Fish Pie

I absolutely love fish pie.  In fact, I would go so far as to say it’s probably in my top 20.  Which may seem a little underwhelming, but if you think about it, there are so many wonderful things to eat that, until I really spend time deciding on my true top 20, it’s the best I can do.

Meanwhile, we have also been doing some baking today as it is Mollie’s birthday. The wee boy decided, as her present, that she would probably like some chocolate buns.   As Mollie is a hand puppet she didn’t really get a say in the matter, but when you’re five, the question as to whether something is actually alive or not, is irrelevant.  Mollie is his friend and that’s good enough for me.  We even went as far as putting candles on the cakes, lighting them, and singing her ‘happy birthday’. Glorious.

However, this has been my greatest challenge yet in the no sugar stakes, and I have to admit to lapsing without thought, twice.  Firstly, I licked my fingers which were covered in raw cake mixture, and then, later on, I inadvertently popped a piece that had fallen off the cooling rack, into my mouth.  No, truly, it was an accident.  Bloody lovely though.

Anyway, back to the fish pie.  I always put smoked fish in with white fish and some salmon.  I like the combination.  But to be honest, the beauty of fish pie is that you can put whatever fish takes your fancy in there.  I make a white sauce, which consists of cornflour, salt, pepper, milk and butter.  Occasionally, if I have it in, I put a wee bit of anchovy paste in and leave out the salt, and sometimes, like today, I replace some milk with cream, just because it needed using up.

After making the sauce, ensuring it has quite a thick consistency, I add the fish, cut up with scissors.  Make sure not to make the chunks too small as they will disintegrate.  Now then, if you wish, a little chopped parsley is a lovely compliment to fish, but I didn’t have any of that around so this time, omitted it.

Put the fish and sauce into a dish.

Make some mashed potato, place on top, fiddle about with a fork to make a pretty pattern, and place in the oven, gas mark 5 for around 45 minutes.

Take out and let it all sit in itself for a few minutes.  I tend to serve it with peas as I’m a creature of habit, but anything green goes well.  Except green peppers, but I’m not a fan of the taste of those anyway.

I find fish pie so delicious I am always tempted to have seconds, but every time I do, I regret it within approximately ten minutes, as it is very, ‘catches you unaware’, filling.  As a consequence of this, we do have a very large amount of fish pie left, so if anyone fancies popping over for some, do feel free.