Curried cod en croute

At the supermarket I noticed that there was a roll of lighter puff pastry selling off.  As it was ‘Fish Friday’ I joked to Ben that I should buy it to make an ‘en croute’.  Ben took me seriously and decided that yes, it was a good idea.

BUM!

So then I was racking my mind what to do with it.

I had some spinach in the fridge, but I had already decided that a prawn curry was on the menu for me.  Could I adapt that to make a yummy ‘curried fish en croute’ for Ben?  You bet I could!

I was using 0%fat Greek yogurt to make my curry a bit creamy – but Ben doesn’t really like yogurt.  Now, sometimes I would just throw it in anyway – he hardly notices – but I didn’t want to share my yogurt 😦

So, I used some low fat soft cheese, mixed with some of my Nan’s homemade marrow chutney (shh..don’t tell Ben) for sweetness and a teaspoon of my favourite mild curry powder.

I actually enjoyed the methodical slicing of the pastry, and laying it over the fish and sauce.

A quick spritz of 1 calorie oil and into the oven it went.

It seemed an odd combination, but Ben wanted it served with rice.  I threw in some onion and grated carrots to up the vegetable quota.

Now, as an aside, I’m not sure how I feel about reduced fat puff pastry.  I’ve made my own rough puff before using butter and flour (and a bit of seasoning), so how do they make this stuff lower fat? Check out the ingredients:

Wheat Flour, Water, Palm Fat, Vegetable Oils (Palm Oil, Rapeseed Oil), Wheat Gluten, Salt, Preservative: Potassium Sorbate; Lemon Juice, Emulisifier: Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids.”

Trans-fats – BUM!  Sorry Benj, you won’t be having this again!

I should have remembered:

If you don’t have a problem eating a little fat, I advise making your own pastry or looking out for stuff without mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids wherever possible!

I didn’t weigh and measure, just sort of threw it together so recipe is a guide only:

Curried Cod En Croute
Serves 1

• 1/2 pack of puff pastry (ideally make your own)
• 140g cod fillet
• 30g low fat soft cheese
• curry style chutney to taste – 1tsp-1tbsp should do it
• 1tsp curry powder
• a small handful of spinach

1. Roll out your pastry and lay your fish over the top. Pile on your spinach.
2. Combine the cheese, chutney and curry powder to a paste, and top the spinach with the curry sauce to weigh down.
3. Leave about 1cm around the edge and slice the remaining pastry into strips.
4. Use the strips to create a diagonal/diamond crisscross over the filling.  Use any leftover strips to tidy up the edges by sticking on top.
5. Spritz with low calorie spray or coat in egg wash.
6. Bake in the oven at approx 200C for 20-25 minutes until the pastry is puffed up and golden, and the fish is cooked.
7. Serve as you wish

Have you ever made a recipe/dinner suggestion which has backfired?  Or got an ingredient home to discover that it wasn’t as healthy as you thought?

Tagged: cod, curried, curry, en croute, fish, Pastry, Puff pastry, Spinach