Perky pies

A few healthier options this week, with fish pies made with puff pastry, and sweet potatoes transformed into veggie burgers

I OFTEN HEAR people getting confused about how much fish to eat. Guidelines vary, needless to say, but the gist of most of the recommendations I looked at seemed to suggest that we should all be eating at least two portions of fish per week, a portion being about 140grams. They also suggest that at least one of these portions of fish should be oily, so salmon, mackerel and trout are all good ones to try and consume once a week.

But when you look further, you’ll find concerns about dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which have been found in oily fish. This is why there are limits set out for us. But limits shouldn’t be a way of scaring us off or getting us into a fearful state, suggesting that because guidelines are being laid down, it must mean there’s much worse evidence being kept from us.

I like to believe that limits have to be set, because despite all the evidence to suggest that moderation, balance and variation should be the buzzwords we associate with what we cook at home, we still get it wrong. So maybe what happens is we read about the benefits of omega 3s in the diet and then decide that oily fish – because it’s such a great thing for our health to eat – should be consumed every night. It’s the old, “some is good, more is better” approach that is just wrong when it comes to food.

So with that in mind, here’s one trout-based dish and one vegetarian recipe. The trout was lovely and the dish would be equally delicious made with salmon. This recipe was tweaked from an Antony Worrall Thompson one and I really think the secret of it lies in the anchovy sauce that I bought in the supermarket. When you look at the ingredients on the bottle, it simply contains water, anchovies and a few other bits and pieces, so if you can’t find a bottle, then mush up a few tinned anchovies into the mixture instead. One or two only, though, as remember: when it come to anchovies, less really is more.

The other recipe was considerably tweaked from a Yotam Ottolenghi one. He suggests steaming the spuds first in the oven and then mulching them up. But I couldn’t be bothered, so I whizzed them up in my food processor instead and ended up adding a couple of eggs to help bind them into little burgers. I’m not sure how well they would have stayed together if I hadn’t added the eggs.

Trout and leek pies

375g puff pastry

Big knob of butter

900g leeks, very finely sliced

1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed

Few sprigs thyme

1 good tbsp Anchovy sauce

100ml cream

4 fillets of trout or salmon, skinless, 125g each

Small bunch tarragon, finely chopped

2 egg yolks

Cut the puff pastry into four rectangles. Roll out each sheet of puff pastry. You don’t want it so thin that it can’t be manhandled; it needs to be thick enough so you can fold it over on itself without it ripping. Flour it lightly if it starts to stick. Put the rectangles on parchment paper and leave them to rest in the fridge while you get the filling sorted.

Melt the butter in a large non-stick frying pan or saucepan and sweat the leeks very gently so that they wilt down but don’t colour. Add the garlic and thyme. Then add the anchovy sauce and cream and mix really well. Turn up the heat, as you want to reduce the amount of liquid and have quite a dry mixture going into the pastry. You may want to add some salt and pepper at this stage.

Roughly chop up the fish and add to the saucepan. You want the fish to just start to flake, but you also want the cream to reduce and for any water coming from the fish to also evaporate. So give it a blast. Mix the fish well (which will become easier as it starts to cook) and then take the pan off the heat and allow it to cool down.

At this stage you can either chill it right down and make the parcels the following day, or else just cool it a little bit before assembling. If the mixture is too hot, it will make the pastry go all gooey. I couldn’t figure out whether I wanted to do a crescent shape or triangle, so the parcels became a weird hybrid of both shapes. Basically, load up one half of the pastry sheet, leaving a bit of a room, with about quarter of the mixture. Fold over and press the edges together. Lay the parcels out on a baking tray on parchment paper and brush them generously with beaten egg yolks, which you can let down with a little salt. Bake at 170 degrees/gas mark three, for about 30 minutes or until they are golden brown. Let the parcels cool slightly and serve with some salad and mayonnaise, to which you could add loads of chopped tarragon and some lemon juice.

Sweet potato burgers

Serves 4-6

1kg sweet potatoes

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

2 eggs

2 bunches spring onions

Big bunch chives, finely chopped

Salt and pepper

100g flour

Sunflower oil

Big knob butter

Roughly chop the sweet potatoes and then process them in batches in a food processor until they resemble wet crumbs.

In a large bowl, mix this with the soy sauce, eggs, spring onions, chives and season well. Sprinkle the flour on to the spuds and combine. The mixture should feel a bit like hamburger parties. A bit damp, but not too sloppy.

Heat up some sunflower oil in a large non-stick saucepan and when it is hot, fry small burger shapes (I got about 12 of them) in batches, adding the butter to give them some flavour. They brown quite quickly.

When they have good colour on both sides, transfer to a baking sheet and when they’re all browned, bake for about 20 minutes at 180 degrees/gas mark four to finish cooking.

You could melt cheese on them and use as veggie burgers or serve them with some tarragon mayo, as above, as a starter.

See also itsa.ie