Fish Pie Recipe

 

Fish Pie

Some fish pie mix (these are the trimmings from our fishmonger - a mix of firm white fish, salmon and a little smoked fish)
Potatoes
Milk
Butter
Plain flour
Eggs
Lemon
Mustard
Grated cheese
Celery, roughly chopped
Carrot, roughly chopped
Onion, roughly chopped
Asparagus, cooked and cut into mouth sized pieces
Parsley
Prawns

Overview: This fish pie is constructed by putting the fish pieces in the bottom of the pie dish, then nestling in boiled egg halves, prawns, covering with vegetables, pouring the sauce over and topping with mashed potato. Then put into a pre-heated over, I do 180C for 40 minutes. If you're confident then you can do all the preparation at once; I'm going to break it down into three strands.

Bring the potatoes up to the boil for two minutes, then put in the eggs, and boil for another eight minutes. The eggs should be boiled; take them out with a spoon and put in cold water to cool. Drain the potatoes. Peel the eggs and cut - I do them in halves, but quarters and slices may work better. Add quite a bit of butter and a little milk, season with salt and pepper if wanted, then mash the potatoes until they're pretty smooth (I scrub rather than peel potatoes, the skin is where the flavour is, but it does leave a little roughness in a mash). 

Meanwhile heat a little butter or oil in a saucepan and soften the celery, carrot and onion. This will take a while. Once they're softened you can use the left over butter and oil to make the sauce. Melt plenty of butter in the pan on a gentle heat, then stir in some plain flour until it's a bit too solid. Stir and let it cook for a short time, then add milk in small amounts, stirring it in each time until it's very loose. Let it cook for a while, stirring to keep it from sticking until it thickens up. Stir in grated cheese, some lemon juice, and a big spoon of mustard. If you're lucky then you will be ready to use immediately; otherwise take it off the heat for now.

We should be ready to construct it now. If the oven isn't on, turn it on now. Put the fish and prawns in the bottom (they do not have to be cooked; the time in the oven will do it). Slide in the pieces of egg. Put in the vegetables and parsley. Usually the green veg is spinach, the choice to use asparagus in this one is due to leftovers. Next, pour over the sauce, looking to cover the whole of it. Finally top with mashed potato then cook until the top is golden (not pictured, I got distracted at dinner time).

I have, of course, been vague about amounts for which I'm sorry. How much fish? The amount I was handed in the box that someone else got from the fishmonger. How much potato do I need to cover the pie? Slightly more than I cooked as it turned out! What about the white sauce (later the cheese, mustard and lemon sauce)? I did it by eye and feel. Maybe I need to slow down, weigh things, do this properly. Set up my phone and take pictures at every step. Take a video, see how close to chaos this becomes.

The fish pie was good!

Not really related: The Story Of Lil Fish Pie by Janis Freegard