Easy peasy fish pie

Fish pie, is there anything more comforting? This year I was working on Mothers day, so I wasn't able to spend the day with my mum. Instead, I paid a visit Friday evening and came bearing gifts, specifically a fish pie! I whipped it up at home, drove down to Surrey and popped it in the oven for 30 mins. Heres the recipe, once you've tried this you'll have them on standby in your freezer (freezes great) for years to come! 

All fish is in standard supermarket packet size to keep it simple. 

Serves 6 - 8, depending on how greedy you are feeling 

Pie filling, 

2 x salmon fillets

2 x cod fillets

1 x pack prawns 

2 x carrots 

2 x leeks 

2 x celery sticks

5 x peppercorns

3 x bay leaf 

Mash topping, 

1kg x baking potato peeled 

2 x pints whole milk

30g x butter 

Cheese sauce,

50g x plain flour

50g x butter 

1 x dessert spoon Dijon mustard 

2 x tbsp creme fraiche 

2 x pints whole milk 

1 x handful of grated cheese 

Preheat your oven to 180'c

Firstly prep all your veg, dice your leeks, carrot, and celery into equal size, set aside. Peel your potatoes and chop into chunks, pop them into salted water, bring to boil and simmer until very tender. 

Fill a high sided frying pan or shallow saucepan with your milk, add peppercorns and bay leaf. Bring to a very gentle simmer (do not boil) carefully add the fish fillets (hang onto those prawns, they aren't ready to go in yet!). Simmer with a lid on for 12-13 minutes, until cooked through - flake fish apart and set aside - reserve your milk in a jug but oik out the peppercorns and bay leaf! 

Your potatoes will be cooked by now, drain them and mash with 30g of butter, s + p and a few splashes of milk; it's important not to add too much liquid as you need a robust topping for your pie. 

Take your diced root veg, add a splash of olive oil to a pan (any will do) and lightly fry until a little soft but not coloured, take off the heat and allow to cool a little. 

Cheese white sauce time! Take a medium saucepan (preferably NOT non-stick). Melt 50g of butter and mix with a balloon whisk, then add half your flour to make a roux, add the remaining flour and keep mixing to cook out the flour. Turn heat down and add 1/3 of your milk, combining all the time keep adding milk until you have a nice thick sauce. You may not need to use all your milk.  ONce lovely and thick, ass 3/4 of the cheese, all the Dijon and creme fraiche and mix.

Assemble your troops! Get all your bits lined up, take the veg mix, add your flaked fish and fold through being careful not to break up the fish too much. Add your white sauce, add as much as you like, spending if you want a saucy pie or not. Spoon into a large pie dish, or like me split between 2 smaller ones, Then add your potato topping, blob it on and fork through to make it look pretty. If you want to show off, buy yourself a piping bag (they are a few quid on Amazon, or they sell disposable ones in the pound shop at the mo!) and working clockwise pipe large blobs on top. 

Place in the centre of the oven and cook at 180'c for 30 mins, after 20 mins add the rest of cheese. 

There you have it, easy peasy fish pie. If your mum doesn't favour you over your siblings after this then somethings gone very wrong!

Enjoy x