Fish Pie Recipe » Indonesia Eats
Fish Pie is a traditional British food beside Fish Chips. After making fish and chips the other day, I still had some cod left in the fridge. I searched fish recipes that don’t need any deep frying method. Since cod is popular to be used in British cooking, I was thinking to look for another British recipe.
There are many different way to cook the fish pie. Jamie Oliver’s recipe might be fit on to my Indonesian palate more than 3 other recipes that I found as his recipe calls for crushed chilies. However, his recipe included aged cheddar cheese which I don’t have it. So I went for the BBC Good Food old-fashioned fish pie recipe with a bit adaption from the Traditional British Fish Pie, Fish Pie – in four steps and Jamie Oliver’s Fish Pie.
Thou many Canadians have a root from British, Fish Pie isn’t something that popular in Manitoba, the province where I reside now. I’m not sure about other provinces where are near by the ocean. Most people that I know in Winnipeg are not fish eaters, surely they are meat eaters so meat pie is widely consumed more than fish pie.
Fish Pie
Ingredients:
500 grams cod pieces, washed and pat-dry
1 lemon
seasalt
freshly ground black pepper
200 mL evaporated milk
200 mL fish stock (can be substituted for another 200mL milk)
1 bay leaf
1 leek, removed dark green leaves, the rest thinly sliced and washed
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1-2 tablespoon all purpose flour
4 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
pinch freshly grated nutmeg
40 grams unsalted butter + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter for mashed potatoes
olive oil
Methods:
Preheat the oven to 400°F and bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Peel the potatoes and cut into 2cm chunks. Once the water is boiling, add your potatoes and cook for around 12 minutes, until soft (you can stick your knife into them to check).
In a bowl, throw fish in and drizzle with freshly lemon squeezed, rub seasalt and black pepper all over the fish. Marinate for 15 minutes
Pour the fish stock and milk into a large saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer. Add the marinated fish pieces and bay leaf; poach for 5 minutes. Lift out the fish and strain the liqueur into a jug.
Melt the butter and olive oil in a medium sized saucepan over a medium heat. Add the sliced leeks and celery; cook for 5 minutes until the leeks are soft.
Whilst still hot, add the flour and stir well with a wooden spoon. Pour the fish liqueur into the pan and stir again, add pinch of freshly grated nutmeg, raise the temperature and cook for 3 minutes until the sauce is slightly thickened. Turn the heat off. Remove the bay leaf. Add the fish, chopped parsley and season with salt and pepper if you need. Leave to one side.
By now your potatoes should be cooked, so drain them in a colander and return them to the pan. Drizzle with some olive oil, 2 tablespoon unsalted butter and add a pinch of salt and pepper.
Place the fish and sauce into a deep baking dish or earthenware dish, cover with a thick layer of mashed potato fluffed up with a fork or for a more professional look, pipe from a piping bag and large nozzle.
Bake in the center of the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling beneath the potatoes. Garnish with paprika powder to add some colour. Serve piping hot with tomato ketchup, baked beans, steamed veg or a lovely green salad.
Cook’s Note:
* If you want to make a one-meal dish, you can add spinach or kale in the fish and sauce mixture, so you won’t need to make green salad or steamed veggies on the side.
* Dill can be an option instead go flat parsley.