I wouldn’t suggest you make this for lunch and heat it up in the office microwave, as somebody is bound to complain about the smell. But this dish does freeze well, uncooked – just cook it straight from frozen for about 50 minutes or until piping hot.
It’s the week before the clocks go forward and I want the comfort of mashed potatoes so its fish pie for dinner tonight. Since this recipe is an amalgamation of several fish pie recipes I think I can safely say it’s my own.
I normally use half fat crème fraiche but today I have some left over cream to use up. As I don’t have quite enough I will it mix some Philly and a little milk to thin the sauce. You can also make a béchamel sauce from melted butter, flour and milk but quite frankly I think this is too much of a faff for fish pie and reserve making a good béchamel sauce for a lasagne. But up to you.
Fish for fish pie
A mixture of white fish and salmon gives a good balance and fishmongers often sell chunks of this as ready made fish pie mixes. You can use any firm white fish such as the much under-rated coley. Undyed smoked haddock gives a lovely depth of flavour. Today I am using hake which I have never cooked before but ate recently on a holiday to Spain and found delicious.
- I large salmon fillet
- I piece boned hake
- Optional: raw prawns, a handful, fresh or frozen*
*omit the prawns for a real pie with a lie but include for a more truthful pie.
- I medium onion, finely chopped
- I medium carrot, finely chopped or grated**
- I bag spinach
- A couple of medium-to-large floury potatoes (eg Desiree, Whites, King Edwards)
- I 200ml tub half fat crème fraiche
- Juice of 1 lemon
**grated carrot reduces the need for lying but you will probably need to lie if the carrots are chopped.
Optional fish pie ingredients
- A handful of grated mature cheddar
- 1 teaspoon English mustard
- About a dessertspoon of capers, chopped
- A few chopped gerkins/cornichon
- Mace – a pinch
- Nutmeg – about 20 gratings from a whole one
- A handful of chopped parsley
Some people put a hard boiled egg or two into their fish pie but this gives me the same queasy feeling I get the first time I wear flip flops each summer. But by all means add eggs if you want – you can boil them along with the potatoes to save on washing up.
How to make fish pie
- Peel the potatoes and cut into even sized pieces. Put them in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Add a little salt and bring them to the boil.
If you put floury potatoes straight into boiling water they will become soggy and disintegrate, so always use cold water. New potatoes, which are waxy, can be plunged straight into boiling water. - Reduce the heat and simmer the potatoes until cooked – about 15–20 minutes depending on the size of your potato pieces. Test with a skewer to see if done – when they are ready there will be no resistance when you push a skewer through.
- Once cooked, drain in a colander. Meanwhile, put the empty pan back on the hob and allow any residual water to evaporate. Once the pan is dry, add the drained potatoes to the pan and let the water evaporate from these for a minute. Remove from the heat and mash with salt, pepper and butter. This needs to be done while the potatoes are still hot or they will become too gloopy. Add milk if needed to thin out the potatoes.
- Make the sauce by gently frying the onion and carrot in olive oil over a low heat till soft ie about 6 or 7 minutes. I use a large Le Creuset sauté pan for this but a regular frying or sauté pan works fine.
- Skin the fish. This is really easy, honest. All you need is a sharp knife and a bit of confidence. Have a look at this video to see how it’s done
- Cut the skinned fish into large pieces and put in an appropriate sized dish. Some fish pies instruct you to poach the fish in milk prior to combining with the sauce and baking. This is not necessary since the fish will be baked in a sauce for 25–30 minutes. The only advantage to poaching your fish in milk is if you are making a béchamel sauce as the strained milk will give your sauce lots of flavour.
- Add the prawns to the fish – they can be fresh or frozen but should be uncooked.
- Add the crème fraiche or cream to the fried vegetables and stir through to coat the vegetables in a sauce.
- If you want a cheesy sauce, add the grated cheese and stir into the sauce till it melts. Don’t be tempted to add too much cheese though or it will overpower the taste of the fish rather than compliment it.
- Once the sauce has bubbled and thickened, remove from the heat, add the lemon juice and any of the other optional ingredients you want to use. You can include all of them if you wish – I often do, except for the egg. The addition of mustard enhances the flavour of the cheese which means you can use less cheese – it is added to cheese scones for this reason.
- Rinse the spinach in water and add to a large hot pan. Keep stirring till the water evaporates and the spinach is reduced. Squeeze the spinach to remove excess water.
- Assemble the pie by pouring the sauce over the fish and prawns.
- Dot the spinach over the fish. Actually, I am not sure if this step is necessary – you can probably just layer the uncooked spinach directly into the pie. I will test this and update accordingly.
- Spread the mashed potato over the fish sauce mix.
- I often add another cheeky cheesy layer of grated cheese on top of the mash.
- Bake at 2200C for 25–30 minutes. The top should be a lovely golden colour when done and the smell will be fantastic.
This dish already contains a good deal of vegetables but I like to serve it with some simple boiled frozen peas.
Pie with a lie
Oh, and the lie bit? My fiancé hates cooked carrots. When me and my friend Kerry cooked this fish pie for him once he asked what the orange bits were and I replied ‘prawns’. There were no prawns in that day’s pie.
