Luxury Fish Pie

1 & ½ lbs creamy mashed potatoes
1& ½  lbs assorted fish (salmon,monkfish,cod prawns)
1 hardboiled egg
5 ozs strong cheddar
Pint and half of thick white sauce

Method

Poach fish in a pint and a half of milk.
Reserve milk to make sauce.
Skin and bone fish.
Add cheese and fish and egg to the sauce.
Place in a pie dish and allow to cool.
(When mashing the potatoes, add an egg yolk and some top of the milk.)
Place the mashed potatoes in small lumps on the pie and spread it gently all over.

Bake @350F 180C Gas 4 for 20-25 minutes until potato is nicely browned.
Serve sprinkled with a little chopped parsley

Gooseberry Fool                        

1 ½ lbs gooseberries
5ozs sugar
Half pint thick custard
4ozs double cream

Stew gooseberries gently in 2 tblsp water with the sugar.
Make custard and allow both to cool until cold.
Whisk cream until it is fairly stiff.
Put cream, gooseberries and custard in to a food processor or liquidiser and mix together.
Refrigerate. Serve, decorated with lemon balm leaves accompanied with hazelnut shortbread.

Hazelnut shortbread

6ozs plain flour
1ozs cornflour
1oz ground hazelnuts
2ozs caster sugar
5 ozs butter

Method

Rub butter, cornflour and flour into a mixture resembling breadcrumbs
Add sugar and ground hazelnuts.
Work the mixture together into a stiff paste.
Roll it out on a lightly floured board.
Spread it in to a buttered cake tin (to about a quarter to half inch thick.)
Bake 15 to 20 minutes 350 F 180C Gas 4 until nicely browned.
Remove from oven and cut into wedges but leave it in the tin to cool.
When cold, sprinkle with caster sugar.

Gooseberry Vodka

Half a bottle of vodka
I lb ripe dessert gooseberries
4 ozs caster sugar

Method

Top and tail gooseberries and prick each one with a skewer. Add to the vodka with the sugar. Shake vigorously every day for a week. Keep for at least 3 months in a cool dark place.