Smoked warehou & mushroom pie

If there’s anyone I’d trust implicitly with a fish pie recipe it’s Nigel Slater. Mushrooms and smoked fish aren’t a common combination but they work so well here. Rather than faffing about making a béchamel, the sauce quickly comes together using crème fraîche and grainy mustard. Genius, Nigel.

Smoked warehouse & mushroom pie

Based on a recipe by Nigel Slater

For the potato topping:

floury potatoes 1kg (I used agria)

butter 50g

full fat milk 150ml

parmesan 60g, grated

Peel the potatoes, cover with cold water and bring to boil. Cook until you can easily pierce the potatoes with a skewer, then drain off the water and put pot back onto the element to steam away any excess water. Add the milk and butter and mash until smooth. Season with freshly ground black pepper and half of the parmesan, then set aside.

For the filling:

oil 3 tablespoons

butter 30g

button mushrooms 150g

smoked blue warehou 200g

crème fraîche 200ml

grain mustard 2 teaspoons

parsley a large handful, chopped

free range eggs 2-3

steamed green vegetables such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, silverbeet

juice of a lemon

Fill a small saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Add the eggs and set a timer for 8 minutes. Once the timer goes off remove the pan from the heat, place into the sink, and run cold water over the eggs for a minute until they’ve cooled down enough to handle. Peel off the shells, roughly chop the eggs and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Wipe the mushrooms and cut into halves or quarters depending on their size. Break the smoked warehou into thick chunks (discard the skin).

Heat the oil and butter together in a frying pan and gently sauté the mushrooms until browned. Add the crème fraîche, mustard, and chopped parsley and stir until combined. Add the smoked fish and egg to the mixture and gently stir together, taking care not to break up the chunks. Season with some freshly ground black pepper.

Transfer the filling to a shallow baking dish and pile the mashed potato on top. Sprinkle over the remaining parmesan and bake for 30-35 minutes until the potato is golden and the filling is bubbling around the edges (place a tray underneath the dish while the pie bakes in case the bubbling gets a little too enthusiastic).

Serve the pie hot or warm alongside a pile of steamed greens over which you’ve squeezed some lemon juice.



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