Rick Stein's French fish dish

Known for combining his love of travel with his love of food, today Rick Stein brings a touch of culture to the kitchen with a popular French dish: seafood gratin and caramelised apples.

Full of flavour and finesse this dish will most certainly cheer anyone up on a cold winter's day.

RICK STEIN'S SEAFOOD GRATIN WITH CARAMELISED APPLES

This dish comes from a restaurant in Dieppe called Le Newhaven. I wonder if there are any restaurants called Le Dieppe in Newhaven!

This was a good, but not must-visit, restaurant on the harbor, which actually had some very lovely cheese, including Neufchatel, Camembert and Pont L’Eveque. Actually, the smell of cheese in many decent restaurants in France is what differentiates them from similar good restaurants in the UK, in this case, not only ripe Camembert but also the bubbling Emmental on the fish gratin.

I thought the accompanying sautéed apple might be a bit too “Normande’ for foreign consumption but it was actually really nice.

Serves: 8

INGREDIENTS:

450ml fish stock

400g white fish fillets, skinned and cut into 2cm pieces

200g cleaned scallops

400g raw prawns, peeled

50ml white wine

150ml whole milk

100ml double cream

50g butter

2 leeks, cut in half lengthways, washed and sliced

50g plain flour

Small handful flatleaf parsley, chopped

80g Emmental cheese, grated

50g panko breadcrumbs

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 or 4 dessert apples

3 tbsp unsalted butter

2 tbsp golden caster sugar

METHOD:

• Bring the stock to a simmer in a pan, then add the fish fillets and poach for one minute. Add the scallops and poach for another minute, then the prawns for a final minute. Remove them all with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add the wine, milk and cream to the stock and bring it the boil.

• Melt the 50g of butter in another large pan, add the leeks and cook for about 5 minutes until soft. Add the flour and stir well, then add the milk and stock mixture, a ladleful at a time. Keep stirring until all the liquid is incorporated and the sauce is smooth with no lumps. Bring the sauce to the boil, turn down the heat and leave to simmer for about 15 minutes. Preheat the grill.

• Grease six shallow ovenproof gratin dishes or one large dish measuring about 30 x 25cm. Add the poached fish, scallops and prawns to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Stir in the parsley, then transfer the mixture to the gratin dishes or dish.

• Mix the cheese with the breadcrumbs and sprinkle over the top. Place under the hot grill for 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

• If you’ve made the gratin in advance and let it cool down, preheat the oven to 200C / fan 180C and bake for 15 – 20 minutes until the top is brown and the filling is bubbling.

• While the gratin is cooking, peel and core the apples and cut then into 2cm chunks. Melt the butter in a non-stick frying pan, then add the caster sugar and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Add the apple chunks and stir to coat them in the butter, then cook for about 10 minutes until the apples have softened and are covered in a caramel sauce.

• Serve the gratin with the caramelised apples on the side and some good bread.

• You can also use frozen seafood such as prawns, scallops and lobster if you like. Just add them to the pan with the poached white fish.