I have had a request for this fish pie recipe. I made it on a whim as this week it is British Pie Week but even for me, a great pastry lover, the thought of eating pastry every day for seven days made me feel bloated just thinking about it.
Making little individual pies gave me the opportunity to use these little little dishes that were a boot sale find a few weeks ago and have since sat in the cupboard looking very abandoned and unloved. To be honest I thought they may have been a bit small and everyone would have been asking for more but they turned out to be just the perfect size for an individual serving.
If you didn’t have any small dishes or just wanted to make one large pie that would be fine as well.
I was very, very pleased with the result and even my 10 year old woofed it down.
Michael had a poached egg of top of his which worked very well too.
- Approx 900g potatoes
- 300g bag washed spinach
- 400g Smoked cod loin
- 250ml milk plus a little for the mash
- Knob of butter
- 1 Tbs Flour
- Salt and White Pepper
- Preheat oven to 180c
- Peel, cook and mash the potatoes with a little milk.
- Whilst the potatoes are cooking, put the spinach in a large pan with a small splash of water and cook until wilted and reduced. Place in a strainer and press out as much liquid as possible. Leave to strain.
- Put the milk in the same pan (just to save on washing up!) add the fish, bring to a fast simmer then turn the heat off. Cover with a lid and leave for 5 minutes.
- The fish should be just cooked but not falling apart.
- Remove the fish with a slotted spoon to a separate plate. Save the milk.
- Melt the knob of butter in a small pan, add the flour and cook for a minute.
- Add the milk from the fish pan, stirring all the time and make a white sauce. Season with salt and white pepper.
- Divide the spinach and arrange in the bottom of the dishes.
- Trying to keep the fish as intact as possible lay a piece in each dish over the spinach.
- Spoon the white sauce over the top.
- Arrange dollops of mashed potatoes over the top and carefully spread out using a fork, making sure the edges are covered.
- Put the dishes on a baking try and cook for 20 minutes until golden brown and piping hot.