Serves 6 Ingredients 750ml milk 750g haddock or cod fillet 3 medium leeks, sliced 50g butter 250g brown mushrooms, sliced big bunch of parsley, chopped 3tbsp plain flour 8 anchovy fillets, chopped 3 small gherkins, chopped 12 capers, rinsed 250g cooked, peeled prawns 4tblsp creme fraiche 400g ready-made puff pastry milk/egg for glazing
Heat the milk in a large saucepan, when it starts to bubble add the fish, when it begins to bubble again, turn the heat down and let it simmer for 6 or 7 minutes. Remove the fish, keep the milk! Remove any skin or bones from the fish. Wash the leeks and add to melted butter in a large pan (I do this in the casserole dish the pie will be oven cooked in). Let cook for 20 minutes. Then add the mushrooms and half the parsley. Cook for 5 minutes. Sprinkle the flour in and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the reserved fishy milk. Bring to the boil, stirring. Then add anchovies, gherkins, capers, salt and pepper. Leave to simmer for 15 minutes. Gently fold in the prawns, fish, creme fraiche and the rest of the parsley. Check the seasoning. Place the filling in a pie dish (or leave where it is if you cooked it in the pie dish!). Let it cool slightly and place a pie funnel or egg cup in the centre – this will hold up the pastry. You can place the pastry on top now. Give it an edge if you like with an extra strip of pastry around the rim under the larger piece of pastry. Make sure to fix it together with egg wash and pressing firmly along the edge. Brush all of the pastry with the egg wash and bake in a pre-heated oven at 200degrees until the pastry is golden brown and crisp at the edges. This recipe is from Nigel Slater’s Real Cooking – click to read more and buy the book