Hi everyone, welcome back to our Devon Farm Holidays blogs. We hope you are all keeping well and safe. Here at Devon Farm Holidays, we have been thinking about what we can write about that is genuinely interesting and useful during all of our current circumstances. One thing we have noticed people do a lot more of is home cooking. Whether it is baking banana bread (which everyone seems to be doing!) or trying a new home-cooked meal, it has been fantastic to see all the amazing food. This got us thinking, many of our accommodation providers cook beautiful meals, puddings and cakes for their guests. Therefore, we thought it would be lovely to bring you some of their favourite recipes for you to try out at home. This week we are catching up with West Down Guest House on one of their favourite main meals.
Who is West Down Guest House
We thought we would provide you with a little intro into West Down Guest House and its lovely owners. West Down Guest House is located in North Devon, between Barnstaple, Torrington and South Molton. It is a very sweet Bed and Breakfast with three beautiful rooms. These include the Marwood room which is a spacious room with a king-sized bed and en-suite shower room. It is located on the first floor and overlooks stunning views of West Down’s gardens and the rolling hills of North Devon.
The Swallow room is wheelchair accessible with ramp access directly from the car park. The room is furnished with a queen-sized bed which can be converted into two twins on request. The en-suite wet room consists of a shower with a moveable stool for use at the sink and has a frame over the toilet. This makes it an ideal room for disabled guests in wheelchairs or those with limited mobility.
Finally, the last room is a family, two-bedroom suite called the Woodpecker which has recently had a new makeover. The room has direct ramp access from the car park but is not wheelchair accessible into the room itself. The spacious room consists of a large king-size bed and an interconnecting door to a smaller room. If you want to learn more about what they offer at West Down Guest House then click here.
The food at West Down Guest House
Being a Guest House, food is a big part of what they do at West Down Guest House. Brenda and Roger love to entertain and cook for their guests and they provide everything from breakfast to cream teas and dinner. Brenda and Roger have been in the hospitality business now for over 50 years! Therefore, you can rest assured that these two know what they are doing!
Brenda wanted to share with you one of her home-cooked main meals which she said is a real crowd-pleaser with her guests. A delicious fish pie with leeks and white wine.
The Ingredients
To be able to make this recipe you will need:
The Filling:
- Salmon
- Smoked Haddock
- White Fish (in total the fish needs to come to 1 3/4lb altogether skinned and cubed)
- 3 oz of Butter
- 2 Leeks sliced
- 3 oz of Flour
- 1/2pt of White Wine
- 1 Pint of Milk
- 1 tablespoon of chopped Parsley
- 6 Hard Boiled Eggs quartered (optional)
The Topping;
- Potatoes
- A little bit of Butter & Milk
- Grated Cheese
- Salt and Pepper
The Method
You want to start with your topping, peel the potatoes and boil them in a pan with water until soft. Drain the water and add a small stick of butter, a drizzle of milk and mash until smooth. Leave to cool on the side.
For the filling melt butter in a saucepan and add your chopped leeks. Stir over the heat and cover with a lid and simmer gently for 10 minutes or until the leeks are soft.
Measure the flour into a bowl, add the wine and whisk together until smooth.
Turning back to your leeks which will now be soft, add the milk and bring to the boil. Once boiling add the wine mixture and stir briskly until the mixture has thickened. Season with Salt and Pepper, then add the Parsley and fish. Stir over the heat for a few minutes then put the mixture in your ovenproof dish of choice. If you are using eggs, now is the time to scatter them across the dish. Leave this to cool.
Once cool spoon the mashed potato over the top of the fish mixture. Once you have evenly distributed the mashed potato across the dish to cover the fish mixture, use a fork to score the top and then cover with grated cheese.
Place the dish into the oven on 200c/180 fan for about 35 minutes, after which your dish should have a nice light brown colour to the top and you may notice some of the fish mixture escaping the mashed potato. For other variations, you can add peas or spinach to your fish mixture and can even swap out white wine for cider instead.
Further Information
We hope you have enjoyed today’s blog post and we hope you have great fun at home cooking this recipe. If you do give it a go, we would love to see your photos of your finished dishes so please tag us in your social media photos using the tag @devonfarms for Facebook or @devonfarmholidays for Instagram. Alternatively, feel free to email it to our social team at socialmedia@devonfarms.co.uk. Additionally, if you would like to learn more about West Down Guest House click here.