Smoked haddock with flageolet beans and mustard

Description

I see no reason why you can't use equally mealy cannellini beans if that is what you have, though I have used butter beans before and they were good, too.

Ingredients

400g/14oz smoked haddock
butter, for greasing
250ml/9fl oz milk, plus a couple of tablespoons extra
bay leaves
2 x 400g tins flageolet beans
300ml/10fl oz double cream
a good handful of parsley leaves, chopped
1 heaped tbsp grain mustard
salt and freshly ground black pepper
steamed spinach, to serve

Method

Remove the skin from the smoked haddock and place the fish in a lightly buttered baking dish. Pour over the milk, then add enough water almost to cover the fish. Tuck in a couple of bay leaves and grind over some black pepper. Bake at 200C/400F/Gas 6 for about fifteen to twenty minutes or until you can pull one of the large, fat flakes of flesh out with ease. Drain and discard the milk.
Rinse and re-butter the baking dish - you don't want any bits of skin from the milk left behind. Rinse the beans in a sieve under running water, then empty them into a mixing bowl. Pour in the cream and a couple of tablespoons of milk, then chop the parsley and add it together with the mustard, a grinding of black pepper and a little salt. Go easy on the salt; smoked fish is saltier than fresh.
Spoon the beans into the dish and lay the fish on top, spooning some of the creamy beans over the top to keep it moist. Turn the oven down to 180C/355F/Gas 4 and bake for about forty minutes, until the cream is bubbling and the sauce has thickened around the beans. Serve with spinach.