Fish Pie
With the dark nights drawing in and starting to feel a bit more wintry we were in need of some real comfort food…
Fish pie!
I’ve been making fish pies for years with lots of different styles and adaptations but this is the one I usually go back to.
Picked up bits and pieces of ideas and technique from Delia and others but never use just one recipe so I really feel like this is our own now.
ingredients
- teaspoon of crushed fennel seeds
- 2 onions, halved and sliced thinly
- 3 large leeks, cleaned and thinly sliced
- 800g mixed fish, we use equal amounts smoked haddock and salmon
- 1kg of good mashing potatoes
- 50g grated parmesan
- 50g butter
- 50g plain flour
- 500ml stock from the poached fish
- 300ml milk
- small handful of finely chopped parsley
- salt
- pepper
- ground nutmeg (to taste)
putting it all together
- Poach the smoked haddock until just cooked and reserve enough of the poaching liquid to make 500ml of stock, break into nice big chunks.
- In a large pan, cook the onions with the fennel seeds and a good grind of black pepper until soft and starting to colour then add the leeks and cook them until soft. Put the leeks and onions into the bottom of a big casserole dish and reserve the pot for making the sauce.
- Chop the potatoes into 3cm cubes and cook until just soft, drain and return to pot, mash with milk and butter to taste but not too smooth. Put a lid on the pot.
- Cut the salmon into large chunks (too small and it overcooks) and add these and the smoked haddock to the casserole dish and mix together gently and make sure evenly spread.
- Make the sauce by melting the butter and then adding the flour and cooking this off until smooth then gradually add the stock/milk whisking all the time until a smooth sauce is made. Let this bubble and add 20g of the parmesan and the chopped parsley, then stir with a wooden spoon for 10 minutes after all is combined. Pour over fish/leeks. Then cover fully with potatoes leaving no gaps.
- Cook in a preheated oven (180°c) for 20 minutes, remove and spread the rest of the parmesan over the top of the potatoes and return to cook for another 15 minutes.
If you want you can also add a bulb of fennel thinly sliced and slowly cooked to the dish before putting the sauce and potatoes on.