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.
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.
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 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
