(Serves 4 persons)
OK, so we can all follow a recipe, so how about being creative and make up your own Fish Pie? I’ll give you the basics below to help you be more successful but adapt and tweak the instructions to suit yourself.
Write down what you did, with the ingredients and amounts, and, hey! you’ll be creating your own recipe!
You will need.........
A mixture of fish, cubed, such as Haddock, Smoked Haddock, Cod, Salmon, Hake, but try to avoid ‘soft’ fish such as Plaice and Bass. Include some Shrimps or Prawns if you like these. Usually you can include three or four of this selection, but it’s up to you. (Supermarkets often sell a “Fish Pie” mixture with three types of fish.)
Potatoes, cooked and mashed with butter and milk, and seasoned with salt and plenty of pepper.
Freshly chopped Parsley, buy a plant from the Supermarket, or a bag of freshly picked parsley.
A dessert spoonful of Butter.
2 dessertspoons of Plain Flour.
Pepper and Salt for seasoning.
Cheddar Cheese - just a little to taste in the sauce, and for the topping!
(Add a little grated onion if you wish.)
Method:
Wash, peel, and cut the potatoes up into small cubes - they will cook quicker, but don’t let them cook into the water or go too soft. When cooked, add a knob of Butter and a few dessertspoons of Milk, Salt and Pepper to taste. Mash them all up so that there are no lumps anywhere!
Whilst the potatoes are cooking you can cook the fish ingredients cubed, with the Prawns or Shrimps if you are including them, in about half a pint of milk, seasoned with Salt and Pepper, for about ten minutes, at a slow, low, simmer. (Add the grated onion here if using, but don’t put too much in.) Don’t let the milk bubble up too much, and do remove any ‘scum’ that might appear with a spoon. When cooked set aside in a dish and keep the milk - you will need this for the sauce.
Potatoes mashed, Fish all cooked, now for the sauce. Melt the Butter in a saucepan on a very low light and when it is melted add in the flour. Stir and cook for a few minutes until the butter and flour have combined. Now you need to slowly add the milk from the fish, which should not be too hot but cool by now, stirring all the time. The mixture should now start to thicken; if it is too thick add some more milk until you come to a thickish batter type mix; if it is too runny add some cornflour mixed in a little milk to form a paste then add to the sauce briskly stirring. Now turn up the heat a little and let the sauce bubble slowly. Add some small chunks or slices of Cheddar cheese whilst continuing to stir. Don’t put in too much cheese, use only really small amounts as the strong taste of the cheese could become too over-powering. Keep tasting the sauce until you get the right cheesy taste to suit. When you are happy with that then add the chopped Parsley (no stalks) and stir it into the sauce.
Cooking:
Place fish into an average size oven proof dish (no lid). Pour in the sauce and mix with the fish. Level it all out and then spread the mashed potato over the top. Draw a fork along the top of the mashed potato making little ridges all along the surface. Sprinkle some grated cheese all over the top. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes on gas mark 6, 200C, when the top should be golden and crisp from the cheese on top. Serve with any fresh green vegetables, or a salad if you prefer.
Alternative method for use when freezing:
Allow the cooked ingredients to go cold; and instead of using an oven proof dish you could divide everything up into three or four foil trays with the mashed potatoes and cheese on top but don’t cook them - just freeze them ready for cooking later!! Of course you could just cook one straight away in the foil trays and freeze the rest!
Plastic “take-away” trays can also be used for some portions and frozen for use later - for microwaving after de-frosting. (Do not put plastic trays in the oven!)
So I do hope everything turned out OK, but if not, I am sure that there was something worth eating. If you wrote down all you did with the amounts etc, then next time it will be perfect. But that’s what cooking is all about, there’s no harm in experimenting! Good Luck!
