Fish pie

beertons

Scanned through 10 pages there and couldn't find a mention of a nice fish pie recipe. Rather than just googling it, I want to hear of your tried and tested dishes. The mother in law will be up for Easter, so need a dish for Good Friday.

downwesht

Simple and easy.....can of Campbells chicken in white wine soup.Add mixed fish of your choice.Heat through.Pour into baking dish top with garlic breadcrumbs and cook until breacrumbs are browned.serve with mahed potatoes and veg.

dmc17

downwesht wrote: »

Simple and easy.....can of Campbells chicken in white wine soup.Add mixed fish of your choice.Heat through.Pour into baking dish top with garlic breadcrumbs and cook until breacrumbs are browned.serve with mahed potatoes and veg.

I'd imagine they're trying to avoid meat for Good Friday

huskerdu

Here is Nevin Maguires Fish Pie recipe.I use it regularly and its always a success.

http://www.rte.ie/lifestyle/food/recipes/2011/1012/2712-killybegs-fish-pie/

beertons

Fantastic. I'll give Nevin's a go.

Faith

Great minds think alike! I have my recipe in the oven right now. Here it is, if anyone's interested:

Mixed fish - I find it very hard to give quantities here. Usually I buy a bag from the supermarket. If you want to buy it separately, I'd aim for about 500g total I guess. Most recommend a mix of smoked fish, salmon and a white fish.
Prawns - about 200g of good quality, big prawns. It's easier to use cooked prawns.
1 small onion, quartered
4 cloves (optional)
Bay leaves
600 ml milk
100g butter
50g plain flour
A pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Salt & pepper
Peas - optional. I usually use a few handfuls of petit pois.


Method

Place the fish (excluding the cooked prawns) in a saucepan. Stud each onion quarter with a clove, and add to the pan with 2 bay leaves, salt and pepper. Cover with 500ml of the milk and bring just to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 8 minutes.

Once the first is poached, remove it from the pan and put into your dish. Keep the milk it was cooked in. Remove the onion, cloves and bay leaves and discard. Flake any large chunks of fish.

Mix in your prawns with the poached fish, and add peas if you're using them. Leave aside.

Melt half your butter over a gentle heat and stir in the flour. Cook for a minute or two and then add the poaching milk gradually. Blend until smooth (it often helps to use a whisk) and bring to the boil. You can add more milk if you feel it's getting too thick. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until thick - it should coat the back of a spoon. Season as needed, and add your grated nutmeg. Pour over the fish.

Mashed Potatoes (optional recipe - you may have your own perfect method)

Quantities here are very much up to you so I won't tell you how much to use

Floury potatoes
Butter
Milk
Mayonnaise
Salt & Pepper
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Thyme

Method

Peel and chop your potatoes into similar sized pieces.

Ideally, you want to steam them if at all possible. If not, boiling will do. Cook until a knife slides through *all* of them with no resistance.

Take the potatoes off the heat. If you're steaming them, place the steamer on a tea towel and leave the potatoes uncovered for a few minutes while you prepare the rest.

Melt a knob of butter in the pan. When melted, add some milk (not too much, wet mash is horrible) and heat.

Now is the time to mash your potatoes. If you're looking for the smoothest mash possible, you'll need a ricer. If you don't have one, an ordinary masher will do. Add the potatoes to the milk and butter, mash and stir.

Add a good squeeze of mayonnaise (trust me!). Season to taste, and add your nutmeg and a pinch of thyme.

Spread the potatoes on top of the fish and sauce and run a fork over the top, fluffing up the mash. If you have any to hand, you could spread some panko breadcrumbs over the top for extra crispiness!

Cook in a preheated oven at 200C/180 Fan/ Gas Mark 6 for about 30 minutes.

(That's copied and pasted from my blog, so it reads a bit chatty - sorry!)

beertons

Mayo with the spuds, oh wow. Put up a pic when it's on the plate please!

Faith

I'm no food photographer, but here you go!

The whole thing:



On the plate:

beertons

Just put the pie in the oven there. Added a bit of mustard to the spuds, instead of the mayo. I probably added a bit too much milk to the mix, so it's quiet creamy, and I think the mustard will give it a bit of a kick. Will let you tonight how it went.

beertons

Didn't put in as many peas as yours Faith, but it is delish. So much so, our 18 month old wanted seconds. Can see this recipe being used more frequent.

Oh, and I put the onions and garlic into the bottom of the tray with the fish mix too. Seemed a waste to just throw it out. Worked well, no horrible after taste from them.

Faith

Great, so glad you liked it! I was too heavy-handed with the peas in the picture so it was probably a good idea to use less!

Alun

One thing I keep meaning to try is something I recently saw on a program about Mary Berry ... she puts her potatoes through a ricer and then just places them loosely on top of the fish pie, without pressing them down at all. Apparently the added surface area makes for a nice crispy topping. She also adds quartered hard-boiled eggs to hers, which I'm not inclined to try to be honest

Faith

That sounds like a nice way to get a crispy topping, but not a great mash recipe! I'd imagine it would be quite dry.

Eggs in fish pie is a very British thing. They were in the BCC recipe that I adapted my recipe from.

nompere

I always put hard-boiled eggs in my fish pie.

Some time back I tried without eggs, and it seemed to me that including the eggs just made the sauce richer.

beertons

Yeah, I remember that episode with the potato ricer. That dish looked amazing.

the beer revolu

The trick with ricing the topping is to rice the potatoes as usual, mix in your butter, milk and seasoning, then rice again onto the pie.

Here's the result. (from a shepherd's pie).
Don't know why I didn't do it for my recent fish pie.

Alun

the beer revolu wrote: »

The trick with ricing the topping is to rice the potatoes as usual, mix in your butter, milk and seasoning, then rice again onto the pie.

Hmm, I can't remember if she did that with hers, but yes, that's a good idea.

foodaholic

I rice mine on top after adding milk and butter. Really crunchy, and cooks quicker

beertons

Forgot to update this. Made the pie for mother in law and her 2 sisters, they thought it was fab. While they didn't ask for the recipe, they will want me to cook it again next time I am down in Kerry.

lg123

i just tried this gordan ramsay recipe this evening, was delish. had some friends over for dinner and forget one of them didnt like fish. this one may have changed his mind, his plate was first finished and clean.

http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/435067/Gordon-Ramsay-s-fish-pie

pwurple

Just did a fish pie last night, but had no spuds. Whizzed breadcrumbs with a bunch of basil, butter and seasoning for the topping instead, and I much preferred it to the potato topping. Got really nice and crispy.