Fish Pie

The sight of kerbabs is starting to have an effect on my appetite so after taking the free bus to the large Tammini Supermarket I started searching for a change in diet.  No more chicken nuggets and the beef patties can wait for another day.  In the end I selected a large bag of frozen white fish fillets.  With a degree of optimism (or more likely wishful thinking) that they had already been de-boned, I took them back to the villa.  My plan was to make a fish pie using the frozen mashed potatoes in the freezer and a can of peas.  I also boiled two eggs and sliced some of the Hungarian cheese that had been going cheap.  Apparently I wasn’t supposed to pre-cook the fish but only discovered that afterwards.  After defrosting and dicing the fish I cooked it in the frying pan with some oil and then added all the ingredients to a casserole dish placing everything in the oven for 40 minutes.

Before the oven

Most of it turned out OK, although the Hungarian cheese was a disappointment turning into the equivalent of a bicycle inner tube!  I was going to leave the “left-overs” in the fridge for dinner over the next four nights but Jan told me I’d poison myself.  They need to go into the freezer.  Consequentially I cut the pie into meal size portions and wrapped them in cling foil before they went into the freezer.

For dessert I made a trifle.  My second attempt with the first two weeks ago being a failure!  This time the base was made from four slices of vanilla cake covered with some tinned fruit.  A jelly mix was poured over the top and I left it to set in the fridge.

Thirty minutes later it was time to make the custard.  I did the same as last time and followed the instructions on the container.  The damned stuff wouldn’t thicken and eventually I poured it down the sink.  My next attempt involved tripling all the ingredients except for the milk.  This time I almost had solid concrete by the time I reached the transfer from the mixing bowl to the trifle.

But in the end it turned out rather well!

Tomorrow it’s back to work.  It will be a slightly different week as I’m being driven to Dammam for series of meetings.  It will be interesting to get away from Riyadh for a few days.