Post 158: Fish Pie, (slightly like Brian Turner's)

Feeling, quite happy with myself, yesterday, I:
- Ran a half marathon
- Remembered to buy birthday presents for niece and nephew
- Cooked a fish pie for the first time ever
And not so happily:
- Took very bad photos of said fish pie.

Here's a photo from above, with all it's lovely cheesyness. I think maybe less shiny table mats might help my photos. That, and not taking them on my phone maybe. Anyway, onto the cooking. I looked up the BBC's recipe and Brian Turner's. They both seemed to be a little convoluted and did not match to the fish I had (careful selection of the fishes was crucial to gaining the required permission to cook the fish pie).


Recipe:

- I started by finely chopping a small onion and softly frying it in a tiny-weeny amount of oil (Brian Turner's recipe didn't fry the onion, it just used it in the poaching milk and then threw it away. As you'll all know, I'm a big fan of slow frying onions. And I'm also not such a big fan of throwing things away)

- I then added a couple of carrots diced pretty small. Again this wasn't in Brian's recipe, but I was worried about hard carrots

- I then added the fish, which was ~250gs smoked haddock and ~300gs cod, which I'd cut into one inch chunks and slowly brought this to a simmer in 1 and 1/4 pints of milk, along with some bay leaves

- Once this simmered, I drained (and saved) the poaching milk

- So, after making a start on the sauce with butter and flour, most of the milk was then added until the sauce went a little thicker. Because we like it, we then added a little cheese for extra thickness

- This was then added to a casserole, and I was meant to add some peas in at this stage - but I forgot.

- I then mashed 1 1/2 pounds of potatoes, using the last bits of the poaching milk, carefully laying these on top of the fishy-sauce mixture.

- Just for good measure, I then covered in cheese

- Bake until super hot. Serve.

I really couldn't argue with anyone who says it looks rubbish. It did a bit. But it must have been good though - I've been given permission to cook it again!