Friday 10 February 2012

Fish pie of awesome

And for my next great culinary trick....I made fish pie, a good old British classic and an excellent winter warmer. Also a really easy recipe and a good way of using up leftover mashed potato - serve the whole thing with a few veggies on the side - doesn't need much as there's so much contained within the pie itself. Job's a goodun!


 There are a few steps to this, but they all come together pretty easily.

Before anything else, make some mashed potato - add anything to it you normally would to make it extra tasty (for me this is usually a lot of seasoning, so cheese and some milk or even a little cream). Set it aside to use later. If you have leftover mash, just get it out of the fridge to thaw a little!
Now start with some fish. I think it's best to use one white fish fillet to every one smoked fish fillet (use anything you and your eaters like) and use less fish (by about 1/3) than you would need for the number of people you are serving as a main. 
Poach the fish, remove from the water or milk, and pull apart with a couple of forks. Leave that to one side. Boil eggs (I'd say the same number as fish fillets), cool, chop up and add to the fish pile.
Make a basic white sauce, but add parsley (fresh if possible) and maybe some spring/green onions.
So you need about half a stick of butter in the pan, then add one just over 1 tablespoon of flour and fry for a couple of mins. Then add in 1 and a quarter cups of milk and stir to thicken. This is a basic white sauce - you'll need to adapt it for the size of your pie. I did twice this quantity for three people.
Now, stir in the fish and eggs (try not to break them all up!) to your white sauce and lastly chuck in a whole load of frozen peas to thicken it/add some flavor and color. Season, then pour the whole lot into the bottom 2/3 or so of an ovenproof casserole dish.
Now cover the top 1/3 of the dish with mashed potato. Your fish pie can now go in the oven for about 30-45mins at 430f or 220c to cook through. Or you can just whack it in the fridge to stew until an hour before dinner time. 

Nice.

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