Fishes Love Pie.

Main Street, Chipping Norton, UK

When Brent and I were in England, we visited a little town called Chipping Norton, about an hour out of Oxford. Because it was so cold when we were there, we decided to go to the pub. All 5 of them. Now remember, this is a tiny town. There's probably about the same amount of houses as there are pubs. Nearly.

So the last pub we went too, we decided that we were starving (and, to be honest, a bit pissy) so we sat by the roaring open fire and had dinner. Brent had some kind of chicken and bacon meal and I had fish pie.
It.was.amazing.
I'd never had fish pie before, but it was pretty much the best thing I've ever eaten. Fish and scallops in a creamy sauce covered in mash potato. What's not to like?
Ever since then, I've been thinking about this pie, talking about making it at least once a week, but never getting around to it.
Finally, I did it. I made an executive decision and decided that we would have fish pie for dinner.

I went to the fish shop and bought the special of the day (Silver Warhou) and made the pie.
Success!
(Note: make sure you get skinless and boneless fish. I forgot this important detail and had to de-bone and de-skin the fish myself. How fun!)
(Also, this would be really good if it had more veggies in it, like spinach and celery)

Recipe:
oven180, serves about 3 people
300g white fish, diced
big handful of scallops
1/2 cup cream
1 carrot, grated
1 onion, finely chopped
2 big potatoes
olive oil

Boil potatoes in salty water.
Fry onion and carrot until soft. Pour in the cream and simmer.
Put fish and scallops in a little cassarole dish. Pour over the cream mixture.
Mash the potatoes with some olive oil and fresh pepper.
Arrange over the fish.
Bake for 30 mins or until golden and bubbling.

Brent's Nan's Chicken Curry Pies

Brent's family live a few hours drive away from us. So whenever we go up to visit for the weekend, we always go to his grandma's house to say hello. And eat her chicken curry pies.

I've never really eaten chicken curry pies before. It never really appealed to me. But after having these ones, I was an instant convert. They're nothing fancy, just simple and homemade. My kind of thing!
After trying them, I desperately wanted to get a pie maker, because thats what Nan uses. They're just so easy and they cook everything so quickly and they make cute little individual pies. Little individual ones!

So for christmas last year, Brent's parents got us a pie maker. We haven't used it that much, really (there's only so many days in a row you can have pie). But every now and then, I'll get all inspired and make pies on a lazy Sunday, so that we can eat hot pies in front of the telly, when it's cold and grey outside.


Nan's Chicken Curry Pies:
3 sheets of frozen puff pastry
1 onion, diced
3 chicken breasts, chopped
1 tbsp butter
2 tsp Keens curry powder
2 tbsp flour
1 cup frozen peas
milk

Fry onion in butter until soft. Add chicken and fry until golden.
Add curry powder and flour and stir for a minute.
Add peas and enough milk to cover chicken.
Keep stirring until sauce becomes thick, and reduced slightly.
Add salt and fresh ground pepper, to your liking.
Cut out pastry sheets into circles and put in your pie maker (or a muffin tin will do, I suppose)
Cook until golden.
Listen to some laid-back tunes while you're cookin'.