Creamy floury potatoes with fish from Diana Henry.
Ingredients
- 700 g floury potatoes peeled
- 35 g butter
- 3 onions very finely sliced
- 1 kg mussels
- 100 ml dry white wine or water
- a handful parsley stalks and 2 tbsp finely chopped leaves
- 6 black peppercorns
- 200 ml double cream
- 1 kg cod loin skin removed, cut into 6 serving portions
Servings:
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 210C/ 200C fan*/gas mark 6½.
- Cook the potatoes in boiling water – or steam them – until they are soft on the outside but a little firm in the middle. Allow them to cool, then cut them into 1/2cm thick slices.
- Meanwhile, melt 20g of the butter and use it to sauté the onions, seasoning them, until they’re completely soft.Clean the mussels in plenty of cold water, removing any beards you see and scrubbing the shells.
- Heat the white wine or water in a large saucepan with the parsley stalks and peppercorns. Add the mussels, cover with a lid and cook for about 4 minutes, shaking the pan every so often, until the mussels have opened.
- Strain the cooking liquor through a sieve lined with muslin (or a new J-cloth). Keep 125ml of the liquid and add the rest back to the pan (it helps to keep the mussels warm and moist).
- Layer the potatoes with two thirds of the onions and most of the chopped parsley leaves in a gratin dish. Heat the reserved 125ml mussel cooking liquor with the double cream. Pour this over the potatoes. Bake for 15 minutes.
- Go through the mussels, taking most of them out of their shells and discarding any that don’t open. Leave some in the shell – about eight is enough.Turn the oven down to 190C/180C fan*/gas mark 5.
- Put the fillets of cod on top of the baked potatoes, season and spoon the remaining onions over them. Melt the remaining butter and pour it over the top, particularly on the cod.
- Put the dish back in the oven and bake for 14 minutes, or until the cod is cooked right through. Spoon the warm mussels over the dish, adding only a little of their remaining cooking liquor, and add the mussels in their shells. Scatter the dish with the rest of the parsley and serve.
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