Fish Pie

The evening meal last night was fish pie

750g potatoes and celeriac or just potatoes
300g mixed skinless salmon and whitefish fillets (I used frozen Alaskan pollock thawed)  cut into chunks about 2.5cm
175g mixed frozen seafood, thawed
1 leek, trimmed, cleaned, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced about 2mm thick
1 garlic clove crushed or finely chopped
1 tbsp of light olive oil
50ml Extra Dry Vermouth or dry white wine
125ml fish stock from a cube
1 tbsp cornflour mixed with a little water to form a runny paste, about 2 tbsps
2 tbsps creme fraiche
Small handful of parsley chopped, save a little for garnish
Milk, butter, salt and pepper

Preheat oven to Gas Mark 5, 190C

Boil the potatoes and celeriac if used, for about 20 mins until tender, mash with a little milk and a good knob of butter. Season to taste. Set aside.

Grease a pie dish, roughly 17.5 cm dia. and 7.5cm deep, liberally with butter.

Put about 1/2 tbsp of olive oil and a small knob of butter in a frying pan and heat until the butter foams. Turn down the heat, add the sliced leek and garlic and sweat them over a low heat for about 5 minutes until softened. Pour in the vermouth and boil off the alcohol smell, add the stock bring to the boil then simmer for 2 or 3 minutes. Add the cornflour paste and stir in, then add the creme fraiche to form a creamy sauce. Season to taste. Set aside.

In a separate frying pan, cook the salmon and whitefish chunks in a little olive oil, just for a couple of minutes. Add the fish to the leek sauce together with the thawed shellfish and chopped parsley. Transfer to the pie dish. Top with the mash and bake in the centre of the preheated oven, on an oven tray to catch any sauce that escapes during cooking, for about 35minutes until golden on top.

This made far too much for two, so I guess we will be having fish pie again today