Fish Pie Recipe
So here’s the story. I was joking around with this rather “large” guy at work the other week about his fondness of pies (I’ve never seen him eating one. It’s a light-hearted joke about his weight) and saying how I should blog a pie recipe just for him. The same weekend I saw the “Two Fat Ladies” on a TV re-run cooking a fish pie (didn’t write down the recipe but got the idea) and immediately made the connection. I’m a nice guy like that.
This pie recipe fits nicely with the theme of this months seasonal food blogging challenge “In The Bag“, where the ingredients are eggs, leeks, and cheese – all of which make an appearance here. I’ve opted for plain haddock in the recipe instead of smoked (which I’d have preffered) due to my wife’s pregnancy; apparently smoked food is a no-no, which is unfortunate for a lady from a country where smoked sausage is pretty much a staple food. Feel free to use some smoked fish if you prefer, though.
I’ll apologise in advance for my non-precise measurements below. I didn’t measure as I cooked and to be honest neither should you; just go with what looks right (this isn’t baking; you can’t really mess it up). I don’t know the size of the dish you’re going to use so can’t really tell you how much potatoes you’ll need to cover it.
Fish Pie Recipe – Ingredients
- 4 Haddock Fillets (smoked if preferred, or a mixture of the two)
- 3 Carrots, finely diced
- 3 Hard Boiled Eggs, quartered.
- 1 Stick Celery, finely sliced
- 1 Leek, finely sliced
- Floury Potatoes such as Maris Piper, peeled and chopped.
- 25g (0.88 oz) Butter
- 25g (0.88 oz)Plain Flour
- Milk
- Mature Cheddar Cheese
- Salt & pepper, to taste
- Nutmeg, to taste
Here goes one of the easiest recipes you’ve ever done. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees c (355 degrees f) to start off.
- First off put the fish fillets, diced carrot, celery and leek into a frying pan. Pour over enough milk to cover, bring to a simmer and leave it for 10 minutes. At the same time boil your peeled potatoes until soft.
- Sieve the cooked stuff which will leave you with a) a jug of fishy milk and b) some fish and vegetables. Put the fish and veg into your baking dish and leave the milk in a jug for now.
- Mash your potato. There’s nothing complicated about this; add salt and pepper, a nob of butter and a slosh of the fishy milk. You’re looking for a mash that isn’t over-worked; it doesn’t want to sink into the fish while cooking or you’ll just end up with a mess.
- Fish now hopefully cooled, pick apart into flakes with your fingers, removing any bones you come across at the same time. Remove the skin, too.
- Now for the sauce. Butter and flour into a small pot over a medium heat, stir until melted and combined (a thick and gloopy mixture). Now pour in your milk about 100ml at a time, always stirring and allowing to thicken before adding more. Stop when the required thickness (like syrup) is reached; this will be about 500ml of milk. Season well with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.
- Pour your sauce into your fish mixture and stir well; at this stage add your quartered eggs randomly through the mix (I add them now to stop them breaking up with any stirring or such-like). Slowly heap the mashed potato on to the top, making sure not to leave any gaps especially near the edges; smoothing the surface with the back of a spoon seems to help prevent any leakages. Cover liberally with grated cheddar cheese.
- Into the oven for about 30 minutes until golden on top, then serve and enjoy!