Savoury Fish Pie

After a meat pie, I think a fish pie is one of my ultimate comfort foods. I found this recipe from one of Anthony Worrall Thompson's cookbook. To save money, I buy a pack of fish pieces that contain a mix of smoked and unsmoked haddock, cod, and salmon instead of a whole fillet, and a pack of mixed seafood that generally contains prawns, mussels, and squid.

Fish pie with a chive mash

Anthony Worrall Thompson's Ultimate Fish Pie

You will need: 

450 ml Milk
1 x Bay leaf
Few black peppercorns
1 sm Onion, roughly chopped
1 kg White fish fillets, such as cod, coley, pollack or ling ( I use a non-dyed smoked haddock)
175 gm Cooked peeled large prawns
4 Tablespoons Chopped fresh herbs, (parsley, chives, chervil, or tarragon)
100 gm butter
2 large Shallots, finely chopped
175 gm Button mushrooms, sliced (I usually leave these out)
50 gm Plain flour
150 ml Double cream (thick cream)
1/4 x Lemon, pips removed
1 kg Potatoes, cut into chunks
2 Tablespoons Wholegrain mustard
Salt and freshly ground white pepper

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.

1 Place the milk in a saute pan with the bay leaf, peppercorns and onion. Bring to a simmer and cook gently for a couple of minutes.

2 Set aside for at least 10 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse.
Add the fish to the infused milk and poach for 5 minutes or until just tender. Remove from the heat and leave to cool, then lift out the fish and roughly flake the flesh, discarding any skin and bone.

3 Place the fish in a large bowl with the prawns and herbs. Strain the poaching milk into a jug. Melt half the butter in a pan and fry the shallots for 5 minutes to soften.

4 Add the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes until tender, then stir in the flour and cook for a minute or so, stirring constantly.
Remove from the heat and gradually add the poaching milk. Season, return to the heat and simmer for a few minutes. Keep stirring until thickened.

5 Stir in half of the cream and add a good squeeze of lemon, then fold into the fish mixture and season. Pour into a buttered 25cm/10in pie dish and set aside to allow a skin to form.

Allow a skin to form

6 Place the potatoes in a pan of boiling salted water, cover and cook for 15-20 minutes until tender. Drain, return to the pan to dry out and then mash until smooth.

7 Beat in the remaining butter and cream and the mustard. Season to taste. Carefully spread over the fish mixture and pull a fork across the top to make a wavy-line pattern. Bake for 30-40 minutes until bubbling and lightly golden. Serve hot with a big spoonful of peas.

Cooked fish pie

Savoury Meat Pies

Shepherd's Pie

The British savoury pie is a time honoured tradition. This is simple food at its most delicious. A steaming hot filling of gravy, vegetables, and meat surrounded by a pastry shell or topped by a thick layer of mashed potatoes. Served up on a plate with a large spoonful of fresh seasonal vegetables, it's meal fit for any table.

These pies can be the perfect way to use up cooked bits of meat and cooked vegetables from a family roast dinner. They're also good when you want to stretch a few ingredients out to feed the family. Favourites at our house include beef cottage pie, beef pie with a puff pastry topping, chicken pie, and shepherd's pie.

Cottage Pie or Shepherd's Pie

I sometimes see some confusion between these two similar pies, but it's realy very simple. A shepherd's pie is made using lamb or mutton, and a cottage pie is made using other meats like beef or chicken.

Otherwise, they're made exactly the same way.

You will need: 

Leftover roasting joint (beef, lamb, or chicken) - pull as much meat as you can off the bones then put the bone into a pot of water to make a stock.
1 large or 2 medium onions, roughly chopped
1 - 2 carrots, diced and cooked until soft in boiling water
1 cup frozen peas or corn
Herbs and spices - pick 2 or 3 that go with whatever meat you're using. For instance, rosemary goes well with lamb or beef, sage and thyme go well with chicken
Salt and pepper for seasoning
Gravy
Mashed potatoes

Chop meat in food processor

1. Roughly cut up the leftover meat and then put it into a food processor and pulse it a few times until you get the desired consistency. I prefer to have a few bigger pieces but other may way it to be completely chopped into small pieces. If you don't think you'll have enough meat, add in a couple slices of bread and chop those in as well. 

Cook onions and frozen vegetables

2. Heat about a tablespoon olive oil in a pan (I use the wok because it's big enough to do all the mixing as well) and cook the onions until the are soft. Add in the frozen peas or corn and whatever herbs or spices you might want to use. Continue stirring occasionally and cook down until you just start to see some browning on the sides of a few of the veggies. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Now remove it from the heat.

3. Add in the cooked carrots and the chopped meat and mix together.

Pour over  gravy to make a wet mix

4. Use the stock to make a gravy for the pie. Pour enough of the gravy over the meat and vegetables to make a rather wet mixture. Spoon this into your casserole dish. It should be big enough to hold all of the mixture and leave a half inch minimum from the top of the dish.

Spoon mix into casserole dish

5. Mash your cooked potatoes and spoon that over the top of the mixture.

You'll need enough potatoes mashed to cover the entire top of the casserole dish to a layer of at least 1/2 inch. I generally use 5 - 6 large potatoes for a 2-quart dish. You'll want to make a dry mash, so don't add any milk and just a small amount of butter when mashing as the mash will absorb some of the moisture from the meat mixture while cooking.

Spoon mash over the top

6. Spread the mash to cover the entire mix and seal it around the edges. Using a fork run across the top to rough up the surface then dot with a bit of butter and season with salt and pepper. This will give you crunchy bits on top.

Rough up the surface with a fork

7. Place on a baking tray to catch spills and bake in a moderately hot oven (Gas Mark 6/400f/200c) for 35 - 45 minutes, until the topping is browned and the filling is hot and bubbling.

8. Serve it hot. I like to make extra gravy to pour over the top of mine

Cooked shepherd's pie ready to eat

Turkey, Ham and Leek Pie

This is a recipe I got from my children's grandmother. It really comes into it's own after Thanksgiving or Christmas, but you can substitute chicken and have it other times in the year.

Turkey, Ham, and Leek Pie

Ingredients

2 1/4 ounce butter
2 sliced leeks
1 pint dry cider (hard cider)
1 1/2 ounces plain flour
1 pound diced turkey
8 ounces diced, cooked ham
2 cox apples, peeled and sliced (or another firm eating apple)
1 tsp crushed green peppercorns (in brine)
1/4 pint double cream (thick cream)
salt for seasoning (taste first)
Ready roll puff pastry
Beaten egg

Method

1. Melt butter in a large pan, add the sliced leeks, cover and leave to cook for 10 minutes

2. Blend dry cider and plain flour.

3. Remove leeks from pan and pour in cider mixture. Heat until thickened, then remove from heat and stir in leeks, diced turkey, diced ham, apples, and peppercorns. Taste and season if necessary with salt.

4. Add double cream and put into a deep pie dish. Taste and season if necessary with salt. Make a lid with the puff pastry and use to cover the pie. Brush with beaten egg.

5. Bake at 170C/325F/Gas mark 3 for 40 minutes until the pastry is golden.