January's Seasonal Recipe: Fish and Leek Pie

One of the thriftiest, healthiest and tastiest ways to shop and eat is to use seasonal produce. We're lucky enough to have a couple of cheap, independent greengrocers in Cirencester that sell fresh, local produce that is tastier and usually cheaper than the supermarket. I always assumed that the greengrocer would be more expensive until I actually went in and I have now become an even bigger fan of the greengrocer!

The vegetables that are in season this month are:

Brussel sprouts
Green cabbage
Savoy cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Leeks
Celeriac
Parsnips
Purple sprouting broccoli
Kale
Chard
Leeks
Swede

So this month's seasonal special is Fish and Leek Pie

Feeds two adults and two children (or in our case two adults and one for later!)

Ingredients:
300g mixed fish fillets, skinless (this recipe is using a bag of frozen fish pie mix)
1 large swede
1 large leek
1 onion
100ml milk (I used skimmed milk powder- cheaper and you can't taste the difference in a pie!) + 25ml for mash
Salt and Pepper to season
Optional: cheese for grating

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (gas mark 4)
2. Chop the leek chunks approx 1cm wide and roughly chop the onion
3. Put the chopped leek and onion into an oven proof dish with the fish
4. If using milk powder make up 100ml (if not just measure out as usual) and pour over the fish and vegetables, season with salt and pepper
5. Pop this into the oven and put on a pan of water to heat
6. Peel the swede and chop into smallish chunks
7. Boil the swede for 15 minutes, or until soft
8. Mash with the extra 25ml milk for a creamy texture
9. Take the fish mix out of the oven and spread the mashed swede over the top. Sprinkle with a little grated cheese
10. Return to the oven for 20 minutes

It looks a bit lonely here as I forgot to take a photo in 'whole pie' form, but we actually had ours with some lovely stir fried cabbage to boost the seasonal veg count, yum!

Eat Seasonably is a great tool for checking what's in season, when. Why not download a copy of their Eat Seasonably Calendar to stick on your fridge?