Rarebit Fish for the Whole Family

The cooking time on this will vary depending on the size of your fish fillets (particularly the thickness) and whether you are cooking fish fillets from frozen or fresh.  Just be aware of this and keep an eye on them.

This came to me while lying in bed at 3:30am wondering why I couldn't sleep.  The answer came to me that I was a bit disorganised.  This happens to me, if I have something on the following day, I have to get things ready the night before, otherwise I'm a mess.  Anyway, sleeplessness is bad but it is surprisingly good for creativity.  That moment between sleep and awake is where your mind wanders and finds new ideas.  So this is my new idea while thinking "I've not packed up the car", "will I have time to go for a run in the morning?" "Where is my sports bra..."

Rarebit Fish - Serves 3

Ingredients

Three fish fillets, I used pollock (approx 150g, 5oz in weight)

Rarebit topping

100ml, 3.5oz Ale
100g, 3.5oz Extra Mature (sharp) Cheddar
2 tsp Cornflour (cornstarch)
1 egg yolk
1 rounded tsp mild French Mustard

Method

Heat the ale in a saucepan, when warm, mix the cornflour with a little water to make a paste and gradually mix it into the warm beer off the heat until it's thickened slightly.  (Traditionally you'd make a roux for this but the cornflour method is easier.)

Grate the cheddar and put it in the saucepan with the mustard and egg yolk.  Whisk constantly over a low heat until smooth.

Ideally if you have time, allow to cool.  Stick it in the fridge if it's going to be any significant time.

When you're ready to cook, preheat the oven to 200oC.  Spread the now thick rarebit onto the top of the fish.  Bake for 10-20 minutes (check how it's cooking and gauge it by the thickness of your fish.  Thin fish will cook quickly, thicker fish or using frozen fish which is suitable to cook from frozen will take longer, maybe even longer than 20 minutes.)

Serve with vegetables.  A big hit with my son.  This is heavy on the cheese so perhaps not for the smallest babies unless you take a small amount and mix it in with a non salty food.

If you've liked this recipe, please could you nominate me in the Food category of the Britmums Brilliance in Blogging (BIBs) awards?  The URL of my website is http://mamacook.blogspot.co.uk/ or http://mamacook.blogspot.com/ and my twitter handle is @Mamacook_blog.  Last year I was honoured to make it to the finals.  Thank you kind readers!