For sauce:
750 ml dry white wine
600 ml water
500 ml double cream
2 x Fish stock cubes
1 x Chicken stock cube
For pie:
1 salmon fillet
1 cod fillet
1 smoked haddock fillet
4 scallops
1 small leek
Chopped parsley
Mashed potato
Serves 4
To make the sauce:
• Put wine, water and stock cubes in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Once it comes to the boil and the stock cubes have dissolved continue to boil in order to reduce your stock until there is only about a centimetre left in the pan.
• Strain the stock through a fine sieve into a clean pan and then add the cream. Put back on the heat and simmer gently until cream and stock are well blended.
• Make sufficient mashed potato to cover two gratin dishes. Remember you will be putting your potato in a piping bag so it needs to be very smooth and fairly wet.
• Make sure your potato are seasoned and then blend with either cream or milk until silky smooth, making sure there are no lumps.
Make a little more than you will need. Better to have too much than too little.
To make the pie:
Preheat overn to 220C.
• You will need a medium sized pie dish, deep enough for your fish and the mash on top.
• Remove any skin from you fish fillets and the cut into cubes. Cut scallops in half.
• Finely chop parsley.
• Very thinly slice the white of the leek so that when you break it into rings you have enough to loosely cover the gratin dish. You only want a mild hint of leek.
• Use two small saucepans and put half the sauce in each. Gently warm the sauce and when simmering add the fish. Simmer for two to three minutes. Remove from heat.
• With a slotted spoon put the fish in your gratin dish. Add five to six tablespoons of sauce to cover the fish but not so they are swimming in it.
• Arrange leek rings over the top and then scatter parsley over the top, again in moderation.
• Then using a piping bag cover with swirls of mashed potato (if you wish you could add some grated gruyere on top of the mash).
• Place in the top half of preheated oven on 220°C for twenty minutes. Remove and serve.
Recipe source: Marco Pierre White
This pie is really easy to make and the results are delicious. You can vary the fish depending on what you like plus you make it in advance and simply pop it in the oven when you need it. This dish is a family favourite in our house, just add some veggies and you’re good to go.