What’s on my plate: August

Thistles and Kiwis,

Back in March, I mentioned a couple of things I had made from Julius Roberts’ beautiful book The Farm Table. If you follow him on Instagram, you will be familiar with his wonderful style and gift for making simple but beautiful dishes. In the ‘winter’ session of the book, was his take on fish pie. As he says, there are no boiled eggs or ‘rubbery prawns’ in his version, just fish and a comforting potato topping.

Roberts persuades us not to rush making this pie, so I took his advice and got my ingredients assembled and set to work.

You start by making the basis of the sauce, poaching smoked fish in milk with bay leaves, thyme and a quartered onion, letting everything infuse. As I was using smoked salmon, perhaps not my first choice, I just popped it into the milk long enough to remove the skin and infuse the milk. The sauce is then sieved (make sure you have lots of bowls handy for this recipe), chop up and cook the leeks, slowly and careful so they don’t brown. Add a good bunch of chopped spinach, wilt, and then strain off into another bowl. You then make the white sauce, adding some vermouth as well as milk and cream, adding lemon at the end, before adding the leeks, parsley, and if you can find it in winter, tarragon. I made the mash topping with a mix of potato and celeriac to use up what was in the fridge.

You then put the fish into the bottom of the dish, pour over the sauce, then the mash and I sprinkled a bit of cheese too on the top. Cook for 20-30 minutes at 200C.

Verdict? The best fish pie I have made – so much better without the prawns – and making it a project for a weekend afternoon is worth it. Take your time to cook, and enjoy eating every mouthful

Do again? Yes when I have the time.

This well be entered in the What’s on Your Plate blog challenge hosted by bloggers Widow Badass and Retirement Reflections which happens on the first Wednesday of the month (I am almost a day ahead of them….at this time of year, 19 hours to be precise).

Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.

You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram @thistlesandkiwis. If you want to get in touch, email me on thistlesandkiwis@gmail.com or lofgren@thistlesandkiwis.co

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Published by Thistles and Kiwis

Loves summer, sunshine and cats. Beginner gardener, likes eating, cooking and reading about food

39 Comments

  5. I haven’t eaten fish pie in ages and yours looks delicious. I must apply myself and try and make one, do you think smoked fish is essential , I think I can get smoked haddock here in Queensland? Best wishes, Pauline

    Happy Retirees Kitchen

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  10. That sounds like a fish/salmon pie I can remember my mom making when I was a kid– though a much fancier version as I don’t really remember any vegetables or much sauce just a lot of mashed potatoes and some smoked salmon…

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  11. I suddenly became allergic to smoked haddock which I used when making a fish pie, but now I make a rather lovely one using cheap basa fillets and salmon (just frozen fillets) chopped, not cooked, covered in a white sauce and topped with mashed cauliflower and grated cheese. Very, very simple and very tasty. Yours sounds very grand.

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  12. This brings back a memory of fish pie at my cousin’s (who lives in Nelson, on the South Island). It was more like the kind the author would not want. The “chef” was a deep-sea fisherman, so we expected something very tasty and fresh. Instead, my husband and I decided it was more like a midwestern-American tuna casserole. Another cousin, this one in the north of England, also made a fish pie in our honor, and once again it was what we’d call tuna casserole. But thanks for some funny memories!

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