Jude's Fish Pie

Jude's Fish Pie & Crunchy Green Salsa

Jude Blereau is touring Australia for two reasons at the moment.  The first is to launch her greatly anticipated Baking book, which I can't wait to get my hands on.  The second reason is because she is hosting a series of Thermomix specialist classes. 

Jude is a Thermomix Ambassador, for good reasons.  The Thermomix fits into Jude's food philosophy perfectly - she's all about nutrient dense, tasty food in a realistic everyday setting.  Her classes have sold out incredibly quickly as they've been released across the country, which speaks volumes.  I've been fortunate enough to do a couple of weekend intensive courses with Jude and can promise you that two hours with her will leave you with a host of recipes you're desperate to go home and try!  If you can come along to her Thermomix classes make sure you do - but book in quickly so you don't miss out!

Two of Jude's books, Wholefood for the Family and Wholefood for Children are staples in my library.  I cook out of both of them at least once a week - they're dog eared, scrawled through, post-it noted and well loved (the way good cookbooks should be).  They're also beautiful - you can feel Jude's love come through the recipes which I know sounds corny, but once you meet Jude you'll understand what I mean.  She cooks and writes with love and compassion.

This recipe is from Wholefood for Children and is one of the ways I get fish into our weekly dinners.  I tend to make two pies at once and freeze one for the next week.  I tend to use red mullet because it's readily available in Brisbane and is a great, sustainable fish choice.

Jude's Fish Pie

(from Wholefood for Children by Jude Blereau)

 

Ingredients:-

 

2 potatoes - large diced*

100g broccoli - coarsely chopped

40g butter or ghee

2 spring onions (or 1 brown onion) - halved

2 tbsp herbs (lemon thyme, parsley or basil)

Rind of 1 lemon (be careful to only remove rind, not pith)

Large handful of seasonal green vegetables (peas, 1cm diced beans or asparagus)

80g crème fraiche or kefir cream

1/4 tsp wholegrain mustard

300g fish fillet - skin and bones removed, chopped into 3cm cubes

 

Method:-

 

Preheat oven to 190C.

 

1.  Place 500g of water in TM and place potatoes in basket.  Insert basket into TM bowl and cook at Varoma temp, for 8-10 minutes, speed 2 (until potatoes are just tender).

 

2.  Add broccoli to basket and cook for a further 4 minutes, on Varoma temp, at speed 2.  Remove basket and pour out water.

 

3.  Tip potato & broccoli into bowl, add 1 tbsp butter/ghee and roughly mash for 6 seconds on speed 4.  Set aside.

 

4.  Place onion and herbs in TM bowl.  Chop for 2 seconds on speed 7.

 

5.  Add remaining butter/ghee to bowl and sauté for 3 minutes at 100° on speed soft.

 

6.  Add remaining ingredients, season with salt & pepper.  Cook for further 1 minute at 100° on reverse, speed soft.  This will allow the cream to melt and relax and all the ingredients to softly mix together.

 

Spoon the fish mixture into a shallow, ovenproof dish and top with the mashed potato.

 

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.  Serve with green salad and enjoy!

 

*  Tips:-

 

If I know this is on the menu for the week, I tend to make it following a night where we've had mashed potatoes and broccoli.  On that night, I just add some of the broccoli to the leftover mash and reserve it to use for the pie topping the following night.