Fish Pie

Ingredients

• 400 g cod or haddock, skinned
• 200 g smoked haddock or salmon
• 200 g raw prawns
• 600 ml whole milk
• 2 bay leaves
• 90 g butter
• 50 g plain flour
• 2 tsp dijon mustard
• a big handful of parsley, chopped
• 1.2 kg floury potatoes
• 80 ml double cream
• 60 g cheddar, grated

Method

1. Boil the potatoes

   Boil the potatoes whole in their skins in salted water until tender, then peel them while hot. Cut up first, they take on water and the mash goes sloppy — which is fatal on top of a wet filling.

   30 min

2. Poach the fish in the milk

   Bring the milk to a bare simmer with the bay and slide in the white and smoked fish. Take it off after 4 minutes and lift the fish out. It will be underdone, which is right — it finishes in the oven.

   4 min

3. Make the sauce with that milk

   Melt 50 g of the butter, stir in the flour, cook two minutes, then whisk in the strained poaching milk a little at a time. Using the poaching milk rather than fresh is what makes the sauce taste of the fish.

   10 min

4. Season the sauce

   Off the heat, stir in the mustard, parsley and plenty of pepper. Taste it — smoked fish is salty, so hold back until you have.

5. Layer the filling

   Flake the fish into the dish in large pieces, add the raw prawns, and pour the sauce over. Big flakes survive the oven; small ones disintegrate into the sauce.

6. Mash and top

   Mash the potatoes with the remaining butter and the cream and season well. Spoon it over in blobs and join them up rather than spreading in one go, so you do not drag filling up into the topping.

7. Bake

   Rough up the surface with a fork, scatter the cheese, and bake at 200°C until golden and bubbling at the edges.

   35 min