Layered Fish and Potato Pie Recipe

Today is Good Friday and I thought I should add some special recipes to cover the Easter season. So here is the first of them.


Traditionally, Good Friday is a lenten day, that means a meatless day when the faithful are supposed to abstain from eating meat. As a result, today I have recipes for a classic fish pie and after that a more modern Lenten dish.

And as it's Good Friday, don't forget the hot cross buns!

Layered Fish and Potato Pie

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

900g (2 lbs) waxy potatoes, washed and sliced

60g (2 oz) butter

1 red onion, halved and sliced

50g (1 3/4 oz) plain flour

450ml (1 4/5 cups) milk

150ml (3/5 cup) double cream

225g (8 oz) smoked haddock fillet, cubed

225g (8 oz) cod fillet

1 red bell pepper, diced

125g (4 1/2 oz) broccoli florets

50g Parmesan cheese, grated

salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste

paprika, for dusting

Method:

Bring a pan of water to a boil, add the potatoes and boil for about 10 minutes, or until tender. Drain in a colander, refresh under cold, running, water and set aside.

In the meantime, melt the butter in a saucepan, add the onion and fry gently for about 3 minutes or until soft and translucent but not coloured. Scatter over the flour and stir to combine then beat in the milk and cream until smooth. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly, cooking until the sauce has thickened.

Arrange half the potato slices in the base of a shallow ovenproof dish. Add the fish pieces, bell pepper and broccoli to the sauce and cook over gentle heat for about 10 minutes. Adjust the seasonings to taste then spoon the resultant mixture over the potatoes in the baking dish.

Layer the remaining potato slices over the fish mixture then sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the top and dust lightly with the paprika.

Transfer the dish to an oven pre-heated to 180ºC (350ºF, Gas Mark 4) and bake for 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked, the filling is piping hot, and the top of the dish is golden brown.

Serve hot.

For a more modern recipe on the same theme, see today's next recipe for a One-pot Salmon with Roast Asparagus dish.

See the Celtnet fish recipes and information page for more fish-based recipes and the Celtnet Easter recipes pages for more Easter-related information and recipes.