Fish Pie

Let down by my own website. The horror, the horror!

After ten years, most of my standards have found their way into this column. By no means are all of them off the top-of the-head. Today, the brain said fish pie. (May I assume that all of your brains give you food messages regularly, or is it just me?) A recipe was required. I knew I'd written one - but Tom Cooks! came up blank. I had to revert to A Bunch of Fives, my sole adventure into the cook book market ten years ago. If you own a copy, beware. I reread many parts of it and think, I wouldn't do it that way myself.

Anyway, to pie. The media tell us that everyone loves a pie. I can corroborate that. My pie recipes attract far and away the greatest amount of attention. Were I to repeat my steak pie classic every year, something I'm very tempted to do, the readership figures would soar. But today we're going pescatarian. Sorry, Andrew, look away now.

I see that in my book I entitled this A Posh Fish Pie. It's really not, but I think we have to start with a discussion on what should and shouldn't be among the contents. I hate to proscribe anything - it's your pie - but a few thoughts for what they're worth.

I don't see the point of including luxury fish. Sole, halibut, turbot are delicate things, not for swamping in sauce and potato. Salmon? Well the pink is attractive, but I'm very leery about the farmed fish of dodgy provenance which tend to be ubiquitous these days. Shellfish? Lobster is OK if you want to be flash; however, so many specimens just can't cope with the extended cooking required by today's dish.

My choices involve a trio. My plain white fish of choice is haddock, now regarded as sustainable again. You also need something smoked, but definitely not something oily. For me, more haddock, the smoked variety. In our house we always refer to it as yellow fish, even though we always buy the undyed, white stuff. For the third element I always include prawns. An ever present in my freezer is a large bag of frozen unshelled prawns (not langoustines - too fragile), the ones which will keep their shape and texture. Defrost and devein then and chuck in a frying pan with a little oil for just a minute or two until they colour.

Enough preamble? Remember that the quantities are approximate. It will depend on the size of your pie dish but keep your fish and prawns in equal proportions.. These days I have no idea how much butter and flour you need for a roux - I always do it by eye - make just enough to absorb about 400ml of milk.

Ingredients (serves 4 - 6)

300g haddock; 300g smoked haddock; 300g prawns (see above); 400ml milk; flour and butter for the roux; splash of dry vermouth; zest of 1 lemon; 4 - 6 eggs, hard boiled; 700g best mashed potato, lovingly mashed with a ricer and with copious amounts of butter; 1 bay leaf; Dijon mustard; handful of chopped parsley (optional); salt and pepper.

************************************************

The order isn't that important as you want the filling to be cool before you top with the tattie. I usually put the spuds on to boil first.

Gently poach the two haddocks in the milk with the bay leaf until soft. Don't overcook. Strain, reserving the milk, and set the fish to one side.

At some stage, put the potatoes through a ricer and mix in lots of salt, pepper and butter. Did I need to tell you to shell the eggs? Thought not. Cut them into halves or quarters, depending on the size of your gob.

Make a béchamel sauce using the reserved milk. I've included mustard in the ingredients - I wouldn't make a béchamel without one. The slug of vermouth really does add to the flavour. Chuck in the parsley at the end.

From here it's an assembly job. Lay the fish and prawns in your pie dish. Sprinkle with the lemon zest and season with pepper. Layer the eggs on top. Spoon the sauce all over, enough to completely cover the filling. When the mixture is cool, layer with the mashed potato, and fork it. No I'm not being rude. That will eventually produce an attractive pattern.

You can do this in advance, but if you've kept it in the fridge this will affect the heating time. Do check the temperature at the centre before you serve up, as it will take longer than you may think.

Preheat the oven to 180˚C/Mark 4. It will need a minimum of 45 minutes. Mine needed an hour. After all that work, don't serve one cold in the middle. I now know how to use my food thermometer (anything over 65˚C is fine). If you don't have one, just stick a fork in and test it on your lip.

That's it from Tom Cooks! for this year. We'll be back either in late January or in February. Happy cooking (and eating) during the festive season and beyond.