Two for one recipe - Lowestoft Smoked Haddock and allotment vegetable soup and pie

Sorry for turning this into a cookery blog lately, but there's not a whole lot going on at the allotment as we are moving house. However, we continue eating at the normal rate and are still using our veggies. Here's our latest culinary invention*

The Soup

One needs:

• 1 Onion
• 1/2 a bulb of garlic
• 1 smoked haddock, purchased from a traditional smoker.
• 10 small potatoes
• 2 or 3 sticks of celery
• 3 or 4 leeks (use the whole edible bit of the leek)
• Marigold Stock (about 6 teaspoons)
• Creme Fraiche (half a small tub)

One does:

• Chop things up into about 1" slices (really no measuring required here, it's very rough indeed)

EXCEPT

• Finely chop the onion, garlic and celery

Boil up 1.25 litres of water, add everything except the creme fraiche
Gently Boil until the potatoes are done
Turn off the heat and using a hand-blender (or jug blender, or masher, or fork) blend up until you have a slightly lumpy soup.

Add the creme fresh, garnish if you wish. Stir. Serve. Do NOT add salt until it's at the table (if at all). The celery and smokey fish does all that. A little white pepper is good, but should be the eater's choice. A little sprinkle of chopped dill would be nice.

That's the soup


So now you are left with half a saucepan of soup. So ...

One will need:
Another Lowestoft Smoked Haddock
Frozen Peas
200g Cheese


Boil up a pound of spuds and mash them with butter and milk. Skin on is fine (and good for you!)
Meanwhile reheat the soup, quite high heat (220, gas 6) you want it to reduce a bit. Put the peas in it.
Chop up the smoked haddock and add to the soup. Make sure it's only gently bubbling as it needs to spread it's flavour this time, but not disintegrate. 
Grate 200g of cheese of your choice.
Mash the spuds when ready.

Now get a pyrex or suitable pie dish, put in the soup, cover with mashed potato, cover that with cheese.

If the soup is loose, use a slotted spoon to transfer it to the pie dish, and lose some liquor. We used the left over soup as a kind of gravy and it was absolutely lovely.

That's it.  Two dinners from one, no salt pepper gluten preservatives additives nuts dogs red meat or anything.  Just lovely stuff.

*I'm well aware that somewhere in geography and history, some other million people have invented this.