Ocean Pie

Sunday 14th March 2010
Mother’s Day

I thought this would be a real treat to have on “my special day”. It would have been more of a treat to not have to cook it, but I decided that if I didn’t make it and handed the food over to someone else, it would be a disappointment because I had such a fixed idea of what I wanted. (Perhaps this is insulting or just a token of my control freakiness). Anyway, it was a bit of a faff, it probably took over an hour to prepare, but I did do a dairy free version and a separate one for mum, as it was mother’s day and she had supplied the coley….. it followed a rather splendid day at Castell Henllys, the iron-age fort with the family, 3 mums included. We had a winter picnic of Olly’s leek and potato soup with crusty bread, sprinkles of bacon and cheese, followed by coffee and carrot cake. It was a Victorian style picnic, without the servants, complete with gas cooker, mugs, and blessed weather – snow drops and the beginning of daffodils (at last).

Ocean Pie
potatoes, boil and mash with:
salt
pepper
butter

milk, approx 1.5 pints, warmed and infused for half an hour with:
celery
carrot
onion
salt
pepper
bay leaf
parsley stalks (or dried parsley)
fish skin/bones

Thawed fish:
Coley, or other plain fish 1 or 2 large fillets, remove any bones, cut into 2cm cubes
Prawns, 1 pack, large uncooked
Seafood Mix, 1 pack, mussels, squid, prawns, scallops etc
Smoked Haddock, optional, 1 fillet, I didn’t have any but it would

Make a béchamel sauce with the infused milk above and boil for 2 minutes, stirring all the time.
butter, 60g
flour, plain, 4 tbsp approx
parsley, chives & wild garlic leaves(optional), chopped finely, mix into sauce when thickened.

Turn on oven to 190°C fan. Place the thawed, drained seafood in the bottom of the dish, pour over the sauce, mash next and optional garnish with :
egg, beaten
butter, knobs

Bake 30 minutes until crisp and brown.

Amanda Nantgwynfaen