Fish pie

By: Tiffany Goodall
From: From Pasta to Pancakes
Serves: 6
Photographer: Claire Peters

I love, love fish pie. It’s creamy, rich, utterly good comfort food on a plate. There’s nothing better, no matter what the season. We were incredibly lucky at Newcastle uni because we were literally 20 minutes away from the coast and everything from oysters to cod was sold at amazing prices. We also had a brilliant fishmonger. The fish was fresh, fresh, fresh! Try and be thrifty with your money and shop around for the best fish. Use markets and fishmongers as they have such a wide and fresh range.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
200g	peeled and ready-cooked prawns
4	smoked haddock fillets, skinned and cut into chunks
4	fish fillets, skinned and cut into chunks, such as cod, haddock, pollock or coley
3	garlic cloves, peeled and bruised
600ml	milk
300ml	double cream
4	spring onions
3	eggs, hard boiled, peeled and sliced
4 tablespoons	parsley, chopped
250g	cheddar cheese, grated

Potato topping:

Quantity	Ingredient
1.6kg	potatoes, peeled and chopped
110g	butter

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add the potatoes. Cook for 15–20 minutes until very soft.
Drain and mash, mix in the butter and season well. Set aside.
Put the prawns and fish in a saucepan with the garlic, milk and cream. Cook on a medium heat for 5–10 minutes until the fish is opaque and cooked through. Taste the sauce and season it with salt and pepper as you like. The fish should become opaque and a little flaky.
Use a slotted spoon to remove the fish from the pan and place it in a large ovenproof dish.
Slowly bring the milk mixture to the boil. Cook for 3–4 minutes, stirring regularly, until it has thickened a little.
Scatter the fish with the spring onions then pour over the sauce.
Arrange the egg slices over the pie. Sprinkle with parsley and season with salt and pepper. If it’s looking too dry, then feel free to add a little more cream or milk.
Spoon the mashed potato onto the pie, then sprinkle with cheese.
Place on a baking tray in the oven for 30–40 minutes until golden and bubbling.

Optional extras:

Feel free to use the kind of fish you like. Cod is very reasonable, as is haddock – I love the smoky flavour of haddock. Salmon is delicious in this as well.

Serving suggestions:

Perfect with green peas, and a bottle of dry white wine, and a whole load of friends.

Leftovers:

Since this dish includes ready-cooked prawns in the ingredients, it’s not something you should try to keep and then reheat. If you make it without the prawns, however, you can keep it for up to 2 days.

Tags:: student cooking; easy; healthy; budget

Fish pie

Ingredients

Potato topping:

Method

Optional extras:

Serving suggestions:

Leftovers:

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