Seafood waterzooi

This Belgian style fish stew is a great winter warmer. A bit like potato and leek soup with fish in it, I put smoked eel in this one (which I get from Paul Utting, of Cambridge's Wednesday Fish Van, near Stir Café). Serves three.

300g baby potatoes, cut into thick oval chunks
1 large leek, sliced into coins
1 medium carrot, sliced
1 onion, roughly chopped
big handful fresh flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
400g mixed seafood
600ml vegetable stock
100ml cream or milk
butter
rapeseed oil
Salt and white pepper to taste

Heat butter with a bit of oil (to prevent burning) in a big heavy pan. Add the garlic, then sauté the leeks until just done, then remove them and set them aside.
In the same pan, sauté the onion, then add the carrot. When coated with the infused butter/oil, add the potatoes, then the stock.
Bring to a simmer, and add the potatoes. Part-cover and cook until the potatoes are tender. Add a big pinch of white pepper, the cream, and the seafood (and in order of required cooking time) and cover. When just done, add the reserved leeks and the parsley, stir in another knob of butter (optional, for added richness/gloss - if using cream you probably don't need to), and ladle into warmed bowls. Serve with crusty bread and maybe chilled Belgian blonde beer.

Leek and potato cheese bake

This is a winter warmer with that classic combo of potato and leek. Serves two (hungry) or three (polite) people

2 medium sized leeks

400g new potatoes

150g hard goat’s cheese, grated

250ml single cream

1tbs English mustard

white pepper

sea salt to taste

10g butter

1 clove garlic peeled and bruised

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Wash and trim the leeks, not taking off too much of the green. Carefully remove the outer leaves by slicing down just one side, so they’ll open out flat. You want them to be a bit like lasagne sheets for this. With the inner parts of the leek, just slice these finely.

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and par boil the potatoes. When they’re done, lift them out with a draining spoon and set aside. Blanche the opened-out leek leaves for a couple of minutes and set aside.

Cut the potatoes into 4mm thick slices.

Melt the butter in a clean pan with the garlic clove. Add the chopped leeks and cook, stirring until translucent but not starting to colour. Remove the garlic, and add the single cream and mustard. Cover and bring to a simmer, then take off the heat and add most of the grated goat’s cheese. Stir well.

Layer the ingredients in a greased oven dish, alternating potatoes, creamy leek mixture and leek sheets. Finish off with the remainder of the cream and the reserved grated cheese. Bake in the oven for half an hour and serve with seasonal veg or salad!

Baked fish and potatoes and a leek and green peppercorn sauce

It's the return of the fish-plus-spuds-plus-leeks combo! I made this with River Cobbler fillets, but it would work with any firm white fish fillets.

Serves 2

2 large fillets of hake, cod, cobbler
Pinch of sea salt and white pepper to taste

2 baking potatoes
sea salt

For the sauce:
2 small leeks, finely sliced
1 shallot, finely sliced
150ml single cream
1 tsp English mustard
1 tsp green peppercorns
1 splash of rosé wine
Juice of half a lemon
handful of chopped curly parsley
20g unsalted butter

Put the potatoes (in their skins) in a large pan of water and bring back to the boil. Parboil them for ten minutes, then dry them off, rub the skins with sea salt and put them on the rack in an oven pre-heated to 200C. Bake them for about 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the sauce: put the butter and the bruised garlic in a pan and turn it to a medium heat. Discard the garlic when it has turned golden brown and flavoured the butter. Add the leeks, shallots and peppercorns and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally so the leek doesn't colour. Add the lemon juice and the wine and cover for a minute to let the flavours infuse. Uncover and add the parsley, mustard and cream. Mix together well and cook covered again for a couple of minutes. Once the cream has come to the boil, take off the heat.
Meanwhile, wrap the fish fillets loosely in foil along with a pinch of salt and white pepper and some of the parsley, finely chopped. Bake in the oven with the potatoes for fifteen minutes.
To serve, press down on the top the potato with the edge of a spoon handle or similar so it splits open, lay the fish next to it and spoon the sauce over both.

Smoked haddock and leek pie

Serves four polite people, or three hungry people

2 leeks, sliced quite finely
1 onion or 2 shallots, chopped finely
1 large or two medium sized undyed smoked haddock fillets, skinned and cut into big chunks
150ml single cream
Two handfuls of grated emmental cheese
1 tbs grated parmesan
275g ready rolled puff pastry
1 tsp English mustard
Handful of fresh basil leaves
10g butter
Olive oil
1 clove garlic, bruised
50ml white wine
Juice of half a lemon
Maldon sea salt and white pepper to taste

Heat the butter and a lug of olive oil in a big heavy-bottomed pan. Pop in the garlic clove then add the chopped onion. Cook for a few minutes until just starting to colour, then add the sliced leeks. Cover and sweat for a few minutes then add the wine. Cook covered for a couple of minutes to infuse the flavours, then uncover, discard the garlic clove and add the lemon juice.
Next, add the single cream and mustard. Stir well. Cover and bring to a simmer for a couple of minutes, then uncover, take off the heat and mix in the emmental and parmesan. Check for seasoning and add salt and white pepper to taste.
Meanwhile, pre-heat your oven to about 190C. Lay the chunks of haddock fillet in an oven dish with the basil leaves.
Pour in the creamy leek sauce, and mix together thoroughly. Lay the pastry over the top, trim the edges, and make a few knife slits in the top. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown.

This is good served with garden peas (nice steamed then tossed in some butter with more torn up basil leaves or mint); or you could char-grill some asparagus in a griddle pan. Whatever greenery you fancy. Try it with a Sauvignon Blanc, or a Fiano.