of squad; "Who called the plonker a cook?"
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Thanks Manatee, got the email but neither can I rotate it so I'm currently laid on my desk, with the window open, feet dangling in the water feature trying to work out where I went wrong:)
Thanks for making me laugh HM:)
Pat
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We tried a new recipe for a fish gratin at the weekend. It was straightforward enough and tasted great. It had (undyed) smoked haddock in it. So not a fish pie. And no mashed potato. It did use Panko breadcrumbs. Staff in Tesco I asked hadn't heard of them but they had them (I already knew that before going).
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>> Thanks Manatee, got the email but neither can I rotate it
Oh I can rotate it OK, I just can't make it save the pdf that way.
If you're using Adobe Reader, try SHIFT+CTRL+PLUS all at the same time.
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Try a ready made fish pie mix from Tesco or other supermarket.....
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>> I love Tesco Finest Fish Pie and Ian keeps saying his Mum used to make
>> it so
Mrs Z would, at that point, have said "Make it yourself or Buck off back to your mother then"
Which is why I became such a good cook.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 3 Nov 15 at 19:26
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I love fish pie.
My ex makes an excellent one with fish (obviously), king prawns and other assorted sea food with loads of cream and crisp mash.
She makes it for me sometimes when I visit the kids.
I will ask her for the recipe and post it here next time I see her.
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>> I love fish pie.
Me too. Mrs B does them from whatever fish type stuff is in the freezer without being too hung up on a 'recipe'. Probably does use a roux sauce, she learned somewhere to knock one off pretty simply, but other thickeners (I suspect Pat's problem was excess liquid) are available.
Lots of google answers to question quick roux sauce.....
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I will ask her for the recipe...
If she cooks it that well, she probably hasn't got a recipe; she'll just know roughly what it requires and how much she can get away with varying it if she's a bit short of one ingredient this week. Recipes are what non-cooks imagine make good cooks good. They aren't
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Never made fish pie, but made plenty of cottage/shepherds pies and never had a problem. However, the basic ingredients of cottage/shepherds pie are cooked, and the oven bit is really just to brown the top and get some more heat in after it has cooled a bit while you assemble.
An egg in the mash acts as a nice binder, and I rather suspect, rather stops the topping and the meat and sauce bits coming together.
But I'm the sort of cook that never uses a recipe, and thus hated for it by my mother. Her mother was apparently the same although she died before I was born. Sounds like Mrs Beest is the same sort of cook too.
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Aldi "Simply Bistro" Fishernan's Pie £0.69.
Serves one, and tastes of fish!
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Mrs HM also makes a mean fish pie; apart from the mixed fish (smoked haddock, cod and salmon) she puts in a sliced courgette and couple of diced hard boiled eggs. Mash has Greek yogurt added to make it creamier.
Sauce is made by using two "instant" packets of sauce mix, one white and one parsley, with Philadelphia cheese added to thicken it.
Looking on the bright side Pat; Ian has the consolation of knowing that if you ever nag him for a new kitchen it will only cost him a tin opener and a microwave.
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Sounds like Mrs Beest is the same sort of cook too.
Ha! Same as Ma and Grandma Pillar, maybe. Only with more swearing. Mrs Beest doesn't do cooking. It's a feminist issue, apparently.
Last edited by: WillDeBeest on Tue 3 Nov 15 at 21:49
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Back in Blighty this pm I seriously considered fish n chips. Two hours kip, shower & in my local by 5pm. Nearest I got to a fish pie was chips n gravy just as it closed at 8:30. I do like a fish pie though. Shrimps prawns, salmon, all thrown in to a Pyrex dish with mash & an egg on top. Plus sliced tomatoes, maybe greenish grated cheese.
I even threw in some marmalade which had a bit of green mould on top. Tasted lovely.
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I love it too......one of my very best, favourite noshes of all time.
Frau Ted makes it superbly. Sometimes just white fish, sometimes what she calls her luxury pie with salmon and prawns. Always mash and tinned mushy tomatoes. Sometimes with sliced mushrooms.
Always with a cheese sauce topping made with lashings of strong cheddar. I'll see if she will post details here
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Well, Ian said it tasted lovely and ate it all.
Then followed it up with 'after 15 hours at work, coming home to anything hot tastes good'
So on future it will be Tesco Finest.
Pat
Last edited by: Pat on Wed 4 Nov 15 at 04:16
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>> Then followed it up with 'after 15 hours at work, coming home to anything hot tastes good'
Would have thought you'd have Ian under the thumb by now Pat ;)
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>> >> Then followed it up with 'after 15 hours at work, coming home to anything
>> hot tastes good'
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>> Would have thought you'd have Ian under the thumb by now Pat ;)
If I said something like that, I'd be under the fish pie.
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A 'roux' is very easy indeed.
Put some butter in the bottom of a pan and let it melt. Turn off the heat. Add some flour, stir it, and then add milk slowly. All done in 90 seconds.
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On point of order My Lord.
A roux is a blend of butter and flour.
Adding milk will turn it into bechamel sauce
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He would roux the error.....
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Point of order noted and I will give way. I was just trying not to terrify Pat...
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Fallen at the first hurdle Mapmaker! We don't have butter in the house, only when we're on holiday as a treat. We use healthy eating low, low lighter than light, fat spead.
Have to think of the diet:)
I don't have flour either...I think Chefs use that.
Pat
PS Chicken and mushroom casserole tonight with parsnip, carrots and leeks. I know what I'm doing with that:)
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>> Point of order noted and I will give way. I was just trying not to
>> terrify Pat...
>> You mentioned both saucepan and heat. Poor woman is probably cowering begind the sofa as we speak.
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That must be where I'm going wrong. I thought a recipe was the equivalent to a Haynes manual. I'm confident that there is nothing mechanical I can't do ( and probably have done) with the guidance of a Haynes manual.
Could it be I have an empathy with engines but not food?
Pat
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>> I thought a recipe was the equivalent to a Haynes manual.
It is. Problem is that you're not following the manual.
Making a fish pie without flour (you could perfectly well use olive oil rather than butter) to thicken it, is like trying to change the clutch without taking the engine out when Haynes tells you to. It doesn't work!
In fact, it's like working in a car factory and not putting a clutch into the car and wondering why it doesn't work.
Always follow the recipe. (Until you get good enough not to need it - just like with a car, where a mechanic doesn't need to look at the book to change the brakes on a car type he's never seen before.)
By the way, butter is not unhealthy. You're stuck with 1970s thinking there! Low-fat spreads are, however, carcinogenic.
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Wed 4 Nov 15 at 17:27
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We have largely given up on these artificially constructed spreads ( bad for you ! ) and now, apart from Stork Margarine used in some very few recipes, only use butter.
SWMBO always uses unsalted butter in cakes, such as the traditional Christmas cake sitting cooling and filling the house with it's delightful smell, as I write this.
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Butter is good for you. As with anything else, moderation is the key.
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But I prefer to take my years supply in moderation on holiday for breakfast on chunky toast...it drips:)
......and butter doesn't spread thinly on sandwiches, which I have to do daily, either.
I do take your point Mapmaker about following the manual though.
Pat
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Same here, so called healthy spreads dumped several year ago now in favour of real butter - life is too short to eat crap.
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>> Same here, so called healthy spreads dumped several year ago now in favour of real butter - life is too short to eat crap.>>
This doctor writes some interesting articles and has been featured on Radio 2:
drmalcolmkendrick.org/2015/09/17/tranny-fats-ha-ha-ha/
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Pat. You really should see the hydrogenation process to convert oil into a semi-solid. Following the use of Raney nickel to catalyse the "hardening", (held in a basket in the pressurised reaction vessel where attrition causes slow loss of catalyst) which donates a trace of nickel into the product, the resulting grey goop is bleached, deodorised, coloured and perfumed. Not a pretty sight, and although some marge is made so trans fats are excluded, I'm not sure that it is obligatory to name the presence of trans fats in soft spreads. I never buy the "healthy spreads" as they are 1. unlikely to be beneficial and 2. are too mucked about, to be technical.
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........and you should just see the disgusting fatty gloop used to make traditional soap!
(I worked in a soap factory for 7 years)
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Never seen that process. But neither have I wanted to eat the stuff:)
Last edited by: NortonES2 on Wed 4 Nov 15 at 22:04
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You 'healthy low fat spread' knockers just don't get it, do you!
I know how it's made, I know it's not as healthy as is claimed....but I also know I can spread it thinly so it's almost not there.
Butter on the other hand, I simply cannot resist slicing it and savouring every mouthful:)
I can resist chocolate, deserts and sugar but proper pork pie, pork crackling, beef dripping, Walkers crisps, meat with the fat left on and of course....proper butter are my weakness.
Pat
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To you knowledgable folk where does Benecol sit in all of this?
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The packaging should say whether it contains hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. SFAIK, mfrs are not obliged to state whether trans fats are present.
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>> To you knowledgable folk where does Benecol sit in all of this?>>
Fighting a losing battle it would seem...:-) :-)
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>> where does Benecol sit in all of this?
In my fridge.
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It is one of the Smeer group, to use my own generic term for such substances.
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For fish pie Waitrose have a convenient frozen pack of (I believe) haddock, salmon and a white fish . Poach lightly in cream, top up in a serving dish with mash, sprinkle on freshly-grated cheese, rake on a pattern with a fork, re-heat and preferably eat at once.
For a better-tasting mash, scrub the potatoes in advance, dry, paint with oil, wrap in foil and bake until a thin paring knife easily penetrates the foil (about an hour). Open up, cut each in half and spoon the flesh into a bowl. Use a potato ricer to mash with pepper, butter and cream. Set aside to keep warm until needed.
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If Benecol really worked, Doctors would prescribe it instead of throwing Statins at us!
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Do what I do and throw them right back Devonite.
Strangely this year my annual blood test showed I didn't need them anyway, yet when I asked for a year to try and lower my cholesterol they tut tutted at me.
Pat
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>> they tut tutted at me.
Possibly because statins are not all about lowering cholesterol.
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According to my Doctor, practice nurse and HGV Medical doctor they are.......I presume they are more qualified than you Clk Sec?
Pat
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So, according to your doctor, etc, there are no other potential benefits associated with statins?
I'm surprised.
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That's correct, other than potential benefits with lowering cholesterol, which is what I've done without them via diet and lifestyle.
Now you can see the reason for banning butter!
On the other hand I have also avoided the potential side effects which often include joint pain, and I'm not prepared to risk more of that.
Pat
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I agree with Pat , I turned down statins offered by my doctor last year.
They were only offered as a preventative measure because of my cholesterol levels after a blood test and ,like Pat, I do not think that statins have proven benefits and may well have disadvantages.
I will take my chances without them for the moment.
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Another potential effect of statins (real in my case) is muscle loss.
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Couple of tins of tomato soup, the flesh from a pair of fresh kippers and or some smoked haddock, chopped fresh green pepper, some mashed potato. Combine all above and heat.
Serve as home made fish and tomato soup. 20 minutes tops to make. Receive and accept compliments without allowing smug smile to develop.
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Sat 7 Nov 15 at 11:59
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Fish Pie....what is the point? - Pat
