Fish Pie

Fish pie is one of the most-cooked home dishes in Britain, a comfort food that emerged in its modern form in the late 19th and early 20th century from the older tradition of baking fish under a crust or mash. The dish as now known is built on a mix of poached white fish, almost always smoked haddock for its depth, and prawns or salmon, bound in a white sauce béchamel flavoured with the poaching milk, and crowned with mashed potato that bakes to a golden crust. The use of smoked haddock is the English contribution, the fish being cured in the smokehouses of Aberdeen, Arbroath and Grimsby from the 19th century. The dish is essentially a fisherman's-cottage economy of leftover fish stretched with potato and milk, elevated into a national comfort food. Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson both wrote it up in the 1970s, and by the end of the century it was a fixture of the home and gastropub menu, valued for being cheap, filling and forgiving.

Flaky, mild white fish and smoky haddock in a creamy, parsley-flecked sauce, the prawns turning pink and sweet, all under a crisp, golden, buttery potato lid that crackles at the edges. Soft, rich, soothing.

The pie is built in three layers that each play a role. The fish is gently poached in milk, never boiled, just until it flakes, so it stays moist through the bake; the smoking of the haddock is what gives the whole dish its savoury backbone. The poaching milk becomes the base of the white sauce, thickened with a butter-and-flour roux, so every drop of fish flavour is retained, and parsley, lemon and sometimes mustard or peas are folded in. The mashed potato topping is made firm with butter and a little egg or cheese so it bakes to a crisp golden crust rather than collapsing; it is rough-forked on top to maximise the crisp surface. Baked at around 200 degrees C for 25 to 30 minutes, the sauce bubbles up and thickens further while the potato colours, the contrast of crisp top and creamy filling being the point. Resting 10 minutes lets the sauce settle for slicing.