NZ Smoked Fish Pie

This is my all-time favourite smoked fish pie recipe. My friends always request it when I invite them over for dinner. It’s a little fiddly but so, so worth it. Serve with a fresh green salad mixed with lots of freshly chopped herbs.

Serves 6 – 8

You Will Need:

For the potato topping
1 kg potatoes
25 g butter
½ cup cream

For The Smoked Fish
2 c milk
1 c cream
2 cloves
1 bay leaf

100 g butter
50 g flour
1 onion, finely diced
750 g smoked fish
¼ c flat-leafed parsley, chopped
½ tsp finely ground nutmeg
White pepper
4 hard-boiled eggs, coarsely chopped

Sea salt

¼ c grated cheese

Method:

For the potato topping
Peel potatoes and cut to small, even cubes.

Boil the potatoes in salted water until cooked, drain and leave to dry for approx 10 mins, then mash thoroughly.

Gently heat the cream and butter and whip into the potatoes until smooth.

Set aside.

For the smoked fish
Heat oven to 200˚ C

Lightly grease a 25 – 30 cm diameter round pie dish – (I use oil spray. It really helps with the cleaning up once the pie is all eaten!)

Remove and discard the skin and bones from the smoked fish and flake into large bowl – being extra careful to get all the bones.

Heat the milk, cream, bay leaf and cloves to allow flavour to permeate.

Remove and discard the bay leaf and cloves.

In a medium saucepan, melt half the butter.

Gradually add the flour to the melted butter, stirring well over a low heat for 2 minutes.
Slowly add the warmed milk to the flour, whisking constantly. Cook over a low heat, stirring continuously for 10 minutes to make a smooth white sauce.

Add to the smoked fish.

Heat the remaining butter and sweat the onions until soft and clear.

Add the onion to the smoked fish mix.

Add the parsley, nutmeg, white pepper and the hard-boiled eggs.

Combine well – season with sea salt if desired. Taste it first through as the smoked fish can often be very salty.

Spread fish mixture over the base of your pie dish.

Spoon the mashed potato over the top of the fish mixture and spread evenly across the top.

Sprinkle the cheese over the top – you don’t need a lot of cheese at all.

Bake for 40 minutes. The potato crust should be a lovely golden colour and a little crispy on top.

Let pie cool for about 5 mins before serving as this will help hold its shape – although fish pie by nature is a little sloppy.