Who else loves fish pie? I certainly do. And this one is simple and adaptable so feel free to make it your own. Since it doesn’t require any pastry, it’s perfect for a week day meal too. And another bonus, it’s a great way to use up stale bread.
This fish pie is definitely falls in the same comfort food category for me as my Truffle Mac & Cheese with Panko Parmesan Crust or my Chicken & Leek Pie.
I’m sure it’s not the same everywhere, but fish is quite expensive these days. Especially salmon, trout and similar. So for this pie I’ve chosen two more affordable varieties, Basa and slightly smoked Haddock, and combined them to make a super delicious pie.
For me fish is best friends with peas. So you’ll almost always find peas in my fish dishes. I also love the flavour that leeks, spring onions, or chives add to these dishes so I prefer to use them instead of onions. Once again, these are my personal choices so you are welcome to change things up to suit your or your family’s taste buds.
Finally, to get the delicious crunchy topping, I’ve followed the same process I do for croutons. I added some chunks of stale Ciabatta loaf, some dried herbs and a little leftover parmesan I had lying around to my food processor, gave it a little blitz and then tossed it with some olive oil. It makes such a lovely crunchy topping and doesn’t disappear into or absorb all the sauce as finer breadcrumbs would.
Fish Pie
Ingredients
Sauce
- 30 grams Unsalted Butter
- 2 Tbsp All-Purpose/Cake Flour
- 1½ Cup Milk Warm
- 1 tsp Wholegrain or Dijon Mustard Optional
Filling
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 2 Medium leeks Finely sliced
- 150 grams Peas
- 2 Cloves of garlic Crushed
- 1 tsp Dried Italian Herb Mix
- 2 Tbsp Finely chopped chives Optional
- 600 grams Fresh fish (I used 300g Basa & 300g slightly smoked Haddock) Sliced
- 1 Tbsp All-Purpose/Cake Flour
- Salt and pepper
Topping
- 200 grams Chunky Breadcrumbs Rustic breads like ciabatta or sourdough work best
- 1 tsp Dried Italian Herb Mix
- 2 Tbsp Finely grated Parmesan
- 2 – 3 Tbsp Olive Oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190°C
Sauce
- Place a small saucepan on the heat and add the butter and flour. When the butter has melted, stir or whisk (I prefer a whisk to avoid lumps) continuously until a paste forms, this is called a roux. Continue to cook and stir/whisk for 2 minutes to cook out the flour
- Add the warm milk to the roux/paste a little at a time, stirring/whisking as you go, until you get a smooth sauce. Add the mustard and a little salt and cook for 5 – 10 minutes, stirring regularly, until the sauce starts to thicken. Taste and adjust the seasoning before removing from the heat
Filling
- Add the olive oil, chopped leeks, peas, crushed garlic and herbs to a pan and bring to medium heat. Cook until the leeks just start to soften, season with salt and pepper, then add the chives and remove from the heat
- Meanwhile, slice the fish into bite sized pieces, then season the pieces with salt and pepper and toss with the flour
- Add the fish, peas and leeks and sauce to an oven dish and mix through
Topping
- Take roughly 200grams of stale bread, tear it into pieces and add it to a food processor with the herbs and the finely grated parmesan. Pulse the mixture a few times to make coarse, chunky breadcrumbs, not too fine
- Place the breadcrumbs in a bowl and drizzle over the olive oil, then mix until they are well coated and spoon on top of the pie
- Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until the fish is cooked and the topping is golden and crunchy (the time will depend on the size/depth of your oven dish)
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