Sunday, lovely Sunday

Sundays have acquired a certain pattern here at the Gin Palace. After a Friday night of getting drunk in a dressing gown in front of the telly, a Saturday morning-into-afternoon of supreme laziness, and a Saturday night where at least a modicum of effort is made, Sunday is our day for getting things done. Partly this is done out of necessity, but it also helps fight off Sunday Night Syndrome - I find I can face the week if everything's sorted at home.

Today, the Husband has gone through some of the piles of junk he thinks I've forgotten about (I never forget), changed the sheets, done laundry and attempted to iron his shirts for the week, defeated after the first one by a blown fuse in the iron, and no fuses in the house.

Meanwhile, I've been pottering away on chores at the computer, and cooking.

Every fortnight we have an organic veg box delivered. Every fortnight we stare a pile of muddy organic vegetables and wonder what on earth to make with them. And every fortnight I make two piles - one of things to eat as they are, and one of things to make into soup.

This time's soup pile was promising - carrots, parsnips, fennel, and some celery left over from last week. I sweated some onions in my biggest pan with cumin, added the scrubbed, peeled and chopped veg and left them to simmer away in enough stock to cover (made from a cube as we haven't had a roast for ages) for about half an hour. I blended it and had to add another two pints of water as it resembled mash more than soup. But I now have six pints, divided into eight tupperware boxes which will see us through the working week.

And then it was time for fish pie.

My fish pie is based on my Mum's. She would make it once a year on Good Friday, poaching haddock in milk, using the milk to make a bechamel sauce, then topping the whole lot with piles of creamy mashed potato. As she lives 400 miles away, I now have to make my own.

One of the first things I learnt to cook was a bechamel sauce, to make macaroni cheese. My Mum would melt an ounce of butter, stir in an ounce of plain flour, and whisk in half a pint of milk. As I watched, she would stir it while it slowly thickened, explaining that this happened because the starch molecules in the flour heated up, expanded and burst. She also told me, very sternly, that it was always worth measuring out the quantities, rather than doing it by eye, or otherwise everything would go wrong. 

There's something so soothing about the process - the fact that it must be done slowly, that done carefully it will always work out, and the fact that the results taste of home.

So here's my fish pie recipe, bubbling away in the oven while I go off to sit down with Husband and a glass of wine. Suddenly, Sunday Night Syndrome doesn't seem so bad at all.

Gin Operated's Fish Pie

 (sorry for mixing metric and imperial, but for reasons outlined above, I can't do bechamel in metric!)

600g assorted fish (a mix of firm white fish like haddock or cod with whatever else you like - smoked haddock, salmon or cooked prawns are all nice, but you can just use white fish, frozen is fine)

1 pint milk

Celery, parsley, bay leaves - whatever you have in.

1oz plain flour

1oz butter

LOTS of parsley - 30g at least, chopped finely

Salt and pepper

800g potato

A splash more milk

A knob of butter

Heat the oven to 180C

1. Poach the fish (except for the prawns) in the milk, using a couple of sprigs of parsley, a bay leaf and some celery to add flavour if you have them in. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, until the fish is soft, opaque and cooked.

2. While the fish is cooking, peel and chop the potatoes and leave to boil in salted water for 20 minutes.

3. Pull out the fish, and strain & keep the milk. Take the skin off the fish if it has any, break it up into fork sized pieces, and put it in a low, flat oven proof dish - the type you'd use for a pasta bake.

4. Melt the butter in a small pan over a medium heat, add the flour and stir to combine, and then whisk in the milk slowly. Keep stirring for a while until it thickens (see description and my Mum's science bit above!)

5.If you're using frozen prawns, rinse off the worst of the ice and stir them into the sauce to warm them through. Add a generous pinch of salt if it needs it and the chopped parsley. It will go very green!

6. Pour sauce over the fish, and mix it all together so you get a different type of fish with every mouthfull. Obviously less important if you're only using one type of fish!

7. Your potatoes are probably done by now. Mash them thoroughly, with a splash of milk, a knob of butter, and salt and pepper. Use a bit more milk than you would normally so the mash has a spreading consistency.

8. Spread the mash gently but firmly over the fishy saucy mix. You can smooth the top with a knife, or decorate it with a fork. Or write "fishy fishy" on top and draw a big fish.

9. Either put it aside and heat it up later, or put it straight into the oven for 30-40 minutes, till the top has gone slightly crispy, and slightly golden.

This serves 4-6, depending how hungry you are and what you have on the side. The Husband and I tend to have half on Sunday night, and then the other half reheated on Monday - knowing you've already cooked dinner, and it's delicious, is always helpful if the day drags slightly.