Impulse Buy? Make a Fish Pie

Let's try something new today. I've been doing a lot of writing recently but very little showing. Today I'm going to take you into the kitchen once again as we explore the wonders of making a fish pie. Let me say this now, 

"make sure you have lots of space to throw pots, plates, and pans around because this one is a messy one." 

You've got a preview of your main components above: Fish seasoned with lemon zest, nutmeg, basil, and salt and pepper; prawns "cured" with lemon and salt; potatoes and carrots; and a simple white sauce too boot. Let's do this! 

So the plan is to season the fish, poach it, then flake it into a dish with some potatoes and carrots. Once that's done you just need to add your white sauce and cover it with puff pastry. Today was the first time I poached a fish and I'm not even sure I did it correctly. Anyway, let's break this down into a step by step ordeal. 

Take your baking dish, which is the dish you will bake your pie in, and grate the zest of one lemon into it. Add some nutmeg, basil, and salt and pepper. Make sure you play carefully with the nutmeg because it is a strong herb. You don't want to overpower your fish. Use your intuition when it comes to the amount of ingredients you use. My pie was sufficient enough to serve three people, so see whether you can scale it from that. 

I cut up my blue moki fillet, 350-ish grams in total, into three equal pieces. I then proceeded to toss it into the baking dish with all that wonderful seasoning. Make sure you massage a good amount of seasoning onto the fish, but don't try to coat it completely. We're doing all of our mixing in the baking dish because that's where we want all of the flavour to be. Set it aside for now. 

Now that the dish is free again grate in your carrots. I used them to form the base of my pie, but you can prepare it however you like. You should also have chopped up your peeled potatoes into centimetre-ish chunks. Start boiling them in some lightly salted water. Moving on to the prawns, washed and shelled, take your lemon from before and squeeze all the juice into it. Remember to not let any seeds get through. Lightly salt your prawns and leave them to "cook" in the citrusy goodness. All of these things will add to the bulk of your pie. You can add whatever you like, but just remember to complement the flavours at hand. 

Now comes the fun part: poaching the fish. Place your seasoned fish into a pan and fill it up with milk. You want the milk to just start covering your fish. Bring it to a boil and then immediately turn the heat down and let it simmer for 8-5 minutes. I assumed poaching was just leaving the fish in the milk to cook, but you should probably google that just to be sure. When you're done, remove the fish and start flaking it into your baking dish. Set the milk aside as we will use that for our white sauce. Do not waste anything! 

A simple white sauce consists of butter, milk, and some flour to thicken it up. Add a table spoon of butter into a new pan. Add some flour and slowly mix in the milk. The all knowing mother told me that one teaspoon of  flour should be enough. However, she was wrong and I couldn't get my white sauce to thicken. I added some cream and cheese to try to get it going, but in the end I just needed to patiently wait for the milk to reduce. I realised that my biggest error was adding the flour after the milk. Do not make my mistake! Mix the flour with the butter during the first stage of sauce making. I suggest clarifying with google if you want more restaurant quality advice. 

Add your potatoes and white sauce into the baking dish. Put some puff pastry on it and send it to the oven. You want a nice preheated oven at 180°C going for 25 minutes. In actual fact, the only thing you're cooking at this point is your pastry, so follow the instructions on the pack. If you're good and making your own pastry then you're already better than me in every way so go with your gut. 

So there you have it. A fish pie with prawns, potatoes, carrots, and a white sauce filling. It was much better than I expected. I've never done anything like this before so I'm very pleased with the results. Don't be afraid to try something new in the kitchen every once in a while. If you do find something you're really good at then master that dish, style, or way of cooking. I'm good at making pies, so I'm always trying to make better and better ones. You can too! Cook good food I mean. Not make good pies. That's my thing. Get your own thing. 

Did you like the pictures? Do you think that this dish is doable for you? Do you have a special dish that only you can make? Let me know in the comments!