I am delighted to share a recipe, or more accurately a 'receipt' (using Jennifer's lingo) from the Two Fat Ladies for Good Friday. It is not my recipe at all, it is recipe from the late, great, Jennifer Paterson... the inspiration for this blog.
Not only did I not invent this recipe, I haven't even cooked it this year. It has been cooked by my friends at St Louis Abbey, in Missouri, and they will eat it tomorrow - Good Friday. Of course, a fish pie with as many prawns as this seems a little lavish for Good Friday... but St Louis IS part of the EBC so it's to be expected. Fr Bede has taken some wonderful photographs of the cooking process (so I shall include more photographs than usual to showcase the vast scale of monastic cooking), and you can watch Jennifer make it here.
Br Dunstan gens up on the recipe, whilst Fr Ambrose is already 'offering up' the pains of onion chopping for the holy souls.
Ingredients (for 4 - not a whole monastery):
1 lb Coley fillet
1 lb Smoked haddock fillet
2 lb Fresh spinach
4 oz Butter; plus extra for the top
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
Grated nutmeg
1 lg Spanish onion; thinly sliced
3 tb Flour
1 1/2 pt Milk
1 Bay leaf
4 ts Anchovy essence
1 lg Bunch parsley, chopped
8 oz Fresh peeled cooked prawns
A couple of hardboiled eggs
Three large potatoes
Put the coley and haddock into a large pan and pour boiling water over just to cover. Simmer very gently for 10 minutes. Turn it all out into a clean sink and leave until the fish is cool enough to handle. Then remove skin and any bones. Flake the fish onto a plate and reserve.
Wash the spinach thoroughly and place in a saucepan--do not add any water. Cook gently until it collapses, then raise the heat and cook until done, about 3 minutes. Drain well, pressing the liquid out. Return the spinach to the saucepan with 2 ounces butter and season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Spread the spinach evenly on the bottom of a well-buttered oven dish large enough to take the rest of the ingredients.
Melt the remaining 2 ounces of butter in a saucepan and cook the onion gently until translucent. Add the flour and stir around to make a roux. Have the milk heated to a simmer and add it little by little until you have a smooth bechamel sauce. Pop in the bay leaf and let it simmer for 1/2 hour, stirring occasionally. Whilst this is happening, peel chop and boil the potatoes.
Stir the anchovy essence and parsley into the sauce and season with salt and pepper. Mix in the flaked fish and pour onto the spinach. Chop the eggs and distribute over the fish. Scatter the prawns over the top, mash the potatoes and spread on top, and dot with a little extra butter. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes, until heated through and browned
A wonderful dish for Good Friday and I'm very grateful to Fr Bede for the photos. I'm also grateful to him for the final photo he sent, which is of the flowers for the altar of repose at his parish - The Oratory of SS Gregory and Augustine. This photo is what I shall leave you with, as I potter off to bed contemplating our Lord's agony in the garden, as the Blessed Sacrament is reserved for the liturgy of Good Friday tomorrow. I shall, of course, be up early to finish the Hot Cross Buns (the dough is made already).
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