Curried Fish Pie with Coriander Mash

I was away for the most part of the week in Germany attending to business but found the time before British Pie Week ended to make my version of a pie.

I always wanted to jazz up the fish pie. And just so happen I had leftover coconut milk in the fridge and a load of curry powder! And since I don't always make pie at home seeing that I live alone, I figured now is better than none. 

The Ingredients:

For the mash:

1 bunch of coriander - finely chopped

5 to 6 medium sized desiree potatoes - skinned and chopped into smaller pieces to boil

salt and pepper to taste

about 150gms unsalted butter

100ml double cream

For the fish filling:

200g mussels

250g fresh prawns

500g white fish meat (anything can be used depending on what you have in your freezer / fridge)

200g smoked peppered mackerel

250g brown cap mushrooms - quartered

2 leeks - chopped at 2.5cm lengths

2 medium sized carrots - chopped at 2.5cm lengths

4 to 5 celery stems - chopped at 2.5cm lengths

a bunch of curry leaves

2 heaping tbsp of curry powder

1 large yellow onion - diced

3 tbsp vegetable oil

500ml milk 

200ml coconut milk

about 6 - 8 small bay leaves or 3 - 4 medium bay leaves

2 sprigs of rosemary

Method:

1. Firstly bring a pot of water to a boil to boil the potatoes. While water is boiling, add in the potatoes.
2. Next heat up the milk with the bay leaves and rosemary at low level heat. 
3. While doing so, prepare your seafood. Slice the white fish meat into smaller chunks as well as the smoked pepper mackerel. As the mackerel is already cooked, there is no need to poach it. However, poach the mussels, prawns and fish meat separately in the milk mixture and place in a bowl once fully poached. It would normally be about 3 to 4 minutes. Not too long or when you see the fish turns opaque, then you know it is cooked.
4. Next in a large saucepot, heat up the oil and sweat the onions. Add in the curry powder and stir vigorously to coat the onions. Once the curry aroma is released, add in the curry leaves and continue stirring before adding in the poached seafood. Then stir in the vegetables before adding in ladle by ladle the milk used to poach the seafood in. Let it come to a boil and then reduce the heat. 
5. While the fish filling is cooking, check that the potatoes are not overboiled by pricking a fork through. When it pierces easily then you know it is cooked through. Remove it from the fire and drain the water off. In the same pot, add in the chopped coriander, cream, butter, salt and pepper. Mash away and set aside.
6. When the fish filling reduces (it should take about 20 to 30 minutes). Then add in the coconut milk. You don't want the coconut milk to split. It is almost like cooking curry but using milk instead. When the filling thickens, taste it to see if it salty enough. The smoked peppered mackerel would have given you the salty taste but if not enough, then add in maybe a dash of salt.
7. Let it simmer for another 10 minutes. In the meantime crank up your oven to 190 Degrees. Turn the fire off on the fish filling once you see it bubbling. Using a ceramic pie dish, ladle the filling onto the base of the pie fish adding a little bit more of the sauce along. Not too much so that it doesn't escape the sides of the pie dish when spreading the mashed potatoes.
8. Then either using a piping bag or a spatula, pipe or spread the mashed potatoes on top of the filling covering every inch of it. Use a fork to create some patterns on the side of the potatoes if you used a spatula otherwise the piping would have given you some magical patterns too!
9. Place in the oven on the second tier nearer to the grill section to create the crust needed on the mashed potatoes. It should take about 20 minutes or so.
10. Remove from the oven and serve piping hot!

The pie was certainly yummy and was polished off the next day at the office when I brought it in to share.

Next up is surprises for mums! My mum's coming up this weekend and she will be delighted at the spread I'll be making her. 

Mother's day here I come!

The Innovative Baker