Tuna Fish Pie

Tuna Fish Pie

Makes 2 servings

1 tin of tuna

4 baking potatoes

25g margarine

25g plain flour

375ml milk

100g grated cheese

1 bag of spinach

Frozen peas (optional)

This recipe uses tinned tuna because you are a poor, penniless student. An even poorer more penniless student could use tinned sardines instead but I know you won't go near them. When you are no longer poor or penniless you can use any poached fish you fancy.

Today you will learn how to make a thick cheese sauce base for the pie and how to make really good mashed potato.

First make the cheese sauce.

You will need:

25g margarine or butter

25g plain flour

375ml milk

100g grated cheese

Put the margarine or butter, milk and flour into a microwaveable casserole dish ie Pyrex. Use a whisk to blend everything together as best as you can. It will look a bit weird at this point and the margarine will just float around in a lump. Worry not.

Cook in the microwave on high for 1 minute.

Whisk like crazy for a few seconds then put back in the microwave for another minute. Repeat the whisking/1 minute microwaving until the sauce is smooth and thick. It shouldn't take more than three or four minutes.

Once it's done stir in three quarters of the grated cheese and leave to cool.

Make the mashed potato:

Peel the potatoes and cut into even sized 4cm-ish chunks. Put into your largest pan and add enough cold water until the potato chunks are just covered. Cover the pan with a lid and bring to the boil, add a pinch of salt then lower the heat slightly and let the potatoes cook until they are really soft when you poke them with the tip of a sharp knife. This is really important and may take up to 20 minutes. If you don't cook the potatoes for long enough your mash will be lumpy.

As soon as the potatoes are tender either tip everything into a colander to drain off the water or use the pan lid to hold the potates back in the pan while you carefully pour off the remaining water. Put the cooked potatoes back in the pan and half cover with the lid and let them to steam for a couple of minutes.

Now use a potato masher or a fork to mash the potatoes until you have a nice smooth purée. Add a knob of margarine or butter and a splash of milk and cover the pan again with the lid. After a couple of minutes the marg/butter will have melted and the milk warmed a little so then you need to use a wooden spoon to mix everything in. Once everything is well mixed you must really beat the mashed potato hard with the wooden spoon. This is what makes your mash really really good instead of just ok.

Cook the spinach:

Stab the bag of spinach a couple of times with a sharp knife. Place the bag in the microwave and zap for 1 minute on high.

Open the tin of tuna:

…. ok. You can do that without detailed instructions. Make sure you drain off any liquid in the tin though.

Assemble the pie:

Carefully open the bag of spinach (it will be quite hot) and dump the contents onto the top of your cheese sauce. Using kitchen scissors, snip the spinach into smaller pieces then stir it into the sauce along with the contents of the tin of tuna. If you aren't a pea-hating lunatic *stern look to camera* you can also add a couple of handfuls of frozen peas at this stage. Level the surface of the tuna mixture with the back of the spoon.

Now carefully spoon over the mashed potatoes - I always put spoonfuls all around the outside first before putting some in the middle. Then gently blend the potato together until it covers all of the tuna mixture, making sure you take it all the way to the edges of the dish to seal everything in.

Sprinkle over the remaining grated cheese and dot with a few bits of margarine or butter.

Put the casserole dish on a baking tray and bake in a moderate oven 180c/gas mark 4 until the cheese top is golden brown and it's just beginning to bubble here and there at the edges. Remove from the oven and leave it to stand for 10 minutes before serving.

This is nice with extra vegetables but as it has spinach in it, I will let you off.

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H: Does it need to be cheddar because I still have loads of red leicester

'Nope it can be any cheese you like'

H: Not sure if this will send but I am in the student shop

'Ooh not a big choice... Any salad leaves? They can sub for spinach.'

'Perfect'

H: I have no weighing scales...

'Right. Flour and marg - a heaped dessert spoonful. Cheese - about 6cm square from the block, but not hugely important - just use as much as you like to make it taste right x'

H: Okay!

H: Should I use actual butter or spread?

'Entirely up to you. Butter tastes nicer though :) if you have some'

H: I do!

'Huzzah!'

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'It's all gone awfully quiet....'

H: I got distracted then started peeling the potatoes

'No probs, was worried it had all gone to rats'

H: Ahaha nah

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H: Do I cook my baby leaves?

'You can just stir them into the tuna/cheese sauce. There's not many of them and they aren't in a bag so a bit too complicated to instruct on the hoof :) '

'They will wilt when the sauce heats up'

H: Okay

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'Quiet...'

'Photos are good if you have nothing to say'

H: I am crushing small innocent potatoes with my mighty fists

'Totally laughing like an idiot'

H: Also you should see my oven mitts....

H: They are BEAR PAWS

'I am in AWE'

'Jealous much?'

'In fact I think I might say I am in PAW (on the blog) - geddit? #wackawacka'

H: Ehehehe 

(I sense a little ennui re my humour here..)

'Oh. My. Word. And does it taste ok?'

H: It's still in the oven!

'Ahhh ok - bring on the final final photo... It looks good though :) '

H: I can't wait.

H: Pie pie pie

H: It's great!

'Photos??!!'

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H: I ate it already and put it in the fridge...

'Fail'

'Photo of the fridge?'

H: Ahaha fiine I'll go back to the kitchen

*head* *desk*

'People will be leaving. In droves. Having just found us. No pressure darling. No, really '

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Well I think that worked quite splendidly.

Well done that girl :)

Well done x

Meatballs

Ok so today we are going to make meatballs in a tomato sauce. You will have to get your hands dirty but it's actually quite enjoyable.

You will need:

250g mince

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 onion

1 lemon

1 egg

2 slices of bread, crusts removed

1 pack of parsley**

4 tbs of grated parmesan cheese

The first thing is to wash your hands and then make the tomato sauce.

Peel the onion and cut in half. Chop one half into small pieces. Take all the leafy bits off the parsley and chop the stalks really finely. Put the leafy bits to one side for now.

Heat a little bit of oil in a pan over a medium heat and add the chopped onion. Stir and fry until it is golden brown. Add the tin of tomatoes and the parsley. Half fill the empty tomato tin with water and add this to the pan. If you have some tomato ketchup add a good squirt. Bring everything up to the boil then turn the heat to low and leave the sauce to gently pootle away in the background.

Put the bread into a small bowl and pour over a little milk. You want the bread to be wet but not swamped. Wait for a couple of minutes then squeeze out the milk, crumble the soggy bread up and put it into a roomy bowl along with the mince.

Grate the other half of the onion on the large holes of a cheese grater and add the mush to the mince in the bowl.

Chop the leafy parsley bits and add to the bowl along with the grated parmesan, the finely grated the zest of the lemon (use the smallest holes on the cheese grater) and then break in the egg.

Now get your hands in the bowl and give everything a really good squelching - you want to mix all the ingredients together as evenly as possible.

Once that's done, wet your hands under the tap then take small lumps of the meat mixture and roll into a nice ball. Try and do this with a light touch, because if you squash them too enthusiastically the end result can be a bit bouncy. As each meatball is made drop it into the pan of tomato sauce.

When all the meatballs are in, give the pan a bit of a shake to move things around. This is better than stirring because the balls are a bit delicate at first and battering them about with a spoon will undo all that hard work. Make sure the sauce is simmering and then cover the pan as they cook - just shake it occasionally to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom. They will take about 20 minutes.

Serve them with some rice and sprinkle over extra cheese if you like :)

**if you can't get fresh parsley use 1tsp of any dried herb you have in the meatball mixture and also in the tomato sauce. Dried mixed herbs are nice and cheap and will go in almost anything. But possibly not custard.

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H: 'I don't have any tinned tomatoes, I've got tomato passata? ??'

'Yep. Same difference. I forgot what I ordered....'

H: 'Ah okay'

'Just slosh a bit of water into the box instead of the tin'

H: 'What pan do I use'

H: 'What size*

'Whatever you've got - I couldn't remember. Go with the biggest.'

H: 'K!'

H: 'I forgot the egg!!! It's all in the sauce now oh man'

'Ok don't panic'

'Turn the heat really low'

'You don't want the meatballs clattering about'

H: 'Okay'

'It might be ok'

H: 'I guess we'll just have to try this one again'

'Well at the worst it's Bog Sauce and Rice :)'

'Keep taking photos, it's all FINE'

'If you shake the pan, do it very very gently x'

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H: 'I've already finished!'

'Oh my that looks OK!! How does it taste?'

'Do you have actual balls (sorry fnar)'

H: 'It's a bit hot at the moment haha'

H: 'It tastes great! I put the parmesan on top cause I missed that step with the egg, but they are fine. They're quite soft though hahah'

'Well they are supposed to be soft. Nicer that way :) '

H: 'Yup!'

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Well done H. Really well done. Top nerd.

We are a mother and daughter now living 300 miles apart. One is living alone with two cats, one dog and is a photographer, the other is living the high life and studying animation at University. I leave you to decide which is which... This blog idea was born after many conversations which mainly consisted of 'Please don't live on Pasta N Sauce for three years' and 'Well what am I supposed to cook?'

So now she has no choice but to learn a few things long distance - via text, email and the odd photograph. We agreed that we wouldn't use the phone because, well, that would be a very dull blog indeed. It will test my recipe writing abilities and how clear my instructions are and it will test her ability to follow said instructions and take moody food shots on her phone.

I hope you enjoy this 'journey' - I'm hoping it will be fun, informative and possibly even helpful occasionally.

And that campylobacter doesn't feature. Obviously.

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All the photographs on this blog are taken by us. Please respect this and ask for permission if you would like to use them elsewhere. 

Thank you.