Potato Topped Fish and Fennel Pie & Grilled Ricotta Pears

This pie recipe was in the July Masterchef magazine. It was meant to be a snapper pie but I used Wahoo as I had it in the freezer and it worked well. To make this pie you slow cook some fennel and leeks with butter and oil then add flour, white wine and milk. When the sauce is thick you add in dill, lemon zest, dijon mustard, flat leaf parsley and cream. Finally you add in the fish then put in a pie dish and top with thinly sliced potato. Brush with melted butter and cook in the oven before finishing off under the grill. This was a really delicious pie and the fennel gave it a nice flavour.

Rating 8 out of 10.

The pear recipe was also in the July Masterchef magazine. Basically you halved and removed the cores from the pears, sprinkled them with some brown sugar and Amaretto (an almond flavoured liqueur) and grilled them for one minute until caramelised. You then served them topped with ricotta and roasted pine nuts. The flavours were nice but I think this would have been much nicer if the pears had been cooked for longer and were warm and soft.

Rating 4-5 out of 10.