Fantastic Fish Pie

My eldest daughter is home this week so I'm filling her with comfort food and fish pie is a family favourite and there'll be some left over for the freezer too. 

Ingredients

300g skinless white fish fillet, I used haddock

300g skinless smoked haddock fillet

300g salmon fillet

600ml full-fat milk

1 small onion, quartered

4 cloves

2 bay leaves

4 eggs, optional

small bunch parsley, leaves only, chopped

100g butter

50g plain flour

pinch freshly grated nutmeg

1kg floury potato, peeled and cut into even-sized chunks

50g cheddar, grated

Salt and pepper to taste.

Method

Put the fish in the frying pan and pour over 500ml of the milk. Stud each onion quarter with a clove, then add to the milk, with the bay leaves. Bring the milk almost to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for 8 minutes. Lift the fish onto a plate and strain the milk into a jug to cool. Flake the fish into large pieces in the baking dish. If you want to use eggs then hard-boil by bringing a small pan of water to a gentle boil and carefully add the eggs.  Bring the water back to a gentle boil and cook for 7 minutes then drain and cool in a bowl of cold water. Peel, slice into quarters and arrange on top of the fish, then scatter over the chopped parsley.

Make the sauce or try my cheat below.  Melt half the butter in a pan, stir in the flour and cook for 1 min over moderate heat. Take off the heat, pour in a little of the cold poaching milk, then stir until blended. Continue to add the milk gradually, mixing well until you have a smooth sauce. Return to the heat, bring to the boil and cook for 5 minutes, stirring continually, until it coats the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, then pour over the fish.

Heat oven to 200C. Boil the potatoes for 20 minutes. Drain, season and mash.  Heat the butter and milk and add to the mash mixing well.  Adding an egg yolk makes it really special.  Use the mash to top off the pie, starting at the edge of the dish and working your way in – push the mash right to the edges to seal. Fluff the top with a fork, sprinkle with cheese, then bake for 30 minutes.

A great cheat is to buy 2 ready made cheese sauce tubs from the supermarket to save some time.  Avoid the packet sauces like the plague!