What is with this crazy weather?!! Only two days ago we were all melting away with the heat.
But now I’ve bunkered down out on the deck to enjoy the fresh crisp Red Hill air, as I sit tapping away with a blanket wrapped around my legs and a sheepskin hat on to keep my head warm. Now that’s got me thinking about the hat….I bought it 30 years ago whilst living in the London for the year (and my love of cooking began), my hat must be one of the oldest items still remaining in my wardrobe. I probably need to go and check out what else is there that may need to be moved along.
However we did squeeze in an early beach walk and it was hot, we felt we needed sunscreen at 7.15 am. Now the fire is lit and I’ve moved inside as it started to rain.
I’m loving being in holiday mode, enjoying the luxury of time to indulge in some creative canine cooking. I find writing recipes, measuring out ingredients, thinking up different things to cook the dogs then photographing the hell out of it quite relaxing. (what do you do??! What, not that??!!) :-O Just asking…
I’ve made a super easy fish and bean pie for the pups. Needless to say, they loved it and its packed to the rafters with goodness.
Fish & Bean Pie for Pups
Fish & Bean Pie for Pups recipe:
Serves – 6 small dogs, 3 medium or 2 large dogs
Ingredients:
3 medium potatoes – 335 grams, peeled, boiled and mashed
285 grams fish fillets of choice – (I used frozen Bassa)
1 tsp fish stock (optional)
Aromatics of choice – I used: rosemary, parsley & a bay leaf
100g Kidney beans – cooked (I used tinned)
1 egg
1 Tbsp parsley, roughly chopped
1 Tbsp seaweed
1 tsp coconut oil, optional
Method:
Firstly, preheat a fan forced oven to 170 degrees Celsius and lightly oil a small baking dish that will fit the pie. Set aside.
Put the potatoes in a pot covered with water and bring to the boil, then simmer until cooked through. Drain then mash, add a little more water to aid the mashing process.
Then place the fish fillets in a saucepan, cover with just enough water, stock and aromatics and poach gently for a few minutes, until translucent.
Carefully remove, (reserving the liquid, to make fish icy poles later). Place cooked fish into a mixing bowl with the beans, parsley and the egg. Stir to combine.
Spoon into the oiled baking dish and top with the mashed potato and sprinkle with seaweed and dot with small knobs of coconut oil.
Place into the preheated oven and bake for 40 minutes or until the potato crust is beginning to go golden in colour around the edges.
For this fish pie recipe, I used some frozen fillets of Bassa that I had bought from the supermarket the other day as I wanted to include more varieties of fish into the dogs diets.
I have been keeping an eye out for what fish and crustaceans are available in the frozen section of the supermarket for convenience and to mix things up in the doggo’s diets.
The frozen fillets are easy to separate which I find handy, I took out a couple and chopped them easily whilst still frozen with a large cooks knife to include them into the dog’s prepared evening meals made up with a variety of red meat proteins that are then frozen and brought out when needed.
I gently poached the fillets, covering with water, a little fish stock and some aromatics from the garden.
It only took a few minutes to poach. The delicious golden liquid tasted too good to throw away, so I decided to fill some icy pole tubes for the pups to enjoy cooling off with for another day.
A quick stir to combine it all together.
Then I spooned it into the prepared pie dish and topped it with the mashed potato.
You could use sweet potato or pumpkin as another option to top the pie, or even combine them. Perhaps what ever you may have left over in the fridge, that you don’t want to eat.
Keeping with the fishy theme, I sprinkled some seaweed on top of the mashed potato.
Definitely think about getting some seaweed into your dog’s diet, its great for their coat, skin and nails not to mention it helps reduce the buildup of tartar and plaque on your dogs teeth.
To that I couldn’t resist some small knobs of coconut oil before I placed the fish pie into the oven to bake for 40 minutes.
This was clearly a hit with the pups and will be a keeper. You could also use a can of tinned fish like tuna.
The fish pie keeps in the fridge for 3 days and freezes well.
Well, would you believe the sun is coming out now, maybe the fishy icy poles will be coming out too!
Enjoy X
Fiona