FISH PIE

This is a delicious and economical dish. Serves 4

You may use any white fish, such as cod and haddock. Adding shrimp and peas enhances the flavors. Once you have this prepared it is very easy to keep in the refrigerator, covered, for a couple of days.





Ingredients
2 large fillets of fish(about 1 and 1/2 pounds in weight)
1 leek trimmed, washed and chopped
2 celery sticks, trimmed. washed and chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup peel shrimp
1 cup frozen peas
Half pint of vegetable stock
1 tablespoon butter
1 generous teaspoon all-purpose flour
3 hard cooked eggs,peeled and sliced
1 and a half pounds of potatoes, boiled and mashed with a little milk and butter

Method
Gently fry leek and celery in oil, until soft, about 10 minutes. Do not brown.
When soft add the fish, shrimp, peas, seasonings, then the stock. Brig to a boil, then immediately
lower heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Using a sieve strain the above over a bowl. Keep both.
Preheat oven to 400F.
Return pan to heat. Add butter and flour, as if you were making a white sauce.
Now add the liquid from the fish, stirring constantly. Cook until thickened slightly. Remove from heat. Mix in the fish,eggs and vegetables.

Pour the whole mixture into a deep baking dish. Top with the mashed potatoes. Bake for about 25 minutes. Serve when brown op top and bubbly underneath.

CLOTTED CREAM

Clotted cream is the name given to the cream of Devon and Cornwall.
It is not something that is eaten everyday or we would all be very round, but as a treat with scones and preserves. It is only available in jars, here in the US, but you can make the following, which is a very good substitute.



Ingredients
1 pint of heavy cream
2 pints whole milk
1 pint half and half

Method
Pour te above into a shallow pan. Cover and leave to stand in a cool place (not the refrigerator)
for approx. three hours. Transfer pan to stove gently, so as not to disturb the layer of cream.
Keep at the lowest possible temperature for about oe hour until the surface is rich, encrusted and golden. Carefully remove from heat. Cover and leave to stand overnight in a cool place to set.
Using a slotted spoon skim off into a dish.

Use the residue to make scones.

BREAD PUDDING

Don't confuse Bread Pudding with Bread and Butter Pudding, they are somewhat different. Both use stale bread, but bread pudding can be cut into squares and eaten with the fingers. It is economical and tasty.
This recipe was served with caramel sauce and was a big hit at the recent British Club Pub. night. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 8" sq. tray.

Ingredients
10 slices of stale white bread, crusts removed
Half pint milk
8 ounces mixed dried fruit
Grated zest one lemon, one orange
Half cup soft brown sugar
1 tablespoon mixed spice
Quarter stick unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing

Method
Soak bread in milk for about 30 minutes. Now squeeze out all the excess moisture. Do this by placing the milk soaked bread in a colander and pressing with the back of a large spoon.
Put the bread in a large bowl. Mash with a fork until it looks rather like smooth oatmeal. Add the fruit, orange and lemon zest, brown sugar, spice and melted butter. Stir together well.

Tur this mixture into the prepared pan. Cook for 1 and half hours. Allow pudding to cool in pan.
5-10 minutes before turning out. Cut into squares. Serve with caramel sauce if desired.

CHILLED BLUE BERRY SOUP

Ingredients
3 cups fresh blueberries, washed or
16 ounce packet frozen blueberries
Half cup sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Half cup water
Quarter teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cinnamon stick
Pinch salt
2 cups plain yoghurt

Method
In a large saucepan, combine blueberries, water, sugar
lemon juice, nutmeg, cinnamon stick and salt. Cover and simmer gently
for about 10 minutes. Discard cinnamon stick and cool mixture slightly.
Pour mixture into blender or food processor. Process until smooth.

Refrigerate until mixture is thoroughly chilled.
Ladle into soup bowls and garnish with yogurt and lemon slices.

VICTORIA SANDWICH CAKE

The Victoria Sandwich was Queen Victoria's favorite cake. It was, and still is today served at Royal tea and garden parties. It is said that Queen Victoria ate a whole cake at one sitting, which may be why in her later years she became quite heavy.
This cake is one of the very first cakes to use butter in the ingredients. This helped prevent the cake from sinking in the middle, which often happened as at that time ovens had no thermostats. A Victoria Sandwich cake is usually two large round cakes sandwiched together with strawberry preserves and for a special treat, whipped cream as well.

VICTORIA SANDWICH

Ingredients
2 cups cake flour
4 and half teaspoons baking powder
4 large eggs
Quarter cup warm water
1 cup sugar
1 cup soft margarine or whipped butter
12 ounces strawberry preserves/ whipped cream (optional)

Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans. Preheat oven to 325F

Method
Sift flour and baking powder together twice
Using an electric mixer beat together eggs, water, sugar, margarine or butter until very light and fluffy. Add the flour/baking powder all at once, resume beating until mixture is pale and has a glossy appearance.
Divide mixture equally between the two pans.
Bake for about 25 minutes or until tops are lightly brown. Cool pans on racks.
Turn out cakes and sandwich together with the strawberry preserves and whipped cream, if using.
Dust the top of the cake with powdered sugar.

COOKING WITH LAVENDER

These are lovely cookies, not too sweet with just a hit of lavender flavor.

Ingredients
1 and one half cups unsalted butter
Two thirds cup sugar
2 tablespoons fresh or dried pesticide free lavender flowers
1 tablespoon fresh mint, finely chopped
2 and one third cup all-purpose flour
Half cup corn starch
Pinch salt

Preheat oven to 325F
Cover bottoms of two baking sheets with parchment paper. In large bowl cream together
butter, sugar, lavender and mint, using an electric mixer. Cream until light and fluffy.
3 minutes. Add flour, cornstarch and salt. Beat until incorporated. Divide dough in half. Flatten into two squares. Wrap in plastic. Chill in refrigerator until firm. On a floured surface roll or pat out each square to a thickness of half inch, Cut dough into 1 and one half inch squares. Prick each cookie with a fork.
Bake 20-25 minutes until pale gold in color. Do not over bake. Cool slightly.
Transfer to wire rack. Sprinkle with lavender powdered sugar.

Lavender powdered sugar: Put 4 - 5 sprigs of lavender flowers in a sealed jar with the powered sugar for a day before using the sugar.