Fish Pie
Is this the ultimate comfort food? Possibly. Fish pie is one of those dishes which is at home in a pub, a top restaurant or just a crappy old kitchen like mine. It's also easy and can be as luxurious as you like depending on what fish you want to use: anything from pollack to lobster will do, just try and make it sustainable! My only golden rule for fish pie is that there should be some sort of smoked fish in there, otherwise the flavour can be bland.
My standard fish pie mix is: 1 large (or 2 small) salmon fillet, skin off. 1 cod fillet (from sustainable stock), 1 smoked haddock fillet (undied please, none of that yellow crap) and some good big prawns. I cut the fillets into 1 inch dice and spead them and the prawns evenly over the bottom of a deep oven dish (i actually use a lasagne dish).
Next I make a white sauce: 1 tablespoon of butter melted in a pan and 1 tablespoon of flour stirred in. This will clump together into a ball so I then add a splash of milk and stir until it all incorporates and clumps again. Repeat the process adding more milk each time (always keeping the pan hot), eventually the clumping will become less and instead you'll get a thick paste which you can then thin out to the desired consistency with more milk. This sounds like a very vague description for making a white sauce but it's the best I can do! It's very much trial and error, the more you do it the easier it gets and it doesn't take long to master, be prepared for lumps though!
White sauce made I stir in a teaspoon of dijon mustard and a squeeze of lemon juice, then pour over the fish.
My standard fish pie mix is: 1 large (or 2 small) salmon fillet, skin off. 1 cod fillet (from sustainable stock), 1 smoked haddock fillet (undied please, none of that yellow crap) and some good big prawns. I cut the fillets into 1 inch dice and spead them and the prawns evenly over the bottom of a deep oven dish (i actually use a lasagne dish).
Next I make a white sauce: 1 tablespoon of butter melted in a pan and 1 tablespoon of flour stirred in. This will clump together into a ball so I then add a splash of milk and stir until it all incorporates and clumps again. Repeat the process adding more milk each time (always keeping the pan hot), eventually the clumping will become less and instead you'll get a thick paste which you can then thin out to the desired consistency with more milk. This sounds like a very vague description for making a white sauce but it's the best I can do! It's very much trial and error, the more you do it the easier it gets and it doesn't take long to master, be prepared for lumps though!
White sauce made I stir in a teaspoon of dijon mustard and a squeeze of lemon juice, then pour over the fish.
Next: mash. I use rooster potatoes, they're a really good all-rounder. About 6 large spuds should do it (this recipe serves 4), peeled, and cooked in salty water, then drained and returned to the pan and whacked over the heat briefly to dry out. I could, and probably will at some point, write a whole chapter on mash but now is not the time. Add some milk, or cream if you're feeling frisky, and mash the potatoes. Season, and don't be stingy with the salt, then add a beaten egg. Dollop this on top of the fish and then "score" the top with a fork, you want to make little peaks of potato which will just catch a little when they cook and give a little bit of texture. Finally top the whole lot with a good sprinkle of parmesan and bake in a preheated over at 180c for about 30 minutes.
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