How to cook fish pie

I could be completely wrong here, but I think if you put raw fish pieces in the base of a pie dish, cover with sauce, top with mashed potato and cook it, then some liquid may find its way out of the fish and you will end up with a pie whose sauce is a little inconsistent.  But then of course, the key to cooking fish well is to not over-cook it.  So in the below recipe, where basically the fish is poached in milk before that milk is turned into your sauce, one trick is to keep the poaching brief.  It also means you don't have to worry about fish stock.

To poach the fish:

Mixed fish pieces
Whole milk to cover
1 bay leaf
4 peppercorns
2 allspice berries
2 cloves

Other pie contents (suggested):

1 leek, halved vertically then sliced and washed
1 carrot, peeled, quartered lengthways, chopped and simmered until tender
Some button mushrooms or quartered ordinary mushrooms.  Sauteed in butter until their liquid is reabsorbed.
Halved hard boiled eggs (Cover eggs with cold water, bring to a simmer, simmer for 4 minutes, leave for a further 3 minutes in the pan then drain and rinse with cold water.)

To make the sauce:

30g of butter and 20g of plain flour per 400ml of milk (see below)
White pepper
Lemon juice

To top:

Stiff mashed potato, melted butter

Preparation:

Assemble the poaching ingredients in a saucepan.  Bring just to a simmer quite quickly then pour into a colander over a bowl.  Pick out anything other than fish from the colander.  Pour the milk from the bowl into a measuring jug so you know how much butter and flour to use, but place the colander back into the bowl to catch any further juices to use as well.

To make the sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan then add the flour.  Whisk over a low heat for 1-2 minutes as it bubbles.  This is called 'cooking out' a roux.  For some recipes, though less so in cookery these days I believe, you aim to keep cooking a roux it until it darkens in colour to the degree desired and becomes nutty in smell.  Here any darkening or nuttyness is to be avoided, so keep the heat low.  Though if you don't cook it enough the sauce will be floury.  Enough said!  Add the milk 1/3 at a time, whisking and heating after each addition until thick.  Once all is added, simmer for 2 minutes and adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper and lemon juice to your taste.

Assemble the pie contents in a nice dish.  Pour over enough sauce to cover then use a spatula or spoon to just make sure the sauce is distributed around and under things.  Use a serving spoon to lay out large blobs of mashed potato on the surface, then use a large fork to flatten them down and into each other, and create a rough surface.  Finally use a spoon to cover some or most of the surface with melted butter.

Bake for 30 minutes at 210C, turning around after 15 minutes if necessary, and rest for 10 minutes before serving.  Enjoy!

Pan fried salmon or trout

This is a very handy bit of technique to know.  Nice thick salmon and trout portions, with skin on, are widely available and make a rather special bit of food if treated well.

Pan fried salmon or trout

If possible, remove the fish from the fridge an hour before serving to come up to room temperature.  Remove the scales from the skin using a sharp knife with a curved blade, scraping against the natural direction of the scales and using a plastic bag to catch them (if salmon that is; trout don't have scales).  Wash the fillets briefly in cold water then dry thoroughly on paper towelling.  Season evenly with salt and pepper.

The pan does not have to be non-stick, although non-stick is fine.  The more important factors are that it has low or slanting sides so that a spatula can easily slide under the fish, and a thick or heavy base to evenly transfer heat.  Place it over a moderate to high heat for 4 minutes to heat up, then pour in around 3tbsps of flavourless oil - groundnut or vegetable.  Very simply, the heat must be high enough to crisp up the skin while leaving the inside of the fillet underdone.

Lay the fish in, skin side down, and do not touch again for 3 minutes.  By this time you should be able to see the skin has crisped and the opaqueness has spread up around the edges of the fillet and across the thinnest part, while the thick part is still visibly raw.  You may have to increase or decrease the heat level as things progress.  Confidently slide under a spatula or pallet knife and turn the fillets over, assisting with the fingers of your spare hand.  Cook for 20 seconds only on the flesh side then remove from the heat to continue to cook and rest in the pan for 1 minute.  Serve.

With spinach sauteed in olive oil and garlic, served with
creme fraiche with lemon juice and zest stirred in.

 

With hollandaise and a watercress, green bean, pea
and shallot salad.  Could top with chives.

Salmon poached in a white wine court bouillon, hollandaise

There is something very fine in the texture of a good court bouillon.  This is what you must impart to the fish.

Court-bouillon

2 sliced carrots
2 sliced celery sticks
1 sliced onion
2 sliced leek tops
1 bay leaf
1 sprig thyme
1.5 litres cold water
1 glass everyday white wine
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1/2 a star anise

Place the above in a saucepan.  The water must be cold. Bring carefully to a simmer, skimming off the grey scum into a bowl with a large spoon.  You can stop when the scum becomes white.  Before a full boil is reached, reduce the heat and simmer gently for 20 minutes, then remove from the heat and allow to cool in the saucepan.  Add 3 black peppercorns.

Poaching the salmon

You can either poach a whole fish, in which case a fish kettle is neccesary, or you can have great success cooking for smaller numbers with a side, or half a side, of salmon poached in the base of a large oval or round casserole.  Remove the bones from a fillet with tweezers or fine nosed pliers first.

Place the fish in the implement, and cover with the cold court-bouillon, veg and all.  Place on a medium heat and slowly bring up the temperature.  For a whole fish you may need to simmer for 5 minutes before leaving for a further 5 off the heat.  For a fillet the water will probably not need to approach anything like a simmer, especially if it is a smaller piece or you have a large volume of court bouillon around it, but again the fish's texture will benefit from relaxing in the hot water off the heat for a couple of minutes.  Salmon benefits from being underdone, and you must judge the moment to remove the pan from the heat, and then the fish from the pan, by watching the fish turn opaque, and sensing things.  Give it a go.  You will get the hang of it quickly.

A thermometer may help with a whole fish, 56C is perfectly done so you may want the centre to be 50C.  It doesn't work brilliantly with a fillet, as water seeps into the hole you make in flaking fish, and removing just to take the temperature is risky.

To serve the fish cold simply allow it to cool completely sitting in the court bouillon.

Remove the fish to a board with two spatulas.  Peel off the skin leaving a shiny surface, and divide into serving portions with your hands, respecting the natural flakes, rather than with a knife.  It will need seasoning.

Hollandaise

2 egg yolks
1 tbsp cold water
150g butter
Lemon juice
Salt
White pepper

Melt the butter in a small saucepan then leave to stand for a few minutes.  Skim the scum from the surface and discard it.

Over a very low heat, whisk the egg yolks and water in a saucepan until lightened in colour and slightly thickened.  Place the pan on a damp cloth on a surface, and add the butter slowly in a thin stream while whisking, leaving behind most of the white residue. You may return to the heat to thicken further, but be careful.  Finish by seasoning boldly with lemon juice, salt and white pepper, tasting for the all-important balance.

If you make the court bouillon with half the amount of salt and vinegar, it can form the base for an exceptional leek and potato or watercress soup, after having been used to poach the fish.

Like I say, preparing stocks and court bouillons carefully like this can make things very fine indeed.