Fish Pie

A very simple and fast fish pie. This recipe does not use a white sauce in the fish pie. As a fair amount of people moan about that, I'll give you an explanation why. White sauce is made of butter, flour, and milk. Mashed potatoes are made with butter and milk... So the idea here is to make a fairly moist mash - so the only thing missing is the flour. If you miss it, have a spoon of it on the side ;-)

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Ingredients for 4

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Ingredients
1000 gramspotato
400 gramsfish
200 gramsfrozen peas
160 gramsmature cheddar cheese
80 gramsbutter
1 1/4 teaspoonsalt (8 grams)
1/4 teaspoonground black pepper (0.8 grams)
200 mlsmilk
1 1/2 teaspoonolive oil (8 mls)
Salt content: 0.4% (by weight, not counting salt in other ingredients)
Use any sort of fish you like - cod, coaley, smoked or unsmoked haddock, trout, salmon ...

Method

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees celsius / 350 F / Gas Mark 4. Place your fish in a dish greased lightly with olive oil. Add the milk. Peel your potatoes, put them in a saucepan and cover with water. Add a pinch of salt and bring to a boil. When the potatoes are boiling, put the fish into the oven. After 20 minutes, take the fish out and take the potatoes off the hob. Now turn up the heat of the oven to 220 celsius / 425 F / Gas Mark 7. Pour the water off the potatoes and mash with butter, salt, pepper and the milk you used for the fish. Grate the cheese. Mix the frozen peas and the mash with a fork - do not use too much force to keep the peas intact. Separate the fish into small chunks take off the skin. Spread the mash over the fish and put the grated cheese on top. Put your dish in the oven and leave it there for 20 minutes. If your oven doesn't heat up evenly, turn the dish after 10 minutes. Take out and serve!

Enjoy with a dry white wine - like a French "Entre deux mers"

Step-by-Step Instructions

Recipe PhotoPreheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius / 350 Fahrenheit / Gas Mark 4. Use an ovenproof dish. Pour a small amount of olive oil into the dish and distribute evenly with your fingers. This will keep the fish from sticking to the dish.
Recipe PhotoPlace the fish pieces with the skin side down into the dish, salt and pepper lightly and pour the milk over the fish so it's about half covered.
Recipe PhotoPeel the potatoes, put them in a saucepan and cover them with water. Add a pinch of salt to the water and bring to a boil. When the potatoes are boiling, put the fish into the oven.
Recipe PhotoSet your kitchen timer to 20 minutes, relax and have a glass of wine.
Recipe PhotoGrate the cheese - this doesn't have to be too fine. The chunky cheese grater will do.
Recipe PhotoWhen the 20 minutes are up, drain the potatoes and let them sit in the saucepan without a lid - we want the rest of the water to evaporate.
Recipe PhotoTake the fish out of the oven (so it has been in there for 20 minutes) and drain off the milk. Keep the drained off milk as we will use it later to make the potato mash. Now turn the heat of the oven up to 220 degrees Celsius / 425 Fahrenheit / Gas Mark 7
Recipe PhotoRemove any bits of milk skin from the dish.
Recipe PhotoUsing two forks, separate the fish into small bits pulling them off the skin.
Recipe PhotoThen remove the skin from the dish. It will come off easily as we greased the dish earlier.
Recipe PhotoDistribute the fish evenly.
Recipe PhotoPut the butter, some salt and pepper to the potatoes.
Recipe PhotoAdd 3/4 of the milk you drained off the fish earlier to the mash.
Recipe PhotoNow mash the potatoes until they are smooth and creamy and not crumbly. If it is too thick, add more of the milk. You want a nice, smooth, slighly moist consistency.
Recipe PhotoAdd the frozen peas ...
Recipe Photo... and very gently mix them into the mash using a fork. Be careful not to damage the peas.
Recipe PhotoNow fork the mash on top of the fish ...
Recipe Photo... and spread evenly.
Recipe PhotoPut the grated cheese on top ...
Recipe Photo... and distribute it evenly. Now we can put the dish back into the oven. Leave it there for 20 minutes. After 10 minutes, turn it 180 degrees so the cheese can brown evenly - most ovens don't distribute the heat evenly - not even fan assisted ovens.
Recipe PhotoThis is what your fish pie should look like - enjoy!