< Back to Main Blog Posted: Oct 2022
Smoked Haddock & Bacon Gratin Recipe
COOK meals are perfect for when you fancy a night off cooking … something even the most passionate home cook needs now and again. But if you'd prefer to make it yourself, our recipe for a 2 portion is below. As freezer connoisseurs we'd always recommend batch cooking for the absolute best value recipe - scroll to the end for some tips.
Our shopping list for the recipe below included: baking potatoes, sweet potato, thyme sprig, broccoli, unsmoked streaky bacon, red chilli, small onion, smoked haddock, double cream, sweetcorn. Everything else we had already.
Ingredients:
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1⁄200g baking potatoes
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200g sweet potato
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1 thyme sprig
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60g broccoli
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2 tbsp rapeseed oil
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60g unsmoked streaky bacon
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150ml semi skimmed milk
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1 red chilli
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½ small onion
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½ lemon, zest only
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200g smoked haddock
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25g unsalted butter
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25g plain flour
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25g mature Cheddar, grated
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30ml double cream
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40g sweetcorn
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pinch paprika
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salt and pepper, to taste
Method:
Step 1. Pre-heat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7. Peel & wash the potatoes. Cut into bitesize pieces and place into a bowl.
Step 2. Toss the potatoes in 2 tbsp of oil, thyme and season with salt & pepper. Spread out on a baking tray and roast for 14-16 minutes until lightly coloured having a slight bite.
Step 3. Blanch the broccoli for 2 minutes, remove into a colander and reserve.
Step 4. Once the potatoes are cooked remove from the oven and set to one side to cool.
Step 5. For the filling, add the cut bacon to a cold frying pan, start to heat the pan. The bacon will start to render off its fat and begin to colour. Cook until brown & crisp, carefully remove onto kitchen roll to absorb the fat and then onto a plate.
Step 6. Wipe the pan out and pour the milk in and add the onion, chili and lemon peel. Place the fish skinside down in the pan and bring to a gentle simmer over a medium heat and cook for 4-5 minutes. When cooked, the fish will be opaque and be starting to flake into pieces. Leave to stand for 5 minutes.
Step 7. Drain the fish in a colander over a large jug, reserve the milk.
Step 8. Melt the butter in a large non-stick saucepan and stir in the flour with a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined. Remove from the heat and slowly add the reserved warm milk, stirring constantly. Return to the heat, bring the sauce to a simmer and continue to stir until it is smooth and thick. Stir in the cream. Cook over a low heat for a further 2–3 minutes, while stirring. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Step 9. Flake the fish into chunky pieces and discard the skin, onion, chili and lemon peel. Add the fish to a baking dish.
Step 10. Spread the bacon, broccoli & sweetcorn over the top and then cover with the sauce.
Step 11. Spread the cooked potatoes over the top, sprinkle over the grated cheddar and dust with paprika.
Batch it up!
To save money, batch cooking is the way forward – it’s essentially why we can make recipes cheaper than you can at home.
With a bit of forethought, the right kit, space in the freezer and a few hours set aside, you can batch cook yourself by scaling up the quantities above.
A few tips:
Clean COOK trays can be really useful. Make your portion, freeze in the tray, then, once frozen, pop out and wrap in cling film to store (or, if you have lots of trays, just store in the tray).
To reheat from frozen, pop the frozen block into one of our ceramic dishes and cook at about 170C until piping hot.
< Back to Main Blog Posted: Oct 2022