Cooking in Isolation!

This week Celebrity Chef & Fellow Master Chef Steven Saunders, proprietor of The Little Geranium in La Cala shares his Fish Pie recipe, perfect for Quarantine!

SO now we know what the Apocalypse feels like!  On the upside we are getting more time at home and I have started to get to know my wife and she seems nice!

I have also spent a lot of time in my home kitchen. I am not sure whether I like all this home cooking though.

I buy a lot, I come back with loads of bags and then put it all away and pack it all into the fridge and freezers, but there is still nothing to eat!

Then there is the mess. “Where have all these pans come from?” I hear Michele ask.  “There are only two of us” she says.

But she doesn’t cook so she doesn’t understand that we have to have a pan for each thing and then a new pan for the odd other thing and finally a clean pan to pass the other things into and then the frying pan was no good cos it wasn’t non-stick, so that is why I used the other thing!

“So what about these things?” she asks. “Well they were there from yesterday’s meal, weren’t they?”

It’s a bit of a change for me. I usually just shout PANS!… and someone comes to collect them and then they make them all shiny and new and bring them back to me. I don’t think I should try shouting PANS!… to Michele.

“Don’t make a mess,” she constantly says, I would rather be at work for God’s sake!

So working I will be and that’s why I have just launched Home Chef (by the Little Geranium).  It’s a simple concept. The weekly menu goes on our website, you order what you like (two courses is only €29), you give me 24 hours notice, then I prepare and cook it and one of my team delivers it free to your door!

It’s not a takeaway service because it requires a bit of planning, its quality award-winning restaurant food in takeaway guise! I cook it personally for you. If you would like more information then go to our website online www.thelittlegeranium.com.

It’s not a money making project because I don’t think I could be making money at these prices, but it is a project designed to bring all of us isolated people great food, without all the dirty pans and without the chore of cleaning the kitchen. The upside for me is that I get someone cleaning my pans!

This week’s recipe is one of our own home favourites and actually doesn’t require that many pans!

Fresh fish is plentiful in the shops and on our coastline, but you may even have some fish in the freezer like prawns or a white fish which you can use for this recipe. Serve it steaming hot with crusty bread or some fries. After all no one is watching their weight right now so go on get the fries out!

Steven Saunders’s opinions are his own and are not necessarily representative of those of the publishers, advertisers or sponsors.

Steven’s Fish Pie

(I love to add lobster to this as it’s my favourite so feel free to add a ¼ of a whole lobster per person to this recipe)

Ingredients (serves four )

• 16 mussels cooked
• 200g of salmon fillet cut into small pieces
• 4 large hand-dived scallops left whole or 8 small ones.
• 4 small white fish fillets like seabass cut in 2cm pieces pieces
• 12 large prawns peeled and de veined left whole
• 2 spring onions thinly sliced
• 1 handful of parsley or chives chopped
• Maldon salt
• A little pepper

For the white sauce

• 75 g butter
• 50g of flour
• 500ml of milk
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 100ml of white wine
• 200ml of double or thick cream
• 50g of Gruyère cheese grated
• 50g of Parmesan cheese grated
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Maldon salt
• Fresh ground pepper

For the mash & topping

• 500g of potatoes peeled and diced into 2.5cm cubes
• 150g of butter
• 100ml of milk, warmed
• 2 egg yolks
• 150g of grated cheddar cheese
• 100g grated Parmesan cheese
• Maldon salt
• Black pepper freshly ground

Method

Put the cut potatoes into water until covered with a little salt in a large saucepan. Place the saucepan on to the heat and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and then simmer the potatoes for 30 minutes

While the potatoes simmer, make the sauce.

To make the white sauce

Put 500 ml of milk and a bay leaf into a pan and bring to the boil, then remove from heat.

In another saucepan, melt 50g of the butter on a low heat then add the flour and cook for five minutes, stirring constantly.

Ladle the hot milk little by little in to the flour and butter mix, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat to low and add salt and pepper to taste.

Simmer for five minutes at a low temperature. Remove the bay leaf.

Melt the remaining 25g butter in a large pan on a low heat and add the chopped onion.

Cook on a low heat for five minutes but do not colour.

Add the wine and continue to cook.

Now add the white sauce with the Parmesan & Gruyère and the cream to the onion pan and simmer for two minutes, stirring constantly, then remove from the heat.

When the potatoes are cooked, drain them in a colander. Put the potatoes back in the saucepan and dry out on a low heat for one minute. Add the butter while you mash the potatoes, then add salt to taste and the warmed milk.

Remove from the heat, then mix in the egg yolks and put into a piping bag.

Make the pie

Add all the raw chopped fish and prawns except the cooked mussels and the scallops to the white sauce whilst it is on a low simmer and cook for one minute. Now add the cooked mussels, the scallops and finally the chopped spring onions and the parsley or chives.

Immediately fill your pie dish (or a Pyrex dish) with your fish mix.

Pipe the potato over the fish to cover.

Now top with the grated Cheddar and Parmesan cheeses and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until the cheese is golden brown.

Serve steaming hot from the oven with some crispy fries or try truffle fries by adding a little truffle oil to the hot fries with a little Maldon salt.

Follow Steven on Instagram ….saunderschef

The Little Geranium, Winner of Best Contemporary International Restaurant Spain 2020 (Innovation and Excellence Award)

www.thelittlegeranium.com  steven@thelittlegeranium.com