For fish Friday this week I’m sharing this recipe. I tried a version of the pea potato skins in a restaurant in Rye and thought it was a great idea so decided to have a go myself and I must say they are delicious, I added in black pudding to mine as I really like the 2 flavours together. I cheated with my tartar sauce by using mayonnaise but I made sure I used a good quality one. Hake is one of my favourite fishes it isn’t used enough. It tastes so light and delicious.

Ingredients (serves 2)

For the hake

• 2 hake fillets, pin boned
• Salt and pepper
• drizzle of olive oil for frying

For the smashed pea potato skins

• 2 baking potato’s
• salt and olive oil
• 300g frozen peas, thawed
• 1 sprig of mint, leaves only roughly chopped
• 15g grated parmesan
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 6 slices of black pudding (optional)
• crack of salt and pepper

Tartar sauce

• 3 tbsp good quality mayonnaise
• 6 cornichons, sliced
• 2 tbsp capers, drained
• good squeeze of lemon juice

Directions

For the potato skins

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees (fan). Rub the potatoes all over with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Pierce with a fork a few times and bake in the oven for 1 – 1 1/2 hours until cooked through and the skins are crispy.
2. While the potatoes are baking add a drizzle of oil to a pan and fry the black pudding for a few minutes on each side, set aside.
3. When the potatoes are cooked leave to cool while you prepare the pea mixture. Add the peas and parmesan to a bowl and smash the peas I used our pestle but you could use a fork. Add in the olive oil and mint and fold through to combine. Cut the cooked potatoes in half and gently scoop out the center laving about a cm of potato behind in the skins. Add the removed potato (I used a ricer) to the pea mixture season and again stir to combine. Next add chunks of  the cooked black pudding and lightly fold through trying not to break them up to much. Place the pea mixture back into the skins. Bake for 15-20 minutes until warmed through. I had extra pea mixture so I also made patties.

For the tartar sauce

1. Add all of the ingredients into a dish and mix to combine.

For the hake

1. Heat a drizzle of oil in a pan over a high heat. Once pan is hot add the fish skin side down and cook for about 15 seconds, turn the heat to medium and cook for a further 3 minutes.
2. Flip the fish over and turn the heat back up and cook for  2 minutes until cooked through (may vary depending on thickness). Remove Skin and serve on the potato skins with a dollop of tartar sauce.