CHEESEY SEAFOOD GRATIN (serves 3)
Ingredients :
50g unsalted butter
3 dessertspoonfuls of plain flour
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 pint of whole milk
2 tsp wholegrain mustard
200g cheddar cheese, with some held back for sprinkling
2 tsp rapeseed oil (or olive oil)
2 large leeks, cleaned, halved and thinly sliced
300g frozen fish pie mix, defrosted
200g frozen prawns, defrosted
salad and wholemeal bread slices, to serve.
Method :
1. Pre-heat your oven to 200degC/400degF/Gas 6.
2. Skip this bit if you've bought yourself a pot of cheese sauce - except to add the mustard to the sauce, then go to stage 4.
If you haven't bought cheese sauce, take a small saucepan and melt the butter in it. Once melted, add the flour and stir to combine. Let it cook for a few moments, but without turning brown. Add a teensy tiny pinch of salt (there's loads of salt in the cheese and the fish, so go carefully) and a good twist or four of black pepper.
3. Reduce the heat and add the milk in instalments, stirring like a mad thing in between instalments so as to remove the lumps. However, don't stir too madly or you'll be washing floury milk off your walls. Once you've added approximately half the milk and the lumps are (hopefully) all gone, increase the heat and stir until the sauce thickens. I was left with just a touch of milk in the bottom of the pint container, but it all depends on how much flour you put in as to how much milk you will need to achieve the right consistency. You're looking for a really quite thick sauce, as the addition of the cheese will let it down a little. So, remove the sauce from the heat and add the mustard and cheese. Stir to combine them through the sauce while the cheese melts. Once it has all melted, set it aside while you take care of the leeks.
4. If you're clever at multi tasking, you could do this stage at the same time as the sauce. I can't - I'm rubbish at multi tasking and generally only have one hand to stir with as the other is holding myself up. Ooh, arthritis is such fun!
So, gently heat the rapeseed or olive oil in a frying pan and add the leeks. Cook them slowly, stirring often to prevent any from going brown, until they are softened but still have a soft crunch to them. Remove from the heat and begin to assemble the dish.
5. Decide whether you are going to make this in one big dish, or in individual dishes. I'll assume that you've gone with the individual dishes route, for the sake of this recipe.
6. Take the leeks and divide them equally between the dishes.
7. Take the fish pie mix and drain off the water. Drop the pieces of fish onto several pieces of kitchen paper and lay another couple of sheets on top. Squeeze gently, to remove the bulk of the water from the fish. Then divide the fish equally between the dishes.
8. Do the same process for the prawns - drain, kitchen paper, squeeze, divide equally.
9. Take the cheese sauce and again, divide it equally between the dishes, making sure all the contents are covered and the top is levelled.
10. Sprinkle with the remaining grated cheese and place the dishes into the oven for 15 minutes.
11. To achieve the baked cheese effect on the surface of each dish, place under a hot grill for a few minutes, or even give them a blast with a blowtorch. However, take note of the fact that an extra strong cheddar just won't bake in the way that a medium cheddar will.
12. While the dishes were in the oven, assemble some salad ingredients on each plate and butter some wholemeal bread. Once the dishes are done, add one to each plate and serve amidst dire warnings as to the temperature of the gratin, which is something akin to the surface of the sun at this stage. Blow a lot on the first few forkfuls!
From http://jennyeatwellsrhubarbginger.blogspot.co.uk