ASK THE ENGLISH: What is your family recipe for fish & mashed potato pie?

I am cooking this tonight.

Last time I made it, the first time, I was disappointed with its blandness.
I've seen many recipes for the cream sauce, some including stock, others including cheeses, along with variations of milk/cream/seasoning.
Some recipes call for poaching the fish in the milk.

What do you do, personally, ILX?

What fish are you using?

cod

Make brandade

good q

i've always done it bechamel style (with milk from fish poaching) but i've long been meaning to try the veloute from stock style as advised by cheffy types

I think my family generally uses smoked fish to give a bit more flavour, tbh. Haddock usually. With cod you might need cheese.

i have heard of using smoked fish as well. unfortunately we did not think to buy some. perhaps anchovy paste? planning on using at least a bit of cheese, whole mik=lk, butter

this turned out pretty well imo.
made sure to use lots of fish
simmered a few chunks of fish in with the sauce, a few dashes of worcestershire sauce, spices.
MUCH better than the first time i made it.

This is a big family classic with my folks, smoked haddock is a core ingredient and really goes well with the potatoes. Some eggs can work too, hard boiled. I've seen variants with all sorts of different fish or shellfish added in.

This is easy. Use cod and smoked haddock, and poach them in 500ml milk seasoned with peppercorns and a bay leaf. Remove the fish when poached firm and set aside to rest. Strain the bay leaf and peppercorns out of the leftover hot milk, saving the milk to use for the white sauce. Gently melt 50g butter in a saucepan, then slowly add two tbsps flour and one generous tsp Coleman's mustard powder to the melted butter to make a roux. To avoid clumping, add the warm reserved poaching milk to the roux, whisking as you go and keeping the mix on a relatively low heat. Add a tablespoon of cream cheese when the sauce is thickened.

I'll assume you know how to make mashed potatoes and they're ready to go on top once you've loaded fish/sauce into your pie dish of choice. Break up the cooled poached fish into manageable pieces and spread them evenly in a casserole dish or pan. If you've got any shrimp or scallops, throw in some at this stage (I like shrimp in a fish pie). Season the fish before pouring enough white sauce over them to cover. Season the whole mix again with a bit of salt and a lot of white pepper. Cover with an even blanket of mashed potatoes and score the top with the tines of a fork. Pulse-blend 50g dry bread crumbs and 50g of your most dried-out Cheddar cheese and scatter across the scored pie top.

Bake in 180C oven for 25 minutes, cool for 10, serve with ketchup and tartare sauce.

FISH PIE FOR THANKSGIVING.

this one is much better than the one from the orig post.

damn. never had fish pie, but wanna try suzy's recipe.

That recipe looks pretty spot on, I like it with bits of hard boiled egg and broccoli in the pie as well.

A handful of mussels, steamed in a glass of white wine (or dry cider for hardcore Englishness) shelled and added to the fish (half smoked haddock, half unsmoked). Keep the wine/cider and add to the milk (which was used to poach the fish) to make the sauce. Spot of Coleman's English in the sauce, and plenty of chopped parsely. Half potato/half parsnip mashed for the topping. No cheese.