Fish Whirls

by Barry Lewis

Prep time
10 mins
Cook time
20 mins

Ingredients

8 fillets sole, whiting or other fish

1/2 lemon, juice only

60g butter

60g plain flour

280ml milk

120g shelled prawns / shrimp

2tablsepoons thickened cream

Fish whirls, what an interesting title for a recipe eh!? Well this is a rather dated recipe from Marguerite Patten in 1968. The photography in the book was certainly retro, but how was it going to taste – there was only one way to find out!

So here we go if you’d like to make this fish whirl recipe, which does taste surprisingly good, this is what you need to do!

Take the fish onto a chopping board and roll them up into rolls. Place into a roasting tray sat up in the ring shape. Squeeze on the lemon juice, place in the butter and also the milk. Bake for ten minutes at gas mark 4 or equivalent (see temperature conversion charts)

Take the fish out of the oven and fills each fish ring with prawns, return to the oven to bake for ten more minutes.

As this is finishing begin to make the sauce, add the butter to a saucepan, and over a medium heat start to melt, once bubbling stir through the flour until absorbed. Using a sieve drain the juices from the pan the fish was cooked in into the milk (in a jug ideally) and then pour this into the pan with the butter/flour mixture, you may want to do this in separate steps so you don’t burn the flour and butter.
Keep mixing the milk in the pan over a medium heat, at first it will be very thin, but as it simmers away keep stirring until it thickens into a lovely sauce.

Keep the fish warm if necessary in your oven on a low temperature served up in your bowl of choice. When the sauce is ready pour it over the fish and garnish with parsley.

If you try this recipe out let me know what you think!