A while back I spent a wonderful winter in a small town called Piriapolis,
located in Uruguay, South America.
Piriápolis was founded in 1893 by Francisco Piria.
Population of around 10,000 people ( and 12000 dogs...)
Piriapolis is also known to be a mystical place.
It suppose to be the crossroad of strong points of energy.
I don't know if that it is true but I have to admit that I did spent a very peaceful and happy
four months.
What I do know is that they have the best sunset I've seen in my life.
Everything is walking distance (long walks). There is a fantastic market once a week
where fruits, vegetables, cheese and other goodies were great quality and extremely affordable.
The best thing about it was the fresh fish. Very early in the morning boats will leave
the coast and come back with loads of fresh fish.
I did get to try several seafood recipes while I was there.
My favorite fish is call ''Brotola''.
With brotola I made this delicious fish pie, I got the recipe from Food.com (Recipezaar at that moment)
Ingredients:
5 large potatoes, peeled and diced into 2 . 5cm/1 inch squares
salt & freshly ground black pepper
2 free range eggs
200 g fresh spinach
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, halved and finely chopped
extra virgin olive oil
600 ml cream
200 g cheddar cheese
1 lemon, juice of
1 teaspoon English mustard
100 g flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
500 g haddock or 500 g cod fish fillets, skin removed pin boned and sliced into chunks
nutmeg (optional)
Preheat the oven to 230°C/450°F
Put the potatoes into salted boiling water and bring back to the boil for 2 minutes.
Carefully add the eggs to the pan and cook for a further 8 minutes until hard boiled,
by which time the potatoes should also be cooked.
At the same time steam the spinach in a colander above the pan.
This will only take a minute. When the spinach is done, remove from the colander
and gently squeeze any excess moisture away.
Then drain the potatoes in the colander.
Remove the eggs, cool under cold water, then peel and quarter them.
Place to one side.
In a separate pan slowly fry the onion and carrot in a little olive oil for about 5 minutes,
than add the double cream and bring just to the boil.
Remove from the heat and add the cheese, lemon juice, mustard and parsley.
Put the spinach, fish and eggs into an appropriately sized earthenware dish and mix
together, pouring over the creamy vegetable sauce.
The cooked potatoes should be drained and mashed - add a bit of olive oil,
salt, pepper and a touch of nutmeg if you like.
Spread on top of the fish.
Don't bother piping it to make it look pretty - it's a homely hearty thing.
Place in the oven for about 25-30 minutes until the potatoes are golden.
Now, if you are wondering why I do not have a picture of the finish dish....It's because we were sooo hungry, that I forgot and we eat it all!
