An easy, economical and ever-pleasing dish spouted from our recent discussions around tradition, ritual and symbolism through food. Enjoy this on Good Friday or any other day 🐟🍽️✨
I recently posted about food in the context of religious tradition and practices. This was a big one for me, coming from a Catholic upbringing. From my earliest memories I recall "no meat on Friday's during lent," especially not on Good Friday. It always made me laugh that "no meat" automatically meant fish was on the menu. Think tuna sandwiches coming out of your ears. Now, I have no beef with fish (pun intended) however I always wondered how we ended up with seafood as the default. Regardless, fish it (still) is!
The options for a fish menu item are actually pretty varied with a huge range in taste and cuisine, so I've chosen a fairly safe and accessible option. The humble Fish Pie is a pretty typical British recipe with some gentle herbs and spices to give it some depth and flavour and keep the fishy-ness at bay. For this reason, you can play with the ingredients to spruce it up for a special occasion or it serves well as a go-to mid week dinner option.
For this recipe, you can essentially choose any white fish. I purposefully chose a notably flakey fish because I wanted it to break apart easily. In considering food modifications, I also wanted a flakey fish because if I needed to move towards a more minced consistency, then all I had to do was stir a fork through the fish and sauce more vigorously to easily break it down into smaller pieces.
I really like working with fish in the sense that you can drastically change the nature of the flavour by the selection of your fish. An alternative take on this recipe would be to substitute half of the white fish for smoked fish to give it a change in flavour. You could also look at other kinds of fish such as Salmon. However, I would also consider changing some of the herbs and vegetables to compliment the salmon flavour such as chives, dill and thyme. 🌱
One important step in this recipe is poaching the fish in milk and making sure that it is infused with flavours while warming and before adding the fish. I used a very simple combination of flavours such as onion and clove however you could certainly take the complexity to the next level by adding other ingredients such as wine, parsley and garlic (and more) depending on the flavour you're aiming for 🍷🧄🧅
The idea of poaching in milk is that while it slowly cooks the fish below boiling temperature, it also gently infuses the fish with the flavours in the milk. Inversely, the milk that is later used for the sauce is has already been infused with the flavour of the fish, adding to the depth of the dish. Another notable point, especially for people who aren't big on a fishy flavour, is that poaching in milk can help temper that fishy flavour while maintaining the others and so you are left with a much more subtle flavour of fish. (I personally had no issues heating this up in the work kitchen, so it's a pass from me- and my colleagues) 😎
I was really torn between which herbs to use in this Fish Pie. Clove, bay leaf, nutmeg and parsley are all fairly regular items in my cooking so I went with what felt natural and easy. However, I must admit I was hugely tempted to try some marjoram or tarragon instead of the parsley and even considered peppercorns, all spice or caraway. Alas, I did not but I was quite happy with the result in any case 😋
I am always very cautious about garnishing at the end of a modified dish in the case that the garnish pockets in the mouth or the throat, and it's the reason I didn't put any cheese through the mash to make it stringy and gooey. However, you could certainly gently dust the pie with a spice or sprinkle a herb over the top, depending on what the person with dysphagia can tolerate because it really does make a difference to the look and experience. Experiment away! ✨
Fish Pie
Serves 6
INGREDIENTS
800g white fish
4 cups of milk
1 brown onion
5 cloves
5 tbsp of butter
3 cloves of garlic
1 large carrot
4 tbsp flour
2 Bay leaves
2 tsp of nutmeg
½ cup of chopped parsley
1 cup of peas
1 small tin of corn kernels
1kg Potatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
METHOD
Peel and dice the potatoes into medium sized pieces and soak in water for 10-15 minutes.
Gently warm 3 cups of the milk in a pan. Just as the milk begins to simmer, add the onions, cloves and fish and poach for 8 minutes. Be careful not to boil the milk.
Remove the fish from the pan and place to the side. Keep the milk aside for the white sauce however be sure to remove the cloves. Dice the onion once cool.
Bring a pot of water to the boil and add the potatoes. Boil until well cooked, approximately 10-15 minutes. Once boiled, drain the potatoes and discard the water.
Add 3 tbsp of butter to the milked pan and allow to melt before adding the onion and garlic and sautee until translucent. Then add the carrot and sautee for approximately 3-4 minutes.
Turn the heat down and add the flour into the pan bit by bit, stirring gently with a whisk to create a paste consistency.
Add the milk and bay leaves to the pan and stir immediately. Increase the heat to medium and allow to gently simmer for approximately 12-15 minutes or until thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Once the consistency has thickened, remove from the heat and stir through nutmeg/marjoram/tarragon and parsley.
Take the fish and gently separate into small pieces and spread across the baking dish. Sprinkle the fish with peas and corn before covering with the white sauce. Gently stir the sauce through to ensure it is evenly spread. If you wish for the fish pieces to be small to reflect a more minced consistency, stir more vigorously to break up the fish.
Add the remaining milk and butter to the potatoes and mash until smooth. Add salt to taste.
Layer the mashed potato over the baking dish with the fish and sauce and then place in the oven for approximately 30 minutes.
After the pie is cooked, remove from the oven and allow to stand for 5-10 minutes. Serve warm and dust with herbs or spices of your choosing.
Allow to cool for a few minutes before serving warm 🐟🥧🍽️
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