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Moroccan Baked Fish in a Bag & Pineapple Meringue Pie

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Moroccan Baked Fish in a Bag & Pineapple Meringue Pie

18/02/2021

Main:  Moroccan Baked Fish in a Ba
Recipe from a friend (Original – The Flexible Family Cookbook by Jo Pratt)

Dessert:  Pineapple Meringue Pie
From the Women’s Weekly Dinner Party Cookbook No. 2

Hi Everyone!

Hope you’ve had a fabulous week.  I’ve been doing a lot of reminiscing with my sisters about our mother’s beautiful desserts.  One of my favourites was her pineapple pie which had a meringue topping on it.  This recipe from the Women’s Weekly Dinner Party Cookbook No. 2 came very close although I did have to make one little tweak.  But first our main course.

There were a number of reasons this recipe appealed to me.  The first being all the delicious ingredients and the second the fact that you literally just throw it all in a little parcel of baking paper or foil or a cook-in bag and away you go.  To top all that off, it’s super healthy.

Use little parcels of baking paper, alfoil or cook-in bags

Yes, I know you are thinking that the MAV wouldn’t have liked it but he begrudgingly gave it 8.5.  I think he was surprised how tasty it was.  The combination of flavours – apricots, olives, carrot, harissa, red peppers, spinach, coriander and then the chickpeas, topped off with a beautiful salmon fillet! Wow, does it get any better.  I bought fillets that were only 150gms each.  Any bigger would have been overkill.  I really don’t know that my photos captured the true beauty of this dish because the colours were exceptional. I just gently poured the contents of the bag into these lovely little green dishes that I keep for curries and just this sort of meal.

Serve with some soft naan to soak up the juices

Served with some fresh Naan from the Indian restaurant around the corner, it was a real winner.  Average score here 9/10.

Now, here’s the best part.  As the Jo Pratt notes, the recipe is flexible.  You could so easily swap out the salmon for chicken or turn it totally vegetarian with a wedge of feta cheese (worth a try).  For that fancy dinner party juju it up with chopped pistachios or flaked toasted almonds, chopped preserved lemons and fresh coriander sprigs.  Thank you to my dear friend who gave me the recipe but now I am really driven to buy Jo Pratt’s book.  Oh noooooo not another recipe book echoes the MAV…..

Now, dessert.  Yum, yum and reminiscent of my childhood.  I scoured the cookbooks because I just had a longing for my Mums pineapple meringue pie.  We have kept some of her recipes but not all and this one has disappeared.  Anyway, I found this one in the Women’s Weekly Dinner Party Cookbook No.2 but knew instantly that there was something missing.

I halved the cornflour and substituted custard powder

I remembered that Mum used custard powder in her filling so whilst the other ingredients looked close to the mark, I substituted custard powder for half of the cornflour and I have to say it was seriously close to my memory of Mum’s pie.  It’s a light dessert and has the essence of summer about it with the pineapple and lemony flavour.  You don’t even have to buy a whole pineapple because the recipe just uses a tin of pineapple.  All round a winner with the family and an easy meal from start to finish.  This scored 9/10.

Hoping you give this all a go.

Until next week…

From my table to yours with love x

Moroccan Baked Fish in a Bag

A simple and hearty, healthy meal. Fish could be substituted with chicken or feta for a totally vego version – adjust cooking times accordingly

  • 2 400g cans chopped tomatoes
  • 1 400g can chickpeas (drained)
  • small handful stoned black olives
  • handful dried apricots (chopped)
  • 1 carrot (grated)
  • 2 tsp harissa paste
  • 2 roasted red peppers (from a jar) (sliced or chopped)
  • 2 large handfuls baby spinach leaves
  • handful coriander (chopped)
  • 4 fish fillets such as salmon, cod, haddock
  • extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
  • flaked sea salt and freshly ground pepper
  • couscous, flatbreads or Naan (to serve)

  1. Preheat oven to 220°c/200°c fan forced and put a large baking tray in the oven to heat up.

  2. Tear four large pieces of baking parchment and scrunch up to a tight ball. This helps make it more pliable. Open the paper out and sit each one in a bowl making a well in the middle. As an alternative to baking parchment you can use foil, or you can even buy individual cellophane roasting bags, which work a treat.

  3. Divide the tomatoes between the parcels, then do the same with the chickpeas, olives, apricots, carrot, harissa, red pepper, spinach and coriander. Season and gently stir to mix.

  4. Sit the fish fillets on top, season and drizzle with olive oil. Pull up the sides of each parcel and tie each one tightly with a piece of string. If you are using foil, scrunch together tightly, making sure you leave space in the top to allow steam to circulate.

  5. The parcels can be prepared in advance and kept in the fridge for a good few hours before cooking at this stage.

  6. Put the parcels on the hot baking tray and bake for 20 minutes until the fish is cooked through. When cooked, split open the parcels into bowls and serve hot with couscous or flatbreads or Naan.

 

Pineapple Meringue Pie

Crumb Crust

  • 185 g shortbread biscuits
  • 60 g butter

Pineapple Filling

  • 2 tbs cornflour
  • 2 tbs custard powder
  • ¼ c sugar
  • ½ c water
  • 1 tsp grated lemon rind
  • 1 450g can crushed pineapple
  • 60 g butter
  • 2 egg yolks

Meringue Topping

  • 2 egg whites
  • ⅓ c castor sugar

Pineapple Filling

  1. Combine cornflour and custard powder with sugar in a saucepan. Gradually stir in water, stir until mixture is smooth. Add lemon rind and undrained can of pineapple. Stir constantly over medium heat until mixture starts to boil. Continue stirring, reduce heat slightly, boil 2 minutes. Remove from heat, quickly stir in butter and egg yolks. Mix well. Allow mixture to cool to room temp.

Crumb Crust

  1. Cush biscuits finely. Do this with a rolling pin, or in a blender or food processor. Biscuits must be crushed finely and evenly. Any large pieces of biscuits will cause the crumb crust to break when cut. It is a good idea to push crumbs through a fine sieve after crushing if you don't have a food processor. Melt butter, add to crumbs, mix well with fork, press crumbs evenly over side and base of 23cm flan tin. Use a glass or cup to press crumbs firmly and evenly on to side of tin. Refrigerate the crumb crust while the pineapple filling is cooling.

  2. Spread filling evenly into crumb crust, top with meringue, spreading it to edge of crust to form a seal.

Meringue Topping

  1. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form, gradually add sugar, beat until dissolved. Bake in moderate over 5 to 10 minutes, or until surface of meringue is lightly browned.

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Wendy

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Trying recipes from the myriad of cook books and Delicious Magazines that I had accumulated over the years, coupled with a young Pinot Grigio, this is Wendy's Wine Wednesday.

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