Fish Pie

Fish pie is often overlooked as a way of using up leftovers, perhaps because we think it’s going to be finicky and time-consuming to make. Aficionados each have their particular foible – hard-boiled egg slices are either loathed or worshipped, and the presence or otherwise of tomato can cause heated debate. In fact, you can add just about anything you want: I throw in sliced leeks and/or diced carrots, or some broccoli florets, or a languishing bunch of spring onions, inely sliced and mingled with the fish. Spinach – blanched, cooled and squeezed – adds a marvellously metallic tang, softened by the white sauce.

• Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4. Make a white sauce with the butter, flour and milk .
• Flake the fish, checking for skin and bones, and put it in a small ovenproof dish. Add the prawns or shrimps, peas and parsley and combine with a good stir, then pour over the white sauce.
• If you are using hard-boiled eggs, layer the slices over the lot. Top with the mashed potato. Dot with a little butter and bake for 25-35 minutes, until bubbling and turning golden on top.
• Also consider :
• Smoked fish: This will deepen the taste of the pie, so if you can pick up a small fillet of smoked haddock on the way home to add to leftover fish, do. Simply poach it (along with fresh white fish if you don’t have leftovers) in milk with a knob of butter, allow to cool, then flake the flesh away from the skin, adding it to the rest of the fish. Keep the poaching milk to make the white sauce, giving it a much richer, fishier taste.
• An enriched white sauce :Replace some of the milk with single cream or crème fraîche, if you have some lying around and screaming to be used up.
• A different topping :Use very finely sliced raw potato instead of mash . Or you can jazz up the mashed potato by forking through it some finely sliced leeks that have been softened in a little butter.